Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian #3)(48)

The door slammed shut and darkness consumed us. Bolts thudded home, then the guard’s hand gripped my arm with unerring accuracy. Which suggested he was one of Starr’s “enhanced” humans, because there was no way in hell a normal human could see in this darkness. Hell, I could barely see, and I had wolf sight. Switching to vampire infrared solved that problem, but he didn’t have that option.
Or maybe he did. Who knew what gene pool Starr’s people had been paddling in of late?
“Walk,” he said, tugging me forward.
“Damn dark in here.” I forced a quavering note into my voice. Acting helpless and scared couldn’t hurt.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to lead you astray.” Amusement touched his voice. “Though I’m telling you, if we weren’t in this place, I’d be tempted to let you lead me astray.”
“And here I was thinking you didn’t notice.” 
“Lady, present any man with a naked woman, and they’re going to notice, no matter what they’re doing.”
How very true. Unless, of course, they were as highly trained—or as gay—as my brother. Though Rhoan did appreciate a good female form, even if it didn’t excite him. Concern flicked through me as I thought of him, and I frowned, wishing once again he was telepathic. I needed to talk to him, needed to know that he was okay, that this vague sense of unease had nothing to do with him.
But that wasn’t an option, and there was nothing I could do except concentrate on the here and now. “Well, at least I know I’m not losing my touch.”
I bumped against him as I said it, and he chuckled softly. “Stop flirting, ma’am. It’s appreciated, but I’m likely to end up with my balls in a sling if I try anything in this place.”
“Isn’t that a little harsh on you boys in here when everyone else is allowed to sample the goods?”
“Yeah. But we’re better paid than them.”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“No, but living long enough to spend it is.”
Which he wouldn’t, because I couldn’t afford to leave witnesses. And that was a damn shame, because he actually seemed like a nice man, even if he was working for a monster. I closed my eyes briefly. I couldn’t think like that. I simply couldn’t.
I had to kill them to throw the heat off me and Rhoan. There was no other choice.
“How are they going to know?” I said.
He glanced at me. My infrared vision made his eyes glow strangely, but even so, amusement was very evident. This man might be attracted, but he wasn’t about to be distracted. Damn.
“There’s another guard in security. He’d tell.”
“And here I was thinking grown men were above being tattletales.”
“He values his life, just like I do.”
“What if he joined in the fun? He could hardly tattle if he’s guilty of the same crime.”
The amusement got stronger, touching his lips. But for the first time, excitement spun through the air.
“I don’t think Mr. Merle would be too pleased if we did his lady.”
My snort was derogatory. “I may be his latest fuck, but I’m not his lady.”
He grinned. “You sound like a woman not being satisfied.”
I arched an eyebrow, and lowered my voice several notches as I said, “And are you the man who’s going to relieve that problem?”
He glanced at the door ahead, then back at me, and cleared his throat. “Probably not.”
Well, this was definitely a first. A naked woman throwing herself at a man, and him refusing. It looked like I was going to have to use my werewolf aura, because while I could take out one well-trained, well-armed man, I wasn’t sure enough of my skills to take out two. Not when I had to beat bullets as well. And given the time restraints, and the fact that even this guard was showing wariness, I just couldn’t afford to play around.
We stopped at the door. The guard pressed his thumb into the scanner, keyed in a code—which I noted—then pushed the door open. The room beyond was only semidark, lit by a flashlight that sat on the middle desk, its bright light beaming upward and splashing across the ceiling. There was no one else in the room, but as the door clicked shut behind us, the second man came and poked his head through a doorway across the other side of the room.
“Just about to fire up the emergency generator.” His gaze ran down my body and a smile tugged his lips. “You’re one hell of a messenger, lady.”
Though this second man wasn’t as big as the first, he also wore a thin strand of wire around his neck. Obviously, in the security heart of his empire, Starr wasn’t taking chances with having just the one mode of psychic protection for his men. And personal shield wires like these weren’t disrupted by power blackouts. I’d have to get them off to get the information I needed. Luckily, a wolf’s aura worked on a base level rather than mental, so the wires weren’t going to be a hindrance.“The papers are on my desk, Joe. I’ll just finish cleaning the generator before I start her up. The maintenance boys have been damn slack.”
He disappeared again. Joe had barely taken a step when I unleashed my aura, flicking it across him like a live thing, letting the heat of it overwhelm him, until the desire to take what he wanted, what he craved, was all-consuming.
I knew what it felt like. Knew the flame of it, the way it snapped control and made you need as you have never needed, because Misha had once used his aura on me. But at least I’d had the option of negating the power of it with my own aura. I could have controlled just how much it affected me.
This man, enhanced human or not, had no such choice.
His hand shot out and thrust me hard against the wall, his lips crushing mine as he ripped at his clothes with one hand and groped wildly with the other.
I kissed him back, enjoying the taste of him, the feel of him, giving him that much as I slipped my hands up his back and around his neck. My fingers found the wire’s connection. The second it was undone, I slid into his mind. When he was mine, I let my aura drop and forced him to stop. He was panting heavily, his mind dazed, confused, but not fighting. He wasn’t psychic, so my hold was complete.
But the little lances of fire beginning to shoot into my brain suggested I had better not push this too far or too long. The recovery from controlling Merle was taking longer than I’d thought.
I quickly sorted through his thoughts and memories to find the information I needed. The controls to Iktar’s implanted bombs were indeed here, locked in a cabinet in the main office—which I hadn’t noticed but was apparently to our right. Joe didn’t have the code for the cabinet. The other man, Maz, did.
That was all I could get. I made him step back, and put my hands around his neck. His neck muscles were tense under my fingertips, the beat of his pulse erratic. Killing him was just a matter of applying some pressure to the right spot, feeling his flesh and bone crack and break under my grip.
My stomach rolled.
I couldn’t do it.
I just couldn’t.
Jack might want me to be a killer, he might have trained me to be a killer, but killing so coldly, so matter-of-factly was a state of mind, a zone you went to. Or so Rhoan had once said. I didn’t have that zone, not yet, and I’d be damned if I’d step on the path to that dark place unless I absolutely had to.
But I couldn’t leave this guard as he was, memory intact, either.
Sweat trickled down my cheek as I went back into his mind and reorganized his memories. Made him remember not me, but a short, blond man with green eyes and a bulbous nose. I had no idea if such a man actually stayed here, but at least Starr would waste time looking for or interrogating him. Better than me or Rhoan. I left him remembering Merle’s order for the papers—a fact Merle and his memories would strenuously deny, therefore heightening the confusion. Then I added a fight and gave him bruises to prove it with a quick one-two punch to the jaw that knocked him out cold and threw him back to the floor. 
His body had barely hit when the second man suddenly appeared. I saw the gun in his hand in one of those heart-stopping moments when you just know you’re not going to get out of the way in time, and flung myself sideways anyway. The retort echoed loudly in the small room and the bullet tore through my arm rather than my heart. Pain bloomed, but I ignored it, unleashing my aura as I hit the floor, striking him with it as hard as I could.
It didn’t affect him. He just stood there, gun aimed and expression fierce.
Shock rolled through me. I’d always believed, had always been told, that a werewolf’s aura would devour any race. Hell, even the Government believed it, because they’d recently put in place laws that made the use of auras on humans the equivalent of rape. We could use it on each other just fine, just don’t touch the precious humans or you’ll find yourself thrown in prison.
So why wasn’t he affected?
I didn’t know, and right now, didn’t have the time to wonder. I closed my eyes and forced myself to ignore the beat of pain in my arm, the sweet smell of blood seeping onto the carpet. Let my limbs go lax, as if unconscious.
For several seconds, the man didn’t move. His steady breathing stirred the air, as did the scent of him, a weird mix of grease and earthy, heady pine.
I remained as I was, on the carpet and bleeding all over the place, and eventually he cautiously walked toward me. He toed my leg several times, then carefully bent to take my pulse. He was too ready for action, the gun too close to my heart, to react in any way, so I simply lay there as his fingers pressed into my neck. After several seconds, he grunted and rose. He walked across to his partner to check him, then walked back around me to the desk. As he reached for the phone, I kicked his legs out from underneath him. He was spinning, the gun swinging my way, even as he hit the floor. I launched forward, grabbed the gun with one hand and elbowed him hard in the face with the other. Bone and cartilage shattered under the force of the blow, and blood splattered across my face and arm. He made an odd gargling sound, as if he suddenly couldn’t breathe, but I ignored it and knocked him unconscious with another punch.