He straightened up and laughed at the look on Gethin’s face. “What? You think just because my physique is devil-given and permanent, that I don’t enjoy exercising for the fun of it?”
Gethin gaped at him. “You’re naked.”
Sorley laughed again. “Fully aware of that, thanks. And?”
Gethin waved a hand. “Aren’t you bothered you might, I dunno, hurt your…um…” And he blushed.
Sorley attempted to cover his guffaw with a cough, which sounded worse than if he’d not tried. “I’m avampire,Hughes,” he said imperiously. “I don’t break. My reflexes are second to none. There is no chance I’m going to irreparably damage my knob. If I did, I’d deserve to be pegged out in the midday sun as an embarrassing lesson to vamps everywhere.” A broad smirk creasing his face, he stalked over to the steps and stared up at the mortified shifter. “Thought you liked me naked?”
Gethin ran a hand through his bed-head as his colour intensified. “Well, yeah…” He gestured at the pole. “You’re good.”
Sorley slipped his trousers on. “It didn’t come naturally. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I bounce when I fall.” He glanced at Gethin. “There’s plenty of hot water if you want a shower.”
“I hope that’s not a polite way of saying I smell.” They headed up to the kitchen together. Gethin rolled his shoulders. “I came looking for you when I couldn’t sense you. You should’ve told me you were heading down here.”
“Sure, when your snores would have woken the dead. I don’t think so. I didn’t leave the premises.”
“True.” He looked around the pristine work surfaces. “Don’t suppose you have a kettle by any chance? I could murder a cuppa.”
Sorley dug one out from a cupboard. “I don’t have coffee, teabags or milk though,” he said pointedly. “And I’m not going out this near to sunrise. Neither should you before you shower.”
Gethin ignored the jibe and jabbed a thumb at the cool bag in the corner. “Good job I planned ahead.”
10
GETHIN
“He’s where?Hang on, let me look at a map.” Gethin pulled up an app and zoomed in, then heaved a sigh as his gaze skated over the area including the Forest of Bowland. “Urgh. He could be anywhere. Needle in a haystack comes to mind. Are you following?”
“Of course. But not by myself. I’ll round up a few more before we go. Edwin will come, but obviously he can only track during the hours of darkness.” Iolo hesitated, then said quietly, “How bad is this threat, Dad?”
“Wish I knew. Potentially devastating if a victim loses control…” He shuddered as he thought how much harm Sorley could have inflicted if he’d tipped over into full-blown blood lust. A horny wolf was bad enough, but a vampire on the rampage didn’t bear thinking about.
“That’s what I thought. We need to find out who’s behind the attacks and fast.”
“Agreed. Be a start if we could work out a motive. A gay vampire and a straight shifter don’t give us much to go on.”
“Didn’t you know? Alfie, the shifter, was at a gay club.” Iolo sounded cautious now. “It doesn’t automatically mean he’s gay; it was a mixed night. A wolf on the police force here says he’s sure there were more in the group than the ones we know of, but they’ve not come forward. The humans with Alfie said he danced with several blokes, but they didn’t think much of their chances of recognising anyone. Any other shifters that were there have melted into the shadows.”
Gethin growled under his breath. “Par for the course.” He spooned instant coffee into a mug and plugged in the kettle. “You’d think by now being gay would no longer be such a big deal.”
“It’s not among the under thirties,” Iolo shot back. “But with dinosaur alphas in charge ofpolicy,” he spat out ‘policy’ like it was a dirty word, “what hope is there of dragging older shifters into the twenty-first century? No wonder most gay wolves of any age are still closeted. It’s pathetic.” His tone was grudging as he added, “At least Justin seems like he wants things to change, but not fast enough.”
“You don’t agree with the elders?”I don’t either, son, but I’m a coward.The feeling didn’t sit right, a band tightening around his rib cage as his son answered.
“Dictating that we have to make families with people we aren’t biologically programmed to find attractive? Did you seriously just ask me that? It’s the same old bullshit religions come up with for heterosexuality, continuation of the species. The clan, gang, group, whatever. If shifters are at that much risk of dying out, then we’re not meant to be. You’re not thinking about the hoo-ha over the Milton’s heir, are you? It caused a riot at a few pack meetings for about twenty minutes, but now it’s yesterday’s news. Nobody I know cares who he’s shagging.” He sounded impressed when he added, “The Milton’s kid’s got some balls though, going public that way. Can’t have been easy.”
“Bradshaw. His name is Lucien Bradshaw.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, he’s a nice kid. Anyway,” he quickly changed the subject, “our missing wolf. Keep me informed?”
Iolo promised he would and rang off. Gethin stared at his coffee, then set it aside to cook himself a substantial lunch. His wolf was restless and eager to run, but it would have to wait a while. The vamp was asleep in the bedroom,finally.He’d resisted for ages, declaring he didn’t require any rest, but Gethin wasn’t taking any chances. If they had to move on at a moment’s notice to aid the search, or to keep Sorley safe, he wanted them both in tip top condition.
* * *
Gethin’s phonerang again that night, just before two a.m. as he was contemplating leaving Sorley to his own devices and catching some zeds. His heart sank to see Justin’s name flash up.
