Page 12

CHAPTER ELEVEN

C ody found it really strange and very informative to see himself through someone else’s eyes. He wasn’t walking as slowly and cautiously as Demmy was, so he figured it would take Demmy some time to get used to the larger proportions he had to control. He’d had no idea Demmy dealt with pain in so many different places, and at a higher level than Cody ever knew. Higher than he dealt with himself on a daily basis. He’d remember that once they corrected the situation. And they would abso-fucking-lutely correct it. They had to.

When his brain tried to switch into panic mode, he distracted it by digging into something interesting or informative about the situation.

With a lower center of gravity and smaller reach, Demmy’s internal organs felt completely squashed inside his smaller torso; no wonder he didn’t eat as much as Cody did; yeah that was it. Even more than feeling the physical impact of being inside Demmy’s body, Cody was reeling a bit from the emotional and mental revelations. Cody had taken a look around the interior of Demmy’s brain and discovered he could access Demmy’s memories.

And it had been quite the revelation.

Demmy really did have a fetish for him in his high school football uniform. All those nights Demmy had sat in the bleachers, he’d steadily watched Cody on the field. Checked out his ass and thighs in the tight pants, let his gaze linger on the swell of his crotch. Scattered throughout were memories of times they spent together growing up, just the two of them. He found it beyond crazy he could see Demmy’s version of these events as well as the way he remembered them himself. And there were many moments Cody himself had forgotten. Brief encounters in school hallways, when Cody acknowledged Demmy or stopped to talk and confirm plans for lunch or to meet up after school all felt completely different seen from Demmy’s point of view. He could see his football teammates’ reactions over his own shoulder as Demmy looked up at him. Saw their mocking expressions or over-exaggeratedly mouthing the word FAG behind Cody’s back, and he felt the struggle within Demmy to keep his expression neutral.

Demmy had never told him about those moments. And he had never once asked Cody not to hang out with his teammates because of it. Demmy had dealt with it because he had known how important football was to him. Never once had he dared to ask for more, and he always felt like he had to apologize for the space he took up in the world.

What the actual fuck?

Quick burning anger flared within him as Demmy cautiously drove them back to the house. How could Demmy have lived with that all these years and never let him know? He knew they didn’t have the time or shared mental capacities to get into it at the moment, but it was definitely a conversation they were going to have after they corrected this insanity. Right now they had more important things to figure out.

Demmy bypassed pulling into the driveway of their house and just parked at the curb. He switched off the engine and put his forehead on the steering wheel as he held the key fob out to Cody.

“That was exhausting,” Demmy said. “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“Yeah, welcome to my body. That’s your key, by the way, Cody. Keep it.” Cody opened the passenger door and nearly fell on his face stepping out of the truck. Demmy’s legs were a hell of a lot shorter than he was used to. “For the love of fuck and honey. How do you manage to get in and out of our trucks without killing yourself?”

“Same way you manage to walk through doorways without giving yourself a concussion.” Demmy came up beside him and smiled. Cody could see Demmy’s personality in that smile, and he felt relieved and a little freaked out at the same time.

“This is weird. Let’s get inside.”

Cody led the way into the house, both of them very slowly and deliberately climbing the two steps up to the porch. When they were inside and Demmy had closed the door behind them, he took Cody by the arm and pulled him into a strong hug.

“God, this feels so strange,” Demmy said, lips moving against the top of Cody’s head.

“Strange is a very gentle way to describe this.” Cody was speaking into his own chest, and he realized how much better Demmy’s sense of smell was than his own as his body’s natural odors rushed into his nose. He could smell his sweat and the fresh air from the outdoors still clinging to his clothing, just beneath the smell of their fabric softener. He pulled his head back, unbuttoned the flannel shirt he had pulled on that morning, and pressed his nose into the soft patch of hair between his pecs. Drawing in a deep breath, a rush of heat and arousal swept through him.

“Fuck me,” Cody said. “I do smell good.”

Demmy gently took him by the upper arms and pushed him back a step. His expression was kind and a little sad as he searched his face. “That’s because my sense of smell, well, yours now, was heightened after Nicolae bit me. Well, bit you.” He shook his head and sighed. “Anyway, you’ll be more sensitive to smells than you’re used to. And, yes, you smell fucking amazing.”

“Yeah, I do,” Cody said, putting a hand over the bulge in his pants. “Made me extremely horny.”

“Yep, it’ll do that.” Demmy hesitated, then leaned down to kiss him softly on the mouth. No tongue, no other invitation in it, just a kiss. “And, for the record, you have always made me extremely horny. Even before I was bitten.”

“Yeah, I’ve been realizing that.” Cody put a hand on the back of Demmy’s neck and pulled him down for another longer kiss. “I hope you know how much you mean to me. How much you’ve always meant to me.”

Demmy smiled as he rose up to his full height. “I see it a lot more clearly now. It’s weird to see our memories from your point of view.”

“We’re going to have a lot to talk about once we get this shit figured out.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Okay. For now, let’s focus on swapping back. Where do we start?”

“We’re going to need help,” Demmy said. “Someone already familiar with the situation.”

Cody suddenly had a thought. “Oh, shit. What about Heath’s body?”

Demmy looked guilty. “Right. I nearly forgot about him. How terrible is that?”

“Not really terrible, considering he was always an asshole and we’re dealing with something forty times more unusual than anything we’ve ever faced.”

“Yeah, true. Okay, we need to call that in.”

“And say what?”

Demmy made a face. Cody had seen him make that face practically every day, but he found it off-putting to see himself doing it.

“I don’t know,” Demmy said. “Maybe we need to get Lucia in on this as well.”

It was Cody’s turn to make a face, and Demmy laughed. “What?” Cody said.

“Nothing. It’s just weird seeing a very Cody expression on my own face.”

“Yeah, I’m right there with you.”

“What about Oliver or Clarabell?”

“What about no and hell no?” Cody said.

Demmy laughed again.

Car doors and voices from outside made them both turn to look at the front door.

“Is someone here?” Demmy said.

Before Cody could respond, the front door opened and Grant walked in. He was dressed in joggers and a long-sleeved t-shirt under a hoodie, his hair in the familiar braids. He was looking over his shoulder, talking to Mac, both of them carrying a duffel bag. Their three kids followed, each of them silent and staring down at the phone in their hand.

“All I’m saying is, Romes should have let us know he only intended for us to stay one night. If I’d known it was just for the night, I wouldn’t have unpacked, like, every article of clothing into that dresser. Oh, hey Codes.”

“Don’t call me that,” Cody said automatically, then froze as he realized he was supposed to be Demmy. “Him. Don’t call him that.”

“Yeah. Um, don’t call me that,” Demmy said. He waved his arms a bit, then stood awkwardly with his hands on his hips as he scowled at their returning house guests. It might have been Demmy’s version of a challenging stare, but looked more like really uncomfortable gas on Cody’s face.

“Okay, sorry. Hey, Dems, you okay? You look really angry for some reason. Oh.” Grant scrunched up his nose and leaned in to say in a lower voice that still carried out to the street. “Were you two about to have some private playtime?”

“Oh, my God,” their daughter Brooke said without looking up from her phone.

“Gross,” their son Conrad said, similarly distracted.

“What were they going to play?” said Dexter, their youngest, who did look up from his phone with an open and earnest expression.

“Never mind,” Mac said, ushering all three kids inside. “Go get your things set up in the guest room.”

“Oh, um, we need to change the sheets,” Demmy said.

“In the guest room?” Mac asked, tilting her head and giving him a quizzical look.

“No. In the main room.” Demmy sighed. “Our bedroom. We’ll need to change the sheets.”

“No worries, Codes. We can do that,” Grant said. “You and Dems finish your talk. Don’t mind us. We’ll fade into the background.”

As Grant followed his family down the hall, Cody stared up at Demmy with wide eyes. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

“We have to get out of here,” Demmy said. Then his stomach rumbled. Or rather, Cody heard his body’s stomach rumble rather loudly, and he made a face.

“For fuck’s sake, is my stomach always that loud?”

“Pretty much,” Demmy said, pressing a hand against his belly. “How about we go to Margie’s? It’s after the lunch rush, shouldn’t be too crowded.”

“Yeah. Anywhere but here. Tell my brother we’re leaving.”

Demmy started for the hall. Cody grabbed him by the arm and said in a stern but quiet voice, “Not face to face. Just call down to him, like I would.”

“Oh, okay.” Demmy cleared his throat and practically shouted down the hall, “Grant! We’re heading out!”

“Jesus Christ,” Cody muttered, and dragged him to the door.

“You don’t have to shout, Codes. I’m not deaf,” Grant called back.

Then they were outside and walking fast to Cody’s truck parked at the curb. Demmy pulled the keys and the hex bag out of his jacket pocket.

“What do we do with this?” Demmy held it cupped in a big palm.

“Keep it on you.” He gripped the one in his own pocket. “I’m thinking these bags probably saved our lives out in the woods.”

Demmy returned the bag to his pocket and reached for the passenger door handle. Cody stood beside him and looked up.

“You’re just being polite and gentlemanly and opening the door for me, right?” Cody said as he moved past him and climbed up into the cab.

“No. I’m used to just getting in on the passenger side when we take your truck. This is weird.”

“Let’s get out of here before Grant decides to join us.”

That got Demmy moving. He slammed the passenger door then practically ran around the front of the truck and jumped in behind the wheel. In moments, they were heading off down the street. Demmy gripped the wheel at ten and two, eyes wide as he cautiously drove toward town.

“It’s not a driving test,” Cody said. “Although that would be a hot start to some fun role play.”

“Oh, my God. Will you stop?”

“I can’t. I’m freaked out, and my brain to mouth filter is missing.”

“Did you ever really have a brain to mouth filter?”

“It’s more than a little dirty and needs to be changed, but it’s there.”

After the slowest drive into town Cody had ever experienced, Demmy found a parking spot, and they stepped through the door of Margie’s Diner. Margie herself was just bumping her way out of the kitchen, plates in either hand, and she brightened at the sight of them.

“Hi boys! Have a seat, and I’ll bring iced teas in a jiffy.”

Demmy bumped into numerous chairs and table edges as he led the way through the diner. When they dropped into the booth, Demmy on his usual side facing the door, Cody leaned in over the table.

“You’re going to give me bone-deep bruises if you don’t watch where you’re walking.”

“I can’t help it,” Demmy said, eyes wide. “Your body is a lot bigger than I’m used to maneuvering.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment and not a slam about the size of my ass or hips.”

“You’re just a bigger man, okay? I’ve been doing this for a couple of hours, tops. Give me a break.”

“Here you go, boys.” Margie set their teas before them, then cocked her head. “Something’s different.”

Cody exchanged a wide-eyed look with Demmy before looking up at Margie. “No it’s not. Everything’s the same. Exactly the same as when we were here yesterday.”

“No, you’re different.” Margie looked between them then snapped her fingers. “Cody usually sits over on this side. That’s what’s different.”

“Oh, that,” Demmy said with a smile and a shrug. “I decided I wanted to see how Demetrius sees the world, so I sat here today.”

“Demetrius?” Margie looked at Cody. “Is he mad at you or something?”

“What?” Another flutter of panic beat its wings within Cody’s chest, but he fought through it. “No. Why would he be mad?”

“That’s what I was wondering. He rarely calls you by your full first name.”

“Right, right.” Cody looked over at Demmy. “He’s not feeling like himself today. He might seem a little off.”

“Yeah.” Demmy put on his best pout which, Cody had to admit, looked pretty damn cute on his own face. “Just not feeling like me today.”

“Oh, you poor thing. How about some chicken noodle soup?” Margie said.

“That does sound good. Thanks, Margie.”

Cody ordered meatloaf, and they watched Margie walk back to the kitchen.

“That was close,” Demmy said. “There’s a lot to remember about the two of us.”

“No shit. And we have to remember to do the opposite of what we might normally do.”

The door opened. “It’s Lucia.”

“Shit. We’re fucked.”

“We need to tell her,” Demmy said, eyes tracking Lucia’s progress through the diner. “About Heath’s body and our situation. It’s the best thing we can do.”

“You ready to spend a night in jail?” Cody said. “Because that’s her go to reaction for me.”

“Day off, Bower?” Lucia stood beside the table, hands on her utility belt as she looked down at Demmy. “Or did they fire you?”

“Nope. Just the day off,” Demmy said, giving her a nervous smile. “That’s all.”

Cody had to bite back several smart ass remarks.

Lucia furrowed her brow. “You feeling all right?” She looked at Cody. “Have you finally worn down his sass?”

“Me? Hell no. You think I could make a dent in that armor of sass?” Cody stopped and looked across the table with wide eyes. “I mean, no, Deputy Durant. We’re both feeling just fine.”

Margie returned and set their food before them. Lucia looked from the soup in front of Demmy to the meatloaf slathered with gravy in front of Cody and her frown deepened.

“You want to order something, Deputy?” Margie asked.

“I’ll order in a minute, Margie, thanks.” Lucia gave her a smile and watched her walk away. Then she sat on the edge of the seat beside Cody, forcing him to slide over and make room.

“Please join us,” Cody said.

“All right. What’s going on?” Lucia looked between them before she pointed across the table at Demmy. “Talk. Right now.”

“We didn’t do it,” Demmy blurted.

“Son of a…” Cody muttered.

“Why do I get the feeling this is way more fucked up than usual?” Lucia said, lowering her voice.

“Because it is.” Cody looked over at Demmy who lifted one shoulder in a shrug then spooned soup into his mouth as if to indicate he’d rather eat than talk. Coward. Cody turned in the booth to look at Lucia. “We went out to the site of Parson Stone’s church this morning. While we were there, the witch showed up. We know who he is.”

Lucia’s eyebrows went up. “He?”

“Right, he.”

“Who is it?”

“A guy by the name of Baron,” Demmy said. “He’s a young guy, mid-twenties probably. A year or more ago he actually hired me to get chipmunks out of the hall closet in his house out in Hollow Hills.”

“So, he’s been here a while,” Lucia said. “That matches what we’ve suspected.”

“We as in you, Tracey, and Clarabell?” Cody said.

Lucia sat back. “And Gayle, too. So?”

“Thanks for giving us the heads up,” Cody said.

Lucia looked over at Demmy, then back again. “Have you two traded personalities or something? Why does it seem like Bower’s sass is coming out of your mouth?”

“You know what they say,” Cody said. “When two people live together long enough and all that.”

Lucia grunted quietly and looked between them, still a bit suspicious.

“Not Zenona?” Demmy asked.

Lucia shook her head. “She’s still dealing with losing Michael and everything that happened at Halloween.”

“We’ve checked on her a few times, but she doesn’t really open up,” Demmy said.

Lucia looked at Demmy, then she looked back at Cody. She leaned back at bit before saying, “I’m sitting here looking at Demetrius, but I could swear I’ve been talking to Cody.”

Cody sighed and looked over at Demmy. He had more soup and shrugged again. Fine, it was up to him then. “Funny you should say it like that…”

He explained about what Baron had said to them and then Heath arriving. When he got to the part about Heath being possessed by a demon, Lucia shushed him and looked around quickly.

“This might not be the best place to talk about this,” she said.

Demmy leaned in over his soup and said in a near-whisper, “You need to know this right now. Heath or the demon or whatever he was?—”

“Was?” Lucia said.

Dammit, she didn’t miss a thing.

Demmy made a face and looked at Cody. He made a face of his own and lowered his voice even more as he leaned in closer to Lucia. “Heath is dead.”

Lucia’s expression hardened into a glare. “You’re sitting here eating lunch while someone we know, someone Tracey cares about, is dead out in the woods?”

“There’s more to it,” Demmy said. “Whatever that thing inside Heath did, it was some kind of spell or something. It knocked us flat on our backs and when we got back up again… “ Demmy swallowed hard and looked over at him before looking back at Lucia. “Cody and I had switched bodies. We have no idea what happened to the demon or to Baron, but Heath’s body was left behind. Being possessed by that thing killed him.”

She stared at him, then she stared at Cody. “You’re Cody?”

“Yep. And trying hard not to get too many people pissed off at Demmy. How am I doing?”

“Shitty.” She looked back at Demmy. “You’re Demetrius?”

“That’s right,” Demmy said, almost primly, and ate more soup.

“Oh, my God.” She stood up and turned in a circle. She stopped and leaned down to put her hands on the edge of the table and close her eyes. “Oh, my God.”

“Kind of close to what we said.” Cody took a bite of meatloaf with a generous amount of potatoes. “We just had a lot more swearing.”

“Who else knows about this?” Lucia asked.

“No one,” Demmy said. “Well, Baron, maybe. And maybe the demon. We don’t know if the demon possessed Baron or if it’s just flying around loose now.”

“It happened less than two hours ago,” Cody said. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do.”

“And you left a crime scene,” Lucia said.

“Hello!” Cody waved between their two bodies as he looked at her with wide eyes.

“All right, knock it off.” Lucia looked around again. “We need to get you two someplace safe where we can talk through all of this.”

“Don’t you fucking dare arrest us,” Cody said, just as Margie was walking past with some empty plates. She stopped and gave him a hard look, then looked at Demmy.

“You two are acting very strange today,” Margie said.

“Right?” Lucia said. “Hey, Margie, can you make me a corned beef sandwich with chips and a grilled chicken salad to go, please?”

“Sure, Lucia,” Margie said, then shook her head. “Sorry. Deputy.”

“It’s all right.” Lucia watched Margie go back to the kitchen, then looked down at Cody. “You need to cool your usual attitude right now, do you understand?”

“We get it,” Demmy said, stepping into the middle of a confrontation to try and smooth things over, as usual. Only now he was inside Cody’s body, and it just didn’t look or sound right.

Lucia pointed at him. “You too. Stop acting like yourself and start acting like him.”

Demmy blinked, then sat back in the booth, trying for a laid back, masculine posture, Cody guessed. “Yeah?” Demmy said and gave her an overdone look of disrespect. “You know you liked it when I acted like myself back in high school, when we were dating and making out and?—”

“Stop!” Cody and Lucia practically shouted together, then glared at each other.

“Finish your food and let’s get out of here,” Lucia said. “I’m going to make a call.”

“Who are you calling?” Cody asked, suddenly suspicious.

“The most reliable person I can think of for something like this.” She stepped away from their table as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket.

Cody looked at Demmy. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

* * *

Cody got out of the truck and looked at the building in front of them. It was a two story brick rectangle, with a three-car covered parking area that extended from one side and supported a deck above it. The bricks were weathered, the front stained from years spent beneath a black walnut tree half covered in new leaves. Cody didn’t spend a lot of time on this side of town. It was a hodgepodge of farm supply stores, self-storage units, and duplexes. The air smelled of gasoline, fertilizer, and something oddly sweet.

“This whole thing just keeps getting worse and worse,” Cody grumbled. “Is this really necessary? Isn’t the situation bad enough as it is?”

Demmy came up beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. It felt incredibly strange to be so short standing beside Demmy. He knew, deep down, no one else was better equipped to help them, but, ugh, did it really have to be this way?

“It’s a lot nicer on the inside,” Demmy said.

“That’s what the witch said to Hansel and Gretel.”

“Appropriate, given the circumstances. Come on.”

Lucia stopped her sheriff’s department cruiser at the curb behind Cody’s truck and approached them.

“Stop off for a donut?” Cody asked.

She scowled. “I don’t like hearing your sass come out of Demetrius’s mouth. It’s messing with the natural order of things.”

“Try being inside him,” Cody said, then waved a hand dismissively as they all made faces. “I heard it, I know. Let’s just move on, please.”

Lucia led the way up the walk and pressed a button on the intercom. They were buzzed in almost immediately, and then Lucia opened the first door on the left to reveal a flight of stairs. Cody followed her, ducking his head beneath the doorframe even though he didn’t need to, and flinching when he heard Demmy hit his head. Or rather, hit Cody’s head.

“Gotta watch doors and stairs,” Cody said over his shoulder.

“I know. Sorry about your skull.”

“Been hearing that for years.”

The steps led up to a small entry area, which was really part of an open concept living room, dining area, and kitchen. A short hallway led to what Cody assumed was a bedroom and bathroom. French doors opened onto the deck area above the parking stalls.

“This is surprisingly nice,” Cody said.

“You’ve been here before.” A raspy voice that begged for a throat-clearing seemed to come from the kitchen, but he didn’t see any sign of its owner.

“God?” Cody said.

Clarabell Remington popped up behind the kitchen island. She held a glass baking dish, which she’d most likely been pulling out of the cabinet below. Today she wore an oversized Pittsburgh Pirates jersey. Cody was afraid to see what she wore on the lower half of her body.

“Yeah, I have,” Demmy said.

Clarabell gave him a squint. “I don’t think you’ve been here, Stretch.”

“So, here’s the problem,” Lucia said. “And I’m going to do this quick because I need to go out to the center of all this and help Deputy Walsh secure another crime scene.”

“Another one?” Clarabell set the baking dish on the island and came around to the front, climbing up onto a stool. She wore gold tights and house shoes in the shapes of giant bear paws. “What happened?”

“So, these two got themselves caught between whatever took over Heath’s body and the new witch in town, and now they’re swapped.” Lucia gestured toward him. “This is Cody.”

Clarabell frowned and pointed at him. “You mean Demetrius?”

“No. I mean it’s Cody.”

Cody lifted a hand and waved. “Hey there, small fry. I see you’re wearing Skene’s jersey. Shouldn’t you be wearing Cruz’s jersey since he’s the short stop and you’re basically a hobbit?”

Clarabell’s eyes widened. “What the hell?”

“Right. That’s why we’re here. It’s all connected to the research you’ve been doing. And now there’s a demon loose, and we don’t know whose body it’s currently occupying.”

“And why the hell are we just now hearing about this witch being in town?” Demmy said, and Cody had to give him points for sounding like him.

“This is going to take a lot of getting used to,” Clarabell said.

“Yup. And now Heath is dead, according to these two.”

“Heath? Oh, no. Did you tell Tracey yet?” Clarabell said.

“Not yet. She’s my next stop. If I can find her.” She suddenly looked very tired, and Cody felt a pang of empathy. “So. Here they are. Keep them safe and away from pretty much the rest of the town. Explain where we’re at with the research and see if you can come up with a fix for…” She waved a hand between him and Demmy. “All of this. Because there’s nothing right about it. At all.”

“That’s for sure,” Clarabell said, and looked between them, finally settling on Cody. “You okay in there, Stretch?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just hurt in all different places.”

“Same,” Demmy said, rubbing his head. “And I keep forgetting to duck.”

“I’m off. Call me if you come up with anything useful.” Lucia gave Cody a look. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Bye, sorry you have to leave so soon,” Cody said, feeling a bit of satisfaction at her tight expression.

Without another word, Lucia clomped down the steps in her boots, opened the door, and closed it behind her.

Clarabell was still perched on the stool, looking between them.

“Going to ask us to sit down?” Cody said.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Come on, let’s go to the living room. You guys want something to drink?”

“Got any beer?” Cody said as he dropped onto the couch. Demmy sat beside him and they both winced when he cracked his shin on the coffee table.

“Your legs are, like, six miles long.” Demmy rubbed his shin, then gave him a pointed look. “Just remember I don’t drink that much. And you’re dealing with less body mass, so you’ll get drunk faster than you’re used to.”

“Did you just call my body fat?”

“No. I called your body bigger than mine.”

“Hmm.”

Clarabell brought three beers with her and sat in an armchair, curling her feet under her.

“All right,” Demmy said after taking an unusually long pull from his beer. “Catch us up.”