Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,18

life. It hadn’t enough though as they spent the hours of the night watching Sunka die—enough poison had made it into her little veins to cause her organs to shut down. . The entire family watched as Ahanu’s mother served the little soul in her last hours. At this point, his sister suffered only mildly as Grandmother had given her an old concoction, mixed from her collection of rendered plants and herbs. His father knelt beside her when she took her last breath. They wept, thanked the Great Spirit for taking her into the spirit world, and sang the death song. They all cried—except Ahanu.

Just listening, he watched, but did not feel thankful himself. He felt empty. He felt sad and angry for not being there sooner, for arriving when he did, for seeing what he had, for feeling guilty about what he was even thinking. The rest was awash. He spent the days and nights after that awake, wandering the forest, hiding at his den, only coming home to eat. He didn’t sleep much for months, not until he met Coreen. She’d rescued him from oblivion. She’d given him peace when he’d had none and life again after the loss of one.

With that thought, Ahanu regained his drive to succeed and continued through the tunnels amongst the whispers of the lost.

The day had all been too hard for Ed. As he slumped his way up the stairs to Betty’s room, every step was filled with an ache, one that had been increasing steadily over the months. He stopped at the top of the stairs listening to some pleasant moan, which for him only put him more in the mood for some of the same, but thinking back now, it merely reminded him of his troubled childhood mixed in similar places. A man born of a whore would only find himself among them later in life. He smiled at the thought and about what he would soon receive at the end of a long day’s labor. He didn’t want to work too hard in bed though. He opened the ordinary door to his favorite lady’s private quarters.

Ignoring the pink décor as he always did, he tossed his boots off, peeled off his sweaty socks, took a seat in his usual flouncy, white chair, and placed his feet in the cool bowl of water, which Betty always left for him. Leaning back with a long exhale, he relaxed. He opened one eye noticing the lump under the white, cotton bed sheets. She’s already waiting—asleep. He grinned.

He rested a bit longer before undressing. He stood fully nude before the mirror, admiring himself as he tended to do, and stroked his long black beard. It was perfectly trimmed, thinning to the end in a nice V.

“Baby, I’m home,” he said approaching the bed.

But instead of his brilliant brunette resting her lovely head on the pillow, he only saw a blonde. His happy face faded to look of puzzlement.

“What do we have here?” His tone was lecherous. He leaned in close, noticing the pallor of her skin, her light sweat, and the very obvious feminine curvatures leading underneath. It was enough to stir his murkier side.

He moved around the other side of the bed and got in. He lay with his sculpted, masculine body facing the young girl and examined her perfect features. He lifted up the sheets for a better look, noticing the bandage below. He didn’t dwell on the injury, moving his eyes farther down her neat frame to his favorite part of the female body. “Youth,” he mused. As he lifted his dirty hand to touch, he was startled by the door opening.

“What are you doing?” yelled Ahanu, slamming the door shut and charging forward as every inch of him turned into a flaming ball of anger.

Ed, always of disposition for a good screw or a good fight, jumped from the bed, dukes up. Ahanu, ignoring the brawny fists, slammed full force into the bearded, hairy-chested contender, causing him to fall back against the window ledge.

“You rotten piece of— That’s my girl there in that bed.” Ahanu went straight for Ed’s jugular, squeezing hard, completely prepared to choke the life out of this man. Ed’s face turned a purplish red, the blood backing up in his skull, yellowed eyes filling with the same fluid pressures. He tried to rasp out a few words and slapped his hands against Ahanu’s back till he felt something long—hair. He pulled. Ahanu’s head jerked back.