Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

These boys might be insane, but they were damn clever as well.

"Why did you attack us at Mirror Image? If you had let us go, you could have made an easy escape."

He raised an eyebrow. "But we already have. It'll take your people a very long time to trace us to this island, and by then, we'll be gone."

"But by kidnapping us, you've only crystallized the Directorate's suspicion and ensured they'll come after you. And trust me, that's never a good thing."

He smiled. "Perhaps. But we've never hunted a guardian before. We thought it worth the risk."

"One you will not live long enough to savor."

He shrugged. "The threat of death is all part of the glory of the hunt. There's no thrill where there is no danger."

I raised an eyebrow. "Only the insane would consider hunting two guardians fun. Most people tend to run from us, given any sort of choice."

"We are not most people. And our last hunt was a disappointment. We need a good challenge before we move on."

I studied him for a moment, wondering why he was so damn confident that he felt no qualms about telling me everything, then said, "So why have you been hunting them? Why not just shoot them, then slice off their heads, like you did your first victim?"

"Because we were young then, and blind to the prospects of the hunt." He paused. "Was Adrienne the reason you appeared on the island and the Directorate began investigating the club?"

"Yes." Better to let him think the Directorate had been wise to their ways, when in fact I'd only been investigating thanks to Blake's blackmailing insistence. God knows how many other women they would have taken before the Directorate had become aware of their activities. The number might even have been as high as the seventeen that went missing in England. "Is that why you left the UK and came here? Because the authorities got wind something was up?"

"The regular authorities we could have handled. It was only when the Directorate took a serious interest that we had to move on." Annoyance flickered - a brief, black cloud in his otherwise cheerful expression. "We had hoped to source quite a few more hunts here before we were forced to go elsewhere."

"So why Adrienne? She looked nothing like the woman who killed your father."

Something flicked through his eyes. Anger. Or madness. It was hard to tell which. "We had no option when she appeared on the island asking questions. Plus, she had that sketch."

"Which was you, I take it."

He nodded. "Unfortunately, it turned out your pack-mate had an interesting psychic skill that allowed her to read a person's past. She ran into me at the club, and apparently caught glimpses of our murderous little habit."

"She told you this?"

He smiled benignly. "Of course she did. She thought it would help her live."

"So she and the others are dead?"

"Yes. Though they do live on in our memories. And through our trophies."

I stared at him for a minute, my stomach turning as I remembered the fact that the head of their first victim had never been found. "You take trophies?"

He chuckled, and it was a cold, inhuman sound. "Of course. All hunters do. The heads of all our prey line the walls of our lodge, so we and others can admire the beauty of their death. Although Adrienne has not yet joined them. Our taxidermist went on holidays."

Oh God, that was just... beyond sick. These weren't just animals we were talking about, these were people.

Living, breathing human beings. Or rather, nonhuman beings.

And how in hell did they find a taxidermist who'd even do such a thing?

"You will pay for those trophies," I said, my voice flat, devoid of the anger that was running through me. Just like Rhoan, when he stepped into his guardian shoes and became the efficient killing machine he'd been trained to be.

A shiver went through me, and deep down something screamed no. But I had to wonder how much longer that voice would last if I kept getting thrown up against the psychos of this world.

"That's the whole idea," he said cheerfully. "We hunt. You try to make us pay. Of course, there are rules."

I snorted. "Like I'm actually going to obey any of your rules once I'm out of here?"