Page 91 of Dark Obsession

“Hell, yeah,” Jugs said, and he and Cody exchanged fist bumps.

“All right. But we need to make a plan.” She nodded to Demetrius and then Oliver. “Let’s go down to Memorial Park. Amelia and Eileen have been driving the deputies nuts asking about you both. We can organize there.”

Lucia led them out onto Main Street. Even though the fire was on the other side of the street and a few doors down from their position, the heat slapped against them, forcing them all to put up an arm as they hurried after Lucia. A few firefighters held hoses, spraying at the base of the flames. Another hose lay abandoned, writhing and spitting water as a deputy tried to chase it down. Paint bubbled and peeled along the bodies of cars and trucks they passed. When the big window of the store beside The Purple Orchid exploded from the heat, they all dropped to a crouch and covered their heads.

“Shit, we’re losing Casually Comfortable,” Lucia said, watching as piles of casual wear displayed on a table in the window started to burn.

“I don’t think those sweats would pass the fire retardant test,” Dave said.

Demetrius grinned.

As he followed Lucia, the others trailing behind him, Demetrius considered Bastian’s actions. He’d taken Zenona to turn her, most likely a power move against her and the rest of them as revenge for them taking down Xavier last year. She’d been bitten by Michael, but Demetrius didn’t know if those bites would count. There was so much they had yet to learn about vampires. He just knew they needed to save her. No other option.

The water rifles and strings of garlic had slowed them down, but as Bastian had said, he and the others had trained to build up resistance. Lucia’s silver bullet in Annie’s shoulder, however, had tipped the scales significantly in their direction. Bastian obviously hadn’t anticipated such a deadly pushback. The question now became where had he taken Zenona? Demetrius didn’t think he would have gone far. He enjoyed the attention too much. He’d want to make a show of turning her. But where were they? And where was Robin and the other missing people? He refused to accept Robin would be one of the unidentifiable bodies discovered inside Hollow Grounds.

They dodged around a couple of sheriff’s cruisers blocking traffic at the other end of Main Street, and jogged across the road to where a small crowd had gathered in Memorial Park.

“Look,” someone said above the other conversations. “It’s them!”

A cheer went up within the gathering, and then a few people started to chant, “Critter Catchers! Critter Catchers!” Before long, the entire group had joined in.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cody muttered.

“Hey, big brother, you’re famous,” Dave said from behind Cody. “Can I have your autograph?”

“Sure, and I’ll jam the pen up your ass afterwards,” Cody said with a growl.

Dave laughed.

“For Christ’s sake.” Lucia shook her head. “They’ve obviously never met the two of you.”

“Demetrius!”

Amelia pushed her way through the crowd and rushed to him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. As he hugged Amelia, Demetrius heard Eileen’s scratchy voice call out to Oliver, and his cry of “Grandma!”

Then he heard Clarabell say, “Robin!” in her scratchy voice, and he saw the kid rush up to grab her in a hug. Robin was covered in soot and some of their hair looked to have been singed. A white bandage wound up their right arm, but they seemed to have no problem holding tight to Clarabell.

Demetrius squeezed his eyes shut and released a shuddery breath as he held Amelia a little bit longer.