"Sir." The Enforcement Agent cast a furtive look around him before he met Dragos's gaze. "This is a ... well, sir, it's an unexpected pleasure to see you here in the city."
"Then why do you look as though you're about to piss yourself?" Dragos replied, baring his teeth in a brief smile. Usually an unannounced, personal appearance from him meant a head was about to roll. "Relax, Pike. I'm here on pleasure tonight, not business."
"So, nothing is wrong, sir?"
"Not at all," Dragos replied.
His lieutenant still didn't look comfortable. He kept his voice lowered, no doubt afraid of being seen speaking too familiarly with him in such a public place. "But, sir, do you really think it's wise coming into the city like this - or coming here, of all places? It was only last week that the Order sent two of their warriors into this club asking questions about you."
Dragos gave a mild shake of his head. "I'm not concerned about the Order. They have their hands full right now. I saw to that personally today."
Pike stared for a moment. "The rumors are true? The Order's compound was uncovered by the hu - " Looking at Dragos's two mortal companions, Pike abruptly cleared his throat. "They were found out by local police?"
Dragos grinned. "Let's just say Boston's finest had a little help in that area."
The Breed male returned the smile, but his eyes kept straying uncertainly from Dragos to the pair of human females latched on to him from both sides. Dragos shrugged idly at the question in his cautious lieutenant's eyes. "Speak freely, Pike. I fed them so much liquor and coc**ne on the way over, they won't remember their names in the morning. If I let them survive that long," he drawled, leering at the young women he could hardly wait to sample.
"Are you saying that the bombing downtown this morning and the police chase of the suspects that followed - "
"That's precisely what I'm saying, Pike." Dragos watched the impressed expression of his lieutenant deepen. "From the orchestration of the explosion by the Minions I recruited to do the job, to the pursuit that led law enforcement right to Lucan Thorne's front door. All of it was my doing."
"I hear one of the warriors is in police custody. Did they really arrest Sterling Chase?" Dragos nodded. The warrior's apparent voluntary surrender was the one detail he hadn't arranged or foreseen in this entire offensive strike against the Order. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but he'd sent his newest Minion servants to look in on the situation at the jail downtown. In fact, he should be hearing from the senator with a full report anytime now. "Word on the street says Chase is nearly Rogue," Pike said. "Doesn't surprise me to hear that, I suppose. After the way he came in here looking for you last week with that other warrior - the reports I saw about how many Agents he injured and the way he fought like a rabid dog -
doesn't sound like he's got far to fall before Bloodlust claims him for good. Hard to believe he's the same Sterling Chase of just a few years ago. Back then, it was accepted fact that he was headed straight for the top ranks of the Agency."
Dragos exhaled a sigh, instantly bored with Agent Pike's pointless meander down memory lane. "Let the son of a bitch go Rogue or die in human custody - I could give a flying f**k. One less warrior to contend with is all that matters to me."
"Of course, sir," Pike responded crisply. "I couldn't agree more."
Dragos dismissed the fawning obeisance with a curt wave. "I need a table, Pike." As he spoke, he reached out to pet the silky blond hair of one of his female companions. Not to neglect the redhead, he turned to her and stroked the long, slender column of her throat. "I'll take that one, near the stage."
It was the best in the house, a large half-moon leather banquette and table, centrally located, with a view both of the dancers onstage and the rest of the club. And it was also currently occupied by no fewer than eight Breed males, most of them of equal or higher rank than Deputy Director Arno Pike.
Although his lieutenant hardly looked comfortable with the command, he jogged off to do Dragos's bidding. There were a few turned heads from the Agents at the table, a couple of affronted stares and disgruntled scowls, but Pike cleared the men out, then hurried back to see Dragos to his seat.
Dragos prowled through the Agency club like he owned it.
Hell, it wouldn't be long before he did, in fact, own this club, the city, and everyone in it - Breed and human alike.
He wouldn't be satisfied until the whole goddamn world was kneeling at his feet. Soon, he assured himself. His plan had been long in the making - several centuries of laying the foundation and setting each building block into its proper place. It was all coming together now, and not even the Order would be able to interfere with his goals.
He slid onto the sumptuous leather seat at his newly acquired table, the pretty redhead on one side of him, the wide-eyed blonde on the other. "Join us, Pike. Everyone here has already seen that your allegiance is to me. Besides, there's no need to pretend anymore. The game has changed as of this morning. Now I make the rules."
As Pike settled in next to the blonde, Dragos turned an appreciative eye on the other woman. The skin of her throat and generously exposed cle**age was as pale as cream, almost translucent. Fine blue veins ticked near her collarbone, tempting his fangs from his gums. The sharp canines swelled in his mouth. He descended on her in a single, punching strike - too swiftly for her to do anything more than gasp as he pierced her carotid and drew a long, hard swallow from the pulsing wound.
After a couple of greedy pulls, he pivoted to sample her friend on the other side of him. He was even less gentle with her, digging his fingers into her arms when she whimpered, trying to squirm out of his hold as he bit her. He could have calmed her with a light trance, a consideration most of his kind offered freely to their blood Hosts. But where was the fun in that? Dragos fed openly from both women, his eyes on Arno Pike, who was fighting like hell to keep the savage part of himself in check amid so much fresh, flowing blood. His eyes glowed as bright as embers, pupils narrowed to thin vertical slits. Even though his lips were clamped tightly closed, Dragos knew Pike's mouth would be full with the extended length of his fangs. Dragos laughed. He reached over and grabbed a fistful of the male's Enforcement Agency standard issue black suit and white shirt, hauling him closer. "Why do you deny yourself? What are you afraid of - the Order?" He shook his head. "This is what we've been working toward. This freedom. It is the birthright of all the Breed."