“Can’t taste good for you,” he murmured.
“It won’t kill me.”
Takoma raised his head only to kiss Spencer slow and deep, the coppery tang of blood slowly saturating Spencer’s mouth. He didn’t mind it, though he wrinkled his nose at the mess they’d made when Takoma finally sat up, letting Spencer go. He dragged his arms back down until he could settle his hands on Takoma’s thighs, blinking tiredly up at him. His bones felt like liquid, and he didn’t want to move but knew he had to.
Takoma’s mouth was only a little bit bloody. Spencer raised a hand to carefully wipe it away with his fingers. When he drew his hand back, Takoma caught his wrist and sucked his fingertips clean of blood. Spencer shivered from the touch and the heatedness of Takoma’s gaze.
“I can’t stay,” Spencer said, wishing he could.
Takoma palmed his jaw, thumb brushing the corner of his mouth. “I’ll have you driven home.”
Spencer decided that was better than doing the walk of shame.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
The next morning,Spencer stood in the bathroom of the condo, looking at himself in the mirror and realizing no amount of foundation would hide the hickey Takoma had mauled on his throat last night. So clearly, there was no need for a frantic run to a drugstore.
Not even Nadine’s makeup skills could help you, Fatima told him as she licked her front paw and stared judgmentally at him in the mirror from her spot on the sink counter.
Spencer tilted his head to get a better look at the bruised bite wound and winced. “I think you’re right.”
Of course I am right.
Spencer side-eyed her in the mirror and decided that was an argument he didn’t want to deal with this early in the day. Sighing, he straightened and pressed his fingertips to his throat, trying to ignore the memory of how Takoma’s mouth had felt, unable to stop a shiver that ran through him. He cast a very tightly focused look-away ward that would hopefully keep people’s attention off his throat. Next time, Takoma needed to keep his mauling kink confined to areas of skin that could be hidden beneath clothing.
You will be late if you do not get moving, Fatima warned.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”
Spencer got dressed in a suit and pulled on Takoma’s wool coat before heading out, his pistol in its shoulder harness and badge clipped to his belt. The drive to the field office didn’t take long and was uneventful, a fact Spencer relished after the craziness of last night. When they arrived at the office, Fatima took her daily bribe from the receptionist, this time an almond croissant. She left a crumb trail to the kitchen, where Spencer had retrieved a much-needed cup of coffee, and then all the way to the war room.
“Where’s Ross?” Spencer asked as he stepped inside, seeing everyone present except for Levi.
“He went to interview Caitlin Adler,” Kori said.
Spencer paused in pulling his laptop out of his travel bag. “What prompted that?”
“The attack at the hotel last night. The PCB passed the investigation over to us this morning after it became clear it fell under our jurisdiction. Apparently, the Cascade Coven was meeting with some vampires when they were attacked. Someone got tossed through the window, but no one found a body. The vampires didn’t stick around for statements, but Caitlin and her coven did.”
Spencer kept his expression forcibly neutral at her offhand explanation. “Did someone send me a copy of the police report?”
“It’s in your email.”
“Thanks.”
Paperwork was never his favorite thing to deal with, but Spencer needed to get his case in order, especially around the role he was playing. He shot off an email to the director, requesting a phone conference to discuss his CI. If he got clearance from above, that might ease some of the problems he anticipated cropping up with this case. He didn’t really want to follow in Patrick’s footsteps when it came to conflicts of interest.
Fatima was in the midst of napping when Kori came over with her tablet, setting it down on the table next to Spencer’s laptop. “I need you to look at this.”
Spencer saved what he was working on before turning his attention to the senior analyst. “What do you have for me?”
“We’re working on the angle that the Cascade Coven is a full-on hunter group flying under the radar. We ran the faces of everyone who showed up on the security cameras during the gala against the national database for hunters. No hits were found.”
“Damn. I was hoping we’d get something there.”
“Yeah, it’s a dead end. We still got IDs on some of the people who were circling Adler that night. I have some background checks that might be of interest to you.”
Spencer watched as she swiped her finger over the screen, bringing up a different file. She angled the tablet his way and tapped at the document currently highlighted. “The pair you said were possessed have a criminal history. Harassment of people in the preternatural community, but nothing where charges gave them jail time.”
