Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur Read Free Book Online Page B

moment, dark eyes now shuttered. "Because I wasn't sure you were who you said you were."
    "And why would you think that?"
    "I'm attacked, Rhoan has disappeared, and when I get to his flat, he suddenly has a roomie I know nothing about."
    "Not surprising, considering you couldn't remember much of anything yesterday."
    "True." He hesitated. "But even when my memory returned, I had no recollection of his mentioning he shared the apartment with anyone."
    "And why should he have mentioned something like that?"
    He shrugged. "We've been friends for a while. I think it odd he's never mentioned you were sharing."
    "Well, he's hasn't mentioned you at all, buddy boy, so the distrust is completely mutual." I rolled my shoulder, then retied the remnants of my shirt to ensure my boobs didn't fall all the way out. Another fine for indecent exposure was not what I needed just then. "So tell me why we're here."
    "I had nowhere else to take you. I'm a vampire, remember, and have limited options."
    "A hospital is public."
    He raised an eyebrow. "And here I was thinking wolves preferred to avoid hospitals where possible."
    "We do, but there are a dozen other places you could have taken me." Like the cafe across the road that served hazelnut coffee and thick steak sandwiches. Right then, I needed both. Followed by a chaser of chocolate and maybe even a little sex.
    My gaze slid down his body and came to rest on his lean, muscular legs. Okay, a whole lot of sex, preferably with those legs wrapped securely around mine . . .
    I tried to get a leash around my rampaging hormones. It was
not
the time for such thoughts.
    "A cafe is too public," he said, the amused glitter in his eyes suggesting he suspected the direction of my thoughts even if he couldn't actually read my mind. "Here, at least, I could ensure no one came near enough to disturb us, or see the state you were in. Anywhere else, I might have raised suspicions."
    Meaning, of course, he was using the old mind-lock trick to keep people out of the room. "This place is usually pretty full, even on a Sunday. That's a fair amount of control you have happening there." More, in fact, than even Gautier had. It was an almost scary thought.
    He considered me for a moment, then said, "And yet, despite that one moment when you were in pain, I am not able to touch your mind at all. That suggests a considerable amount of power on your part."
    "I work with vampires. Believe me, I need to know how to block you guys." I paused. "If you were following me, why the hell didn't you try and stop that madman?"
    "Because I wasn't sure what he was up to until he pulled out the gun. Despite popular opinion, vampires are not faster than a speeding bullet."
    I half grinned. "So you couldn't read him either?"
    He raised a hand. A thin wire hung from a fingertip. "He was wearing a shield against psychic intrusion."
    The nanowire was the latest development in nanotechnology for the protection against psychic intrusion. I didn't know how it actually worked, but I did know it only worked when the two ends were connected, and that it was somehow powered by the heat of the body. It wasn't yet available to the general public, and the Directorate was fighting to keep it that way. A lot of their information gathering came via psychic means.
    And if that werewolf had a wire on, he obviously had either government or criminal connections, because they were the only ones who currently had them.
    "Not being able to read him must have pissed you off."
    "A little."
    More than a little, if his expression was anything to go by. My grin became full-blown. "So what did you do when he shot me?"
    "What do you think I did? I killed him."
    Which was the vampire's answer to any problem--kill first, ask questions later. It was an okay solution if the problem happened to be someone who'd undertaken the ceremony to become a vampire, but pretty much useless with everyone else. The truly dead couldn't answer questions. "And the