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With these gifts in hand as she reached the door of the precinct house, Gabrielle took a courage-building breath, then stepped over the threshold and strode casually inside.
The worst of his burns had begun to heal by nightfall. New skin grew firm and healthy beneath the feathery peels of the old as the outward damage sloughed away. His eyes, still hypersensitive to even artificial light, registered no pain in the cool darkness topside. Which was good, because he needed to be out here to quench the searing thirst of his recuperating body.
Dante stared at him as the two of them emerged from out of the compound and prepared to part company for a night of recon and hell's own retribution on the Rogues.
"You don't look so good, man. You say the word, I'm out there hunting for you, bring you back something young and strong. You sure as shit need it. And no one has to know you didn't score the sustenance on your own."
Lucan swung a grim look at the male and bared his teeth in a sneer. "Fuck you."
Dante chuckled. "Had a feeling you'd say that. You want me to ride shotgun for you, at least?"
The slow shake of his head sent a knife of pain lancing through his head. "I'm good. Be better, once I feed."
"No doubt." The vampire was silent for a long moment, just looking at him. "You know, that was pretty friggin' impressive, what you did for Conlan today. He wouldn't have seen that coming in a hundred years, but damn, I wish he knew you were the one walking those final steps with him. Way to honor him, man. Truly."
Lucan absorbed the praise without letting it warm him. He'd had his reasons for performing the funeral rite, and winning the admiration of the other warriors wasn't one of them. "Give me an hour to hunt, then contact me back here with your location so we can deal some death to our enemies tonight. In Conlan's memory."
Dante nodded, and rapped his knuckles against Lucan's fist. "You got it."
Lucan hung back as Dante retreated into the dark, his long-legged stride cocky in anticipation of the battles that awaited him on the streets. He drew his twin weapons from their sheaths and raised the curved malebranche blades high over his head. The gleam from those claws of polished steel and Rogue-slaying titanium sparked in the thin glow of moonlight overhead. With a low whoop of a battle cry, the vampire vanished into the shadows of the night.
Lucan followed not long after, taking a similar path into the lightless arteries of the city. His stealthy gait held less bravado than purpose, less eager arrogance than stone-cold need. His hunger was worse than it ever had been, and the roar he sent up into the canopy of stars above was filled with feral rage.
"Can you spell that last name again, please?"
"T-H-O-R-N-E," Gabrielle told the station receptionist, who had already come up empty on her first search of the directory. "Detective Lucan Thorne. I don't know what department he works in. He came to my house after I was in here reporting an attack I witnessed last weekend - a murder."
"Oh, so you want homicide, then?" The young woman's long manicured fingernails clacked over the keyboard in rapid strokes. "Hmm... nope, sorry. He's not listed in that department, either."
"That can't be right. Could you check again for me? Doesn't that system let you search on just the name?"
"It does, but I have no listing anywhere for a Detective Lucan Thorne. You sure he works out of this precinct?"
"I'm certain of it, yes. Your computer system must be out of date or - "
"Oh, hold on! There's someone who can help you out," the receptionist interjected, gesturing toward the entrance doors of the station. "Officer Carrigan! You got a second?"
Officer Carrigan, Gabrielle registered miserably. The aging cop who had given her such a hard time last weekend, all but calling her a liar and a cokehead as he refused to believe her statement about the nightclub slaying. At least now, with Lucan having processed her cell phone pictures with the police lab, she could take comfort in knowing that, regardless of this man's input, the case was moving forward in some fashion.
Gabrielle had to fight to contain her groan as she turned her head and saw the rotund officer taking his sweet time to strut over. When he saw her standing there, the expression of arrogance that seemed so natural on his fleshy face took on a decidedly contemptuous edge.
"Ah, Jay-zuss. You again? Just what I don't need, my last day on the job. I'm retiring in four more hours, darlin'. You'll have to tell it to someone else this time."
Gabrielle frowned. "Excuse me?"
"This young lady is looking for one of our detectives," said the receptionist, sharing a sympathetic look with Gabrielle at the officer's dismissive demeanor. "I can't find him in the system, but she thinks he might be one of yours. Do you know Detective Thorne?"
"Never heard of him." Officer Carrigan started to walk away.
"Lucan Thorne," Gabrielle said with force, setting Lucan's coffee and bagged danish down on the reception counter. She took an automatic step after the cop, nearly reaching for his arm when it seemed he was simply going to leave her standing there. "Detective Lucan Thorne - you must be familiar with him. You folks sent him to my apartment earlier this week to get some additional information on my statement. He brought my cell phone photos into the lab for analysis - "
Carrigan was chuckling now, having paused to look at her as she blurted out the details of Lucan's arrival at her home. She didn't have the patience to deal with the officer's belligerence. Not when her nape was crawling with the feeling that things were about to get weird.
"Are you telling me that Detective Thorne hasn't shared any of this with you?"
"Lady. I'm telling you that I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I've been working out of this station for thirty-five years, and I've never heard of any Detective Thorne, let alone sent him out to your place."
A knot began to form in her stomach, cold and tight, but Gabrielle refused to process the dread that was taking shape beneath her confusion. "That's not possible. He knew about the murder I witnessed. He knew I'd been here, at the station, filing a statement about it. I saw his ID badge when he came to my house. I just talked to him today, he said he was working tonight. I have his cell phone number..."
