The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

"So if he was obnoxious and a playboy, why didn't the human politicians make political hay out of that?"

"Oh, they tried, but Gerard had a very good publicity machine behind him. They were able to twist derisive comments to his advantage."

I glanced at the floor indicator, seeing we'd barely reached three. This had to be the slowest elevator ever made. "How?"

Kade shrugged. "In the case of the ladies, by focusing on the fact that many of the women he went out with were human, and making the attacks feel race-related."

"Clever."

"But still an asshole. Wouldn't have stopped me from voting for him, though. I want a fairer world for my kids to live in, and I think he could have helped achieve that."

Well, there was no law saying you had to like politicians to vote for them. If there was, there'd be no one in parliament. But could one lone politician make that much of a difference? Somehow, I doubted it.

I looked up at the floor indicator, saw we were almost there, then asked, "How's Sable doing, by the way?"

Sable was his lead mare, the one mare he'd managed to keep from the herd he'd gathered before he'd been captured and slung into a madman's breeding labs. Which was how I'd actually met him - I'd been slung into the same lab. We'd escaped together, and it was only after that I'd discovered he wasn't an innocent bystander snatched up into the scheme, but rather part of a military investigation into an arms theft who had somehow stumbled onto the breeding labs.

Like Kade, Sable was a horse-shifter - a stunning, leggy black mare whose every movement spoke of class and sophistication. I'd met her only once, but I'd seen her enough on TV. The woman was a phenomenon, with her show rating through the roof and five of her eight books on herbs and healing still amongst the country's best sellers.

Of course, she wasn't the only mare he now had. He'd collected at least seven others that I knew of, and was constantly on the lookout for more to add to his herd. The more the merrier was a stallion's creed, apparently. Why the hell we werewolves got branded as sex-mad lunatics and horse-shifters didn't was beyond me. I knew for a fact that Kade was sexually insatiable, and he didn't have the moon as an excuse like we werewolves did. Not that we used it as an excuse, of course. Sex was something wolves enjoyed indulging in, whether or not the moon was blooming full.

When their hearts weren't broken, anyway.

"Sable is very pregnant, very fat, and grousing about being forced to leave her leafy Toorak house to live with me." His sudden grin was all proud male. "Another mare confirmed she was pregnant yesterday, too."

"So that makes five of them now? Damn, nothing wrong with your little swimmers."

"With us, a sign of virility and strength is not only the size of the herd, but the number of foals. I fully intend to have the biggest herd in Melbourne."

"Show-off." The old elevator came to a jumpy halt, and I grabbed the railing to steady myself. "Your Directorate salary is not going to stretch to feeding that many mouths."

"Doesn't have to. Herds work as a complete support system. Everyone contributes to support each other."

"What happens if you die?"

He shrugged. "My personal insurance will take care of them. And the Directorate insurance policy is quite generous."

That I wouldn't know, having avoided the whole "death while on duty" line of thinking. Which I guess was stupid, given the fact that a guardian's lifestyle wasn't exactly compatible with a long life - unless you were a vamp and all but indestructible. But there again, if something happened to me, I don't think Rhoan would be worried about money. Nor me, if the situation was reversed.

The elevator doors finally swished open and Kade ushered me out. The foyer was empty, but I could hear voices coming from the right, and one of them was familiar. I headed that way.

Cole looked around as we entered the office. He was a tall, gray-haired wolf-shifter with a craggy face and a sharp attitude - at least when it came to dealing with me. Though I have to admit, I probably deserved it. I enjoyed teasing him a whole lot more than was warranted. Of course, it didn't help that he kept saying he wasn't interested when I knew for a fact he was. Even though wolf-shifters tended to think of themselves as better than us werewolves, not even they could hide the smell of arousal.

"Oh, great," he said, his voice heavy but amusement sparking in his pale blue eyes. "Beauty and the beast have arrived."

"I'd ask which one of us is classed as the beast, but I'm afraid I might not like the answer." I stopped just inside the doorway and scanned the room. There was a huge desk, several sofas, and a gleaming coffee machine that appeared to have more than a dozen different selections. Gerard James was a man not satisfied with mundane choices, it seemed. "Where's the body?"

Cole thumbed toward another doorway. "In the main office. His personal assistant found him slumped across the desk at two forty-five this afternoon."

"That's a rather late start, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Apparently it was a one-off starting time."

One-off because he knew he was bringing someone back to the office, perhaps? Maybe someone he didn't want to be seen meeting? Though if that were the case, the office would be the last place you'd think he'd bring someone. The press would most certainly be keeping an eye on his comings and goings, regardless of the time.

"Has he been dead long?"

"It's a little hard to tell. Rigor mortis can set in faster on those who have been active before death."