Page 18 of The Doctor's Wolf: Part Two
“I’ll be right back.”
Maxim sighed.“I’m already feeling like a bride left at the altar.Please hurry.”
Adler nodded, walked back into the house, and dropped his car keys next to the forensic equipment outside the scene.“Gordon, I’m leaving my keys out here.I’m riding with Maxim.”
One of the white-clad workers turned, and there wasn’t even a strand of blue hair visible to mark him out as Gordon.“I already called Corinne for pickup, but I can take the car if you want.”
Adler nodded and smiled even if he didn’t see Gordon smile back through his surgical mask and face shield.
“Please do.I’ll leave you to it.”He went outside again, where Maxim was leaning against his own car, a silver BMW.
“My groom has returned to me!”Maxim twirled the end of his long braid around one finger.
“Let’s just go, please.”
“Pah.Spoil sports, the both of you, but very well.”
They both got into the car, and Maxim pulled away from the curb, neatly accelerating and leaving the crime scene behind them.
“How is mated life, hmm?”the hunter asked.
Adler couldn’t help himself.He felt the stupid grin settling on his face, but he was powerless to stop it.
“It’s the best.I do worry I’m enough though.”
Maxim gasped, taking his eyes straight off the road.“In the bedroom?Pray tell, did you not practice before biting people in the sheets?That is so very irresponsible of you!It was the first thing I told my baby boy when he was old enough to understand: learning the art of physical love is a skillset, and you should hasten to acquire it.Adler.Do you need me to talk you through the finer points of it?”
“Please watch the road.I’m worried I’m enough for him when it comes to feeding, not fucking.”
“Ah, yes.That’s a relief.”
Adler rolled his eyes.“Not really.”
“Silly.He will tell you.And hungry vampires are very obvious, pale, red-rimmed eyes, chapped lips.Not a good look.”
“I didn’t know that.Are you sure?”
Maxim snorted.“Of course I’m sure.I lived before the Year of Revelation in 1313, and when humans were still ignorant of our kind, they feared us.There were no donors.Young and unskilled vampires would wander, starved and ready to fall on any unsuspecting traveler and drink them dry.That was when I started to learn my skill.”
Adler let that settle in.I knew he was old.I didn’t think he was older than Revelation.I didn’t know he’s been a hunter for that long.
Maxim noticed Adler’s silence and once more took his eyes off the road.“Are you impressed with me now, more than you already were?If you admire me, feel free to tell me.I’ll listen.”
“Uh.No, thank you.But it’s kind of impressive.Living that long I mean.”
The idea that Adler might not live long had so distressed Gordon at first.Adler’s skin still itched uncomfortably when he remembered how guilty his mate had felt, and for no good reason as far as Adler was concerned.
Maxim shrugged.“Age is not that rare a gift among vampires.We advertise it rarely, and only to a few select people.In either case, you will see when you need to worry about Gordon’s feeding habits, and until such a time, you needn’t waste a thought on it.Now, did you want to learn what I didn’t feel comfortable mentioning earlier?”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all, Maxim.”
Ahead, the Forum’s building complex became a visible presence on New Amsterdam’s skyline, the dome smooth and reflective, the white buildings neat and tidy, just like the greenery surrounding them.
“Well, that cannot be helped.You haven’t forgotten Philippa Pearson, have you?”
The violent serial killer had certainly left an impression.Her Ripper copycat murders were the kind of things nightmares spawned from.
“What about her?”Adler asked.
