Chapter 2 #3
She leaned in close, her attention on the scratches across his chest. He took the opportunity to study her.
Zenona’s cheekbones were more sharply defined, but the skin of her face appeared softer and smoother, especially around her eyes.
Even when she squinted slightly as she palpated the skin around his wounds, the lines didn’t cut as deep as he remembered.
Zenona must have stepped up her skin care routine.
“We saw you out driving late last night,” he said.
A subtle shift in expression as her forehead furrowed, and her brows came together. “Oh?”
“Yeah. We were checking out an abandoned house for a client and found a zombie.”
She straightened up and stepped back. “Zombie? Again?”
“He was in pretty rough shape, even for a zombie, so we’re pretty sure he’d been wandering around the woods since last year.”
“How awful. Well, it’s good you took care of him.” She turned away as she removed her gloves. “Do you get a lot of calls about stuff like that?”
“That was only the second one. The first one was a guy who thought a werewolf was living in the woods by his house. We went out during a full moon but didn’t see anything.”
“Well, it’s good of you both to keep checking things like that out.” She glanced over her shoulder as she rubbed sanitizer onto her hands. “Where did you see me?”
Cody pulled his shirt on. “Driving back into town along 118. We dropped the zombie off at Eternal Rest and saw you zip past.” He cocked an eyebrow as he ran a hand through his hair, trying to get it to lay down again. “You were going pretty fast.”
She blushed. “I’d been out for drinks with friends in Harriettville and was trying to get home to bed because I had an early shift today.”
“Yeah, I’ve been there.” He slid off the bed but leaned against it, crossing his arms. “So, how’ve you been?”
“I’ve been well.” She frowned. “Why?”
“No reason. I’m just checking in on a friend. We all went through a lot at Halloween—you more than the rest of us, what with losing Michael and all.” It sounded awkward and rushed, and he immediately hated how he’d worded it.
“Well, yeah, sure. He was a good man.” She glanced at the curtain covering the entry and lowered her voice. “Vampire. But deep down, a good man.”
“Hell of a coroner,” Cody said, trying to think of a way to lighten his previous statement. “Guess he would be, with so many years of experience.” He flushed as he heard how it sounded. “Not that he caused many of the deaths he saw, because I know he wasn’t a…he didn’t go for human—”
“I get it,” Zenona said, holding up her hand. “You can stop.”
“Thank God.”
They smiled at each other, then Zenona asked, “How do your bites feel?”
“Zombie or vampire?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “A response I never expected to hear from a patient when I was in med school.”
“Seeing as how I’m more than a patient—”
“All right, now. That’s ancient history.”
“Oh, I know.”
“And you’re married.”
“I am, very happily married. But you and I have been friends a long time.”
She sighed. “So long.”
“Hey,” he protested gently.
She laughed. “No, I didn’t mean anything bad by that. Just that we’re both on the cusp of forty.”
“Yeah. Don’t say it too loud, you may get its attention.”
They shared another smile, then she let out a breath and put her hands on her hips, the movement pushing back her white coat.
Her hip bones jutted out within her slacks, and her waist had narrowed enough for him to notice even though they hadn’t seen much of each other since Dave and Ollie’s wedding. “How do the bites on your neck feel?”
Cody ran his fingers across the tiny puckered scars.
A small knot of anxiety and something more, something darker, that had set up house in the center of his chest when he wasn’t looking, wrung itself a little tighter.
“They’re okay. Don’t feel or think about them unless I catch sight of them in a mirror or someone asks. ”
Zenona ran a hand up and down one arm. She stared at a point just over his left shoulder and her smile slipped a bit. “Yeah. I get that.” She looked at his face and away again. “Any other spooky calls from clients?”
“Nope, just the one. Zombie kind of caught us off guard. We weren’t really expecting it.”
“Oh? What did you think it was?”
He shrugged quickly. “Who can tell around here? Demmy and I both have bins in our trucks with stuff to cover a wide range.”
“Like what?”
“Silver crosses, which could help against vampires and werewolves. Wooden stakes, which I used to take out the zombie last night.”
She made a face. “You stabbed it in the head?”
“Didn’t really have a choice. It had grabbed Demmy and was trying to take a bite out of him.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah.” He widened his eyes, hoping to pull off a more comic expression than how he really felt about seeing Demmy that close to being taken away from him. Again.
“God, how much longer are we going to be finding zombies in random places?” she asked.
“Good question. Did the city’s emergency response team ever get a final count of disturbed graves from the cemetery?”
“Oh. I’m not sure. That would probably be a better question for Lucia.”
Cody made a face and waved a hand. “Never mind.”
She laughed, and for a moment she seemed like the Zenona he remembered from before the werewolves and vampires and other horrors.
A gentle ache opened inside him like a fresh wound.
He missed the carefree woman Zenona had once been.
The confident and caring woman who was quick to laugh, the sound bright and almost musical.
“The two of you are getting along better,” she said, “don’t give me that.”
“I know, it’s true. But sometimes that’s because we avoid each other as much as possible.”
A woman outside the curtain said, “Knock, knock.”
“Yes, Brynn?” Zenona said.
A nurse stuck her head through the curtain, flashing an apologetic smile at Cody. “Sorry to interrupt, Dr. Baldwin, but your next follow-up is here.”
“Thank you. I’ll be right there.”
The nurse nodded once to Cody before leaving, and the curtain whispered back into place.
Zenona shrugged. “Duty calls.”
“Lots of follow-ups, huh?”
“Just somebody who came into the ED who I wanted to see again to check on progress.” She took his hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “It’s good to see you, Cody. Despite the injuries, you seem to be doing well. I’m glad.”
“Yeah, you too.”
She pulled back the curtain and he followed her out of the space. “I mean it, Doc. You look really good. Not that you don’t always look amazing, which is not how women should be judged, or, um, observed, or anything like that. But you do look good.”
Zenona laughed softly and shook her head. “I know what you mean, you big goof. And thank you. I have good days and bad days, but there are more good ones now than bad.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
She stopped outside another curtained area. Reaching up to give his shoulder a squeeze, she said, “Take care of yourself. And give my best to Demetrius, please.”
“You take care as well. Remember, you can call us if you need to talk.”
Another quick smile, though this one was fainter and more fleeting than the others. “I know. Thank you.”
She pulled back the curtain and stepped inside, greeting a woman by name. Cody caught a glimpse of the woman through the door as it slowly closed. Long, straight dark hair hanging limp around a washed out face and dark circles under her eyes. Talk about the living dead.
He put his mask back on for the walk to the exit, moving quickly past the coughers and sneezers still waiting.
Once he hit the main hallway, he peeled it off, snapped both ear straps—hopefully saving some bird or otter’s life later—and dropped it in a trash can.
Maybe Demmy would already be home when he arrived.
They’d talked about dinner at Antonio’s last night, so Cody thought he might be able to talk him into splurging a bit.
The thought got him walking a bit faster as he grinned.