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CHAPTER FOUR

D emetrius couldn’t do much. He wasn’t going to drive up and down roads along Parson’s Woods looking for parked emergency vehicles. And he definitely wasn’t going to call Lucia Durant, sheriff’s deputy and another of Cody’s long list of ex-girlfriends. They hadn’t seen much of her since November when they’d helped clean up the city after the vampires. She had come to Felicia’s funeral, which had been a nice show of respect and support. She had been with Deputy Gayle Walsh, Lucia’s work partner and, from what Demetrius could gather, her girlfriend. Zenona Baldwin, a doctor working at Parson’s Hollow Memorial Hospital, had been with them, as well as Tracey. Demetrius thought of Lucia, Zenona, and Tracey as the core of Cody’s ex-girlfriends. Which, now that he thought about it, was unfair. They’d all become good friends in the last few years. Well, maybe good friend was a bit too strong of a term for Tracey. At least she no longer glared at him when he entered the library.

He asked Mac to show him where Trevor had found the hex bag. Using the flashlight on his phone, he picked out the shallow indentation in the slightly softened ground. It had been placed directly beneath the window at the foot of their bed. After some discussion, they’d decided it would be best to return it to its place. Demetrius held it in his palm, trying to feel its energy. But either he wasn’t open to that kind of thing, or the energy had been disrupted by Mac and Trevor handling it. He crouched, placed it in the divot—trying not to think of it as a shallow grave—and covered it with dirt. They’d had a few days of warmer weather recently, and the smell of the earth rose up to him. It felt damp and rough between his fingertips. He set a small, oblong stone upright on top to mark the place, making it look even more like a grave. With a shiver, he followed her back inside.

The movie was wrapping up with a lot of explosions and gunfire. Conrad and Brooke sat on the floor at either end of the couch. Their phones lay close at hand but momentarily forgotten as they watched the action.

“Dems, you missed the best part,” Grant said. “He was his own twin.”

“Oh, no,” Demetrius said, feigning disappointment. “Now you’ve ruined it for me.”

They all laughed at that. Once the credits rolled, Mac and Grant shepherded the kids to the guest room where it was Brooke’s turn to sleep in the bed and the boys’ turns to use the air mattresses.

“Night, Dems. Thanks for a great dinner tonight.”

“You’re welcome. See you in the morning.”

Demetrius sat on the couch and let out a long, slow breath. He could hear muted voices from the end of the hall, but with a bit of effort, he was able to push them to the background. The TV was still on and he switched it off. Darkness claimed the room. The only light came from the single low-wattage lamp in the corner. It soothed his overworked nerves, and he gave himself a few minutes to simply sit on the couch and stare into the middle distance.

He didn’t have to make up the pull out bed of the couch right away. Cody wouldn’t be home for a while. And Demetrius didn’t have a job to wake up for.

Back in November, in the weeks after the fight against the vampires on Halloween, they’d helped with the clean-up of the city. While they’d been busy with that, the mayor, city manager, and city council had been meeting. A lot of decisions had come out of those meetings, including outsourcing the DPW services. And they’d fired Cody and Demetrius. When pressed for a reason, the city manager, Morton Whitfield, had mentioned the snow plow Cody had driven through the door of the DPW garage. Mayor Henderson had thanked them for putting down Xavier, a centuries-old vampire, and exposing the treachery enacted by the DPW manager, John Burnwell—or John the Bastard, as Cody referred to him. But the vote had been unanimous. All of their sacrifice didn’t amount to being able to keep their jobs.

The DPW tasks had gone to Harriettville, which Cody claimed felt like a slap in the face, since Harriettville was Parson’s Hollow High’s biggest rival. But Demetrius could understand the decision, since the basement of the DPW garage had to be cleared of all vampires and vampire-related items and sterilized. And then the building had had to be demolished since it was structurally compromised thanks to Cody’s idea that saved all of them.

So, they’d squeaked by on the little bit of savings they’d accumulated while they’d been employed. Each of their parents had helped, but eventually Cody had taken the job at Bulk the sound of his breathing; the familiar smells of soap and clean sweat and that underlying scent unique to him—but many things were different. The room felt bigger, filled with unusual furniture, and the ambient light from outside was altered.

Then he remembered, and a gentle shudder went through him. Felicia was gone.

“Hey. You okay?”

Cody’s voice was sleep-rough and sexy. He tightened his arm around Demetrius, pressing him even closer.

“Yeah. Just a dream.”

“Bad one?”

“Don’t remember.”

“Lucky.” A soft kiss on the back of his neck. “Can you get back to sleep?”

Demetrius put a hand on Cody’s forearm and squeezed. “I can now. Glad you’re home.”

Another one-armed hug from Cody. “Me, too.”

Less than a minute later, Cody’s breathing deepened back into sleep. His ability to briefly wake and then go right back to sleep had always amazed Demetrius. Even when they’d slept over as kids, long before they’d become a couple, Cody had done that. He’d be sound asleep, hear Demetrius move or get up for some water or to pee, and would wake long enough to ask if everything was okay. Once Demetrius had assured him things were fine, Cody would be right back to sleep again. Cody had always watched out for him.

Demetrius attributed Cody’s ability to wake and get right back to sleep as being raised in a house with four other boys, two of them younger. He was protective and carried a heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders—usually with great reluctance and griping—so when someone got up in the middle of the night, Cody would wake long enough to check things out, and then go right back to sleep.

And for someone six foot five and over two hundred pounds, a good portion of that muscle, Cody had managed to come home, showered, and get into bed beside him without waking Demetrius. Either he’d been more tired than he’d realized, or Cody was part ninja. Or maybe a combination of both.

Either way, he was glad to have Cody home and their house quiet. For now.

He’d show Cody the hex bag tomorrow morning and talk about the implications, while Cody went over the details of everything he’d seen at the store. For now, he needed to get back to sleep and not try to figure out who in their small town knew about hex bags and thought they needed protection, or whose life had come to an untimely end out in the woods. That could wait until tomorrow.

He closed his eyes. He drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs. Slowly he exhaled, releasing all of it.

Tomorrow they would have a chance to talk.

Tomorrow he could find some time to slip away and pay a visit to the library.