all did. Not me. I was just looking for that dumb kid. That dumb kid. I’m telling you now. If I ever see that kid, he’s in trouble and his girl too.”
Patty’s eye just about bugged out of his head,” What do you mean by that, Ed—his girl too? What are you saying?”
“You might as well know that your girl isn’t dead. She’s holed up at that whorehouse in town. That’s right. They’ve got her shacked up in one of those beds.”
“You son of a bitch.” Patty went shot forward, straight for Ed’s throat. “I’ll kill you . . . you . . . mother. . .”
Ed let go of the door unable to hold it any longer since the crazy-mad father was now strangling him. The two men went crashing to the floor, punching at each other, rolling around.
Dyani stood up in horror as the door burst into shreds, and in the opening stood Kanti, his yellow eyes piercing their very beings, his face red and marred in its dried blood and open wounds.
Too furious and out of control to even notice anything else in the room, Patty continued his assault on Ed, who fought back just as hard as Patty tried to kill him. Doby held his shotgun dead center at the Shaman’s chest as the Shaman fixed his eyes on only one person in the room—
Dyani.
She put her palms up to him; she knew him. Somehow he was recognizable. She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure. He was familiar to her. She squinted under his gaze. He smiled at her, and she almost smiled back, but she hesitated. What was it?
An image of skin on skin flashed in her mind, a hidden pleasure, a fulfilled desire—but whose? Was it his? Was it hers? She saw him above her, in her bed, watching her as he entered her. She was gasping under his heat, leaning her head back, feeling all he had to give to her. Their bodies moved in rhythm. First he was on top of her, then she was on top of him. They fought the sheets. They rolled in lust and in . . . love.
The expression on her face changed rapidly from one of horror, to surprise, to confusion, then to endearment.
She knew him—it was Kanti. She loved him. Deep down she knew him, though she’d only met him once on a hot night, in her bed, while her husband hunted the animals of the forest. She had lain with this man, who had only visited her in her dreams and her thoughts, and she had. . . She shoved those thoughts away to the dark recesses of her wanton mind. Ahanu’s father . . .
“You,” she whispered.
Kanti just nodded and put his hand out to her.
Unable to even conceive what was happening, Doby kept his weapon directed at the evil man before them. Hank darted his eyes back and forth from the death match on the floor, to the barrel of the gun, and to the strange red man that had entered the basement.
“Come with me,” Kanti reached his hand out to the only woman he had ever loved.
Taking a step forward in his direction, Dyani was stopped by Doby, who put his arm out directly in front of her.
Doby kept his eye on the red man, “She’s not going with you, I’m afraid.”
The Shaman didn’t take notice of the comment, beckoning to his prey, projecting feelings of bliss and contentment onto her.
Under the Shaman’s spell, Dyani pushed Doby’s arm out of the way and walked to the only man she believed she truly ever wanted.
Taking a quick glance at Patty, who was now back to strangling Ed again, Doby made a few quick moves and kicked the two of them in the ribs. “Get up, you idiots. Get up. We’re all dead if you don’t get up now. I swear on your mother’s graves, I’ll shoot you both right where you lay.”
The threat wasn’t taken lightly as the two men gathered themselves and took to Doby’s side. Unfortunately, Dyani was already in the red man’s arms.
“Hank, you get over here too. Be a man. Grow up already. You left the crib years ago, stop sucking from your mother’s teats.” Doby wasn’t happy about it, but as Hank moved toward the men, he knew his threats and bullying had somehow managed to rally his forces. The four men stood facing the Shaman and his captor.
The red man smiled at the four of them, planted