Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

And to think only a couple of days ago I'd been blissfully happy with them both

"So how did Talon get hold of ARC1-23 if it's not on the market?"

"It's his company doing the fertility research."

Fingers in every pie, as Jack had said. "He doesn't know I'm part vampire. He probably thought it was safe to give to me."

"That doesn't excuse what he's done."

"No." I paused, trying to calm another rush of anger. "So what happens now?"

He considered me for a moment. "He'll be charged, of course."

As long as I got to him first, I didn't care what they did to the bastard. "I hear a 'but' after that."

He nodded. "The military badly wants to explore the possibilities of this drug, and Talon is the key to their getting their hands on it."

Meaning, of course, they weren't about to let anything happen to him until they did. "I'm gathering it's no longer being marketed as a possible fertility drug?"

"It's undergoing a larger trial, and test applicants are being carefully screened. After all, it worked for a good percentage of the test group."

I took another deep breath, then asked the one question I'd avoided. "So what, exactly, does it do?"

"It appears to enhance certain abilities. Six of the ten were either human-werewolf crosses or human-shifter. All became able to take on any shape."

Relief slithered through me. Taking on any shape was pretty cool when compared to some of the scenarios I'd been imagining. "That doesn't sound too bad a skill to have."

Jack snorted softly. "Yeah, only if they changed too often, they discovered they couldn't change back to human form. Their body chemistry had altered so much the cells no longer remembered true form, and they got stuck in animal form."

Which wasn't a good thing. Death would surely be better than never being able to regain humanity. "And the remaining four?"

"Were shifter and werewolf crosses, and all four had psychic skills. Three of the four were unaware of the fact. These skills were all enhanced to the point where they became dangerous. I believe all four have now been transferred to one of the military programs."

I glared at him. "Don't try putting me in any military program."

He gave me a toothy smile I didn't trust one bit. "Darlin', you're mine. If you go anywhere, it'll be into the guardian program."

"That ain't going to happen, either."

"You may not have a choice. If that drug does affect you, it's either us or the military until we discover the full breadth of the changes."

Then it was the Directorate. But that didn't mean I was entering the system without a fight. If Jack wanted me as a guardian, he was going to have to drag me there kicking and screaming

"So what happens now?"

"The drug doesn't appear to have had any ill effects yet, but even so, we'll begin regular blood tests and cell scans. We'll also begin regular psi tests, in case alterations start showing there."

"I'm telepathic - you know that."

He nodded. "Entry tests also indicated latent skills in clairvoyance."

"Which is not exactly a skill the military can give a damn about."

"On the contrary, clairvoyance provides an excellent means of information gathering."

"Yeah, but as you said, it's latent. As in, not active and not used."

"Granted. But your telepathy skill isn't. Given it can be used for both information gathering and as a weapon, it definitely is a desirable skill as far as they are concerned. You already rate high - this drug could very well put you off the scale."