Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"And the red pack are not lean, as other wolves are?" my grubby vampire asked

"Mostly, no."

He nodded, his gaze rolling languidly down my body, somehow making me feel like I was drowning in sunshine. Which was a weird sensation to be getting from a creature of the night

Though, to be honest, vamps generally weren't the ice blocks humans thought them to be. They only got cold if they weren't feeding enough

I cleared my throat. "I wouldn't do that."

Amusement danced in his dark eyes. "Why not?"

"You know why not."

The amusement touched his lips, and my breath caught somewhere in my throat. Damn, when had dead men become so delicious?

"I wouldn't mind."

Well, actually, neither would I, but I had principles. At least until the moon fever truly hit. "You're here to see my flatmate, not me." I hesitated, and frowned. "You said last night someone was trying to kill you. If that's the case, why are you calmly sitting here in my hall?"

"Because they left me for dead. I doubt whether they'd bother going back to see if they succeeded."

"And you are naked and covered in mud because... ?"

"I was staked naked to the ground between a mound of mulch and a mound of topsoil."

I stared at him, not sure if he was being serious or not. "You were staked out in a garden center?"

"Apparently so. Luckily for me, they decided not to put a stake through my heart, but were simply content to watch the rising sun burn me."

"Which it obviously didn't."

He smiled again, but this time there was something ferocious about it. "The good thing about being over a few hundred years old is a certain amount of immunity to the sun. Something my attackers obviously didn't know. When dawn rose, I began screaming. They panicked and ran."

Suggesting, perhaps, that the men who'd attacked him were new to the vampire-hunting game. I leaned against the door frame and placed my half-empty plate on the dusty wooden floor. "Why didn't you just take over their minds and run them off that way?"

"I tried. They were blocked." He eyed me for a minute. "Much the same as you are."

I frowned. Rhoan had told me there was a gang of humans cruising the city in search of vamps to hunt down, but I was under the impression they were only teenagers. It was doubtful they'd be strong enough to overwhelm this vampire, let alone have developed tough enough mind-shields to keep him out. And while electronic shield technology did exist and did work, it was so expensive very few could afford it

"Were they young?"

"No. Men, all of them, at least thirty."

That didn't sound good. "Perhaps you'd better go over to the Directorate. If there's a second gang active in the city, they'll need to know."

"I cannot."

"Why? My flatmate might not be back for days, and this really should be reported."

"Rhoan asked me to see him, and only him."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't know my flatmate? And if you did, why didn't you ask for him by name last night?"

"Because last night I couldn't actually remember his name, just his address. And I never did say whether I knew him or not."

Typical vampire. I'm sure the half that weren't salesmen were damn lawyers sometime in their lives. "Does that mean you've seen him recently?"

"Yes. Before those men caught and staked me out. That is how I knew this address."