Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,46

cabin doorway.

“You’re awake. Wasn’t expecting that.” The dark-haired man came forward. He wore a crisp, clean, white, button-up shirt and equally crisp linen pants. Ahanu could tell this man was not from the area. “Who are you?” asked Ahanu. “You should leave.” He moved to the edge of the porch and pointed back toward the woods.

“I’m Roy. I work with Doc in town. He sent me to look for Coreen,” He said, eyeing the Indian. The sight of him was atrocious: blood stained white t-shirt, blood-stained jeans. Roy didn’t ask, though Ahanu expected him to. Surely, the whole scene didn’t look good. “Look, son, all I know is that our young lady there was about to die, on her way to the shining sea. I never saw her, but Doc said it was surely grim.”

“She’s fine now, as you can obviously see. You can go back on into town. Don’t come back here either.”

“I should at least examine her, make sure she’s okay.”

Sneaking up behind Ahanu, Coreen popped her head up above his shoulder to get a better look at Roy. He was handsome, more handsome than most of the men that roamed Dam Town.

“I’ll be fine, Ahanu. Let him. It’s fine,” she whispered in his ear. “I do need my leg checked.” She motioned down at the bandage.

“Fine. Come inside then . . . Roy.”

Following them into the strange shack, stepping around the smears of blood, Roy finally asked, “What the hell happened here?” Ahanu gave him an angry face, a warning to tread lightly.

“Okay, okay. I get it, but whatever it is, it doesn’t look good. I’ve seen many a man die.”

“It was not a man.” Ahanu closed his eyes at the thought of what lay ahead. “Can we get on with this?”

“Surely,” said Roy.

Coreen took a seat in the only chair in that front room. It was made for a king, with a high, wicker back and feathers decorating the perimeter. She found herself enjoying the new man’s accent, as she’d never met a southerner before. Roy caught her staring, and she felt immediately transparent. “I’m from Georgia, been up here in these parts just a few months now.” He undid the dirty bandages, being very careful not to add pressure to the wound.

When Ahanu gave his lady the same angry glance, she put on a more solemn appearance. “You eat peaches, right?”

Roy belted out a laugh so loud it caught the two youngsters off guard, “Right,” he said. But then he stopped in shock when he looked at her wounded leg.

“You’re healed.” Roy scratched his head, examining the perfectly placed, black stitches that step-laddered up her right leg. “How is this possible? Doc told me you were gravely ill, that the infection was festering.”

Coreen shrugged, remembering nothing. Ahanu remained unassuming, giving the man no indication of the events that had just occurred.

Roy stood, ignoring all the skulls on the walls, the witchy spirit seeping through the cracks, and the indications of voodoo in the air. “I’ll tell you a story, seeing as you two are up to something. Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not beyond reproach, but Coreen, you should be dead by now.”

“Can we go now?” asked Coreen, ignoring his blatancy.

“Yeah. We need to go.” Ahanu chimed in.

“Ah ah. Sit back, sit back. I have to take those stitches out now. She may get them caught on something, could tear, cause some bleeding, another infection. Y’all don’t want to walk down that road again, do you?”

They shook their heads.

“Right, so, I was on my way west, you see. I’ve been around the South, in all those dark places, seen the likes of folks you don’t want to encounter. Hand me that knife from over there, would you?” Roy motioned to Ahanu, who delivered a small, black-boned carving knife that lay up on a carving table in the corner. Roy pulled a box of matches from his pants and lit it, using it to sterilize the ebony blade. “Now there was this one particular town, down in Louisiana, on the bayou. It’s not an obvious spot to go to unless you know about it, couldn’t even tell you the name of it. Anyway, the only reason I came to know of it was because I was lost. I was also hungry and wet. It was foggy, not a normal kinda fog, but a dark fog. It was odd. I saw a fire through the swamp ahead. I heard someone singing, high and low tones. A