Page 32

Chapter 32

“I t’s just a short walk from here,” Maxim said as he parked his car in a fire lane, illegal for all but emergency services and the Forum’s hunter.

“Where do you want me?” Gordon asked, leaning forward from his place in the back seat.

“Home, ideally,” Adler grumbled.

Gordon couldn’t help the fondness rise in him at Adler’s words. Moments later, it happened again.

My mate. Soft. Should be where it’s safe. I will protect him.

The thought wasn’t his, Gordon knew that, and he wasn’t stupid, wasn’t able to ignore facts for too long. This is the mate bond. I can hear his thoughts through the mate bond. I’ll have to tell him and…fuck. He’s going to be able to hear mine, eventually.

Gordon decided this was a bridge he wasn’t quite able to cross yet, a conversation that could wait.

Maxim turned to Gordon, the hunter still looking more serious than was the norm for his broadsword-wielding, ridiculous self.

“You’ll stay behind me. Adler can bring up the rear.”

Gordon frowned. “But if this guy’s a vampire or works with one, then isn’t this little adventure more dangerous for Adler than me?”

Adler, predictably, growled. My mate thinks I’m weak?! No. No, that’s not it. He wants to protect me. I hope he wants to protect me…

Gordon cleared his throat and put a hand on Adler’s shoulder. “Not that I think you can’t handle a vampire, but if this one is as old as Maxim, then it’ll be dangerous. And I want you safe as much as you want me safe, detective.”

“You two are indeed adorable.” Maxim tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Leave the vampire to me and my blades, darlings. Adler, you should make sure to hold everyone and anyone else we might cross paths with inside in case they were compelled.”

“Right. Let’s hope we find whoever we need to find here.” Adler placed his hand on Gordon’s, his thumb stroking Gordon’s pinky.

“Indeed. Detective, Gordon, let’s go.”

They got out of the car and walked in silence, Maxim completely so in that uncanny way Gordon knew some of the older vampires had, he and Adler simply not talking. Adler was close behind him, and Gordon knew if they did run into danger, Adler was going to pull him to the ground or something over-the-top like that. It made him smile for a second, and then he felt mildly guilty at taking Adler’s protective instinct so lightly.

They headed down the street and took first a left turn, then a right one. The old typewriter shop, simply named “Highgate’s Typewriters,” looked as though it had been around for the founding of New Amsterdam, the building weathered and dwarfed by its neighbors. For all that, it wasn’t neglected or abandoned. Gordon saw typewriters in the shop’s windows, machines he hadn’t seen in decades.

“Are those prices for real?” Adler mumbled as Maxim strode toward the door like a stormfront heading inland.

“I told you, collector’s items.”

Gordon expected…something. Screams from the inside. Maxim moving so fast he blurred. Fighting and things breaking.

None of that happened. Maxim went toward the shop’s counter ahead of them, looking left and right, and now that they were inside, Adler was touching-close, one hand on Gordon’s back.

A shop clerk came out toward the front through a doorway at the back, a middle-aged human.

“Hello there,” the man said, his brows rising as he laid eyes on Maxim. “Are you here to get a typewriter fixed?”

“No.” Maxim sped, closing the distance between himself and the salesperson, and immediately making hard eye contact. “Is there anyone else here with you?”

“No, just me,” the human said. This time, it wasn’t surprise on his face but fear.

“I see.” Maxim blinked, dropping the compulsion. The human gasped and stumbled backward.

“You are—”

“A hunter of the Forum,” Maxim said. “I do apologize, but we’re here on time-sensitive business, and I needed to be certain. You’re not in any kind of trouble, so please relax.”

“Relax? Well, fuck me. Vampires.” With that, the fear on the human’s face shifted to anger. Disgust.

Oh, lovely, Gordon thought.

Maxim laughed, a stage laughter that likely carried through the entire building.

“By the graces, I wouldn’t fuck you if you were the last source of blood on this planet. Like I said, we’re here on Forum business, and the Forum would appreciate it ever so much if you could find it in you to regale us with your cooperation.” Maxim showed all his teeth in a wide grin. “Or else, you know?”

“Oh.” The sound out of Adler’s mouth was tiny, but Gordon turned. Adler shrugged, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly before he whispered, only loud enough for vampire ears, “Alpha energy.”

Gordon sighed. Meanwhile, the human had crossed his arms.

“What do you want, then?”

Maxim, in response, placed his hand lightly on the hilt of one of his short blades. “The owner. You’re not him, I assume?”

“No. Never met him. I apprenticed here, and all I know is that I run the shop and get paid like clockwork for it.”

“Interesting.” Maxim tapped the counter with the first finger of his other hand. “That’s an unusual arrangement, I’m sure. Not having to turn a profit. Is there anything else that’s unusual about this establishment?”

Adler’s hand slid away from Gordon’s back. “Sweetheart. Maxim. Look at this.”

Adler walked toward a shelf behind a typewriter display. The entire interior, where it wasn’t typewriters on every available surface, was dark wood and darker paint, and that small shelf blended in perfectly, hiding like a furniture chameleon. Adler picked up a small volume that looked almost like a tiny magazine and waved it for them to see.

“What’s that?” Gordon joined his mate, leaning in closer to read the old-fashioned print on the little booklet. “The Case of the Vanishing Wolf?”

The human shifted behind his counter as Maxim made for the shelf as well.

“We gotta display those. And sell them for a penny, if you can believe that. I give them away for free though if someone is interested. I hear there’re collectors out there.”

“Penny dreadfuls.” Maxim picked up another volume, The Case of the Little Girl Who Cried Wolf. “I haven’t seen these in a very long time.” He flipped through it, his eyes moving inhumanly fast as he used his vampire speed to read, immediately inducing jealously in Gordon.

Then again, no. I wouldn’t want to read Kawaii Demon Hunter at that speed. I want to enjoy it.

“Like those old detective novels.” Adler opened the volume he was holding while Gordon looked over his shoulder. Even the print looked like something you’d see in older books.

“Just so.” Maxim quickly gathered all of them. “Apologies, but I’m afraid I’ll have to take these collector’s items with me. Are there any others?”

The human shrugged. “Fine by me. Wouldn’t want to impede your important business. And no. Whenever there’s a delivery, they have to go on the shelf.”

“Where do the deliveries come from?” Adler asked.

The man shook his head. “Don’t know. There’s never an address on them, like someone brings them here and drops them in the middle of the night. It’s creepy, but I don’t work here in the middle of the night, and I don’t mind.”

“They drop them in the shop?” Adler asked, cocking his head.

“Sure. That’s not a problem.” The man’s arms remained crossed.

“Adler, this is futile. He’s been compelled to not find this weird, possibly even to ignore the actual means of delivery if they differ from what he just told you.

He snorted. “Look, I’ve never been compelled in my life. Before you, I never even met a vampire.”

“You realized at least one of those statements is false, but more likely both are?” Gordon looked at Maxim. “That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

Maxim was still leafing through the penny dreadfuls at high speed. “It’s fact. Nothing that will hurt you more than your prejudice though,” he told the man. “I think we found everything we’re going to find. Everything we’re meant to find here. Adler, Gordon, let’s move on.”

Maxim led the way, and Adler pushed Gordon ahead of himself, keeping him safe in the middle.

Still Gordon didn’t like it, didn’t like that the human who so very clearly didn’t like supernaturals had Adler’s back to stare at.

It’s too nice a back for that guy to think whatever he’s thinking. It’s my back.

Gordon took two steps after the door had fallen shut behind Adler, then turned.

“For the record, detective, you’re very hot, and your back is mine.”

Adler tilted his head in a cute, almost dog-like motion. “Uhm, awesome?”

Maxim cackled. “Gordon, the words you need to say are, your sexy back and your firm gluteus are all mine, and no stranger’s eyes may ever taste them.”

Adler’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open a crack. “Gordon? Is that true?” He sounded ridiculously hopeful.

Gordon shrugged before turning back around and walking after Maxim. “Yeah. Hey, I was going to dye my hair. Something new after the mate bite, you know. Magenta and pink sound okay to you?”

“Magenta and—sweetheart, are you asking me what to do with your hair?”

Adler’s big warm hands came up on Gordon’s hips.

“Yeah. You’re sniffing it all the time, so you should have a say.”

“Sweetheart I… It’s perfect, Gordon. Shades of pink is perfect. I’ll love every color, because all of them are you. You’re a rainbow, sweetheart, you know that? My rainbow.”

“Heath? Yes, we found evidence. Also, the two of them are being delightfully sappy, and I wish you were here with us. Gordon has been declared a rainbow, and I’m left to wonder what his corpses will make of that.”

“Maxim, hang up the phone,” Gordon said while Adler growled.

Gordon could hear Heath’s complaints faintly as they caught up, their work not yet done.

My mate, he makes me so happy. Too happy. I love him.

The thoughts came unbidden into Gordon’s mind, but he decided he didn’t mind them too much, not at all.