A Touch of Flame Read online

  A TOUCH OF FLAME, A Paranormal Romance

  The Flame Series Book 5

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Do You Enjoy Giveaways and Learning New Things?

  Dear Reader

  A TOUCH OF FLAME

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  A Note from Caris

  Coming Up Next

  About the Author

  Have You Read These Books by Caris Roane

  Find Caris at…

  Author of…

  Copyright

  A TOUCH OF FLAME, A Paranormal Romance, the Flame Series Book 5

  By Caris Roane

  Copyright © 2017 Twin Bridges Creations LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

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  ~ ~ ~

  Dear Reader

  Welcome to the fifth book of The Flame series.

  A TOUCH OF FLAME continues the journey into the world of Five Bridges and the transformed lives of those humans devastated by the effects of alter serums. The Flame Series follows the lives of vampires, witches, wolf shifters, fae and dead-talkers. A TOUCH OF FLAME showcases a wolf shifter, Officer Braden of the Border Patrol, and a gifted witch, Maeve Lennox.

  So, welcome back to the Flame Series!

  Here’s a brief look at the story:

  A powerful alpha wolf. A gifted witch. Each haunted by death. Can passion drive them to an everlasting love? Or will the enemy forge a hopeless chasm?

  Braden should have died in the Graveyard, but the witch, Maeve, saved him. The call of his wolf is on him and he wants her. She can be his alpha-mate. But she has powers that can destroy him and a disrupted memory that holds the answers to his wife’s murder. Can he ever trust a woman who can kill with the power she streams from her bare hands?

  Maeve has known only horror, death and destruction since her arrival in Five Bridges as a transformed alter witch. She goes to the Graveyard nightly to rescue those left for dead by the evil rampant in all five territories of her new world. She fears the power she possesses and the gaps in her memory frighten her more than anything else. But when she rescues Braden from an attack in the Graveyard and she realizes she’s drawn to the handsome wolf, the nightmare really begins.

  I hope you’re enjoying the Flame Series! I’ve loved living in this conflict-riddled world of five territories at war and the extraordinary alter beings who risk their lives to make Five Bridges a better place for all.

  And now, have a wonderful day and an even better night!

  Live the fang!

  Caris Roane

  July 2017

  A TOUCH OF FLAME

  A Paranormal Romance

  The Flame Series Book 5

  By

  Caris Roane

  Chapter One

  The Graveyard was not the place Mark Braden thought he’d breathe his last. He was sure he’d die in the pine forest of Savage Territory, chasing a drug-runner and getting hit by a spray of bullets.

  Instead, he’d been ambushed.

  He lay face down on the hard, rocky ground. Blood streamed from a deep gash in his skull and pooled in the debris beneath him. The rogue wolves kicked him, but he barely registered the blows anymore. One or two of his ribs had snapped and punctured his left lung. He had a deep stab wound in his abdomen. His heart felt like a bird fluttering wildly in his chest, nothing more.

  The Graveyard was a cess-pit, a central place in Five Bridges used for dumping bodies at night. In the morning, Tribunal clean-up crews would arrive to cart off the dead, catalog them with unfailing carelessness, then send them to the crematory.

  “He’s gone.” Ely Gammet, a powerful warlock, stood over him. The bastard had been one of six who’d drawn him to the Graveyard with the promise of information about his wife’s killers.

  A few more kicks, and the crew started walking away. He had a dim view of their boots and heard the crunch through the loose rocks. Braden flared his nostrils to take in the warlock’s scent. He catalogued it in his shifter brain for future recall.

  He almost laughed. What future?

  His breaths were shallow now, small jolts of air he brought into lungs that barely worked anymore.

  Maybe it was for the best.

  Grief had ridden him hard. He’d spent the last year-and-a-half hunting his wife’s killers. He’d made the difficult decision to leave his pack in Savage Territory in search of justice. As an alpha, he’d assigned his top beta to function in his stead. He’d rented a small apartment in Elegance, and spent every off-hour on the hunt. His work as a Border Patrol officer in Savage hadn’t left him much time, but he was determined to make his wife’s murderers to pay for what they’d done.

  Braden realized now that Gammet, a powerful warlock, had spelled him and blocked his wolf’s instincts. In any other circumstance, Braden couldn’t have been led into a trap.

  The first blow had slammed into the back of his head. The second, his knees. He’d fallen before he’d gotten his opening question out. The rest was a blur of stabs and kicks.

  Bones crunched.

  Blood leaked everywhere.

  Now, as he waited for death to take him the rest of the way, the footsteps returned.

  “Boss, he’s gotta be dead. I stabbed him in his gut. Deep.”

  Gammet snorted. “But you know what the witch is like. She’ll want proof. I’m taking his head back to her.”

  The warlock had gathered powerful shifters to serve him. Braden could smell them as they drew near once more.

  He couldn’t lift a finger to defend himself. If he could shift, he might have been able to heal. But he couldn’t even do that. A nice flow of obscenities slid through his brain.

  Gammet’s smell grew stronger. He was over Braden now. He had an underlying stench that Braden recognized as an addiction to emerald flame. Braden hated the drugs of Five Bridges with a passion.

  “You’re gonna love this, wolf.”

  He felt a hand in his hair. A strong tug lifted his head off the rocks.

  Light suddenly filled the near-dawn air.

  A loud blast pummeled his ears.

  His head dropped back to the rocks.

  Machine gun fire. Rocks pelted his legs, what he could feel of them.

  Footsteps running.

  An engine gunned.

  The blood loss took its toll and he suddenly felt his wife’s presence. Laura. He loved her so much. He could hear her voice in his head, Braden, what are you doing in the Graveyard? You’re supposed to live
another two-hundred-years.

  Love swelled over him. I love you so much, but I did something stupid. I trusted a warlock.

  I know. He be-spelled you. I’m afraid you’ll have to go back, though. I’ve had word from On High. The witch needs you and you’ll come to need her, too. You’ll see.

  He didn’t want a witch. He wanted his alpha-mate, Laura. He wanted her back in his arms.

  He felt her fading. Don’t go.

  I have to, my love. Heed the witch.

  He would have given anything to hold her again. He’d never even seen her body after her murder. A dark coven had tortured her to death then disposed of her remains. At least, those were the rumors.

  His grief slammed through him once more.

  His thoughts slid around loosely then fell into a black pit.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Do you have any idea who this is?”

  “Not a clue.” Maeve glanced up Alfonso. He was her biggest support at Hard Landing. He was a beautiful African-American man and his dark skin glimmered in the moonlight. She’d found him in the Graveyard in a similar condition over a year ago. “But they sure wanted this one dead. The handiwork looks familiar as well.”

  “It does. Gammet, no doubt.” Maeve heard the hard edge to his voice. “Looks like a shifter from Savage.” He squatted and carefully turned the wolf over, face up. “Lost a lot of blood. His face is swollen from the blows as well. Jesus.”

  Maeve didn’t care who the shifter was. She made few discriminations in her rescues. Unless the victim was a criminal she recognized, she took as many still-alive people to her facility each night as she could manage.

  Assassinations weren’t common, so in that sense the brutality of the attack was unusual. Most of the people thrown out here at night were women, both human and alter. Very few looked like this massive shifter.

  The rogue squad they’d chased off was made up of a dark warlock of some power, and shifter security types. Looks like they’d ambushed the wolf, though she had no idea why.

  She sniffed the air. She scented emerald flame, one of the most powerful of the flame drugs. Ely Gammet, a warlock attached to the dark witch, Veyda, was a heavy user. She sniffed once more and detected the spell the warlock had used.

  “Let’s get him on the stretcher. Something tells me Gammet is desperate for the wolf to be good and dead. He and his squad will come back if they can, especially if Veyda gave the order for the kill.”

  Alfonso settled the stretcher on the ground next to the man. She picked up his ankles. Alfonso slid his strong arms beneath the shifter’s shoulders. With some difficulty, she helped heft him onto the stretcher. The man had muscle and then some.

  An odd tingling worked through her brain and left her dizzy. Then she understood. “He’s an alpha. What was he doing out here? And who is he?” His face was too bloody and bruised to be recognizable.

  Alpha wolves had something extra, a powerful signal they gave off through their pheromones. It warned lesser wolves to keep their distance but encouraged the females to flock.

  Though she was a witch, and not ordinarily attracted to wolves, even she felt the powerful alpha call this wolf exuded.

  She hustled with Alfonso, keeping pace with him. Alfonso was also a big shifter. Dark eyes, black hair he kept cropped short. She’d gained some physical strength over the past year when she first began her rescue work. It was that, or leave the dying behind.

  Alfonso had been her first rescue. It had taken her two hours just to figure out how to transport him. She’d lost valuable time, yet despite her lack of muscle or skill she’d strapped him to a cast-off, wood door then slowly dragged the set-up behind her Jeep.

  His recovery had been swift, he’d dedicated himself to serving at her place she’d named Hard Landing and he’d been a huge comfort to her. He wasn’t exactly happy about still being alive, but then few were who resided in the hellhole known as Five Bridges.

  “They’re coming.” Alfonso picked up the pace as he tracked toward the back of the jeep.

  She kept up with him.

  They were a team.

  As soon as the stretched was secure, she ran to the driver’s seat and hopped in. The engine was still running.

  “We’re good.” Alphonso called out.

  She put the Jeep in motion. Fast. She spun a few rocks as she whipped the opposite direction.

  Alfonso had a rifle in the back. She jerked a little when he shot off a few rounds.

  “Did that push them back?”

  “All but one. Gammet’s in the air and flying hard in our direction. Hit it.” Alfonso continued to fire his gun.

  Maeve knew the bumpy road by heart. She sailed down a ditch, then up. The jeep heaved one way then the next. She launched at the upper edge of a ditch and felt air for a split-second. The Jeep landed with a jolt. She put pedal-to-the-metal the remaining two hundred yards.

  All she had to do was reach the perimeter of her house. She kept a powerful hiding spell intact around her property. “Almost there.”

  Alfonso released another spray of bullets. “He’s still on us. He must really want this wolf dead.”

  Hang on. As she left the Five Bridges no-man’s-land, she hit the accelerator hard. Finally, she reached the entrance to the Landing. She shot through the spelled-barricade then put on the brakes. She needed to see if her security spell still held.

  She looked behind her and into the air. The warlock had stalled out. “Good. He’ll have a pounding headache by now.” She watched as he turned and flew back in the direction of the Graveyard.

  She put the jeep in motion once more then drove to the medical entrance of the building. She worked at calming her heart.

  She hated Five Bridges and hated even more being an alter witch. Alfonso said she’d get used to it in time. Maybe she would. She’d only been transformed a year-and-a-few-months. Worse, still, she turned out to be a witch of considerable power. Veyda and her dark coven had come after her, trying to get her to join up. They’d even abducted her. But their plan had backfired and two of Veyda’s top witches had died at Maeve’s hand.

  Against Maeve’s will or her understanding, she’d been initiated into the coven through a potion that contained a small portion of emerald flame. But the drug had acted like a booster shot on steroids and she’d gone mad with rage. Her killing power, common in witches, had ramped up. In the process, Maeve had destroyed the initiation room and killed at least two of the witches.

  Veyda and her coven had left her alone after that.

  With a need to somehow make her life in Five Bridges tolerable, Maeve had learned of the horror of the Graveyard and had started her rescues.

  Tonight, she had an alpha shifter in her Jeep that Veyda wanted dead. Maeve had no idea why, but it didn’t matter.

  Alfonso, an EMT by training, called for his staff and several came running. As an alter shifter, he’d spent the first months of his new life in Maeve’s compound by expanding his medical knowledge and developing surgical skills. Few doctors ended up in Five Bridges. But it hardly mattered. Alter medical work was a different thing altogether anyway. Each of the five species in her world could self-heal, which helped a lot. But each also required different types of treatment in extreme cases.

  Maeve stepped back and let them work. Alfonso had trained several of her rescues to serve as medical support for her compound.

  Given the condition the shifter was in, she didn’t have much hope he’d survive.

  The Landing had a large staff, a sizable central building, and in the distance, she could hear the construction on her new apartment complex. Most people she and Alfonso brought here, didn’t want to leave. She didn’t blame them since her spells kept the location secure and her people safe.

  She had a trained therapist on staff who worked long hours in both individual and group settings. She needed to bring another in to help with the effects of the PTSD they all suffered.

  The Landing had a well-equipped kitchen and serving staff since
she fed everyone who lived here, permanent or not.

  She followed Alfonso and his team into the infirmary, a wing she’d added three months into the project. Five Bridges was full of houses like the original home she’d bought when she’d been sent here. She’d soon expanded into several adjoining abandoned properties. Most of the shifters she’d rescued had stuck around to do the work for her. They’d formed a pack and she hoped they’d never leave. Her wolves gave her a lot of comfort and made the Landing feel even more secure.

  To pay for everything, she ran a candle shop from the street side of the property, in a remodeled house that sold expensive, candles and other items she’d imbued with spells. The spells were basically designed to give the buyer an endorphin rush of pleasure. She’d never seen a customer leave empty-handed. Several of the female rescues worked in the shop. She even had two assistant witches who now used her spells and infusions to create the candles and other products. Her shop and online sales brought in a small fortune.

  The proceeds from her sales plus donations from her wealthier rescues sustained the Landing. At this point, with her life ripped apart because of the alter serums rampant in the U.S., she didn’t care what it took to keep the cash flowing, so be-spelled candles it was. She saved lives, she paid for medical equipment and she did her best to rehab victims back into their corrupt, difficult world.

  She was all about the Graveyard.

  At night. Every night.

  With the shifter now being treated by Alfonso and his team, she returned to the rescue entrance. She’d had her unusual, belowground apartment constructed on the opposite side of the tiled foyer. She had a powerful spell protecting the entrance.

  She didn’t know the why of it, but after she’d killed the witches, she’d needed to live holed up in the earth. It gave her comfort, she could be private and her spell kept her secure.