Jayne Ann Krentz/amanda Quick Arcane Society Series: Books 5-6: Running Hot & The Perfect Poison

RUNNING HOT
Ex-cop Luther Malone, lifelong member of the secretive paranormal organization known as the Arcane Society, is waiting to meet Grace Renquist. Hired as an aura-reading consultant in the quest for a murder suspect, she’s got zero field experience. She’s from tiny Eclipse Bay, Oregon. She’s a librarian, for heaven’s sake.

As for Grace, she’s not expecting much, either, from Malone, who walks with a cane and isn’t so good with a gun. Nice résumé for a bodyguard.

But even before they reach their hotel in Maui – where they’ll be posing as honeymooners – Grace and Luther feel the electric charge between them. Problem is, they need to remain vigilant day and night; because it soon becomes clear there’s more going on here.

Rogue sensitives – operatives for the underground group Nightshade – are pouring into the luxury resort as if there’s a convention. Grace recognizes those dark spikes in their auras. And she understands how dangerous these people can be...especially with those para-hunters at their sides.

As Grace knows all too well, if you don’t control your powers, your powers will control you.

THE PERFECT POISON
Plagued by rumors that she poisoned her fiancé, Lucinda Bromley manages to live on the fringes of polite society, tending her beloved plants—and occasionally consulting on a murder investigation. For the notorious botanist possesses a unique talent: she can detect almost any type of poison, especially ones that have their origins in the botanical kingdom.

But the death of a lord has shaken Lucinda to her core. At the murder scene, she picks up traces of a poison containing a very rare species of fern. So rare, in fact, that only one specimen exists in all of England—and it was stolen from her conservatory just last month.

To keep her name out of the investigation and to find the murderer, Lucinda hires a fellow Arcane Society member. Caleb Jones runs a psychical investigation agency. A descendant of the founder of the Society, he is very good at protecting its secrets—and frighteningly good getting at the truth. Immediately, Lucinda senses both a raw power and undeniable intensity in the imposing man.

But as a nearly overwhelming desire blooms between Caleb and Lucinda, they are drawn into the dark heart of a deadly conspiracy that can be traced to the early days of the Arcane Society—and to a legacy of madness that could plunge Caleb into the depths of his own tortured soul.…

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