Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
C ody had almost gotten his hands free of the duct tape when the door at the top of the stairs banged open. The sound made all of them jump as Xavier stomped. His wings were folded against his back, and part of his face was blackened. Tendrils of smoke curled from the crisped skin, and Cody couldn’t suppress his smile.
Demmy was fighting back. Fighting for him.
“Looks like you need a higher SPF on your sunscreen,” Cody said. “Or would that be moonscreen?”
Xavier strode up and backhanded him. It was a hard hit, toppling Cody to his right. He landed heavily on the concrete floor. A buzzing started inside his brain, and pain burned along the side of his head and down into his neck.
“Your precious partner won’t last the night,” Xavier shouted down at him. “And before I gut him alive, I’ll show him your skinned and broken body so he knows how much you suffered.”
“Leave him alone!” Zenona shouted. “You’ve lost, can’t you see that? Look at what a shambles your entire plan has become. You killed your own son, someone you’ve been with for hundreds of years. It’s all slipping out of your control now.”
Cody tasted blood in his mouth and felt it running down the side of his face. With effort, he raised his head and smiled at Xavier. “You may have done this in other small towns, but they didn’t have the Critter Catchers. You’re toast.”
Xavier snarled and reached for Cody, but stopped. He cocked his head and looked toward the door at the top of the stairs. It took a minute for Cody to focus enough over the buzzing in his head to hear what had caught Xavier’s attention. Somewhere upstairs, somewhere close, actually, someone was singing in a high-pitched warble. From what he could tell, it was a Christian song, the singer shrieking intently about her love of God. His heart pounded as a surge of hope and love ran through him.
Demmy.
Or—and he really hoped he was wrong about this—Shrieky Pete.
Xavier marched toward the steps, and Cody resumed working to get his hands free. He spit a wad of blood onto the cement floor, twisting his hands behind his back as he watched Xavier climb the stairs. His wings unfurled straight out behind him, quivering and stretching as if preparing for flight. With a quiet gasp of relief, Cody pulled his arm free and let his head thump gently against the concrete. He was exhausted, and his whole body hurt. But he needed to get loose to help Demmy. The Critter Catchers needed to come together to save Parson’s Hollow again.
And not get paid for it.
Again.
Yanking open the door at the top of the stairs, Xavier stomped through and pulled it shut after. But even as he was gasping for breath and psyching himself up to get completely free of the tape, Cody noticed a tiny detail. He hadn’t heard the click of the deadbolt.
“Are you taking a nap?” Lucia snapped. “Come on, Bower. You’ve got one arm free. For fuck’s sake, get us loose.”
“All the people in this town,” Cody grumbled as he fidgeted into a better position and reached around himself to pull at the remaining tape. “And the fucking vampires kidnap me with three of my exes.”
“Just think how we feel,” Tracey said. “All the people in this town, and we’re abducted with the one semi-eligible bachelor who decides in his late twenties he’s gay for the best friend we all knew he should have been with in the first place.”
With a small shout of triumph, Cody tore the remaining duct tape from his other arm, removing hair and another layer of skin in the process. He gave himself to the count of ten to catch his breath, then shifted on the floor to reach for his ankles, taped to the legs of the chair. It was tough to bend over far enough, and he told himself he’d have to start limiting his visits to Marvelous Muffins. In another couple of minutes, he was completely free, and he got slowly to his feet. His head spun, and he dropped to one knee and closed his eyes to get his balance back.
“Hello!” Lucia said in an angry whisper. “Get us free!”
“Got dizzy,” Cody said, then nodded to himself and opened his eyes. “Okay, I’m back online.”
He righted the chair he’d been taped to and braced himself on the back of it a moment before moving behind Lucia. He dropped to one knee again and focused on the tape around her wrists. His fingers, however, couldn’t quite follow his brain’s directions to get Lucia free. He must have lost more blood than he’d thought. The music was still playing outside, and he hoped that meant Demmy was holding his own.
“Demmy’s outside,” Cody informed Lucia as he kept himself going.
“What?” She turned her head to look over her shoulder. “How do you know?”
“He’s playing Shrieky Pete’s boombox strapped to his motorcycle.”
“Who the fuck is Shrieky Pete?” Tracey said.
“I know who he means,” Lucia said. “Pete McMillan. He rides his motorcycle through town and blares Christian music from a Bluetooth boombox.”
“That guy? He’s here?” Zenona looked toward the door at the top of the stairs. “Is he a vampire, too?”
“He was the guy in the DPW truck who survived the attack out on 118,” Lucia said. “He’s been in the hospital ever since.”
“Oh.”
Cody finally got Lucia’s hands loose enough for her to pull free. He tried to stand, but his legs wouldn’t obey and he went down hard on his ass. The impact sent a rattle up his spine and into his sore neck, unleashing an explosion of pain that nearly made him black out.
“Bower?”
He pried open one eye to see Lucia crouching before him. Giving her a faint smile, he said, “I’m good. Just need a minute. Get them loose.”
It took more than a minute, but eventually his brain seemed to settle back into its rightful place. Although he hated doing it, he accepted assistance from all three women to get to his feet.
“God you’re heavy,” Lucia said.
“And you stink,” Tracey added.
“Love you all, too,” Cody said, gesturing toward the stairs. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Do you have a key?” Zenona asked.
Cody shook his head as they started for the stairs. “Don’t need one. Daddy Vampire forgot to lock the door behind him.”