Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

The guard sniffed, his nose rising a little as he tasted the air. Scenting me, even if he couldn't see me. I gave him no time to place the aroma or hit the alarm, just lowered several layers of shields and stormed into his mind. He was mine in an instant.

I rifled quickly through his thoughts and memories, finding nothing when it came to Adrienne or Jodie, and very little else that was useful - mainly because he did little more than follow orders handed down from his shift supervisor.

I made him open the door and peer inside, as if investigating a noise, then I slipped past him, into the shadows of the smaller room. When he closed the door again, I released him, keeping only the barest psychic hold on him so I'd know if he heard or suspected anything unusual.

This room was all dark paneling and thick comfortable seating. The air was warm and sweet smelling, the aroma a mix of leather, alcohol, and sex. Interestingly, there were no security cams and no dance floor, but there was a large well-stocked bar.

There didn't seem to be anything of interest in this room, and yet instinct prickled.

Frowning, I walked around, inspecting the walls, looking for anything odd. There didn't seem to be anything out of place, and certainly nothing that would explain my growing certainty that this room held secrets.

I flicked to the infrared of my vampire vision, and looked around again. That's when I discovered the other room. It was behind the wall to the right of the entrance, and there didn't appear to be a door into it. Not from this room, anyway.

I walked over, then flicked off the infrared. The wall looked totally solid, but maybe there was a hidden entrance. I mean, it looked like a storage room, so why wouldn't there be a door somewhere? It made no sense, otherwise. I raised a hand, expecting to meet wood paneling. Instead, my fingers met nothing, disappearing into the wall.

What appeared to be solid concrete and wood paneling was, in fact, a fake barrier that divided the room into two.

After a moment's hesitation, I stepped through. Energy caressed my body, making my skin tingle and my hair stand on end. I'd felt a sensation like that before, in the den of the dark god. Someone had set up magical barriers on this door, meaning there was obviously something worth protecting in the room beyond.

But if the barrier had been set to protect, why was I able to step through?

From this side the barrier looked almost nonexistent. There was only a slight shimmer of energy to suggest there was any division between the two rooms. This half of the room beyond was much smaller, with only half a dozen steps between the false wall and the real back wall. Air flowed gently from the thick darkness to my right, but it was the setup on my left that caught my interest.

Someone had set themselves up a recording room, complete with several expensive-looking video cameras that sat on desks facing the false wall. It seemed the owners were filming events in the other room. Maybe they had a sideline of blackmail going on. Which, while illegal, wasn't exactly what I was here to uncover. And given Adrienne hadn't even made it in here, it wasn't what she'd discovered, either. Unless, of course, she'd seen it when she'd brushed against the stranger in the hall.

So why would she then go on to the island? Why not expose the blackmailing scheme, if that was what was going on? Was there any connection at all to the three missing women, or was it pure chance she'd disappeared the same way as those others?

I'd barely stepped away from the cameras when there was a sharp sound from the shadows, then a door opened and light suddenly swept across the darkness, just missing my toes.

Two men were framed in the light, one human, one not. Both armed.

If I didn't get my ass out of there, I was one caught puppy. I spun and ran for the shadows behind the last desk. It was a tight squeeze between the wall and the desktop, but I flattened my breasts with my hands and forced my body into the gap.

And not a moment too soon. Light swept across the wall where I'd been only moments before, the bright beam flinging the table legs into sharp relief against the shadows and almost highlighting my fingers. I crunched up into a tight ball and waited.

"Nothing, as I suspected," one man said, his voice low and deep, and somehow familiar. But I wasn't about to risk peering out to take a better look at the speaker. Not with the bright beam of the flashlight still skirting the room. "Told you those damn barriers were faulty."

"They may be faulty, but the scent of a female lingers in the room, boss."

Boss? I thought the man at the front door had said the owner had gone away?

"It's probably left over from last night." Even so, he stepped forward and sniffed the air. I could only hope he was one human who didn't have a good sense of smell.

Light pierced my corner, I shrunk back as far as I could, biting my lip and hoping like hell the desk's modesty screen threw enough shadows to keep me hidden. But the vampire veil of darkness that kept me safe could be destroyed so easily. It would only take one flicker of brightness to tear the shadows apart and reveal me.

"Has anyone talked to Mike?"

"No. I alerted you the minute the alarm went off."

The first man grunted, then said, "Mike, get in here."

There was a scuffle of noise, then the guard appeared at the door, I still had my finger on his mental pulse, so to speak, and felt his surprise. For an instant, I thought about letting my psychic touch go deeper, to see what this man saw, but that might be a bad idea. These men seemed sharp enough to sense anything amiss, and I didn't have the time I needed to take full control of the guard's sensory and speech functions.

"Yes, boss?" the guard said, voice sharp and respectful.

"Have you allowed anyone in here? Heard anything odd?"

"No, sir."