"You look like shit, Tegan."
He glanced up from under that hank of light brown hair and smirked, wiseass, as usual.
Glyphs tracked up his forearms and thick biceps. The scrolling, elegant markings were just a shade darker than his own golden skin tone, their color betraying nothing of the vampire's current mood. Lucan didn't know if it was sheer will that kept the male's attitude locked on permanent apathy, or if the darkness of his past had truly deadened all feeling in him.
God knew, he'd been through enough to break a full cadre of warriors.
But Tegan's personal demons were his own. All that mattered to Lucan was making sure the Order remained strong and on point. There was no room for weak links in the chain.
"You've been out of contact for five days, Tegan. I'll say it again, where the f**k have you been?"
He scoffed. "Piss off, man. You're not my mother."
When he started to walk away, Lucan closed the space between them with blinding speed. He seized Tegan by the throat and shoved his back against the corridor wall to get his attention.
Lucan's fury was ripe: in part for the general disregard Tegan showed the others in the Order lately, but more for the sorry lack of judgment that had made Lucan think he could spend one night with Gabrielle Maxwell and then put her out of his mind.
Neither blood nor the extreme violence he'd brought down on two Rogues in the hours before dawn had been enough to dim the lust for Gabrielle that still pounded through him. Lucan had prowled the city like a wraith all night and came back to the compound in a seething, black rage.
The feeling persisted as he closed his fingers around his brethren's throat. He needed an outlet for his aggression and Tegan, feral-looking and secretive, was more than prime for the role.
"I'm tired of your shit, Tegan. You need to get a grip on yourself, or I'll do it for you." He squeezed tighter on the vampire's larynx, but Tegan hardly flinched under the certain pain. "Now tell me where you've been all this time, or you and I are going to have real problems."
The two males were evenly sized, and a more than fair match in terms of strength. Tegan could have fought back, but he didn't. He showed no emotion whatsoever, just stared at Lucan with steely, indifferent eyes.
He felt nothing, and even that pissed off Lucan.
With a snarl, he took his hand away from the warrior's throat, trying to clamp a lid on his rage. It wasn't like him to lash out like this. It was beneath him.
Christ.
And he was standing there telling Tegan to get a grip?
Great advice. Maybe he ought to take it himself.
Tegan's flat gaze said pretty much the same thing, although the vampire wisely kept his mouth shut.
As the two uneasy allies considered each other in dark silence, behind them some distance down the hallway, a glass door slid open with a hiss. Gideon's sneakers squeaked on the polished floor as he came out of his private quarters and into the corridor.
"Hey, Tegan, great work on the recon, man. I ran some surveillance on the T after we talked last night. That hunch you had about Rogues staking out the Green Line seems like a good one."
Lucan didn't so much as blink while Tegan held his stare, scarcely acknowledging Gideon's praise. Nor did Tegan rise to defend himself against the erroneous suspicion. He just stood there for a long minute, saying nothing. Then he strode past Lucan and continued his progress down the compound's corridor.
"You'll want to check this out, Lucan," Gideon said as he headed for the lab. "Looks like something's about to go down."
Chapter Nine
Holding the warm cup in both hands, Gabrielle sipped her weak oolong tea while Jamie polished off the last of her lo mein. He would wheedle her fortune cookie away from her as well - he always did - but she didn't mind. It was nice simply to be out with her friends, life getting back to some sense of normalcy after everything that had happened last weekend.
"I have something for you," Jamie said, breaking into Gabrielle's thoughts. He fished around in a cream-colored leather bag that sat between them on the bench and pulled out a white envelope. "Proceeds from the private showing."
Gabrielle tore open the seal and pulled out the gallery check. It was more than she expected. A few grand more. "Wow."
"Surprise," Jamie singsonged, grinning broadly. "I highballed the price. Figured what the hell, you know. And they pounced on it without any haggling whatsoever. Think I should have asked for more?"
"No," Gabrielle said. "No, this is, um... wow. Thanks."
"Nothing to it." He pointed to her fortune cookie. "You gonna eat that?"
She slid it across the table to him. "So, who's the buyer?"
"Ah, that remains a big mystery," he said, crushing the cookie inside its plastic wrapper. "They paid in cash, so obviously they were serious about the 'anonymous' part of the sale. And they sent a cab over to pick me up with the collection."
"What are you guys talking about?" Megan asked. She stared at the two of them, frowning in confusion. "I swear, I am the last to know everything."
"Our talented little artiste here has a secret admirer," Jamie supplied with ample drama. He pulled out the fortune, read it, and rolled his eyes as he discarded the slip of paper onto his empty plate. "What happened to the days when these things actually meant something? Anyway, a few nights ago, I was summoned to present Gabby's entire collection of photographs to an anonymous buyer downtown. They purchased them all - every last one."
Megan's eyes widened in Gabrielle's direction. "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you, sweetie!"
"Whoever it was that bought them has a serious cloak-and-dagger fetish."