Page 13 of Coven of Corpses

“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 & Beyond with Jugs. He’d told Demetrius not to rush into work just for a paycheck. But as the days turned into weeks, Demetrius was getting edgy and bored.

And then, just after her one hundredth birthday, Felicia’s health had taken a turn.

Caring for her had always been a lot for Cody. Legally, Cody’s father, Greg, was Felicia’s medical and financial power of attorney. But Greg and Alice lived in Colorado. Cody was the one who saw her on a regular basis, usually three or more times a week. And he’d been managing her level of care and suggesting updates as needed to Greg.

Now, after everything they’d been through in the past year, Demetrius worried about Cody’s state of mind. While he’d always been, as Ollie’s grandmother Eileen might say, “a tough nut to crack,” he’d become even more closed off when Felicia’s health had deteriorated.

Cody’s brooding quiet these last several weeks wasn’t a surprise. And with the chaos of his entire family coming to town—thank God for Dave and Oliver taking in Brady and his family, and Amelia and Otis opening their home to Cody’s parents—Cody hadn’t had a lot of time to sit with and understand what he was feeling. Or for the two of them to be alone long enough to talk about it.

But the quiet that had come over Cody recently was deeper than what Demetrius was accustomed to. It felt stronger, more insistent. He looked forward to the end of the weekend when Cody’s family would all depart, and life for them could return to normal. Whatever that looked like.

The heat came on, venting warm air across his feet as that one loose vent quietly rattled. He cocked his head, listening. No sounds now from the bedrooms. Grant and his family had all fallen asleep. Or at least the kids wore headphones while staring at their screens.

Demetrius got up with a quiet groan. He hadn’t done much of anything, so how could his muscles ache like this? Taking up the couch cushions, he pulled out the bed frame and unfolded it. They’d left the sheets on, so it was easy enough to get the bed ready with an extra blanket and pillows from the tiny hall closet.

After a visit to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth and changed into sleep pants and a tee, he set up the coffee maker for the morning. The hardwood floor of the dining room was cool under his bare feet, and he hurried into the living room. Being careful not to jam his toe against the legs of the fold out bed again he got under the covers. He checked his phone for any messages from Cody, but nothing was waiting. Deciding to stick with the no-news-was-good-news way of life, he set his phone aside and snuggled deeper under the covers.

He didn’t think about the hex bag outside.

And he definitely didn’t think about the identity of the body out in the woods. Somewhere in town tonight, someone was finding out they’d lost a loved one. And sometime in the near future, that loss might come around to affect him and Cody and everyone else they cared about.

* * *

Demetrius started awake. Heart pounding, he looked around the dark room. So much was the same—Cody’s arm around him, his body pressed against Demetrius’s back; 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.