A cell phone chime punctuates Simon’s lazy waking. Then another. The second is unusual. The third is alarming. Scrabbling for his phone, Simon sits up—he’s been sleeping with the coffin open since the poisoning.
Message notifications fill his lock screen, from Kimiko and other vampires Simon’s been contacting recently.
Kimiko:Hey, so there’s a problem.
Wilhelm:You asked about incidents in the area. Funnything, that.
Becky:Good 3v3ning! OMG you will NOT b3li3v3 what I just h3ard!
As Simon squints through Becky’s horrible texting quirk—she’s over five hundred years old; she should know better—another push notification jolts him even wider awake.
Dima:Call me.
The message breaks weeks of silence. Years ago, even months ago, Simon would have jumped to obey as if enthralled by Dima’s gift. But Dima never needed such tricks to control him.
Tonight, ignoring Dima is easy. Phone in hand, Simon rushes upstairs. Still in his favorite pajamas, barefoot, unarmed. He needs to find Cody.
Easy enough. Just follow the anxious metronome of footsteps. Cody is pacing the next floor up, still below ground. At Simon’s arrival, Cody whirls and stops. His clothes are disheveled, and the dark-papered walls seem too narrow to hold his distress. Even from twenty feet away, his heartbeat pounds a painful staccato.
Simon’s phone chimes again. He ignores it. “What’s wrong?”
Cody’s voice is ragged when he answers. “This afternoon. Authorities found a body in the woods.”
Chapter 24
Cody
Panic sharpens each of Cody’s senses. The world moves too slowly, giving him more time to cycle through painful thoughts. He couldn’t have. He must have. He wouldn’t. He did.
Every time he wakes after a bad shift, he fears having hurt someone. It’s never come true before.
Tobias left in the morning, before the story broke. Cody slept most of the afternoon and didn’t see the news until he woke up. The past three hours have been agonizing, waiting to face Simon.
Reviewing the scant evidence only deepened Cody’s dread. The victim was a woman in her twenties. Not yet identified. No further description of her appearance or injuries.
Now that Simon is awake, Cody would rather return to waiting. Any tenuous faith between them is gone. Cody’s hands clench,fingernails still blunt, the promise of claws stinging beneath the surface.
Simon will be horrified too. Maybe even guilty for persuading Cody to stay outside last night—Simon’s too nice. Too responsible, even though he hides it behind centuries of arrogant vampire bullshit. Cody’s ready to insist this isn’t Simon’s fault. Just his. Cody was so foolishly eager to accept Simon’s invitation. To stretch his legs, to sing in the moonlight, to soothe his own soul at the risk of somebody else’s life.
Cody’s fault. Not Simon’s.
“Preliminary reports say the humans are looking into an animal attack,” Cody forces out.
Instead of horrified, Simon just looks confused. “Wait, do you think you killed this person?”
Cody cringes inside. He shouldn’t have to prove his guilt. The circumstantial evidence is clear. “I was outside last night. I can’t remember most of it. I could have done anything.”
“Tobias was watching from the porch,” Simon says, far too calmly. “I watched you from the cameras, too.”
“Did you have eyes on me the entire night?” Cody asks, already knowing the answer.
Simon falls silent. His phone chimes twice. He ignores it, all his concern focused on Cody, who doesn’t deserve it.
“I reviewed the footage,” Cody says, desperate to make him understand. “There’s a one-hour stretch where I’m out of sight. I could have jumped the fence, easy.”
“I need taller fences, then.” Simon props his hands on his hips, frowning down his nose at Cody despite his smaller frame. “Stop panicking and start thinking, wolf. You came back before dawn, and I saw you. I spent twenty minutes scratchingyour ears. If you had killed someone, I would have smelled blood on you.”
Cody’s fear stumbles over the logical tripwire.
