Dawn Caravan (Elemental Legacy Book 5)

Pulse-driving paranormal mystery from USA Today Bestseller, Elizabeth Hunter.

After this night, dawn can’t come fast enough.

For Ben Vecchio, everything has changed. His eyes. His diet. His new aversion to sunlight. But after a long sojourn in China, Ben realizes that the world he left behind hasn’t changed as much as he feared. He wants to leave his old life in the past, there’s one job remaining that just won’t leave him alone. Radu’s mystery is too interesting—and too profitable—to ignore. The problem? Taking on this commission puts Ben in the path of his old partner, the one woman he’s spent years avoiding. Tenzin has been following Ben at a distance, hoping his ire might wane, but when he heads to Romania, her patience runs out. Ben is a new power in their world, and more than one vampire will be eager to test him. Ben and Tenzin need to work together if they want to find the truth behind Radu, his mysterious clan, and the treasure at the heart of the Dawn Caravan. One last job, then it’s finished between them. Right?

Dawn Caravan is the fourth book in the Elemental Legacy, a paranormal mystery series by USA Today bestselling author, Elizabeth Hunter.

Prologue

Ben woke in pitch darkness. He smelled vinyl and leather. Pine and the scent of fresh water nearby.

Fresh blood.

He touched his head, but the blow at the base of his skull had already healed itself. Scattered memories of jostling in a vehicle and heavy, unfamiliar accents. Flashing lights and the sound of truck engines revving.

He stretched out, searching for anything familiar. On his right was a ledge of some kind. He reached over. He was on a bed and there was a wall next to him, but it felt hollow. False. He slapped the wall and felt the edge of a familiar plastic fixture. It was the flat paddle of a light switch.

He pushed it and a small lamp turned on next to him, nearly blinding him with its low light. I

n the newly lit compartment, Ben looked around.

Bed.

Small kitchen.

Square cupboards and plastic-covered bookshelves lined the walls. Was he on a plane? No, it was silent. He stood motionless and allowed the fear and panic to rise up so he could examine them clearly.

He took a deep breath and put his hands on the wall again.

Space. Some kind of insulation was packed behind the surface, but beyond that there was vast openness just on the other side. He reached up and felt the low ceiling. He felt the other wall and sensed the same.

In every direction, he was surrounded by air.

His panic began to calm. Just beyond these thin walls, his element waited for him. He could escape anytime.

A simple door stood at the end of the compartment, and as he walked toward it, he felt the floor swaying beneath him. It creaked and bounced.

What was this place? A mobile home? It was too small. A parked bus? Ben cracked the door slowly, reaching his amnis outward to sense any threats, but he was met by one single familiar energy signature a short distance away.

He pushed the door open and saw Radu standing alone on a hill under the swiftly darkening sky. The sun had set in the distance, and a lone Romani wagon was next to him, parked at the end of a cracked asphalt road where Ben realized his caravan had come to rest. That was the compartment where he’d woken, not a mobile home but a travel bus.

Radu turned and smiled ruefully. “I apologize, Ben Vecchio. This was not how I wanted to introduce you to the Dawn Caravan, but you left me no other options.”