Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
C ody knew he shouldn’t be drinking coffee after eight in the evening, but it tasted surprisingly good. And it injected a little zing into his system, which he absolutely needed as he sat listening to Otis talk about golf. The caffeine would most likely keep him up late, but right now it was helping him act interested.
He liked Otis quite a bit. More than he liked a lot of other people. But he could only think of so many encouraging responses to a stroke by stroke breakdown of Otis’s latest game.
As he half-listened to Otis rhapsodizing about something called an albatross, Cody’s attention shifted to a spot over Otis’s shoulder. Zenona Baldwin stepped into his line of sight, carrying a tray toward the register. She looked good, of course. Her dark hair was up in a precise knot on the back of her head. Her back was straight and expression serious. She was pale, but maybe that was a washout brought on by the bright white of her lab coat.
“She’s a looker.”
Otis’s words brought Cody out of his thoughts. “What?”
“Dr. Baldwin.” Otis tipped his head slightly in her direction. “You had a thing with her before you and Demetrius got together, right?”
Cody sat back, flustered at the heat in his cheeks. “Yeah, Zenona and I dated a few times over the years.”
“Why didn’t it work out?”
“Have you met me?” Cody said, startled by Zenona coming up to their table. “Hi there, Doc.”
“Hi.” Zenona fixed him with a serious look. “Is Demetrius okay?”
Cody had been studying her expression, noting she appeared even more serious and intense than usual, so her question surprised him. Was Demmy okay? Had something happened in the ER while he and Otis had been in the cafeteria? A vision of some nightmarish creature tearing through the ER, claws and fangs ripping and slashing. Or a flock of bats getting in through the doors and swarming the ER, biting and scratching and causing havoc. Adrenaline flooded his system and his heart pounded. Sweat slicked his back and armpits.
“Demmy?” He pushed back his chair and put a hand flat on the table, ready to push to his feet. “Why? What’s happened?”
“I don’t know. Why are you here at the hospital?”
“Oh.” Cody slumped back down. His heart started to slow, but it still beat faster than normal. He hated being so quick to jump to the worst conclusion over a simple question. Monster PTSD anyone?
“We’re here for Amelia,” Otis said. “She was in a car accident.”
“Oh, no. Is she okay?” Zenona stepped in a little closer to Otis. “Are you okay?”
“We’re both fine,” Otis assured her. “Amelia was driving by herself.” He glanced at Cody. “She, um, got distracted and went off the road. She’s a little bumped and bruised, but the doctor thinks she’ll be okay.”
“That’s good. Which doctor is seeing her?” Zenona looked between them. Cody noticed her fingers had tightened so much on the edges of the tray they’d gone white.
“I don’t know, I wasn’t allowed back.” Cody looked at Otis. “Do you remember the doctor’s name?”
“I don’t, I’m sorry. He’s a young man with dark, sort of curly hair.”
“Might be Dr. Manner,” Zenona said with a single nod. “He’s good.”
Behind Zenona, Dr. Graham, the medical examiner they’d talked with during the water sprite shape-shifter killings earlier that year stepped up to the register. Cody still didn’t know what to think about him. He was pale, which made sense since he worked in the basement morgue, and his face was made up of sharp angles with a thin, pointy nose and a narrow, pointed chin. He had a British accent that made him sound even smarter when he talked about all the trauma that had been inflicted on a body.
Zenona looked over her shoulder. She nodded to Dr. Graham, and then looked back at Cody. In a lower voice, she said, “Are you guys working on anything?”
Cody frowned. “If you mean water main breaks and scraping up roadkill, then yeah.”
“Nothing else?”
Tension thrummed through Cody. “No. Nothing else.” He could hear the definitive and I don’t want us to be in his tone.
“Okay.” She gave a single nod then looked at Otis. “I hope Amelia can be released soon. Let me know if either of you have any questions.”
“Thanks, Dr. Baldwin, we will,” Otis said.
They watched her walk away, then Otis asked, “Who’s she sitting with?”
“Dr. Graham. He’s a new medical examiner.”
Otis looked at him. “We have a medical examiner now?”
“We do. Care to guess why?”
Otis shivered slightly, and Cody figured he was remembering being held hostage by Nicolae, the alpha werewolf. Everyone in Parson’s Hollow had been touched in one way or another by some kind of monster, yet, no one talked about it openly. And he and Demmy had lost their business over it.
Nothing was fair when it came to monsters and animal control, it seemed.
Demmy walked into the cafeteria, and Cody signaled to him. A warm swell of love rose within him as he watched Demmy approach. All the years between them had built into something Cody had never been able to imagine for himself. He’d never felt worthy or smart enough for what they had. He’d never heard the call of it, felt the burning need to have someone with him as much and as close as possible. Not until he’d paid attention to what was going on inside him whenever he was with Demmy.
And now here they were. Together. And even through all the monster bullshit, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“How’s she doing?” Otis asked, pushing to his feet.
“She’s doing well.” Demmy pulled out the chair beside Cody and sat. “The doctor took the neck brace off, so she’s a lot happier.”
“Oh, that’s a good sign.” Otis took up his coffee. “I think I’ll go check in on her now that you’re here.”
“They may be releasing her tonight,” Demmy said. “If they do before I come back again, just send me a text and let me know.”
“I will.” Otis smiled. “We’re both so lucky to have you two. Thank you for being here.”
Cody slid his coffee over toward Demmy and returned Otis’s smile. “We wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
He watched Otis hurry off. Demmy took a sip of the coffee and pushed it back to him.
“Thanks.”
“Figured you could use a little juice.”
“Yeah, a bit.” He blew out a breath and scrubbed his hands up and down his face. “Crazy day.”
“These old folks are a lot of work, aren’t they?”
That earned him a tired grin. “They really are.” He chewed his lower lip a moment and stared at his hands on the table before him.
Cody kept quiet and looked at his phone. He knew the signs. Demmy wasn’t sure how to bring up something on his mind, and Cody bet it had something to do with Amelia’s accident. He wondered if a tornado of bats had caused her to go off the road. Or something big that had brought down a full grown deer with no effort.
Against his better judgment, he asked, “Anything you want to tell me?”
Demmy groaned and put his head on his arms. “Why do you know me so well?”
Cody leaned down and whispered. “Years and years of study.” He blew gently into his ear. “And fucking your brains out on the regular.”
Head still down, Demmy whispered quietly toward the table, “Jesus Christ.”
Cody sat back up and grinned as he sipped his coffee. Some days, he enjoyed being himself.
Demmy lifted his head, but avoided looking at him. “You’re a very evil man.”
“And yet you fell head over heels in love with me.”
“Because I’m very susceptible to evil.”
“You’re welcome.” Cody took another sip of coffee. He would need to lead Demmy to it, apparently. Sometimes it was best to get Demmy talking about things from the beginning.
“Amelia tell you what happened?”
“Yeah.” Demmy finally looked at him, and Cody was struck by his expression. He looked tired, practically depleted, which he could understand given their location and the circumstances. But a touch of sadness lingered there as well.
“Do I not want to know?”
“Probably not. She thought she saw someone she knew standing in the road and swerved to avoid her.”
Something low in Cody’s belly tightened. He’d had a car accident similar to that not long ago, though he’d actually hit the person. And that person had turned out to be the reanimated corpse of their recently departed mayor.
The familiar anxiety started up: racing thoughts, heart rate accelerating, muscles tightening. This part of him had been quiet for a time, ever since they’d put the nix down, but it was starting up again, just like it did the night before when the bats had descended on him. He knew it was best not to know, that knowing would disrupt the quiet and peaceful—and, yes, boring—day to day routine they’d established.
But people he loved had been affected, and Cody was definitely not going to let that slide, no matter if the perpetrators were human or monster.
“Does she know why this woman was standing in the road?” Cody asked, leading the way to an answer half of him wanted to avoid and the other half needed to hear.
“No. Because…” Demmy took a breath and slowly let it out. “This woman had died last week.”