Trancehack Read online

  Trancehack

  By Sonya Clark

  It’s 2065. Those born with magic abilities live in government-run zones, without rights or freedoms. Fear of magic created this segregated world and fear keeps it intact.

  A high-profile murder brings Detective Nathan Perez to Magic Born Zone 13. He’s had little experience with the Magic Born and isn’t sure what to expect during his first encounter with a witch, but he never thought he’d be so drawn to her.

  Trancehacker Calla Vesper uses magic to break into computers and aid the Magic Born underground. She has no interest in helping a cop, even if he is smoking-hot, but money’s tight and Nate offers a tidy amount for help navigating the Zone. Calla’s determined to keep it all business, but sparks start flying before the investigation even gets started.

  When Calla’s trancehacking and Nathan’s investigation uncover a conspiracy, Calla becomes a target. Nate can protect her by keeping her role a secret—but then who will protect Nate?

  89,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  It’s possible I say this every year, but I love October. To me, this is the month that signals the start of a season of hot apple cider, evenings by the fire, and curling up on the sofa with a good book, dressed warmly in sweatpants and a comfy shirt and snuggled under my favorite fuzzy blanket. We at Carina Press can’t provide most of those things, but we can provide the good books, and this month we have more than a few good books!

  In Running Back, the highly anticipated sequel to Allison Parr’s new-adult contemporary romance Rush Me, Natalie Sullivan is on the verge of a breakthrough most archaeology grad students only dream of: discovering a lost city. Her research points to a farm in Ireland, but to excavate she needs permission from the new owner: the Michael O’Connor, popular NFL running back.

  If you’re like me, there are certain tropes in romance that you fall for every time. One of mine is the main theme of Christi Barth’s newest book, Friends to Lovers. (Gee, can you guess what it is?) Daphne struggles with revealing her longtime lust for Gib, sparking it all off with a midnight kiss on New Year’s Eve—only Gib doesn’t know it’s Daphne he’s kissed! Also in the contemporary romance category is First and Again by Jana Richards, which has a special place in my heart because this emotional story takes place in my home state of North Dakota.

  For months, this Red Cross head nurse has been aiding Allied soldiers caught behind enemy lines, helping them flee into the neutral Netherlands. It’s only a matter of time until she’s caught in Aiding the Enemy, a historical romance by Julie Rowe. If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, be sure to check out the rest of Julie’s historical romances.

  We have two mysteries for readers to solve this month. British crime author Shirley Wells returns to the sleepy northern town of Dawson’s Clough with her popular Dylan Scott Mystery series in the next book, Deadly Shadows. And in Julie Anne Lindsey’s Murder by the Seaside, counseling is murder, but it’s never been this much fun.

  Erotic romance author Christine d’Abo brings us the story of Alice’s obsession with a brooding lawyer at her firm, which takes Alice on a journey of self-discovery through the rabbit hole and into the world of BDSM in Club Wonderland. Also this month, the Love Letters ladies, Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Emily Cale and Maggie Wells, round up five sizzling-hot stories to finish off their sexy stampede through the alphabet with Love Letters Volume 6: Cowboy’s Command.

  Edgar Mason is losing Agamemnon Frost despite everything they’ve been through—the passion, the torture, the heat. Frost’s fiancée Theodora is back, and Mason can feel his lover gravitating toward her. Every day he sees them together, it tears at his heart. Don’t miss Agamemnon Frost and the Crown of Towers, the conclusion to Kim Knox’s male/male historical science fiction trilogy.

  Because October is the perfect month for the paranormal, we have a wide selection of fantasy, urban fantasy and paranormal to share with you. In Jeffe Kennedy’s fantasy romance, Rogue’s Possession, neuroscientist Gwynn’s adventures in Faerie continue in the long-awaited sequel to Rogue’s Pawn. And in the sequel to Soul Sucker, a powerful magic user is stealing people’s faces in San Francisco, and empath Ella Walsh and shifter Vadim Morosov have been called in to investigate in Death Bringer by Kate Pearce. Also returning with another book in her Blood of the Pride series is Sheryl Nantus, with her paranormal romance Battle Scars.

  Combining futuristic fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy, Trancehack by Sonya Clark is a compelling cross-genre romance. In a dystopian future where magic is out in the open and witches are segregated, a high-profile murder case brings together a police detective and a witch with unusual powers that combine magic and technology. But dangerous secrets, a political cover-up, and the law itself stand between them. Don’t miss this exciting new world of witchpunk!

  Carina Press is pleased to introduce three debut authors this October. Science fiction erotic romance author Renae Jones gives us a Taste of Passion when lust strikes hard for Fedni, an empath who can taste emotion, but her off-worlder neighbor is horrified by the caste system that the former courtesan holds dear.

  Two urban fantasy authors debut with us this month. In Kathleen Collins’s Realm Walker, a realm walker hunts a demon intent on destroying both her and the mate who left her seven years ago. Also debuting in urban fantasy is Joshua Roots with his book Undead Chaos. When warlock Marcus Shifter performs a simple zombie beheading, he soon finds that the accidental framing of an innocent necromancer, falling in lust, and burning down a bar are just the beginning of his troubles.

  Regardless of whether you’re discovering these books in October or in the middle of summer, any time is the perfect time for reading, and I hope you enjoy all these titles as much as we’ve enjoyed working on them.

  We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Dedication

  Ninety percent of this book was written while I was in the second trimester of my pregnancy. It felt a bit like having a co-pilot on the journey, kicking me as I stayed up late to write and listening to the music I used as the story’s soundtrack. So I dedicate this book to my little girl, who inspired me to reach higher and further even before she was born.

  Acknowledgments

  This book never would have left my hard drive without the support, encouragement and helpful beta reads of several people. Thank you to Amy Lee Burgess, Ashley Christman, Carrie Clevenger, Nerine Dorman, Larry Kollar, Shelley Parris and Lori Tucker. Thank you to my husband Joey for always wanting to read more, and for believing in me more than I’ve ever believed in myself. And thank you to my editor Jeff Seymour, for pulling Trancehack out of the slush pile and giving me the invaluable guidance needed to take it this far.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

 
Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  The lights of New Corinth at night dissolved into the hard gold of the morning sun. Detective Nathan Perez drained the last of his coffee while standing in front of a window watching the dawn. He’d already been up for hours and was due in the morgue, but this brief moment of peace was something he needed.

  Ten minutes later he stepped into the morgue. The harsh lighting beat a rhythm against the headache already blooming behind his eyes. He approached the table, nodding a greeting at the coroner, who had her hands in the dead man’s abdomen. Dr. Lucille Walker was a slender, middle-aged woman with a no-nonsense air of competence Nate appreciated.

  “Tell me you’ve got something, Luce. The scene’s given me nothing and I’ve been called in upstairs.”

  “Already? That was fast, even considering who this guy is.” She pointed at the vic’s gray, slack face as she deposited the man’s liver in a scale.

  Grimacing, Nate waited for her to note the organ’s weight for her report before replying. “Head of the local DMS testing facility as well as his own private clinic, friends with the mayor, yadda yadda—yeah, I’d say this guy has some juice.”

  “You mean had some juice.”

  Nate kept his eyes on Dr. Walker’s face instead of what she was doing with her hands and the body. “His assistant says it doesn’t look like anything was stolen but he’s going to have to sort through the mess better before he knows for sure. No murder weapon. I’ve got someone running his financials but that’ll take time. I’d really like to have something to tell the chief when I’m due in his office in ten minutes.”

  Luce paused in her work. “Blunt force trauma to the back of the head is the most obvious thing, plus defensive wounds. Definitely a homicide. We found a hair that’s not his. Baldy here doesn’t have any four-inch blond hairs on him. Henry’s running it now.”

  Nate’s grimace relaxed as his curiosity was piqued, one corner of his mouth twitching upward. “Did you know him? You’re both part of the medical community in the city.”

  She gave him a baleful eye as she returned to weighing organs. “I met him a few times, but I wouldn’t say we were part of the same community.” The tone of her voice had gone from workaday relaxed to tight and controlled.

  “You didn’t like Dr. Alan Forbes very much.”

  “How long have you lived here? Three, four months?”

  “Three.”

  “You’re about to get an education, boy.”

  Nate chose his next words with care. “One of the uniforms volunteered a theory. That maybe someone didn’t like the test results that came back. Maybe they wanted to keep, uh—”

  “Keep their baby?” Luce smacked something that might have been a kidney onto the scale. “Instead of send their baby to the zone? If that’s the direction this goes you might be real surprised how long your list of suspects turns out to be.”

  The doors swung open and the lab tech returned with a shiny silver microtablet not much bigger than his hand. Although younger than Nate, Henry Andros was already the assistant department head of the police lab. Wiry and energetic, he had a habit of moving almost constantly and always seemed to be three steps ahead of everyone else.

  Luce said, “Give it to us, Henry.”

  The young man held a hand over the tablet. “First of all I want to stress that I ran the tests three times and got the same results each time.”

  “You don’t look too happy with those results,” Nate said.

  Henry said, “You’re not going to be, either.” He tapped the touchscreen. “I’m sending you the preliminary now. Here’s the basics. That hair did not belong to the victim. It did belong to a male, and there was nightshade in the man’s system.”

  A drug crime would be far preferable to the theory mentioned moments ago. “Was there any in Forbes?”

  “Nope,” Henry said. “You ready for this one?”

  “Don’t be a drama queen,” Luce teased.

  “The hair tested positive as belonging to someone Magic Born.”

  “Won’t take long to find them then,” Nate said. “At least that’s something the chief will like hearing.” It would take a matter of minutes for a computer search to go through the DMS database of Magic Born DNA and find a match. Between their places of residence and work being registered and their identification badges having RFID chips to record their comings and goings, finding that person in the zone would take longer but not by much. He might be able to wrap this up in a day. That was the kind of high-profile case to have. “What’s the name?”

  “I haven’t gotten to the oh-shit part yet.”

  Nate gave him an expectant look.

  “There’s no match.”

  Nate blinked, not sure he’d heard that right. “What?”

  “That’s not possible,” Luce said.

  “I ran it three times and I’ll run it as many times as you want but I’m telling you, there was no match. That hair belongs to an unregistered Abnormal.”

  Luce frowned at the term but said nothing. Nate rubbed his temple, that low-level headache starting to turn into a raging monster. “There’s no such thing as unregistered Magic Born,” he said.

  “Well apparently there is because the tests don’t lie. The science is solid, man.”

  Nate turned slowly, acid churning in his stomach. Three months in the city, his first big case in this department, and he’d landed in the middle of a minefield. “Shit.”

  * * *

  Nate knocked on the chief’s door, curious about the meathead in a suit standing across from it. He had the whiff of private security, not a wholly unusual sight in police headquarters but still strange enough for Nate to notice. The chief called for him to enter.

  Chief of Police Decker greeted Nate with a grim nod and a bone-crushing handshake. He did not offer the detective a seat. Instead, Decker led him to the bay window where another man stood looking out over the city.

  “Sir, I—”

  Decker cut him off as the man turned to face them. “Introductions first. Senator, this is Detective Nathan Perez. He’s new to the department but comes with an exemplary record from his old department and his time in the service. I have every confidence in his abilities.”

  “Good to hear.” The senator extended a hand. “John Beckwith. Pleased to meet you.”

  Nate shook his hand. United States Senator John Beckwith was practically an institution in the state. He’d started out in his father’s company, worked there until he was old enough to run for Congress and spent several terms in the House before running for Senate. He was the paragon of a wealthy, powerful family, now a force to be reckoned with in his own right. Beckwith was a known friend of the murder victim, but Perez had not expected to meet him in the chief’s office.

  The acid bath in his stomach turned into a hurricane. “Glad to meet you, sir.”

  Decker said, “Dr. Forbes was a close friend of the senator and his family. He’s very interested
in making sure justice is served. Tell us what you’ve got so far.”

  Keeping his face impassive, Nate recited the facts of the case in a flat monotone. He left nothing out, including the bombshell of DNA from an unregistered Magic Born. Thick silence filled the room as the other men absorbed the shock.

  Senator Beckwith was the first to recover. “I’ve never heard of that happening, even in the Department of Magic Security’s most top secret reports.”

  Decker skipped his gaze from the senator to Nate and back quickly. “It’s not the kind of thing that needs to get out either. It could cause a panic here and in every other city with a zone.”

  “Do you think the drug trade could have something to do with this?” Beckwith directed his question at Nate.

  “To be honest, sir, it’s really too soon to tell. We’re still waiting to hear from Dr. Forbes’ assistant to find out if anything was stolen. If anything is missing from the doctor’s office, that could tell us motivation. If the place was just trashed, then we’ll have to broaden the scope of the investigation.”

  Beckwith nodded. “I like your line of thinking, but I’m concerned about how this investigation is going to be conducted.”

  Nate suppressed a flinch. He doubted he’d like what he was about to hear.

  “What’s your specific concern, sir?” Decker said.

  “The idea of unregistered Magic Born would be terrifying to a great many people. We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with before we risk this information being made public. If we’re talking about one individual who somehow managed to avoid registration, that’s an entirely different matter than if we’re talking about large groups. There’s no need to cause an unnecessary panic. The fewer people know about it, the better.” He turned to look out the window again. “No task force, no big flashy investigation. This would best be handled by one person, at least to start.”

  By one scapegoat, he means. Nate kept his mouth shut.

  “If that’s what you think is best, Senator,” Decker said, managing to sound both obsequious and disgruntled at the same time. “Your position on the Congressional Magic Affairs Committee certainly gives you unique insight.”