Page 80 of Dark Obsession

“Yeah, I know.” Demmy looked around for Margie. “I think she went back in the kitchen.”

“We can stop in afterwards and update her. Should be less busy then.”

“Good idea. Oh.” He smiled at someone coming through the door behind Cody. “It’s Amelia.”

“Oh, banana trees, are you boys just finishing up?” Amelia stood next to their table.

“We are.” Demmy slid out of the booth to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You can have our booth if you like.”

Cody turned to make sure there was no longer a line at the door and saw Amelia’s boyfriend Otis approaching. Behind him, Ollie’s grandmother, Eileen, and her boyfriend, Dieter were coming in.

“Gang’s all here,” Cody said as he left the booth to hug the two women and shake hands with the men. “Is Tuesday the new date night?”

“Every night is date night, Stretch,” Eileen said as she slid into the booth. “And I guess the rest of the town knows it, too, by the look of this place.”

Margie returned, tucking a lock of hair back into place under her hairnet. “Oh, are you boys leaving?”

“We need to go, but we’ll be back later,” Cody said.

Margie nodded before turning her attention to the new arrivals. “What a handsome group. What can I bring everyone to drink?”

Cody took the bill from Margie, waved to the others, and then followed Demmy up to the register where Vicki rang them up.

“Have a good night, guys,” she said before hurrying off to check on her tables.

They slipped outside past another group of people coming in and went to the truck. The storms had shifted, moving to the south, sparing them the rain but trailing humidity behind it. The sticky air didn’t stop Cody from dropping an arm around Demmy’s shoulders, however. He needed that connection.

“I’m glad Margie’s business is doing so well,” Demmy said.

“I hear a ‘but’ in there.”

“Well, I miss our booth, and being able to talk with her.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

When they reached the truck, Cody looked into the windows of Hollow Grounds, but Robin and two other servers were busy behind the counter, with customers waiting four deep.

“Business is booming everywhere,” he said as he pressed the unlock button.

A group of four twenty-somethings loped past, laughing and shrieking. A boy wore the ever-popular werewolf ears headband, and two of the girls wore plastic fangs. The group stopped at a bench under a tree, and a boy not wearing a headband or fangs pulled a small glass vial from his pocket. It was filled with a dark liquid, and he uncapped it, pressed a fingertip to the opening and quickly upended it. As he passed the vial to another member of his group, he sucked the liquid off his finger, then tipped his head back and howled at the cloudy sky.

Demmy met Cody’s eye over the hood of the truck. “Do you think that’s Fang?”

The rest of the Gen Zers howled, and then the group took off again, skipping and leaping and dancing down the sidewalk.

“I’d bet money on it.”

“Where did they get it?”

“Had to be from Bastian, right?” Cody said. “Which brings up a whole other list of questions, like how’d they meet him, did they pay in cash or blood? And have they been out to that bar? Come on.”

The drive to Clarabell’s was short, and Cody parked at the curb in front of her two-story brick building. Clarabell’s Kia Soul sat in one of the garage spaces underneath the deck opening off her apartment, and based on the other cars parked along the curb, they were the last to arrive. They pressed the intercom button and were quickly buzzed in. Her apartment door was unlocked, and they climbed the stairs to her place. The French doors to the deck were closed, and the air conditioning was keeping the space nicely cooled, even with the number of people gathered.

“Here they are,” Clarabell said. “The stars of the show.”

Cody approached his brother, Dave, and delivered a hug. “I want to talk to my manager about the size of my dressing room.”

Clarabell laughed, and most everyone else chuckled. After giving Ollie a playful nudge, Cody took in the room, taking a headcount. Dave and Ollie stood by the island. Zenona and Tracey sat on a loveseat, while Lucia shared the sofa with Jugs and Agatha. When Cody nodded to Lucia, she gave him a cool stare in response. Zenona dropped her gaze.