The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

There was a pause, then a deep voice said, "Liaison Benson here, Riley. You okay? You're sounding a little off."

"That's because I am a little off. Is Jack around?"

"Not in the immediate vicinity, no."

Damn. "Tell him I checked that address Vinny gave me, and it was our vamp's lair, but the bastard got away. Ask him what sort of vampire is immune to sunlight and invisible."

"Invisible?" I could hear the doubt in Benson's voice. "I know there's day-walkers, but they tend to be humans - "

"Yeah, I know all that," I snapped. "Just ask him."

"Okay. Anything else?"

The sudden lack of warmth in his tone suggested I'd offended him, and I sighed. A common problem with new liaisons was the fact they expected civility - and while I was generally more than happy to provide it, now was not one of those times.

Still, I'd been new once, too. So I said, "Benson, not only am I pissed off about losing my target, but I'm also sitting here with a busted shoulder. If I sound a little snappish, I'm sorry."

"You want medical assistance?"

"Just send someone to take me to the hospital. I can't drive like this, and shifting shape won't help." The bones would still be out, regardless of what shape I took. What hurt in one form was going to hurt in another.

"Janny's on her way home and is currently close to your location. I'll get her to detour and drive you to hospital."

"Janny? Where's she from?"

"She's part of Mel's cleanup team. You would have seen her yesterday. She's tall and thin."

Ah, the woman who had reminded me of an insect. "That would be great. Thanks, Benson."

"No problem."

He signed off. I switched the com-link to receive only, so that they wouldn't hear me swearing when the pain flared, and waited for my ride to arrive.

It turned out my shoulder wasn't busted, but rather dislocated. Which meant that once everything was put back into place, the pain would vanish and I'd only be left with soreness.

The bad news, of course, was that I had to get the shoulder put back into place to achieve this result.

It was a process that hurt more than the actual injury did, and the wolf within came roaring to the surface in retaliation. It was a real battle to curb my instinctive need to batter the cause of all this pain away from me.

Once the doctor had gotten the ball back into the socket, the pain stopped almost instantly. An ache remained, but that I could handle.

"You should wear a sling for a day or two," he commented, stepping back warily as I jumped off the table. "And ice it regularly to help with the swelling."

"I'm a werewolf, Doc." I grabbed my sweater and my gun from the nearby chair. "And the Directorate doesn't give time off for minor injuries like this."

"That's against the labor laws - "

I snorted softly. "Like either the Directorate or the bad guys give two hoots about the labor laws." Hell, I couldn't even see many humans being overly worried about the noncompliance of the laws at the Directorate. Not when it was being done to protect their butts. "Thanks for patching me up, though."

He nodded, and I got out of there as quickly as possible. Hospitals were high on my list of unfavorite places - mainly because, like cemeteries, they held far too many ghosts. And I'd had more than enough of those today.

I found Liander waiting at the bottom of the hospital's front steps. He was dressed in dark jeans and an aqua shirt, and his silver hair was streaked with a blue that matched his shirt. His scent spun around me, rich and warm. Much like the man himself. I smiled a greeting.

"Hey, makeup man, what are you doing here?" I gave him a kiss on the cheek, then linked my good arm through his. "And don't you look smashing."

He grinned, silver eyes twinkling. "I just came from a series of interviews about the special effects. Drumming up interest in the new movie and all that."

"So why are you here? Not that I'm complaining, mind."