Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

I frowned. "I thought it was Moneisha who had isolated the cluster of genes that make a vampire a vampire?"

He gave me a perplexed look. "Where did you hear that?"

"It was apparently reported in the newspapers."

"Not in any I've read."

Now I was confused. "Maybe we don't read the right papers."

"Who told you that they had?"

"Misha. He said there'd been protests outside Moneisha because of their genetic research."

"There have been protests all right, but mainly because they've been buying up residences in the area with the intention of expanding."

"Maybe Misha mixed up a couple of stories." Yet even as I said it, I doubted it was the case. Misha had the best memory I'd ever come across

"Maybe." Rhoan didn't sound any more convinced than I was

I chewed on my lip for a moment, then asked, "Have you found out any information about Konane?"

"Who?"

"Konane. They apparently own Moneisha."

"Where did you hear this? Because I know Director Hunter is still working her way through the paper trail."

"Misha told me."

He frowned. "I wonder how he knew?"

"I can ask, when I next see him."

"Tell Jack and see what he says." He paused. "So how come Gautier suspected you?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. He was standing at the office door as we were coming out. Maybe he heard something."

"Those offices are soundproof."

"Then either he has a nose as sensitive as a wolf or something Quinn said tipped him off. Though what that could be, I have no idea."

Rhoan frowned. "You know, the few times I've worked with him, I've noticed he has extraordinarily keen senses for a vamp. If he is one of the lab-built creatures, then maybe he has got the nose of a wolf."

I leaned back against the sun-warmed wall of the old shed. "Has Jack checked all the military installations? Couldn't this be a government program?"

"The military is certainly working on implanting vampire genes into other nonhuman races, but from what Jack says, the longest any of them has lived is a couple of years."

I remembered the smell in the parking garage. Remembered the feeling I was facing dead - or at least dying - things. "Whoever is behind this, I don't think they're having much luck in the longevity stakes, either."

"They're living long enough to do some pretty nasty stuff."

I raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

He hesitated. "You know we've had ten guardians gone missing?" When I nodded, he continued, "From what we can glean from the remains of those we've found, it appears they might have been forced to fight for their lives in some kind of arena."

I closed my eyes and prayed that Kelly hadn't joined their number. Hadn't become just another means of testing some madman's grotesque creations

She didn't deserve that sort of end. None of the guardians had