Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
The sun had returned, lower in the sky now, and Cody drove into it. His sunglasses were only doing so much, and the visor helped a bit, but he knew he’d probably have a headache by the time he got home to Demmy.
Home to Demmy.
The thought stirred up an ache within him.
They never really argued. Well, never argued about anything other than their monster hunting side hustle.
Usually, some of every day was spent playfully sparring with each other, which Cody loved.
But arguments, especially big ones like yesterday, were rare.
The whole situation still felt raw and achy, painful enough he didn’t want to examine it too closely.
He’d shouted at Demmy. He wasn’t proud of it, but Demmy had taken some pretty big risks at that house. Anything could have happened to him in there, especially since he’d admitted going in unarmed without knowing what he was going to find.
Heat gathered at the top of his skull, and he clutched the steering wheel tight as he thought about it. So many terrible, monster-related things had happened to Demmy over the years. Why couldn’t he see Cody was only trying to keep him safe, to keep them together?
Yet, here he was off to do something similar.
But this was only a drive-by of Annie Wilkerson’s house.
That was it. What he was doing wasn’t dangerous.
It was simply reconnaissance. He merely wanted to get a look at the house Stan mentioned, the place on the corner of Granite and Quartz where Annie lived with Andy.
He wanted to see its condition, check if the windows were covered to block out the sunlight.
To try and gauge if it had a vampire feel to it.
He shifted position in the seat, then he couldn’t seem to find a comfortable spot for his hands on the wheel.
He wasn’t doing this to get back at Demmy; he wasn’t that petty.
All he was going to do was get a look at the house, a quick cruise past, and then go home.
Tomorrow during the day sometime, maybe he and Demmy would come back and see if Andy might talk with them about Annie’s boyfriend he didn’t like and his suspicions over his sister’s disappearance.
Cody entered the Stone Hill neighborhood.
The houses in this area had been built closer together than in Balsam Ridge where he and Demmy lived, and several were in dire need of an HGTV rescue mission.
About a dozen streets laid out in a crisscross pattern made up the subdivision, and Cody paused at each intersection to check the signs.
The streets were all named after types of rocks, and he passed Limestone, Basalt, and Marble until he reached Granite.
He tossed a mental coin—left or right—and turned right on Granite.
In minutes he came to the corner of Granite and Quartz and pulled to the curb.
He figured he was about five blocks away from that abandoned house on Shale.
Close enough for a vampire’s hunting ground.
All four houses at the intersection looked a bit worn but not abandoned.
The blinds were open in all windows, and the lawns, though patchy with weeds and brown spots, had all been recently mowed.
But the one kitty corner from where he had parked was smaller than the rest, a single story with a bay window in the living room.
The aluminum siding, once maybe the color of red brick, was faded and showing dings in places.
Black shutters framed the windows, also sun-bleached.
The house faced Quartz, but the single car detached garage opened onto Granite.
As he sat there trying to guess which house Annie and Andy lived in—his money was definitely on the single story with the shutters—the side door of that house opened, and a man stepped outside.
He wore a black leather jacket, even in the humid heat, and faded jeans.
It could be Andy. Or maybe the bad news boyfriend.
Whoever it was, he was definitely not a vampire, because the sun was still up, just entering that magical golden hour.
Cody watched him stride across the fenced-in backyard, following a narrow concrete path to the garage. He opened an access door and disappeared inside. Cody made a mental note that the door appeared to be left unlocked.
When the tilt-up garage door lifted, Cody heard the springs pop and clang in protest even from where he sat. If Demmy had been with him, he would have made a crack about the guy needing to use more lube, and he shot a glance at the passenger seat.
An older model car—blocky as a Pinewood Derby entry—backed out of the garage, catching his attention again.
It was a grungy shade of white with dark pinstripes, and Cody thought it might be a Dodge Spirit.
The man in leather got out of the car and pulled the garage door shut—more protests from the springs—before he got back behind the wheel and backed out into the street.
He was headed right toward him, and Cody dropped sideways out of sight.
The motion pulled at the tight skin of the healing scratches across his chest, and he grunted.
The Spirit’s muffler rumbled as it passed him, and he waited a moment, listening to the sound soften before he sat up again. Gently rubbing his chest through his shirt, he started his truck and watched in the side mirror as the car drove down the street.
This was a good opportunity. He would put money on this guy being Andy, and he wanted to see where he went.
He was doing this alone, yes, but he wasn’t stepping inside a dangerous house possibly full of vampires or those in service to them.
All he was going to do was tail this guy to his new location.
Nothing more. He was merely following a lead.
A single taillight brightened briefly as the man hit the brakes, and then the Spirit turned right on Route 118.
Cody turned left onto Quartz and drove a bit faster than the posted speed limit, moving parallel to the direction Andy had gone.
At the next intersection, Obsidian, he turned left and sped along the street until he reached Route 118 and turned right.
A few cars ahead of him, Cody saw the one brake light again as the man came to a stop sign, and he settled against the seat.
This was okay. He wasn’t taking any risks, he was simply tailing someone.
His fingers tightened around the wheel, and twice he had to consciously unclench his jaw. After rolling his shoulders back, he triggered the in-dash system and called Demmy.
“Hey.”
Demmy’s tone was hesitant, cautious, and Cody caught a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror, forehead furrowed and mouth turned down.
“Hey back,” Cody said.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just…” Cody’s voice died out, unable to find the words to let Demmy know what he was doing and not make it sound like he was giving him a taste of his own medicine. He really should have thought this through.
“Hey, Cody?”
“Yeah.”
“Are we okay?”
“We’re okay. But I’m doing something you’ll be mad about.”
“Oh?”
Still that hint of caution in Demmy’s voice, the sound of it sliding another needle into his heart. Cody hated that he’d been the one to put that caution in his tone.
“Nothing sexual or anything like that…”
“No, I didn’t think it would be.”
More silence. Finally Cody sighed and said, “For fuck’s sake, I hate this distance between us. But I’m still angry at you, okay? It doesn’t mean I want a divorce. I just need to be mad for a little bit until I get over it.”
“Oh, okay.” Demmy fell silent, but Cody had known him long enough to be able to read into it. It wasn’t actually silence; it was hesitation. Demmy had more to say. Finally, he said, “But…”
Cody grinned and sank a little lower in the seat, dropping one hand to his thigh and the other steering from the bottom of the wheel as he kept two car lengths back from the Spirit. “Yes?”
“But I need you to know that I’m angry, too.”
“You?” Cody couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice. “About what?”
“The way you reacted, for one. And the way you treated me. Not to mention that you don’t trust me to be able to read a situation.”
“Okay, okay,” Cody said, pushing himself back up in the seat as his jaw clenched. “I can see we both still need a bit more time.”
“Yeah.” Demmy said with an exasperated tone, “But I still love you, and I don’t want a divorce.” They both chuckled at that. Then Demmy added, “But I also want to point out that you didn’t say you loved me. You just said you don’t want a divorce.”
“You gotta have the last word, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
Another shared laugh. It wasn’t their usual laughter, carefree, warm, and connected. But it was a start.
“Well, I just called to tell you I’m taking a drive, so I may be a little later than I thought.”
“All right. Be careful.”
Cody raised his eyebrows at that, but kept from saying, As careful as you were at the vampire house?
Just barely.
“I will. See you later.”
He disconnected and chewed his lip. Tipping his head side to side, he cracked his neck. He and Demmy were going to have to have a long talk sooner rather than later.
The make up sex was going to be epic.
The working brake light brightened again, and Cody saw sunlight spark off the Spirit’s glass as Andy turned off Route 118. Cody sat up even more and eased off the accelerator. The two cars he’d been keeping between them rolled on past the road Andy had taken.
The Spirit had turned onto Hemlock Way, one of the even narrower blacktop roads that ran north and south, connecting the larger ones.
Cody hadn’t been out this way in years. In high school, and a little bit in college and afterwards, a group of them would party out in these fields until the owners chased them off.
But there wasn’t anything out here he knew about, unless this guy was leaving the county.