Page 37

Chapter 37

T he door fell shut behind the day shifter with a satisfying noise. At the other end of the meticulously clean and brightly lit hallway, the vampire was already locked away.

Adler watched Maxim take a deep breath and rearrange his features, erasing the serious lines on it, smoothing them out so that his laugh lines, faint though they were, became visible again.

“Detective. Your protective instinct induced a shift without the full moon,” the hunter said before he turned to look at Adler in his loaned clothes. “A rare and precious blessing.”

“I thought it wasn’t real when you first mentioned it. I’m just glad I was able to protect my mate.” Adler felt longing rise inside his belly. “He’s rare and precious.”

Maxim nodded, turned, and headed toward the exit, a heavy door that led to the stairs and from there to an elevator. Adler followed but stopped to look back at the cells he’d never known existed underneath 43 Ruthaven. The doors were solid metal, and he couldn’t see inside. It was quiet though, the prisoners compliant, for now.

“They are quite secure here, I assure you, detective,” Maxim said and beckoned for Adler to follow. “Heath and your Gordon should be back, and the latter will be glad to see you, I’m sure, though I hope you’ll return to the typewriter shop with me before you run off with him to wrap up the scene. I imagine you and Gordon will want to talk.” He raised a brow. “Or not. Talking isn’t always what it’s made out to be.”

Adler followed Maxim. He was excited to see Gordon, to make sure his mate was fine, his perfect mate with the perfect skill the mate bite had given him. As they stood in front of the elevator doors one flight up, waiting for them to open, Adler noticed the absence of a button. Yet, the doors opened after only the briefest wait.

Must be Bryan doing it . I really need to learn more about Lares and what they can do .

Adler stepped into the elevator after Maxim, given the hunter was still the alpha. He opened his mouth, wanted to tell Maxim about Gordon’s telepathic skill, but closed it. Gordon might not want anyone else to know.

Instead, Adler asked, “I’ll help you with the scene. What are you going to do with them? The professor and that wolf? Something was wrong with the wolf if you ask me. He was…just off. Body language, facial expression. Something wasn’t right there.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll keep that in mind as we proceed. I shall try my best to talk with them and unravel what we have seen of this conspiracy. Perhaps it was this old vampire alone, doing what he did wherever he went with those lectures of his. I will find out. The truth is rarely shy when it is invited, when it’s welcomed.”

Adler frowned. “And what we saw? Those…photographs. The one the day shifter was developing. That was the college kid, right, the one who got turned.”

A dark shadow descended over Maxim’s eyes. “Raven. Some of it showed him, yes. More than enough to prove he had no part in the killings.”

“It’s… When a vampire turns, they don’t remember most of that, right? Is there a chance the kid might not remember? What they did to him?”

Maxim didn’t answer, and Adler thought he might not have heard.

“He will remember,” Maxim finally said, quietly, more like he was talking to himself.

Adler chose not to respond, given Maxim got pensive, almost closed off. That was unsettling, a shift in an alpha that might have caused Adler to whine if he’d been in his wolf form.

“Love him,” Maxim said all of a sudden, the words firm as any command Adler had ever been given.

“Huh?”

“Gordon. Love him. You may be different, you may not fit perfectly. You don’t have to. What matters is the way you care for each other. The way you are ready to defend the other, no matter what. There is no law, no reason or rationale that can keep you from standing next to him in the face of trouble and turmoil and weather it with him.”

“I’d rather stand in front of him if it’s all the same to you, Maxim.”

Maxim smiled genially. “So be it, then, detective. If he lets you, that is.” The elevator doors opened to the parking garage. “Now then. Back to the world above.”