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“I think this is what it’s like inside a microwave.”
Cody wiped sweat from his brow. Demetrius could see the hair at the back of his neck was damp and had curled slightly, and a brief gasp of wind only managed to stir the hot air off the asphalt higher around them. It also brought him a whiff of Cody’s sweat, awakening a primal yearning deep inside Demetrius. Ever since he’d been turned into a werewolf by Nicolae all those years ago, he’d become especially tuned into Cody’s scent, and easily aroused by it.
But this was not the time for any of that, so he focused his mind on the moment and their mission. Or rather their goal, because mission felt like a bigger achievement than simply finding out if a body was still in the morgue.
The air-conditioned interior of the hospital made them both shiver, and Demetrius rubbed his arms a few times as they approached the information desk. A young woman sat behind the desk, looking at a computer screen, and when she looked up, she fixed Cody with a stare.
Demetrius was used to witnessing this reaction, from women and men alike, so he kept quiet and allowed Cody to work his charm.
“Good evening,” Cody said with a smile. “Is Doctor Zenona Baldwin working tonight?”
The woman blushed as she typed and consulted her computer monitor. “She is, yes. Could I… Do you want me to… I mean, I could, like, page her or something for you. If you wanted me to.”
“Would you?” Cody leaned in over the desk a little and lowered his voice. “We’d like to speak to her about a private matter. You understand.”
She nodded vigorously and punched some buttons on the phone, then spoke quietly into the receiver. When she replaced the handset, she nodded. “Dr. Baldwin will be here shortly.”
“Thank you very much…” Cody leaned back to look at the woman’s name on a small placard. “Genevieve. That’s a beautiful name.”
“What? Oh, thanks. It’s my maternal grandmother’s name.” She blushed even more fiercely and played with the ends of her hair. “I don’t know why I told you that. Sorry.”
“You’re fine. Thank you for your help. We’ll wait over here, out of the way.”
Cody headed toward a small bistro table surrounded by a few chairs, and Demetrius followed.
“Still got it,” Cody said with a smile.
“Yep,” Demetrius said as he sat down across from him. “And it’s all for me.”
Cody leaned in over the table and caught Demetrius’s eyes. “Always.”
It was Demetrius’s turn to blush. “Knock it off.”
“What?”
“You know what.”
Cody sat back, grinning. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a rascal.”
Cody laughed, and the sound of it echoed around the big open space, attracting the attention of Genevieve and a man and woman talking with her. It also caught the attention of a woman seated across the lobby, who looked up from where she was writing hastily in a notebook. The overhead lights flashed across the lenses of her glasses, and a shock of recognition rattled through Demetrius.
“Oh,” was all he managed to say as the woman got to her feet and headed toward them in a brisk walk.
Cody was busy looking at his phone and didn’t look up when he said, “What’s that?”
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Felix and Oscar of the monster hunting world. Hiya, boys, how they hanging?”
Cody jumped and swore when he looked up, but Demetrius smiled at the short, thin woman who stood before them, decked out in a vintage Godzilla t-shirt so oversized it practically hid the fact she wore what looked like rainbow-colored bike pants. She also wore her familiar pair of neon green Crocs, the plastic bottoms scuffing on the tile floor as she shifted her weight.
Demetrius said, “Hi Clarabell. I wondered if we might see you at some point.”
“Got yourselves a real humdinger here, don’t you?” Clarabell’s voice was the usual rasp that made Demetrius want to clear his own throat.
“We don’t ‘got’ anything,” Cody said with a curl of his lip. “It’s not our case.”
“Thought I saw you and Deputy Durant cruising around town in her patrol car, looking like the best of friends,” Clarabell said. “Or are they just so friendly about arresting people in this town that you get to ride up front?”
