Page 13 of Dark Obsession

“Yeah, I’ve been there.” He slid off the bed but leaned against it, crossing his arms. “So, how’ve you been?”

“I’ve been well.” She frowned. “Why?”

“No reason. I’m just checking in on a friend. We all went through a lot at Halloween—you more than the rest of us, what with losing Michael and all.” It sounded awkward and rushed, and he immediately hated how he’d worded it.

“Well, yeah, sure. He was a good man.” She glanced at the curtain covering the entry and lowered her voice. “Vampire. But deep down, a good man.”

“Hell of a coroner,” Cody said, trying to think of a way to lighten his previous statement. “Guess he would be, with so many years of experience.” He flushed as he heard how it sounded. “Not that he caused many of the deaths he saw, because I know he wasn’t a…he didn’t go for human⁠—”

“I get it,” Zenona said, holding up her hand. “You can stop.”

“Thank God.”

They smiled at each other, then Zenona asked, “How do your bites feel?”

“Zombie or vampire?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “A response I never expected to hear from a patient when I was in med school.”

“Seeing as how I’m more than a patient⁠—”

“All right, now. That’s ancient history.”

“Oh, I know.”

“And you’re married.”

“I am, very happily married. But you and I have been friends a long time.”

She sighed. “So long.”

“Hey,” he protested gently.

She laughed. “No, I didn’t mean anything bad by that. Just that we’re both on the cusp of forty.”

“Yeah. Don’t say it too loud, you may get its attention.”

They shared another smile, then she let out a breath and put her hands on her hips, the movement pushing back her white coat. Her hip bones jutted out within her slacks, and her waist had narrowed enough for him to notice even though they hadn’t seen much of each other since Dave and Ollie’s wedding. “How do the bites on your neck feel?”

Cody ran his fingers across the tiny puckered scars. A small knot of anxiety and something more, something darker, that had set up house in the center of his chest when he wasn’t looking, wrung itself a little tighter. “They’re okay. Don’t feel or think about them unless I catch sight of them in a mirror or someone asks.”

Zenona ran a hand up and down one arm. She stared at a point just over his left shoulder and her smile slipped a bit. “Yeah. I get that.” She looked at his face and away again. “Any other spooky calls from clients?”

“Nope, just the one. Zombie kind of caught us off guard. We weren’t really expecting it.”

“Oh? What did you think it was?”

He shrugged quickly. “Who can tell around here? Demmy and I both have bins in our trucks with stuff to cover a wide range.”

“Like what?”

“Silver crosses, which could help against vampires and werewolves. Wooden stakes, which I used to take out the zombie last night.”

She made a face. “You stabbed it in the head?”

“Didn’t really have a choice. It had grabbed Demmy and was trying to take a bite out of him.”

“Jesus.”