But it had, just as tonight's slaying had happened, too: this time with Lucan at the center of it.
Gabrielle had gone to Megan's out of desperation, needing to be somewhere familiar, yet too afraid to go to her own apartment in case Lucan's friend might be waiting for her there. She had told Megan and her boyfriend, Ray, how she'd been accosted on the street by the psycho from the police station. She'd relayed the facts that he'd also been spying on her a few days earlier, and when he'd confronted her tonight, he did so with a gun in his hand.
She wasn't sure why she'd left Lucan entirely out of the story, crucial as his presence was. She supposed it was partly because regardless of his methods, he had killed tonight in order to protect her, and she felt a need to offer some of the same consideration to him.
Even if he was a vampire.
God, it sounded ridiculous even to think it.
"Gab, honey. You need to report what happened. The guy sounds seriously unhinged. The police need to hear about this, they need to get him off the street. Ray and I can take you. We'll go downtown and find your detective friend - "
"No." Gabrielle shook her head, setting her cold tea onto the sofa table with only the slightest quiver in her hands. "I don't want to go anywhere tonight. Please, Megan? I just need to rest for a little while. I'm so tired."
Megan took Gabrielle's hand and squeezed it gently. "Okay. I'll get you a pillow and another blanket. You don't have to go anywhere until you're ready, sweetie. I'm just so glad you're all right."
"You were fortunate to get away," Ray interjected as Megan picked up Gabrielle's cup and carried it into the kitchen before heading to a linen closet down the hall. "Someone else might not be so lucky. Now, I'm off duty, and you're Meg's friend, so I'm not gonna force the issue, but you have a responsibility not to let this guy get away with what he did tonight."
"He's not going to hurt anyone else," Gabrielle whispered. And even though they were all talking about the man who'd pulled a gun on her, she couldn't help thinking that they could have been saying the same things about Lucan.
He couldn't remember how he'd gotten back to the compound, or even how long he'd been there. Based on the sweat he'd worked up in the weapons room of the training facility, he had to guess it to be hours.
Lucan hadn't bothered with the lights. His eyes were killing him enough in the dark, anyway. All he needed was the burn of his muscles as he forced them to work, to regain control of his body as his system slowly came down from a high that had been perilously close to Bloodlust.
Lucan reached for one of the daggers on the counter beside him, his fingers testing the razor-sharp edge as he turned back toward the alleylike corridor of the practice range. He could sense, more than see, the target at the end, and when he let the blade loose into the dark, he knew the hard thump meant a dead-center hit.
"Hell, yeah," he murmured, his voice still rough, his fangs not yet receded.
His aim had much improved. He hadn't been a hair off a killing strike in the past several tries with the blades. He wasn't about to quit until he had shaken off the last of the effects of his feeding. That could take a while yet, he thought, still feeling ill from the near overdose of blood he'd consumed.
Lucan strode down the length of the practice range to retrieve his weapon from the target. He pulled the dagger free, noting with satisfaction the deep set of the wound he would have delivered had the target been a Rogue or Minion, and not a practice dummy.
As he turned to start back for another round, there was a soft click somewhere ahead of him in the range, then searing light flooded the length and breadth of the training facility.
Lucan recoiled as his head exploded with the sudden assault. He tried to blink some of his daze away, squinting into the glare of light that bounced off the mirrored walls lining the defense and weapons training section adjacent to the practice range. It was there he saw the large form of another vampire, leaning a thick shoulder against the wall.
One of the warriors had been watching him from out of the shadows.
Tegan.
Jesus. How long had he been standing there?
"Feeling all right?" he asked, apathetic as ever in his dark tee-shirt and loose-fitting jeans. "If the light is too much for you - "
"It's fine," Lucan growled. Stars blinded him as he struggled to adjust to the harsh illumination. He lifted his head and forced himself to meet Tegan's stare across the room. "I was just about to leave, anyway."
Tegan's eyes stayed rooted on him, his gaze too knowing as he stared at Lucan. Tegan's nostrils flared infinitesimally, and the wry twist of his mouth took on an edge of surprise. "You've been hunting tonight. And you're bleeding."
"So?"
"So, it's not like you to take a hit. You're too fast for that, usually."
Lucan exhaled a curse. "You mind not sniffing around my ass right now? I'm not in the mood for company."
"No shit. Feeling a little tense, are we?" Tegan swaggered forward to peruse the weapons laid out for training. He wasn't looking at Lucan now, but he read his torment as if it were spread before him on the table along with the collection of daggers, knives, and various other blades. "Got some aggression you need to work out? Hard to concentrate with all that buzzing in your head, I'll bet. Blood gets running so fast, it's all you can hear. All you can think about is the hunger. Next thing you know, it owns you."
Lucan tested the heft of another blade in his hand, trying to appreciate the tang and balance of the handcrafted dagger. His eyes couldn't focus for longer than a second. His fingers itched to use the weapon for something more than target practice. With a snarl, he cocked his arm back and let the dagger fly down the range. It struck hard in the dummy at the other end, a direct chest shot, right through the heart.
"Get the fuck out of here, Tegan. I don't need the commentary. Or the audience."