Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"I got into a fight. What's your excuse?"

He looked down, as if his state of undress was something he hadn't noticed until that moment. "I really have no idea how I ended up like this."

His voice was a low vibration that shivered through my soul and made my toes want to curl. Damn if it wasn't the sexiest voice I'd ever heard on a man - dead or alive

"But you do know why you're standing at my door?"

He nodded. "If you live here, then I am here to see you."

"Well, I can tell you, I don't get many bare-assed guys turning up on my doorstep." Which was partly what I'd been bitching about to my brother before he'd disappeared on his mission, and the main reason I'd half hoped this vamp might be a present. Rhoan tended to do things like that. Though admittedly, few vampires had a sense of humor, and most would not have gone along with such a stunt. "So, unless you can explain what's going on, you can march your pretty body down the stairs and out of our building."

"I need help."

Which more than likely meant he wanted Directorate help more than my personal help. Which was a damn shame. My gaze did another tour down his naked torso, and I couldn't help an almost wistful sigh. Okay, so I saw a lot of nice naked bodies at the werewolf nightclubs, but this vampire was definitely the best-put-together specimen of manhood I'd seen recently

"Why do you need help? Did you flash your bits at the wrong man's wife?"

Annoyance flickered through his dark eyes. "I'm being serious. Someone is trying to kill me."

He might be serious, but it was hard to take him that way when he was standing there so calmly. Wouldn't the obvious action have been to report problems to the police, or even the Directorate? "There's always someone trying to kill vamps, and generally, you guys deserve it."

"Not all of us kill to survive."

Well, no, but the ones who did certainly gave the rest a bad rep. "Look, tell me what you want or go away and flash at someone else."

"You're a guardian for the Directorate of Other Races, are you not?"

"Nope. That's my flatmate."

"Is your flatmate here?"

I sighed. Why did all the pretty ones want to see Rhoan? "I don't expect him back until sometime tomorrow." Or later, if the feeling of wrongness in the pit of my stomach was anything to go by

"Then I shall wait."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Where?"

"Here." He indicated the floor with an elegant gesture

"You can't stay here." Mrs. Russel, the owner of this ramshackle ex-factory they now had the cheek to call an apartment block, would have a fit. The only reason she'd rented us a room in the first place was because it was against the law to discriminate against nonhumans - and because having werewolves in the building had the fortunate side effect of keeping vermin away. Rats, it seemed, didn't like us

But finding a vampire sitting in her hall would tip the old cow over the edge and us out of the apartment. Mrs. Russel had a long-standing hatred of vamps - even though she celebrated every day the fact that her husband had become the meal of one

"Especially when you're naked," I added. "It's against the law to loiter naked in public."

A fact I knew after having been arrested for doing the same thing a couple of months ago - though I'd been in a park rather than a hallway. I'd escaped with only a small fine, but then, I had the full moon as an excuse. The silk dress I'd been wearing had fared no better against the change than my lacy shirt. Not that either event would stop me from wearing inappropriate clothing. The law might have problems with people running around naked, but werewolves didn't

"The light is broken," he said, his voice so soft, so warm, that I again felt that shiver up my spine. "There are no windows, and the hall lies in shadows. No one will see me."

I'd seen him, but then, though he must have heard me coming up the stairs, he hadn't bothered shadowing. And that fact stirred uneasiness. As did the fact he was naked. It was no secret that I was a werewolf, and no secret that the full moon was only seven days away. And it was a very well-known fact that a werewolf's sexual urges rose dramatically in the seven days before the moon reached fullness. He might be bait

Though why would someone want to bait me? Other than having a guardian brother, I was a nothing, a nobody. Maybe my apprehension for Rhoan was making me paranoid

"If you're in trouble, why not go to the Directorate? There are plenty of guardians there to help."

"I cannot."

"Why not?"