Keri Arthur - Dangerous Games

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?"