Dangerous Games

for a wolf. Besides, I very much doubted the possibility that I could shake his compulsion would even cross his mind.

When I was close to Jin's house, I positioned myself between two cars, keeping low and deep in the shadows, and waited. There wasn't much traffic at this hour, but the night was far from quiet. People moved in the house behind me, flushing toilets and turning lights on and off. Laughter drifted on the night air, and somewhere in the distance music heavy in bass played, making me want to tap my paws.

Quinn didn't move. Neither did I.

Time ticked by. The moon reached its zenith and began to wane. I crossed my front legs and shifted my rear ones, trying to find a comfortable position. The cold, hard pavement wasn't helping the aches any.

It had to be nearing three when a car finally pulled to a stop in front of Jin's house. It wasn't Jin—the legs that appeared underneath the car door as it opened were decidedly feminine, as was the flowery scent that spun through the air.

The car door slammed shut, revealing a short blonde wearing four inch heels, rolled up jeans, and a purple crop top. She was a little on the overweight side, but absolutely stunning to look at. Her keys jangled loudly and silver flashed, drawing my gaze. Two letters hung from the ring—ME Short for Maisie Foster? If it was, she wasn't the least what I expected a mage to look like.

She made her way through Jin's gate and up the steps. I glanced at the house where Quinn hid, and felt shock ripple through me.

He was gone.

Completely gone.

And yet I'd seen or heard no movement and his car was still parked up the road.

How could he leave without me catching some hint of it? He may have vampire speed, but even if he'd moved faster than a speeding bullet, I still should have caught some hint of it. Should have seen the disappearing flare of his life force.

Frowning, I scanned the area with infrared, looking for some sign of him. Why would he wait all this time for Maisie, then run off? It made no sense at all.

Then I caught the familiar scent of sandalwood and masculinity on the air. Quinn's scent.

He was still here, even if I couldn't see him.

I raised my nose, drawing in the scent, trying to find direction. It was coming from high above me. Not from the rooftops, but from the sky itself.

My gaze went to the night and the stars, but there was nothing to be seen beyond the gathering clouds and the brightly shining moon.

What the hell was going on? Vampires couldn't fly—not unless they were bird-shifters in their pre-vampire life, anyway. And whatever else he was, Quinn wasn't a shifter. Of that, I was sure.

Then something he'd said a few months ago came back to me. I'd asked him how he'd gotten into Starr's compound without Rhoan or anyone else seeing him, and he'd said, I simply ceased to exist in any term the human mind recognizes.

Shame he'd forgotten to mention the same damn talent allowed him to fly.

My gaze went back to Maisie. She'd reached the front door and was searching through her bag. Obviously, she didn't keep her door keys on the same tag as her car keys. For a powerful mage, she was kinda dumb.

Quinn's scent sharpened, and I had a sudden sense of movement through the air, though there was still nothing to be seen.

At the last possible moment, Maisie seemed to sense the same thing, because she swung around and gasped. A hand formed out of thin air, chopping down hard. Maisie dropped to the steps like a stone.

Quinn's form seemed to merge from the night as he drifted down the steps, landing neatly and lightly next to Maisie's body. He studied her for a moment, then looked around, his gaze skimming past my hidey-hole with nary a pause of concern. Then he bent, picked Maisie up, and walked down the steps toward his car. He placed her in the passenger seat, then climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine, and zoomed off. I watched the car disappear, then backed out of my hiding spot and shifted shape. The compulsion and the moon heat leapt into focus, but one was now stronger than the other.

Maybe shifting into wolf shape several times had finally muted the strength of Quinn's order. Which was good, because I needed to go to the club and do some serious ache-easing.

As my steps echoed across the still night, I pressed the com-link in my ear and said, 'Hello, hello, anyone tuned in?'

'I'm always tuned-in, unlike some former liaisons who shall go unmentioned.'

Oh joy. The caramel cow. 'And a good evening to you, too, Sal.'

'What do you want, Riley?'

Pleasantry, which I was never going to get talking to her. But I guess I wasn't overly generous with it myself, so I was hardly in a position to bitch.

Which had never stopped me before.

'Jack around anywhere?'

'One moment, please.'

The sound of heels clicking came through the earpiece, meaning Jack was somewhere other than his desk. 'Riley?' he said, after a moment. 'Did you take care of our mage?'

'Not exactly.'

'What happened?'

'Quinn happened.' And just mentioning his name had the barely settled anger rising again.

Jack sighed. 'What's he done this time?'

'He's just kidnapped our little mage.'

'What?'

'Yeah. We did foul the pentagram through which she was calling the demons, which according to him was better than destroying it, because it will force her to expend more energy making a new one.'

'In dark spells, it's usually the magician's blood that fuels the summoning. Fouling it won't actually stop her using it, it'll just prevent her from calling through certain types of entities.'

'Meaning I should have destroyed it?' That Quinn had spun yet another lie?

'She would have sensed the destruction. It might have driven her—and the rest of them—underground.' He paused, and the sound of liquid hissing into a cup came down the line. He was either in the day-shift operations room or the foyer, where the other coffee machine was situated. 'What happened after that? How come Quinn kidnapped the mage and why aren't you with him?'

'Because the bastard pulled his vampire wiles on me—embedded an order to go home while our telepathic line was open.'

'Game man. Has he still got his balls?'

I grinned, and very much suspected there was nothing pleasant about it. Amusement wasn't high on my list of emotions right now. 'For the moment. I did make an interesting discovery in the process of going home, though —becoming a wolf actually transmutes the compulsion.'

'Does it? That's interesting.'

'Yeah. Once I'd discovered that, I naturally headed back to see what Quinn was up to. That's when I discovered he could not only make himself totally invisible to all senses except scent, but that he could also fly.'

'What?'

'Well, I'm not actually sure if he was flying. I couldn't see wings or anything. He seemed to be more drifting.'

'Even very old vampires cannot fly.'

'But before he was vampire, he was half-human and half something else,' I corrected. 'And that other half is something that doesn't exist anymore.'

'Only birds—or bird-shifters—fly.'

'So do gryphons. So do a hundred other things that can't be classified as birds.'

'None of which Quinn is.'