Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“ A nother one?” Cody stood by the front desk of Parson’s Pines convalescent home and watched the attendants wheel a body bag past.
“It comes with the territory, unfortunately.”
The woman behind the desk was older, brown hair streaked with silver and a veil of exhaustion over her expression.
“Just seems to be a lot more of them lately,” Cody said.
“Tends to happen that way.”
“The bodies go to the medical examiner?”
She shook her head. “Not unless there’s signs of trauma. They go right to whichever funeral home they’ve arranged for. Or if they haven’t made arrangements, they go to Lawson and Brannon.”
“Really? That’s interesting.”
She frowned. “Not sure I’d go so far as to call it interesting, but okay.”
“So, you don’t usually find out cause of death, do you?”
Her eyebrows went up slightly. “Have you seen the average age of the people in the halls?”
“Yeah, all right.” He looked out the doors to where the attendants were loading the stretcher into a van that had been converted to accept it. There was no way he was going to watch his grandmother’s body be loaded into one of those vans. Not yet.
“Anything else you need?”
Cody looked back at the woman. He hadn’t seen her around before, so she had to be new. Health care had a lot of turnover, especially when working with seniors. And especially when working in Parson’s Hollow.
“No, thanks. I’m Cody, Felicia Bower’s grandson.”
Her expression brightened. “I was in with Felicia this morning. I helped her out of bed and into her clothes. She said she saw you yesterday.”
Cody shook his head with a sad smile. “I wasn’t able to come out yesterday. It’s been a few days, actually. Maybe it was my brother, Dave.”
“Maybe. Either way, I could tell she loves you the way she was talking. It’s nice you visit her so often. Is she really going to be a hundred years old this year?”
“Next month, yep.”
“Amazing.”
“It is. She’s seen some things.”
The woman snorted quietly. “Haven’t we all?”
He had to give her that one. “What’s your name?”
“Brenda.”
“Nice meeting you, Brenda.”
“Same here.”
Cody smiled before heading off down the hall. As he walked, his smile fell away, and his thoughts turned darker. Too many deaths had been happening around Parson’s Pines lately. And he also knew this vampire was to blame. Also, Jesus Christ, he couldn’t believe he was thinking about vampires without tying them to some kind of book or movie. How had this become his life?
Correction, his and Demmy’s life together.
That thought sent an arrow into his heart, and he paused outside his grandmother’s door. Monster hunting wasn’t everything that bound them together. Before all of the creature craziness had invaded their lives, they’d had a strong friendship. The monster cases hadn’t brought out the love between them; it had always been there. Cody knew that as surely as he knew anything. It had taken the dangerous situations they stumbled on to make him realize who he wanted beside him when shit went down. And that person had always been, and always would be, Demmy.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, but Demmy hadn’t called or texted. Giving himself a minute to think, he sent Demmy a quick text and hoped it conveyed everything he was feeling.
I don’t want to lose you, to lose us. I’m sorry, again. I want to talk about us, but I also want to talk about how to find Zenona. When you’re ready. I love you.
It would have to do. He tapped send and jammed the phone back in his pocket. Stepping into Felicia’s doorway, he saw the orange light of the setting sun gleam along the small cross hanging just beyond the frame. Her bed and chair were empty, and he stepped inside to look into the tiny bathroom. No sign of Felicia.
Telling himself not to panic, he searched the room. Her Rollator walker was missing. She had gone on a walk, that was all. He recalled finding her sitting by that side entrance when he and Dave had come to visit. Good God, had that been less than a week ago? It felt like something that had happened last year.
Cody stepped out into the hall and nearly ran into an old woman leaning over her own Rollator. The woman startled and took a staggering step to the side. He moved quickly to take her arm and keep her from falling over.
“You gave me a scare,” the woman said, rolling her eyes up to try and see his face. She was bent nearly in half by osteoporosis, and wasn’t quite able to meet his gaze.
He crouched down in front of her and smiled. “Sorry about that. I need to be more careful when stepping into the hall. You okay?”
She scowled at him. “I’m fine. Now move, can’t you see I’m trying to get to my room? It’s almost dark.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Cody stood and stepped aside. “Do they shut the lights off when the sun goes down?”
“No, the other people come back. You’d best get out of sight.” The woman moved off, shaking her head and muttering to herself.
A chill ran through him, like something with cold, dead hands touching his spine. He started walking, looking into the rooms on his right as he went, watching the last of the light fade from the sky through the windows of each residence. It got dark so fast these last days of October. He increased his pace, careful to stay in the center of the hall and avoid running into anyone exiting a residence. The hallway intersection seemed to stretch farther away with each step he took.
When he finally rounded the corner, he saw his grandmother standing by the door. She was turned in profile and looking out the door’s window as she reached for the push bar. Someone’s pale face was visible beyond the glass, the mouth curved up into a terrible smile of psychotic glee, red eyes wide and gleaming with a feverish excitement as it watched Felicia push the bar.
“Of course you can come in, Cody,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Grandma, no!”
But Cody was too late. The clunking sound of the push bar engaging reached him even as he ran forward, hand stretched out. She staggered a bit as the door was wrenched open and out of her hands. An elderly man stood just over the threshold. Malice shone in his eyes, and he dug his fingernails into the metal door with a terrible screech. Cody recognized him as one of the men who had lived in Parson’s Pines until very recently.
“Let me give you a kiss, Grandma,” the man said.
“Get out!” Cody shouted.
The man’s manic expression clouded with rage. “You have no right to cast me out. She invited me in.”
Felicia had moved away from the door and now looked at him with a confused expression. “Cody?”
“Stay back, Grandma. He’s a bad man.”
Cody brought his hand up and thrust out the silver cross he’d grabbed when leaving Felicia’s room. The overhead lights flashed off the cross, and the monster at the door hissed and lifted a hand.
“Get out and stay out.”
“You’ll pay for this.”
Cody saw a blur of motion before the door slowly swung closed. Relaxing a bit, he lowered his arm and looked at his grandmother.
“You okay?” Cody asked, slowly approaching her.
“Was that my grandson?” Felicia looked toward the door. “Did you send my grandson away?”
“No, Grandma. He was a bad man pretending to be me. I’m Cody. I’m your grandson.”
“You are?”
“I am. And you’re safe. Let’s get you back to your room.”
As he walked down the hall alongside her, Cody’s heart clutched at the sight of two small red scabs on the underside of her right wrist. She’d already been bitten, and not on the neck where people might ask about it, but on her wrist. Dammit, how could he have let this happen? And how many times had she been bitten? Anger burned through him, a flash fire that burned away thoughts of caution and reluctance to get involved.
No way would he see his grandmother turned into a vampire. No fucking way.
After making sure she had taken her nighttime medication and gotten into bed, Cody closed the blinds on her windows and turned on a low wattage lamp across the room. She’d fallen asleep almost immediately, mouth dropping open and head turned away from him toward the window. He really hoped she’d sleep through the night.
Cody hung the cross on the plastic hook once again, then quietly closed the door behind him. No one was at the desk. The nurse on duty was most likely making evening rounds, and he debated waiting around to alert her. But how would he even explain what was going on? Tell them an old man was running around outside the building thinking he’s a vampire and he shouldn’t be let inside? No, he needed to talk to someone who understood that vampires were real, and would be prepared to take action. Someone he loved like family.
He went to the door and it slid aside. Pausing just inside the threshold, he looked out into the parking lot. The pole lights shone circles onto the cars in the lot. He’d parked farther from the doors as usual, and darkness surrounded his truck. Because of course it did.
“Fucking vampires.”
He knew full well it wouldn’t be the last time he said that as he left the relative safety of the building and jogged to his truck. The moon had yet to rise, so the night around him was dark. Crickets and frogs competed for attention, which he took as a good sign no predators lurked nearby. Reaching his truck, he got inside and locked the doors, taking a moment to slow his breathing. First, he would make a stop, then he would find out where Demmy was and get to him. Argument or not, they needed to be together. Cody needed to be with him.
After starting the engine, he switched on the headlights and jumped. An elderly woman stood just off the asphalt surface of the parking lot, squinting into the sudden light and lifting a shaky arm.
“Oh!” she said, then staggered backward a few steps.
“Oh, fucking hell.” Cody reached for the door handle, but stopped. He looked out the windshield at the old woman. She had braced herself against a tree and was staring back at him with a frightened expression. It could be an elaborate trap to get him out of the truck. But she also could have wandered outside as he knew some residents did. If that was the case, she would be an easy target for any vampire that came along.
“Jesus juggling Christ under the big top,” Cody said. “I hope this isn’t the last bad decision I make.”
He shut off the engine and, leaving the headlights on, opened the door. The woman watched him, adjusting her position slightly to keep from falling over. She wore a white cardigan over a long-sleeved blouse and polyester pull-up pants. The headlights flashed in the lenses of her glasses and picked out a few pine needles that had gotten stuck in the cottony puff of her white hair.
“Hi there,” Cody said, as calm and soothing as he could manage. Fear burned along every nerve inside him, but he tried to tamp it down. “I’m Cody. I’m Felicia’s grandson. Do you know Felicia?”
“Who?” the woman said. “You’re Daniel?”
Cody switched tactics, grasping the name she recognized. “Do you know Daniel?” He took a cautious step toward her. When she nodded, he smiled. “That’s me. Can I get you back inside the building? It’s dark outside now—time for you to be in bed.”
“I saw Daniel,” she said, looking away from him and out into the deeper darkness of the copse of trees. “He asked me to meet him here.”
“You know what? He told me he wasn’t going to make it tonight. Let me help you back inside.”
Sending out a prayer to whatever guardian angel he’d working overtime the last few years, Cody stepped off the hard surface of the parking lot onto the soft layer of old pine needles. A pine cone crunched under his boot, the sound like breaking bone. He licked his lips and swallowed the little spit he had left in his mouth as he approached her. The woman stood in place, one hand on the trunk of a tree and her eyes wide as she watched him approach.
When he was close enough, Cody looked around. Nothing else moved within the trees. He checked behind him, squinting a bit in the shine of the headlights. Only cars and trucks in the parking lot. Turning back to the woman, he jumped slightly when he found her standing right in front of him.
“Oh, shit!”
He took a couple of steps back, but stopped when he realized she had been reaching for him to steady her. Correcting his course, he grabbed her arm a moment before she would have fallen forward.
“Have you got me?” she asked in a wobbly voice.
“Yeah, I’ve got you. You’re okay.” Cody began leading her back to the parking lot. “You’re not going to bite me, are you?”
“I wouldn’t think so.” Her voice shook, and he could feel her arm trembling in his grip.
“That’s a relief.”
It took a long time for him to help her shuffle across the parking lot to the doors. Inside, the nurse was just returning to her desk, and she looked up in surprise.
“Roberta! Where did you go?” the nurse said, hurrying out from behind the desk.
“I was looking for Daniel. He told me to meet him outside.”
“Oh my goodness.” The nurse took her arm from Cody and gave him a tight smile. “Thank you.”
“Is Daniel her husband?” Cody asked.
“No, another resident. But they were kind of sweet on each other. He passed last week, unfortunately. Oh, what’s this?” The nurse gently turned Roberta’s arm and pushed up her sleeve. Two small wounds had scabbed over on her bony wrist. “Roberta, what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Roberta said, looking at them both with watery eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Cody gently touched her shoulder. “It’s all right. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Except go outside at night, which you know better about. Come on, let’s get this looked at and then get you into bed.” The nurse smiled at Cody. “Thank you again.”
“You’re welcome.” He gestured toward the doors. “Any way to lock that?”
“Lock it? Oh, no. It’s against fire code. But the sensor outside stops working at nine. Any visitors after that have to buzz to be let in.”
“Okay, that’s good. Maybe be extra vigilant tonight. That wound on her wrist looks like a bite mark. I think someone is hanging out around the building and biting people.”
“Biting people?” The nurse made a face. “Like a vampire?”
“Hey, weirder things have happened here,” Cody said.
She paled slightly. Apparently she’d heard the stories about old man Kelmer who had been a werewolf. “That’s a good point. I’ll tell the other nurses, too.”
“Please do. And my grandmother is Felicia Bower. I found her down by that side entrance about to let a stranger into the building. I didn’t get a good look at him, but you should definitely be alert.”
“I will. Thank you.”
“I’m tired,” Roberta said.
“Okay, let’s get you back to your room. Come on.”
Cody watched them go, then he went to the door and hesitated only slightly at the threshold before striding quickly across the parking lot to his truck. He got in, started the engine, and headed for Amelia and Otis’s condo. He would wait to call Demmy until he’d been able to check on them.