The single hunter Takoma had left him had been handcuffed in the back seat of the police car Spencer had ridden in. The sheriff had detoured to King County Correctional Facility first so Spencer could get the hunter processed on preliminary charges related to attempted murder of a federal agent and obstruction of an investigation. The hunter wasn’t getting out anytime soon.
As to the hunters Takoma had kept? Spencer had an idea why Takoma had changed his clothes.
“And that other vampire?”
Takoma’s expression darkened, a hard look coming to his eyes. “Most likely one from the Spokane Night Court. You don’t need to concern yourself about that.”
“Uh, I think I do. He wanted to kill me, remember?”
“He won’t get the chance.” Takoma stood, reaching past Spencer to turn on the shower. The water turned hot after a few seconds, steam rising up behind the shower curtain. “Get out of your jeans. We need to soak your shirt off first.”
Spencer thought about protesting, thought about asking Takoma to leave, but he decided not to. He glanced at the entrance to the bathroom and saw Fatima sitting there, staring at them with unblinking golden eyes. Her ears flicked back and forth a few times before she stretched her front legs out for a deep stretch, then wandered off.
Spencer let out a quiet breath before he stood, eyeing Takoma. “I won’t drown in the shower by myself.”
Takoma ignored him. “Stop stalling.”
This wasn’t exactly how Spencer thought he’d ever get naked with Takoma, but he was too exhausted to argue. He shoved his jeans and underwear down his hips, kicking both off, but left his shirt on. He tried to ignore the heavy weight of Takoma’s attention as he stepped into the shower, ducking his head under the hot water. He gritted his teeth against the expected pain before slowly turning around and letting the water soak into his shirt over the painful cuts and scrapes on his back.
Makai hadn’t bothered to temper his preternatural strength when he’d dragged Spencer out of the crashed SUV. He couldn’t be mad at the help, but some of the cuts felt deep, like maybe he still had some pieces of glass embedded in spots. But he wasn’t dead, and that was a plus in his book. Spencer stared down at the pale, rust-tinged water that flowed around his feet as the shower saturated his shirt and eased it free of the scabs on his back.
He was just about to brace himself and raise his arms to take off his shirt when cool hands touched his shoulder and hip, nudging at him to move. Spencer let himself be shifted around until his back faced Takoma and the shower spray hit the side of his body. His long-sleeved shirt reached halfway down his ass, and he couldn’t help the way his breath stuttered when Takoma’s fingers grazed the top of his thighs, moving up to catch at the hem of his shirt.
“Stay still,” Takoma said.
Spencer moved his hands anyway, knowing he needed to raise his arms to get the shirt off. But apparently, no, he didn’t, judging by the cold chill of metal that touched his ass, and the softsniktof scissors cutting up the back of his shirt reached his ears. “I was going—”
“Your shirt isn’t salvageable. I’m cutting it off.”
Spencer snapped his teeth together, all his attention focused on the cool brush of Takoma’s fingers over hot skin as he pulled the fabric away from his back to cut it. By the time he reached the collar, Spencer was already tugging at the wet fabric from the front, dragging it off his shoulders and down his arms. He pulled it free and let it fall to the bottom of the tub with a wet splat.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to think about the consequences of being naked in front of Takoma. The hot water eased some of the pain from the crash but not a lot, and he still needed to deal with his back. Sex was the last thing on his mind as Takoma carefully started to wash his back, flushing out the debris and dried blood.
“There’s pieces of glass in some of these wounds.”
Spencer could hear the clatter of tools in the med-kit but didn’t move, only braced himself against the tiles as Takoma’s cool fingers started to carefully poke and prod at his back. The touch of tweezers digging into some of the deeper scrapes made Spencer tense, grimacing at the tiny spikes of pain.
The water was starting to grow cold when Takoma finished cleaning out the wounds. Spencer finally opened his eyes and got through the rest of the shower with quick motions, aware of Takoma’s attention on him. The shower curtain was only halfway pulled aside, and the bathroom floor was wet when he finally stepped out of the shower. Water and maybe fresh blood trickled down his back but was soaked up by the towel Takoma handed him, which he wrapped around his waist.
Takoma made a circle in the air with his finger. “Turn around. I need to patch you up.”
Spencer would’ve honestly just gotten into bed like this, but Takoma’s idea was better. He didn’t mind staining bathroom towels, but getting blood out of the bedsheets was a task he didn’t really want to deal with. So he turned around, standing for long minutes as Takoma wiped the wounds, slathered antibiotic cream over the scrapes, diligently taped gauze over the deeper ones, and put pressure on the shallower ones until they clotted.
“How did you get these?” Takoma asked.
“Makai dragged me out of the SUV when the hunters started shooting,” Spencer said.
Takoma’s fingers stilled against his back for a second before continuing with their task. “The dire wasn’t with you when I found you.”
“I told him to shift and run. I didn’t want him in the crossfire.”
“A werecreature can handle a hunter.”
“I’d rather not deal with a possessed werecreature in the woods.”
“What were you doing out there anyway?”
“Casework.” Takoma hummed his opinion on that before taking Spencer by his shoulders and prodding at him to turn around. “What did the hunters you took have to say?”
