Page 9

Chapter 8

B y the time they were done with the autopsy, Gordon was fully awake and elated. Dr. Jackson’s forensic training was excellent, she had a tidy and structured way of processing the corpse, and Gordon felt tempted to recruit her, though the Forum liked to frown on hiring humans.

“My first case was this guy who got smashed by a roof beam. Incidentally, that was my first eggshell fracture too,” she said when they were cleaning up, rinsing down the slab and scrubbing it clean.

Maxim and Adler had made themselves scarce a while ago, because according to them, weighing wobbly bits was boring. More to the point, Gordon thought Maxim had wanted to talk about the case with Adler. Adler, though, had been reluctant, had lingered and made sure to tell Gordon he wouldn’t go far.

“You got lucky,” Gordon said, spraying bleach. “My first case was an old lady who died in her rocking chair.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Turns out, she was murdered, so it wasn’t as boring as it looked on the surface. I wonder what our murderer did with the uterus.”

Dr. Jackson’s face darkened. “I could make up theories, but they would be heavily influenced by pop culture.”

“Yes,” Gordon said. “My interns accuse me of that all the time.”

“I really have to visit your morgue. It sounds like a fun place. I cannot for the life of me imagine having a fae colleague. They can change their appearance at will, right?”

“They can but don’t always bother. You may have worked with one without knowing because a lot of them use glamour to just pass for human, to hide the shape of their ears or their odd eye color. But in my case, I get a lot of students from NAU, and many of them happen to be human, which is a bit of a rarity at the Forum.”

Adler pushed the door open, and there was just something about the way he was striding that made Gordon want to bat his eyes at the man. It’s the way his hips move or…the shoulders? It could be the shoulders as well. And the narrow waist. I wonder if he can hold me up while—stop. Work. You’re at work. Think professional thoughts.

“Are you mostly done, Gordon?” Adler asked, and there was something heady in his voice, something rough and uneven in the detective who normally seemed so calm and measured. Gordon’s thoughts went right back to imagining things no one should be imagining in a morgue.

“We are,” Gordon said. He stripped off the gloves he’d put on to help Dr. Jackson clean.

“I’ll send you the report,” the doctor added.

“And, Dr. Jackson, you are welcome to drop by my morgue anytime. But I cannot promise you an eggshell fracture.”

She laughed. “That is fair. I will take you up on that.”

Adler had drifted closer to Gordon, and there was something about the wolf’s nearness that made the hairs on Gordon’s arms stand up. Gordon said his goodbyes to Dr. Jackson and exited the morgue with Adler on his heels, the werewolf’s footfalls quiet.

“Where’s Maxim?” Gordon asked when they were outside. He turned when Adler didn’t answer and forgot everything about being turned on when he saw Adler’s face. “What? You look like someone just died?”

Adler’s lips were tightly pressed together and his eyebrows drawn. His nostrils flared, pupils going wide. “He left, something about how you and I were better suited to carpool. Sorry, I think I might be jealous. It’s a full moon thing. Sorry. I…sorry.”

Gordon crossed his arms, confused. “You’re jealous I had a good time working with a colleague? On a corpse?”

Adler sucked in a deep breath. “Not rationally, of course not. I haven’t felt like that since I was a teenager, and no teenager should be around someone they want to date so close to the full moon. Sorry to dump that on you. I just thought I’d explain because it’s a wolf thing, and it can come off as being an asshole if you don’t understand. I’ll take you home or to the Forum?”

Gordon looked at Adler, the larger man so close, his fists tight and rigid at his sides as if he were keeping himself from taking a hold of Gordon. As if he wanted to explode. This is…a werewolf thing? It’s scary. Wish I’d seen that before we were talking about going on a date again.

Gordon shook his head. “No offense, but I think I’ll take the subway.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but he could hear it shake, and from the look on the detective’s face, so could Adler. Gordon took a step back.

“There’s no need for that. I’ll take you.” Adler’s voice was nearly a growl, his eyes those of a predator.

Gordon took another step back. It starts with irrational jealousy and apologies. And then there is more jealousy, more apologies, the kind that blame you for making him jealous. In the end, they won’t let you see your family anymore. They won’t let you see anyone, and once that happens, they can bruise you all they want.

A wave of memories and old emotions crashed over Gordon, making him take yet another step away from Adler, whose face was tense.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, detective. I’ll take the subway.” Gordon turned and headed toward the exit, his footsteps hurried.

Behind him, he heard canine sounds from Adler’s mouth. Whimpers or whines, but all of them underlined with sharp, aggressive growling.

A part of Gordon understood that werewolves were not humans, acted differently around the full moon, differently toward whom they held dear. Yet that reasoning part of his brain was overwhelmed by the past hurt Gordon had thought he had gotten over, by years of research into abusive relationships and markers of emotional abuse and gaslighting.

He couldn’t reconcile the two, not in that moment, and so he left. Once he was out the door of the building, he ran.