Dangerous Games (Riley Jenson Guardian 4)

He threw me a key. I dumped my handbag onto the nearby chair, grabbed my phone, then unlocked the door. Outside, the sunlight dappled through the trees and the air was quite cool. Somehow, the tranquility of the setting more than made up for any chill.

I walked down to the far end of the balcony, then leaned on the banister and called Jack.

"Well, good to see you're back to bad habits," he said, by way of greeting.

"Boss, don't expect miracles. Especially when I've been working my ass off on behalf of the Directorate." Which was no less than the truth. My ass still smarted. I gave him a brief rundown of events, then asked, "You found out anything more about Karen Herbert yet?"

"There's been no sign of her, and she's been missing from work for several days. But given our workload, she's currently listed as low priority."

Meaning he'll only start to worry if she turns up dead somewhere. Bastard. "What about Gautier?"

"What about him?"

"Do you think he's behind the sudden rise in baby vamps and would he be doing it just to piss us off?"

"Probably."

"So have you figured out how did he manage to walk out of that flat when it was past sunrise?"

"All he needed to move around in was a van with blacked-out windows."

"If there was a van around, the old biddy next door would have seen and reported it. She didn't, so there wasn't." I paused. "Dunleavy and his girlfriend must have known something pretty vital to be killed the way they were. Did a full background check reveal any clues?"

"No. But the security tapes from the Cattle Club show Trudi and Jin working together on several occasions. Maybe she overhead something she wasn't supposed to."

Maybe. But that was something we'd never know now. I scratched at an itch on my leg irritably. "Here's another odd one for you, boss. How can Jin, who's listed as human and feels human, defeat a vampire?"

"I don't know." He paused, and I could almost hear his brain ticking over. It wasn't hard to guess in what direction. Eventually, he said, "But I think you need to hang around him and find out."

"Like that's a surprise."

He snorted softly. "Hey, you admitted you enjoyed yourself."

"That's beside the point. There's something more going on with his brand of sex, Jack. There's an odd energy in the air - something I've never felt before."

"Does it feel dangerous?"

"No. But - " I hesitated, not sure I could fully explain the odd mix of unease and desire Jin's energy inflicted. "I'm a werewolf, Jack. There is no way known sex with a human should leave me as shaky as I was feeling this morning."

"Unless he's some kind of emotive vampire."

"Meaning he feeds off emotion?" Which is what Quinn was probably getting at when he said blood vamps weren't the only kind out there.

"Yes. Some feed off pleasure, some feed off pain. Some like a mix. fin sounds like the latter type."

"So why does he read as human?"

"I don't know. He shouldn't."

"If he was an emotive vamp, could he beat a regular blood vamp? One who wasn't a baby?"

"As a genera! rule, no. Emotive vamps are more energy beings than physical beings."

Well, Jin was definitely physical. "So how can I protect myself against his feeding?"

"You can't. You just have to ensure you take a break between sessions and get some food into you. The richer the better, because it refuels your energy faster."

Which was why Jin had been feeding me gooey chocolate cake last night, obviously. "So, even though he's sucking down emotions, I have to eat to keep my physical energy up, same as with regular vamps?"