Page 95 of Grave Danger

The group stared at him for a moment, even, he realized, Llewelyn Tisdale, who, for some reason, was still locked up inside the clear cube. Shouldn’t he have been released by now? Sam’s watch beeped, distracting him, and Demetrius sat back as Sam and Agatha approached Dr. Willoughby, whose chair they’d moved closer to the tray of syringes.

“That was not cool,” Demetrius whispered. He tried to appear angry, but that had honestly been a good sign Cody was acting like himself.

“Sorry, my hand must have slipped.” He made a motorboat sound, turning his head back and forth against the table until he stopped and looked at Demetrius. “I’m bored.”

Demetrius sighed. “The middle of a zombie uprising, and you’re bored. This is every video game you’ve ever played come to life.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have an automatic weapon and grenades to go out and kick some ass.”

“Good point. It is a lot different having to lay around in a lab and watch it all happen on security monitors as opposed to sitting on the couch with a game controller in your hand.”

Cody narrowed his eyes. “It feels like we’ve branched out to a new topic here, and there are some things you’ve been wanting to say.”

Agatha and Sam had been talking in low voices near Dr. Willoughby. That was when Demetrius realized Dr. Willoughby, though her eyes were closed, was actually engaged in the conversation with them.

“Oh my God,” he whispered, getting to his feet.

Cody craned his head in an effort to see behind him. “What? What’s going on?”

“She’s awake and talking.”

“Who?”

“The doctor.”

“Which doctor?” Cody made a face. “That could be confusing. I didn’t mean witch doctor, as in the guy who cures people in a tribe. I meant—”

“I know what you meant, oh my God.” Demetrius gave a tired huff of a laugh, and bent down to plant a firm kiss on Cody’s mouth. He told himself he did it to shut him up, but the truth was, he just felt so damn relieved to hear Cody acting like himself. And he didn’t care who in the lab was watching.

When he pulled away, Cody smiled up at him, tears shimmering in his brown eyes. “What was that for?”

“To shut you up.”

“Liar.”

“So?” Demetrius gave him another kiss, but shorter this time. Afterward, he sat down and took Cody’s hand again as he explained about Dr. Willoughby.

“She went full blown zombie?” Cody said.

“Yeah. And she got in here ready to eat some brains.”

“Damn, I miss all the good stuff.”

Before he could respond to that, Demetrius saw Sam grip the back of Dr. Willoughby’s chair and roll her across the lab to the cube holding Agatha’s father. Agatha followed, notebook clutched in one hand.

Cody had turned his head and watched with an interested expression. “Think they’re onto something?”

Demetrius stood and started to lean over the table again, but thought better of it and moved around it instead. As he inspected the bite, Cody grumbled, “You’re no fun.”

“Not much fun to be had—”

“In a zombie uprising,” Cody finished for him. “Yeah, yeah. As video game cutaways go, this one is pretty dry.”

“You were bitten by a zombie while saving your brother,” Demetrius said. “I think you got to see plenty of good stuff.” He realized Dave and Oliver had approached the table and turned to them. “How are things going?”

“They seem to think they have a valid formula to make large batches of the antidote,” Oliver said. “That’s what they’re talking about right now.”

“That’s great.” Demetrius was surprised to feel a lightness in his chest. Maybe this horrible nightmare would soon be over.