Full Moon Rising (44 page)

Meaning lack of success had forced him to try other drugs. Meaning I might be as infertile as the doctors had feared. I closed my eyes, not really sure how I felt about that despite the lump that rose in my throat.

"So why wasn't this picked up in my six-month checks?"

He grimaced. "I checked, and it was. But fertility drugs are not on the reportable list, so it never made the overall summary."

"I'm gathering it will in the future?"

My voice was dry, and he grimaced. "
Anything
out of the ordinary will be reported from now on."

Even though it might be a case of shutting the barn door after the stock had bolted.

"Of course," Jack continued lightly, "Talon's desire to create the ultimate werewolf is quite amusing considering he himself is not entirely wolf."

I stared at him. "What?"

"He's a dhampire, just like you."

"He said he was a werewolf."

"And still insists he is. Our tests reveal otherwise."

So much for Talon thinking he was the pinnacle of wolf breeding. "So if Talon is an example of what was achievable, how come everything is going balls up now?"

"Because his father was a very powerful, very wealthy maverick working on his own, and much of his research was lost in a fire that destroyed his lab and took his life."

"That suggests that maybe Talon's not the only successful creation."

"Exactly."

"And maybe one or more of those creations are running the other lab." Which might or might not be called Libraska.

Jack gave me another of his pleased smiles, but I was too tired to get annoyed by it.

"Did all this come from reading his mind?" I asked.

"And the files in his office. Many of them are his father's."

"So you know who Talon's working for?"

He grimaced. "No. That section of his memories has been burned away. Someone with very powerful psychic gifts has been at him in the last forty-eight hours. He's only reciting what they've told him to recite."

"So why has he been so chatty?"

"Their erasing was not as good as it could have been."

"It also means they were willing to sacrifice Talon and this section of their work."

"Quinn was getting close, as were we. This project was probably becoming too hot to hold on to."

That made sense. "What about Misha? Where does he fit in, do you think?"

"I think he's definitely involved, but the force behind it? I don't think so, especially given his apparent willingness to let us investigate him." He looked at me. "If Talon is right, and the person is someone who knows you, then they may also know what you are."

"No one else knows what we are."

"I knew. Quinn knew. Liander knows."

"You want me as a guardian, Liander loves Rhoan and wouldn't harm a hair on my head because of it, and Quinn wouldn't have used the man he's known forever to be the source of those clones."

A smile tugged Jack's lips. "All true. But if Talon was telling the truth, and the person behind all this
is
someone you know well, then guessing the truth might not be as hard as you think."

I frowned. "But that doesn't make sense. I mean, if they've known all along what I was, why wait until the last week to send a shooter to test me or two things to kidnap me? And why suspect what I am, and yet apparently not Rhoan?"

He shrugged. "I really don't know."

"And here I was thinking the Directorate knew it all."

"We will. Eventually."

Great. In the meantime, I was stuck in the middle of it all, with no option but to remain involved no matter how much I might wish otherwise. I closed my eyes again, and asked the one question I didn't really want an answer to. "So where do we go from here?"

"Misha is the only lead we currently have."

"You can't say that until you've had time to go through all the files in the lab."

"True."

"I don't want anything more to do with Misha."

"I know."

"Then don't ask."

"I won't. But you have to ask yourself how are you ever going to know which mate you can trust and which mate might be another plant."

I knew all that. Knew I was really doing nothing more than blowing smoke, because truth was, I was going to see this through. I just didn't want Jack to think I was going to let it go further. Didn't want him to think he was getting me easily. "I will not become a guardian."

But it might already be too late, and both he and I knew it.

"Riley, if I had any other choice, I would not be asking this of you."

I snorted softly. "Don't try conning me, Jack. Not this time."

He gave me a lopsided smile. "This time, it's the truth. Whoever's behind this has obviously infiltrated the Directorate. I have no idea who else there might be besides Alan Brown and Gautier. All the people on that list you found in Brown's office are dead, and while we are following up everything they worked on, it's going to take time. Which means that Misha is currently our only viable source of information. If we try to put anyone else on his trail or in his bed right now, they'll know we're on to him."

"Misha knows we're on to him. Raiding his office gave that away."

"But I suspect Misha is playing both sides of the fence, and that could certainly work to our advantage."

"Meaning I should just do my duty and spread my legs like the good little doggy that I am?"

Annoyance flickered in his eyes. "We found Kelly's remains in that place, Riley. She'd been beaten to a pulp in that goddamn arena."

Tears squeezed past my closed eyelids. I'd hoped against hope that her fate would be different from that of the other missing guardians. Had hoped that she was still undercover and merely overdue. But fate seemed set on turning my world upside down just then, and I really should have known that hope wasn't on the agenda.

"That's playing dirty, Jack."

"
They're
playing dirty. I have no choice but to do the same."

I didn't say anything. Just grieved for the loss of a rare friend.

"It's not over, and deep down you know it."

I swiped the tears from my cheeks and gave him what he wanted. "You're wasting breath on the already converted."

He chuckled softly and patted my arm. "You are going to be one of my best."

"No, I'm not. Nor will I approach Misha. I think it best if we just sit back and let him make the first move."

"With that, I can agree." He rose, and stretched, his bones cracking lightly. "Why don't you go find your brother and both of you go home?"

I looked at him. "I think we both deserve a week off for R and R."

His gaze narrowed slightly, but the glimmer was back in his eyes. "Two days."

"Five."

"Three."

"Let's split the difference, then."

He grinned. "Done deal. But if Misha approaches you in that time, I expect to be told."

"Okay." But he wouldn't. I was sure of that, if nothing else.

Jack walked down the hill and disappeared inside the building. I lay in the sunshine a bit longer, then decided I'd better move before the weeds started to claim me.

I pushed upright and headed back down to Genoveve. Rhoan appeared out of the main doors as I neared the road, looking as weary and disheveled as I felt.

He didn't say anything, just pulled me into the hug I'd been wanting all night. The dam broke, and the tears started falling--grief for Kelly, grief for myself, and grief for a relationship that had never been given a chance.

"Don't let him pressure you into anything you don't want to do," Rhoan said, after a while.

I pulled back, hiccuping and wiping borrowed sleeves across my face. "I won't."

"And don't give up on Quinn."

My gaze searched his. "You're the one who told me not to expect anything from him."

He grimaced. "That was before I read his note."

My heart leapt. "He left a note?"

"Yeah, in the cryogenic chamber they must have been keeping Henri in. Here."

He dug a white piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. My fingers shook as I unfolded it.

Thank you for helping me find my friend. Sorry I cannot offer what you are searching for. If we had but met centuries ago . . . Take care. Quinn.

My heart sunk, and I met my brother's gaze. "It's hardly a declaration of intent."

He grinned. "To have written that much means the man at least feels something more than a sexual attraction, especially since he added 'if we had met sooner'."

I glanced down at the note again. "If I do what Jack wants me to do, I can take this"--I raised the note, scrunched it into a ball, and tossed it away--"and do that."

"Give him time, Riley. You haven't known each other very long, and he's had a rough time with wolves."

"I know." I forced a smile. "But I
am
a wolf, and he's a vampire with some very human hangups. I don't think there's a whole lot of common ground between us."

"But a wolf never gives up once the scent of a chase is on."

I gave him a wry smile. "Especially when the scent leads to great sex."

"Precisely. Great sex is something one can never give up on."

"Is that why you're still with Davern?"

"Hell, yeah." He gave me a cheeky grin, then twined his fingers through mine and squeezed them lightly. "Why don't we go home, get cleaned up, then go out and get blindly, stinkingly, drunk?"

I smiled. "That's seems like the perfect ending to a perfectly wretched week."

And it was.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

K
ERI
A
RTHUR
first started writing when she was twelve years old. A favorite author had just killed off a character she loved, so she grabbed a pen and paper and rewrote the whole book--making sure said favorite character lived rather than died.

She's been writing ever since. To date, she's finished fifteen novels, and her books have received many nominations and prizes, including: making the final five in the Random House Australia George Turner Prize, been nominated in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards, received a "perfect 10" from Romance Reviews Today, as well as being nominated for Best Shapeshifter in PNR's PEARL Awards.

She's a dessert and function cook by trade, and married to a wonderful man who not only supports her writing, but who also does the majority of the housework. They have one daughter, and live in Melbourne, Australia.

FULL MOON RISING

A Bantam Book / February 2006

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright (c) 2006 by Keri Arthur

Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portrayal of a boxed "s" are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Arthur, Keri.

Full moon rising / Keri Arthur.

p. cm.

eISBN: 0-553-90230-X

1. Brothers and sisters--Fiction. 2. Melbourne (Vic.)--Fiction. 3. Missing persons--Fiction. 4. Werewolves--Fiction. 5. Vampires--Fiction. ;6. Twins--Fiction. I. Title.

PR9619.4.A78F85 2006

823'.92--dc22