He studied me, arms crossed, face impassive. But there was nothing impassive in his eyes. Nothing impassive in the explosive swirl of emotion scorching my skin with heat.
"If it was your brother they'd snatched and killed, would you not do everything in your power to exact revenge? Even if that meant betraying someone you cared for greatly?"
"That's different - "
"No, it's fucking not! Henri was my brother in all but blood. I will not let these fools get away with his murder. I will have my revenge, no matter what I have to do!" He paused, then added softly, "Or who I have to hurt."
I held up my hands, not pushing him away but certainly ready to. "Don't touch me."
"This will not end here," he said flatly. "I won't let it."
"Right now, you have no goddamn choice. I want you to leave and I don't want you to come back and I don't want to see you again."
He snorted. "You'll see me, not only in your dreams, but on the mission. It starts today and I will be involved in it."
So he'd gotten that much from me. Bastard.
"Go," I said fiercely, "before you make me do something I might not regret."
He studied me for a moment, then spun on his heel and walked to the door. But he stopped with his hand on the knob, and looked over his shoulder at me. "I'll see you at the Directorate. And you had better tell Jack about that increase in power, or I will."
With that he left. The door slammed after him, the noise reverberating through the sudden silence. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples for a moment, then turned and headed for the shower. And though I could wash the smell of him from my skin, there was no washing away the feel of him in my mind. No getting away from the huge sense of loss and betrayal.
And I hated that, hated that he'd reduced what was between us to that. Because he was right - there was something more, something that had the potential to be magical. Not soul-deep magical, perhaps, but still so very good. His actions might not have destroyed that, but I really didn't know if I would ever be able to get past them.
I lifted my face to the cooling water, letting it wash away the sting from my eyes. After a while, I got out and re-dressed, then headed into the kitchen to make myself another drink.
And it was there, while I was nursing the steaming mug of coffee, that I finally let myself think about the way I'd attacked Quinn.
I'd never had that sort of power before. Yeah, I rated extremely high in all the Directorate telepathic tests, but I'd never gotten anywhere near reading Quinn's surface thoughts before, let alone busting through any of his shields.
I had tonight, and with such power the force of it had blown him across the room.
Had anger allowed me to tap the reserves Jack kept insisting I had, but had never used? Or was this the first sign that the drug Talon had given me was finally beginning to affect my system?
I didn't know.
But I had a bad feeling I was going to find out, and all too soon. w out a breath and wished, just this once, that I could catch a break. I wanted to spend the night being wined, dined, pampered, and ravished, and not particularly in that order.
What I didn't need was having to deal with the annoyed sensibilities of two alpha males who hated each other.
Though as far as alphas went, you couldn't ask for two finer specimens. Neither man was particularly tall - Kellen was probably little more than an inch above my five seven, and Quinn maybe an inch more above that. Kellen was a lean and muscular brown wolf, though he was more chocolate in tone than the muddy coloring so often seen in the brown packs. His face was sharpish but handsome, his eyes the most delicious shade of gold-flecked green. And dressed as he was in the black tux, he looked absolutely scrumptious.
Quinn was just as athletic looking, but there was more of a sense of grace and controlled power in the way he moved. His dark blue sweater emphasized the width of his shoulders, while the tight fit of his jeans drew the eye to the long, strong length of his legs. His shoulder-length hair was night dark, and so thick, so lush, that my fingertips suddenly itched with the need to run through it. His skin was not the white of most vampires, but a soft, warm gold, simply because he could actually stand quite a lot of sunlight. His eyes were vast wells of darkness the unwary could easily get lost in, and he had the sort of looks even angels would be envious of. Not that he was in any way effeminate - just beautiful. Truly beautiful.
The stairwell door slammed shut against my back, knocking me into the half-lit hallway. It said a lot about the tension between the two of them that neither actually noticed my arrival until then.
"What the hell is he doing here?" they said in unison, each one pointing at the other.
I ignored the question and walked to the door. "Play nice, boys. I'm just not in the mood for petty fighting tonight."
"Then you should not have invited him." Kellen's voice was cold.
"I didn't. He just sort of pops in unannounced whenever he feels like it." I twisted the key in the lock and opened the door. "How do you two actually know each other?"
"He and my father are business rivals and old enemies."
"Mainly because your fucking father keeps trying to kill me off."