The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

And how the fuck could he be invisible?

That wasn't any vampire power I'd heard of. But then, I wasn't exactly up on vampire law and history. There could be a dozen different types of suckers, for all I knew. The emos had certainly been a surprise.

I followed the tenuous scent forward. It led straight out the door and into the sunshine. Any normal vampire would have burned right there and then, but not Young. I followed his trail out the gate and down the street, until the rising wind tore the trail apart and left me with nothing.

I'd lost him.

God, this day was not going well.

I sat down on a brick fence and carefully let go of my arm so I could press the com-link in my ear.

"Hello, anyone out there?"

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."