Granted by the Beast: A Steamy Paranormal Romance Spin on Beauty and the Beast (Conduit Series Book 4) Read online

  Granted by the Beast

  Conduit Series Book Four

  Rebecca Hamilton

  Conner Kressley

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  About the Authors

  This book is dedicated to author April Canavan. Without her support, this story wouldn’t be possible.

  Chapter 1

  “Are you sure this is where I’m supposed to be?” I shook my head and looked around at the darkened room where Ramsey had sent me for some ungodly reason. My only thought was that I should have brought a real flashlight. Oh, and maybe something to kill spiders with. Also, I hadn’t gotten to eat dinner before I broke into this creepy building.

  This place—an abandoned building in what had to be the most dangerous part of New York that even I had ever been to—smelled of urine and hopelessness. Although, I was used to that by now. I couldn’t even remember how many twists and turns I had taken to get to the building that looked like it should have been torn down years ago.

  It had been almost a year to the day since Ramsey and I had taken off to go on this crazy adventure. We’d been hunting down the darkness and dragging it into the light ever since that day. Sometimes, I hated the new job we’d taken on, and right about now was one of those times.

  It had been a year since I had practically begged him to start teaching me how to hone and strengthen my powers. I still remembered the way he’d looked at me with pity when I’d done it.

  A year since the worst pain of my life had made that necessary, and a year since I had felt anything close to whole. I didn’t know if I’d ever be whole again, and that made all of this necessary. That made every single step I had taken into this dark and musty place extremely necessary.

  Of course, I’m sure this is the right place, Ramsey said, speaking directly into my mind from the safety of his living room. I jumped a little as his words floated around me.

  Though this mental connection we shared was nothing new, it still shook me a little every time. I had never been this close to anyone before, never let someone really dig around in my brain. Not again anyway. Not since I lost him.

  All the magical readings point to the place you’re standing right now, Ramsey continued. Hell, there’s enough energy bouncing off that place to light the entire city on fire. I’m surprised you can’t feel it.

  “Well, I can’t,” I said, shrugging and looking out at the almost impenetrable darkness. “Tell me again, why aren’t you here?”

  The inside of this building was cold—much colder than it should have been, given the weather in the city right now. Still, old buildings were weird. They could get drafty. They could hold the cold like a ghost. I had learned that and more in my time living here before I went back to New Haven, before my life changed completely.

  Maybe we should up our training sessions, Ramsey suggested, again directly into my head via the telepathic link. Because, I have better things to do.

  No doubt one of those better things was to eat pizza and watch a movie while I did all the hard work. “We’re already training five times a week,” I balked. “I’m up at the crack of dawn every day. A girl’s got to have some free time.”

  What went unsaid was the fact that I could only handle having so much magic in my life at any given time.

  A girl also has to make sure she’s safe, Ramsey countered. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. But, if you’re as intent as you seem on doing all of this by yourself, then I don’t know what else to do but make sure you’re as prepared for the unexpected as humanly possible.

  His voice cut out, and I knew what was coming next: the same mantra I had heard nearly every day for a year, the same warning that echoed through my head during my waking hours and haunted my dreams on the rare occasion that Abram didn’t haunt them instead.

  They’re coming for you, Charisse. The Brothers are looking for you as we speak.

  There it was, the ticking clock that had been planted firmly over my head. I hated it, but there was nothing I could do to erase it. That sound—the words that I could never forget—my life seemed to revolve around them, and I was tired of it.

  “I know they’re coming,” I answered in a flat tone, and my words echoed off the walls around me. I swallowed hard at the thought of them. “Why do you think I’m doing this? You fight the small fries to work up to the big guys,” I said, not really intending to rhyme. Still, I could think of worse results.

  The Brothers aren’t just big guys, Ramsey answered, the fearful tremble of his thought-voice rattling around in my skull. They’re two of the five Eternals. They were born in the fires that—

  “Created the universe. I know,” I said, rubbing my arms as I stepped deeper into the creepy dwelling. Satina gave me the rundown before she died. I know what The Brothers are.

  As I brought up the Supplicant’s name, my entire body shuddered. That woman, who I thought hated me when we first met, became something of a friend to me before her untimely passing. In fact, she became something of a best friend. Now that she was gone, she was more of a martyr figure, and the truth of that shook me to my core.

  What Satina told you was a sliver of the truth, the same way a history teacher might tell her students that Hitler was ‘sort of a bad guy.’

  “Sounds like a lackluster history teacher,” I mumbled under my breath.

  I traced my hand along the stone wall covered in dust, ash, and something I couldn't quite place. Whatever I was supposed to find here, I wasn’t finding it. All I could see was hard lines and shadows, abandoned wooden tables, stone walls, and a cracked, oil-stained concrete floor.

  I couldn’t sense any of the power that Ramsey said was here, and it was starting to make me mad. I’d spent the entire last year training and improving my skills, and yet he could sense magic in a building where I was getting nothing.

  I wanted to reach out and punch something in my frustration, but I didn’t want Ramsey to know how affected I was by all of this.

  As my vision adjusted to the darkness, I could just barely make out the caged lights overhead. Without working electricity, they wouldn’t do me any good.

  A magical signature of some kind should be calling to me like a beacon, but nope, nothing. Even as I felt around on tables in the muted light, I found little more than broken pieces of plaster and drywall, a hammer, and a paint can that had been tipped over.

  My foot caught on a crack in the concrete floor, and I stumbled forward, catching myself on an old wooden chair before I could hit the ground. I growled under my breath, and listened to it echo off the walls around me.

  Even something malevolent would have made an appearance, especially if it was looking for a weakness before making itself known. I hadn’t made a mista
ke like that in months, and here I was, acting like a scared little girl again.

  “There’s nothing here, Ramsey.” What I didn’t say was that if he hadn’t wasted my time, I might be able to do something that was actually useful.

  If I stayed much longer, I might find some cobwebs and maybe even a rats nest or two, but I doubted even the spiders and vermins still lived here. Everything about this place felt dead and abandoned. It made my skin crawl.

  Be that as it may, the truth is The Brothers are a threat unlike any the world has ever seen before. You know that. That’s why— Ramsey gasped, and my head whipped around. What was that?

  I froze, listening as hard as I could into the silence. “What was what?”

  I couldn’t hear anything, and he was starting to act like a crazy person.

  Don’t tell me you didn’t hear that, he said, and I could feel the tension filling the air like that time last month when he’d walked into the bathroom while I was changing. I fought the urge to giggle at the memory of me beating him upside the head with a towel rack.

  I shook it off and got back into fight mode. “It’s kind of hard to hear with you blabbering on in my head.” My muscles tensed, and my magic flared up in reaction to whatever had Ramsey on edge. “Also, are you using my ears again? You know I hate it when you do that.”

  I figured one of us had better make use of them.

  “Very funny,” I muttered before I took a step forward and through the doorway. “What did you hear?” I still couldn’t hear anything, and I was being as quiet as I could, which was pretty quiet after all my practice.

  It was a low sound, he answered. Kind of like a whistling.

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes, again. “You think there’s an open window?” I asked, looking around for any indication that there was an open window anywhere, let alone any window period..

  I tried to avoid using magic unless necessary. Although I was a self-energizing never-ending source of magic, I still hadn’t figured out how to manipulate and use my magic without burning out completely. I needed to save my efforts for the right moments.

  This was turning into one of those moments I was worried about. If something or someone was here, I needed to know about it, and the sooner the better.

  I extended my hand and visualized a golden ball of light materializing in my hand, even though I would have preferred to use a flashlight. The only problem was that my phone had inexplicably died the moment I walked into the building. Being both Supplicant and Conduit, I could conjure magic, and I could do it using my own blood as an energy source. This ball of light would illuminate the room; at least, that was the plan.

  Only problem was, when I called forth my magic, nothing happened. Like absolutely nothing. It felt like I was back in New Haven, helpless to stop what was happening to me.

  “What the hell?” I murmured aloud. “My powers aren’t working.”

  What? Ramsey asked, as though he didn’t believe what I’d just said. Are you sure you’re doing it the right way?

  Just like that, I was thrust back into our first lesson, where he’d called everything I had ever done with my powers into question.

  “It’s an illumination spell, Ramsey,” I said to the mage, trying to resist the urge to roll my eyes. “I could do that in my sleep. Hell, I have done it in my sleep, and more than a few times at that.”

  Hold on a second.

  It sounded as though Ramsey was shuffling around in the brownstone we called both our home and base of operations back in the city. I could hear him stuff the rest of his food in his mouth, and I wanted to punch him for eating it when I couldn’t have any. He knew pizza was my favorite.

  I took another step forward, hesitating when I couldn’t really see what was going on in front of me.. “What is it we’re looking for in here again?” I couldn’t remember Ramsey ever telling me exactly what it was that I was searching for. “It better not be something stupid.”

  As I moved, I finally began to feel the energy that Ramsey was talking about. With it pulsing and coursing over my skin now, I could see why he was so surprised I couldn’t feel it before. How was it he put it again? Enough energy bouncing off this place to light the entire city on fire?

  I hadn’t felt it then, but within moments of trying to use my own magic, the unseen energy hit me so hard it shook me, yanking me forward without my consent.

  Ramsey!” I said, my heart skipping a beat. What had he gotten me into?

  An artifact, he answered. A hidden treasure of immense power. That’s all I know.

  “Screw this,” I said. “Something’s pulling me, Ramsey.”

  I focused my energy on retreating from the force that had been pulling me forward into the darkness.

  What? he asked. Charisse, is it cold in there? Colder than it has any right to be?

  I huffed a breath out, and when I could see it, I knew. “Yep.”

  Run, Charisse! he said quickly. Get the hell out of there!

  Not that I really needed him to tell me, because I already wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

  Ramsey, what am I dealing with? I asked, feeling terror through the telepathic connection between us.

  A nightmare, he said. A Shadow Elf. It’s a nasty thing that turns itself into your worst nightmare. You’re not ready for it. You’ll never survive on your own. Get the hell out of there. Now!

  I spun and headed toward the open door, only to have it slam shut in my face. Freaking magic. Always popping up when I least expected it.

  “Ramsey,” I said, grabbing the handle and finding it not budging. I was trapped. “Ramsey, I don’t think getting out of here is gonna be possible.”

  I turned around, trying to find another way to escape, another way to get away.

  Static filled my head, cutting off the connection between me and the mage that had been my partner for an entire year. Just as quickly as it started, the noise in my head shifted from mildly uncomfortable into a pain so unbearable that I fell to the floor, clutching my head to soften the feedback.

  It wasn’t long until all of it faded completely, leaving my connection to Ramsey broken as well as a headache that I wasn’t sure would ever go away.

  “Charisse,” a soft voice said, breaking through the silence in my mind. It took me a second to figure out why it was different. Then, I realized it wasn’t coming from my head, but from inside the building. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Looking up, I did my best not to shriek in surprise at what I saw. My heart was still racing from the unexpected pain a few moments before, and I was attempting to force myself to calm down.

  I blinked rapidly, willing the hallucination to vanish, but it didn’t. Standing there was my best friend Lulu with a tray of cookies in her hands. She held it out to me with a smile.

  “Well,” I muttered as I reached out to take a cookie. “This is an unexpected surprise.”

  Chapter 2

  Lulu was my best friend in the entire world. She had been for as long as I could remember. I didn’t have a sister. Hell, I didn’t have a family at all anymore. If I had, though, Lulu would have been it. She was the person I thought about when I needed support, especially with Abram gone. She was the shoulder I could lean on, and her children were most likely the closest thing I’d ever get to having my own.

  So, seeing her here was almost the opposite of scary. It was actually comforting. What was up with that? Especially since I knew that there was no way she would be there without her two children close by. And there was no way in hell that she’d bring her kids into an abandoned building like this one.

  “Ramsey,” I said while I ate a cookie and stared at the visage of a woman I loved holding her special homemade cookies. “What the hell is this about?” ‘

  Her being some sort of magical apparition didn’t change the fact that I was starving.

  There was no answer.

  “Ramsey,” I repeated, starting to get a little worried. After all, even if this thing—
this Shadow Elf—had missed the mark completely while trying to scare me, I was still trapped in an abandoned building on the bad side of town with something that was capable of mimicking my best friend’s appearance.

  Life could certainly be better.

  “He isn’t in there anymore, Charisse,” said the thing that looked like Lulu, a smile draping across her perfectly made-up face. “It was so crowded, and I wanted some privacy. We need to talk, just us girls.”

  The tittering coming from the monster wearing my best friend’s skin was extremely creepy.

  “You’re not my friend,” I said, my hands balling into fists and my eyes narrowing. “Although, the resemblance is striking.”

  Which was to say, she looked like a skinny version of myself—dark hair, light eyes, but sans the eye freckle I’d inherited from my father. Oh, and the two minions that she never went anywhere without.

  Shadow-Lulu shook her head. “Mages aren’t always right, you know,” she said. “I could be your friend. I could have been hiding some deep dark truth about my personal identity all these years. Lord knows, I wouldn’t have been the only one. But let’s say your little mage was right. Let’s say I am the thing he thinks I am. Would that make me so bad?” Her voice was honeyed, and I remembered the last time I saw Lulu in reality.

  “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say...yes.”

  The shadow-thing standing in front of me had no idea how things had ended with Lulu and myself. It obviously had no clue that I’d actually killed Lulu’s brother, and that she probably wouldn’t be standing in front of me with a tray of cookies if she ever found out.