Paragon - Chapter 10: Chapter 10

I expected a mundane route to her apartment. Perhaps an emergency with a client. What I did not expect was the route her car took very deliberately to the deep East end. Most of the city's drug gangs were located here for the proximity to the financial district in Canary Wharf.
So what in every hell was Quinn Adams doing here?
We travelled for some time until even the traffic started getting sparse and the houses more closely crammed on top and next to each other. More corner shops without licenses and chicken shops past us as we tailed the silver car at a distance.
A brick bridge above held the overground trains that passed every few minutes. Her car pulled up under one of its arches.
"Pull over." I said simply, watching Quinn draw out of the car in a dark hood and not the pristine suit I was used to. I frowned hard. Why would someone of such good stature possibly involve herself with the underworld like this–
She hefted a thick duffle bag over one shoulder as she shut the car door. I opened my own and pulled up my overcoat collar.
"Keep the car running. I will call if anything." I shut the door without waiting for an answer.
I crossed the road silently, while the red of the traffic lights bled onto the empty roads. I watched Quinn's black hood as she walked under the arch and her car pulled away. When I rounded the arch I watched her stop outside a metal door and hit a buzzer.
The inter comm crackled to life and I stopped under the shadows to listen.
"Yeah?"
"Jack, it's me. Open up it's freezing." She answered steadily like she had been here many a time.
I checked my phone and gun still in place within my jacket. Hopefully it would not come to such things... The door clanked once and then opened to her. She walked in at ease and it shut heavily behind her.
I weighed my options here. Calling for assistance without reasonable evidence was out of the question–tailing a civilian alone was pushing the limits. I could break the door without half a thought but that would be yet another charge of breaking and entering which is harder to explain. I sighed through my nose and stayed with a shadowed pillar watching the entrance.
Staking out the area would have to do for now–
A large man with a shaven head and a similar duffle bag strode loudly over to the door in the next moment. I could hear his aggressive music from the can headphones covering his ears. Perhaps I wouldn't need to wait.
I slipped silently closer.
He punched a finger into the inter comm as Quinn had. A similar conversation took place before the door opened heavily. He stepped in and I moved quickly. Crossing the cobble rapidly and catching the door to slip in right after.
The man with the music was already descending a set of metal steps lit by strange purple lighting. But the more striking thing was the steady beat of loud music muffled by walls. I waited for him to reach the bottom before moving more quickly. When he pulled the door at the bottom back, a thick beat entered the staircase.
My eyes narrowed. I had been in similar raids before. The more at home they feel is usually for a reason. I pressed myself against the door contemplating how I would explain this if I had just walked in on one of the hubs for the East end drug rings. Then again I would walk away either way.
I pushed it open and the music surrounded me. Then I saw them.
"TWO, THREE, FOUR!"
Cross trainers. Cycle bikes. It was a god damn gym.
I stared openly at the neon lit room as men and women listened to the instructor shout orders to the heavy beat of music. I cursed loudly–lost to the music anyway.
Others were punching heavy bags or lifting weights.
"CHANGE STATION!" The instructor bellowed as everyone left their equipment and rushed to the next machine. I sighed through my nose and turned back to the door quickly opening it and stepping out. I took the stairs two at a time almost out of the complete joke–
"Fletcher?" A painfully familiar voice asked from the bottom of the stairs.
My blood froze into a solid piece of rock. I lowered my foot slowly and turned back to the lawyer who had a towel over her shoulder and a question in her eyes.
"There's no chance you'd believe this is a coincidence right?"
She crossed her arms in a black tank top and sports leggings as she shook her head. "What are you following me now?"
"In my defence, you started it."
She snorted. "I didn't realise it was a competition."
"It's not–there was a case–look you were heading into a very shady–"
"Gym?" She finished for me. "Yeah, this is the only decent crossfit I've been to. They're private." She finished like it was the most obvious thing in the world. In all honesty I had no idea what this crossfit was.
"Look, I didn't mean to pursue you like this–I think I'm a bit too wrapped up on a case I'm working in the East." I supplied, shifting my weight between my feet.
She watched me a few moments more before shrugging with a smirk. "If you wanted a gym partner you could have asked."
"That's definitely not–"
"Oh c'mon detective, try something else outside of work."
I took a measured breath before answering. "I'm not dressed for it."
She glanced at me with a wide grin. "No, but you can sit in on this one and learn for next time."
"Quinn I don't do–"
"Fitness? I guessed. But it's not about that it's fun."
I scoffed. What does that mean. She guessed? I could throw a car around like a toy tricycle. Swim nonstop to Europe if I really wanted but this mortal–
"Either you come down here and watch how its done or you'll have a lawsuit for harassment on your desk by tomorrow." She said innocently as she turned and opened the door again.
"That's blackmail!" I called back with a small amount of humour running into my voice. My blood felt more charged again. And that scent...
I clenched my fist as the door shut behind her. Walk away. Walk away and do not look back. Burn the card. Stay away from the mortal with the desirable blood and face and hips–I growled low. I quickly pulled out my phone and text my driver not to wait. Then took the steps far more slowly than the way I had come up.
I pulled the door open and the instructor was already screaming at them again. I quickly found Quinn and watched her hop onto a metal bike and pedal with the others. I leant against the wall so I wouldn't have to smell the blood of a room full of mortals anymore than necessary. In fact I stopped breathing for a long time.
She glanced over at me under the purple and blue lights with a grin. It made her white teeth stand out and her striking eyes take on a light blue. I tried to return the smile but I think I just stared. Watching the way her skin had begun to glisten from the exertion. The strands of her dark hair that came loose from the ponytail and stuck to her face.
I crossed my hands in front of me and squeezed. Surely the mortals wouldn't last much longer at this pace. I just had to keep my wits and the breath out of my lungs. Or the entire room was at risk because of a certain powerful scent.
How did I always get myself involved in such situations.
* * * * *
"So, detective." Quinn called, waltzing over to my position at the wall confidently. "What did you think?"
I dragged my eyes quickly off her spandex hips. Meeting her bright eyes that seemed blue in this light.
"I think paying for that kind of torture says a lot about you." I answered calmly with a small smirk.
She grinned brightly, dabbing her glistening skin with a towel around her neck. Her headphones hung from them and I had a hard time resisting the urge to drink a breath of air. It would only be filled with her.
"So you'll join us tomorrow then?" She responded easily.
"No." I said flatly, filling my coat pockets with my hands and trying to steady my dark blood.
She smiled like I had given the opposite response. "Great, starts at 8pm."
I frowned at the stubborn mortal. Another question rising to the surface.
"How exactly are you able to work out after those drinks earlier?"
This time she threw me a conspirator's look. She pulled out her bottle of water taking a deep drink and making me watch the way her throat moved... the blood so close to the surface after the pounding beat of her heart—
"I had one drink. The ones after that were just tonic." She responded easily. "I don't normally drink much. I have too many cases to focus on."
This surprised me. Her dedication and self control. It was not a common thing in someone her age at all. This woman kept surprising me and I didn't like it a single bit. If it wasn't for that damn scent I would have questioned if she was mortal at all.
"You look so shocked that you're not the only who commits." She said over the bottle with a dark look in her eyes. Perhaps it was my imagination.
I cleared my throat and cast my eyes at the other humans packing up and lowering the music volume. I decided on a less dangerous answer.
"So you come here every night?"
She nodded in the corner of my vision, throwing a hoodie over her head and thankfully hiding that shining skin. "When work allows it. Classes like this are twice a week. I use the gym for the rest of the week."
"So you want me to join you because..." I ventured with humour in my voice.
She shrugged, pulling her bag over her shoulder and hiding her face under a hood again. Her green eyes burned beneath. "I could use a spotter. You seem like the silent brooding type that wouldn't need to chat while they work."
This made me chuckle in shock. Weren't these mortals all here for socialisation?
"What?"
"You just seem to keep surprising me." I answered honestly. "And you don't seem to need anyone. Especially in here."
Not to mention that she was actively seeking more of my presence. I had to wonder what it was in me that intrigued her. What drove the urge to find that bar. Find my station...
This made her smile under the hood and nod. "I've been told that a lot. But it's alright Fletcher." She chuckled. "I can tell you don't want—"
"I'll be there." I cut in, crossing my arms and appraising her. Before she got to excited I added. "I'll spot you for weight training if you need but don't expect me to start throwing those things around." I said eyeing the bars and dumbbells at the far side of the large matted area.
She grinned brightly again and I quickly found myself and blood spiking when she did that in a disturbing way. A sort of shot to the system.
"I wouldn't expect you to. Especially since you're sitting in a chair most of the day."
My mouth opened slightly at her audacity and she turned without warning to the exit. I moved from the wall to keep up with her long stride.
"Excuse me, Miss Adams. The force does require levels of fitness too." I implored, potentially covering myself if I showed too much strength.
"Sure they do detective." She said over her shoulder as we climbed the stairs.
She held the door for me at the top as I shook my head and kept my eyes firmly on anywhere but her body. That was adequately trained.
I sighed. Letting it drop, it was not in my interest to let myself seem less human anyway. Mundane. Normal. That was an image I needed.
"Can I call you a cab?" I asked after a moment of glancing into the dark street.
"Thank you. But my driver will pick me up." She returned under the hood as she glanced under the archway. A trained rattled on overhead us.
It didn't surprise me she too, had a personal driver. A high spec lawyer in the business district. It comforted me that she wouldn't get in a car with a stranger. Something I shouldn't feel at all.
"What about you?" She asked, unsure of where to place her hands as we talked in the cold.
"I'll grab a cab." I lied with a nod. "Don't wait on my account—it's too cold out."
She watched my face for a moment more with a nod. "Yeah. Of course, well I'll see you... tomorrow." She finished with no small amount of hesitation.
It seemed like all of her bravado had frozen in the air. Away from her familiar gym and in the dark with an immortal. Not that she knew why she felt natural fear.
I gave her a small smile and took a step back with a nod. "I'll see you tomorrow, Miss Adams—"
"Please stop calling me that." She complained. "I feel like I'm talking to my CEO."
I chuckled again and she smiled pulling on the chords of her hoodie. It was dangerously cute.
"Goodnight, Quinn." I conceded, turning away as I did.
"Goodnight, Fletcher." She answered my back as I walked into the night, drawing up my collar into a cold I didn't feel. But I felt something else. A spike. A flame of something curious and almost anxious. A meeting to look towards. A mortal to think on.