Easing back a tempting inch, she regarded him through her lashes. “I can feel the conflict in you, Eli. I know what it’s like to want but know you can’t or shouldn’t have. I think.”
“That’s part of our problem, isn’t it?” His eyes traveled over her face. “We’re always thinking.”
Her smile widened. “Not sure I’d say that, Lieutenant.”
And yanking his mouth back down onto hers blasted everything that didn’t have its roots in need from his head.
It might have been lightning or the glow from the taper that caused the darkness to shift.
Whatever the source, when he spotted a shadow that shouldn’t be there, his body stilled …
Raven’s Hollow
Jenna Ryan
JENNA RYAN started making up stories before she could read or write. As she grew up, romance always had a strong appeal, but romantic suspense was the perfect fit. She tried out a number of different careers, including modeling, interior design and travel, but her one true love has always been writing. That and her longtime partner, Rod.
Inspired from book to book by her sister Kathy, she lives in a rural setting fifteen minutes from the city of Victoria, British Columbia. It’s taken a lot of years, but she’s finally slowed the frantic pace and adopted a West Coast mindset. Stay active, stay healthy, keep it simple. Enjoy the ride, enjoy the read. All of that works for her, but what she continues to enjoy most is writing stories she loves. She also loves reader feedback. E-mail her at [email protected] or visit Jenna Ryan on Facebook.
To my dad, Bill Goff.
It’s been a long road, and there’s more to go. Please, don’t forget …
Contents
Chapter One
She was being hunted.
The darkness seethed with the bloodlust of the fanatics behind her. She couldn’t see them, couldn’t see anything except the shadows of the hollow that twisted branches into skeletal limbs and turned everything that moved into her persecutors. The shadows hid their faces, and their bodies, but the footsteps shaking the forest floor told her they were closing in.
An ancient name swam in Sadie’s head even as desperation drove her deeper into the woods. Nola Bellam. Not her, not quite, but someone who was part of her.
The knowledge did nothing to alter her flight. Fear gathered like a fiery liquid in her chest, blocking logic, preventing clear thought. The trees, misshapen and grown together, bent lower. The ground grew rougher, the bushes more tangled. Wind swooped down in bursts to claw at her black robe.
She’d run from these same pursuers many times before tonight, as herself and as her ancestor. She was fast, but they were faster, and one of them was equally desperate.
Ezekiel Blume had raped Nola Bellam, who’d been his brother’s wife. Nola had taken her child and escaped, but not to safety. Nowhere was safe in Raven’s Hollow. Ezekiel had been hell-bent on capturing her before his brother returned to the area. On killing her before the truth came out.
Because ignorance was the mightiest weapon of all, he’d branded her a witch and set a group of fearful townspeople on her. He’d died for that in the end. They all had. His brother, Hezekiah, had ensured it.
Words and images blurred. Ravens dived now with the wind. One of them, as large as a man, landed on the path several yards ahead.
Something about him penetrated the haze in Sadie’s mind, and she slowed.
“Keep running,” he ordered, but she wouldn’t. It was time to make things right.
Moonbeams silvered the trees. Ezekiel’s knife slashed the air while his mob of followers held their torches high, circled and salivated.
Smiling at their fervor, Sadie raised her arms and let the glittering
