Nick mentally kicked himself as he remembered that Bubba’s wife and son had been murdered because she’d gone home from work due to illness and had been there alone when an intruder had broken in on her.
“You don’t need to be by yourself while you’re illing. You need someone to watch over you so you can sleep.” Bubba’s voice was emotionless, but his eyes weren’t. They carried the full weight of grief and self-recrimination that Bubba crucified himself with. He held himself fully responsible for not going home early to be with his wife. It was why he took his zombie slaying to such extremes.
Why he was overprotective of everyone. And that was why Nick had allowed him to date his mom. So long as Bubba was with her, he knew no one would ever harm a single hair on his mother’s head. Bubba would break them in half first.
“Okay. Sorry. You’re right.” He didn’t bother to tell Bubba that he wouldn’t have been alone at his condo. Xev was there. Or should be.
But then only he and his crew of friends knew that Xev was Mr. Fuzzy Boots.
As they reached Bubba’s computer and gun store that was just over a block from the school, Bubba opened the door for him. “Do I need to send Mark out for soup or something?”
“No, I’m good for the moment. But pizza in an hour would be good.”
“Pizza? Oh my God, Mikey. No wonder you like the boy. Sounds just like you!”
Nick hesitated just inside the shop at the sound of an unfamiliar male voice that was thick with a middle Tennessee drawl.
Reserved around strangers, he turned to see an average height, heavyset man at the counter who was probably in his late fifties. Even though they’d never met before, Nick knew him instantly. “Hey! It’s Bubba from the commercials!” The only difference was that he didn’t have on the flannel shirt or zombie tee either, but rather wore a red polo shirt and jeans, and his black hair and beard were laced with gray.
Bubba stepped around him to put his backpack down behind the counter. “Nick, meet my father, Dr. Burdette. Dad, this is Nick.”
Nick moved forward to shake his hand. “Real pleasure to meet you, Dr. Burdette.”
“And you, though to hear my son and wife talk about you, I was expecting an ankle-biting rug rat. Not a half-grown man who stands eye to eye with my giant beast of a son.” He glanced at Bubba and shook his head with a sigh. “I swear to God, that boy’s mama must have been feeding him fertilizer when I wasn’t looking. Ain’t nobody in my family ever been that tall … hers, either, for that matter. If he didn’t look just like me, I’d be wondering, and eyeballing the mailman.”
“Daddy!” Bubba barked in a chiding tone.
“What?” he asked, blinking innocently. “It’s God’s truth, and you know it.”
Laughing, Mark stepped out from between the black curtains that separated the front of the store from the back room. Only a few years older than Nick, he was Bubba’s sidekick and best friend, and fellow zombie-hunting lunatic. The two of them got into all manner of madness whenever Nick turned his back on them.
The ying to Bubba’s yang, Mark was as fair as Bubba was dark, with shaggy light brown hair, and bright green eyes that seldom stopped laughing. Like Bubba, he’d gone to college on a full football scholarship and they’d grown up together in Tennessee before moving to New Orleans.
“Ah now, don’t let Nick’s height fool you, Dr. Burdette. He’s still an ankle-biter.” Mark smirked at Nick. “How you feeling, kiddo?”
“Sick.”
“Well, don’t give it to me or I’ll make you wash Bubba’s underwear for the next month.”
Bubba snorted as he started opening the day’s shipment and checking it in. “Don’t I pay you to work?”
“Nah. You pretend to pay me and I pretend to work.”
Ignoring them, Bubba’s father came around the counter to examine Nick. “So what are your symptoms? Sore throat?”
Eyes wide, Nick glanced at Bubba.
“He’s a GP … general practitioner. Worse than my mama, any day, and twice on Sunday. Surrender, kid. It’s just easier that way. He ain’t going to let you alone until you do.”
Oh great. If the doctor pulled him in for tests … he was still the Malachai with some unusual traits, and if they uncovered the fact that he wasn’t human this could turn ugly fast.
Clearing his throat, Nick sought to avert disaster. “Not too bad. Mostly headache and tired and achy.”
“Hmm, might just be a cold. Let me take you in back and get your vitals. Check you out.… You’re the one with the preexisting heart condition, right?”
“He is.”
“Bubba!” Nick snapped.