Chapter 16 Teddy
Teddy
“You paired yourself with me,” Wren said, fiddling with the hoodie he’d thrown on after the quick shower they both had before heading out. It was Teddy’s.
He sounded smugly satisfied, and Teddy tried not to let it get to him. They were supposed to be concentrating on the police car parked down the street.
“Saint and Trace work well together.” Teddy adjusted himself in the driver’s seat. He suddenly felt like it was too small of a space. “It made sense to pair them up.”
“And us?”
Teddy shivered again hearing that word. “Us?”
“Do you think we still work well together? Does it make sense to pair us up?” Wren demanded, holding him hostage with the questions as his fingers tickled over his leg.
His eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the complex wonder sitting next to him, helpless against the hold Wren effortlessly had on his soul.
“I don’t think that will ever change, Little Bird,” he answered too honestly.
He watched Wren melt in real time, visibly pleased by the answers. It made Teddy’s chest puff up to have provided them. It was too dangerous; the shot of endorphins begging for more. To provide. To please.
Wren leaned closer, breath skating over his face as he murmured, “I’m sick of waiting.”
Teddy’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Waiting for what?”
All the blood in his body ran south. Is he talking about…?
“Let’s go break in.”
Wren was popping the door lock and slipping out of the car in the next breath.
Teddy had to recalibrate in five seconds flat and scramble after him, ducking low and following him around the back of the car and into a side alley. He grasped Wren’s arm. “What are you doing?”
Wren lifted a brow. “I just told you. There’s got to be a back door. The thieves definitely found one.”
“Which the police are well aware of. We need to wait for them to leave.”
“They’re probably asleep in their car; we’ll be fine. They haven’t done a walkaround in, like, an hour.”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
Wren looked at his shoulder and nodded to Blu, who chirped and flew off to check.
Teddy still scowled. “You could have done that while we were still in the car.”
“You should have reminded me, then.”
“Is that my new position in the team? Risk assessment?”
Wren smiled with his eyes. “That was always your position, you just didn’t like to admit it because you didn’t want to seem uncool.”
“I was never uncool,” Teddy said, offended.
Wren laughed, airy and light and stealing all the stars in the sky. Teddy wanted to catch it and bottle it. He reached out and cupped Wren’s cheek in a poor attempt.
Wren’s laughter tapered off and he stared up at him with his angular, beautiful eyes. Teddy stroked along the line of his mark, following the movement with his gaze.
“I love your eyes.” He felt Wren shudder under his touch, his breath hitching.
“You never told me that before.”
“I know how you feel about them, so I never wanted to upset you.”
“Coming from you it would never upset me.”
Blu fluttered back before Teddy could respond, landing on Teddy’s arm in the space between them.
Wren smiled. “All clear?”
“All clear,” Blu parroted before mimicking the noise of a snore.
Teddy huffed out a laugh, mostly to cover up how shaken he was by the contact and the moment between them. Wren was like a drug to him. Just a couple of days with him and he was back to where he’d started. Consumed by him.
“Excellent,” Wren said, pulling away from Teddy and stalking toward the back door. He moved like a shadow, Teddy thought as he trailed after him, feeling clumsy and loud in comparison.
“Wren, wait,” Teddy whispered after him. “Just…”
“No time to wait.” Wren pulled something out of his pocket and crouched until he was eye level with the lock.
He pushed a long, thin object into the lock and started wiggling it around.
“You have a lock-pick in your pocket?” Teddy asked, running a hand over his face. “What am I saying—of course you have a lock-pick in your pocket.”
“I like being prepared.”
“For crime.”
“If that’s what you want to call it. I call it an upgrade.” Wren shrugged, throwing a smile over his shoulder that had Teddy weak at the knees.
The lock clicked and Wren pushed the door open, pocketing his crime tool and walking inside like he owned the place. There were no alarms, no warning signs, nothing that would make it feel like they were doing something wrong.
And yet, as he followed Wren, watching him poke and prod and shuffle things around, he couldn’t help but feel that thrill of working beside him.
They’d had so little chance at Nexus. Teddy was certain a specific someone had had a lot of say in that, as they were usually assigned to separate groups in practice cases.
But sometimes there was no avoiding it and they had to work together.
It was those days Teddy had loved best. Wren worked like he was made of magic.
Every restless thing inside him would quiet down and focus on the task.
Every ounce of strength he didn’t even know he had would come out to play.
He was small. He looked fragile. People thought him breakable. And sure, maybe in some ways he was.
But in all the ways that counted to be a good cursebreaker, Wren was a miracle.
He located the curses faster than anyone, he honed his skill to cause the least amount of pain possible.
While others just looked to get the job done, Wren worked to get the animals back to health, and it made all the difference.
It wasn’t a surprise that Teddy had tested as compatible with Saint, because he had the same compassion Wren did.
The same respect for life Wren did. Those similarities had served as a comfort to Teddy for years, because in his mind they were proof that had they been allowed to test for compatibility, he and Wren would have been a match. He just knew it.
He watched him now as an adult and found the same reverence, the same blind focus. He touched the cages with care and gentleness, brushed feathers and hair and scales with no discrimination.
He baby-talked the slimy and cooed at the too-many-legged, and all the while Teddy knew he was laser focused as he went through ledgers, drawers, and papers, and looked for secret compartments and mismatched numbers.
He was beautiful when he worked. He made every hair on Teddy’s body stand up.
He made his skin prickle with admiration and his heart sigh with adoration.
Wren huffed and broke Teddy out of his thoughts, putting his hands on his hips in the middle of the room.
“Anything?”
Wren shook his head. “As much as I hate pet shops on principle, the animals seem to be in good health and well cared for. I don’t see any evidence of deliberate participation in whatever bullshit this drug ring is doing.
If they had a cursed animal here I’d bet anything they had zero clue what it was and just treated it like a regular job. ”
“Well—” Teddy started, but Wren’s phone interrupted. He watched Wren pull it out of his pocket and was reminded of the silence of his own phone.
The silence that had stretched too long. The kind of silence he might have thought would be a comfort. Instead, it just made him jittery and aware of the fact that it would probably be broken with an explosion rather than the dreaded ping.
“Fuck,” Wren muttered.
Teddy frowned. “What?”
Wren walked over and turned the phone toward him, a text open on his screen.
Unknown: Looking at the wrong place.
The text was followed by a location share.
“Is that…?”
“Jackass won’t relent.”
“They have been helpful before, though,” Teddy said.
“That is the only reason I’m even entertaining this.” Wren sighed, tapping on the location link and waiting for it to load. The street view showed a few run-down buildings with zero pet stores, or stores of any kind, in sight.
“Not the nicest part of Arcstead.” Teddy frowned at the screen. “I don’t even know what to look for there.”
“Can you… Could you call Saint?”
“Sure I can.” Teddy smiled at the still-petulant tone and pulled out his phone.
“Don’t laugh at me,” Wren said, kicking and gently catching Teddy’s leg with his toes.
“I’m not laughing,” he said, dialing Saint.
“Hello?” Saint answered after the first ring.
“Hey,” Teddy said. “Question: Are there any pet stores, sanctuaries, vets, or anything animal related in North Arcstead? Harrow Street, specifically?”
“Not that I know of. There used to be a dude smuggling in snakes and spiders in Harrow, but he got busted last year and hasn’t shown his face since. Why?”
“The mystery texter sent us a location. Guess we’ll have to go check it out.”
“Trace and I are five minutes away from Harrow,” Saint said. “Want us to poke around?”
Wren shook his head.
“No, you guys do your thing,” Teddy said. “We found nothing in here so we’ll head there now.”
“Sure?” Saint asked, and Teddy hummed in confirmation before cutting the call.
“I guess we’re going to Harrow,” Teddy said, and Wren nodded, casting one last glance at the animals in the store before following Teddy out, closing the door, and locking it back up.
They piled back into the car, Teddy glancing around himself before pulling out of the street and driving off.
Apparently the presence of the police had warned Kellan off, because as far as Teddy could tell he was absent, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that that was somehow worse than having him tail them. At least that way he knew exactly where he was and when he would strike.
He could be prepared. What for, he wasn’t entirely sure. But the empty space behind his car and the silence of his phone made his already frayed nerves even worse.
“Settle down,” he heard Wren say as a small hand landed on his own and gave it a gentle press against his thigh.
The storm inside Teddy immediately quieted down, mellowing enough for his mind to focus again.