SULLY GLANCED over his shoulder. He’d made it around the corner of the church before the blue flashing sirens pulled onto the street. Sully was now across from the church, anxiously watching the scene unfold while also pretending to browse a couple of store windows. Police had already set up a line across the front stairs and people across the street had come out of their homes and businesses to rubberneck. Sully knew he blended in. What was one familiar face among a couple dozen strangers? But he also knew he should run away to be sure no one caught him. Maybe even walk to the next street over or go back to Artie’s. He was too close to the action, too close to a murder scene—that still played out before his eyes like one of his nightmares.
And yet he couldn’t move. His feet were rooted to the ground. He needed to stay because Chaz was there, and it shocked him just how much he needed to make sure Chaz got away too. When the medical examiner Katja emerged from a car, Sully was smart enough to turn away. He pulled his hood tight over face and jammed his hands in his pockets, only to touch the corner of the pamphlets. He pulled them out and continued to read them as a way of distracting himself.
As he suspected, Gerrard United was one of the few churches that specialized in supernatural-civilian relations, and many of the parishioners thought that among the masses of them, some creatures had celestial properties. He started to read their interpretation on the angel mythology, before the therapy sessions listed at the bottom of the church brochure caught his attention. Alcoholics anonymous, gamblers anonymous, sex addicts, and blood addicts were all listed. The description under each therapy session was small and didn’t give too many details. Help cure your need for illicit substances! Be a better person! Sully wanted to know if the blood-addicts meeting was a group for vampires or for humans who got high off elemental blood. He was about to call on his cell and pose as the latter to see if he could get entry when a hand touched his shoulder.
“Hey, sorry, sir. But I’m going to have to ask you to leave the area. The church therapy for the day has been canceled and we’re asking everyone to give us enough room to allow for more emergency cars to come in and out.”
When Sully turned to see Declan, all the blood drained from his face. The brochures hit the ground before Sully could right himself. No, no, no. I can’t get arrested. I can’t…. Declan seemed as flustered as Sully was to cross paths again—especially in a crowd watching a crime scene. He stood in his standard-issue trench coat, his badge on his front pocket. Yet he didn’t turn Sully against the wall and slap cuffs on him. Instead Declan picked up the pamphlets from the ground and handed them back to Sully, averting his eyes in the process. He retrieved and clicked the lid on a small bottle of antibacterial lotion afterward and rubbed the solution on his hands.
“Hello again,” Declan said uneasily. His cheeks tinged with pink. “You’re the Czech guy, right?”
“I am.”
“Did they call you in? Is there Czech here? Or were you in need of therapy?”
“Oh, um. I was… well… I’m just looking.”
“Nothing to be ashamed of, especially if you’re here for help.”
“Well, I was curious about the blood group.”
“Yeah?”
“For a friend. Not me.”
Declan smiled. “We’re always just looking for a friend.”
Sully was about to ask Declan something more when the church doors banged open. Chaz sauntered out in a huff, his hair and eyes wild. He wore no shoes.
“Oh,” Declan said. He glanced from Sully to Chaz and seemed to imagine them together in a blink. “I see.”
Sully’s cheeks felt warm. He didn’t want this guy to know the intimate details between them—especially if those intimate details meant that Sully was now implicated in whatever crime had gone on. Why did it always feel as if people could read his skin and the marks people had made there? Sully wanted to pull the hood down over his entire body and disappear. God, we haven’t even had sex yet. We’ve done nothing.
And Declan continued to do nothing. He didn’t question or slap cuffs on Sully for being around Chaz. Instead he walked over to Chaz, leaving Sully holding the crumbled and dirty pamphlet. Sully hid behind the paper as he listened in on what Chaz and Declan discussed.
“Declan,” Chaz said, voice defeated. “I was just going. Sorry to disturb the scene.”
“You didn’t. Sounds as if you may have solved the whole case for us.”
Chaz grunted. “According to Jack, yes. May as well go home too. There’s no case at all anymore.”
“There isn’t?” Declan’s voice raised with incredulity, but then he sighed. “Suppose it’s for the better. Not like this would have been tried. Sounds like poetic justice.”
“Whatever.” Chaz’s heavy footsteps toward Sully made him glance up and meet his eyes. There were so many unsaid words in the lines on Chaz’s face. Sully wished he could have been by his side. Partners, partners. We’re partners now. Wordlessly, Sully shoved the pamphlet in his pocket and followed Chaz as he made his way down the sidewalk. They were barely two feet from where they stood, the church still covered with officers and Declan no doubt watching them, but Sully couldn’t stand this. The way Chaz was acting was foreign, cold. His behavior was more than just him being careful as he stepped over the pavement to not hit rocks, glass, or endless cigarette butts in his socked feet. Chaz was excluding Sully from what had just happened when all Sully wanted to do was be included. He understood being ousted from the basement in favor of keeping the body site easier to deal with, but Sully wanted Chaz to talk to him. Tom’s words about being bought still haunted him.
“What the hell was that?” Sully asked when they were a safe distance away. “You going to tell me anything? I deserve to know. I helped you get here. I helped—”
Chaz stopped walking and engulfed Sully in a hard kiss. He pressed him up against the church wall, away from the sidewalk and most of the people. For a brief second, Sully really thought he’d burst into flames. No way a sex worker and a vamp could even get near a place like this without something bad going on, and making out and groping just outside its door was asking God to strike them down.
But nothing happened. Chaz’s tongue was hot and fierce next to Sully’s own, and their hips collided over and over. They pulled apart before anything more could happen. Sully was as relieved as he was hard and frustrated. He would have dropped down in front of Chaz and worshipped him like he deserved.
“What was that?” Sully asked again, panting. “Not that I mind, but—”
“I just… I’m sorry I left you behind.”
“It’s okay. But what happened?”
“A lot. Too much. Come on,” Chaz said, linking their hands. “I’ll tell you at home.”