Greer laughed, hitting him on the shoulder. “You’re right funny when you get a little green in you.”
Suki lifted her head at the slapping sound, growling at Greer.
“Shut your yap.” While the words came out cross, the tone and gentle hand that Greer used to pet Suki showed the gentler side of Greer.
“Damn, this is nice. Been a long time since I’ve been away from Holly and the brats to enjoy a boys’ night out. We should do this again. Sit around, shoot the shit … drink a couple of beers … talk or not talk about whatever you want. Say … once a week?”
Reaper saw Greer looked askance at Silas, and Silas nodded in return.
“Once a week,” Silas agreed.
“Sounds like a plan.” Taking the last hit, Greer then stubbed out what was left and tucked it in his back pocket.
“We gotta get busy. Viper and The Last Riders are worried sick about you.” Greer shifted on his ass. “Give me your hand.”
Reaper couldn’t explain why he gave in so easily to Greer’s request. Maybe it was the beer, the joint, or a feeling of inexplicable trust that confounded him.
Greer clasped his hand in his, and Silas took their other hands until they were in a circle.
“Close your eyes.”
He left them open. His trust didn’t go that far.
“Suit yourself.”
Reaper narrowed his eyes on Greer, waiting for a snide comment. It didn’t come.
Greer rolled his eyes at him. “That one, I meant.” Greer’s eyes were filled with laughter. It was the first time he had seen a resemblance to the Colemans.
A feeling of heat tingled in the palm of the hand that Greer was holding as a wind gently started blowing tendrils of his hair around his face. Warmth then began radiating throughout his body, thawing out the cold shield encasing the emotions that were too painful to bear. Disjointed voices from far away neared until he could make them out …
Heal him.
Take the pain away.
Heal him.
Vamp’s gone.
Count’s gone.
Butcher’s gone.
Slate’s gone.
The pain they caused is gone.
Heal him.
You will never be alone.
You survived.
You endured.
You won …
You won …
You won.
“Guess I better be hitting the road or Holly will be sending out a search party for me.”
Blinking his eyes as Greer removed his hand from his, Reaper felt disoriented. How long had they been sitting there? Suki was asleep and the night was pitch dark outside of the headlights that were still on.
“Reckon it be best if you go on back with Silas and stay at his place for a bit. I ain’t been tested for the infection. Haven’t been sick a day in my life, which don’t meant shit. I could keel over dead tomorrow with the infection, and you’d be blammin’ me. Yeah, best you go back with Silas. I’ll call Viper and tell him you’ll give him a ring tomorrow.” Greer stood up to pull his saggy, wet pants up.
“We come next week, I’m bringing a lawn chair. I’m too fucking old to sit on the damn ground,” Greer complained, going to the edge of the cliff with his back to them.
Reaper’s jaw dropped open at the sound of Greer unzipping his pants.
“What are you doing?” Silas asked, his expression just as astounded.
“What does it sound like?” he yelled from over his shoulder. “I’m taking a piss. That son of a bitch ain’t worth me putting my boots on for.”
Thankfully, Greer zipped his jeans up before turning back around. Hitching up his pants again, he walked to his truck, then honked his horn as he pulled out.
Reaper turned back to Silas.
“You know”—Silas’s lips curled into a smile—“that beer went right through me. I need to take a piss too.”
The thought of Slate’s cold, dead body being the target of the two men’s urine somehow gave him more satisfaction than Slate actually going over the cliff.
When Silas came back, Reaper started to get up and, this time, Suki let him. Wagging her tail happily, she waited for him to pet her.
“Come on, girl.” Silas patted the side of his leg to draw the dog to him. “He can pet you on the way back to town.”
Reaper looked at the dark expanse over the cliff. He no longer saw nothingness. He saw the bright sparkling of twinkling stars.
“Hold on a minute,” Reaper said, going to the edge. “Might as well make it three.”
When he came back, Silas and Suki were already in the truck.
“You weren’t worried about me taking a nose dive?”
“No,” Silas said, reversing out onto the road, then pulling up behind the car that Reaper had driven. Slowly, Silas used his truck to send the car over the mountainside.
“If the fall didn’t kill him, that did,” Silas joked, backing out onto the road, then heading back toward town.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Why didn’t I worry you’d jump?”
“Yes.”
“You’d be too afraid Greer would piss on you.”