Page 46 of Grave Danger

The cherry on top of it all, though, was Cody had been ‘gifted’ the most hated car in the entire county. God knew where they were going to park it until they could figure out what to do with the damn thing. It was longer than their house, so it sure as hell wouldn’t fit in the single car detached garage.

“Insure it and burn it?” Demetrius said as he dropped into his desk chair and put his head in his hands.

“I’m not sure it would actually burn.”

Demetrius chuckled, and it helped take some of the edge off his anxiety. Some of it. He decided to focus on a positive aspect. “Nice of Jugs to offer to take the groundhogs out toward Harriettville and release them along the way.”

“Yeah. If we’d taken them to our spot by the pond we’d probably end up bringing that homebody raccoon back with us.”

Cody sat across from Demetrius and they stared at each other over the surfaces of their desks.

“Quite a day,” Demetrius said.

“Seems to happen a lot with us.”

“At least we haven’t had to deal with a zombie.”

“Yet.” Cody played with a pen. “You haven’t seen one, have you?”

“I’ve seen the empty graves.”

“Right, but you haven’t actually seen one coming at you and trying to bite you.”

Demetrius shifted position, feeling antsy with the direction this conversation was going. “What are you getting at?”

“I’m just asking a question.”

“A question you know the answer to. Are you afraid I don’t believe you?”

“No.” Cody played with the pen some more. “But you do believe me, right?”

“Hey, of course I believe you. We’ve been through the weirdest shit anyone could imagine, why wouldn’t I believe you about this?”

Cody lifted one shoulder slightly in a half-shrug, and his gentle pout and downcast eyes were so goddamn cute, Demetrius almost couldn’t handle it. He got up and rounded their desks to stand before Cody. With a hand on Cody’s shoulder, he rolled him and his chair back so his legs came out from the knee well of his desk. He turned him slightly to face him, eased his legs open, and dropped to his knees between them.

“Should we lock the door?” Cody asked, his voice deepening with lust.

“Not yet,” Demetrius said with a smile. He rested his forearms on Cody’s knees and held his hands palms up, fingers open. Cody interlaced his fingers with Demetrius’s, and they looked into each other’s eyes.

“I love you,” Demetrius said. “I am in love with you. Head over heels, heart and soul, mind and body. You are the one and only man for me. If you say you saw the mayor walking around a week after we attended his funeral, I believe you.”

“Yeah?”

“Absolutely.”

Cody sat forward and leaned down, still holding hands. He gave him a gentle kiss, the tip of his tongue sliding along Demetrius’s bottom lip. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. There’s never been a question you saw what you did. The main questions I have are, how did it happen, why now, and what are we going to do about it?”

“Would be nice to have some help answering those questions from our friendly neighborhood sheriff’s deputies.”

“You would think after the shitshow with Nicolae, we’d have a little more pull with them.”

Demetrius squeezed Cody’s hands before releasing them, then got to his feet with a groan. “I’m sore all over.”

“That’s what she said.” Cody held his hands up at Demetrius’s look. “Come on, it had to be said.”

“Yeah, okay.”