He got down to business without hesitation.

Sweeping the girl's smoke-and-beer scented hair away from her neck, Lucan licked his lips, then plunged his extended fangs into the flesh of her throat. She spasmed under his bite, her hands coming up instinctively as he pulled the first long draught from her vein. He sucked hard, no desire to draw things out. The female moaned, not in alarm or discomfort, but in the pleasure that was unique to the letting of blood under the thrall of a vampire.

Blood surged into Lucan's mouth, warm and thick.

Against his will, he flashed on a mental picture of Gabrielle in his arms, letting himself imagine for the briefest second that it was her neck he suckled now.

Her blood, coursing down the back of his throat and into his body.

G.o.d, to think what it would be like to draw from her vein as his c.o.c.k pumped into her heat, spilling deep within her...

Christ.

He thrust the fantasy away with a vicious snarl.

Never gonna happen, he warned himself harshly. Reality was a b.i.t.c.h, and he'd better not lose sight of it.

Fact was, this wasn't Gabrielle, but an anonymous stranger, just the way he preferred it. The blood he took now wasn 't the jasmine-tinged sweetness he craved, but a bitter copper tanginess, corrupted by some mild narcotic his Host had recently ingested.

He didn't care what she tasted like. All he needed was to smooth the edge off his hunger, and for that, anyone would do. He drew more from her and drank it down with haste, expedient in his feeding as was always his way.

When he finished, he smoothed his tongue over the twin punctures to seal them, then backed out of the unwanted embrace. The young woman was panting, her mouth slack, her body languid as though fresh off an o.r.g.a.s.m.

Lucan put his palm on her forehead and let it drift down to close her dazed, heavy -lidded eyes. That touch would scrub all recollection of what just occurred between them.

"Your friends are looking for you," he told the girl when his hand came away from her face and she blinked up at him in confusion. "You should go home. The night is full of predators."

"Okay," she said, nodding agreeably.

Lucan waited in the shadows as she wobbled back around the corner of the building to find her companions. He sucked in a deep breath through teeth and fangs, every muscle in his body tense, tight, pulsing. His heart was hammering in his chest. Just thinking about what Gabrielle's blood might taste like in his mouth had given him a raging hard-on.

His physical appet.i.te might be calmer now that he'd fed, but he was hardly content.

He still... wanted. With a low growl, he stalked out into the street once more, surlier than ever. He set his sights on the roughest part of town, hoping he'd meet up with a Rogue or two before dawn started to rise. He suddenly needed a fight in a bad way. Needed to hurt something-even if that something ended up being himself.

Whatever it took to keep him far as h.e.l.l away from Gabrielle Maxwell.

CHAPTER Eight

At first, Gabrielle thought it had just been another erotic dream. But waking up late that next morning, naked in her bed, her body spent, parts of her aching in all the right places, she knew that Lucan Thorne had definitely been there, in the flesh. And G.o.d, what amazing flesh it had been. She'd lost track of how many times he'd made her climax. If she added up every o.r.g.a.s.m she'd had for the past two years, it probably wouldn't even come close to what she'd experienced with him last night.

Yet she'd been wishing for just one more as she dragged her eyelids open and realized with disappointment that Lucan hadn't stayed. Her bed was empty, the apartment was quiet. He'd evidently left sometime during the night.

As exhausted as she was, Gabrielle could have slept a full day, but lunch plans with Jamie and the girls got her out of the house and downtown about twenty minutes after noon. As she wandered into the Chinatown restaurant, she felt heads turning in her direction: appreciative glances from a group of advertising types over at the sushi bar, half a dozen suited young executives watching her stroll past them as she made her way toward her friends' booth near the back.

She felt s.e.xy and confident in her dark red V-neck sweater and black skirt, and she didn't care if it was obvious to everyone in the place that she'd just had the most incredible s.e.x of her life.

"Finally, she graces us with her presence!" Jamie exclaimed as Gabrielle reached the table and greeted her friends with quick hugs.

Megan bussed her cheek. "You look great."

Jamie nodded. "Yeah, you do, sweetie. Love the outfit. Is it new?" He didn't wait for an answer, just plopped back down into the booth and wolfed down a fried dumpling in one gulp. "I was starving, so we already ordered a few appetizers. Anyway, where've you been? I was just about to send a posse out for you."

"Sorry. I slept in a little today." She smiled and sat down next to Jamie on the paisley vinyl bench. "Isn't Kendra coming?"

"MIA again." Megan took a sip from her teacup, and shrugged. "Not that it matters. She's all about her new boyfriend lately- you know, that guy she picked up at La Notte last weekend?"

"Brent," Gabrielle said, weathering a jolt of unease at the mention of that terrible night.

"Yeah, him. She even managed to switch her shift from graveyard to days at the hospital so she can spend every night with him.

Evidently, he has to travel a lot for work or something and is generally out of touch during the day. I can't believe Kendra is letting some guy dictate her life like this. Ray and I have been dating for three months, but I still make time for my friends."

Gabrielle raised her brows. Of the four of them, Kendra was the most free -spirited, unapologetically so. She preferred to maintain a stable of ready dates and was committed to staying single at least until she turned thirty. "You think she's in love?"

"l.u.s.t, honey." Jamie pinched the last dumpling with his chopsticks. "It can make you do crazier things than love sometimes.

Trust me, I've been there."

As he chewed on his appetizer, Jamie's gaze held Gabrielle's for a long moment, before it swept over her loosely tousled hair and suddenly flushing cheeks. She attempted a casual smile, but couldn't keep her secret from betraying her to him in the happy gleam of her eyes. Jamie set his chopsticks down on his plate. He c.o.c.ked his head at her, his bobbed blond hair swinging around his chin. "Oh. My. G.o.d." He grinned. "You did it."

"Did what?" A soft laugh bubbled out of her mouth.

"You did it. You got laid, didn't you?"

Gabrielle's laughter dissolved into a blushing, girly giggle.

"Oh, sweetie. You're wearing it well, I must say." Jamie patted her hand, laughing along with her. "Let me guess; Detective Dark-and-s.e.xy of the Boston PD?"

She rolled her eyes at the silly nickname, and nodded.

"When?"

"Last night. Practically all night."

Jamie's whoop of enthusiasm drew attention from some of the surrounding tables. He simmered down, but beamed at her like a proud mother hen. "He was good, huh?"

"Amazing."

"Okay, how come I don't know anything about this mystery man?" Megan interjected now. "And he's a cop? Maybe Ray knows him. I could ask-"

"No." Gabrielle shook her head. "Please don't say anything about this to anyone, you guys. It's not like I'm dating Lucan. He came over last night to return my cell phone, and things just got... well, out of control. I don't even know if I'll see him again."

She had no idea about that, actually, but G.o.d, she hoped so.

Part of her warned that what happened between them was reckless behavior, foolish thinking. It was. She couldn't really argue that. It was crazy. She had always considered herself a reasonable, careful person-the one who would caution her friends against careless impulses like the one she'd indulged in last night.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And not just because she'd allowed herself to get so caught up in the moment that she had forgone any kind of protection.

Getting intimate with a practical stranger was seldom a good idea, but Gabrielle had the terrible feeling that it would be a very easy thing to lose her heart to a man like Lucan Thorne.

And that, she was sure, was nothing short of idiotic.

Still, s.e.x like she'd had with him didn't happen all the time. At least, not for her. Just thinking about Lucan Thorne made her insides twist with sweet longing. If he happened to walk into the restaurant right now, she'd probably leap over the tables to jump him.

"We had an incredible night together, but right now, that's all it is. I don't want to read anything more into it."

"Uh-huh." Jamie put his elbow on the table and leaned in conspiratorially. "Then why can't you stop smiling?"

"Where the h.e.l.l have you been?" Lucan smelled Tegan before he saw the vampire round the corner of the residence corridor inside the compound. The male had been hunting recently. He still carried the metallic, sweet odor of blood on him-both the human and Rogue variety.

When he saw Lucan waiting for him outside one of the apartments, he paused, his hands fisted in the pockets of his low-slung jeans. Tegan's gray tee-shirt was shredded in places, filthy with dirt and splattered blood. His pale green eyes were hooded, ringed with dark circles. Long, unkempt tawny hair drooped into his face.

"You look like s.h.i.t, Tegan."

He glanced up from under that hank of light brown hair and smirked, wisea.s.s, 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 att.i.tude locked on permanent apathy, or if the darkness of his past had truly deadened all feeling in him.

G.o.d 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.u.c.k have you been?"

He scoffed. "p.i.s.s off, man. You're not my mother."

When he started to walk away, Lucan closed the s.p.a.ce 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 l.u.s.t 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 s.h.i.t, 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 p.i.s.sed 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 gla.s.s 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 h.e.l.l, 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?"