Fuck, this garlic is horrible. Simon pulls out a handkerchief to dab his watering eyes.
Cody looks up from dumping out a random briefcase. “You carry a handkerchief?”
“And you don’t?” Simon scoffs. “Kids these days.”
Cody’s entire face twitches, like he’s tryingnot to smile.
***
Simon wakes as the engine stills. Tense, disoriented, he doesn’t remember falling asleep—just leaving Erica’s apartment, getting in the car, and then a long steady drive. Now he’s back in his own garage.
The night is dark and sheltering. Simon’s body is heavy with fatigue. That’s no excuse for falling peacefully asleep with a werewolf at the wheel.
“You awake?” Cody asks.
Simon yanks off his seatbelt. “Don’t speak to me.”
The vehicle rocks as Cody follows Simon out. “Let me in first.”
Simon allows that, because he agreed, and he’s too tense and petty for a civilized argument tonight. Dima’s right. Simon is still so childish and irrational. He restrains himself as Cody clears the first floor of the house.
But when Simon tries to head downstairs to his coffin room, Cody blocks his path again. “I have a question,” Cody says, taking up the whole doorway with his broad shoulders and feral eyes.
Simon’s anger twists outward, too. “Good for you.”
Feral eyes. Feral and greedy and cruel—not cautious, not curious in the darkness. Definitely not kind. That’s an illusion.
“Why do you hate werewolves so much?” Cody asks.
Simon’s cold bones feel even colder, pinning his soul to the past. Which will hurt more—silence or answer? Who will it hurt?
“A werewolf killed my fledge-brother,” Simon says, and Cody’s flinch isn’t as satisfying as he hoped. “I’m going downstairs.”
Silent, shocked, Cody lets him pass.
Simon’s descent is lonely, his only company his own hollow heart. No candles ignite to light his way. Memory hurts, but his eyes are dry now.
He lied to Cody. About the specifics, at least. A werewolf attacked Francisco, but that’s not what killed him.
Francisco walked into daylight and burned.
Chapter 10
Cody
Sunlight feels like a rare luxury after a week on this job. Cody savors the warmth from his seat on the back porch steps. He’s up early to check in with Tobias, who’s on a regular human schedule.
“How’s it going?” Tobias asks.
Cradling his phone to his ear, Cody lets his eyes rest on the evergreen forest. “Everything’s fine. Stable. How’s Princess?”
There’s a muffled television sound. Tobias must be working from home or cheating on a day off. “Don’t distract me with my precious angel. That’s not your ‘everything’s fine, stable’ voice.”
Cody winces. Tobias’s insight is great as a friend, sometimes inconvenient as a boss. “The job is fine. No incidents, and Simon is cooperating better than expected. He just seems… troubled.”
Tobias closes a door, and the television sound cuts off. “That’s none of our business.”
“I know, I’m a bodyguard, not a therapist.” Even though Cody can’t stop thinking about how haunted Simon looked in that dimly lit garage.
