by Debra Dunbar
Chapter 6
Sunday was another scorcher. I was in my usual spot by the pool with fluffy towel and a mug of hot sweet coffee. It had been a rough night of sleep, partly due to the invasion of Anime from the TV into my dreams. My injuries were healing, but were still angry red welts across my arm and waist. Ugly, even if they did match the red kiss marks on my bikini. Not that it mattered. No one was likely to see me sweating alone by the pool.
Taking a swig of the hot coffee, I rolled onto my stomach. The heat on my back was intense, even this early, and drops of sweat tickled as they rolled across my back and down my sides. James Brown shouted in my ears and I just let my mind wander. That guy last night was so weird. And not just his mental state either. I wished I could have brought him back here and taken him apart at my leisure; tease apart his genetic sequence and see what his body told me. I toyed with the idea of going back and seeing if I could stuff his body into the Suburban. I'd need to hide it from Boomer while I played with it though. Otherwise he'd eat it.
I wondered what the authorities would think when his body was discovered. Electrocutions did happen, although you'd usually expect to see a fire, or at least a burnt out socket or appliance. It clearly looked like there had been a fight in the place too. House trashed and resident apparently killed with a burst of electricity to the chest. I'd probably left some of my blood behind and that would be puzzling too. I can hold my blood to strictly human parameters, but under stress or when I'm using energy, my own signature mixes in along with energy. It would totally fuck up their analysis, I thought with amusement.
A shadow touched my thigh and moved up to block the sunlight on my back. I rolled over and thought how incredibly sexy this was to be lying here sweaty and nearly naked, squirming as I shifted on the lounge with Wyatt standing over me. Wyatt's eyes roved and I adjusted the bikini top making sure to give the girls a good jiggle. My eyes roved too and I really liked what I saw at this angle.
Wyatt's eyes stopped and he frowned.
"What on earth did you do to yourself?" he asked, horrified at the raised red welts in slashes across my body and arm. At least they weren't oozing any more. "Did you have a fight with some barbed wire last night? Or that bear that tore up Boomer?"
"I should have stuck with the treadmill," I said, skirting the topic.
"They look awful," he continued, clearly not willing to let go of this one. "I know how quickly you heal; you must have been practically cut in half to still look like that."
"I'm fixing them very slowly," I confessed. "I kinda need to lay low and watch it, so I'm going to look nasty until later tonight. It wasn't that bad, really."
"Why do you need to lay low?" he asked.
Ugh. Why couldn't he just stand there and look sexy?
"I'm a demon, Wyatt. If I make my presence here too obvious, there are things that will come to take me out."
That scared look flashed across his face, again. My gut tightened in reaction; here we go again.
"What things? You're a demon, what in the world would be able to take you out?" he asked.
"I'm not immortal. Damage this body enough and I won't have time to fix it or create another before I die."
"Humans wouldn't come after you for healing yourself," he persisted. "What would?"
"Angels," I admitted. "If they detect us, they come and kill us."
Wyatt stared at me a moment. "Angels."
I wasn't sure what to say, so I just let the word hang in the air.
"So, how did you get these injuries?" Wyatt finally said, breaking the silence.
"Barbed wire," I lied. No sense in making him an accessory after the fact.
Wyatt studied the cuts in silence and nodded.
"Do I need to burn up another mouse for you? Or something larger, like a squirrel perhaps?"
Ha, ha. Very funny. Actually I was relieved that he was somehow beginning to take all this horror film weirdness in stride.
"Nah, I'm good. I've got fresh coffee in the kitchen. Grab yourself a mug and pull up a chair."
Wyatt looked amused.
"It's got to be one hundred degrees out here and you're drinking hot coffee?"
"I like it hot." I told him. "Throw some ice in it if you want though."
Wyatt disappeared into the house. I loved that he was so comfortable around and inside my place. Like he belonged here. He'd know right where the coffee mugs were, where in the fridge I kept my special stash of cream. I wished he was as familiar with the upstairs portion of my house as the downstairs.
I heard him return with his coffee and the scrape of the lounge chair he pulled up.
"I've got to go over to Mom's this evening for a family dinner," he said conversationally. "Amber's home from college. Her birthday is Tuesday and we're celebrating."
"Amber is your younger sister, right?" I asked. I could never remember human family relationships. Back home, no one knew or cared who their parents or siblings were. We were raised in group homes and didn't have these complicated family trees to keep track of.
"Yeah, she's nineteen," he paused for a moment as if considering whether to continue. "I did have an older sister, but she died before I was born. Rachel was three when she drowned in a neighbor's pool. I wasn't born until five years later, and Amber was born five years after me."
"Your folks are divorced?" Humans always seemed to get divorced. I couldn't figure out why they got married at all.
"No, Dad died when I was ten. He was installing a two-twenty line in the garage for a dryer hookup, and he somehow electrocuted himself."
Okay, that was really freaky, given all the electrocution occurring yesterday. Clearly, it was a coincidence since it had happened fourteen years ago.
"Anyway," Wyatt continued, "have any ideas on what to get a nineteen year old girl?"
I moved down my sunglasses so he could clearly see my raised eyebrows.
"Okay, I guess it's gift card time."
"How about those stuffed animal pillows I see on TV?" I suggested with amusement.
Wyatt laughed. "Amber isn't the cheerleader, pink, cutesy toy kind of girl. She's more geeky- Goth wannabe." He paused and grinned. "A gift certificate for body piercing and a tramp stamp?" he laughed. "Mom would kill me."
In the end, he decided the gift card was the safest option.
I enlisted his help in giving Boomer a much needed bath, and then we brought the horses in from the heat and made sure water buckets were fresh and hay bags were full. Wyatt headed off, and Boomer and I ordered pizza and settled in to watch TV. Watching one show at a time was pretty boring, so I had installed four TVs next to each other on the wall in a square arrangement. Wyatt said it looked like something from A Clockwork Orange.
I watched each channel's news simultaneously, but there was no report on a dead man found in his house in eastern Frederick County. The guy did look like a vagrant, so it could possibly be weeks or even months before anyone discovered his body. He didn't look the type to have social commitments where his presence might be missed. I decided I should just forget about it and relax.
