Page 11 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
None of the anxiety came from Blaze, though, which helped. Sure, it was odd that another person could feel like a solid rampart instead of a threat. He didn't understand it but he would take it. The arrogant wiseass made him smile, so far understood the limits of his tolerances, and was more patient than Damien would have given him credit for. Granted, the credit given for patience had beennone, so perhaps that wasn't saying much.
In close quarters, Damien found it harder to ignore how much Blaze was his type. As much as anyone was histype, though the broad-shouldered ones with big arms tended to turn his head faster, and Blaze had an abundance of both. Under the coat, he probably had a fine, muscular ass to match. Damien wouldn't tell Blaze any of that. The man was abrasive, and honestly, sometimes a jerk, and Damien rolled his eyes internally for finding him attractive. Ofcoursehe would find someone who sometimes irritated him attractive. More importantly, he never had been able to get a read sexuality-wise on other people. Blaze was most likely macho straight, the kind that took insinuations of gay leanings badly.
Not that Damien would proposition him or anyone else even if that weren't the case. He didn't have lovers anymore. It was too damn exhausting and complicated. He'd never been able to keep a lover in his bed because his nerves always prickled at the intrusion. One had even suffered a blow to the head when Damien had dozed off after sex and woken disoriented.
He realized he had lost track of his surroundings when Blaze took a right and the limestone wall surrounding the Academy loomed across the street. The Eastern Academy had one as well, meant to give the appearance of an upper-echelon boarding school. Damien had always found it more evocative of prisons.
"You gonna talk to some of the kids?" The rumble of Blaze's voice brought him back in from the dark.
"Maybe."
"Throw me a bone, here, Hazelwood. If you have a plan, you need to give me a peek at it."
"There's no plan yet."
Blaze rolled his eyes. "Fine, but you have to have something your twitchy self normally does. Don't leave me in the fucking dark here."
"I have to just be there. I have to feel around. Won't know much until I do."
A moment's silence greeted that, Blaze waiting with his head cocked while the fifteen-foot-high wrought-iron gates swung open. "Hell of a way to operate." After a beat, he went on, increasingly impatient. "You saw those kids' pictures. You knew things from that, right? Got a direction or something?"
"It's not…" Damien tipped his head to watch the clouds morph from one shape to another. It had been a long time since he'd had to explain. "No. I… from the pictures… I get a sense. A connection. I know enough to be able to recognize that person again."
"Yeah?" Blaze snorted. "I can recognize someone from a picture, too."
Damien waved a hand vaguely. "Not what I meant. When I run across that person's trail… their memory trail, theirlifetrail, I know whose it is. Dr. Parma calls it ley lines for people."
Blaze shot him a sharp glance, brows furrowed. "So why aren't we on the trail already if you pick it up from a picture?"
"Not from the picture." Damien huddled further into his coat, already feeling exhausted. "I need a starting place. Somewhere they've been."
"All right." Blaze ran his hands up and down the steering wheel as he blew out a slow breath. "So it's not a game of hot or cold. You're a goddamned high-strung scent hound."
Damien shrugged, but if people's lives were the scents, it wasn't a bad comparison.
The driveway curled through manicured lawns dotted with live oaks. Since it was just after lunch, the grounds were deserted, the kids presumably in class. Two figures, one male, one female in identical charcoal-gray suits stood on the top step at the front doors, waiting for them. Blaze parked right at the bottom of the steps, leaped out, and raced around to open the door for Damien.
"You're the brains," he whispered to Damien as he closed the door. "Let them think I'm just nice-looking muscle."
Damien blinked up at him, too confounded to argue, and turned to the people descending the steps. He hoped this wouldn't be a hostile situation, that the Guild had paved the way for him.
"Mr. Hazelwood?" the gray woman addressed him, her face set in tight, forbidding lines.
"Yes."
She didn't extend a hand to him. Dr. Parma had probably asked her not to. "I'm Dr. Arliss, the school administrator. This is Mr. Klein, my assistant. I am grateful that the Guild has sent someone to investigate the recent incidents, but I will not have the students' schedules disrupted."
Incidents?Kids are missing and that's what we call it?
"I appreciate your concern, Dr. Arliss." Damien took a step back toward Blaze when she crowded him. "I just need to look around. We'll try not to disturb the students."
"Mr. Klein will escort you. We can't allow outsiders to wander the school grounds any longer. While we have increased monitoring and staff, I won't have security compromised."
It wasn't ideal. A stranger at his back while he worked would be a terrible distraction. He nodded, though. Best not to make a scene.
"Don't let him get behind me," he murmured to Blaze.
"I'm right here. Nobody's gonna creep up on your six." Blaze bent forward far enough to meet Damien's gaze. "You okay with me here?"
