Dangerous Games (Riley Jenson Guardian #4) - Page 8

Jack wasn't going to let me walk out on Jin for very long, that much was obvious. Not when the club he worked at had finally provided a link between all the murdered women. Jin was a source of information not yet fully explored.

None of which changed my determination to walk out now. I glanced around to ensure no one was paying us any particular attention, then got the woman to download onto a disk all the membership files and employee details possible. The gold pass membership files were restricted, and I wasn't about to push my luck by getting her to try and load those. Jack could order one of his tech plebs to do that. Although I'm sure the caramel cow would just wet herself at the thought of showing off her technical skills. She certainly had them. I'd caught her hacking into my files once.

I slipped the disk into my pocket, then erased my tracks in the woman's mind and headed out the door. Once I'd returned my pass to the guard and was safely ensconced in my car, I grabbed my phone and dialed jack.

"She reports twice in a twenty-four-hour period," he said, by way of hello. "This is indeed a time for miracles."

"You've been hanging around the cow too much. You've picked up her smart mouth."

"The only woman in my employ who has the sass to backchat her boss is the one I'm talking to. And it's not nice to call someone a cow."

"It is when they have tits the size of hers. And don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Are you ringing for a reason? Or do you just want to piss me off?"

Both, usually, but I didn't think it would be wise to admit that. "I think I've found the link between all our victims."

"What? How?"

"All five were members of the gold pass section of the Hunter's Club, the upmarket health and fitness club Jin part-times at. From what I've seen, the gold-pass club is a word-only membership for people with special requirements."

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"What sort of special requirements?"

"They need extreme pain to get their rocks off."

"All of our victims had healed scars on their backs and arms."

"They should have massive scars if what I've just seen is any indication of what they go through." I hesitated.

"It's quite possible I've met the woman lined up to be the next victim. Her name is Jan Tait."

"You got all her details?"

"I grabbed everything off their computer that I could. The gold-pass membership files will require hacking skills to get into."

"We'll handle that end. You stay on Jin."

Yeah, right. "Um… there's been bit of a development in that area. I'm afraid I just walked out on him."

His sigh was a sound of frustration. "Can you do nothing the easy way?"

"Trust me, I had no option. But I'll follow him for the rest of the night, see where he goes and who he talks to."

"Good. In the meantime, I'll get Salliane to dig up the dirt on the Hunter's Club and its owner."

"According to Jan, the owner of the Hunter's Club just happens to be the brother of the woman Quinn is following."

"Interesting."

"Why?"

"Because we've been cross-checking the Cattle Club's security tapes, and have discovered Jin talking to a man named John Kingsley on more than a few occasions."

"So?"

"So, he's a very nasty piece of work who's been suspected of several murders. There's never been enough evidence found to convict him."

"That still doesn't explain why he's raised your bad-guy antennae."

"Ah, but see, he also happens to have a half sister by the name of Maisie Foster, who owns a punishment club by the name of – "

"The Hellion Club," I finished for him. "So Rhoan's already checking this Kingsley person out?"

"Yeah." Amusement crept into his voice as he added, "Apparently he ran into Quinn there."

My eyebrows raised. "Don't you think it's a little bit coincidental that Quinn is following the woman who owns the club that is recommending people to the special services of the Hunter's Club? He obviously knows something he's not telling us."

"Which means you need to find out what you can from him."

Yeah, like he was going to tell me anything. He'd more than likely try locking me in a closet somewhere. For my own protection, of course. "You think this woman could be the one raising the demons?"

"I have no idea. Though I doubt Quinn would simply follow her if that were the case."

"He would if he had motives other than finding the person who was raising the demons." And I very much suspected that was the case. After all, the spooky guy in the alley had basically implied there was more to this than just a couple of demons.

"As I said, question him." He paused. "I did a search for that name the souls gave you."

"And?"

"Azhi Dahaki is part of an ancient Persian legend. It's said that he's the servant of Angra Mainyu, who's supposedly the god of darkness, the eternal destroyer of good, the personification and creator of evil, and bringer of death and disease."

"A real charmer in other words." I paused. "That ring I found had Persian hieroglyphic thingies on the back of it."

"Cuneiform inscriptions, actually."

"So you've translated them?"

"Not fully."

His voice was grim, and chills skated across my skin. "What does it say so far?"

"Something about entrusting their souls to the god of darkness."

I rubbed my arms. "But it's just a legend, isn't it? I mean, a god of darkness and lies can't really exist, can it?"

"Humans once believed werewolves and vampires didn't exist."

"That's because we were covering our asses like crazy. And it's also totally different to this sort of situation."

"No, it's not. And there is no reason to believe there aren't things in this world that have chosen to remain hidden while the bolder of our races have stepped out of the shadows."

"Jack, we're talking about an ancient god here."

"Are we? Or are we merely talking about an entity that has bided his time for right moment to come out of hiding?"

"Is there a third option? I mean, those two really suck."

He chuckled softly. "We're still researching the legend. But it's not looking good." He hesitated. "Be wary around Jin. If he is part of this legend, he may have powers we can't even begin to guess at."

That was something I didn't want to think about. "Anything else I need to know about Azhi Dahaki?"

"Well, he's supposedly a three-headed dragon who represented pain, despair, and death."

"Hate to break this to you, but no one I've met is a dragon, let alone one with three heads."

"It could be a figure of speech, remember that. And you're the one who mentioned Jin seems to enjoy pain."

"He seems to feed on it," I said, as I recalled the ring I'd found at Dunleavy's and the ring Jin had been wearing. Remembered the dark room and the two men. One sucking in the sound of pain, the other despair.

Fuck.

Legends could come to life.

"Jin and Marcus," I added. "Pain and despair. Two of the heads."

"Who's Marcus?"

"One of club's employees, and the man working Jan Tait over."

"So, that leaves one more – death."

I hesitated. "Gautier's working for these people. Could he be the death head?"

"It's possible, but Gautier's not sexual, and that seems to be a requirement of the dragons."

"Gautier's been off the Directorate leash for a while. It's possible he's changed or evolved."

"But he would have to change his very nature to become sexual. Activate your tracker, Riley, and keep in contact."

"Will do." I hung up, then pressed the comlink in my ear to activate the tracking. I know Jack's new rules said all guardians had to be traceable twenty-four hours a day, but I'd be damned if I'd follow that particular order unless absolutely necessary. A girl needed some privacy. Especially with the full moon rising.

I started the car and drove around the building until I found the parking lot exit. I parked several spaces down, then hunkered down in the seat to wait.

The phone rang after half an hour. I glanced at the number ID and smiled. Jin had obviously discovered I'd skipped.

I pressed the receive button and said, "Hello?"

"Riley? Where the hell are you?"

"I'm on my way home. Where else would I be after your charming little display of machismo?"

"You liked it. You can't deny that."

"Just because I like it rough in bed doesn't mean I like it rough out of it. If that's what you like, then go find another playmate." And with that, I hung up.

The grass was always greener on the other side of the fence, and I was betting on the fact that Jin would be desperate to have what was now out of his reach. I wasn't the only one who hungered this night. I'd seen Jin in action, and his needs were every bit as fierce as a wolf in moon heat.

He'd ring me, and keep on ringing me, until he got me again. Because if nothing else, I was a wolf and I gave good sex.

He did ring, several more times. I studiously ignored all calls and after an hour or so, saw him pull out of the car park in a white BMW. Not the sort of car I would have imagined him in – something black, sporty, and dangerous would have been more appropriate, surely.

Once he'd passed, I pushed upright and pulled out after him. Following him wasn't hard, despite the speed he was doing. Rush hour had well and truly passed and the streets were relatively clear of traffic. In fact, the hardest thing about the whole exercise was trying to remain far enough behind that he didn't notice me without me losing him.

I wasn't entirely surprised that we ended up in Toorak. That's where Quinn was, and he sure as hell seemed to know more about this whole situation than the rest of us. And he was going to let me in on the secret, or I was going to get really angry. Just how much good that would do was anyone's guess.

Though zilch was an odds-on bet.

Jin pulled into the driveway of a gated residence. I stopped well up the street, and got out once the gates had opened and he'd driven in.

The cool breezed swirled around me, carrying with it a familiar scent. But not the one I was expecting.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and scanned the night behind me. "Gautier, one of these days you'll actually bathe and I'll be in deep shit."

His soft chuckle slid across the darkness as uneasily as oil across water. Chills skittered across my skin. There'd always been something particularly nasty about Gautier's laugh, but tonight it seemed ten times worse.

"And one of these days, I'm going to enjoy smacking that smart mouth from your face." He shook free of the shadows and strolled toward me. "Interesting that we both turn up at this place."

Tension rippled through my limbs. I shifted my stance a little but still felt like a sprinter at the starting block. All edgy and ready to run. "The only thing interesting about it is the fact I doubt it's coincidental."

He stopped well short of laser range. Not that I actually had a laser to use, but I wasn't about to let him in on that little secret.

"Coincidence doesn't play a huge role in my actions," he admitted, "but I am curious as to what you're doing here."

I raised an eyebrow. "You don't know? I thought you knew everything."

"Oh, I know more than you could ever guess."

His smile was all teeth. Too much teeth, in fact. But it was his gaze that sent another chill down my spine.

There was something not quite right about his eyes.

Something almost inhuman.

Not vampire inhuman, but something more. Something alien and old.

And it reminded me of the coldness I'd seen lurking in Jin's eyes.

Gautier was the death head of the dragon.

Sexual or not, he was definitely one of them.

I flared my nostrils, drawing in his scents, tasting the nuances and differences. It had changed – the differences were slight, but nevertheless there. But I couldn't say for sure that it was scent I'd smelled emanating from room two at the health club. Maybe the night, the cold, and my fear was somehow distorting sensory information.

Or maybe something else was. Someone else.

I resisted the urge to retreat and shifted one pocketed hand, as if clenching a nonexistent weapon tighter. His gaze flickered down and his toothy smile grew. I had a bad feeling he wasn't fooled by the ruse.

Either that, or he wasn't worried about being shot by a laser. Which was probably more likely. He was the type to think getting shot might be a good price to pay for the fruition of his aims. And it's what those aims were when it came to the immediate future and me that had me worried.

And he knew it, damn him. The quick glimmer of amusement firing his cold eyes was easy to see, even at night.

"Riley, keep him talking," Rhoan said into my ear, through my still-open link. "I'm armed and on my way."

Good, I wanted to say. Hurry.

But Rhoan was mind-blind, and I dared not use the com-link because it would only warn Gautier. I forced a smile and said, "So if you know it all, tell me why you killed Dunleavy and his girlfriend."

He raised a mocking eyebrow. "What makes you think I did that?"

"It's that smell thing I keep warning you about. It lingers, you know?"

"They died during daylight. You know I can't move around in daylight."

"I know you never used to be able to, but you've been off the leash for a while, and who knows what nasty sort of company you've been keeping? Or what talents they have that could help a foul piece of work like yourself?"

He raised a mocking eyebrow. "Nasty doesn't even begin to cover my current company, dear Riley. And you should watch yourself. He has his eye on you."

I forced a grin. "Is that concern I hear in your voice, Gautier? I'm so touched."

"You will be, if he gets his hands on you."

"So why the warning, Gautier? If you're working for these people, why warn me?"

"Because you are mine to destroy." He took a step forward. I took one back. He grinned, and it was a cold, ferocious thing. "I intend to destroy all you hold dear, and then I intend to destroy you. Slowly, and sweetly. And no one – no matter who or what they are – will stop me. Not when I get all that I am promised."

A shiver ran through my soul. There would be nothing sweet about his sort of destruction, of that I was sure. Especially not now he'd become the death head of an ancient legend. "And just what were you promised, Gautier? Or should I guess? Let's see, what do all good little psychos want? Power?"

"You will discover soon enough."

And with that, he attacked.

It was like fighting a cyclone – he was all power, speed, and bloody force, and stopping him was next to useless. He'd been bred for fighting and killing, and I was only a new inductee. And a reluctant one at that.

I twisted away from his blows, then backed away as fast as I could. I didn't want to fight Gautier – not now, and not in the future. And especially not when Rhoan was on his way armed with weaponry that would kill the bastard once and for all.

But Gautier didn't follow my retreat. Just stopped and shook the shadows from his form again. He gave me a grin, and sucked in a deep breath.

"Ah, fear. Such a sweet, sweet thing."

A familiar tingle ran across my skin, telling me Rhoan was near. I didn't react, not even when the red light of a laser cut across the night, arcing toward Gautier.

But he must have sensed Rhoan's presence at the last moment, because he twisted away suddenly. The laser aimed at his head cut into his shoulder instead, and the smell of burned flesh spun through the air.

Gautier laughed. Laughed.

The man was terminally insane, there was no doubt about it.

But while he might be insane, he wasn't stupid. He gave us a respectful bow, then faded into the night and ran away.

"Never attack Riley without looking over your shoulder for me," Rhoan shouted to his fleeing form. Then he gave me a grin and casually Bung the laser rifle over his shoulder. "Want to give chase?"

"As much as I enjoy a good hunt, that bastard probably has a trap ready and waiting."

"Probably. But it's all part of the fun."

"You're as mad as he is."

"Not really." He leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the check. "I'm not insane enough to tackle you alone."

I grinned. "Only because I'm armed with saucy secrets your lover would just adore to hear, and you know I'm not afraid to use them. I don't have that advantage over Gautier."

"The only advantage we'll ever have over him is if we tackle him together." He slipped an arm through mine and began guiding me down the street. "Next time you scent him, don't stand there waiting. Just run."

"And give him the satisfaction of my fear? No way in hell."

He looked at me, eyebrow raised. "And you call me mad?"

"Well, it does run in the family, you know."

He chuckled softly, then said, "So, give me an update on your date."

I did, including what Jack had said about the old Persian legends and my thoughts on who the dragons might be – including the fact that Gautier was one of them. And then I told him everything Gautier had said.

"And you believe him?" Rhoan asked.

"I believe that he's playing his own game, whatever else he might be doing or might have become." I shrugged. "Gautier's a killer, but he's not exactly the world's greatest thinker. It makes sense that if there was someone who was stronger and darker in town, he'd align himself with them. Even if it is just a means to an end."

"I don't understand what Gautier would get out of such a deal, though."

"Well, being the death head for a dark god would surely come with benefits. Like the ability to face sunlight. If he did kill Dunleavy and his girlfriend – and he certainly didn't deny it – then he can now move around in the day. And that shouldn't be possible for a vamp his age."

"Is there magic that can give such protection?"

"Who knows? But if magic can raise demons and a dark god, why shouldn't it be able to protect a vampire from the sun?"

He frowned as he slid open the van's door. "So now all we have to figure out is what Gautier and his cohorts actually are – and then a way to stop them."

"Well, Jin reads as human and Gautier still reads as a vampire, but maybe that's because their shells still are. Maybe their beings have become something else entirely."

He raised an eyebrow as he helped me into the back of the van. "Spirits of some kind?"

"If I can see souls rising from the dead, and Quinn can be hunted by demons, there's really no saying that an ancient spirit can't be recalled to claim a new body, is there?"

He slid the door shut then waved a hand at the thermos of coffee sitting on a small bench filled with weapons as he moved toward the seat in front of the bank of monitors, "You know, that's an awfully scary thought."

"Yeah, I can see you're shaking in your boots."

"On the inside, I am." His smile belayed any attempt of seriousness. "The Directorate as a whole has no experience in dealing with things non-substantial. I mean, how do you kill a spirit?"

"I don't know." I poured myself a cup of coffee and briefly breathed in the smell. Bliss in a cup. even if it looked like mud and probably tasted just as bad. "But I know someone who might."

He raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Quinn."

He glanced at the screens. "He's parked in the right corner of the back garden if you want to talk to him."

I grinned. "That's a might worse than having fairies in the bottom of a garden."

"Trust me, I'm the only fairy around this neighborhood at the moment."

"A good thing with the moon on the rise." I drained the coffee in several gulps, and winced a little at its bitter taste.

"True." He pointed a finger at the screen. "Check out the security lines before you go. Don't want you tripping over any alarms and tipping them off."

"Hey, I'm not a complete novice at this."

He merely grinned and pointed at the screen. So I checked it out and memorized all the hot spots. "That's a whole lot of security happening."

"Makes you wonder what, exactly, they're protecting, doesn't it?"

I looked at the other screens. There were cameras on every angle of the house, but none on the inside. "You able to hear their conversations yet?"

"Some. They've got some sort of shielding around the place. We only pick up things when they're near the windows."

"Frustrating."

"Very. But Jack's working on subverting their internal security system and fast-tracking it into ours."

"Could be handy. We need to know what those bastards are discussing." Because it would be nasty, of that I had no doubt. Whether or not it related to our investigation was the question we had to answer.

But all the indications we'd had so far certainly suggested they would.

I pushed away from the monitors. "I'm off to find Quinn. If you hear anything odd happening, give me a call." I slid the door open, then paused and looked back at my brother. "And lock this door. Gautier may have run, but he could come back. I don't trust him one iota."

"I can take care of myself, Riley."

"But that bastard is out to hurt me, and the best way to hurt me is to hurt you."

"If he wanted to take me out, he could do so without coming anywhere near the van."

Well, yeah, but Gautier was a man who liked to taste his victory. Liked to breathe it deep, and get his jollies off it. He could hardly do that if he just blew the van to pieces.

"Is it going to hurt you to lock the door?"

He rose. "If it stops you nagging, I'll lock the door. Go find your vampire, woman, and ease some of that tension I can smell."

"I have a feeling my vampire isn't going to be too compliant in that regard."

"Well, work for it, girl. It's about time you had to."

"Bitch."

"Right back at ya, babe. And don't switch the com-link off – unless you're going to get frisky with Quinn. That I don't need to hear."

I grinned and headed out. Behind me, the van door closed and locks tumbled into place. A little bit of tension ran from my limbs. While I didn't think Gautier would attack again, you just never knew. If there was one person in this world who'd could be trusted to do the unexpected, it was that slimy bastard.

I shifted shape in the shadows, then leapt into the nearest yard. I had no idea what sort of security any of the neighboring houses had, but at least if I tripped an alarm, all the occupants would see was a wolfy-looking dog.

I scrambled over the gate, scraping my belly on the tops of the pickets in the process, then made my way around to the back garden. Several more fences later, I was in Kingsley's backyard.

Quinn's delicious scent filled the air. I sniffed it happily, drawing it deeply into my lungs, letting the delicious aroma fill me the way I wished his body could fill me, then trotted across to him, carefully avoiding the two spots containing infrared sensors.

"Some people need to be tied up, obviously," he said, amusement warring with frustration in his soft tones.

I shifted shape, then reached under my torn sweater and shook my bra free. Lacy items just didn't handle the change as well as stretchy ones. My sweatpants were still serviceable, and while my sweater was torn, it could be tied at the front and still worn. But the bra – useless.

"Jin did enough of that the other night," I said, tossing the bra over the neighboring fence. Let them have fun trying to figure out where it'd come from. "I've discovered it isn't on my list of favorite things."

"Ah," he said, his gaze on mine and filled with a flame that was all sexual awareness, all desires. "Is that why you're here?"

"Partly. Jin tried getting rough out of bed, and I decided he needed a lesson in manners. I left, and he lost his temper and came here."

"So the whole gang is here?"

"Including Rhoan and Gautier." I studied him as I lashed the ends of my sweater over my breasts. "Have you been back home yet?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to?"

"Well, I smashed a few things, but other than that, it's in reasonable order."

"All." He paused. "There were some figurines amongst the casualties, I suppose?"

"One or two."

"They were worth a fortune, you know."

"Good."

"That's not very adult behavior."

"And drugging me, taking away my clothes and car, and locking me up, was?"

"I was only trying to – "

"Next time," I interrupted, "try treating me like an adult. Let me make my own decisions and mistakes."

"A mistake on this case could get you killed."

"I'm we!! aware of that fact. But it's my decision, and my decision alone. You have no rights, and no say, in my life, Quinn. You never will."

"We'll see."

Frustration swirled through me. I wondered – and not for the first time – if continuing a relationship with Quinn was worth all the angst. Then I remembered the sex, and thought, Hell, yeah, it most certainly was. Still, I couldn't help asking, "Why won't you give this fantasy up? Why not settle for what you can have – you and me in an ongoing but not mutually exclusive arrangement?"

He raised the eyebrow again. "Are you willing to give up your white picket fences and two-point-five kids dream?"

"No – "

"Then do not tell me to give up what I desire."

"The difference is, I'm not trying to force my dreams on anyone. You are."

He didn't answer, his gaze going to the house instead. Part of me figured it was little more than a ruse to avoid answering a difficult accusation, but I lowered a shield and stretched out telepathically anyway. Not toward him, which would be a stupid thing to do considering his telepathic skills could sweep mine under the nearby daisies and stomp all over them, but toward the house. Only my telepathic "beam" somehow mingled with Quinn's, and while I couldn't actually hear his thoughts because of his shields, the resulting mix triggered some sort of weird amplification between us and those within the house.

Voices sprang into focus – not just one person, but everyone in the house – in some strange sort of "conference call." I was hearing their thoughts as conversations, in real-time. Weird, totally weird.

And yet another sign the drugs I'd been injected with were continuing to affect my body and my psi-skills in unexpected ways.

"We can't afford to have this O'Conor person sniffing around much longer," Jin's mental tones were filled with simmering tension – tension that was both sexual and physical. "He's getting too close."

"We're trying our best to get rid of him," another voice said, the mental tone mild and yet filled with an underlying iciness. Only it was more an inhumanity than any mere coldness, and it had my soul shivering.

"Obviously, you're not trying hard enough." The words were practically spat. Jin was a very unhappy boy indeed. The thought cheered me no end.

"The demons are having trouble tracking his life force. It's intermittent." The voice was female, and presumably Maisie Foster. Something in the way she spoke was oddly familiar – though why, I had no idea.

"He's a fucking vampire – how could his life force be intermittent?"

"Because before he was a vampire he was something else. He almost destroyed me once. I do not wish to risk it again."

The annoyance I'd felt earlier increased tenfold. Quinn had already told me that before he'd become a vampire, he'd been something more than human, so that in itself was no surprise. But he'd conveniently forgotten to add that that something had already met this evil.

"I have my reasons for keeping secrets," he said softly, without even looking at me.

"And I've just about had enough of your secrets and lies. You could have saved the Directorate so much time and energy if you'd just told us what you knew from the beginning."

Not to mention the fact that his admission might have prevented my needing to fuck the creep. I didn't want to sleep with bad guys just to get information – and Quinn was well aware of that fact. Hell, he hated the fact that I was doing it, so why not come forth with information if it could have prevented it?

"Because I did not know that your case and mine were one and the same."

Mainly because he didn't bother to check. But I resisted the urge to say the words out loud. Those inside the house were still talking, and right now, getting information that might end this case was far more important than sorting out a vampire determined to get his own way – whether it be on the case or in our relationship.

"He could destroy us again if we do not proceed cautiously," the deep voice said. "He is one of the few on this earth who even remembers us as anything more than legend."

"So, we sit around and twiddle our thumbs until his life force becomes strong enough for the demons to track?"

"No," Maisie said. "I intend to conjure a stronger class of demon, but it takes time to summon them. I've had to send the sub-demons back to hell so I have the energy reserves required."

I glanced at Quinn as Jin began questioning Maisie further. "Sounds to me like we need to contain Mais