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"I saw him kill someone last night - a Minion. He did it to protect me, I know, but it was so violent. It was horrific." A shiver snaked its way up her limbs when she pictured the gruesome scene that took place in the children's park. "Lucan bit into the man's throat and fed off him like some kind of..."
"Vampire," Savannah answered softly, with neither accusation nor condemnation in her voice. "That's what they are, Gabrielle, how they were born. It's not a curse or a disease. It's just the way they live, a different kind of consumption than what we as humans have grown to accept as normal. And vampires don't always kill to feed. In fact, that's rare, at least among the Breed's general population, including the warrior class. It's completely unheard of with blood-bonded vampires, like Gideon or Rio, since their nourishment is provided regularly by their Breedmates."
"You make it sound so normal," Gabrielle said, frowning as she ran her finger around the edge of her teacup. She knew that what Savannah was telling her had a certain logic, despite its surrealism, but accepting it was not going to be easy. "It terrifies me to think about what he really is, how he lives. I should despise him for it, Savannah."
"But you don't."
"No," she confessed quietly.
"You care for him, don't you?"
Gabrielle nodded, reluctant to speak the words.
"And you're intimately involved with him."
"Yes." Gabrielle sighed, and shook her head. "And really, how stupid is that? I don't know what it is about him that makes me want him like I do. I mean, he's lied to me and deceived me on so many levels I can't begin to count them, but even still, just thinking about him makes my knees weak. I've never known this kind of need with another man."
Savannah was smiling over the rim of her cup. "They are more than men, our warriors."
Gabrielle took a sip of her tea, thinking that it probably wasn't wise to consider Lucan as her anything, unless she planned to put her heart under his boot heels and watch as he ground it to dust.
"These males are passionate in all they do," Savannah added. "And there is nothing that can compare to the giving and receiving of the blood-bond, especially while making love."
Gabrielle shrugged. "Well, the sex is amazing, I won't even try to deny that. But I haven't shared any kind of a blood-bond with Lucan."
Savannah's smile faltered slightly. "He hasn't bitten you?"
"No. God, no." She shook her head, wondering if she should feel more appalled than she did. "He hasn't even tried to take my blood, as far as I know. Just tonight he swore to me that he never would."
"Oh." Savannah carefully set down her teacup.
"Why? Do you think he will?"
Gideon's mate seemed to consider that for a moment, then gave a slow shake of her head. "Lucan has never made a promise lightly, nor would he about something like this. I'm sure he means exactly what he told you."
Gabrielle nodded, relieved, yet curious why Savannah's assurance sounded almost like a condolence.
"Come," she said, rising from the table and indicating for Gabrielle to follow. "I'll show you the rest of the compound."
"Anything come back yet on those glyphs we spotted on our West Coast subject?" Lucan asked, tossing his leather jacket over one of the chairs next to Gideon.
It was just the two of them alone in the lab now, the other warriors having gone to chill out for a few hours before Lucan gave orders for the night's sweep of the city. He was glad for the relative privacy. His head was beginning to pound with the onslaught of another splintering headache.
"I got squat, sorry to say. Nothing came up on the criminal check, or the census search. Apparently our boy's not in the system, but that's not so unusual. The IID records are vast, but far from perfect, especially when it comes to you Gen Ones. There are only a few of you around anymore, and for various reasons, most have never volunteered to be processed or catalogued - yourself included."
"Shit," Lucan hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose but feeling no relief from the pressure building in his head.
"You feeling all right, man?"
"It's nothing." He didn't look at Gideon, but he could sense the vampire watching him with concern. "I'll get over it."
"I, ah... I heard about what happened the other night between you and Tegan. The guys said you came back off a hunt, looking a bit ragged. Your body's still recovering from those solar burns, you know. You've got to take things easy, feed the healing - "
"I said, I'm fine," Lucan snapped, feeling his eyes flash anger, his lips curled back off his teeth in a snarl.
Between the prey he'd taken in the street and the Minion he'd drained in the park, he'd had more than enough blood to sustain him through his recovery. The fact was, despite his physical satiation, he still craved more.
He was on damned slippery ground, and he knew it.
