Page 34 of Tooth and Nail

Eoghan laughed in relief, shaking his head. “It’s most definitely not a problem on my end…especially because I’m gay too.”

Ari smiled. “Are you out at work?”

Eoghan nodded. “I’m out. There’s no hard and fast policy about it and the chief couldn’t care less. Several people at work are gay and we have a few trans colleagues as well.”

Ari nodded, taking the tongs and turning the meat before putting more on the grill. “This food is so good.”

Eoghan smiled, eating another bite of radish. “I’m so glad you like it. This is one of my favorite places for Korean.”

Ari smiled. “I’m glad Priest is so tolerant of LGBTQ folks. It’s really rare but the moment you told me about Night, I knew the chief had liberal hiring policies.”

“Because she’s a half-breed shifter?” Eoghan asked. “Or because she has blue eyes?”

Ari laughed. “You know what? I think working at the I.S.R. isn’t going to be so bad.”

“Because I’m kind of great,” Eoghan said.

“Well, that and the fact that you’re a mad coffee freak like me, you’re a pretty good driver when you’re doing a hundred miles an hour, and…” He paused, making Eoghan look up from the grill where he was picking up meat. He used his chopsticks to reach across the table and put it on his partner’s plate.

“What?”

“And, okay, youarekind of great,” Ari said.

Eoghan laughed. This partnership was turning out to be a lot more fun than he ever expected it could be.

After dinner they walked back to the car. Eoghan was tired and he could tell that Ari was exhausted as well. As they slid into the car, something occurred to him.

“I completely forgot to show you where to park and how to get in tomorrow. You’ll need your key card and if you forget it or God forbid, lose it, Priest is going to strip the hide off your ass.”

Ari laughed. “Wow, that’s vivid.”

Eoghan smiled as he started the car, pointing it back toward Griffith Park. As soon as they’d parked in the garage, they headed for the elevator. He pulled out his key card and slid it into a slot beneath the buttons before pressing one without numbers on it.

“You’ll need your keycard anytime you want to get in or out of the building without using the tunnel entrance—which by the way—is only used with one of the vehicles.” The elevator took them up several levels and as soon as they’d reached their destination it stopped abruptly. “Hold on.” The moment Ari gave him a curious look, he pointed up to the ceiling. Almost instantly, it split apart exactly the way the tunnel door had, both sides disappearing.

“What the—” Ari exclaimed at the elevator floor started rising, taking them up and into a small enclosure. When the floor stopped moving, he looked around. “Where are we?”

“We’re in what looks like a gardener’s tool shed on observatory grounds,” Eoghan replied. He walked over to another flat keypad on the wall and waved his key card over it. The lock clicked, sounding exactly like the one in the jail. When he opened the door, moonlight streamed inside and he held out a hand. “Come on. I’ll take you around to the parking lot.” Ari nodded and followed him out into the night, turning to look behind him as Eoghan pushed the door closed and waited for the locking mechanism to engage.

“Does every single employee use this elevator? It must take all day and night to enter and leave the building,” Ari asked, turning to no doubt memorize the exterior of the gardener’s shed.

Eoghan laughed. “Not really. Our arrivals and exits are staggered and the elevator fits twelve people at a time, so no, even with the eighty or so people who work downstairs, we do okay.” He led him out to the side lot where they’d parked, hidden away from observatory goers by a high fence covered with ivy which grew up both sides. “This is our parking lot. There’s a slot for your key card at the kiosk by the gate also.”

Ari nodded as they headed for the lot. “Don’t the observatory employees wonder who all these cars coming and going to this side lot every day belong to?”

“If they do, the chief has never clued us all into their wonderment.”

Ari snorted. “Well put.” He glanced around as they got to the lot. “Now that I’m here, I suppose you’re going to drive me out since I’d be hopeless to do that myself, right?”

“Totally hopeless, yes, of course, I’m planning on driving you out.”

“I was just wondering because after everything that’s happened to me today, the last thing I’d had planned was flying to the visitor parking lot in a spaceship or something like it.”

“Spaceships don’t take people between parking lots. Their travel is much more interstellar, if you know what I mean.”

Ari chuckled and pointed at him. “Now, see, that’s just the kind of shit I find crazy. Who ever heard of interstellar travel?”

Eoghan laughed. “Please don’t ask me such stupid questions, not after everything you’ve seen today, all right?”

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