Embraced By Darkness

"You willing to bet the life of your employer on the fact you're faster with a gun than I am?" Yes.

"Then you're a fool. And Patrin obviously hasn't told you what I am."

"You're a fucking useless half-breed who needs to be taken down a peg or two, that's what you are," Patrin snarled.

I smiled grimly and wedged the gun barrel into his neck a little harder. Sweat popped out across his forehead and the scent of his fear increased.

God, it felt good. Damned good.

"And who's going to do that, Patrin? You? Or will you run to Daddy for help like you always do?"

"Bitch, I don't need my father's help to take the likes of you. I never have."

"Which is why you're now on your back with a gun shoved into your throat, isn't it?" I said pleasantly.

He snarled and bucked, trying to throw me off. I gripped harder with my thighs, using more force than necessary. Indeed, more force than a wolf should have had. But then, I wasn't just wolf—and he, of all people, should have remembered that.

He swore at me, viciously and fluently. I ignored him, and glanced at the second wolf. He, too, was a red wolf, but from a different pack. His hair was so dark it almost looked black in the fast-disappearing light, and his eyes were golden.

"Please tell your employer if he doesn't remain still, I'm going to be forced to shoot something vital."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to let you do that." He was still using calm tones, and though there was tension to be seen in his lean body, the vibes he was throwing off were all cool confidence.

"And I'm afraid you won't stop me." I hesitated, glancing back at Patrin. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?"

"That I'm a guardian." I glanced at the second wolf again. "I'm trained to track, fight, and kill vampires. Many of my kills have been several hundred years old, and far faster and stronger than you two ever could be."

Which was more than a slight fabrication of the truth, but neither of them would know that. Besides, I hardly think they'd believe me if I said I'd helped bring down a dark god, and that was nothing but the truth.

"No, he didn't tell me that. But I still can't let you shoot him. I have to try and stop you. You understand."

What I understood was that his calm demeanor suggested he was well trained, and probably a deadly shot. Patrin would only hire the best, after all. And as much as I would have loved to prove a point to these men, I'd really been shot at enough today.

So I eased the gun away from Patrin's neck, emptied the chamber, then pushed the weapon across the floor to the second man. "I actually have no plans to kill him today. Unless, of course, he refuses to answer my questions."

"Fair enough." The flick of movement had me tensing—and suddenly wondering if I'd misjudged him—but he was merely bending to retrieve his weapon. "I'm Kye, by the way."

"I gathered that." I looked down at Patrin again. "If I get off you, are you going to behave?"

"You're the one that attacked me" he all but spat.

"Nice change, huh?"

I climbed off him and stepped back. He got to his feet, rubbing his neck and glaring at Kye.

"So tell me, did that fucker you call Father arrange a hit on me?"

"No, though it's a damn good idea." He dug a handkerchief out of his suit pocket and dabbed rather uselessly at his bloody nose. "Why?"

"Because someone set up an ambush outside, complete with stiver bullets."

"Hence your rather dramatic entrance," Kye said, as he walked across to the window.

"Well, finding strangers sitting in my living room after a close brush with silver does make me a little wary." I looked at Patrin again. "And if you don't tell me why you're here, I might get violent again."

"A letter arrived for me yesterday," he said. "From Adrie

I raised my eyebrows. "I thought she was dead."

"She is." His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. Yet the emotion lacking in his voice was all too evident in his eyes. Patrin wasn't only angry, he wanted revenge.

That was why he was here—to hunt down and kill his daughter's murderer. Not an unexpected sentiment, even from a wolf as cold and as uncaring as Patrin.

But the fact that Adrie

I wondered if she'd sent a letter to Jodie. I hoped so. "What did she say in the letter?"

"That something was going on at some club."

"Did she say what?" I walked across to the ironing basket and got a clean towel out. My arm was still bleeding but I didn't want to shift shape with these two men in the room. They might not be out to get me, but I still wasn't about to trust them. And shifting to wolf form would put me at a disadvantage—one the past had proved Patrin would use.

"She said the owners of the club were using one of the rooms to tape politicians and corporate perso

So that was why she'd disappeared? Because she'd been sticking her nose in where it didn't belong and had discovered too much? But what, then, was the co

"We are aware of the blackmail angle." Though we weren't following it up, because I'd forgotten to tell Jack about it. "Did she say who the owners were? Give a description?"

He shook his head. "But if the club's under investigation, you should already know that."

"What's on paper, and what the reality is, are often two different things. As you should know." Hell, thanks to the hours I'd spent listening to conversations I shouldn't have as a kid, I knew that Patrin and his bastard father owned several manufacturing firms. But for tax purposes, their names were hidden by a long paper trail. I glanced at my watch. "If that's all, I need you to leave. I have stuff to do before I go to work tonight."

He took a step toward me. Part of me wanted to step back. The other part, the part wanting revenge for old hurts, bristled. It was all I could do not to step forward and challenge.

"I want the name of the club." His voice was low, dangerous.

I clenched my fists, but resisted the impulse to lash out. To thump the cold arrogance from his already bloody face, "It's guardian business, and you will keep your stinking little nose out of it."

"Adrie

"Not on my shift, it won't. Not by you, anyway."

He looked me up and down, the cold arrogance giving way to familiar disdain. "And you're going to stop me?"

I gave him a cool, hard smile, then snapped the shadows around my body and ran forward. Before cither of them could even react, I'd snatched Kye's weapon and had it shoved hard under Patrin's neck.

For the first time there was fear, true fear, in his expression. Maybe he'd finally realized the pup he'd kicked for so long was no longer easy bait.

I shook the shadows free, then said softly, "Yes, I will stop you. And it won't matter how good Kye is, or how many like him you hire, I've learned to use all the skills of my heritage, Patrin, and I'm more dangerous than you could ever know."

Nothing like blowing your own horn, but hey, after years of putting up with his shit, it was the least I deserved. I shoved him, sending him flailing backward toward the sofa, then turned and handed the weapon back to Kye. He didn't say anything, just sheathed the weapon before nodding toward the window. "If your car is the Ford with the shot-out door, there's a couple of people down there looking at it."

I walked across to the window and looked down. I didn't recognize the faces, but the car parked behind mine was Directorate issue.

"It's a Directorate forensic team," I said, and turned around. "Now, is that all Adrie