The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian 6)

"Rhoan - " I said, but he cut in sharply.

"No!"

His voice cracked with a mix of worry and barely repressed fury - everything that wasn't showing on his face. I squeezed his hand. I could only imagine what he was going through, and as frustrating as his reactions were at the moment, they were also totally understandable. Hell, there was no way known I would have been as calm as he currently was if it had been my soul mate out there in the operating room.

Quinn sat back down beside me, pressing his warmth against my side and helping to battle the chill threatening to overwhelm me. He, like me, smelled of old blood, but my scent was also mixed with the aroma of fear and dried sweat, and it was decidedly unpleasant. As was my dress, which had become stiff and uncomfortable with all the dried blood on it. I plucked at the material lightly with my fingers. It was yet another dress that would end up in the trash. This job was playing havoc with my wardrobe. And my life.

God, please, let Liander be okay.

I took another sip of coffee, then leaned against Quinn a little more, resting my head lightly on his shoulder. He didn't say anything, simply wrapped his arm around my shoulder and hugged me.

It was good that he was here, and not just because his mere presence had an oddly soothing effect. Quinn was convinced Liander would pull through, and that conviction rolled off him like a blanket, smothering the flames of panic that might otherwise be present.

But I was also glad that he was there for me. Glad I had someone that I could lean against when I needed to. There hadn't been a whole lot of people I could say that about in my life, and the fact that I was feeling it now, with Quinn, made me realize that no matter what the difficulties were between us, we had to give this a fair go.

I might be an independent, stupid bitch at times - okay, most of the time - but even I needed someone to turn to occasionally. Someone who wasn't my brother or his lover.

My phone rang into the silence. I took a breath and blew it out slowly. I knew without looking that it would be Jack.

"I need you on the job," he said when I answered.

"Jack, we're still at the hospital - "

"And we've still got a killer running around loose," he cut in. "I'm sorry, Riley. I know you want to be with Rhoan, but I need one of you here. Kade's good, but he hasn't got a wolf's tracking skills."

"What about Iktar?"

The spirit lizard had come through training the same time as Kade, but had been floating between day shift and night. He apparently had a few qualms about working with vampires - and the night shift was all vampires - but at the same time, day shift had proven something of a hassle for him. Humans might be used to the presence of shifters and vampires, but the sight of a spirit lizard, with their featureless faces and tendency to run around naked, had caused more than a few shocked reactions. Besides, Iktar's skills were most useful in the in-between times of dawn and dusk. If there was a hint of a shadow around, a spirit lizard could simply disappear - and more completely than a vampire could shadow at such times. Which was a very useful skill to have when you were tracking down psychos.

"I had him rounding up the remaining Trollops last night," Jack said.

"So they're all safe?"

"There's a Jenny Franklin and a Joan Hawkins who are currently unaccounted for, but there's no sign of violence at either of their homes. Relatives have been un-helpful."

Not so great. I hesitated. Stopping the bakeneko was a priority, I knew that. But so was my brother. So was stopping him if anything went wrong. "Jack - "

"It's not a request, Riley. It's an order. Don't make me come and get you."

I blew out a breath. I knew when I was defeated - and I definitely didn't want a scene at the hospital. Not when my brother was so fragile, mentally.

"I have to go home and change before I can do anything."

"Do it, then meet Kade in Toorak Road."

He gave me the full address, and I frowned. "Isn't that a parking lot?"

"Yeah. Another naked male has turned up, this one found on his car on the top level."

On? That didn't sound good. "I gather he's in the same state as the others?"

"Worse."

I wanted to ask what could possibly be worse than what we'd already seen, but I had a bad feeling I'd know the answer soon enough. Besides, I had seen worse. Many times. It seemed bad men and women didn't have a whole lot of respect for the human - and nonhuman - condition. "Crap."

"Yeah." He paused. "I talked to some of the other women last night. All the murdered men were Cherry Barnes's former partners. And all the murdered women were the next lovers of those men."

Which is basically what I'd guessed after talking to Dia. "So, unable to reach her mistress's actual killer, the bakeneko is exacting revenge for what she sees as betrayals of her mistress's trust. And she's killing the women first so she can take their form and then kill the men?"