When his phone rang, it pulled him immediately from the nap that he had forced himself to take. Even stressed out and fretting over what had happened to Lucas, he could make himself sleep if need be. Lucas told him once that it came from being raised in what he saw as an essentially military household. Shaun didn’t really care where it came from, since it came in handy whenever he needed a little bit of sleep. It also meant he could wake up at the slightest noise that was out of place, and in this case, that meant the ringtone he set on his phone to signify Lucas was calling him.

Instantly alert, he snatched the phone from the bedside table and answered the call, “Lucas! You fuckin’ asshole, are you okay?”

“You were sleeping,” Lucas didn’t phrase it as a question, “And yes, I am okay. I’ll hazard that you are okay as well.”

“Except for wonderin’ if you were gonna show up on a John Doe list in a morgue somewhere? Yeah, I’m fuckin’ great.”

“Can we talk about that some other time? We have more important things to deal with at the moment.”

Beneath the calm sound of his voice, Shaun could hear an undercurrent of stress that wasn’t normally there. “You okay?”

“Physically, yes. I can’t talk about it right now. You need to meet me.”

Shaun stood up from the bed, frowning as he tried to figure out Lucas’ words. They had long ago worked out a system of code phrases that could be slipped into a conversation. It meant they could tell the other person about what was happening to them without raising suspicion, if that was a concern. Lucas sounded worried and upset, but he wasn’t using any of the phrases they had set up to show that he was in immediate danger or being held captive.

“Meet you? Meet you where?”

“Don’t have anywhere secure set up at the moment. Feels a bit like we’re surrounded on all sides. I’m probably being paranoid, but it feels like no matter where we go, we’re being watched. Hell, if we had a mailman, I would probably be suspicious of him at this point.”

Shaun raised a brow, nodding in understanding. All that meant was that Lucas believed their phones were being watched as well. The last bit was a bit of phrasing that Shaun should check his mail, or rather, the mail for their room.

“I hate it when you get paranoid,” he grunted in irritation, telling Lucas that he understood perfectly. “You should be here, not out with your tinfoil hat.”

“Don’t be a prick,” Lucas snapped at him. That wasn’t code for anything, but it had been quite some time since he had used words that vehement to Shaun. He was hoping it was a sign that Lucas was still trying to play up their fight for anyone that might be listening. Then again, after two fights in the course of two days, it was possible he was also still pissed.

“Fine. Then when ya decide to stop playin’ spy games, lemme know. Maybe you can even drag your ass back here. Nice of ya to lemme know you’re alive, too.”

And that was just him making a jab at Lucas’ disappearing act, which Lucas apparently ignored. “I’ll let you know. Watch your back.”

The phone beeped to signal that the call had been dropped. Shaun sighed and flipped it open to remove the back. He knew enough about phones to pull out the card and then the battery. Plugging the sink, he filled it up completely and tossed the phone in, flushing the card down the toilet. Lucas would probably know of better ways to make the phone useless, but this would have to do for now.

Grabbing the bag with all their field gear in it, he left the room and made his way down to the lobby. Most of their gear had been lost in the explosion of his truck, but this would do for now. There was enough in the bag to get him locked away for a bit if someone were to see it all. The couple of homemade incendiary bombs alone would probably get him a decade, let alone the weapons with illegal modifications. The bombs had been Lucas’ doing, but the guns were all Shaun, and they were something he was damn proud of.

Sure enough, there was a message waiting for him at the front desk. He wasn’t sure how reliable the information was, or how safe it was, but it was the most secure means of communication they had at the moment. The address was on the other side of the city and he knew he had a bit of a trek ahead of him. The best thing to do would be to take a taxi, using a credit card with a name he hadn’t used in the past week, at the very least.

It wasn’t the first time he had to take the long way to his destination. The trip should have taken an hour or two at most with the traffic, but had taken closer to three. Not only had he taken a taxi, but he had switched between different taxi companies and even rode the bus at one point. The idea had been to make it difficult, or at least annoying, to follow him.

The address Lucas had left behind was a small apartment building sandwiched between two larger ones. It had definitely seen better days, but if Shaun hadn’t been looking for it, he wouldn’t have given it a second glance. He wondered how Lucas had managed to find this place so quickly, considering they hadn’t been apart for long and his partner had left his computer and tablet behind. Thinking about it, he realized that he had probably called Ana and had her do the dirty work for him. If that were true, he was going to have a few words with the woman since she was supposed to let him know if she heard from Lucas.

The interior wasn’t in much better shape, and he shuddered to think of what sort of people had to have lived there. It was one thing to use a rundown building for a hiding place, but to have to live there? There were plenty of times he was thankful he led the life that he did. Who knew what sort of life he might have had if he hadn’t been raised as a hunter. He didn’t think it would have been a life of him living in what looked like a dirty crack den, but he knew the twists fate could take. He would take living on the road and fighting monsters over something like this any day.

Before he could knock on the door, it swung open to reveal Lucas. He said nothing, gesturing into the room with a wave of his arm. Shaun stepped in, trying not to curl his lip up as he glanced around the dirty room. There didn’t look to be any part of this small apartment that didn’t need a thorough scrubbing.

“How isn’t this place condemned?” he asked, eyeing a particularly large and suspicious stain on the carpet.

“Health codes don’t apply to the poor,” a familiar voice said to his right.

He turned, starting when he recognized what was supposed to have been a one night stand. “Nic?”

The man grinned, looking impish. “Well hiya, Shaun. How have you been?”

Shaun glanced at Lucas who only shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “Is this who you’ve been spending your days with?”

Lucas crossed his arms across his chest. “First off, you don’t get to judge me since you had him first. Secondly, I didn’t know he was a hunter when I met him.”

“And I wasn’t sure enough about either of you to admit to it,” Nic quipped from his spot near a door leading into a cramped hallway.

“But enough to sleep with us?” Shaun asked with a frown.

“Hey, a guy’s got needs, right?”

Lucas glared at Nic. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know about him being a hunter or that he had slept with you until recently. So, it was a surprise for me, too.”

Lucas looked annoyed, but Shaun could see that it didn’t run too deep. Shaun glanced between the two of them and couldn’t help but wonder which of them had done what when their clothes had come off. It marked the first time he had ever really tried to imagine what Lucas would look like when he slept with someone else. Of course, it was the first time he had ever seen someone else that Lucas had slept with. Add in that Shaun knew exactly what Nic was hiding beneath his clothes, and it was hard for the hunter not to wonder a little.

“Quit it,” Lucas told him, turning his full glare on Shaun.

“Quit what?” Shaun asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

“You know what, quit.”

Shaun looked away, careful to avoid Nic’s curious stare aimed in his direction as well. Normally the idea of Lucas sleeping with someone else tended to turn Shaun’s stomach. He wasn’t sure if it was just knowing what the two of them looked like naked, or something else, but he wasn’t disgusted by the idea. He turned away from them, pretending to look at the rest of the room while trying to hide the fact that the idea was having a physical effect on him.

“Anyway, how do ya know he’s good? And ya know, not tryin’ to kill us?” he asked, trying to shift the subject away from where his thoughts were going.

“Does not having tried to kill you yet count?” Nic asked, not sounding concerned in the slightest.

“Well, we’re both here now, maybe that’s what ya were waitin’ on.”

“If that were true, don’t you think he would have had me direct you here, kill me, then set up an ambush for you when you arrived?” Lucas asked dryly as he moved over to a small, stained table with a single, equally stained chair in front of it.

Shaun grunted, it was the closest he was going to give in acceptance before nodding at the laptop sitting on the table. “Just get that?”

Lucas jammed a thumb at Nic. “His. Don’t trust any of mine anymore.”

“Okay, so why don’t ya trust ‘em? And why am I here instead of back in the hotel room with ya both explainin’ this?”

Nic squinted at him, still keeping his casual air even as he maintained a safe distance from Shaun. “His accent is getting thicker.”

“It means he’s upset.”

“Hey!” Shaun protested, glaring at Lucas. “Don’t go tellin’ strangers about me like that.”

“If it makes you feel better, I think it’s kinda hot,” Nic added, considering a nearby threadbare couch and apparently deciding to stay standing instead.

“In any case,” Lucas interrupted before Shaun could reply. “We’re here because I have reason to believe that we’re compromised. More accurately, that we’ve been compromised for years and didn’t know it until now.”

“We? And by who?”

“We, being you two and also me,” Nic said.

“And the who, is Ana,” Lucas continued, grimacing as he spoke her name.

Shaun froze, eyes widening. “Ana? Your friend?”

“The one and only.”

Nic’s face took on a shadowed cast that looked so out of place on his normal happy features. “She was my friend, too. At least I thought she was anyway.”

“Is that why ya turned off your phone? So she couldn’t call ya?”

Lucas looked up at him, nodding slowly. “Well, that and I was still mad at you.”

“We really gotta talk about you takin’ off when you’re mad at me. Especially when we got someone tryin’ to kill us.”

“Uh,” Nic began awkwardly, raising his hand like a child in grade school. “That was me.”

Shaun’s head snapped toward the now cringing man. “’scuse me?”

Lucas rapped on the table to draw Shaun’s attention back to him. “That’s one reason we know it’s her. All three of us were working off information that she provided. She led Nic to believe that Toby and David were after him, and though I have no proof, I’ll bet that she made them believe the same about him. Then turned and spun our heads around while pushing Nic to make him think we were after him as well.”

Shaun crossed his arms across his chest. “And what about what ya sensed in the room? Didn’t whatever killed ‘em mess with the lock?”

Lucas looked to Nic, raising his eyebrows and nodding his head. Something had passed between them for a moment, and Shaun missed it completely. They had apparently been around one another long enough to have developed a non-verbal means of communicating. Shaun didn’t like that anymore than he liked the idea that Lucas had been working with another hunter without including Shaun first.

“I didn’t pick the lock or mess with the card reader when I was after those two. You know how easy it is to copy a key card if you got the right connections?” Nic told him flatly, grimacing again, though Shaun couldn’t see any reason why.

“So, you really killed two other hunters, just like that?” Shaun asked, disbelieving.

“Not just like that, it took some damn skill after all. I hunt by myself, so I have to use my head to get the kill. I waited till they had their guard down, then used silver bullets on the big guy, and a silver knife with an iron core on the other one.”

“Thought you killed Toby with his own knife?” Shaun asked.

“I did, but that was only after the guy knocked mine away. Thought it was weird that his own knife killed him, but I didn’t think to look into it. Didn’t realize they weren’t two monsters trying to kill me, alright? I was working off Ana’s intel, that’s all.”

Shaun turned to Lucas with an expectant look. “And ya buy this?”

“I’m not a big believer in coincidence, Shaun, and you know that. Everything, from what Toby and David were working off, to us being there, to Nic being there, all centers around Ana.” There was enough regret and dismay in Lucas’ voice to throw Shaun off from doggedly pursuing the subject.

“Okay,” Shaun began, switching targets and staring at Lucas. “What about what you sensed in the room?”

“It’s not the first time my senses weren’t completely accurate. I couldn’t tell you what I sensed, remember? There was that time I thought it was a ghost in Dallas, and it turned out to be a vampire with an extra trick up his sleeve. I’m not perfect.”

Shaun sighed. “Okay, but why would she do this? It doesn’t make any sense that she would send us after him if he’s a hunter.”

“Any more than it makes sense that she would send me after you two,” Nic told him quietly, idly tapping at his side.

Shaun thought about it for a moment before turning on Nic. “Fine. Prove it.”

“Prove it? That’s what this whole conversation has been about, or haven’t you been listening?”

“He means prove that you know Ana, and that it’s not just a name that you know to drop,” Lucas explained patiently, sounding tired.

“Oh.”

Shaun smiled at Lucas, appreciating that for all their issues, his partner still knew him well. Nic looked embarrassed, perhaps at having missed what he thought was the obvious answer to Shaun’s request. Sighing, he left the room for a moment, returning with what looked like a brand new phone.

“I change phones all the time, so she won’t think twice about me calling from a new number,” Nic explained as held up a cheap looking cellphone.

Lucas gestured tiredly at him. “Burners are a good idea, but just get on with it. We have a lot of planning ahead of us and I want to make sure I’m not turning on an old friend at the word of a stranger.”

“You have doubts?” Nic asked, pausing while punching in a number.

“Always.”

Nic snorted, but said nothing as he dialed the number, gesturing for silence as he hit the speakerphone button and let it ring until the line picked up. “Ana dear, how are you?”

Ana’s voice came over the line, wry and full of charm. “Nicky, did you get another phone? You change out your phones more than I change my shoes.”

Lucas’ eyes closed and stayed that way as Nic continued. “You know me, gotta keep my ass safe. Just thought you’d like to know that I dealt with those two.”

“Did you now? How’d you manage that?”

“Oh, come on, that would be telling, but you know the city is a dangerous place for people who aren’t paying attention. Shootings happen all the time, and sometimes people get killed by lovers and prostitutes, tsk tsk.”

Shaun glared at him, but Nic only shook his head as Ana piped up. “Really? And which one did you kill after sleeping with him?”

“The big one.”

“Figures.”

Nic raised a brow. “Something you want to share with the rest of the class?”

She laughed merrily. “You know a girl has to have her secrets, just like you do apparently. But I have to say, I’m surprised. That’s twice now that you’ve had a duo after you, and you came out on top. You impress me more and more, Nicky. I was expecting to see your pretty face in the news.”

“I’m hard to kill,” he told her, grinning wickedly.

“So I see. Well, is there anything else you’d like to add? Get any juicy tidbits on them?”

“Didn’t really go through their things. I’m getting ready to get as far away from here as I can. Figured I should call you and let you know I’m still breathing before I ditch the phone and disappear for a bit.”

“You’re so paranoid,” she chuckled. “Be sure to give me a ring when you come out of hiding. Maybe you’ll keep that number for longer than a week.”

“I doubt it, you know how to get a hold of me if you have any other important information.”

“You know it.”

The phone beeped as the call ended, leaving them in silence broken only by the faint yelling of someone a couple of floors up. Nic flipped the phone over, ripping the battery and a sim card out. He disappeared down the hallway and through a door before reappearing moments later to glance between Shaun and Lucas. The grim expression on his face looked dangerous particularly since his features were normally so bright and mischievous.

“What now?” he asked, voice neutral and without emotion.

“We leave and then we plan,” Lucas said, standing up and making for the door with slumped shoulders.

Shaun had never been very fond of the relationship between Lucas and Ana. He had always known it had to do with a faint jealousy he would never be able to admit to. Yet, he had never really begrudged Lucas that outlet, of having someone besides Shaun to keep him company. Now, hearing the tired tone of Lucas’ voice and the way he walked, as if he had the weight of the world on his back, Shaun wished he had found a way to put a stop to it. He didn’t know how someone could pretend they were friends with someone else for so long, then so casually throw them away like they were nothing. Especially when the person discarded was Lucas.

What he did know was, between the three of them, Shaun was glad they were going to have a chance to get the answer, because he was going to wring it out of her if he had to.