Mostly men walked along the streets, some hugging, some holding hands, others kissing openly. Gabriel had been here before, many years ago. This was the gay center of the city, where the gay population had their special hangouts, where the police rarely interfered, where public exposure was the norm.

Gabriel stopped on a corner of a bar and pulled out his phone. A handsome young biker smiled at him and lifted his beer bottle toward him from the bar. Gabriel shook his head and turned away. Great, men were coming onto him—they obviously didn’t mind his scar. Why couldn’t a woman give him the come hither look? Not any woman—Maya specifically.

He dialed. His call was answered after the third ring. “What’s up, Gabriel?” Zane breathed hard into the phone.

“Where are you?”

“Why?”

“Because I need you to do some work,” Gabriel barked.

“I’m in the Mission, hot nightspot.” Zane gave the address.

“I’ll meet you there.” Gabriel punched the address into the GPS on his phone. Zane’s current location was only about six blocks away. Well, that was convenient.

What Zane called a hot nightspot was a little more than just a nightclub. The bouncer at the door said nothing and let him pass inside the dingy establishment as soon as he was finished staring at Gabriel’s scar. He figured the darn thing did have its purposes. People seemed to be afraid of him and didn’t give him any resistance.

It was dark, darker than in other clubs he’d been to, and the reason why became evident instantly.  Along the outside walls were small booths, the entrances covered with transparent fabric, enough to distort the faces of the people behind them, but not sufficient to disguise what they were doing.

Gabriel wasn’t surprised. His second-in-command’s choice of entertainment always included sex, and if it was peppered with violence, even better. He followed his nose and found Zane in one of the booths. He stopped outside of it and looked through the gauzy fabric.

It was easy to make out Zane’s distinct form. His bald head glistened. He was stretched out on a bench, his stiff cock sticking out of his leather pants. A woman was giving him a blow job while he had his fingers up the ass of a second one who was straddling his face.

The women were dressed, but on closer inspection Gabriel would see that the woman who was straddling Zane wasn’t wearing any panties under her ultra-short skirt.

Gabriel kept himself rigid as he watched how Zane sucked the woman’s pussy and worked a third finger into her ass, ignoring the woman’s attempt to pull away. With his free hand he slapped her ass cheek, and the woman squealed.

“Do as you’re told,” he heard Zane order her.

Gabriel contemplated interrupting him, but two things stopped him. Interrupting a vampire while he was having sex could turn ugly—Zane would turn his sexual energy into violence, and Gabriel didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.

The second reason was his own arousal. Gabriel liked watching—it was all he often got. And this time, it was more than just watching some people in a porn movie. This time, he could pretend that he was the man, and the woman above him was Maya.

The situation turned him on within seconds, awakening sexual desires darker than usual. Why he suddenly wanted unspeakable things, indulge in sexual acts that seemed depraved and taboo, he couldn’t explain. Was he getting so desperate that anything would arouse him these days? Gabriel shook his wicked thoughts off.

When Zane sank his teeth into the woman’s thigh to draw blood, Gabriel knew the wait was over. A few moments later, he’d disentangled himself from the two women and sent them on their way. He didn’t seem to be surprised that Gabriel was at the entrance to the alcove.

Zane waved him in. “Been waiting long?”

“Long enough.”

“You should have joined in; I’m not proprietary.”

“No, thanks.” Gabriel cleared his voice and sat down on the bench. He’d never gotten undressed in front of his friends or colleagues, and he wasn’t starting now. Nobody knew what horror he was hiding. “I hope you wiped their memories.”

“Standard procedure,” Zane confirmed and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “You have a job for me?”

“The rogue was watching us at Maya’s apartment tonight. He knows she’s with us, so we’ll have to step up our search. Have you found anything yet?”

Zane shrugged. “I’m working on it, as you can see.”

Gabriel frowned—having sex with two women didn’t look like working on finding a rogue.