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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

D emetrius felt that, between himself, Cody, and Oliver, they’d managed to stem the worst of the outbursts from the Bower family members. Well, most of them. Roman and Madison were always going to be rigid outliers, so he didn’t count them. And Jugs, Agatha, and Clarabell had scurried into the kitchen to look for some refreshments for themselves. Dave had approached Demetrius and asked point blank if anything might was going on between Demetrius and Oliver.

“Nothing’s going on between Demmy and Oliver.” He waved a hand up and down Cody’s body and said in the sassiest tone of voice he could manage, “Would Demmy need anything other than this to keep him happy?”

Dave gave him a scrunched up expression of disgust, then cocked his head. “Wait. Did you call him Oliver?”

“Yes?”

“That’s really nice you used his actual name instead of that nickname.”

“Oh, right. That. I’ve been trying lately, but it comes and goes. Maybe don’t get used to it.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dave looked over his shoulder to where Cody and Oliver were talking together in low tones with Clarabell, Jugs, and Agatha, who had all returned from the kitchen. Demetrius had to admit it did look a little suspicious to see himself so involved in a conversation with his ex-boyfriend. Was this what it looked like to Cody? He would have to remember that in the future.

Also, his ass looked pretty damn good in those jeans. He’d have to remember that, too.

“Is what Jugs said true?” Dave asked. “Is there a witch in town?”

“Yeah, but it’s not like you think.”

“I’m thinking green skin and a wart on her nose.”

“And you’d be wrong on all counts.”

“So, she looks like any other woman?”

“She’s actually a he,” Demetrius said.

“Oh? I thought male witches were called warlocks?”

“Everyone else has been calling him a witch, so that’s what I’m going with. Look, I don’t have time to go into it all now, but we will fill you and, um, Ollie in later. Just help us get the family calmed down and out of here.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dave turned away, then quickly turned back again. “I’m not talking with Roman and Madison.”

“Fine. I’ll do that. Just get Mom and Dad settled down, and make sure Grant isn’t off somewhere getting stoned out of his gourd. I’ve lost track of him.”

Dave turned away, but then back again. “Did you have an STD in college?”

“Dude, no! That was your fiancé being a dick. Now get to work.”

Once Dave approached his parents, Demetrius caught Cody’s eye and tipped his head toward the dining room. Cody nodded and said something to Oliver before he moved into the dining room. Demetrius followed him past the table and into the kitchen.

“This is incredibly fucked up,” Cody said. “How are you doing?”

“I think I’ve sweated through both shirts and your underwear.”

“So, a standard family visit.”

“Pretty much. I’ve got Dave working on your family.”

“Did he refuse to talk to Roman and Madison?”

“Yeah.”

“Fucking coward.”

“I keep slipping up and calling Oliver by his name and not your nickname.”

Cody shrugged. “Yeah, that’s how Ollie caught on.”

“Oliver knows?”

“He figured it out,” Cody said, somewhat defensively. “And he was a complete asshole, too, claiming I had an STD in college.”

“Yeah, about that… You didn’t, right?”

Cody crossed his arms and glared.

“Okay, okay, I believe you. What do we do now?”

“Hey.” Clarabell’s scratchy voice made both of them jump.

“Don’t sneak up on us,” Cody said.

“I said hey.”

“After you were in the room,” Cody said. “Jesus Christ, you want to give us heart attacks?”

Clarabell looked up at Demetrius. “It’s a complete mind trip to hear his sass coming out of your mouth.”

“You should try being inside him,” Demetrius said, then made a face. “Sorry. That sounded worse than I intended.”

“Okay, enough.” Cody fixed Clarabell with a look. “What have you learned?”

“I found out Mayor Henderson is a direct descendant of the original bloodline, so that means we have four: Tracey, Margie, the mayor, and you.” She pointed to Cody, then at Demetrius. “Or both of you, actually.”

“Yeah, you said that before,” Demetrius said. “Why is that?”

“The bloodline is both physical.” She waved a hand up and down in front of Cody’s body. “And spiritual.” She gestured to Demetrius’s body. “So we should probably use you both for the Bower family descendant during the ritual.”

“Tell us more about this ritual,” Cody said. “What do we have to do?”

“It’s kind of involved.”

“Give us the bullet points,” Demetrius said, crossing Cody’s arms. He could feel the shirt sleeves strain around Cody’s biceps and had to admit he enjoyed it. Once this was all over and he was back in his own body, he was going to start working out more. Or again.

“I need to read some more about it,” Clarabell said. “Tracey left a book with me. But from what I know, we need to gather all the descendants at the site of the old church graveyard. The descendants need to each stand on the grave of their forebearer while the imprisonment incantation is read. Oh, I’ll need to gather some herbs, spices, and other things as well.”

“Herbs and spices?” Cody said with a scowl. “Are we performing a ritual or making fried chicken?”

Clarabell glared at him. “Good to see your sassy tank is still full.”

“How do we know who stands where?” Demetrius said.

“I’ve done some research, and I’ve mapped out who’s buried where. It’s really quite unique. The members of the coven were buried in the formation of a five pointed star.”

“Wait, like a pentagram?” Demetrius said.

“That’s kind of witchy for a church graveyard, isn’t it?” Cody said.

“I know, which is why I need to do some more reading,” Clarabell said. “I’ll do that after I pay a visit to Mayor Henderson and try to convince her about what’s going on and her role in stopping it without her thinking I’m a raving lunatic who needs to be locked up.”

“Well…” Cody said, which earned him a glare from Clarabell. “Why is everything with these cases so hard?”

“And I still haven’t figured out the identity of the final descendant.” Clarabell shook her head, the movement causing the daylight coming in the window over the sink to flash across her glasses. “And then we need to convince them to come with us out into the woods.”

“When are we doing this?” Demetrius asked.

“Sometime tonight if we can figure this all out.”

“We’re going to be up all night again, aren’t we?” Cody said.

“Just like being back in college,” Demetrius said.

Cody gave him a hard look. “Just like college? Like when I caught an STD?”

Demetrius covered his mouth to try to hide his smile.

“It’s not funny,” Cody said. “Fucking Ollie said that in front of my entire family.”

“I know that,” Demetrius said. “I had to cover for you.”

“Yeah, about that. Bang up job telling them the first time we had sex we did it raw.”

“I got nervous.”

“Knock it off, both of you. You’ve got to remain vigilant until we can perform the ritual. The witch and the demon will want to prevent us from completing it. They may come after you or any of the other descendants of the original coven.”

“Great. Another personal vendetta from a monster,” Cody said.

“Quite a few families have lived here in town for several generations,” Demetrius said. “I’m sure there’s more than five of us.”

“That date back to the 1600s?” Clarabell said.

Demetrius shrugged. “That I don’t know. But just from local gossip and talk around town, there are quite a few longtime residents.” He had a thought and said, “City hall.”

“What about it?” Clarabell said.

“There’s this little room off the main floor that’s dedicated to the history of the town going all the way back to its founding,” Demetrius said. “We went there once for a field trip.”

“We did?” Cody said.

“You were dating Diana Hotchkiss at the time, so you didn’t pay a lot of attention,” Demetrius said.

“Diana Hotchkiss?” Cody repeated. “Oh, yeah. She was cute.”

Demetrius felt a strange rush through his body, and Cody’s memories of being with Diana Hotchkiss went through his mind like an out of body slide show.

“Ugh, you’ve got to stop,” Demetrius said, making a face. He closed his eyes, but that did nothing to keep himself from seeing the mental images.

“Oh my God, are you seeing what I’m remembering?” Cody said.

“Yes, and it’s very uncomfortable.” Demetrius opened his eyes wide at the memory of Diana going down on Cody in the backseat of his parents’ station wagon. “Well, Diana knew her way around a backseat, that’s for sure.”

“Good God, you two are even more of a nightmare like this.” Clarabell shoved them both hard enough to put them off balance and take a step back. “Snap out of it!”

“Hey!” Cody said.

“We’ve got more important things to get done than have you two share the memory of some high school tramp.”

“Keep it down,” Cody said, looking out into the dining room. “You want my parents to hear you?”

“Fine,” Clarabell said. “You two done swapping perverted memories?”

“It’s not like that,” Demetrius said.

“It doesn’t matter. We don’t have a lot of time. Things are spiraling out of control pretty quick. We don’t want this demon to leave town, and we definitely need to figure out the witch’s end game.”

“What do you want us to do?” Cody said.

“We need to figure out who the demon is currently possessing, and where the witch is hiding. If we can lure either of them out, I may be able to trap them.”

“They were very antagonistic toward each other out in the woods,” Demetrius said. “From what they said to each other, it sounded like the witch freed the demon with the intention of controlling him. If we can find one, maybe keep it occupied, the other one might show up.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Cody ran a hand up and down his face, and Demetrius heard the rasp of stubble. His face needed a shave.

“Hey, what if we started a rumor?” Cody said.

“A rumor?” Demetrius said. “About what?”

“Who another descendant might be.”

“Then we’ll be giving away the fact that we know how to stop him for good,” Clarabell said, shaking her head. “I don’t like that idea. It’s too risky.”

“Even if we let it slip that I’m a descendant?” Cody gestured toward Demetrius. “The demon, whoever it is now, might not know we’ve swapped. If the demon comes looking for me, my body, Demmy and I both could continue to carry the hex bags for protection. And then we could lure it into whatever trap you’ve come up with.”

“That might work,” Clarabell said, rubbing her chin. “But it’s the most Scooby-Doo idea you’ve had to date, you know that, right?”

Cody smiled and shrugged. “Not the insult you might think it is.”

“All right, I’ll get in touch with Tracey, and we’ll start putting together some ingredients for protection from a witch and a demon.” Clarabell looked between them. “You decide where you’re going to launch this rumor and let me know. I’ll get the ingredients to you later.”

“Yeah, okay,” Cody said, then smirked. Even though Demetrius was looking at himself, he absolutely saw Cody in it. “I know just where to kick it off.”