Page 38

“O h, po-ho, what did you do to piss off the hunter?” Gordon asked his corpse.

Corinne looked up from her clipboard. The corpse remained on the slab in Gordon’s morgue, still as…still as a corpse.

“Dr. Morris, she is dead and cannot answer you.”

Gordon nodded. “Do you hear that? Corinne noticed your condition. She will be an excellent diagnostician, if she chooses that career path. Your head went all the way through a wall, didn’t it? Maxim must’ve been angry with you.”

Corinne groaned. “No next of kin, standard procedure. Dr. Morris, if you don’t mind, I meant to ask about the fae murders. I just know what I heard in the cafeteria. People have been talking about it a lot.”

Gordon looked up from the corpse. “That case is done. Maxim found the murderer.”

“I know that, but I’m taking this criminology course at NAU, and I figured I might as well use your connection to the investigation. Isn’t it a bit unusual for a woman to commit such violent crimes? Statistically speaking, that is.”

Gordon’s eyes narrowed. I’ve been wondering that too. “Maxim interviewed her a few times, and there is surveillance footage of her luring her victims. If you’re worried about someone being framed for something they didn’t do, don’t be.”

Corinne sighed. “I wasn’t. I ran into her sister, actually.”

“Huh?”

“Pearson’s sister. She was in the cafeteria, thought I was a donor. She was really sweet, and we got to talking. She said her sister always had violent tendencies, so it’s not like that part surprised her. I just don’t see her copying the Ripper murders, she said.”

Gordon looked at the corpse in front of him. A violent death for a violent vampire. “Maxim will probably talk to her, right? To the sister I mean. Maybe he already has. He’s not someone who just closes a case for convenience’s sake, and I think he likes handling interviews like that personally.”

Corinne hugged the clipboard to her chest. “I didn’t ask. But she gave me her number, and I promised to call her for drinks soon. I’ll ask her then.”

“Oh! Corinne, you secured a date. Do you want to celebrate with a weed cookie?”

Corinne rolled her eyes. “Did anyone tell you that you’ve gotten worse since you started dating the detective?”

Gordon looked at the dull eyes of his corpse. “Precious, did you hear that? She mocks us!”

Corinne groaned. “Fine. I get it. By the way, it’s five o’clock. You should send Miss Flowers-in-the-Attic here to the cooler and finish her tomorrow. Bachmann said someone has been clocking out on time lately.”

Gordon looked up from his corpse, hand twitching to check his phone. “Corinne, you talk to too many people.”

“I just answer the phone when you’re elbow deep in guts, Dr. Morris. Also, if we’re finishing early today, I might just go and grab one of them cookies.”

Gordon nodded. “In that case—precious, you will have to go into one of our state-of-the-art refrigeration units. You’ll feel right at home, I promise, and then tomorrow, you’re going to the basement where it’s nice and warm. You won’t be able to scare anyone ever again, doesn’t that sound nice?”

“That’s fucking dark,” Corinne said.

“Guess it is.”

Adler hadn’t texted, but by the time Gordon was back in his office and feeling anxious enough to text the detective himself, he heard familiar footfalls approach. His office door, as usual, was open a crack, but he couldn’t see the part of the hallway that currently interested him.

“Corinne, you’re not driving, are you?” Adler asked, and Gordon fondly patted his Lord Helmet cookie jar.

“Nah. I texted a new friend to come pick me up. She’s a vampire, so don’t worry about me sharing my cookies with her.”

Gordon looked around his office, considered the couch, but opted for his desk chair instead. Only the other day, he’d decided to rotate some of his figurines, and he now had Cursed Butler and Midnight Lord in the place of honor near his pencil jar. Cursed Butler was kneeling, tying Midnight Lord’s left shoe while he had his right propped up on his butler’s shoulder. If viewed at the right angle, it was a preciously explicit collectible.

“That’s good. I’ll have a chat with your dealer. Is he in?”

Gordon heard Corinne bite into one of the cookies. “Finished early. Told him to refrigerate today’s corpse. I expect you to handle the next parking ticket I get.”

“You got a deal, Corinne,” Adler said.

Moments later, Adler walked in through the open door and closed it behind him. “Hey, sweetheart. Had a nice day? I got off work and thought I’d check to see whether you were hungry.”

While retrieving Cursed Butler and Midnight Lord, Gordon had reread some of the manga as well. In his opinion, Adler made at least as stunning an entrance as Midnight Lord did, but what was even better was that Adler had eyes only for Gordon.

“I can eat later. I think I’m fine for now.” Gordon leaned back in his chair. “You came to pick me up, didn’t you?”

“I was wondering whether I could get you to go home with me, yes.” Adler took one of the seats in front of Gordon’s desk and tapped the Lord Helmet jar. “This stinks, sweetheart, but you smell so good. You smell so fucking good I… Ever since the mate bite, your scent has been more intense.”

Gordon snorted. “Is that your way of saying I need a shower? Look, if eau de corpse bothers you, you shouldn’t have chased after and bitten a forensic pathologist.”

Adler smiled a toothy smile. “No. Your scent. Not anything else. It has to do with the bite probably, but I don’t care. I love it too much.” His nostrils flared. “And I think I need it in my bed tonight. Okay?”

Gordon cleared his throat. “Okay. But I have to write another email.” He indicated his computer. He didn’t really have to write an email, but Gordon found that Adler watching him while he typed—confirming the receipt of the evening’s corpse to Maxim and explaining the fire would come for it the following day—made for excellent foreplay.

“Is this new?” Adler pointed at Butler and Lord.

Gordon hit send and enjoyed the satisfaction of Adler noticing. “It’s not new, but you’ve never seen it.”

Adler looked at the figurine in concentration, then pulled out his phone. His attention was entirely on the screen for about a minute. Then he looked up and said, “I ordered you something. You’ll be trying it on the moment it arrives, and I’ll be fucking you while you wear it. If that’s okay with you, of course.”

A ping distracted Gordon from answering. Maxim had responded.

Dear Gordon,

I deduce you not happily going into overtime is a good sign. The mate bite suits you, and I am delighted to have brought you two together (though Heath will not pay me. My lot is not an easy one, Gordon.)

Gordon, dear, if you are feeling up to it once you leave your mating bed in the morning and have returned to work, would you kindly go through the appropriate channels to request the records of Philippa Pearson’s psychiatric treatment while she was still a minor? If you could find a way to circumvent mentioning me or the Forum, I will ask our fae chef to come up with a recipe for werewolf blood cookies, just for you! It will be your reward for a job well done.

Please don’t let that keep you from enjoying your big, strong werewolf cookie right now!? You should lick that cookie, lick it and—

Gordon closed his inbox because there was no need to read the rest of that message. He also forced himself from wondering why Maxim needed him to go snooping around old medical files, files Heath had already found lying on some server probably. That was a problem for tomorrow.

“I’ll wear whatever you want me to wear, Adler,” Gordon said. He stood, shrugged out of his lab coat and closed the zipper of his work bag.

Adler stood too and went ahead of Gordon to hold the door for him. Gordon stopped right on the threshold to his office and looked up into his werewolf’s eyes.

“I’m glad you chased me, Adler. Thanks for not letting me run.” He lowered his eyes and looked at the wrist that bore the mark of his teeth. The guilt was still there. It would take some time for it to fade, if ever.

“Sweetheart, you let yourself be caught, and I let myself get bitten.” He leaned in to nuzzle Gordon’s neck. “Ah. You smell so sweet. My vampire.”

“My wolf.” Gordon turned to hug Adler close, and they kissed right there where only the old movie posters were watching.

Before they could linger too long, Gordon switched off his office lights, and in the dark, he whispered, “Let’s go home, detective.”