Moon Sworn (Riley Jenson Guardian 9)

Jack nodded. "Then go help your brother, and I'll get the paperwork started. For both things."

"Thanks, Jack. You're the best."

I leaned forward and kissed his cheek, and damned if he didn't blush. "Just go, and let me get some work done."

I grinned and all but bounced out of the van.

One more thing to attend to, and then my life was finally mine.

If I survived the encounter with Blake, that was.

Chapter 16

As eager as we all were to confront Blake, getting rid of him wasn't simply a matter of walking onto Jenson pack land and challenging him. We had to stop his whole damn family, because Blake was simply one poisonous head on the Medusa. Cut him off, and another would grow in his place.

And whoever replaced him would probably be even more hell-bent on revenge.

To end the cycle, we needed to bring down the whole lot of them. Maybe then those who didn't quite fit into the Jenson pack ideal could live free of tyranny and fear.

So we spent precious time tracking down every one of his siblings and his get. Where possible, Jack sent out vampires to read their minds and gather information. It quickly became apparent that the Jenson pack's change of fortune hadn't come from good management but rather blackmail, robbery, and even murder. And as I'd suspected some time ago, Henry Bottchelli - the man who'd hired the red Mazda driver to follow me - was one of Blake's aliases. He had several others, as did Tyson and most of his sons.

We worked practically nonstop. We gathered our evidence, we stuck our fingers into their bank accounts, and we raided their computer systems, and slowly but surely we got ready to snatch the whole damn lot of them.

When Jack wanted vengeance, he went all out. And with the force of the Directorate behind him, it was a pretty awesome sight to behold.

In the end, it took us nearly three days to get to the Northern Territory. Quinn's plane landed in Alice Springs at four forty-five, and by five, the three of us and our one bag had cleared security and we were heading out into the car park.

The air was clean and warm, and it smelled like home. I inhaled deeply, loving the crispness of it, the way the flavors and the scents suddenly seemed all that much sharper.

It would be nice to come back here occasionally. Maybe once Blake had been dealt with, we could. After all, we now had a reason. We now had family.

You always had family, Quinn commented. It's just that it wasn't by birth and blood.

He was right, of course.

When you hang around on this Earth as long as I have, you get to know a thing or two. He smiled, but his dark eyes were serious. Whatever happens after today, Liander and I will always be here.

I know. And it warmed the places deep inside that had been cold and empty for so long.

A large black SUV pulled up. Evin and Lyndal climbed out. Evin smiled when he saw us, but then surprise crossed his features.

"No guns?"

"We don't need them," Rhoan said, his voice calm. Yet an undercurrent of violence and excitement rode through every word and motion. The switch to guardian mode hadn't been flicked yet, but he wasn't far from it.

"But the minute we enter pack land, he'll know," Lyndal commented softly. "He'll have shooters in place."

"Which is why," I said, opening the SUVs back door, "we asked you to rent this type of truck rather than just a car. You know all the locations of the border guards. You, Lyndal, and Quinn are going to go to each and every one of them and take them out as we stroll onto pack land."

His frown increased. "But we don't use SUVs to move from location to location. There's no need to, when a good run is the best way to get anywhere or to finish a shift. They'll know something is up the minute they spot it."

"Blake's still doing his surprise inspections, isn't he?" Rhoan asked, resting a hip on the side of the SUV and crossing his arms.

It wasn't really a question, because we'd already gleaned the answer from the minds of his family.

"Yeah, but - "

"But," I said, "a recent car accident mangled his leg, and even though he shifted to heal it, infection has set into the bone and he's recently undergone a series of operations to fix it. He's been ordered to keep off his leg as much as possible, in either wolf or human form."