THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

hypodermic dart full of that vaccine I’ve got cooking.”
    Janecek’s face went hard. “You’re a fool, Delano. A fool on a misguided mission. You’d be so much happier if you’d just embrace your nature. Do you never grow weary of fighting it?”
    “I never lose sight of who the enemy is. It’s you and predators like you.”
    Janecek’s mouth curved in a smile that was almost gentle. Pitying. “Is it? Is it really?”
    Then he seemed to melt away. Ainsley blinked. Of course. He could move as fast as Delano. As fast as her attacker had back in that alley.
    “Boss?”
    Shalvis and Hayes were poised to pursue Janecek, on Delano’s word.
    He shook his head. “Forget it. You’d never catch up.”
    Gone. Thank God. Ainsley shuddered. Except now there were all these questions. Ugly questions, the answers to which she knew were going to change her. Possibly even destroy her. “Delano?”
    “I’ll answer all your questions. Just not now.” Without glancing down at her, he lifted the radio to his mouth. “Did you get any of that, Eli?” He released the button he must have been pressing for the whole exchange.
    “All of it,” came Eli’s voice. “And let me say, quick thinking. That heads-up allowed us to run interference with the media to keep them off you.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Now get your butts over here. Our guys have spotted some of Janecek’s soldiers. We need to circle the wagons.”
    Delano pocketed the radio. “Come on. You heard him.”
    Ainsley fell into step, and this time she had no trouble keeping up, a combination of anger and fear fuelling her limbs.
    Her blood . He was using her blood for something.
    Was it because she’d been bitten but not yet turned? Did he need the blood of a victim in transition?
    Transition.
    God, she’d almost forgotten about the possibility of infection. Okay, maybe not forgotten. It was hard to forget when she had to roll up her sleeve twice a day, but the regular negative results had lulled her into a sense of security.
    And why had Janecek tried to bargain for her? For her blood? Could he want it, too? But why? Or had he made the offer just to taunt Delano? The latter, she suspected. He had to have known Delano wouldn’t deal a human life for any kind of favor. If Delano had in fact fostered Janecek, he had to understand that much about him.
    She longed to grab Del’s arm, make him stop, make him answer her questions now, but if Eli said they were still in danger, they couldn’t afford that kind of distraction.
    As they neared the knot of people, the outer ring opened to admit them — Delano, followed by Ainsley, then the two security officers.
    Eli stepped forward and clapped Delano on the back. “Good thinking, transmitting that exchange.”
    “Squeezing that transmission button had a dual purpose, I assure you,” Delano said grimly. “It kept me from going for the bastard’s throat.”
    Eli turned to Ainsley. “You okay?”
    His gaze slid over her face without ever really meeting her eyes, and the other shoe dropped.
    He knew. Eli knew what Delano’s real interest was in her. Oddly, she felt closer to tears than she had when she’d challenged Delano. She’d always known Delano was keeping something from her, but somehow she’d trusted Eli to be straight with her.
    She glared at him. “Do I look okay, Eli?”
    He mumbled something about it being a rough night all the way around, then turned back to Delano.
    “How the hell did he get in? He must have gotten past the guards in the lobby to get to the second floor to start that blaze.”
    “He could have hired someone to start it,” Delano said.
    “But he had to have been inside the building to have surprised that fireman and strip him of his turn-out gear.”
    “Speaking of which, do we know if he’s okay? The fireman he suckered?”
    “He’s fine. The guys we sent over there to distract the media just reported that he was hauled out. They’ll evacuate him in an ambulance any minute.”
    As if on cue, a siren started up and an ambulance nudged its way onto the street, before accelerating and quickly disappearing.
    “But how’d he get past the guards?”
    The sound of the ambulance’s siren had started to fade. Delano stood looking after it. “Glamour.”
    “Glamour?”
    “Yeah. A cheap parlor trick. All vampires use it, to some extent, to look more normal, to fit in, to fade into the background a bit. It works great for most people, who see what they expect to see. But for