Induction

Induction

T.K. Eldridge

Graffridge Publishing

First published by Graffridge Publishing 2019

Copyright © 2019 by T.K. Eldridge

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

T.K. Eldridge asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

T.K. Eldridge has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Cover by Lizzie Dunlap of PixieCovers.com

Editing by Donna A. Martz of MartzProofing.com

They weren't supposed to exist.

Sidonie & Sinclair Boudreau were the offspring of a witch and a shifter. Such pairings usually resulted in death. Sid & Sin had not only survived, but thrived, and managed to sidestep the family legacy of supernatural policing.

The disappearance of their parents changed everything. A cryptic message, an ancient prophecy, and a mystery to uncover in order to bring their parents home puts the twins in the crosshairs of an enemy they didn't know existed.

What would you do to save those you loved?

To all those who came before. Your dreams, struggles, loves, and lives are what created me. What I do with that, is all on me.

Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands. - Linda Hogan

Foreword

The point of view shifts from one sibling to the other with each chapter change (for the most part). Sin - Sinclair Boudreau and Sid - Sidonie Boudreau may be twins, but they are definitely two different people.

Want to stay up to date on new releases and what’s coming next? Sign up for my newsletter here: https://tkeldridge.com/newsletter.

Enjoy the stories!

-T.K. Eldridge

Contents

1. Chapter One

2. Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight

9. Chapter Nine

10. Chapter Ten

11. Chapter Eleven

12. Chapter Twelve

13. Chapter Thirteen

14. Chapter Fourteen

15. Chapter Fifteen

16. Chapter Sixteen

17. Chapter Seventeen

18. Chapter Eighteen

19. Chapter Nineteen

20. Chapter Twenty

21. Chapter Twenty-One

About the Author

Chapter One

Sid

This was not how I had planned to spend the Friday after final exams.

A week of high-pressure testing was supposed to end with a day of pampering with the girls. Followed by good food and a night of drinking with the whole gang. It was not supposed to be spent standing around a smelly police station, watching a guy I’d turned down more than a few times question my brother.

I stared at Jenkins for a few minutes. He was a mundane. Nothing special about him at all, if you didn’t count his arrogance. You could see the paranormals if you knew what to look for. Witches had that veil-thin shimmer around them, like heat rising off of asphalt. Shifters got that animalistic green glint in their eye when the light caught them just right. Me? I just confused the hell out of them. Sometimes I shimmered, sometimes my eyes caught the light just so, and sometimes I could hide it all. Same with my brother, Sin. The whole hiding thing? We think it’s because we’re twins. Or maybe because we’re not supposed to exist in the first place.

I stood with my back against the wall and watched as my twin brother twisted his ball cap into a nest of cloth and cardboard. The cops had wanted to talk to him first, which was fine with me. I had nothing to say. I had fallen asleep in my friend Aaron’s car and barely woke in time for my ten o’clock class. I never made it home last night. Listening to Sin, it sounded like he hadn’t made it home either.

I was starving. It was time to put the Boudreau moxie into play. I sauntered over to the table and leaned a hip against the sticky metal surface. Officer Jenkins, could you please tell us what is going on? I’ve got…plans. I gave him my best sexy smile and peered up at him through my lashes. Hell, I even bit my lower lip.

Sin leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. Yeah, I think we’re done here. I’ve told you where I was, what I was doing and who I was with. My sister and I need to get home.

Jenkins smirked and shook his head. Damned Boudreaus always think you’re better’n everybody else. Well, you’re not. Sit down and I’ll ask all the questions I want.

My sultry look disappeared, and I sighed as if he’d just disappointed me beyond measure. Okay. Lawyer.

What? Jenkins snapped.

Law…yerrr. Lawyer. You either get us a lawyer now or you let us go, I told him. Hey, pre-Law classes came in handy for something. That, and family history.

What about you? Jenkins asked Sinclair.

Lawyer, Sin said.

Well, fuck you both. Go ahead. But good luck getting into your house, Jenkins smirked as he got up, grabbed his notebook and stormed away before we could ask him what he meant by that. I took one look at Sin.

He nodded then said, My car’s outside. Let’s go.

Once we were in his car, I asked Sin how he’d ended up at the station.

Stumpy called and said they needed to talk to me, so I drove here. How’d you get here?

Stumpy. He picked me up outside Kittredge Hall after my sociology final.

Where’s your car?

Home. Bella came and got me last night and we hung out at Aaron’s. He dragged me to the campus with him but his exam was at eight, so I slept in his car until time for my exam at ten. Went in, took it, came out and there was Stumpy.

Stumpy was actually Detective Patrick Clancy, our dad’s best friend since they were toddlers. We couldn’t say ‘Clancy’ when we were little and ended up calling him Stumpy. It stuck. He was more of an uncle to us than our blood uncle who had lived on the other side of the continent most of our lives but now lived in town.

Well, if Stumpy called you and picked me up, why was Jenkins the one questioning us? What the fuck happened that Stumpy wasn’t there? Sin asked as he pulled up next door to our house. We couldn’t get any closer with all of the police cars around.

I think we’re about to find out, I said and got out. Stumpy’s car is over there. Something cold settled in my chest. I reached out for Sin’s hand as he came around the car. I’m scared, I whispered to him.

You’re not facing this alone, Sid. Never alone, Sin said and squeezed my hand.

Never alone, I repeated. Our mantra whenever we had to face something that made us worry.

We walked past my cherry red Mini and our parents’ SUVs, one silver, one black. Crime scene tape blocked the path to the front door along with two officers. We made our way around the cars to the side of the house. I pulled out my keys, unlocked the back door, and we entered the kitchen. Both of us slapped our hands over our noses as the smell hit us.

What is that smell? I asked Sin.

Blood. It’s blood, Sin said.

Leave it to the pre-Med student to know what blood smells like. Two steps into the kitchen and we saw where the smell was coming from. It was sprayed all over the kitchen and into the dining room. Belle Cove police and crime scene techs were taking samples, photos, and examining everything from the kitchen on through to the front door.

Hey, you two can’t be in here, yelled one of the techs.

Fuck you, we live here, Sin snapped back.

Not right now, you don’t. This is a crime scene. Who let you in here? The tech wore blue paper booties splattered with blood as he edged around a particularly large smear. I held up my keys.

Like he said. We live here. What the hell is going on? I told him.

The tech sighed and shook his head. Go back out and around to the patio. I’ll send Detective Clancy out to talk to you, okay? Just…be careful where you step.

Sin took my arm and led me back to the door. Thank you, he muttered as he ushered me outside. I was a mixture of furious and completely freaked out, so of course, I snapped at my brother. What the fuck was that? You’re going to let some twit tell us to get out?

It’s a crime scene, Sid. Let’s let them do their job. We’ll have plenty of time to do ours when they’re done.

I stomped around the back of the house to the patio and dropped onto a cushioned rocker. Once I pulled out my phone, I dialed Mom’s number. She’d be pissed that I bothered her during work hours, but this was serious. Our house was a blood-splattered disaster area. The call went to voicemail. I tried Dad’s number. Same thing.

Sin, why are Mom and Dad’s phones going to voicemail? Yeah, I know, you probably think I’m being a clueless idiot and not putting one and one together. It was not my finest moment.

Sid, where do you think all the blood came from?

I stopped dialing and shook my head. No, if they were dead, we’d feel it. Right?

Sin just looked at me.

Right, Sin?

I don’t know, Sid. That’s an awful lot of blood for someone to still be alive.

But they’re powerful, Sin. They wouldn’t go down easy.

No, they wouldn’t. That’s why the house is so trashed.

Well, if they’re dead, where are the bodies?

Stumpy came around the corner as I said that and shook his head. There are no bodies. He was holding an evidence bag with a piece of paper in it. This was stuck on the front door. There are no prints on it.

Sin took the bag and read the note. We have Andre and Amelia. We will exchange them for Sinclair and Sidonie at Arcadia Park in two days at sunset. If they do not present themselves, we will kill the parents.

I took a breath. We’ll be there.

Not alone, Stumpy said. If you plan on using yourselves as bait, I’ll be bringing cops to keep you safe and help take down the kidnappers.

Right, because anyone strong enough to take both of our parents, leave that much blood and still put a coherent note on the door, won’t notice cops skulking around the park, Sin said.

Did the cops find out if the blood was our parents’ blood or something else? I didn’t want to think about Mom or Dad losing that much blood or what condition they’d be in now if it was all theirs.

They can’t tell yet. The lab will have to test it, Stumpy said.

What about magical means? Sin asked.

I saw something shift in Stumpy’s expression. If I hadn’t been looking at him, I would’ve missed it.

The SPD was on another case and couldn’t come. We’re only using Belle Cove’s PD, Stumpy said.

What the actual fuck, Stumpy? I could feel the rage boiling through me. The SPD was on another case? That’s absolute bullshit and you know it.

Sin turned away from us both and punched the side of the house, denting the siding.

Stumpy just looked down at the patio stones under our feet while I raged.

This is because of their archaic ideas of what is acceptable in paranormal society. Can’t have witches and shifters mating. If they do manage to have kids, those kids are mutant monsters. Well, fuck their acceptance and to hell with their bullshit.

Sin turned to Stumpy, voice deceptively calm. Are we allowed to go up the back stairs and get some of our things out of our rooms? We need clothes and such for the next couple of days.

Yeah, I’ll make sure they’re done upstairs, Stumpy said. Give me fifteen minutes.

I watched Stumpy leave and turned to Sin. I’ll grab clothes and toiletries for us both, you hit the attic and get everything else. If you can’t carry it, put it in the trunk and spell it.

Exactly what I planned on doing, Sin replied. We can’t let them get into the attic. I know they haven’t yet because they’re Danes. But if the kidnappers come back or someone from SPD shows up, they might get past the wards.

Where are we going to stay? The cabin? Our Grandpa had a cabin on Syren Lake, about half an hour from here. No one in the family used it but us because it was deep in shifter territory.

Yeah, that’s our best option. At least we’ll be protected there, Sin said.

Don’t forget to hide the trunk and set the trap. No wards, you know they look for those.

I won’t, he whispered as Stumpy came back out.

You can go up and get whatever you need. And you can take whatever car you want, Stumpy said.

I turned to Sin. You take your car, I’ll take Mom’s. We can come to get mine later.

Sounds good, he said, and we headed into the house.

The smell was still really strong but upstairs it wasn’t so bad. I opened a couple of windows while I packed two duffel bags full of clothes and a couple of smaller ones with toiletries, books, laptops, charger cords and photos. I bagged up Mom and Dad’s jewelry and their laptops and Mom’s spell gear that she kept in a small chest in her room. It was a good thing I’d be using her car. Mine wouldn’t fit half of this stuff.

Sin came down from the attic, a carved wooden box in his hands and a large canvas sack floating behind him.

Careful, I hissed at him. Danes in the house.

Yeah, I know. But not up here. I did the ‘hide me’ spell on the trunk and slid it into the storage cupboard under the eaves, then buried it with a bunch of dusty stuff. No wards, don’t worry.

Okay, you do the float spell on everything but our duffel bags and I’ll do the invisibility spell until we get them into the cars.

I’m going to check my room first, Sin said and disappeared down the hall. I went around and closed up the windows and locked each room as I left. Anything to slow any nosy ones down.

Sin came out and we spelled the gear and headed down the back steps, making sure to keep the invisible bags between us. Once we got to Mom’s SUV, I opened the back, dropped the seats and we started to load the stuff in, removing the spells once it was inside. Sin was smart enough to have grabbed a couple of comforters, so we spread them out over the boxes and bags and then spread some of the car clutter on top