Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian 1)

I slipped the laser onto my fingers, adjusted the trigger, then raised my hand and fired. Black glass shattered, falling to the floor as softly as snow. I did the same to the second camera, then listened for any sound that might indicate the alarm had been raised

Nothing

I edged out. The silence was eerie, the air cold. Shivering, wishing I had more than a thin coat on, I edged down the corridor

As I moved around the corner, a slight hum filled the silence. I froze. Sweat trickled down my back, and my finger trembled against the laser's trigger. The humming stopped. I let loose the breath I'd been holding, but in that instant, footsteps echoed, coming down the hall toward me

I swore under my breath and looked around quickly. No doors and nowhere to go but back to that room. I might not have gotten far, but I wasn't about to retreat. I sniffed the air. Pine and coffee. Not Talon, then

Taking a deep breath, I pushed away from the wall and walked down the hall, the rap of my bootheels as loud as the beat of my heart. His scent got sharper, and a second later I saw him - a small brown man clutching a clipboard and wearing a furtive expression

He stopped when he saw me. "Who the hell are you?"

"Research." I continued walking toward him

His frown increased. "What division?"

"This one." I popped the buttons on my lab coat and flashed him

The clipboard dropped to the floor and his jaw just about did the same. That's when I hit him. His head snapped back and he hit the floor with a crack that made me wince. I dragged him to the side and checked that he still had a pulse

He did. I grabbed the pass from around his neck, wrapped the coat around me as best I could, picked up the clipboard, and continued on. Elevator doors came into view. So too did another camera

I kept my head down and kept on walking. The doors slid open. I walked in, pressed sublevel three, then stepped back and waited

And waited

Heart thumping, fingers trembling, I pressed the button a second time

Still nothing

Then I saw the keycard slot beside the panel. Cursing under my breath, I swiped the stolen pass through the slot and the elevator doors slid closed

I flopped back against the wall and took several deep breaths. Until I saw the camera. The whole place was worse than the damn Directorate for spying on people. But I didn't move, hoping my disheveled and sweaty state would have any watchers thinking I was nothing more than another of Talon's floozies. Which I guess I was

The lift stopped at sublevel three and the doors opened. I peered out. Darkness crisscrossed by red lines greeted me. I switched to infrared and scanned the room. Heat fluttered down the far end of the room. There was nothing - or no one - else near

Hurry, Quinn said

"Like I'm not," I muttered, and heard the distant ring of amusement, felt it wash through my mind as sweetly as a kiss

It seemed to take forever to weave through the web of lasers. Hurrying wasn't a priority when the slightest wrong move could result in body parts being sliced off

Eventually, I reached his cell, and the sheer relief of seeing him again had me shaking. I retrieved the keys from the pocket of the coat, found one that looked right, and slid it into the lock. The lasers withdrew, and Quinn was free

He didn't move, just studied me in a detached sort of way. Though I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in the safety and warmth of his arms, it was a risk I couldn't take. The fever was knife-edged

"And if we meet Talon?"

He was reading my thoughts better than I was his. But then, he'd had more practice. I shrugged. "I'll deal with it."

He nodded, accepting my answer though we both knew there was only one way to deal with the heat that burned through my bloodstream

"Let's go."

He led the way back through the maze of lights. A soft humming filled the silence. The elevator was on the move again

"You hide left, I'll hide right. If it stops here, we'll attack," Quinn said