Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

"This vamp suffocated."

I swung around to look at him. "Vamps don't really need air to survive, so how did he suffocate?"

"He was only half-vamp, remember."

"So he was too dumb to put airholes in the coffin?"

Jack grinned. "Actually, he had too much air."

That raised my eyebrows. "How can anyone have too much air?"

"He was half merman, that's how."

"A vampire merman?" I couldn't help the note of incredulity in my voice. "Why in hell would anyone want a cross like that?"

"I think hell had a lot to do with it. A hell run by fanatics determined to breed the perfect killing machine."

"I can't imagine a merman willingly being a part of research like that." They don't even like going to the doctors, for heaven's sake

"I don't think willingness has anything to do with what is going on here."

"So why were you investigating Quinn?"

"It was just routine. He owns several pharmaceutical companies in Australia and the U.S. Of the ones here, the biggest is in Sydney. Sydney is where that vamp was headed."

"That doesn't mean he was headed to O'Conor's labs." I took a sip of coffee and screwed my nose up at the bitter taste. Still, with my head continuing to pound and my stomach beginning to growl over lack of food, bitter coffee was better than nothing

"As it turns out, he wasn't, but we still had to check. Especially since Director Hunter wanted Quinn in on the investigation."

I swung around to look at him. "What?"

Jack smiled. "The older vampire community is not a huge one. There are, perhaps, fifty vampires worldwide who have survived to reach their millennium years - and to do so means they are either extremely powerful or extremely canny. Quinn is both."

And for a vamp over one thousand years old, he was also very well preserved. "Why would she want him on the investigation, though?"

"Because he was already seeking the origins of the lab-made dhampire and the Gautier clones, and it is infinitely better if we pool resources and work together."

"Just how many clones are there?" That there might be more than two was a scary thought - and I could only hope they didn't all have a desire to shoot me with silver. "And why would he be investigating them? He's a businessman, not a cop or guardian."

Jack grinned again. "O'Conor's been many things over the years. A businessman is only the latest incarnation."

"That doesn't answer the question, Jack."

He nodded. "The truth is I can't actually stop him from investigating this, so it's better to have him working alongside us."

I frowned. "Throwing his ass into one of the cells upstairs would certainly stop him."

"The cells wouldn't hold me, let alone Quinn. Not with the sort of mind-power he's got."

A chill ran down my spine. "The Directorate is shielded. No one is supposed to be able to use mind-abilities within these walls."

"Most can't, and the cells will hold all but a very few."

But not him, and not Quinn, obviously. It was an almost scary thought that the two vamps I'd felt so comfortable with were far more dangerous than Gautier ever could be. "Why is Quinn investigating the clones?"

"He saw - and stopped - one in Sydney sometime ago. Apparently the clone was the image of a friend he'd thought dead."

Meaning the friend was the image of Gautier, if this "friend" was the dead man Jack had mentioned earlier. Part of me couldn't help wondering if the poor guy had been so depressed about his looks he'd killed himself. "A vampire friend, I take it?"