Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

Quinn had those and more, but I had a suspicion that he wouldn't use them unless he absolutely had to

When I finally got the knife in a comfortable position, he wrapped his fingers around my arm and pulled me close. I rested my cheek against his chest, listening to the slow beat of his heart, feeling safer than I ever had in my life

An illusion, but one I could have easily surrendered to

"It's close to nine," I said, after a long while. "Hope they get here soon." Before whatever courage I'd started with got up and walked away

"There's a van moving up the street," he said, his voice a rumble that vibrated through my ear. "There are eight people inside."

"I think I should be offended that Talon's only sent an extra two to deal with me."

He laughed softly and brushed his lips across the top of my hair. "They're expecting the element of surprise."

"They should also be expecting a fight."

"Talon's never seen you in action, has he? And six were quite enough to overpower me."

I looked up at him. "You never satisfactorily explained that."

He grimaced. "It was simply the fact that they were all the spitting image of Henri. I wasn't expecting it and it shocked me. In a life-or-death situation, a second's hesitation is all it takes to change the odds."

And it was almost his death. "So why the garden center?"

"As I said, I suspect they wanted it to look like a random vampire killing."

It made sense. Given the amount of vamp murders that had happened over the past few weeks, no one would have raised an eyebrow. And while the Directorate would have investigated, if it had looked like a singular event rather than gang-related, it probably would have been given lower priority

"They're getting out of the van," he said softly

Tension wound through my limbs, and my stomach began doing tight circles. "Clones?"

"Mix of clones and werewolves."

I took a deep breath, then raised on my toes and gave him a kiss. "Good luck."

His lips lingered on mine, his breath warm against my skin. "You too."

The doorbell rang. I took another breath, then broke away from his grasp and shook nerveless fingers. "Yes?"

"Special delivery," a gruff voice answered. "Needs to be signed for."

I glanced at Quinn a final time, saw his tension in the set of his shoulders, then walked to the door. My fingers shook as I clasped the handle and undid the deadlock, but I never got the chance to open the door. Instead, it was thrust open by those on the other side, striking me in the nose and flinging me backward

I hit the ground with a grunt, but rolled immediately to my feet. There was blood gushing from my nose and people flowing through the doorway. They smelled of rubbish left too long in the sun. Whatever method Talon was using to create the things was also killing them

Then there was no more time to think as two of them rushed at me. I ducked the blow of the first creature, but missed the second. His fist smashed into my chin and the force of it had me sprawling backward. I hit the floor a second time, my breath leaving in a whoosh of air. For a moment, stars danced, the world went dark, and the bitter taste of blood filled my throat

Someone who smelled of sex and death fell on top of me. Though gasping for breath and fighting the blackness threatening to invade my mind, I still heard the creature snarl. He smelled and looked like a wolf, but his teeth were extending, saliva dripping from the ends in expectation of a feed

The bastard wasn't going to feed off me, not if I could help it

With as much force as I could muster, I slammed the heel of my hand into his face. Bone and cartilage shattered under the blow, and he screamed. I thrust him off, scrambled to my feet, and swiped a hand at the blood running from my nose

Air rushed from the left. I pivoted on one foot, kicking hard. The blow landed in the gut of the clone rushing at me, but didn't seem to have the slightest effect. He grabbed my foot, twisting it hard, making me yelp. His smile was greasy and overconfident and I saw why a second later when he raised the gun. I jerked my foot from his grasp, heard the slight "pop," felt a brief sting of pain in my arm. Looked down, and saw the dart

Being drugged was better than being battered unconscious

Even so, I went down fighting