Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

I stopped in the shadows of a wattle tree one house down from Blake's, and scanned the area. No one was around, and none of the three men were visible through the windows of their house. Not that they'd see me once I wrapped the night around me.

I glanced at my watch again. Two minutes to go. I waited in the shadows, excitement and the bitter need to get revenge pulsing through me. When the minute hand finally clicked onto seven forty-five, I pulled the shadows around me, then leapt the fence and raced across the well-manicured garden, around to the bedroom balcony. One neat toss had the rope and hook over the balcony wall. I tested it had snagged properly, then quickly climbed.

The balcony doors weren't locked. Kye and his friend were obviously relying on the no-longer-working sensors and alarms to warn of intruders. I slipped through the doors and padded across the huge white-on-white bedroom. According to the floor plans we'd found, there was a parent retreat beyond the main bedroom, with the main living areas beyond that. I carefully opened the bedroom door and peered out. The retreat room was shadowed, but the door at the end was open, allowing a good glimpse of the main rooms beyond it. Patrin was sitting in a lounge chair, reading the Age. Blake wasn't immediately in sight, but infrared told me he was sitting at the dining table, doing paperwork.

I slipped out the door and raced across the room. The lights tore the shadows away from me the minute I entered the living room, but I was moving so fast they never had a chance to see me anyway. I grabbed Patrin by the scruff of the neck and hauled him upright. He barely had time to yelp a warning before I'd grabbed Blake, yanked him off his chair, and threw him across the room. As he bounced off a wall and slithered awkwardly to the floor, I switched my grip on Patrin, thrusting upward by the neck until his feet were off the floor. He was a big man and it took a lot of effort, but the sheer look of terror on his face made it all worthwhile.

"Consider this my final progress report, as well as a little warning," I said, as Blake picked himself up off the ground. "We've found Adrienne's body, and we've taken care of the men who killed her. Now I want you out of my life forever."

"There's no need for - "

I cut him off. "Oh, there's every fucking need."

I dropped Patrin a little, then heaved him with all my strength, throwing him across the dining table. He didn't quite clear it, his butt and legs getting entangled in the chairs, sending both him and the chairs crashing to the floor. He yelped but didn't move, and the scent of his fear was a wonderful thing.

I stalked forward to Blake. He didn't back away, didn't move, and the look of contempt hadn't shifted from his face. "The threat of violence doesn't worry me."

"Good," I said, stopping several feet away from him. "Because I have no intention of hitting you. I will, however, destroy you and your whole family if you do not leave my mother alone, or if you contest, in any way, Adrienne's will."

He blinked, surprise briefly moving the contempt. "Why would you care about Adrienne's will?"

"Because she asked me to care."

"What?"

I smiled coldly. "The pack trait of clairvoyance didn't only go strange in Adrienne. I can speak to the dead. I spoke to her."

"Even if I choose to believe that, what I or my family choose to do in regard to Adrienne's will is none of your business."

"Adrienne made it my business." I stepped forward, until I was all but standing on his toes. This close, I could feel his body vibrating with the force of his anger, and part of me wished he'd just let it go. Give me an excuse to hit him. "I've done a little investigating of my own, Blake. Does the name Petri Constructions ring any bells inside that thick head of yours?"

Wariness flickered through his eyes. "Of course. It is a building firm the pack owns and runs."

Sound whispered behind me. "Take one more step, Patrin, and I'll throw you off the balcony." He stopped. I smiled benignly at Blake, and said, "Petri Constructions was a successful business concern that belonged to one Shawn Davis, a friend of yours from way back. When he died - of apparently natural causes - his will surprisingly left the construction company to you rather than his pack and family."

"So?"

"So, as I said, I've done a little digging. I found his grave and talked to his soul." Which was my first lie, but Blake was never going to know that. "Seems things surrounding Davis's death and will aren't quite as straightforward as they appeared. It also seems that it took the disappearance of one Michael Davis from the Davis red pack to stop them contesting the will." I grabbed his collar and dragged his face down to mine. "I will destroy you, Blake, if you do not leave my mother alone, or if you contest Adrienne's will. Destroy you, and ensure you and your whole damn get live in poverty and disgrace for the rest of your lives. And I will love every single fucking minute of it."

I threw him back, suddenly needing to rid his scent from my nostrils. He hit the wall with a grunt, and flung out an arm to brace himself.

"Do you believe me?" I said softly.

"Yes," he replied, his voice filled with murderous fury. Fury he knew he couldn't unleash. And that was such a delicious sensation.

I glanced at Patrin, then said, "Rhoan, all finished up here. Meet you out front." I looked back at Blake. "And don't think about enlisting your cop or judge buddies to help you out of this situation. They're going to have enough problems of their own."

He didn't say anything. Didn't do anything. He couldn't, and he knew it. It was sweeter, so much sweeter, than using my fists as I had so often dreamed of doing.

I gave him a smile, then turned and walked across to the balcony. The leap down to the ground jarred my leg, but I refused to limp as Rhoan joined me and we walked away.

As soon as I got home, I rang Kellen. I desperately wanted to see him now that everything else had been sorted out. I wanted to tell him my news, my decision. Get my new life - our new life - underway.

My fingers were shaking as I pressed his number. It rang several times, and then a voice said, "Yes?"

For several beats I wasn't entirely sure it was him. His voice sounded rough, tired almost beyond recognition.

"Kellen? It's Riley."