Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"They do, but they're not saying anything because I put a hush order on it."

"Why? Okay, he resembles Gautier and he shot me, but hell, werewolves are always getting shot by crazies."

"As I said before, I don't believe in coincidences. Especially when Gautier seemed to know about the bullet wound. Why else would he have touched your shoulder like that when, in all the time you've been here, he's barely done more than exchange insults from a distance?"

I blinked, remembering the watchfulness in Gautier's eyes. He had been looking for something. And though he was a vamp and could smell blood as easily as I breathed, the fact that I'd shifted shape to help the healing along then taken a shower meant there was no blood - fresh or otherwise - to smell. And barely healed wounds weren't visible in infrared. "It might have been dumb luck."

"Dumb luck has nothing to do with anything Gautier does. So the next questions are, why did the shooter resemble Gautier, how is he connected to Gautier, and why did he shoot you?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he just hates werewolves."

Yet that wolf had called me by name - and how had he known where I lived? With Rhoan and me both working for the Directorate, our apartment wasn't listed in the any of the phone directories. And it didn't make sense for Gautier to have given him the information. If Gautier wanted me dead, he'd do it himself - and with sadistic pleasure

"That doesn't explain the likeness," Jack said

No, it didn't. "So you think they could be related, despite the fact we can find nothing about either of them?"

"Not related by birth, but certainly connected."

"Connected how, then?"

"I think it very likely the shooter, at least, is a clone."

I stared at him. "They can't make clones - not ones that survive to adulthood, anyway."

"It's possible someone has, because your shooter is not the only dead person in recent weeks to resemble Gautier. And Gautier himself resembles a man who died some years ago. Plus, we discovered a lot of growth accelerant in the shooter's remains."

"What about DNA?"

"We haven't tested any against Gautier's yet."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't want him suspicious. We plan on taking some samples for testing during his regular physical."

Which was due in the next day or so, if I remembered correctly. "I guess you haven't talked to him, then?"

"No. At this stage, we're merely watching him. We're hoping he'll lead us to whoever is behind all this."

"That's a big risk, isn't it? What if he gets suspicious and runs?" The last thing we needed was Gautier off the leash. Just the thought sent a shiver down my spine

"If he runs, he'll be killed."

Somehow, I didn't think it would be that simple. "So why does accelerant imply cloning?"

"Accelerant - at least in the tests currently being done on animals - is used to fast-track growth so the scientists can see what problems the clone might have when it reaches middle years."

"Where are the animal rights activists on that one?" I muttered. "Is there any evidence of accelerant in Gautier's blood?"

"None at all - it would have been picked up in the six-month physicals."

So, he was either who he said he was, and the clones a mere coincidence, or he was somehow the source of the clones. Because if the dead man Gautier resembled was truly dead rather than vampire dead, then surely he couldn't be the source of Gautier and the others. "Do you think Moneisha is behind the clones?"

"We doubt it. It hasn't the facilities as far as we know."

"But Rhoan was investigating it?"

"No, he was checking a report that prostitutes were regularly disappearing from the St. Kilda district, and reappearing a week or so later, totally disoriented and having no idea where they had been."