Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

"I talked to Jim Denton last night. He looks nothing like this sketch."

Jared grinned. "Mom's obviously a lousy artist. Or Adrienne was telling lies for reasons of her own." He flung an arm around my shoulder, his fingers draping perilously close to my left breast. "Now that we've discovered I can't help you find your friend, how about we discuss a more interesting topic?"

"Like what?" I said wryly. "You, me, and bed?"

His fingers moved, lightly brushing my nipple, teasing it to life. "That sounds like a good place to start."

"Coffee is a good place to start," I pulled away from his arm and stood up. "I need to be wined and dined before I can get into any sort of sexual discussion."

"A reluctant werewolf," he muttered, his expression a mix of amusement and frustration. "Who'd have thought there was such a beast?"

I linked arms with him as we walked down the pier toward the small coffeehouse. "Just goes to prove you can't believe every rumor about us."

"And isn't it just my luck to find that one exception when I'm feeling as horny as hell."

I grinned. "I never said I didn't want to bed you. It's just the whole human thing that's the sticking point."

"Meaning if I keep trying, I may just wear down your defenses anyway?"

"You might."

"Excellent. Let's get down to coffee and cake then."

We did. And he did keep trying.

Rut he didn't get lucky.

Jared dropped the tour group back on the main island an hour later, and left me with a. promise to continue his seduction attempts during his lunch break. Grinning at his determination, I headed back to my little villa and rang my brother.

"Once again, she rings at an indecent hour," he said, by way of greeting.

I looked at my watch. "It's nearly lunchtime."

"Any hour before noon is an indecent hour after the night I've had."

"Self-inflicted pain garnishes no sympathy from me, bro."

"I'll remember that next time you want sympathy and coffee after a late night carousing."

I grinned. He'd feed me coffee no matter what, because he knew it was the only way to soothe the savage beast. Or at least shut her up. "You had a chance to look at the file yet?"

"No." He paused. "Why?"

"Because I've been asking around about Adrienne and the man she was supposedly seeing, and have hit an odd little wall." I told him about the two Jim Dentons. "It's rather odd to have two people with the same name, and yet no one seems to know or recognize the second man." No one except Jared, that was.

"You done a mind search?"

"Yeah, but without much luck. I found possible evidence of memory tampering on the older Jim, but I'm not yet skilled enough to undo the fudging."

"Memory tampering doesn't indicate foul play. It could just be a vampire not wanting her victim to remember their encounter."

Because drinking from unknowing or unwilling hosts was illegal in most states of Australia. Apparently Tasmania was a little more free and easy, allowing vamps to drink from whomever they pleased as long as they took minimum amounts. Which probably explained why human tourism to Tassie had fallen, and vamp tourism had increased.

"I couldn't see any evidence of bite marks."

"If it happened weeks ago, you wouldn't."

"Trust me, the fudging didn't feel like the work of a vamp."