Page 57 of Starved Until Sunset

He needed to get home and talk with Demmy. Reaching for the keys, he stopped to check the position of the sun. Probably an hour before sundown. Why was there never enough time when it came to monster hunting?

As he drove through town, Cody saw people talking and laughing as they walked the streets. Some wore masks or had dressed up a bit, but a number of others had gone full on cosplay level. One werewolf costume made Cody want to pull over and put a silver bullet between the thing’s eyes. At the only traffic light in town, he was forced to stop and allow a parade of costumed revelers to tromp across the crosswalk in front of him. He checked his phone for the date. Tomorrow was Halloween. Was all of this just a kind of test drive for tomorrow night?

The light turned green, and he waited for a couple to finish wheeling a massive stroller across the street, the two kids within wrapped up like mummies. Ugh.

By the time he’d reached the house, Cody’s nerves felt like they’d been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Demmy’s truck was gone, but he let himself inside and called for him anyway. The house was dark and quiet, and he didn’t like it one bit. He put one shawarma in the refrigerator and heated the other in the microwave. Standing at the kitchen counter, he wolfed it down with a bottle of unsweetened tea and checked his phone again. No messages. Time to break the silence.

It took longer than he liked to settle on how to get in touch with Demmy after the argument—okay, after the stupid and hurtful things he’d said—and a full day of silence between them. As he chewed the final bite of shawarma, he read over what he’d come up with and thought it would work.

I’m sorry I was such an ass this morning. I love you, and I missed you today. I reacted badly because seeing vampires up close and in action scared me, and I’m afraid I’m going to lose you to these crazy cases. Please let me know you’re okay. I’m going out to see my grandma. I think a lot of weird stuff has gone on out there, and I want to make sure she’s okay. I love you, with all I have. Please tell me you’re okay.

He sent it, then added a follow up.

I must really love you, because I left a shawarma in the fridge for you instead of eating a second one. And John the Bastard sends his love.

Always good to leave them laughing, right?

Grabbing another tea from the refrigerator, Cody eyed the shawarma on the shelf, then shook his head. He’d already told Demmy he’d left it for him. What a dick move that would be if he ate it now. With keys in hand, he went out the side door and stopped at the sight of Trevor in the driveway. The raccoon got up on his hind legs and worried his front paws as he looked at him.

“Go forage in trash cans for a while, Trev. You’ll get fed later.”

Cody double locked the door then got into his truck and headed for Parson’s Pines.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Demetrius checked his phone and was careful not to sigh when he discovered, again, that Cody had not texted him. He’d been sighing a lot all day, and Oliver had started giving him a stern look each time he did it. Now that Clarabell had joined them, he definitely didn’t want to attract any more attention to himself.

“About six hours until sundown,” Clarabell said, her scratchy voice amplified within the concrete walls of the library’s back room.

“Is this an hourly countdown?” Oliver asked from another row of shelves.

“You got it, cupcake,” Clarabell said.

“Cupcake?” Oliver whispered, but the sound carried easily to where Demetrius sat at the table.

“Vampires are especially violent and fierce immediately after sundown.”

“Why’s that?” Demetrius said, flipping a page of the book he was mostly staring at and not reading. He was still too worked up about his exchange with Cody earlier. And he wasn’t very pleased with how he had reacted himself. He’d felt a flood of differing emotions, all of them highly charged, and, in the moment, hadn’t felt he had the space to sort through them. So, he had fled like some kind of overly emotional teenager, even going so far as slamming the truck door behind him. Not his best reaction, to be sure. And now that he looked back on it, the whole incident made him feel even more sad, because if he didn’t feel safe doing that kind of soul searching with his husband, who also happened to be his best friend, who could he turn to instead?

“Wait, how many other vampires have you come into contact with?”

Oliver appeared at the end of the bookshelves he had been looking through. The white gloves he wore to protect the ancient texts from the oils on his skin made him look like a mime doing research. Demetrius smiled and immediately missed Cody, because Cody would have definitely said something like that aloud.

Clarabell stuck her head around the end of her own aisle. “None. But I’ve researched the hell out of them. Vampires are starved until sunset, so when they first wake up, they have to feed pretty much immediately.”

“It’s like humans are with breakfast,” Demetrius said, then shuddered. “Only at night, and more violent and bloody.”

Oliver went pale. “Jesus. And this badass vampire has Zenona?”

“Yep. But the way he talked, he’s not the boss level badass vampire,” Demetrius said.

“Demetrius is right,” Clarabell said. “This Aldrik is on the same level as Dr. Graham.”

“Called him his brother,” Demetrius added as he turned a page.

“Vampire M.E.” Oliver shook his head. “Sounds like one of those under the radar streaming shows no one knows about.”

“I’d watch the hell out of that show,” Clarabell said before disappearing down her row of books again.