Bound to Shadows (Riley Jenson Guardian 8)

He caught my fingers and kissed them gently. "Do you know why your memories are so sketchy? Was it the accident, or was it deliberate?"

"Deliberate. "

He touched my temple with his free hand and power washed around me, warm and familiar. "I can feel the imprint of another. We might be able to undo it. "

"Good. But not right now. " I turned around and looked at Jack. "We've had two murders here in Dunedan, both revenge killings very similar to the one I was investigating in Melbourne. This time, Harris and I managed to capture the killer and the helicopter pilot who was coming to pick him up. "

Jack shook his head. "Even kidnapped, you still manage to find yourself in the middle of a murder investigation. "

"Even when she was repeatedly told to keep her nose out of it," Harris murmured, humor touching his lips as his gaze met mine.

"Ah, well. " Jack walked across the room and helped himself to some coffee. "I've been her boss for years and, let me tell you, getting her to obey orders is impossible. "

"But in this case, it was a good thing. " I leaned back against Quinn. His warmth and his smell soaked through my pores, filling a void I hadn't even been aware of until now. "Because it was the similarities of the murders here to the ones I'd been investigating in Melbourne that began triggering memories. "

"Probably because whoever was doing the memory rearranging didn't know enough about your life to make it stick. "

With the back of my head resting against Quinn's chest, his voice seemed to rumble right through me. It was a wonderful sensation.

"That makes sense, because the stuff they didn't know about - like my seagull shape and clairvoyance skills - I could access, but my wolf shape, and the knowledge of who and what I was, I couldn't. "

"So why didn't they erase your mind completely?" Harris asked. "That would have been a whole lot easier, surely?"

"It would have," Jack said, "but Riley has extremely strong shields. Most vampires wouldn't break past more than the first few layers of memories. "

He could, as could Quinn, but even they were no longer able to dive deep into my subconscious. I'd grown too strong over the past year.

The thought made me smile. It was nice to actually remember.

"Which is why you've lost the everyday stuff and not most of the deeper, instinctive information," Rhoan said. His gaze went to my ear. "Have you been wearing a set of those nulling implants like the ones that Kye placed on you several months ago? Because I haven't been able to feel your presence, and Quinn wasn't able to sense you. "

"Not until about an hour ago," Quinn added. His lips brushed the top of my head. "You have no idea just how much of a relief that was. "

I smiled and placed my hands over his. "We took the implants out about then. " I glanced at my brother. "When I disappeared, did you go talk to Blake?"

His thin cold smile said it all. "Yes. He claimed to know nothing. "

"And you believed him?"

"No. But I couldn't kill him, either - not until we found out where you were. He's still under surveillance. "

"Blake?" Evin said, sitting up a little straighter. "You mean our Blake? The leader of the Jenson pack?"

"The very one," Rhoan said, still eyeing Evin critically. "With that hair color, I take it you're from the Jenson pack?"

"Yes. " He was staring at the two of us with an odd sort of expression. "You're Riley and Rhoan Jenson, aren't you?"

I raised an eyebrow at the edge in his voice. "I think we've already established that. "

"No," he said, almost savagely, then added, "I mean, you don't understand. My father is Vernon Jenson, and he married Rayanne Jenson in a human civil ceremony some ten years ago. "

I stared at him. "Your father married our mother? That means - "

"That I was right. I am your brother. By marriage, granted, but kin all the same. " He smiled. "And you have a brother and two sisters you really need to meet. "

"What?" Rhoan's gaze jumped between me and Evin. "Mum wouldn't do that. "

Evin raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't she?"