Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

Confusion flicked through the midnight depths of his eyes. "I can't remember."

Yeah, I was really believing that. "Would you mind stepping away from my door?"

He did so. I grabbed the keys from my bag and approached the door cautiously. He raised his hands, his expression a little amused as I unlocked the door and thrust it open. Once I'd stepped through, I relaxed. While many of the legends concerning vampires weren't true, the one about thresholds certainly was

I tossed my handbag onto the nearby green sofa, then met his night-dark gaze. "Don't bite any of my neighbors, or I'll drag you down to the Directorate myself."

He gave me a smile that had my hormones doing excited little cartwheels. "I have perused the contents of this building. You are the only one here worth biting."

I couldn't help a grin. He might have been naked, he might have been covered in mud and up to no good, but he looked gorgeous and he smelled positively sweet compared to most of the vamps I worked with. Another time, another place, I might have been tempted to take his mud-covered bait, and to hell with the consequences. "Compliments won't get you through my door."

He shrugged, a small, somehow graceful gesture. "I speak only the truth."

"Ah huh." I half closed the door, then hesitated. "You really can't remember why you're naked?"

"At this moment, no."

Didn't remember, or was too embarrassed to say? I suspected the latter, though I didn't really know why, especially considering embarrassment was not an emotion any of the vamps I worked with ever felt

"Fine. I'll see you later, then."

I closed the door, then headed into the bathroom for a shower. After that, I crawled into my rumpled bed and tried to catch some sleep. But the certainty that my brother was in some sort of trouble, combined with the fact that I had a hunky naked vampire sitting outside my door, up to God knew what, pretty much ensured that sleep was the one thing I couldn't find

After an hour of tossing and turning, I gave up and got up. I pulled on my favorite Marvin the Martian T-shirt to ward off the slight chill in the night, then headed into the kitchen and grabbed a large glass of milk and the jar filled with chocolate chip cookies. Then, from the well-padded comfort of my favorite armchair, I ate, drank, and watched the night give way to a brilliant red dawn. When the sky show was over, I typed up my report on Rhoan's laptop, then e-mailed it to Jack. The phone rang a second later

I leaned back in the chair and grabbed the receiver off the wall. "Hi, Kel."

Husky laughter drifted down the line. Kelly had one of those voices that would have made her an instant hit on the phone-sex lines. "And how did you know it was me?"

"Because I left a message on your phone, and because everyone else knows better than to ring me at this unholy hour of the morning."

"And yet you are up, which means you have a problem." She hesitated. "Is it just a desperate need for sane feminine conversation? Or is it something more serious, like needing that all-dick, no-brain of a mate taken off your hands?"

I grinned. Kelly didn't like Talon any more than Rhoan did, but at least she could see the benefits of keeping him around. Men as well hung as Talon weren't all that common. "Actually, I just had a question."

"Well, damn. I wouldn't have minded a bit of well-endowed werewolf action right now. But ask away."

"Did you talk to Rhoan before he left? Have you any idea where he was headed?"

"No, and no. Why?"

"I've just got a feeling he's in some sort of trouble."

"Not the sort that has taken ten of our number already, I hope?"

"No. Not yet, anyway."

"Good." She paused. In the background was the soft ticking of a clock, meaning she was in her quarters at the Directorate. The only clock in her own home was the mother of all grandfather clocks. It was so large - and so loud - that I was forced to leave the room when it chimed. "I'm due to go out again tomorrow night. I'll see what I can find if he's not back by then."

"Thanks. I owe you one."

"Get me into a club during the moon fever, and we'll call it quits."

I grinned. "Done deal. See you later."

"Arrivederci, bella."

I replaced the receiver, then rose and headed back to the kitchen