Shoulders brightening out, hands deep in the pockets of the Armani suit, Galen was piercing through the dark and quickly emptying streets of Chicago like a stray bullet. The cold didn't get to him - a lifeless body does not fear the cold even in the thinnest of suits. But his mind was wandering.<br/><br/>He had walked out of that apartment to catch some air and to stay away from the DelaCourt bitch until he could calm down enough to be able to face her for round two. Instead, he was pulled into a limousine and met face to face with Aidan Connor - the Elder of his bloodline, who had given him the quick run. So... she was supposed to be his boss now? It made his fangs grind against his teeth. She was supposed to be the 'head' of the company. And he - the muscle. He had no problem with that, he wasn't much of a thinker, and she was. Great. If only she could think about something else other than herself...<br/><br/>Discipline he had in abundance. And loyalty to his social circle. He had worked for people he had disliked before. So all he needed to do was pull himself together and turn into the muscle once more - a familiar role that he preferred to the mindless social gatherings and stupid politics of the Community, anyway. Elder says to follow her lead, so he was going to follow. The vampire society wasn't a democracy. Not with six of the nine members of the Senate being over three hundred years old...<br/><br/>But he still didn't like it one bit.<br/><br/>His steps had taken him farther away from the hideout that he had planned to go. He looked up, embarrassed to have wandered so far off without thinking, and the first thought that crossed his mind was - yeah, he did need a thinker type. Then he met the eyes of a woman and a second thought replaced the first. 'There is no such thing as coincidence.'<br/><br/>It was the woman from before - the woman with the sweet scent that had stirred up his world earlier tonight. Their eyes met and locked together for a moment, neither of them willing or even able to look away. Bad idea to look into someone's eyes when walking on high heels in the dark. She stumbled and fell, and he stood there watching because he couldn't touch her - not with his dead cold body. He watched her as she got up, cheeks blushing, the sound of her heartbeat fastening as she looked at him and forced her name out of her throat like an excited school girl.<br/><br/>"Galen."<br/><br/>He didn't offer his hand. He just watched her and he thought about the ways destiny works. He knew what he wanted with Blaire. But this decision was not his alone to make. It had to be consulted with the thinker of their little group - the thinker that despised him for everything he was. The irony eluded him completely.<br/><br/>He made his decision. "I am very late for a meeting, Blaire." he spoke, traces of Scottish accent in every word. "Give me your phone number and I will call you... if you like."<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>Twenty minutes later he was entering the hideout, reminding himself that the Community was above all. He closed the door and got in, face cold, eyes gleaming as he faced Ana.