Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"Try not to scent anything else on the wind tonight," he said, voice dry. "It looks like an ant could knock you over right now."

"But only a very toned ant."

He laughed and hung up. I stared at the phone's blank screen for several seconds. If Jack wasn't going to be forthcoming with information, maybe I should try someone else. Like Kelly

Guardians often discussed missions, so maybe she knew where Rhoan had been headed. I had no idea if she was actually home, but I knew for a fact she wasn't working. It was worth a try

I dialed her number, but after three rings it clicked over to the answering machine. "Kel, it's Riley. Give me a call when you get home, no matter what the time." I hesitated, then added, so as not to panic her, "Nothing urgent. I just have a question."

I hung up, shoved the phone back in my bag, and walked home

Only to find the night's weirdness had not finished with me yet. A vampire stood at my door

A naked vampire, in fact

I stopped and stared. I couldn't help it. He was naked, after all. And damn, he was built

He had hair that might have been black, but just then looked brown with all the mud caked onto it, dark eyes that were anything but soulless, and a face angels would kill for

His body was just as caked with mud as his hair, but underneath the dirt, it was lean and powerful - in an athletic sort of way. And to complete the perfect packaging, he was well endowed. Not the largest I'd ever seen, but mighty fine all the same

The stairwell door slammed shut against my back, knocking me out of my admiring stupor

"Hello," I said

"Hello," he repeated

A polite vampire. Amazing. "Is there any particular reason you're standing naked at my door?"

I was hoping there was. Hoping that maybe he was some kind of present. Granted, my birthday was quite a few months off, but a girl can always dream

Though my dreams didn't usually contain naked vampires, especially mud-covered ones

He answered my question with one of his own. "Is there any particular reason you're covered in blood?"

"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."