Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Cody was getting hungry as he waited for Demmy to return to the office. How many groundhogs was he wrangling? To pass the time, he lobbed his football-shaped stress ball to Jugs who sat across the office from him. Jugs tossed it back, and they continued the casual throws as they talked.
“Aggie do anything special last night for your first night without the shock collar?” Cody asked. “Break out the Candyland board?”
“I regret saying that.” Jugs almost fumbled the ball but managed to save it. “She did have something planned, and it almost put me back into a neck brace.”
Cody made a face. “TMI.”
“Hey, if I have to hear you and Demetrius talk all lovey dovey every day—”
“Lovey dovey?” Cody said, getting some good height on his next throw.
“—you can handle me talking about my relationship with Aggie.”
Demmy came through the door behind Cody, followed by a wave of humid air.
“Hi guys,” Demmy said. He squeezed Cody’s shoulder but only glanced at him before ducking beneath Jugs’s lob and heading for the bathroom.
Something felt off. Cody tossed the ball back to Jugs and called after Demmy, “How’d the groundhog treat you?”
“Seriously?” Jugs said. “He’s in the bathroom.”
“You and Aggie don’t talk through the bathroom door?”
“No, Aggie and I are adults who respect boundaries.”
Cody snorted and muttered, “Adults.”
Demmy stepped out of the bathroom and looked at Jugs as he crossed to his desk. “Thanks for that, Jugs.”
“You’re welcome. Everyone should be able to poop in peace.”
Demmy sat at his desk directly across from Cody, but turned to face Jugs. “No, I wasn’t pooping.”
“It’s all right,” Jugs said, softening his eyes and cocking his head slightly as he nodded. “Everybody poops.”
“No, I…” Demmy sighed and waved him off before turning around, cheeks red. But he still didn’t give Cody more than a glance.
Cody remained leaning back, feet propped on his desk, but his senses had shifted to alert mode.
He continued playing catch with Jugs but watched Demmy from the corner of his eye.
They knew each other more intimately than most couples, thanks to the body swapping they endured in the spring courtesy of that dick of a witch.
But long before their wedding and the body swap, before the cryptids and monsters, they’d been friends.
Best friends. And they’d shared everything with each other.
So as he sat there casually tossing the ball to Jugs, Cody knew something was troubling Demmy.
And he had a feeling it was more than likely monster related.
He fumbled the next catch on purpose, cursing as he watched it roll away from him.
“Nice drop, butterfingers.” Jugs got to his feet and pushed in his chair. “I’m heading home.”
“Tell Aggie I said…” Cody paused, putting his feet on the floor and leaning forward in his chair. He rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at Jugs through his lashes, saying in a low, rough voice, “Hey girl, ‘sup?”
Demmy laughed quietly but kept his eyes averted.
Jugs shook his head and walked past him to the door. “I’m not saying that. And don’t ever say that to me again.”
Cody sat up, calling after him, “You could try it yourself, no cost.”
The door thunked closed behind him. Humid air circled for a few seconds then dissipated. Demmy was clicking his mouse and tapping his keyboard, intent on the computer monitor. Cody leaned back again, fingers steepled beneath his chin.
“What’s up?” Cody finally said.
“What?” Demmy glanced at him. “Oh, nothing. Just logging some business expenses before I forget.”
“Uh huh.”
Cody rolled his chair over to the stress ball and picked it up. Then he pushed himself around to Demmy’s side and stopped. With his legs spread wide, he slowly swung back and forth, watching him.
The blush in Demmy’s cheeks darkened, and he looked right at Cody’s crotch before meeting his eyes. “Are you trying to do some kind of cobra dance here or what?”
Cody moved his chair close enough to be able to lean an elbow on the corner of Demmy’s desk. In a low voice he said, “My cobra doesn’t spit venom.”
“Oh my God,” Demmy said in a choked whisper, putting his face in his hands. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Cody inched closer, his elbow sliding along the desk until his left foot was tapping against Demmy’s. “What’s going on over here?”
Demmy went back to staring at the monitor. “I told you. Business expenses.”
“Yeah, I know what you told me, but what’s really going on? What happened? Did Tracey chew you out?”
“No. Nothing like that, I…” Demmy blew out a breath. “Well, yes, she kind of did. But that’s not….” His fingers whitened as he gripped his knees. “Fine. Okay. I went back to that house, the one where the zombie came at me.”
Cody straightened up. Warning alarms were buzzing inside his head, but he told himself to keep it together, to not overreact and just listen. For now.
“By yourself?” He heard the edge in his voice and hated himself for it.
“I was over in that neighborhood, so I stopped by. It was the middle of the afternoon, the sun was up.”
“Zombies don’t mind the sun.” He pressed his lips tight and glanced away then back. “What’d you find?”
“I poked around in that clump of trees behind the house and found a footprint.”
“From the zombie?”
“No, from someone else.” Demmy tapped and swiped at his phone then showed him a photo of the print.
“Huh. Could you tell how fresh it was?”
“No, but if I had to guess, I’d say a couple of days ago.”
“Think they were watching us that night?”
Demmy shrugged. “Maybe.” He looked away again, realigning items on his desk and returning a couple of loose pens to the holder.
“What else did you do?” Cody’s muscles all seemed to freeze at once as he understood in a flash exactly what Demmy was feeling guilty about. He forced himself to stop grinding his teeth and said as evenly and calmly as possible, “You went inside.”
Cody saying it aloud seemed to deflate Demmy. He sagged into his chair and turned slightly to face him. His eyes were wide, the blue almost shimmering.
“I went inside.”
“Demmy…” Cody pushed himself away, shaking his head as he moved around to his own desk. “We’ve talked about this how many times?”
“Nothing happened.” Demmy clasped his hands on his desk. “Nothing really.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I checked all through the house, and it was vacant. But I did find a mattress with dirt on it—”
“For fuck’s sake.” Cody put his hands on the desk, gripping the edge as if trying to keep from flying off the face of the Earth.
“But it was clotted and clumped together with what I’m pretty sure was dried vampire blood.”
“So there are vamps in town. And, what, you think someone staked a vamp in its bed?” Cody said without shouting.
“Right. There were men’s cowboy boots at the foot of the mattress, so I’m assuming it was a man.”
“Yeah, okay.” Cody lifted one shoulder and turned his head, feeling the tug of the scars across his chest and feeling his neck pop. “Anything else?”
“Um, one more thing.” Demmy opened his phone again and held it out toward him. Cody leaned in, squinting at the photo of what looked like marks on a wood door. “I found these marks carved into the door when I left.”
Cody looked closer. When he realized what he was seeing, his heart practically jumped into his throat and he felt a slight wave of dizziness. “What the fuck?” Cody sat back. “Were they there when you went inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think the vamp did it to mark his territory?”
“I don’t know.”
“So, someone may have carved two fangs into the door after you went all Inspector Gadget and poked around inside on your own.”
There was more red in his cheeks now, and Demmy’s lips were a thin line. Cody could practically smell the argument brewing in the air, like ozone before a storm.
“Yes, someone could have used a knife or something to carve those marks in the door while I was inside.” He looked at the photo again, pinching to zoom in. “The wood underneath looks almost white, so they’re fresh cuts.”
“That’s great. That’s really great.”
Demmy looked up, his expression flat and his glare challenging. “I know I shouldn’t have gone inside by myself.”
“Fuck right you shouldn’t have.”
“But now we know for sure a vamp had been roosting there, and someone staked him.”
“And most likely used something sharp to add a little note to the door while you were inside. Alone.”
“I know I should have called you…”
“Absolutely. I would have come over in minutes and gone inside with you.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t mean shit when some zombie or vampire or another goddamn Renfield tears open your throat.”
“Jesus, Cody…”
Cody stood. He pointed down at Demmy. “When we agreed to make these kinds of cases part of our lives, I had one request. Do you remember?”
Demmy squirmed slightly in the chair and couldn’t meet his eyes. “Yes, I remember.”
“What was that request?”
“We don’t take stupid chances, and we communicate about what we’re doing.”
“Exactly. And was that what you did today?”
“Cody, I—”
“Was it what you did today?” Cody heard the ice in his voice and felt it banging around in his gut like icebergs.
Demmy’s expression shifted. His face smoothed out as he locked eyes with Cody, staring him down. “No, it wasn’t. And, you know what’s worse? I didn’t even have stuff from the tackle box with me.”
“What the fuck?” Cody turned in place, hands on his head. “What were you thinking?”
Demmy was on his feet now. His smooth expression had shifted to full-blown anger. “I was thinking if I waited for you, or if I even went to the truck to get the stuff, I would have lost my nerve.”
“So, you were so afraid of going in the house alone, you knew if you didn’t go in at that exact moment, that if you’d taken sixty goddamn seconds to grab something from the tackle box, you wouldn’t have gone.”
Demmy drew in a breath, chest puffed out, hands in fists at his side. “Yes.”
“I…”
Cody didn’t know how to finish. He had no idea what he wanted to say.
It all boiled down to a few important things.
They had to be smarter than the things they were hunting.
They had to work in tandem, as a team. They had to have each other’s backs.
Shaking his head, he stood with his hands at his sides.
“I have no idea what to say. What if there had been more than one vampire inside? Huh? Or another zombie? Hell, someone was probably out there watching you do all of this, and those marks were a warning. Do you realize that? Fuck!”
Sitting again, Cody turned so he was in profile to Demmy, unable at that moment to make eye contact. His heart pounded, and he could feel his pulse in his fingertips as he stared at the floor. The AC kicked on and the air around them cooled.
Demmy drew in a breath and slowly let it out. “I know this is an emotionally charged topic—”
Cody let out a harsh bark of a laugh.
“And we’ve both got a ton of trauma built around all of these monsters we’ve taken on,” Demmy finished. “I know that.”
Cody watched him push his desk chair around to place it right in front of his own.
Demmy sat and put a hand out, palm up. Cody had done the same to him across their table the night before.
That felt like weeks ago now, and like it had happened between two entirely different people.
After a moment, Cody finally released his tight grip on the arm of his chair and took Demmy’s hand.
He felt the stickiness as their sweaty palms connected.
“I will admit I was foolish today.”
“Only foolish?”
Demmy momentarily tightened his hold enough to pop one of Cody’s knuckles. “Foolish and any other adjectives you want to add.” When Cody opened his mouth, Demmy quickly said, “Mentally, and to yourself.”
They both grinned reluctantly. Cody studied him, noting the shadows beneath his eyes, the slight droop of the lids, and the tiny lines at the corners.
He knew Demmy wasn’t sleeping well. Neither of them was really getting good sleep.
Which in Cody’s mind meant they needed to be even more cautious about investigating things on their own.
“I was there, and it was the middle of the day, and I took the opportunity to check things out. Now we know for sure at least one vampire is back in town. And from now on, I will at least text you where I am and what I’m thinking of doing.”
“I’d prefer you have me meet you.”
“You know, I would prefer that, too. I feel safe with you. I always have.”
Cody tightened his grip. “I would tear this world apart to keep you safe.”
Demmy’s eyes widened slightly, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. It took him a few moments until he spoke again, and when he did, his voice was low and rough. “I know. And I would do the same for you.”
“I know.” Cody kept hold of Demmy’s hand but leaned forward in the chair. Demmy moved in as well, meeting him halfway for a slow, soft kiss.
“I’ve almost lost you so many times,” Cody whispered.
“We’ve almost lost each other.”
“We have to be smarter about this stuff. We have to. We’re not amateurs making it up as we go along anymore.”
“I know.” Demmy lifted his free hand and cupped Cody’s face. “And you’re right.”
Cody kissed Demmy’s palm. “What now?”
“I’m pretty hungry, if you are.”
“Have you met me?”
Demmy laughed and gave him another quick kiss. “I have definitely met you. How about Margie’s and then home to watch TV?”
“Yeah, all right. If we have to.”
Demmy started to pull back, but Cody maintained his grip, keeping him in place.
“I love you, Demmy.”
Demmy’s expression softened, and his smile, though small, looked genuine. “I love you, too.”