Grave Danger, page 2
“What? Oh my God. Are you okay? Is he… wait, are you sure it was him?”
“I’m fine,” Cody said. “A little freaked out, but okay. And I’m pretty damn sure it was him because he got up and attacked me, so I got a real good look at him.”
“Are you teasing me? Is this some kind of stupid joke or something?”
“I only wish it was.”
“Jesus. What the hell is going on?”
“I’m afraid we’re going to find out,” Cody said as a shiver of fear went through him.
CHAPTER TWO
Demetrius sat on the front steps of the house. It was early June, but the nights were still a bit cool, so he sat with his knees pressed together and his arms tucked in tight. After Cody’s call, he’d decided to step outside and check to make sure the moon wasn’t full. A gentle breeze had carried the scents of damp earth and new growth and he’d decided to stay outside and enjoy it, even though his thoughts turned, as they often did, to darker and more serious matters.
Cody’s call worried him. They’d seen a lot of strange and dangerous stuff the last few years, some of it outside Parson’s Hollow, but a good portion within the town’s borders. Just a few weeks ago, he and Cody had helped Oliver and Dave banish a vengeful ghost from an abandoned motel, for God’s sake. At least they’d both come away from that experience with no injuries. Well, nothing physical, at least. Demetrius still awoke in the night clammy with sweat from nightmares, but he was hoping that would soon pass.
Sometimes, the aftereffects weren’t just emotional, either.
He reached a hand across his chest. His fingers slid beneath the neck of his T-shirt and rubbed the furrows of scar tissue where his neck and shoulder came together.
Some things they’d gone up against were more dangerous than strange.
Headlights swept across the lawn and front of the house, like the guiding beam of a lighthouse. He dropped his hand to his lap as a flash of guilt and shame coursed through him at possibly getting caught rubbing the scars. It had been his choice to go out and face Nicolae on his own, so he shouldn’t be dwelling on it. Cody never mentioned the scars, which didn’t surprise Demetrius. He had been against the idea from the start, and had made that very clear that terrible night two years ago.
But decisions had needed to be made under extreme pressure, and decisions like that usually came with a price.
Sometimes though, when they were spooning in bed, or when Cody came up behind Demetrius and put his arms around his waist, Cody would place a soft kiss in the center of the scars without saying a word, as if trying to heal the past by soothing the present.
Demetrius squinted into the glare of the headlights and thought about his lighthouse comparison. Apt, he supposed, as the truck’s engine cut out and the headlights went dark. The driver’s door opened, triggering the interior lights which brought out henna highlights in Cody’s slightly shaggy brunet hair and cast shadows down his handsome face. The familiar zing of attraction went through Demetrius at the sight of his best friend turned husband, followed by the momentary fear that he was in the midst of a very realistic and long-running dream and would soon awaken to find out all of this had been fantasy.
If that were the case, he’d be heartbroken, but, boy howdy, what a hell of a fantasy it was.
“Hey there.”
Cody’s deep voice carried well through the night air, comforting and arousing.
Oh yes, in all this wide and crazy world, Demetrius could be certain of one thing: Cody Bower was definitely his lighthouse guiding him home.
“Hey yourself.”
Cody approached, and Demetrius scooted to the edge of the step to make room. He felt the heat coming off him, breathed in the familiar smell of his sweat and deodorant, overlaid with something stagnant. Then he heard the quiet and customary groan as Cody settled beside him.
“You okay?” Demetrius asked.
Cody gave a single nod as he stared at the house across the street, hands clasped between his long legs. “I’m okay.”
“Want to talk about it some more?”
“I’m not sure what more to say.” Demetrius could see in his expression how shaken up he was. “I mean, this guy came out of nowhere, just stepped from the woods and in front of my truck. I couldn’t avoid him.” Cody winced at the memory and looked away. “I’ll never forget that sound. Never.”
Demetrius rubbed Cody’s back, noting the dampness of his T-shirt. From sweat? He’d learned a lot the last few years, and one of those things was when he should stay quiet and let Cody get his thoughts together. The muscles in Cody’s back were loosening a bit under Demetrius’s attention, but he was still extremely tense.
“I grazed him and he went down, and I ran right over him. Felt the passenger tires go… over him.” Cody sighed and hung his head. “I hit the brakes and got out and just stood there for a minute, afraid to go any closer. Afraid to, you know, make it even more real. Then he moved. He fucking moved, after I’d hit him and run him over. He actually got up to his knees, and then stood up. I couldn’t believe it. And I felt this crazy sense of relief, you know? Because I hadn’t killed him, and he was able to stand up, so I thought it would be… I thought he would be okay, and I would be off the hook.”
A long silence followed. Demetrius continued to rub his back, pressing now and then against the knots of tension.
“Then he turned his head and I saw his face. Like, really saw it. I mean, I’d glimpsed it when I’d hit him, but I was sure I’d been wrong. I had to be wrong. When he looked at me though…” Cody shook his head and winced again. “I was sure.” He looked at Demetrius from the corner of his eye. “It was George Clarke.” He continued quickly, as if afraid to give Demetrius the opportunity to speak. “I know it’s crazy, I know it makes me sound completely insane, but I was looking at Mayor George I-fucking-died-last-week Clarke.” A quiet and humorless laugh followed with a scoffing and almost scornful sound of disgust. “I thought I was going crazy. Actually, I think I still am.”
“For the record,” Demetrius said, pausing the movement of his hand and resting his forehead against Cody’s shoulder. “I don’t think you’re crazy at all.”
Cody sighed and kissed the top of Demetrius’s head. “Thank you,” he muttered into his thinning hair.
Demetrius lifted his head and resumed rubbing Cody’s back. “You said he attacked you?”
“Fuck, yeah, he did. I went back to the truck to call the police, and he came after me. He reached inside the door, grabbing for me. He was making this weird moaning sound.” Demetrius felt a shudder go through him. “I crawled over the console and went out the passenger door, and he came around the truck to get to me. I ended up in the fucking drainage ditch. Again.”
“I thought I smelled something familiar.”
Cody gave him a tired smirk. “Wasn’t the same without you there.”
“No offense, but I’m glad I missed out on this one.”
“You should be.”
“So what happened? Did anyone else see him? Did Lucia come out?”
Cody sighed. “No, she must have had the night off to sharpen her claws and fangs. I was treated, instead, to the next worst person.”
Demetrius’s belly tightened as guilt went through him like a flash fire. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. Deputy Ryan Zellmer, in all his grudge-holding glory. He didn’t see any sign of the good and dead mayor, and he really put me through the paces with every field sobriety test he learned in sheriff deputy college.”
“Ugh. You really have had a shitty night.”
“It wasn’t shitty until I left the bar. Jugs and I got those three jobs done, and then we had a good dinner at the Hollow Leg. After that, all hell broke loose. And I mean that literally.”
“I’m not doubting you or trying to change your mind or anything, but…”
Cody looked at him, his expression tight. “I’m sure it was the mayor.”
Demetrius groaned. “But how could that be?”
“I don’t want to fucking know.”
“You know what this means, right?”
“We’re going to move to California and forget about this cursed town?”
Demetrius laughed and linked his arm through Cody’s as he scooted in close. “Not even a little bit. I love Parson’s Hollow. And you do too, deep down.”
“It goes down deeper with every weird monster we stumble across.”
“But it’s there, I know it is.” Demetrius gave his arm a squeeze. “What this means is we need to go by the cemetery tomorrow and check out the mayor’s grave.”
“Why?”
Demetrius released his hold on Cody and leaned back. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, why does it have to be us? Why can’t the sheriff’s department step up and take it on?”
“The sheriff’s department helped a lot when Nicolae was running rampant turning people into werewolves.”
Cody grunted.
“And you said Ryan didn’t see the mayor, right?”
“Right, of course not.” Cody waved a hand toward the dark street. “Our recently deceased mayor is roaming around the woods somewhere, waiting to lurch out in front of another unsuspecting driver, and I’m the only one who’s seen him.”
“Which is why you and I need to go to the cemetery tomorrow,” Demetrius said. “No one else is going to take this seriously, you know that. We’ve been through stuff like this before. We know what to look for and what kind of evidence we’ll need to prove it to other people.”
“We do? I don’t recall us going up against zombies in the last few years.”
“Well, true, this is definitely a first.”
“I don’t want it to be a first,” Cody said. “I don’t want to get involved at all. Zombies are gross and smell bad. They’re dangerous as fuck and completely gross.”
“You said gross twice.”
“That’s because they’re that fucking gross.”
Cody’s voice had gotten louder, and Demetrius resumed rubbing his back. “Let’s not think about it anymore tonight and go inside. You get cleaned up, and I’ll make us a snack and we can sit and watch whatever you want.”
“I do want to get cleaned up, but I’m not hungry.” He sounded sullen and distant.
“Not even for steak nachos?”
Cody lifted an eyebrow and gave him a side-eye. “There’s steak?”
“Left over from Amelia’s.”
Cody’s smile, small, a bit timid, but a smile nonetheless, relaxed Demetrius. Not much, but he would take what little feeling of relaxation he could get.
“Amelia grills a decadent steak,” Cody said.
“Imagine it over crisp chips, with green peppers, olives, onions, melted cheese, and guacamole.”
Cody leaned over and kissed him softly. “You’re giving me a chub.”
“Good to know I haven’t lost my touch.”
“I might need more than nachos to get over my experience.”
“However I can help, I’m happy to lend a hand.” Demetrius kissed him, lingering a bit. “Or whatever other body part you may need.”
“You’re a very dirty man.”
“Learned it all from my handsome and even dirtier husband.”
“Smooth talker.”
“Go clean up, and I’ll put the nachos together.”
After another kiss, Cody got up then helped Demetrius to his feet. They entered the house and Cody went down the narrow hall leading to the bedrooms and only bathroom. Demetrius walked through the dining room into the small but clean kitchen, with white tile countertops and white tile backsplash with a thin line of pink tile at the top. His Aunt Amelia owned the house outright and had gifted it to him and Cody a few years ago when she had moved into a condo with her boyfriend, Otis. The house was outdated style-wise, but it was comfortable and came with no mortgage payment, so they really couldn’t complain.
Well, they could complain, and they did, but kept it between themselves. And those complaints focused mostly on the cramped bathroom with the pink tile walls and the pink porcelain sink, tub, and toilet. Cody considered it similar to what it would be like to step inside someone’s stomach, and Demetrius had to agree.
He set the oven to preheat and grabbed a large cast iron skillet from a lower cupboard. As he assembled the nachos, Demetrius contemplated Cody’s experience.
Cody wasn’t drunk, but he was shaken up. There was, of course, no doubt in Demetrius’s mind everything happened as Cody had described it. They’d been through enough weird shit that it really didn’t even surprise him. Things had been quiet in Parson’s Hollow for a while now; they were due for something weird. Though a zombie, or the undead, or whatever people wanted to call it, was more than a little beyond what they were familiar with. A few weeks before, they’d worked with Cody’s brother, Dave, and his boyfriend, Oliver, who happened to be Demetrius’s friend—okay, ex-boyfriend turned friend—to rid a rundown motel of a vengeful ghost, and that had been a big step outside of their comfort zone. It had also been much more dangerous than either of them had expected.
But the motel had been several hours away from Parson’s Hollow. This new threat had happened here in town, and he felt a quiet sense of dread that things were about to spin out of control.
Again.
He thought about Wayne Zellmer, who had given his life as he’d protected his town. Their town. And, as always, felt the usual pang of guilt that came with the memories. They hadn’t been directly involved in the deputy’s death, but Demetrius couldn’t help feeling responsible for him, as well as the sixteen other lives lost during those awful days when Nicolae had been running through town exacting his vengeance. Vengeance he’d harbored against them. Well, against Demetrius specifically, for putting a stop to the blood-soaked rampage of one of Nicolae’s “children” as he called the werewolves he created.
Which made Ryan Zellmer’s resentment completely understandable. No less easy to deal with, of course, but understandable in a certain context.
Demetrius heard the shower cut off, and he hurriedly put finishing touches on the nachos. It looked pretty damn good, if he did say so himself. He added more shredded cheese, then another handful just because it had been a crappy night and Cody had definitely earned more cheese. He slid the pan in the oven as Cody entered the kitchen wearing a V-neck T-shirt and a pair of boxers.
“We’ve got twenty minutes,” Demetrius said as he set the oven timer. “What do you want to do?”
Cody smirked and took him by the hand. “I’ve got some ideas.”
Demetrius chuckled as Cody led him into the living room and pulled him down to the sofa beside him. They kissed, Cody’s lips and tongue familiar but still so arousing. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of or used to kissing Cody.
Moving down, Cody kissed the tip of Demetrius’s chin, the side of his neck, and then tugged his T-shirt down to kiss the hollow of his throat.
Demetrius sighed and slid his hand up the leg of Cody’s boxers. He cupped the smooth surface of Cody’s freshly shaved balls, smiling at the grunt of appreciation he received in response. Cody spread his legs wide and moved his mouth up to claim Demetrius’s in a hard, tongue-heavy kiss.
“I need more room to move,” Cody said between kisses. “Let’s go to the bedroom.”
When they stood, Demetrius chuckled at the tent in Cody’s boxers. He took hold of his cock through the material and led him down the hall to the bedroom. They quickly shed their clothes and Cody pulled him close, tumbling them onto the bed. Kissing and grinding together, Cody tweaked each nipple, softly brushed through the hair covering his chest and belly, and took firm hold of Demetrius’s cock.
Demetrius delivered a final kiss, then got to his knees and reached into the nightstand drawer for the lube. He ran the flat of his tongue up the length of Cody’s long, hot dick, smiling at the moans his attention produced. At the tip, he swirled his tongue around the cap, savoring the taste of Cody’s precum, then dropped his mouth over him. He sucked and licked the length of him, delivering kisses and gentle sucks to the tip. He lost himself in the rhythm of it, and when Cody shuddered and pulled his head up off him, Demetrius felt a bit out of sorts.
“You almost made me come,” Cody said with a shaky laugh. “But I’m not ready yet.”
“Me neither.” Demetrius squeezed some lube into his palm and warmed it before applying it along Cody’s length. He pushed some inside himself, closing his eyes as he fingered his hole with one hand and gripped Cody’s cock in the other. When he was ready, Demetrius straddled Cody and slowly took him in.
“Oh, God,” Cody said. “I love being inside you.”
“I love it, too.”
Demetrius had to stop and restart a couple of times before he sat flush with Cody’s pelvis. He leaned down for a kiss, then began to move, lifting his ass and slowly lowering it. Cody’s dick stretched and filled him like no other. Even with all the years they’d been having sex, Demetrius sometimes still had to convince himself it was actually happening.
He propped himself up with his hands on Cody’s chest. Beneath his palm, Cody’s heart pounded hard. Cody gripped his ass cheeks, spreading them wide to give him even deeper access. Demetrius bounced on Cody’s cock, the head stroking his prostate and sending waves of precum to drool down his length.
“I gotta shift,” Cody said. “I need to drive.”
He held Demetrius on him as he rolled them to the side, never slipping out of Demetrius’s ass. With Demetrius on his back, legs up, Cody grabbed his ankles and thrust into him. They looked into each other’s eyes, Demetrius stroking himself with one hand and pinching Cody’s nipple with the other.
Cody’s thrusts intensified, his skin slapping against Demetrius’s, cock sliding deep and hitting Demetrius in just the right spot.
“I’m coming,” Demetrius said with a gasp.
“Do it,” Cody growled. “I’m almost there. Come for me.”
Demetrius shouted as his load splattered across his belly, hot and thick. His muscles pulsed around Cody’s length, and just as Demetrius finished, Cody tipped his head back and shouted up at the ceiling as he climaxed deep inside him.
