Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian 3)

"The maintenance crews are fixing the circuit breakers as we speak," he continued softly. "You have ten minutes, if that."

"Then I'd better get my butt into gear." I pushed away from the wall and wiped a hand across my mouth. There was nothing I could do about the blinding ache becoming well and truly settled behind my eyes, but the bitter taste in my mouth was at least fixable. All I had to do was find a tap.

"Hope you get your people out safely, Iktar. And be careful with those controls."

His smile held little amusement. "We have someone who can disconnect these. We will be gone before dawn." He held out a hand. "Thank you again."

I clasped his hand and shook it. His fingers were cool against mine, his skin smooth and leathery, like a snake's. Not unpleasant, but not something I wanted to touch on a regular basis.

As he walked away, I glanced at the trees again then went in search of a garden tap. I placed my stolen thumb and notebook out of the water's way, then rinsed out my mouth and washed the blood from my skin.

Though I heard no sound, the caress of warmth told me Quinn was close. He stepped free of shadows and said, "You look a mess."

"You always say the nicest things."

My voice was dry and amusement touched his dark gaze. "Need some help?"

"Yes. I have to rescue a baby and destroy a lab." I scooped up a final mouthful and drank it, then turned off the tap and picked up my stolen goodies. "The fire exits apparently come out in the trees behind the gym."

"Lab? Not the main ones, I suppose?"

"No. How'd your tunnel hunting go?"

"Came to a dead end. Or, more precisely, a metal door." He hesitated. "I waited the day out there, but no one ventured down from either direction."

"Bugger."

His shrug was all elegance. "The bad guys do not always play the game the way we might wish."

"Well, gee, thanks for that news bulletin."

He smiled, and my hormones did their usual little jig. Annoying, but then, a werewolf's hormones didn't usually give a fig about appropriateness or timing. "There were a lot of guards entering the forest when I came out, though."

"And you didn't stay to investigate? Why?"

He glanced at me. "I felt your pain."

"Ah. Thank you."

Which seemed totally inadequate, but what else could I say? Thanks for caring, but you really should have seen what those guards were up to? I wasn't that much of a bitch. Well, technically I was, but not in the way humans used the word.

"Can I ask why you're gripping a bloody thumb and notebook?"

"Most secure areas around here are thumb and number coded. A thumb is easier to drag around than a guard."

"Hence the vomiting."

"Hence the vomiting," I agreed. And holding it, feeling the coolness beginning to creep into the severed flesh, even through the plastic, had my stomach spasming all over again.

"Would you like me to hold them?"

I didn't even have to think about it, just handed them over. "Let's go, before they get the power back on."

We shadowed and ran around the house to the gym. Every footstep sent lances of fire stabbing deeper into my brain, and I wasn't entirely sure if the moisture running down my cheeks was sweat or tears.

There were guards everywhere, even here, outside the gym. Starr obviously didn't think the power outage was chance, and was guarding assets and exits - even the exits most knew nothing about. We stopped in the midst of the trees, out of the direct line of sight of the guards. We might be shadowed, but there was no point risking that these guards weren't more of Starr's enhanced humans, complete with vampire DNA that endowed them with a vampire's infrared. Quinn touched my shoulder to catch my attention, then pointed to the two guards on the left, his arm glowing like fire under the infrared. I nodded, and carefully made my way toward my targets, keeping downwind and as silent as possible.

I was nearly on them when a twig snapped under my heel. Both men spun, their guns rising fast. I froze, my breath catching in my throat. They didn't fire, simply scanned the darkness, their gaze slipping straight past. They couldn't see me and didn't have infrared.