Dangerous Games

The possibility was there. It was definitely there.

I shivered and rubbed my arms. "You want to check your side of the car for traveling bugaboos? I'll check this side."

Rhoan nodded. Ten minutes later we had five tracking bugs sitting on the front of the car. "Gautier wasn't taking any chances," I said, picking up one and crushing it under my heel. "What I don't get is why he'd even bother to employ idiots like that. Especially if he can now move around in daylight himself."

"Maybe he still has some restrictions. Maybe whatever magic he's getting from these people is only short-term. Which means he needs outside help to track our movements." Rhoan crushed several more bugs under his heel.

"Gautier mentioned something about coming after me once he gets all that he's been promised." I dropped a bug and stood on it. "I've gut a bad feeling we had better stop him before that happens."

"We will. Neither Jack nor I are about to let anything happen to you, Riley."

Yeah, but my brother was only a dhampire, and Jack was only a vampire. If Gautier's warning was anything to go by, then he was becoming something more. Something deadly and not of this world.

The thought had chills skating across my skin. I ignored them and crushed the last of the bugs, scattering the metal remnants with a toe. "You want me to report the phone number to Jack?"

"Yeah. He'll have it tapped and watched, though I doubt Gautier will be foolish enough to go there. He'll probably have a remote dial-in arrangement."

Most likely. One thing Gautier could never be accused of was dumbness in the line of duty. We got into the car, and I phoned Jack while Rhoan drove on to the hotel.

It was one Qui

Not that I minded Qui

"Heading in now, Jack," Rhoan said, as he walked around the car and flashed his credentials at the valet people. He glanced at me. "Jack said to stop being a pain in the ass and turn the com-link sound on again."

"Oh. Yeah." I lightly pressed the little button. "Sorry, Jack."

"One of these days you're going to be tied up and in serious trouble because you've got your com-link off and can't call it in."

"I said I was sorry."

"Forget the sorry. Just quit doing it."

"Okay, okay." We entered the lower foyer and ran up the scrumptious staircase. Rhoan headed over to reception while I continued on to check out the dining area. The rich aroma of toast and sweet pastries made my nose twitch, but I tried to ignore the luscious food on display and sca

I somehow forced my feet away, and headed back to reception. "They're in six-twelve," Rhoan said. "Apparently he had food delivered half an hour ago."

"Why? He doesn't need to eat and she was unconscious."

"Obviously, that's no longer the case."

Obviously. The question was, why did he force me away and then kidnap her? What did he need to do that he couldn't let the Directorate in on?

"Qui

My stomach did an odd flip-flop. I wasn't sure whether the cause was excitement or fear. "Even against the two of us?"

"Sentimentality doesn't play a whole lot into the thinking of an old vampire," Jack said, voice dry. "Not when he's on the hunt."

"Great." I looked at Rhoan. "Let's get this over with."

We headed up. As we approached the room, I blinked, flicking my vision to infrared. Two bodies jumped into focus, one far darker than the other. Oddly enough, Qui

He pointed to me, then to the right. I nodded, and pressed a hand flat against the door as he got the keycard out of his pocket. He looked at me again, and raised an eyebrow in query. I took a deep breath, then readied the laser and nodded again. He swiped the card through the slot, and I flung the door open, waiting until he was in before following him through.

There was an exclamation, a flash of red light, a blur of movement, then Rhoan was being tossed sideways like so much rubbish and that blur of heat was coming at me. I pressed the laser, aiming low, scouring the carpet and the end of his toes, not wanting to permanently hurt him. There was a brief whiff of rich spice and seared flesh, and Qui

At any other time, it might have been fu

Right now, when it was just another instance of how much he underestimated me, it wasn't.

I rose and aimed the laser at him. "Move, and next time it'll be more than your toes."

The surprise melted away, and anger sparked to life, burning in his dark eyes, heating the very air around me. "What are you doing here?"

"My job. Rhoan, you okay?"

"Yeah. Bit of a bruised jaw, but I ducked the worst of it." Footsteps whispered across the carpet. "He has the mage confined."

"Good." I looked at Qui

He did. And the closeness of him, the rich, glorious smell of him, had my hormones doing giddy little cartwheels. I couldn't ever imagine a time when I didn't want this vampire, moon-heated lust or not. But as I kept trying to tell him, while sex might play a major part in my life, there was only so much shit I could take before the enticement of good sex began to wane and frustration and a

Qui

"How did you find me here?" His voice was low, rich with the lilt of Ireland. Which usually meant he was barely controlling some emotion or other. His accent was rarely noticeable, otherwise.

"I asked Jack to track you after you knocked out the mage last night."

He raised his eyebrows, surprise evident yet again. "You countermanded my order to go home?"

"I did. Fancy that." I looked past him. "You want him cuffed?"

"There is no need—"

My finger tightened reflexively against the laser and a soft whine filled the room. "I am itching for an excuse to shoot, you know."

"Cuff him if you want to," Rhoan said.

"I want."

"Revenge for last night?" Qui

"Just doing my job," I said, and met his gaze.

I'm not entirely sure what he saw in my eyes, but the amusement and the anger fled abruptly. "Riley—"

"It's too late, Qui

"We had a deal—"

"Would that be the deal you keep breaking?" I caught the cuffs Rhoan tossed my way. "Tell me, how long have you been using our telepathic bond to curb my visits to the clubs?"

It was a guess, but a reasonable one. I certainly hadn't been restricting my visits consciously—but my reaction in the Blue Moon last night had certainly proved that they had indeed been curbed. And the wolf within wouldn't have done it willingly—hell, she wanted more visits, not less.

So it had to have been an unconscious decision. A decision caressed into compliance by a link so light I wasn't even aware of it.