"I know what SCARE is," she said coldly. She turned away from the window, then shook out the blanket and laid it on the floor. "Anyone got a wild card know who SCARE is."
We plunked down on the blanket together. I sat Indian style and toyed with a loose piece of weave.
"So, I get sent to do a mission to save this friend of mine. Only after all hell breaks loose do I find out that the guys who are asking me to do all this stuff have lied to me." It still made me mad thinking about it. Thinking how they lied to me and almost got Drake and Niobe killed.
"Lied to you about what?"
I could feel my hands shaking again. I shoved them under my butt. "They told me that there was this wicked powerful ace I had to 'contain.' Turns out that the ace was a kid. He was only thirteen," I said as I began to rock back and forth. "And so I accidentally betrayed my friend, Niobe, who was helping him escape these other assholes - who I now know want to kill him."
Her face went cold. "These SCARE guys want to kill some kid because he's powerful? Fuckers."
I nodded grimly. "Yeah, they are. At least the Committee was trying to get him away from them."
"So, the Committee protects kids?"
I nodded. "I'm still pissed as hell that they didn't tell me everything about him, but they were trying to keep him safe." I closed my eyes. "When we went to Egypt, I brought down these helicopters with soldiers in them." My voice broke. I bit my lip and took a deep breath to steady myself. I continued. "They caught fire and when they fell I could smell them. Like burnt pork. And they screamed." I opened my eyes and looked at Hoodoo Mama. "I can't tell you how it sounded when they screamed."
She shrugged. "From what I heard, sounded like those fuckers deserved it."
I hugged my knees to my chest.
"Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. If I had died, would I have deserved it?" I stared out the open window. The light was tinged a strange green color. And all those people I killed would never see any light again. "And there were other things. The Behatu rape camp. Jesus, you don't want to know what that was like."
"Did you kill the fuckers who did that?" "Yeah, that doesn't bother me much. It was the women we found there that haunt me."
"I know what that's like," Hoodoo Mama said. It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. And when I looked at her face I knew what had happened to her. I swallowed hard and then I leaned forward and whispered, "Did someone rape you?"
For a moment, her hard expression collapsed. The naked pain there was terrible to see. She didn't answer me, but she nodded.
"I'm so sorry." Then I took her hand in mine.
"That's how I got to be Hoodoo Mama," she said after a few moments.
"My card turned then." She wiped her nose on the back of her shirt sleeve.
"The fucker died screaming."
"Good," I said. I gave her hand a squeeze. Then she put her arms around me. So I put my arms around her.
We held each other for a while. I felt her stroke my hair. Then she slid a hand up my arm to my shoulder and started caressing my neck.
"I, uhm, Hoodoo Mama," I said.
"Call me Joey. That's my real name." Her lips were hovering over mine, and then she kissed me. And, heaven help me, I kissed her back.
It started tender, and then it became hard. She ground her lips into mine and jabbed her tongue into my mouth. She shoved me backward. And I was startled by how strong she was. But it wasn't as if she could hurt me.
"I shouldn't," I said. I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. "I have a girlfriend."
"Fuck her. Fuck me instead. I'm here." It was filled with pain and desire.
She yanked my arms over my head and pinned them and then she mounted me, grinding her hips into mine. A shudder ran through my body. I was trembling and hot. She slid her hand into my panties.
I opened my eyes and saw her face. It was angry and excited and hurt all at once. And I knew that this was the only way she knew how to have sex. I started to