4. Azrael
FOUR
AZRAEL
“ I ’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that part aloud,” he said.
This guy was…fun.
I’d only been in the same room with him for less than five minutes, and I’d already laughed more times than I had in the last five years. My life was serious but not that serious.
“Unless hot means something different around here, like asshole or dickhead, then we’re good.”
Duke squeezed his eyes shut and pursed his lips.
“God, if there was ever a time to smite, this would be it. Smite me.”
I belly-laughed. Again.
If this was how my time in Mayberry Holm was going to be, then it would be highly entertaining. And I’d probably give myself appendicitis from laughing too hard.
I didn’t know what I had expected when Wyatt told me about Duke, but he was nothing I could have anticipated.
For starters, he was not the stuffy, tall, boring, vanilla kind of guy with glasses and a know-it-all face. He was definitely not tall. He only came up to my chest, which was a weird thing to notice, but I’d never been around men who were so…petite. And there were no glasses in sight. Just a full, perfect view of his bright-blue eyes that could cut through glass with their intensity.
Not the bad kind of intensity. The good kind. The kind that made me feel oddly alive under its gaze.
I looked up at the ceiling and shrugged.
“I guess not today,” he said, mimicking me also looking up.
“Yeah. He’s probably busy smiting all the criminals and drug lords and shit.”
“I wish.”
It would make my job a lot easier. Heck, it would make this world easier to live in. But he gave us free will for a reason. Just so we could disappoint him.
“Well, maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, why don’t I show you around? You can put your things here for now if you want.” He pointed at the sofa so I put my backpack beside it and the guitar case on top.
Clover took the opportunity to jump out of Duke’s arms and onto the sofa. He used the height as leverage to lick my face.
“Agh. Sorry. He’s not usually like this.”
He tried to pick him back up, but I grabbed the little terror and scratched between his ears.
“He’s fine. See?” I told Duke.
“Oh shit. Your shoes. Want to take them off? I can give them a wash if you want. Do you have another pair? I can give you some of mine? Or go and buy some?”
“It’s fine. Honestly. It was just a drop, and these boots can take a lot more than a little dog pee.”
Duke grimaced.
“What, like, human pee?”
I laughed. Clover started barking, trying to nip at my chin. He was a terror.
“I haven’t tested that yet, but…”
“Someday you will? Just what kind of stuff are you into, mister?”
I choked down a laugh and shook my head. I didn’t want him to think I was mentally unstable with all the laughing.
“I have no idea what you mean,” I told him. “I’m a good Catholic boy.”
Duke grimaced again, glancing at my guitar case.
“Is that to sing me Gospel? Are you here about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?”
“Oh yes, baby. I’m here to convert you so hard!”
Wait a minute. Was I flirting? Because that sounded a lot like a line. A dirty line, but still.
What was wrong with me? And more importantly, what kind of creature was this guy?
“You can convert me hard any time,” he said, and immediately, his cheeks went red. “Shit. I don’t know why I just said that.”
“Because I said it first, and you’re funny.”
“You think I’m funny?” he asked, bottom lip quivering.
I kinda wanted to pinch it, just for fun, but I didn’t because that would be weird.
“You’re okay.”
The quiver turned into a pout.
“Hey! You just said I was funny.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t want to feed your ego.”
“What do you want to feed?”
Was this guy flirting with me too? What on earth was going on here? And why did I…like it?
I mean, I wasn’t going to drop and get dirty with him any time soon. I was straight. But I’d never done that before. Flirted. With a guy. It was weird. But oddly, it was fun. Maybe because he was fun?
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Duke said as if he wasn’t in control of his mouth half the time.
I didn’t know why he was apologizing. He had every right to flirt with me. Or anyone. And as far as I could tell, he was gay. I didn’t want to assume, but the clues were there, like shouting in big, bold letters.
“Why do you keep saying you’re sorry? Is that a tick?” I asked. I was genuinely interested in the answer.
Clover started fidgeting, so I put him down, and he ran off somewhere.
“Sure is. It’s called idiotitis, and I have it. I have it bad.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. My condolences.”
He gave me a single, solemn nod. I managed to keep an equally serious expression, but only for a couple seconds before I burst out laughing.
“Imma have fun working with you, Duke Allen.”
“Dr. Duke Allen, thank you very much, please and thank you.”
I gasped.
“Apologies. I beg for your forgiveness.”
Duke offered me his hand and tilted his head back.
“You’re forgiven, my child.”
I did what anyone else would in my position. I grabbed his hand and kissed it.
Okay, that was weird. Again. I didn’t know why I’d done that, but I had, so I was gonna own it. What was the worst that could happen?
I looked up at Duke, but he was frozen in place. As if he’d seen a ghost.
Before I could ask him what was wrong, Clover returned with a ball, dropping it between my feet, and looked at me, panting.
I let go of Duke and smiled at the dog, throwing the ball for him to chase.
“So…do you work alone?” I asked when he said nothing. He was still kinda frozen in place. I hoped I hadn’t offended him in any way.
“Yes. Um, no. My sister is doing her residency here, and I have a lot of volunteers, but…yeah, I guess so.”
“You manage this whole place on your own? Wow, that’s great.”
He narrowed his eyes and bit his lip.
“How can you say that? You haven’t seen the place. It could be a shithole.”
This guy.
I hadn’t met many people with such a sharp sense of humor, and I had to admit it was quite…captivating. Yeah, that was the right word.
“Is it? A shithole?”
“No.”
“And how would I know that? You haven’t even shown me to the next room.”
Duke lit up as if he’d just awakened and nodded.
“Right. Sorry.”
There he was again with the sorry. I’d have to do something about that.
“Follow me.” I did. As did Clover with his ball.
It was quite cute having a little shadow.
“Did Wyatt tell you about the situation here?”
He took me to the kitchen, which was behind the living room, through a hallway. Everything was made out of varnished wood. Even the walls. It felt like I was on a boat or a cabin in the woods.
“Yeah, more or less.”
“Cool. Cool. So…what do we do? He didn’t tell me what you’d be doing.”
He showed me the dining table at the end of the kitchen like it was on display and I was a customer looking to buy it. I admired it like a piece of art, and then we moved back through the living room to the rest of the house.
“Well, I’m going to be your shadow. Huh, like Clover here is mine. I’ll follow you around, work with you, help out with the animals, and when we’re alone…”
Duke stopped, turned to me, and waited.
“When we’re alone, what?” he whispered.
I was starting to get the impression that this guy was taken with me. Or maybe he was like that with everyone. I didn’t know, but why did I suddenly want him to be taken with me. Why did that make me arch my back and puff up my chest?
“When we’re alone, and I’m sure no one else is around, I can investigate. Look through accounts, set up boobie traps, etcetera.”
“Ah. Yeah. Of course.” He released a big, shaky breath and walked down a set of stairs. “Just to inform you, by the way, you just said boobie.”
He bit his lip as if he was choking down a laugh. I winked at him, and if anything, his cheeks went redder.
“Sure did.”
He turned his attention away from me before he spoke again. “You don’t have to help out, by the way. I don’t expect that from you.”
“I want to help. Besides, if I don’t, it will look suspicious. But even so, I don’t mind. I’ve got medical experience. I can even help with examinations and stuff.”
Duke stopped in the middle of the staircase and turned around.
“You do?”
“Sure do. I completed my special operations combat medic course years ago. I even have some experience with animals.”
“Oh,” he said, and this time, I could see genuine surprise on his face that wasn’t faked or for comedic effect. “I…I didn’t know.”
“Did you think Wyatt would just send you some rando?”
“Well…” He shrugged. “You are a rando. But a useful one.”
“And a hot one. Don’t forget the hot part.”
Why was I flirting with this guy?
“How could I forget?” He rolled his eyes and went down the rest of the stairs.
They led to an open space almost as big as the house upstairs and consisted of several examination tables, plastic chests of drawers, and fluorescent lighting that made it look just as sterile as it was supposed to be.
“This is the sanctuary’s exam and operation room. This is where I usually meet my volunteers every morning to assign jobs for the day and go through the schedule. I usually see my regular clients upstairs. I like to keep them separate in case of infections and other bugs the sanctuary animals might have that we don’t want house pets to get.”
Whatever amusement or bite had been in Duke’s face before was gone now, replaced by a serious expression. A doctoral expression, which told me all I needed to know about this guy.
When it came to work, there was no fucking around.
“Sounds logical.”
“Would you like to see your room next or meet the animals?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is that even a question?”
He laughed.
“Animals it is. Let’s go.”
As we walked out a door leading to the backyard, a big black lab with a gray face stood from a bed in the corner and followed us out.
“Who’s this big ball of cuteness?” I dropped down to greet the dog and was met by a soft sniff, a little tug of the head, and the biggest puppy-dog eyes I’d ever seen.
Clover found the new object of his attention by circling the large dog and goading him.
“This is my dog, Max.”
“He’s so cute,” I said in my best baby voice, which seemed to do the trick with Max, who gave me a short but excited tail wag.
“He is, the old fuck. He kinda has free rein around here. He’s very easy, gets along with everyone, and if anyone pushes him too hard?—”
At that point, Clover bit a tuft of Max’s fur in a playful manner, but Max snapped at the toy dog and returned to being the amicable dog he’d been two seconds ago.
“He does that,” Duke finished his sentence.
“I see,” I said and picked up Clover. “So Max won’t take no shit from bullies.”
Duke winked at me, and I felt a pinch in my chest. No idea what that was about, but I ignored it, and we all walked into the backyard.
It was huge. It was huger than huge. And so green. There was a large stable to the left, which, according to Duke, was currently empty as he wasn’t treating or rehabbing any large animals at the moment. To the right were the kennels, and next to it, a cattery.
“What kinds of animals do you usually rescue?”
“The majority are dogs and cats. And I’ve got a chicken coup, but they’re not all rescues. We get the occasional farm animal or wild animals from fucking drunk drivers, but dogs and cats are my main focus.”
He opened the gate to a little yard in front of the kennels, and I could already hear the symphony of barking inside.
“Want to help me exercise them?” His smile was soft and innocent but also hesitant, as if he were asking too much of me. I wanted to….ruffle his hair or something. Show him how silly he was being.
“Heck yeah,” I said.
He chuckled and led me into the kennels. I didn’t know where to look. It was cuteness overload.
“Most of them are ridiculously friendly. I mean, you know that already.” He coughed and glanced down at Clover and Max. “The ones that are more reactive or need more time to earn their trust have a message on their board.”
He pointed at a dry-erase board in front of one cage with Phoebe [F] and I’m not ready for group runs written on it.
“Group runs?” I asked as I looked inside the cage. A brown and black sheepdog stood in a corner, shaking like a leaf, staring at us.
“That’s when they all go out together and play. Phoebe was abused by her owner for two years before she was brought here. She doesn’t like people, especially men, and wasn’t properly socialized as a puppy, so she’s super reactive. I had her up at the house until recently, so she’s getting there, but she’s not there yet.”
My heart broke just looking at her. What she must have been through. The kind of monster who would turn her into this shivering shell of a dog.
Duke pursed his lips into a smile and moved on to the next cage, unlocking it and introducing me to the next dog. I followed him, staring at the back of his head, thinking how much I wanted to grab this guy and give him a big hug.
He was doing God’s work. And I didn’t think he even knew it.