“Sure, we can call it that.” Gethin’s smile felt like a caress on his skin. “We have missing persons reports to scour. Alec, would you pop downstairs and ask James what his surname is please?”
Alec came back looking thoughtful. “James is James Wilson. But I doubt he will be listed as missing by anyone likely to make it known formally.”
Both men waited, until Sorley blurted, “Spit it out, man!”
“He is a product of the foster system, except he says he was not a good fit, and spent most of his time in group homes.” Alec shuddered. “That doesn’t sound good. He was turfed out when he turned eighteen. And he is, shall we say, a low level entrepreneur.”
Gethin’s face twisted into a snarl. “Drugs?”
“Not that he was willing to confess, and I did not read any specific guilt coming from him, but I would say it is not impossible. I would say he is a young man who lives on his wits and takes jobs for cash. His home is a shared flat in the Beeston area. I do not know it, but I am willing to assume his home is in a less desirable part of the city. Suffice to say, either this Connor knew what he was doing, or he got very lucky with his choice of human.”
Sorley processed this. “James was out of his way the night I fed from him. Wonder if he was ‘working’.” He put finger quotes around the word.
Gethin sighed. “Does it matter? He’s obviously been badly used by Cormack,” Sorley empathised even as the grating of Gethin’s molars seemed to affect his own teeth, “and he’s not got any family to worry about him. I’m still peeved we don’t have a read on him leaving Delirium, or even any inside shots of the club where we can pinpoint him, or Cormack.”
“It’s a club for getting high and getting off, not for showing off your dance moves. It’s supposed to be dark when the strobe lights aren’t on,” Sorley sniped, aware he was being bitchy as he no longer liked admitting in front of Gethin how he used to live.
Alec smirked. “Fais pas la gueule, it is not attractive.”
Sorley stuck his tongue out at him and slid off Gethin’s lap. “I need to get out of this house.”
Gethin snatched at his arm. “Well you can’t, so stop being a brat. We will catch this fucker, and soon, all right? Try to calm down.”
Sorley stuck his head into the comforting embrace of Gethin’s burly shoulder, pleased that his earthy, wolfy essence hadn’t been entirely erased by his transformation. “I know, and I’m sorry. I’m just so damn frustrated.”
Alec harrumphed at them. “Just go and fuck, please. I will turn my music up loud, and you will reset your fidgets back to background levels.” He flounced back to the sofa and shoved his head under a cushion. “See? Not listening!” His voice was muffled by the fabric. Sorley and Gethin burst out laughing.
Gethin bent down to nibble at Sorley’s lips. “C’mon then. That’s a green light if ever I heard one.” Calling out to Marlowe to turn up the volume on whatever he might be listening to, they slammed through the bedroom doorway as though they were starved for each other’s touch. Sorley kicked the door shut behind them and they crash landed on the bed hard enough to make it creak, tearing at their clothes as they went.
“Make me forget,” he pleaded between kisses and bites. “Make me feel you next week.”
44
GETHIN
Sorley wasa sight for sore eyes, stripped and spread out across the sheet, his cock pointing to the headboard as Gethin sat back to wrest himself free of his T-shirt which had somehow got snarled up. He’d already found the lube and popped the top. “Faster,” he urged him. “You’re a vampire now. Get speedy.”
Gethin sniggered. “You’d have thought you might have learned a bit of patience in three hundred years, my love.”
“Never!” Sorley declared with a dramatic wave of his arm. “Born in a hurry, I’ll d—” He giggled. “Okay, really hoping Idon’tdie, again, but if I do, it’ll be in a hurry too. C’mon, Hughes, I actually ache for you.”
“You sappy git.” Gethin grinned at him, arching over Sorley to lick a stripe up his tantalising length. “Mmm…”
Then Gethin’s phone vibrated. Both men froze. Gethin narrowed his gaze in its direction. “I could ignore it…”
“Yes,” Sorley breathed. “Won’t be important.”
It kept vibrating, the handset glowing through the pocket of Gethin’s jeans. He growled at it.
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. He wasn’t sure hecouldignore it. He turned back to Sorley, intent on giving it his best effort.
Bam bam bam.Three unnecessarily loud raps on the bedroom door made them both curse.
“Stop boning,” Edwin said, merriment evident in his tone. “We have a clear video hit on Cormack, and on young James. Get dressed and get out here.”
Sorley’s language would have made Baxter blush, Gethin thought, as he turned his wrinkled clothes the right way and tugged them on. He grunted as he stuffed his complaining cock back into his jeans, watching Sorley’s eyes harden with…was that apprehension? He thought so. There was a definite whiff of unease in his scent, but he didn’t seem afraid, more resigned. Gethin too was wary; there was so much that could go wrong, and too much they didn’t yet know about either Cormack or Kippen Wade. He followed Sorley into the living room and saw Edwin’s laptop open on the table, Edwin in front of it. He started talking before they even got near.
“When Baxter started everyone looking for men who could change their hair and eye colour, they zoned in on everyone’s stubble as a new starting point, and finally got a match. It doesn’t help that he knew how to avoid nearly all of the security cameras around Delirium, which makes you wonder what else the fucker can do.”
