Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

My shooter had definitely been past here, but I doubted he was still hanging around. His scent was fading, and I couldn't "feel" any other nonhuman in the immediate vicinity.

Still, if he knew I lived here, there was no saying he wasn't waiting in the shadows near my apartment.

I ducked around the corner of the broken door, feeling a little foolish but knowing it was better than feeling a little dead. Hell, Rhoan would never forgive me if I got myself killed this easily after everything we'd been through this last year or so.

None of the shadows moved, though, and the darkness hid nothing but dust. Even so, I edged down each step carefully, every sense tuned. No one jumped out at me. Nothing but darkness hid on the fire escape.

When I neared the hallway of my own floor, I hesitated, switching to infrared and scanning the area. Again, nothing.

But the heat of two bodies flared to life in my apartment, and neither the shapes nor the murmuring voices were familiar.

Infrared couldn't actually tell me what race the two people in my apartment were. All it could do was tell me that blood pumped through their veins - perhaps a little faster than what was normal for a vampire, but that was no guarantee one or both of them weren't bloodsuckers.

I studied their images a little longer, fixing their positions in my mind, then padded softly down the hall until I was near my door.

After taking another deep breath and releasing it slowly, I stepped forward, hitting the lock in the sweet spot and springing it open.

Two men spun around, one of them reaching for a gun. He was fast, real fast.

But I was faster.

I blurred, running at him at full speed, snatching the gun from him with one hand and punching his jaw with the other, sending him back and down.

Then I turned and leapt for the second man, who was already running. I hit him in the back, the weight of my body dragging him down. He slammed into the floorboards with a grunt, but twisted and punched. The blow caught my cut lip, sending my head snapping backward and blood flying. I cursed, smashed an elbow into his face, then wedged the tip of my stolen weapon under the point of his chin. His sour scent told me he was the wolf I'd smelled earlier.

"Try something like that again, and I'll blow your frigging head off," I growled.

"Okay, okay," he rasped, voice showing more anger than fear.

For the first time, I got a good look at him. Saw the flat, nondescript features, beady gray eyes, and harsh, uncompromising mouth.

It wasn't a stranger I'd beaten up and threatened.

It was Patrin. n 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?"