Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian 3)

"And?"

"He came down to Melbourne almost immediately."

So he had been down here, just as I'd guessed. The bastard couldn't even give me one honest answer.

I was better off without him in my life. Truly.

So why did the thought of never seeing him again hurt so much? It wasn't as if I had a future with the man, for heaven's sake. A vampire could never be my soul mate.

"Then he suspected it was us?"

"His security was better than we thought."

I rolled my eyes. "How often have you told me never to underestimate the enemy?" I stopped at the streetlights and looked around. A tall brown haired woman in pale gray stood near the park's famous laughing-mouth entrance. "Spotted my quarry. Try not to jabber in my ear for the next few minutes."

Jack's snort was loud enough to make me wince. "I have done this before, darlin'."

I grinned and crossed with the green light. A quick look at my watch said I had seven minutes to go.

I hitched my pack, took a deep breath, then slipped into Poppy, letting her identity, her attitudes, fill my surface thoughts. Then I strode directly toward Dia.

"Don't tell me the great Dia Jones has been reduced to hawking her wares on the streets," I said, voice low and sarcastic. "Always knew you were a fraud."

Her startled gaze swung around to mine, and in that minute I realized two things. The first was the fact that Dia Jones was completely blind. And second, the unearthly sense of power that had been evident in the photograph didn't even begin to do justice to the true power of her gaze. Even unfocused, her blue eyes were magnetic, unforgiving. All seeing.

Which was an odd thing to think about a blind woman.

"Excuse me?" she said, voice soft yet hinting at ice.

Which suited the complexion that lay underneath the makeup.

"People like you make a living from ripping off the gullible. It disgusts me."

"And is a thief any better?"

I raised my eyebrows, wondering how she'd guessed. Wondering what else she'd guessed. "At least I don't make a living on the suffering of others."

She raised an eyebrow. "And you think I do?"

"Well, what else do you call feeding false hope to suckers?"

She regarded me for a moment, her luminous blue eyes seeming to see right through me. Those butterflies stirred again, though I had no idea why.

"And you do not believe in hope?"

I snorted. "Hope is a fool's desire. I deal with realities."

"Really?"

With a suddenness, and an accuracy, that surprised me, she reached out and grabbed my hand. My instinctive response was to pull away, but I checked the strength of it almost immediately. Partly because I was curious about what she was doing, and partly because the minute her fingers touched mine, an odd sort of energy seemed to run over them. It felt like the power that caressed the air right before a summer storm.

She didn't say anything for several minutes, just gripped my fingers and frowned as the energy of her touch flowed between us. Then she sighed, and smiled as she released me.

"You will save us," she said softly.

Us? What the hell did she mean by that? Her and me? Did that mean she knew about the planned attack? Somehow, I didn't think so, but before I could ask what she actually meant, awareness surged, prickling like fire across my skin. With it came the stench of unwashed, unripe flesh.

Jack's stray vamp had shown up ahead of time.