Page 57 of The Doctor's Wolf: Part Two
Chapter 31
Theywereallstandingaround the white van, the noises of the city around them a background hum Adler might have appreciated on any other day.Today, it made him feel exposed.What does a college kid have to do with these murders?
“What now?”Corinne asked.
“Now I find an address,” Heath said over the phone.
“My Heath is the best at computers and things.”Maxim looked at Corinne with parental pride or like someone who’d just gotten a compliment on his knives.
Heath groaned.“Do you have any idea how fucking old you sound?Ancient, that’s how old.Like you lived among the mummies before they were mummies.Like you should be a museum piece.”
Maxim held his phone at arm’s length and shielded his mouth when he talked to Corinne.“When things get hard with the computers, he gets particularly agitated, and his verbiage shows it.”
“You know I can still hear you, right?Can you not talk to other people about me like I’m not there?”
“Hmm, but you aren’t here, Heath.”
Corinne brightened.“Oh, I get it!This is like when Dr.Morris talks to his corpses.”
“Excuse me?”Gordon pursed his lips and frowned at Corinne.
Adler used the opportunity to move a little closer to Gordon.He intertwined his index and middle finger with Gordon’s pinky and ring finger.He’d have liked to kiss him, but there were still Forum workers and police officers about, and while no one was explicitly watching them, whatever they did wasn’t likely to be ignored.
“It’s true.”Corinne shrugged.
Maxim rubbed the back of his neck.“Heath talks back more than any corpse ever did.He’s always been chatty like that.There was this time when we stayed at a farm, and the lady farmer took him to the stables to show him how to milk a cow and—”
“Fucking hell, will you shut up?I swear I’m going as fast as I can here, okay?Don’t rush me.”
“Darling, I didn’t mean to do that at all,” Maxim said, though Adler was pretty sure he saw a twinkle in the hunter’s eyes, the kind of look every alpha would get when expressing fondness for a beta by teasing them.
Corinne turned toward them.“Are we heading back, Dr.Morris?”
Adler opened his mouth to tell Gordon goodbye, but before he could, Gordon began unzipping his whitesuit, his brows furrowing with intent.
“I’m coming.”
Adler didn’t release Gordon’s hand, effectively stopping him with the whitesuit off one shoulder.“Sweetheart, this might be dangerous.You’ve seen what happened to the victims.There’s no need for you to come.”
Gordon narrowed his sapphire eyes.“Knowing what happened to the others is exactly why I should come.What if the human college kid isn’t involved?What if he needs help?”
“Sweetheart—”
Maxim sighed.“Gordon, I share your mate’s concern, but the point you make is fair.Though, taking a morgue lover like yourself to attend the living like this once more feels like messing with the order of things.”
“Fuck the order of things,” Heath said.
“Darling, you sound stressed.”
Adler tuned out Maxim and Heath and focused on Gordon instead.“I’m scared to take you there.I’m scared you’ll get hurt.You have no training at all for this kind of thing.You are so good at what you do, but this is—”
“Maxim is going to be there,” Gordon said.“Also, you are going to be there.I’ll hide behind the both of you.”
Corinne cleared her throat.“Vampire.”
Gordon nodded.“And I’m a vampire.Notoriously difficult to kill, remember?”Gordon lowered his head.“I’m coming, Adler.”
Adler froze.The wolf in him was wild, every instinct blaring with the wrongness of this.I can’t forbid him.He has such a soft heart, and he’s strong.Not like a werewolf, but strong all the same.
