“You know it’s not your fault, right?” I ask.
He glances over at me and pulls his mask up just enough that he can talk. “I am more than old enough to handle the smell of blood. I have no idea why I acted that way.”
I think about it for a moment. “Whoever staged this knew you guys were coming. They wanted you guys to go into a frenzy. If I hadn’t stopped you…” I fear to even think about what would have happened. “They wanted you to attack someone.”
Church’s head snaps back to me. “I’ve been so focused on… you’re right. What better way to make the vampires look bad than to have the special vampire unit go fucking nuts in the middle of town square attacking humans? Oh my god… it was a setup… for us. What the fuck?” He tears his mask off and throws it to the ground. Then he thinks better of it and grabs it but doesn’t put it back on. “Dammit. I want to go back. I need to figure out who did this.”
“I think we need to let the human team work for a bit. I mean, one of your crew is unconscious, the other looks like he’s going to be sick, and you’re ready to explode.”
“What’sss going on?” Briar slurs through her mask. The look of horror on her face that I vividly see in the rearview mirror tells me she remembers. “I bit your arm. It fucking hurt too…”
“You bit my watch, thankfully,” I say.
“Oh man… that must be a nice watch. What’s it made out of? Diamond? My tooth says diamond. Or what’s harder than diamonds?”
I snort. “I don’t think it is made of anything but like… normal watch stuff, but I’ll have to leave them a good review. ‘Five stars, saved me from my new colleague chewing on me.’”
She’s too upset to find me funny. “I’m really sorry. I can’t believe I did that.”
“It’s okay,” I say as I pull into the parking lot.
“Let’s go into the back and up to the second-floor showers to avoid as many people as we can,” Church says.
We get out and my team of depressed vampires walks behind me, heads hung, eyes down as I lead the way. You’d think I’d be the sad one seeing as everyone tried eating me, but no, I’m pretty okay with it all.
Once on the second floor, Briar breaks off for the women’s shower room and the three of us head into the men’s. When I see that they’re not individual showers, I hesitate. I can’t take a shower in front of them or they’d have an even better excuse for getting rid of me.
“I’ll go get something to bag our clothes and find a new set of clothes for you guys,” I say as I shrug out of my coat since it has the most blood on it. Then I head to the door. As I pull it open, I slam into Brooks.
“I could smell the lot of you as soon as you showed up,” he says as he scrunches up his nose. “I brought some clothes and evidence bags.”
“Thanks,” I say, but now I don’t have an excuse to run and hide.
He reaches out and tips my neck to the side before pushing my collar back. “I thought you said you weren’t bitten?”
“I wasn’t. He just scraped me.”
“DeGray?”
“Church.”
His eyes get wide. “Church? Really? I can’t believe this even affected him. Why… huh… I’ve seen that man help humans who are bleeding out, getting blood all over him and he doesn’t even bat an eye. Why would this have affected him?”
“Maybe because it was dumped on him?” I guess.
Brooks doesn’t look convinced, but he shrugs. “You need to get washed off. There are some youngsters here that I bet you’d smell really good to.”
I look behind me and notice that the two have stripped off their clothes. “I’m… waiting… for them to finish.”
“Oh… yeah. Alright, just hang tight.”
He heads in and I follow him inside. He walks over to Church and DeGray and puts their clothes into the bags as I try to busy myself so it doesn’t look like I’m just standing here gawking at their naked bodies. I find some folded towels in a closet and grab them.
“You going to wash off, Hayes?” Church asks.
“I just didn’t want you guys to see my giant penis and get down on yourselves more than you already are.”
He snorts as I come over with a towel and pass it over. I’d be lying if I said my eyes didn’t stray down a little as he snatches up the towel. I’d be lying more if I said they didn’t stray down even farther when he has his head buried in the towel.
Feeling like I’m not being as inconspicuous as I thought, I glance over at Brooks who is giving me a look.
I try my best to appear innocent, but my god, Church is built far too nicely. He’s muscular, but not overly so, and with the water glistening off his chest, I feel like even Brooks needs to appreciate it.
“I’m not too concerned, Hayes,” Church says as he lowers the towel and walks toward a bench. I don’t even remember what we were talking about. Bare Church apparently causes loss of memory. “Why don’t you get cleaned up?” Clearly, he’s making up for trying to nibble on my neck by giving me a view of his fine ass.
“Finn?” Brooks says.
I turn to look at him and give him a huge smile. “Yes, sir?”
“Don’t ‘yes, sir’ me. Sit your ass down.”
I sigh and go over to a different bench where I start unbuttoning my shirt in the slowest fashion ever. By the time I get the last button undone, Church and DeGray are headed toward the door.
“When you’re done slothing it, I’m calling a meeting,” Church says to me. “But just… take your time! No rush or anything!” He’s so sarcastic all the time that it makes me grin.
“Thank you!” I call after him as he slams the door, leaving me alone with Brooks. “I think that went well.”
“Which part? You ogling your new partner? Or your new partner trying to eat you? This was a horrible idea.”
I cock my head. “I saved people from dying.”
He sighs as he rubs his head. “I know. I get it. But you can’t ogle your partner.”
“Well, that’s no fun.”
“You’re like one of those people that are so smart they’re dumb. I could give you a problem and you’d solve it in minutes, but I could put you in front of a tiger and you’d try to tame it.”
“I was actually thinking of asking him on a date.”
He grabs his chest, which is a bit dramatic if you ask me. “Oh Lord Jesus save me. Don’t ask Church on a date!”
“Hmm…” I give him a look. “I’m going to be honest… that makes me want to ask him on a date even more.”
“Even if he could be threatened into a date with you, you’re not allowed to date someone from the department.”
“Aw, good thing I’m only temporary and not actually part of the department! And there’s already a couple in this department! They’re more lenient with you guys since they’re already hurting for employees.”
“Nope. Now get washed off. I’m positive you’re just procrastinating at this point.”