“—how he got from Leeds to Cardiff, and how long it took him. We need more sightings to build up a picture.”
“Four days. Well, four nights. A Leeds wine bar’s security cameras placed someone Dalziel’s confirmed as Mr Hetheridge-Parker there on the night of the fifth. Obviously you know when he arrived at yours.” The Head Wolf sounded resigned. “But we can only assume the same stuff was used on the shifter. We have no reason to think it’s not, but shifters and vampires react very differently to stimuli. We’ve not got a frame of reference for this at all.”
Sorley brushed against Gethin, pulling the handset nearer. “Excuse me, Justin? We kind of do. We know that ordinarily neither vampires nor shifters react to anything generally found on Earth. Not alcohol, or drugs, and definitely not sickness. Even the weediest shifter would burn off a litre of top-notch moonshine within the hour. It’s highly unlikely to be either vamps or wolves instigating this, and I don’t think the Fae would touch this kind of thing; they’d achieve nothing they can’t already manage with magic. I suspect a human with a grudge or a god complex. A grudge, and access to some nasty magic.”
Gethin stared at him. “Really?” Apparently Justin felt the same way, as he mumbled something that sounded like a curse, then said he had to go, but he’d speak to them again later.
Gethin replaced his phone and regarded Sorley thoughtfully. “A human, seriously?”
“Aye, man. The ones who know about us don’t like how superior we are.”
“Superior? That’s a bit rude. How obnoxious can you be? Immortality doesn’t make you a better person.”
The vamp rolled his eyes. “Oh please. I’m faster, stronger, basically unbreakable, my carbon footprint is negligible, and I’ll live forever. Who wouldn’t want to be me?” His gaze dragged slowly over Gethin, making him feel like a butterfly pinned to a card. “I guess for all your wet dog smell and fur suits, your lot aren’t…terrible either.”
“You said I didn’t have a wet dog smell.”
“Youdon’t. That’s obviously an aberration. But anyway,” He looked around the deserted street. “The whole point of coming out tonight was so I could feed. Which has been ruined by that phone call.” His pout returned. “I was almost there with that guy before you so rudely interrupted.”
“You were about to get done for indecency in a public place,” Gethin corrected him with a snarl. He watched as Sorley opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it closed again. His artificially-tinted gaze became mischievous.
“Yeah, maybe, but it was fun. Whatever, I’m still thirsty. What I want to know is what you’re going to do about it.”
“Me? Nothing. We’re going back to your place. You can heat up a blood bag that youdon’t even need,then you’ll behave yourself for a few hours while I get some sleep and wait to be woken by the Council. I’m sure they’ll have something for me to do by morning.” He gave a resigned sigh and pulled his phone back out to call for a cab.
They walked the last few hundred yards to Sorley’s flat as there had been an accident which blocked a road and they couldn’t be bothered to wait for the cabbie to find an alternative route. A light breeze rustled the nearby trees, bringing with it wafts of cigarette smoke, old grease and other, more tempting aromas. Gethin scented the human at the same time as Sorley. He groaned and tried to hold the vamp back, but Sorley had three centuries’ worth of experience in getting his own way, which was how Gethin found himself following him as he trailed a poor innocent taking a short cut home through the nearby park.
It was short and not at all sweet. The guy wasn’t swayed by Sorley’s honeyed chat-up lines and resisted at first. He whimpered and shook as Sorley manhandled him against a tree and clasped his head firmly so he could stare into his eyes. Gethin, feeling vaguely nauseous, couldn’t look away as the bloke’s body language suddenly changed from tense and scared to pliant and available. He even tilted his neck for better access. He had to move away as Sorley fed. It was too intimate to be comfortable, even if the illusion of closeness was just that, an illusion. Gethin turned his back on the pair, shut down his senses, and tried not to imagine the bloodsucker’s long fingers wrapped around him instead.
A soft sob had him spinning around. Sorley had the bloke’s face between his hands again, but this time Gethin heard him urging the youth to head straight home to bed, and in future to take a safer route via the street.
The guy tottered off, somewhat unsteadily. Sorley approached Gethin, shamelessly adjusting himself and with a wild glittering shine to his eyes. “Fuck me, I do love a struggle.” His fangs, still descended, were bloody, and he swiped at them with a long pink tongue. “God, he tasted good. I’m so horny.”
“Don’t mind me,” Gethin ground out. “I’m sure I could’ve stood around and played Candy Crush while you and lover boy got it on.”Liar, liar, pants on fire.“In fact,” he frowned, “why aren’t you fucking like bunnies under the nearest bush? The park’s deserted.”
Sorley punched his arm as he kept walking. “Because I’m not a fucking rapist, you prick! He said he’s not gay.”
“Oh.”
“Yes ‘oh’. Christ, I know you don’t think much of me, Hughes, but while I have to feed to survive, which requires some creative negotiations at times, I’veneverused thrall to get someone to sleep with me. I’m fucking offended you think I might. Or that I ever need to.” Hurt rolled off him in waves as he stalked ahead.
Gethin sighed. He caught up with him at the gates. “Sorry, I don’t think you’re a rapist. I guess I thought…” He faltered. “Dunno what I thought.”
“You thought the worst of me because you’ve been brought up to think vampires are scum, that’s what. You buy into the lies, tell yourself we’re monsters because it suits you to think we’re morally inferior to a literal animal. Fuck you, man! He was a scared kid who damn near pissed himself because he thought the same. He was practically begging me to bite him instead of tearing his trollies down.”
He jabbed viciously at the keypad. The front door swung open. The moment Gethin was inside, Sorley slammed the door with so much force the frame juddered. Gethin winced. “I said I’m sorry.”
“D’you know what’s almost worse than your gutter-level opinion of me?” Sorley kept walking, striding into the kitchen and yanking a bottle of vodka from the depths of the freezer. His eyes were glacial as they bored into Gethin. Without breaking contact, he twisted the lid off and drank deeply. “I’ll tell you what. It’s your fucking hypocrisy. You didn’t care nearly so much about that man-child as you did the fact I had my hands all over him, not you.” He took a second, longer swig, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he replaced the bottle. “You’re jealous.”
“Am not!”
He advanced on Gethin, using one splayed hand to back him up against the wall. “Don’t be a liar as well as a judgmental cunt. I cansmellthe arousal coming off you like smoke. Who’s going to even know if you bang me so hard my fangs rattle? Who’s going to fuckingcare?”
9
SORLEY
He watchedas emotions ran riot in Gethin’s dark eyes. Anger, at being called out, resignation at the same. Fear, trepidation, then desire replaced the first two, and his pupils expanded to the size of black holes.Gotcha.He wasn’t Sorley’s first — or even third — choice as a fuck, because his attitude stank, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and Sorley didn’t have to like the wolf to fuck him. The aroma of turned-on man was enough of an aphrodisiac to more than compensate for a closeted bed mate. Well, that, and Gethin had averynice cock.
