The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

He closed his eyes, took a shuddery breath, then whispered, "I don't know. But there was no intervention."

And that was the cruncher.

The majority of vamps tended to be protective of their young - or soon-to-be young - at least until they were old enough to control the bloodlust and know the tricks of the trade, so to speak. They had to be, because the Directorate held them accountable for their young's actions. It was only once they had a handle on being a vampire that the young were let loose into the big wide world. Vampires tended to be territorial, and two fully grown vamps generally couldn't live together. Which made what was going on here a whole lot stranger. They simply couldn't be all young ones. No vampire alive could control this many young.

Or so I'd thought.

Ben gave Ivan a few more drops of water. I waited until he'd swallowed, then asked, "Why did you invite him over the threshold if you didn't know him?"

"Because he went through Vinny. I thought he was okay."

Seems Vinny had a few answers to provide. And maybe it was Vinny, rather than my badge, that had kept the younger vamps at bay. Which meant, given the number of vampires living in this old building, he had to be fairly powerful.

But it was interesting that our rogue vamp had known enough about this building and its occupants to go through the protocol. Unlike me, who'd just charged in.

Of course, that's what we guardians were supposed to do. Charge into places the dead feared to tread. Lucky us.

"Has Vinny got a last name?"

"Castillo."

Hopefully, Sal hadn't become bored by proceedings and was now doing a check to see what we had on one Vincent Castillo.

"Did your attacker say what he wanted to talk about?"

"No, he just started attacking, telling me he'd make me pay for hurting him."

I raised my eyebrows. "So you do know him?"

"No. He was fucking crazy. I've never seen him before in my life, I swear."

I could sense no lie in his words, but that didn't mean there wasn't. I mean, why would a vamp go to so much trouble to get in here just to attack a complete stranger?

"So if he attacked you straightaway, when did you get the chance to call Ben?"

He closed his eyes. "I didn't."

I looked at Ben, who said, "Maybe the shock and blood loss is affecting his memory."

Maybe. And maybe he was telling the truth and something strange was going on.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, and as I looked toward the doorway, a voice said, "Ambulance officers. Who needs the help?"

"Down here," I shouted.

The footsteps drew closer, and a second later two men appeared. "Well, that was a hairy experience," the first man said. "Never been in a place where so many vamps haunted the shadows." He glanced at Ivan and clicked his tongue. "The vamps do this?"

"No. They just didn't stop it."

"Vamps tend to be like that," he said philosophically. "It's all about their needs, not others'."

And that, I thought, as I rose to get out of his way, was the best summation I'd heard of vamps in quite a while.

I followed Ben across the living room. He crossed his bare arms, his blue T-shirt straining across his chest as he leaned a shoulder against the wall. He must have left the bike leathers at home in his haste to get here, but the T and the jeans were a damn fine look.

I tried to concentrate on the business at hand. "Does Ivan work at Nonpareil as well?"

Ben shook his head. In the bright living room light, his blue eyes looked almost sapphire with the anger that still overwhelmed his scent. "He's an investment advisor."