Chapter 2 - Consequences of Impulse

Alexander Brown watched as the small car pulled into the parking garage, his arms crossed over his chest, and his expression blank. Elisa had her head down as she stepped out of the car, pausing as she closed the door, and fiddling with the keys.

"Gabe and Max are out looking for you, Elisa. Where have you been?" His voice was quiet, and he approached her where she stood.

"Out and about." She looked up at him, chewing on her lower lip. "There was a sighting in the subways last night."

Alex stiffened, his hand reaching automatically for the guns that always hung at his side. "And?"

"There was the body of a vampire elder among the rubble. Signs of a battle." She glanced into the back seat of her car, and Alex's gaze followed. "A lycan with severe silver poisoning."

Alex let out his breath slowly. "Elisa Maloryn. Please tell me you do not have a werewolf in the back seat of your car." His hand curled around the butt of one gun, ready to pull it free of its holster in an instant.

"I have samples in the passenger seat I need to get to the refrigerator so they won't degrade before I get them to the laboratory." Elisa side-stepped his query neatly, her fingers still fiddling with the keys.

"Elisa." Alex kept his attention on the lycan in the back seat, noting that he appeared to be unconscious. Appearances can be deceiving.

"Alex, please. I don't think he's capable of hurting anyone, much less killing anyone at the moment." Elisa gave him a pleading look. "He's been shot more than once, with silver nitrate bullets, not solid silver ones. I don't even know how he survived having that much silver put into his system."

"And I would have felt a lot more comfortable if you'd left him where he was."

"At my back?" Elisa shook her head. "I'm not going to do something that stupid, Alex."

He raised an eyebrow. "And bringing a werewolf home is an intelligent move?"

She growled, a frown that was nearly a scowl on her face. "Better than leaving him where he could have killed me, or he could have been killed himself. I'm not going to leave someone to die when I can prevent it, Alex!"

"And he may well kill you, and the rest of us if he finds out what you do for a living! Which is a distinct possibility with how you bring your work home with you!" Alex glared at her. "You're inviting a security risk straight into our home, without thinking about the consequences."

"You're sounding like Gabe." Her jaw was clenched, and anger sparkled in her eyes.

"I should be. You're putting yourself at risk, Lis, and you worry me, worry all of us, when you go out on jaunts like this." His expression softened slightly. "Come on, Lis. Think about it. You vanish on us, without a word, and without a clue where to start looking for you. It's hell on our nerves."

"And having three guys haunting my every step is hell on my nerves!" Elisa snapped back.

"Lis." Alex gave her a warning look. "Let's get you up to the apartment, and wait for Gabe and Max to get back. No more adventures tonight, all right?"

She hesitated. "Alex, can you help me with Lucian? He's really too heavy to move on my own."

Elisa's jaw clenched as she listened to Alex, her one hand fisting around the keys. The metal bit into her palm as she tried to contain her temper. "You're beginning to sound like Gabe," she growled, her anger visible in her eyes.

"I should be," Alex retorted, his own expression annoyed. "You're putting yourself at risk, Elisa, and you worry me, all of us, when you go on jaunts like this." His eyes softened a little. "Come on, Lis. Think about it. You vanish on us, leaving us without a clue as to where to start looking for you. It's hell on our nerves."

She blew out an exasperated breath, growling back, "And having you three haunting my every step is hell on my nerves!"

Alex gave her a look that warned her she was pushing his limits again. "Lis. Let's get you up to the apartment, wait for Gabe and Max to get back, ok? No more adventures tonight."

She bit at her lip a moment, hesitating. "Um, Alex, could you help me with Lucian? He's too heavy for me to really move on my own." She looked up at him. "And we shouldn't leave him out in the car. Who knows what could come through the parking garage, and recognize him for what he is?"

She could see the muscles of Alex's jaw clenching, and bit her lip again. Please, Alex. I can't explain why this is important to me. You wouldn't understand, and I don't know if you'd even believe me. I'm not even sure I believe myself.

Alex's expression didn't change. "Elisa. We can't have a lycan in the apartment. Think about the security risk that involves, will you? It's too dangerous."

Elisa sighed with exasperation. "He's a lycan, Alex, he can probably figure out which apartment is ours even without having been taken into it. He's close enough to find it…"

"You should have thought of that before you decided to bring him here in the first place, Elisa!" Alex crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes flickering over her shoulder when a car pulled in. Elisa followed his gaze, and bit back a groan.

"When did she get back?" Gabe stepped out of the driver's side of the car, shooting a look at Elisa. He came over, his eyes on Alex while Max gave her car a quick look. The other bodyguard cleared his throat, nodding to the car when Gabe looked over at him.

"Who's the man in the back seat, Elisa?" Gabe's voice was quiet, and he looked a good deal calmer than he probably was.

I wish he was as calm as he sounds. Life would be a good deal easier if he was. She drew in a deep breath, rapidly explaining what had happened that evening, and reiterating her reasons for having brought Lucian back with her. Or at least the ones that make sense. That I'm sure I've seen him before, but can't remember where, would not be a good thing to tell them. Or that his voice sounds familiar.

Gabe carefully kept a leash on his temper while he listened to Elisa explain that she wasn't going to leave the lycan to die. Lycans are far more difficult to kill than you're thinking, Elisa. And although I'm sure that his survival of his tangle with someone with silver nitrate is fascinating to you, it doesn't hold any real interest to me. Except that it makes him more dangerous than the ordinary lycan.

He waited a moment after she finished before speaking. "And what did you plan on doing once you had gotten him back here?" He raised an eyebrow, certain he already knew her answer, if the look on Alex's face when he and Max had returned was any indication.

Elisa gave him an exasperated look. "Take him up to the apartment, and see if Max could patch him up." She looked over at the dark-haired medic pleadingly. "He's injured, and unconscious. He can't hurt us."

"At the moment." Gabe shook his head. "Elisa, this is the most reckless stunt you've pulled yet. What were you thinking?"

Her jaw was set, he noted, and he knew that meant she wasn't going to stop arguing until she won, or until the point was moot. "That someone needed assistance. That he's a lycan doesn't mean he isn't a person, Gabe."

"No. But it does mean he's a danger to you, Elisa. A very large danger to you, especially since he knows you have an interest in vampires, at the very least." And likely suspects, if he doesn't know, that you have a similar interest in lycans.

Elisa crossed her arms. "What harm is it going to do to take him up to the apartment at this point, Gabe? He's already here, and besides, he's in danger here, as much as he could be a potential threat to my safety."

"Potential threat?" Gabe frowned. "Elisa, he is a threat, if he stays here." He echoed her stance, his arms crossed. "Max and I can take him back out into the city, and leave him where he'll be relatively safe until morning. And where he won't prove a threat to your safety in the bargin."

"Gabe, there's nowhere a lycan is truly safe, not if what my research says is true. They are hunted, and they are the ones I find more bodies of than I find vampire bodies. More of them dead than the vampires. If you take Lucian out into the city, and abandon him there, he could well be dead before morning ever arrives." She scowled. "I won't let you do that. I won't have his death on my conscious."

"It wouldn't be on your conscious, Elisa." Gabe shook his head. "We are not taking him up to the apartment."

Elisa opened the passenger door to her car, and perched on the seat. "Then I'll spend the night out here."

"Elisa!"

She shook her head. "I don't think it's safe for him to be out there, and I'm not going to risk someone coming through here and recognizing him for what he is."

"Elisa, it's a private garage."

"And what are people going to think if they see some strange man in the back of my car? I don't want to deal with the police, either." She glared at him, and Gabe sighed.

"You know this will mean we have to move, Elisa." Which was not something I wanted to do any time soon. It's difficult to find someplace we can set up the security measures in without attracting the wrong sort of attention.

"Yes." Elisa shrugged. "I don't mind having to move, if that's the price to pay for helping someone."

"This will mean we have to move, Elisa." Gabe held her gaze for a long moment, and Elisa shrugged slightly.

"Yes." I don't care. I have an opportunity here that I might not have again. To find out about the culture of the beings I study. And I want to find out where I recognize him from. "If moving is the price to pay for helping him, I don't mind."

Gabe nodded to Alex and Max, who pulled Lucian from the back of her car while the blond bodyguard escorted her up to the apartment. Elisa paused as they got into the main room, and Gabe's hand came down on her shoulder. "Get some sleep, Elisa."

She turned, frowning. "But…"

"No buts, Elisa. You've caused enough trouble tonight." He guided to the door of her room as if she couldn't find it on her own, and closed the door behind her.

As if sending me to bed like an errant child will stop me from doing something dangerous! She seethed as she prepared for bed, curling up under the covers in a ball. Bastard.