Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sun was down, and moths fluttered around the lights in the parking lot.
Demetrius could hear the faint tapping of their strikes against the plastic cover as they headed toward the Subaru.
They’d decided to take Zenona’s car because the three of them would fit more comfortably, and, as Cody pointed out, her car in the parking lot wouldn’t raise suspicions.
He got in the back, allowing Cody and his longer legs the front passenger seat. The tension between Zenona and Cody filled the car. She kept her eyes on the road and her posture stiff. Cody folded his arms over his chest and stared out his window.
Demetrius tipped his head from side to side, hearing the crack and pop in his neck.
Was it still only Monday? He watched the downtown businesses give way to ranch homes with large yards, then to small farms with crops.
Most were corn, the stalks taller than Cody, their shadows long in the moonlight, reaching toward the road as if hungry for them.
Towering corn always made him uneasy. He preferred the shorter alfalfa crops.
The farms gave way to hardwood and pine woods, the smell of resin sharp as it penetrated the passenger compartment.
The trees opened up here and there for a few single businesses, including the strip mall where their office waited, and, a short distance later, the Hollow Leg bar.
Then the woods crowded in close again. These were old growth, tall with thick trunks, their canopies full and blocking the sight of the moon.
This swath of woods had been spared the ax and wood mill back in the town’s early days, and Demetrius wondered just how old they really were. And what they’d seen.
Even though the leaves blocked his view of the moon, its light trickled down to the leaf-littered ground in pale spotlights. Shadows deepened around these bursts of light, and when one of them shifted, moving fast between the trunks, Demetrius jumped and his breath caught in his throat.
“Something’s out there,” he said.
“What?” Cody checked out his window. “Where?”
“In the woods. It was, I don’t know, running or something.”
“Deer?” Zenona asked, glancing at him in the rearview mirror.
“No, I don’t think so.”
The shadow moved again, a blur within the patchy moonlight.
“Jesus!” Cody’s voice was edged with fear. “What the fuck?”
A man ran in front of the car, moving so fast he was just a blur. Zenona shouted and slammed on the brakes. Demetrius jerked forward, the seatbelt locking across his chest and hips.
“Goddammit, Liam!”
Zenona shifted into Park, flung off her seatbelt, and then stepped out of the car, standing behind the open door with one foot still inside.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Cody shouted. He lunged across the console in an effort to grab her, but his own restraint held him in place. “Zenona, stay inside!”
“What’s she doing?” Demetrius said, then gasped quietly as the man zipped back into view and stopped in the wash of headlights.
“Liam, that’s not funny,” Zenona said, her tone stern but calm. Demetrius thought she sounded as if she might be talking to an over-excited nephew. “I’ve told you I don’t like that.”
Liam appeared to be in his early twenties, with long, dark hair gathered in a bun. Dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, his face and arms were pale, his lips dark red as he smiled. “Sorry, Zenona.”
“What the hell?” Cody said.
Liam looked to the windshield then back to Zenona. His forehead furrowed and his posture stiffened. “Strangers?”
“Liam, wait…”
But the man was gone again, moving too fast for Demetrius to track. He consciously opened his fists. So much for their element of surprise.
Zenona got back in the car and slammed the door. “Dammit.”
“Do you know all the vampires in the area?” Cody asked.
“No.” Zenona snapped and resumed driving. “But I know a lot of jerks.”
Despite Liam’s appearance and the tension from the front seat, Demetrius hid his smile behind a hand and watched the scenery again. The woods thinned and abruptly ended as the long, even rows of corn took over again.
“What’s that mean?” Cody’s profile showed the jut of his jaw. “Are you saying I’m a jerk?”
“I didn’t mention names.”
She slowed, turning left onto a narrow and much rougher asphalt road, the Subaru rattling over multiple patch jobs. Demetrius tried to remember if he and Cody had worked this road back when Parson’s Hollow had a functioning DPW.
Cody peered over the seat at Demetrius. “Did you hear her call me a jerk?”
“I’m not getting in the middle of whatever you two are talking about,” Demetrius said. “Are we almost there?”
After giving Demetrius a long, squinty-eyed look, Cody faced forward again and said, “It’s just up here.”
Zenona turned into a one-lane gravel drive just past a short windbreak, almost hidden among tall grasses and cat tails.
She navigated a couple of curves before the drive opened up into a gravel parking lot.
A half-dozen vehicles, mostly pickups, were parked close to a one-story cinderblock building painted black, including the windows.
No signs lit the exterior, not even the name of the place.
So, that was how Marlowe and the others were able to be awake during the day.
They really were about to step foot inside a bar filled with vampires.
He drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out.
He tried to calm himself by thinking back to the time he’d spent with Michael.
He’d worked with the vampire coroner to figure out a plan of attack to save Cody and the others, fought beside him once they’d set it in motion, and watched him murdered by his own creator.
Michael had been a good man. There had to be others like him. He hoped.
Zenona slotted her car into a space beside a lifted truck then turned to point a finger at Cody. “No going off on anyone.” She directed the finger at Demetrius. “Is that understood?”
“You’re sure it’s safe?” Demetrius asked.
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re the one who wanted to come. Having second thoughts?”
“No.” He heard how quick and unconvincing it sounded, and tried again. “Not having second thoughts. I just want to be prepared.”
“Marlowe runs a tight ship. We’ll be fine.”
Zenona opened her door and got out. Demetrius took another breath and let it out before he left the car to stand beside Cody.
“You okay?” Demetrius asked.
“Other than being considered a jerk by two of my friends?” Cody shrugged slightly. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not a jerk, you’re a big tough guy. And I’m more than a friend.”
“Unless I’m being a jerk?”
Demetrius saw the flicker of Cody’s smile, there and gone. “Oh my God. Come on.”
They followed Zenona to the door. She stepped inside but paused to hold it open for them. Demetrius hesitated briefly, then followed her in.
When he stepped through the door, Demetrius noticed two things.
First, the outside light above the door made him pause and allow his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit interior.
The second was the sound of a Styx song playing softly.
He shifted to stand a little closer to Cody, and as his vision adjusted, he took the place in.
The all-black color scheme had been carried over to the interior.
A bar of dark red polished wood ran along the left side of the place, a few of the stools occupied by people who had turned to stare.
Behind it stood a woman wiping out a glass, watching them closely.
Booths along the wall on the right followed the all black decorating theme, and the few people seated there were looking them over.
The young man who had run in front of the car, Liam, sat on the edge of one booth, hands clasped on the table and his foot bouncing.
In a back area beyond the bar and booths, a group stood around a pool table, the game paused now as they took in the new arrivals.
“I’m sorry to do this unannounced,” Zenona said, taking a step forward and speaking to the room in general. “But some things in town have happened, and my friends here were instrumental in stopping the uprising back in—”
“We know who they are, Zenona.” The bartender’s voice—Marlowe, according to Cody’s description—was low and almost harmonious.
She set down the glass she’d been wiping and came to their end of the bar.
“We’ve known about them for a long time now.
” She grinned at Cody. “Before you even caught on to the fact you like the taste of dick, Stretch.”
Heat flashed across Demetrius’s face as Cody blurted, “What the fuck?”
Zenona put a hand on Cody’s chest, all while keeping her eyes on Marlowe. “Play nice, Marlowe. We can all work together to handle this new situation.”
One of the men by the pool table stepped forward. He was tall and strong, dark hair in an undercut, the top a perfectly styled mess.
“The big one’s been bit.”
All subtle movement around the room stopped after his announcement. The hair on the back of Demetrius’s neck went up, and he immediately shifted position to stand slightly ahead and in front of Cody.
“That’s not how we do things here.” Marlowe slowly looked around the bar.
“He’s ready for it,” said another man by the pool table. “He reeks of it.”
“You know the rules.” The words were a growl, and Marlowe was working with something out of sight behind the bar. “You break the rules, you’re out.”
“Maybe your rules are too strict. We’re starving.”
That came from a woman sitting in one of the booths. She gripped the edge of the table as her eyes jerked between the three of them. The back of Demetrius’s throat was hot, and his heart pounded. But he held his ground in front of Cody, hands in fists.
“Cassie, we’ve talked about this,” Marlowe said, her eyes lowered to whatever she was working on. “And you, too, Jordan.”
The man by the pool table who had spoken first bared his teeth, and even in the dim lighting Demetrius could see his fangs. They looked extremely long and sharp.
“Talk is cheap,” Jordan said, his voice hissing. “Blood is forever.”