“Is there a reason you are staring at the back of my head?”

Shaun jerked at the question, feeling guilty as he tried to find somewhere else to look. Lucas never turned around, keeping his eyes on the tablet on the desk. Even without Lucas looking at him, Shaun still felt he was being evaluated as he tried to turn his attention back to the reports in his lap. He had taken the time to have them printed from the files on Lucas’ computer, and they were now spread out all over the couch and floor.

“I wasn’t staring at anything, I was…thinkin’, zonin’ out,” Shaun protested, hearing the lie in his voice as he tried to pull the stack of papers back together.

Lucas hummed with a faint tone of disbelief, but said nothing else. As expected, he had returned to their shared hotel room in the morning. Unlike when Shaun returned to their room after an overnight tryst, Lucas had come back without a hangover. He had also looked well-rested and showered, his clothing looking almost as fresh as when he had left the room the night before. Lucas had been so well put-together, that Shaun doubted his original assumption that Lucas had spent the night drinking and getting laid somewhere. Yet, he had come back freshly showered, so he had to of slept somewhere. Lucas hadn’t offered up an explanation and Shaun hadn’t asked, even if it did leave a heavy feeling in his stomach.

He was just happy to have his partner back, having found himself missing Lucas’ presence somewhere around midnight. Shaun had hoped they might talk about what happened and smooth over their argument. Lucas, however, hadn’t mentioned their fight once, immediately hopping on his computer and retrieving the files he needed. He hadn’t exactly been cold to Shaun, but there was a stiffness and distance between them that hadn’t been there for quite some time. It was almost like the first year of their partnership, and that was enough to unnerve Shaun.

“So,” he began, trying to break the awkward silence between them, “didja have fun last night?”

There was a slight hesitation in the typing at the keyboard, “I did, yes.”

“What’d ya do?”

Lucas cocked his head enough so he could see Shaun from the corner of his eye. “Since when do we pry into each other’s business if one of us happens to spend the night away from the other?”

That was a fair question, since it was an unspoken agreement between the two of them that they didn’t ask questions. On the rare occasion Lucas found a bed partner that wasn’t Shaun, he never spoke of it. Lucas didn’t seem bothered by Shaun’s promiscuous habits, but he never asked either, out of some misplaced sense of privacy. Shaun never asked Lucas because he didn’t want to know, and he wouldn’t have been able to stomach the reality of hearing about Lucas with someone that wasn’t him.

“Sorry, was only curious,” Shaun shrugged, shifting his body so he didn’t have to see Lucas staring at him for what seemed a moment too long.

“Are you sure that is the question you really wanted to ask?”

Shaun winced, hating the cool, knowing tone in Lucas’ voice. “Okay, fine. Are we going to talk about what happened yesterday or just continue to ignore it, which you seem happy to do?”

“Are you so intent on fighting with me again?”

“I’m not trying to fight with you, Lucas.”

“No? And how will revisiting that particular subject make it turn out any differently? Have you budged in the slightest on your stance over eliminating every supernatural threat in existence? Have you managed to understand why I just might keep that sort of thing from you? Or, are you still holding onto the idea that I, and I alone, am the one who caused the problem?”

Shaun turned, glaring at Lucas’ sideways stare. “Don’t make it sound like I’m the one who did somethin’ wrong here. Ya went and did somethin’ behind my back and didn’t even have the decency to tell me the truth afterward. You might think ya had a good reason, but it don’t mean I don’t have a right to be pissed about it. How am I supposed to know when you’ll do it again?”

Lucas shrugged. “You don’t. We’ve never agreed on how to deal with every supernatural creature Shaun, and I have no hope that we ever will. You refuse to compromise or even try to see things from a different perspective.”

“And you do?”

“Shaun, you said it yourself. A supernatural creature was responsible for me losing my parents. So yes, I think I know what it’s like to want to kill every one of them myself. The difference is, I actually try to think outside of that box of hate. You just refuse to.”

“What? So I’m just too dumb to think ‘outside the box’ then?”

“I’ve never called you dumb, and you’ll never hear me say it. You are a stubborn jackass who refuses to budge when you’ve decided you’re right. Just because we’re partners and get along better than we did at first, doesn’t mean that in the past three years I somehow forgot that fact.”

Shaun growled. “And you’re a fucking cold as hell, know-it-all, just like ya always been.”

“I’m glad we’ve settled that. Now, do you want to continue to have a pissing match or do you want to focus on whatever killed two hunters and might be after us now?”

“What, don’t wanna try to keep it as a pet?”

“If you’re going to be childish, I can do this without you, Shaun. I would prefer to do this as a team, but…”

The undaunted casualness of Lucas’ threat to work alone was enough to dampen Shaun’s rising anger. Lucas might be reminding Shaun of when they had first become partners, but he didn’t want to separate any more than he wanted to hack off his own arm. Even in the beginning, Lucas had never thrown out a threat of working by himself in such a casual way. What Shaun had seen as an old argument returning had apparently run a lot deeper.

“I take it Ana has somethin’ for us?” he asked after a moment, keeping his voice low and quiet.

“Currently she’s forwarding whatever she can spare the time to look for. At least that’s what she’s claiming. I believe she has a search algorithm running and is forwarding whatever it happens to find. My card with the information from the scene and my personal notes are in my other bag. Would you do me the favor of getting it?”

Shaun bit back a nasty comment about where Lucas could shove his request for help. “Lemme guess, down in the truck?”

Lucas sighed. “That would be the one. Never mind, I’ll get it.”

“I’ll get it, you’re obviously doing your nerd thing, and I know how bad it is to interrupt you.”

For a moment, it looked as if Lucas might have a nasty comment of his own to make, but he merely smiled instead. “A nerd’s gotta nerd.”

It seemed that was about as close as he was going to get to a temporary truce. Lucas could be a man of many words when he chose to speak, and one of very few when he didn’t. For all his claims of Shaun being the stubborn one, Lucas could be more immovable than a mountain when he dug his heels in. If he didn’t want to talk about their argument, then nothing Shaun said or did would convince him to do so.

Even if it wasn’t an obvious ploy to get Shaun out of his hair for a moment, Shaun couldn’t blame Lucas for sending him to retrieve the other bag from the truck. Caution meant they hadn’t parked the truck anywhere near the hotel they were staying in. The metropolitan sections of Atlanta offered plenty of different places to park long-term. It meant they had the pick of several different parking garages, which could still be identified if their potential stalker turned out to be an actual tracker.

It meant that Shaun not only had to descend to street level, but also walk a handful of blocks to where his truck was parked. The coolness of the parking garage lower levels offered a pleasant respite from the heat of the day. It also meant Shaun could get away from the moving packs of people he would have happily avoided. They had chosen a well-used parking garage rather than one with only a few vehicles in it. The idea was to keep the truck under a false name and out of sight to make it difficult to find. Shaun wondered if it might be overkill but this way, Lucas’ overly cautious nature could be satisfied, which was beneficial for both their sakes.

Still, the shift from the hot, crowded street, to the cool dimness of the underground garage was a little unnerving. If he were paranoid, he would have thought he was being watched. It wasn’t just the sudden silence; it was his dislike of finding himself in an environment he wasn’t accustomed to. Lucas was more comfortable in the city, and he probably wouldn’t have thought twice about walking through the parking garage. Shaun would have preferred creeping through a dark, even unknown forest than being surrounded by this maze of echoing concrete and dim industrial bulbs.

“Let’s just park the truck in the creepy parking garage,” he grumbled to himself, digging in his pocket for the keys.

The rear of the truck finally came into view as he fished out the keys. Out of habit, he hit the button to unlock the truck, hearing the familiar dull click of the locks disengaging. A blinding flash of light lit the dim parking garage. A hot rush of air picked him up effortlessly and tossed him backward, slamming him painfully into the ground. Only as he rolled across the concrete, his body limp, did his mind register the jarring sound of the explosion that had sent him flying.

Grunting, he fought to regain control of his limbs. Flickering light and shadow danced across the ceiling as he realized he’d stopped moving and was now lying on his back staring up at it. Forcing himself to think more clearly, he rolled onto his side, moving each part of him in turn, checking for damage. Finally, he struggled to his knees, shaking himself to try and clear his head.

When he looked up, his mouth fell open in horror as he finally comprehended what had happened. His truck was lit with flames, smoke billowed out in a choking cloud that clung to the upper reaches of the garage. Flames danced from the cab, as the hood had been blown up and smoke poured out, adding to the suffocating shroud that hung over him. The vehicles on either side of the truck weren’t in much better shape, and several windows of other cars had been blown out in the blast. The ground was littered with the smoldering remains of metal and leather, along with glittering pieces of glass that were scattered everywhere.

Checking himself over, he stood slowly, not wanting to get too close in case there was a second explosion. He’d been saved from the worst of the blast by the fact that he wasn’t as close as he could have been. It might have been worse if he hadn’t been passing by another car as he hit the button. That vehicle had taken the worst of the blast. Shaun was simply tossed in the air like a ragdoll. He was covered in scores of small, bleeding wounds from where he assumed he’d automatically thrown his arms up to guard himself.

Fumbling, he yanked his phone out of his pocket, relieved to see that it was still in one piece. He was thankful Lucas had forced him to get that awful case for his phone. The damn thing made the phone unwieldy, but it had saved it from being smashed when he was slammed into the ground. It didn’t take long to swipe on Lucas’ number and listen to the ringing sound as he bounced his leg impatiently, still keeping one eye on the truck.

“Yes?” Lucas’ voice sounded resigned. “Did you forget what I asked you to get already?”

“No! But you aren’t getting’ it since it’s either on fire or blasted to pieces!”

“What? Why are you shouting?”

Was he shouting? Probably, since there was a horrible ringing going on in his ears right now. “Probably because I almost got blown up, right along with my fuckin’ truck, Lucas!”

“Blown up?” Concern slipped into Lucas’ voice, and Shaun could picture him sitting up straighter and more alert.

“Yeah, blown up. As in a bomb, planted in my truck. In my fuckin’ truck, Lucas! My truck!”

“Jesus, are you alright?”

“Do I sound alright to you? I’m pretty sure I sound anythin’ but alright. I just watched my truck get blown up. Everythin’ we didn’t take to the hotel was in that truck. In my truck! Now I got a goddamn headache, I’m covered in scratches, and my truck got blown the fuck up!”

He loved that truck. It wasn’t anything fancy or hi-tech. Hell, the fanciest thing about it was the fact that it had electric windows and locks. He’d had the thing refitted with a metal frame instead of the awful standard one he thought of as thick plastic. The thing was a gas hog, but damned if it didn’t run well. It had gotten them out of more than one scrape before now, and admittedly into a few others. It was probably stupid of him to get sentimental over a vehicle, but he’d had that truck for years. Now it was sitting in front of him, billowing smoke.

“Alright, alright,” Lucas sounded exasperated now, “Are you safe now? As in, are you bleeding out badly, or on fire?”

“No, jus’ some bleedin’ from the glass. I ain’t gonna bleed out. I was far enough away when it went off so I didn’t set on fire either. Thanks for the concern.”

“Concussion?”

Shaun shrugged, not caring that Lucas couldn’t see him. “Dunno, don’t think so, but you’re the one who’s s’posed to know that kinda stuff. Just got a headache, probably hit it when I was thrown.”

“Alright, I’m leaving now, get away from the garage before the cops show up.”

“They’re gonna have my face on the cameras.”

“I doubt that because whoever planted the bomb probably turned off the cameras so they wouldn’t be caught on film. Either way, it’s better for you to get out of there and have them looking for you. Come on, Shaun. Think clearly. A truck can be replaced, but you being in jail is a lot harder to fix.”

“Ain’t just a truck, Lucas.”

“It is, compared to you being okay and out of jail.”

Shaun grunted, not willing to argue about it right now. “Just stay there, I’ll meet ya back in the room. Ain’t no point in comin’ out here for nothin’, I can make it jus’ fine.”

“Shaun–”

“Just do it! Goddammit. I’ll be there in a bit.”

Any protest Lucas might have been about to make was cut off when Shaun angrily shoved his thumb onto the red button. His call to Lucas had been made out of sheer habit, more instinct than conscious thought or decision. In the past, he might have taken comfort from Lucas’ voice of reason, but now it only pissed him off more than he already was. It hadn’t been Lucas down here, almost getting blown to hell by an explosion. Lucas hadn’t had to watch his only prized possession go up in flames, adding insult to the injuries he’d gained from the blast.

He paused as he turned away. He glanced back at the fire as a nasty thought occurred to him. Lucas hadn’t been down here, that was true. Lucas had also been the one to send him down here, rather than coming down himself as Shaun might have expected considering Lucas’ mood. They had hidden the truck down here to delay anyone finding it. It hadn’t been parked here for a day yet, and he was supposed to believe that it had been found and rigged to blow that quickly?

“Shaun, no,” he grunted at himself, suddenly horrified at the paranoid part of his mind that was almost insistent on continuing with that line of thinking. Not even in the early days would he have believed Lucas might intentionally try to harm him. Screw with him, sure, but kill him? No, he wouldn’t believe that of Lucas.

But it did beg the question, was it their stalker? If he refused to believe it was Lucas, then he had to face the fact that it was probably their stalker, the one they thought they had left behind. If that was the case, they were dealing with someone, or something, that was very good at what they did. Finding them this quickly and rigging up an explosion would have been no small feat. Was it meant to kill one or both of them, or just meant to put one of them out of commission for a while? If it hadn’t been for his timing and position, Shaun might not have been so lucky.

Whatever the truth was, he knew he needed to get back to Lucas as quickly as possible. Whatever issues they might be having, he didn’t want to leave his partner alone.