Dangerous Games (Riley Jenson Guardian 4)

"We'll see."

Frustration swirled through me. I wondered - and not for the first time - if continuing a relationship with Quinn was worth all the angst. Then I remembered the sex, and thought, Hell, yeah, it most certainly was. Still, I couldn't help asking, "Why won't you give this fantasy up? Why not settle for what you can have - you and me in an ongoing but not mutually exclusive arrangement?"

He raised the eyebrow again. "Are you willing to give up your white picket fences and two-point-five kids dream?"

"No - "

"Then do not tell me to give up what I desire."

"The difference is, I'm not trying to force my dreams on anyone. You are."

He didn't answer, his gaze going to the house instead. Part of me figured it was little more than a ruse to avoid answering a difficult accusation, but I lowered a shield and stretched out telepathically anyway. Not toward him, which would be a stupid thing to do considering his telepathic skills could sweep mine under the nearby daisies and stomp all over them, but toward the house. Only my telepathic "beam" somehow mingled with Quinn's, and while I couldn't actually hear his thoughts because of his shields, the resulting mix triggered some sort of weird amplification between us and those within the house.

Voices sprang into focus - not just one person, but everyone in the house - in some strange sort of "conference call." I was hearing their thoughts as conversations, in real-time. Weird, totally weird.

And yet another sign the drugs I'd been injected with were continuing to affect my body and my psi-skills in unexpected ways.

"We can't afford to have this O'Conor person sniffing around much longer," Jin's mental tones were filled with simmering tension - tension that was both sexual and physical. "He's getting too close."

"We're trying our best to get rid of him," another voice said, the mental tone mild and yet filled with an underlying iciness. Only it was more an inhumanity than any mere coldness, and it had my soul shivering.

"Obviously, you're not trying hard enough." The words were practically spat. Jin was a very unhappy boy indeed. The thought cheered me no end.

"The demons are having trouble tracking his life force. It's intermittent." The voice was female, and presumably Maisie Foster. Something in the way she spoke was oddly familiar - though why, I had no idea.

"He's a fucking vampire - how could his life force be intermittent?"

"Because before he was a vampire he was something else. He almost destroyed me once. I do not wish to risk it again."

The annoyance I'd felt earlier increased tenfold. Quinn had already told me that before he'd become a vampire, he'd been something more than human, so that in itself was no surprise. But he'd conveniently forgotten to add that that something had already met this evil.

"I have my reasons for keeping secrets," he said softly, without even looking at me.

"And I've just about had enough of your secrets and lies. You could have saved the Directorate so much time and energy if you'd just told us what you knew from the beginning."

Not to mention the fact that his admission might have prevented my needing to fuck the creep. I didn't want to sleep with bad guys just to get information - and Quinn was well aware of that fact. Hell, he hated the fact that I was doing it, so why not come forth with information if it could have prevented it?

"Because I did not know that your case and mine were one and the same."

Mainly because he didn't bother to check. But I resisted the urge to say the words out loud. Those inside the house were still talking, and right now, getting information that might end this case was far more important than sorting out a vampire determined to get his own way - whether it be on the case or in our relationship.

"He could destroy us again if we do not proceed cautiously," the deep voice said. "He is one of the few on this earth who even remembers us as anything more than legend."

"So, we sit around and twiddle our thumbs until his life force becomes strong enough for the demons to track?"

"No," Maisie said. "I intend to conjure a stronger class of demon, but it takes time to summon them. I've had to send the sub-demons back to hell so I have the energy reserves required."

I glanced at Quinn as Jin began questioning Maisie further. "Sounds to me like we need to contain Maisie Foster."

"If we take her out of the picture, we warn the others."

"They already know you're after them."

"But they do not know the Directorate is after them."

I snorted. "If these are the people responsible for the sacrifices, then they know we're after them."

"But they are not yet aware how close you are to them."