Boneyard (The Thaumaturge Series Book 2) (15 page)

You’re paranoid.

Well, yeah.

Someone came up behind me and brushed past, shoulder checking me. “Watchit, dude,” he said, turning to glare at me.

“Hey, Bryler,” I replied loudly and Dahlia’s nephew flushed up to his eyebrows.

“Hey, Ebron,” he muttered and hurried away into the house. Great. From the looks of it, the entirely of Heckerson’s 18-34 demographic was in attendance. My invitation must have been lost in the mail.

 “Cody,” I said, leaning over him and grasping his shoulder. He gave a jerk and looked up at me, his eyes bleary and unfocused. The smell of booze hit the inside of my nostrils. He had a cigarette tucked behind his ear, though to my knowledge he didn’t smoke. I scoffed at the sight of it, at him being all Mr. Tough Guy.
Whatever, Codes.

“Come on, dude,” I said, sliding my hand under his bicep and giving him a tug.

“Hey, man,” he slurred, a dopey smile spreading on his face. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“You called me,” I told him, hauling him up. He stumbled into me and leaned there, his head drooping against my chest. I glanced nervously over at the on-lookers. The ski-bunnies seemed only slightly interested in the goings-on; their iPhones held their attention. But we were the main attraction for the local crowd and I felt my hackles rise. Their returning stares bordered on hostile. But maybe I was paranoid. Probably, I was paranoid.

“Come on,” I said again, pulling him a little more forcefully towards the idling truck. He gave walking a valiant effort, shuffling a few feet before he lost balance and he lurched into my side.

“Fuck, Cody,” I hissed at him. He stepped on my foot and I winced. I should have worn on my boots; my soft sloppy sneakers crumbled under his big old shit kickers and my instep flared in pain.

“Sorry, man,” he mumbled.

“Hey, White!” I went stiff at the sound of my name and shot a challenging glare towards the pack of locals. One of them, a bearded guy wearing a stained vest over his considerable beer belly, took a step forward. The smirk on his face looked decidedly unfriendly.

Yeah, okay. Couple of things.

One, I was not a great fighter. I’d been in exactly one bar room fight in my whole life and afterwards I shook for about an hour. Whatever, call it cowardly, but I’d rather bow out. I preferred healing to hurting and unless it was coupled with an orgasm, I didn’t like pain.

Two, if this guy started something with me, Leo would be out of the truck in a second and the last thing we needed was another fucking dead body. I appreciated the chivalry, but the less blood the better. Already, I could see Leo sitting up straight in the driver’s seat, his eyes fixed on me with uncomfortable intensity.

“What’s up?” I called back to the guy, whose name I thought was Jeff Dwyer and who I thought maybe had dated Brittany a few years back. Banged her. Whatever.

At my acknowledgement, he took another step forward. “I heard you’re fucking some black guy!” he called and the yard went quiet, even the ski bunnies looking up from their phones. My stomach froze with their weirdest sensation, like I had swallowed a bunch of Pop-rocks.

“Good for you!” I yelled over my shoulder, dragging Cody behind me.

“It’d be better for me if you weren’t around!” Possibly-Jeff shouted. I risked another glance, my stomach bursting with fresh nerves when I saw that his face had gone a few shades darker.

“You and me both, man,” I said. I caught Leo’s eye through the windshield and gave my head a firm shake.

“Fuck you, Dwyer!” Cody yelled, suddenly attentive. He struggled in my grasp, like he was going to go tearing off and I gripped him harder.

“Stop it,” I growled at him.

“Those motherfuckers—”

“I don’t care about them,” I said and tucked him firmly against my side. “Come on.”

Together, we staggered towards the truck and relief flooded over me when my hand finally grasped the door handle. From inside, Leo leaned over and shoved the door open, making the old metal creak.

“Up,” I told Cody, shoving at him until he climbed into the cab. He crawled across the bench seat until he was thigh to thigh with Leo. I followed, ignoring the parting remarks Jeff threw at me. When the truck door slammed close, Jeff launched a beer can at it.

Leo snarled and I reached behind Cody to slap Leo’s shoulder. “Forget it, just go,” I said. My heart pounded.

“Stupid fuckers,” Cody mumbled. Leo made a noise of agreement, though he put the truck into gear.

“Please, can we go?” I asked tiredly.

We backed up out of the driveway and Leo made the tires squeal as he peeled away. I rolled my eyes at him. Cody bounced between us as we flew too fast down the road and hit a pot hole.

“You’re that dude,” Cody said to Leo.

Leo’s eyebrow twitched. “Am I?”

“Yeah, man. Ebron’s ‘friend’.” Cody made clumsy air-quotes with his fingers. “The one we’re all supposed to, like, pretend doesn’t exist.”

Leo and I exchanged a glance, though he looked much more amused than I felt. Figured. I could easily imagine Cody and his parents yapping about me over their polished oak dinner table, lowering their voices to remind each other not to mention, y’know,
that man
.

“But I ‘member you,” Cody went on, oblivious. “You were at the shop. You’re like... you’re the one. Not Ebron.”

“What’s that now?” Leo asked.

“I thought that maybe, like, Ebron wasn’t a human being.” Cody jerked his head towards me, his red-rimmed eyes meeting mine for an instant and then sliding away. “'Cause like, I saw you, man.”

“Cody,” I said gently. “I’m human. I told you on the phone.”

“Yeah, man. But like, this guy,” he gestured to Leo, shaking one pointed finger that got progressively looser until it just dangled limply. “Your eyes, man,” Cody mused. “Your teeth.”

“My teeth,” Leo repeated softly. He shot me a questioning glance and I shrugged.

“We can probably talk about this later,” I suggested. Cody began leaning into me harder, shoving my shoulder painfully against the door.

“So have you forgiven me for saving your life?” I asked. Yes, I knew better to engage a drunk. He needed time to cope, blah blah, whatever. I was good enough to fucking rescue his drunk ass from a party. Good enough to bring him back from the dead, but he got to punish me for it. Nope. Sorry.

He reached one shaky hand up to his ear and touched the cigarette stored there. He nudged it and it fell, bouncing off his thigh and disappearing under the seat.

“Oh,” Cody said. He stopped rooting around for his lost cigarette and peered at me. “You mad?”

“Ebron,” Leo said softly, but I ignored him.

“Yeah, kinda,” I said hotly. “You said you didn’t want to talk, then you need rescuing and we’re all good again? What the hell, Cody?”

“Dude, like, I’ve been trying to tell you!” Cody said shrilly. He shifted around on the bench seat, trying to get some distance between us so that he could face me. Instead, his knee bumped the gear shift and Leo made a low, annoyed sound.

“Sorry,” Cody said reflexively. He shot Leo a curious glance and then looked back at me. “Do you two fuck?”

“Jesus Christ, Cody,” I snapped.

“I don’t know, dude. I was just, like, fucked up. You’re not a human, and this guy’s got fucking fangs and then I died, dude. Fuck. I need time to adjust. I need, like, spiritual guidance.”

“You’re being a fucking princess,” I snarled back. “I saved your life.”

Cody shook his head and slumped down, bringing his knees up against the dash. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I’m going crazy, man. I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Cody,” I said. I took a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. “I’ve got big problems right now. So don’t be talking, okay? I don’t need you running all over town, running your mouth about me.”

He shot me an offended look. “I wouldn’t do that, man,” he said. “I’m not going to rat you out.” His chest jumped with a hiccup.  He put his hand over his mouth and I noticed with a pang that he still wore his wedding ring. I sagged, the fight going out of me.

“We’ll take you home, okay?” I said.

He nodded again, but neither of us spoke for the rest of the ride.

Leo was uncharacteristically quiet as he followed me up the stairs into the trailer, and when the door shut behind us, he disappeared into the back bedroom. I waited in the living room for a few minutes, busying myself with hanging up my coat and setting my shoes side by side by the door. Leo didn’t return, though, and finally I took Johnny and went into my bedroom.

I flopped down face first on my bed and stayed there, breathing in the familiar smell of my sheets. It had been close to two a.m. when we’d dropped off Cody at the ranch and now the late hour caught up to me. I blinked heavily, fighting and then giving in to a yawn.

“Is it my turn now?” Leo asked from the doorway.

My eyes flew open and I looked at him over my shoulder. He took a step into the room, closing the door behind him. He’d shed his coat and shoes, but otherwise was fully dressed.

“I’m so tired,” I whined and he cocked an eyebrow at me.

“You said you’d make it up to me,” he pointed out and without further ado he pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. The bed dipped with his weight as he settled next to me.

“Really?” I asked. “Right now? Not all of us are nocturnal, you know.”

He twisted to smile at me. “Just a quickie? Then I got to get on the road.”

“Oh, all right,” I said, rolling over and opening my arms. He came, draping himself over me and settling in between my legs. Immediately, he latched onto my neck, right under my jaw and gave a deep suck.

I swatted his back. “No hickeys.”

“I’m not going for a hickey,” he mumbled and I felt a tiny, cold, pinch as his fangs pressed into my skin.

“Leo,” I warned.

He snorted. “You want me to talk you into it? Convince you? Come on, babe, you know how good it will feel.”

“I don’t want to right now,” I said flatly, suppressing a surge of annoyance. “I’m tired. When we do it, I want to be relaxed. I want us to take our time. Not a
quickie
before bedtime.”

He pulled back, opening his mouth to argue. His eyes flashed gold but he abruptly stopped and the light dimmed back to his usual warm amber color.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m not even going to try to talk you into it. It’s not something we should rush.”

“Maybe when you get back,” I suggested. “When all of this is over.”

He stroked my cheek, looking intently down at me.

“Leo,” I said quietly. “Why didn’t you tell me about Morgan?”

He exhaled through his nose, a little puff that may have been annoyance. “I thought I could protect you,” he said.

“If we’re going to make this work, we need to be honest with each other.”

“Okay,” he said, a sharp edge to his voice. “But let’s be fair. It’s not like you’ve always been completely forthcoming with me.”

“Like when?” I demanded. I squirmed a little underneath him, but he didn’t move, keeping me pinned there.

“Like when you forgot to tell me about the witches until they’d already visited you twice?”

“Okay,” I snapped. “Like when you forgot to tell me that you stuffed Corvin in my mother’s car?”

His eyes shot to mine, furious and dark. 

“Like you forgot to tell me you fucked someone else on your living room couch?”

I froze, every part of me, mind and body, going utterly still. All the anger and exhaustion and fear, every emotion, went off-line and all I could do was gape at him while my insides shattered.

“Christ, Leo,” I whispered.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Fucking forget it.” He rolled off of me and we lay there side by side.

I swallowed somehow, forcing down the rock lodged in my throat.

“Really,” he said, and touched my shoulder tentatively. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Are you
mad
at me?” I asked, incredulous. “Tell me the truth.”

“I don’t know,” he snapped. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“If you’re not pissed,” I said carefully. “I believe you. But you can’t lie to me about this.”

“You could have been straightforward with me,” he burst out. “I’m always straight with you, even when it’s ugly.”

“I didn’t plan it,” I protested. “It just happened.”

“Now who’s the fucking liar?” Leo snotted back. “You spent all day with him. He’d been visiting you in the store and you didn’t even mention him to me.”

I glowered, wanting to argue, but, okay. Point. I’d deliberately not told Leo about Marcus. That had been on purpose.

Because Marcus had flirted with me and I was desperate enough to lap up even the smallest amount of attention.

“You don’t get to be possessive with me,” I said. “Up until a few days ago, you were always telling me to sleep with other people. You can’t be mad at me because I finally did.”

“This is different,” he said, shifting away from me a little on the bed. “And you know it.”

My heart thudded. Heat spread up the back of my neck. A flare of panic surged in me, the desperate need of a trapped animal fighting to escape. Coupled with that urgency was another feeling, a discomfort that I grudgingly identified as guilt.

“You’re right,” I said. I didn’t look at him. “I’m sorry. I fucked up.”

He sighed. “I don’t want it to be a thing between us. But—” he shifted on the bed, propping himself up on one elbow so that he could look down at me. “Apparently, and Ebron, please try to contain your surprise, but apparently I have feelings and you
hurt
them.”

A surprised laughed punched out of me and I looked up at him. He smiled down at me, a little fond, but I could see the worry and uncertainty there in his eyes too.

“I wanted to make you jealous,” I admitted. “You were right. I want you all time a—and you leave. I wanted to hurt you back.”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I got that. But please don’t fuck around with me like that, Ebron. It makes me fucking crazy.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again. My voice came out thick. The backs of my eyes burned a little, but I fought against the tears.

“I killed her in front of Marcus, you know,” Leo said casually, still looking down at me.