Page 58 of Coven of Corpses

“This might not be the best place to talk about this,” she said.

Demmy leaned in over his soup and said in a near-whisper, “You need to know this right now. Heath or the demon or whatever he was⁠—”

“Was?” Lucia said.

Dammit, she didn’t miss a thing.

Demmy made a face and looked at Cody. He made a face of his own and lowered his voice even more as he leaned in closer to Lucia. “Heath is dead.”

Lucia’s expression hardened into a glare. “You’re sitting here eating lunch while someone we know, someone Tracey cares about, is dead out in the woods?”

“There’s more to it,” Demmy said. “Whatever that thing inside Heath did, it was some kind of spell or something. It knocked us flat on our backs and when we got back up again… “ Demmy swallowed hard and looked over at him before looking back at Lucia. “Cody and I had switched bodies. We have no idea what happened to the demon or to Baron, but Heath’s body was left behind. Being possessed by that thing killed him.”

She stared at him, then she stared at Cody. “You’re Cody?”

“Yep. And trying hard not to get too many people pissed off at Demmy. How am I doing?”

“Shitty.” She looked back at Demmy. “You’re Demetrius?”

“That’s right,” Demmy said, almost primly, and ate more soup.

“Oh, my God.” She stood up and turned in a circle. She stopped and leaned down to put her hands on the edge of the table and close her eyes. “Oh, my God.”

“Kind of close to what we said.” Cody took a bite of meatloaf with a generous amount of potatoes. “We just had a lot more swearing.”

“Who else knows about this?” Lucia asked.

“No one,” Demmy said. “Well, Baron, maybe. And maybe the demon. We don’t know if the demon possessed Baron or if it’s just flying around loose now.”

“It happened less than two hours ago,” Cody said. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do.”

“And you left a crime scene,” Lucia said.

“Hello!” Cody waved between their two bodies as he looked at her with wide eyes.

“All right, knock it off.” Lucia looked around again. “We need to get you two someplace safe where we can talk through all of this.”

“Don’t you fucking dare arrest us,” Cody said, just as Margie was walking past with some empty plates. She stopped and gave him a hard look, then looked at Demmy.

“You two are acting very strange today,” Margie said.

“Right?” Lucia said. “Hey, Margie, can you make me a corned beef sandwich with chips and a grilled chicken salad to go, please?”

“Sure, Lucia,” Margie said, then shook her head. “Sorry. Deputy.”

“It’s all right.” Lucia watched Margie go back to the kitchen, then looked down at Cody. “You need to cool your usual attitude right now, do you understand?”

“We get it,” Demmy said, stepping into the middle of a confrontation to try and smooth things over, as usual. Only now he was inside Cody’s body, and it just didn’t look or sound right.

Lucia pointed at him. “You too. Stop acting like yourself and start acting like him.”

Demmy blinked, then sat back in the booth, trying for a laid back, masculine posture, Cody guessed. “Yeah?” Demmy said and gave her an overdone look of disrespect. “You know you liked it when I acted like myself back in high school, when we were dating and making out and⁠—”

“Stop!” Cody and Lucia practically shouted together, then glared at each other.

“Finish your food and let’s get out of here,” Lucia said. “I’m going to make a call.”

“Who are you calling?” Cody asked, suddenly suspicious.