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“Yeah, I know.” Oliver snorted quietly. “And you’re the genius who married him.”
Demetrius smiled and looked down at his simple silver wedding band. “And I married him.” He was quiet a moment, thoughtful. Then he shook his head and stood. “Come on, let’s go untangle Cody from whatever bushes he’s gotten snagged in and look for Dave.”
Oliver followed Demetrius out of the room and pulled the door shut behind them. They caught up with Cody just past the latrine, and Oliver tried to keep from smirking as Demetrius carefully unhooked Cody’s long-sleeved t-shirt from the thorns that had trapped him.
“I could have done that,” Cody muttered once Demetrius had freed him.
“I know,” Demetrius said. “It’s just faster if someone helps you with it. And we all want to find Dave as quickly as possible.”
“Yeah.” Cody looked at Oliver, and it appeared he might have worked off some of his temper because he didn’t look quite as angry. More like his normal level of angry. “All right, Ollie. You’re most familiar with this place. How should we do this?”
“Well, I searched a lot of this immediate area in the dark, so maybe we start here and look for any clues that might tell us which way he went? Footprints or pieces of clothing or something?”
“All right, that’s our plan,” Demetrius said, swatting at a bug on the back of his neck. “We don’t get too far apart, and we move in as straight a line as possible so we don’t get turned around.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and turned in a slow circle. “My compass app works even though the signal is crap out here. Everybody check to make sure we’re all in sync on which direction we’re facing.”
“This is the worst boy band experience ever,” Cody grumbled.
“What?” Oliver said with a frown. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Demmy said to make sure we’re all in sync.” Cody grinned as he turned in place and watched his phone. “You know…” He sang a few lines from the NSYNC song “Bye, Bye, Bye” while waving one hand over his head.
“Jesus Christ,” Oliver whispered to himself.
“Okay, knock-off version of Justin Timberlake,” Demetrius said, “let’s get moving.”
“Dave!” Cody shouted, his deep voice booming into the woods and startling some birds from the underbrush nearby. “Dave Bower!”
“Let’s keep about fifty feet between us,” Demetrius continued, “and move east first.”
Oliver headed off to Demetrius’s left while Cody trampled through the ferns and underbrush to Demetrius’s right. Worry gnawed at Oliver’s belly even as he tried to push it aside and focus on finding evidence of Dave passing through that area. When he’d counted fifty steps, he started moving east, shouting Dave’s name every now and then, hearing Demetrius and Cody doing the same off to his right.
He really hoped they found Dave, of course, but he also worried what condition they would find him in. Was he really under the Vixen’s spell? If that was the case, would they be able to bring him out of it? Would he be injured or adversely affected by such a deep trance? And was there something they could do to end Ruby’s murderous haunting once and for all?
He needed to do a lot more research, the thought of which was more than a little overwhelming considering his emotional state. He felt like he could sit down in the woods and cry himself to sleep. He should have done a lot more research into the legend of the Vixen—hell, into ghosts in general—but he had been excited and impatient and wanted to get to the motel and maybe manage a sighting of the ghost to help boost the click potential of his story. He’d never expected to be this involved with the legend, or to have Dave become one of her victims.
No, he couldn’t think like that. Dave would not become another victim. They would find him and figure all of this out. Everything would be fine in a little while. He just needed to get through the next few hours.
As tears threatened to spill down his cheeks, Oliver heard Cody shout, “How many leaves does poison ivy have?”
“Three!” Demetrius called back.
“Shit,” Cody said in a quieter voice.
His dejected tone made Oliver snort-laugh, helping clear a bit of his helplessness and exhaustion. He trudged on through the woods, listening to Demetrius and Cody go back and forth about poison ivy and potential cures for the rash it produced. Some things never changed, and that helped Oliver gain his balance with each step.
A few hours later, none of them had had any luck and turned back. When they finally stepped out of the woods into the parking lot, Oliver saw the motel room door standing open. Hope flared bright and hot in his chest.
“Dave!”
He broke into a run, his body fueled by the vision of Dave sitting on the edge of the bed or even sleeping, tired and dirty but otherwise fine. He would have some crazy story about taking a wrong turn on the way to the latrine the night before and getting lost in the woods for hours. They would all laugh, Cody would tease his brother about it for much too long, and everyone would hug. Then Oliver and Dave would pack up their stuff and return to the apartment, their home, in Parson’s Hollow.
“You’re back,” Oliver said, but the words died in his throat as he rushed through the door and found the room empty. The buoyant joy in his chest deflated as he took in their belongings once again scattered around. “Dave?” He checked the bathroom but it, too, was empty, and everything they’d left inside had been tossed to the floor.
“Is he back?” Cody said as he entered the room. “Dave?”
Oliver stepped out of the bathroom and shook his head. “He’s not here.”
“Someone’s been here,” Demetrius said as he looked around. “It’s like they were searching for something. Is anything missing?”
