Come Alive (Experiment in Terror #7)

CHAPTER SEVEN

We got to the bar by walking down Bourbon Street for a bit, just to get a feel for the place. Perry and I stopped at one of the bars that were open to the street and ordered two sickly sweet Hand Grenades to go, sucking back on that antifreeze while we navigated the early crowds and puking frat boys who’d probably been drunk all day. And how could you not be? I mean booze to-go? Public drinking was encouraged? Suddenly every bad vice I had was begging to come back.

Rose’s bar on Royal Street was further away from the touristy crowds, a large place filled with live jazz, crazy cheap drink specials, and locals having a good time. I was in heaven, especially with the hot woman at my side.

“Do you see her?” I asked Maximus as we stood in the doorway, surveying the room. Most people were sitting near the jazz band, though a few of them were playing pool, and a handful were sitting at one of the two bars.

He shook his head.

“What’s the name of this place?” Perry asked.

“It’s nameless,” he said absently, walking toward the jazz set-up, searching the seats in front of it. A lanky woman with giant breasts and an afro to match was singing sweet sadness, while two old hep cats played easy drums and mellow bass.

“Ugh, this makes me want to play,” I mumbled to myself, feeling the energy of the music seeping through my bones, revving my engines.

“The bar has no name?” Perry went on, still stuck on it.

I nodded to a coaster on the closest table. “Nameless is the name.”

“What happened to your hand grenade?” she asked, noting my empty hands.

“I drank it.” I turned to her. “Do you think they’d mind if I went up there and sang?”

She frowned at me. “Don’t you dare.”

“Hey, I know you find my voice sexy.”

“Dex, you’re one of the best singers I know and I’d love more than anything if you were to sing for me. But please don’t go tossing that woman out of the way. Let’s not get ourselves kicked out when we just got here.” She appraised me more closely. “You’re in a real shit disturber mood today.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “Maybe the drummer would let me take over. He’s got to be what, ninety-years-old? If he keeps playing, he could die.”

“Dex,” she warned. “Come on, let’s get you another drink while he looks for her.”

“Yes, a drink oughta have me thinking clearly.”

We went to the closest bar and took a seat. There was no bartender, so I leaned over to the man next to me, an old grizzled thing with a beard that reached the table and said, “So if there’s no bartender, do we just help ourselves?” I reached over the bar in jest when suddenly I was face to face with a woman.

“You touch any of my booze and I’m putting this shotgun under your chin,” she said, her voice sounding as sweet as she looked, contrasting with her threat. She was around my age, maybe a bit younger, late twenties, and slender with a wide, tanned forehead, grey-blue eyes and curly, white-blonde hair that frizzed a bit at the ends. Pretty thing.

I grinned at her and raised my hands. “I don’t see a shotgun.”

“It’s under the bar, aimed at your gut.”

I cocked my head at her. “Are all bartenders this paranoid in the Big Easy?”

“Sugar, this is my bar and I’m as paranoid as I need to be.”

The bearded man next to me snorted. “He’s a tourist, Rose, just let him pass a good time and charge him the tourist price for drinks.”

I exchanged a glance with Perry. So this was Rose. Well, well, well. I felt a bit smug knowing that we’d found her before Maximus did.

“You’re Rose?” Perry asked.

“Tourist price?” I added.

“Yeah I’m Rose,” she said, folding her arms. “What’s it to y’all?”

My, she was a prickly little thing wasn’t she.

“Oh, well, we’re here with a friend that says he used to know you. Wasn’t sure if you still worked here or not,” I explained.

She squinted at me. “Work here? I own the place now. Have for the last four years. Who is your friend?”

Oddly enough, I didn’t find it was my place to say. Either that, or I wanted to see what her reaction would be to seeing him, not just hearing about it. Was she going to jump across the bar and beat him up (cuz she seemed like the type to put those ginger balls in a vice), or would she act like she’d never seen him before? I didn’t know what their history was, and guessing was half the fun, especially when it came to bodily harm inflicted on him.

I was about to look behind me and see if I could spot him in the depths of the place, but she let out a small gasp and I knew she saw him.

Her eyes went wide, her hand went to her chest, and she said, “My sweet Lord.” I looked over and saw Maximus, halfway across the room, just staring at her, like he was frozen in a dream. I turned back to Rose and saw a wash of sadness come over her brow. Sorrow and regret.

Ah f*ck, I couldn’t take any pleasure in this; this was ending up being a lot more sensitive a thing than I had originally thought.

“Max,” she said in barely a whisper, her eyes still glued to his. I looked down at Perry beside me, and she raised her brows and put her hand on my knee. She didn’t know what to make of it either, but suddenly it felt like we were intruding on a very private moment in a very public place.

Still, I had to say, “Oh, he doesn’t like to be called Max anymore. It’s Maximus. Yeah, I think it’s pompous too.”

Suddenly she was looking at me, a weird understanding in her eyes. “You’re Dex.”

It sounded like an accusation. “Uh, I am. How do you know my name?”

“I’d heard a lot about his a*shole friend from college,” she said, and before I could say anything to that, she walked out around the bar, stopping just a few feet away from Maximus, hands fidgeting at her waist.

“Was I being an a*shole just then?” I whispered to Perry.

She patted my knee. “I didn’t think so, but then again, I’m used to it.”

“You are getting a spanking later,” I warned her, then turned my attention to their awkward reunion. Unfortunately it didn’t last long. Maximus motioned to the outside and Rose followed him out onto the street.

Great. Now we really were in the dark and our bartender was gone. I looked at grizzled Beard Man. “Now what?”

He just shook his head and drank his beer. Luckily, Rose and Max didn’t take forever outside. He came back and sat down next to Perry, and Rose went behind the bar and made three mint juleps for us, extra strong.

“Remember to charge them tourist prices,” Beard Man said.

She nodded at me. “Unfortunately they’re friends of an old friend, so it’s on the house.”

“Woo hoo,” I said. “Everything’s coming up Milhouse.”

“Everything would come up green if you kept drinking those hand grenades,” she said, eyeing the empty one that Perry had finished earlier. “So, Max…sorry, Maximus.”

“It’s Max to you, darlin’,” he said.

She smiled tightly, unsure of herself and quite the change from earlier. “Max. Have you told them about my…uh, ability?”

I looked at Beard Man beside me for his reaction, since talking about “abilities” and stuff in public wasn’t usually kosher. But he just drank his beer, indifferent.

“Don’t worry, he can’t hear me,” she said. I looked at her. She was pouring herself a drink.

“Can’t…” I started.

“Yes, I told them,” he interjected. “Well, I told them you were like them.”

She eyed me and Perry warily. “Is that so? So you guys can see the afterlife too, is that it?”

Again, I looked at Beard Man and gave her the ‘are you crazy talking about this so casually’ look, but again she said, “I’m serious, he can’t hear me right now. I guess you don’t have all the same abilities, do you?”

“Either way,” Maximus said, raising his voice before I could say something, “they understand. And that’s why we’re here. We want to investigate the haunted house in the Desire Area. We need a solid episode, and these two can turn up the goings on that the other teams missed before.”

She sighed and finished the rest of her drink. A couple appeared at the end of the table, waving for her attention but she blatantly ignored them. “I suppose I can help you with that, although I think if you’re wanting to go after something really interesting, you’ll want to talk with Mambo Maryse.”

“My Mambo?” he asked. “Why? I didn’t even think she was still alive.”

“She is, she’s just very sick. But something weird has been happening with the Voodoo crowd lately and I think she’d be the best person to talk to about it.”

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“What is a Mambo?” I asked. My mind was going back to the fruit chew candies I had as a child. Suddenly I really, really wanted one.

Rose addressed me first. “A Mambo is a Voodoo priestess. And I don’t really know what’s happening, there’s just been some rumors of…uh…zombies in the ninth ward and surrounds.”

At that, I choked on a mint leaf. Perry pounded on my back until I finished coughing and then said what I wanted to say. “Zombies? There are no such things as zombies.”

“And technically there are no such things as ghosts either,” Rose argued, “but you and I know better than that.”

I looked at Maximus. “Seriously, zombies?”

He shrugged. “It’s a thing. But not in the way you think. Plus, documented cases are few and far between.”

Rose nodded. “He’s right. This isn’t your Hollywood version. These are still people and they aren’t really dead. They’ve just been buried alive, fished out of the grave, and given damaging amounts of mind control drugs.”

I eyed my drink, careful not to suck up a leaf again. “Oh, well that sounds so simple.”

“And this has been going on here? People are seeing zombies? What are the zombies doing?” Perry asked, leaning forward and obviously intrigued.

Rose leaned toward us, elbows on the bar. The couple at the end of it gave up and went over to the other bartender closest to the jazz band.

“This is just all hearsay, of course. But it’s been reported in Treme, Lower Nine, Florida Area, all the places you don’t want to go. Apparently people are being attacked, at night and in broad daylight.”

“But that happens all the time,” Maximus said.

“Yes, it does. But usually people don’t try and eat each other. And then there’s the fact that the people who are attacked report that they were attacked by someone they know is dead, well that’s a little suspect too, don’t you reckon?”

Maximus shrugged. “Ghetto kids on bath salts then.”

She shook her head. “That’s what everyone is passing it off as. But I’ve heard there’ve been at least twenty attacks.”

“Twenty attacks?” I asked. “Why isn’t this on the news?” >

“Because President Bush don’t care about black people,” she deadpanned in a Kanye West impression. Then she raised her hand. “And yes, Obama is in office but that hasn’t really changed anything here. So many of the areas, especially after Katrina, have turned a little Wild West, more than they used to be. And we all know how corrupt the PD is here. So what if twenty black thugs are attacked? Like anyone is going to do anything. Even if this became an epidemic, so long as it doesn’t start involving white folk, then no one really gives a shit. It’s sad.”

“So why are you giving a shit?” I asked.

She pursed her lips, running a strand of frizzy hair behind her ear. “Because it ain’t right. This ain’t a matter of bath salts. Someone is out there controlling these people and making them do this. It’s horrifying, it’s sick, and if we don’t stop it, it’s only going to get worse.”

“If we don’t stop it?” Maximus repeated, his red brow raised. “Look, darlin’, we just came here to film the good shit. We didn’t come here to start killing zombies.”

“I second that,” I spoke up. “I don’t even have a crossbow, and my redneck impression needs some work.”

She rolled her eyes before her fine features became serious. “We…I…wouldn’t be killing them. They’re still people. I just want to stop whoever is doing this.”

“But New Orleans has got to be full of these Voodoo people, right? Where would you even start?” Perry asked.

She shook her head. “Many people here practice Voodoo, but Voodoo is about spirituality. The worship comes from a good place. The ones who use Voodoo for bad, for evil, those are few and far between. In order to be one of those, you have to be a Bokor, be in both worlds.” She looked at all of us in the eye and then sighed. “Tomorrow, come back here at noon and I’ll take you to see the Mambo. She’ll help us.”

Help you, I thought.

Maximus seemed to have the same thought because he said, “And the haunted house. That’s why we’re here, Rose.”

He said it as if she’d already gotten the wrong idea and she flinched slightly at his words. But she patted the table. “I’ll help you with that too. I have to go.”

Then she was gone, disappearing into the back room.

I looked over at Beard Man who was staring blankly ahead of him. I nudged his arm. “You catch all of that?”

I expected him to tell us we were all nuts, but instead he said, “Sorry what? I drifted off there.”

He looked genuinely lost. I smiled at him. “No worries. Just wondering if there was another bar around here that you could recommend.”

He smiled, glad to either help or to be rid of us, and told us there was a place called Speakeasy down the street. Maximus said he knew where it was and took us there. This spot was much smaller than Rose’s Nameless. We slipped into a dark booth in the corner, and after ordering a round of shots and hurricanes, some fried oysters and gumbo (the best in town! they said) from the waitress, we got to drinking and talking.

I slammed back a shot and banged the table with my hand as it burned down. “Hooooo eeeeee! That takes the edge off.” I wiped my mouth and looked Maximus square in the eye, his features hazy in the darkness of the bar. “So, I think you have some ‘splaining to do, friendo.”

“Yeah,” Perry piped up from beside me. “What happened between you and Rose?”

“Nothing.”

I snorted. “Right, like you two didn’t hump like bunnies.”

He cocked his head. “You mean, like you two are so obviously humping like bunnies?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Perry asked snidely.

He shrugged with one shoulder. “How long has this been going on?”

“None of your business,” Perry said.

“Since Canada,” I answered. Proudly.

Perry kicked me under the table and I shot her a surprised look. “What? It has. There’s no point hiding it, I mean we’re sharing a bed and everything. It’s kind of obvious.”

“Does Jimmy know?” he asked.

I didn’t like where this was going. “No. He doesn’t. Now that is none of his business.”

“Don’t you have a habit of sleeping with the women you’re filming?”

“Don’t you have a habit of being an a*shole?”

“A*shole? I expected something more original from you, Dex.”

“I’m running out of names. There aren’t that many vile things on this earth that can describe what a cum dumpster you are.”

He ignored that. “I’m just saying, since you slept with Jenn and then had to bail from Wine Babes, don’t you think Jimmy might disapprove of this little tryst you two are having?”

I ticked off one finger, inches from his face. “One, Jimmy doesn’t have to know shit, and two,” I ticked off the other, “this isn’t some little tryst. She lives with me. She’s my girlfriend.”

“She’s right here,” she said, raising her hand, looking annoyed that I was talking about her like she didn’t have a say. “And Jimmy doesn’t have to know anything. Not that I ever saw a rule against interpersonal dating when I signed my contract, but if no one tells him, there’s nothing to worry about. Which, then, begs the question whether you’re going to tell him or not. Because, and maybe I’m just biased, but I get the impression that you’re a bit of a snitch.”

“I just think this is a terrible idea, for you guys to work together and—”

“F*ck each other?” I interrupted. “You can say it. I’m sorry you miss out on the verb all the time. Must be hard having a fire crotch.”

He opened his mouth to say something, and I knew what too, but Perry was quick and leaned toward him. “My foot is aimed at that same shin, so you better watch it.”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his oversized hand through the red sea on his head. “When did the two of you become so volatile?”

“When you started insinuating shit and threatening to tell Jimmy that Perry and I are together. When did you start caring so much about what we do?”

“When I had to work with you.”

I narrowed my gaze at him. There was something hesitant in his eyes, the twitch of his brows. There was something else but I wouldn’t get at it tonight.

“Anyway,” I went on. “So what is the deal with Rose? You banged her and then what? Banged someone else? She banged someone else? She was your one and only unrequited love?”

His eyes darkened over that last part and I admit I felt a little bad. It was enough to shut me up.

He licked his lips. “We dated and we broke up. It didn’t end well.”

“Who broke up with who?” Perry asked.

“Does it matter? What’s done is done.”

I felt like asking the serious question. “Are you still in love with her?”

He gave me a wry look. “What do you think? No. I got over that shit a long time ago. I had to. It’s just a bit weird to be back here and back with her. She’s changed, too.”

The waitress brought over our food and I doused my crispy oysters with Louisiana hot sauce before asking, “How so?”

“She’s harder. That’s all.”

“So she wasn’t always the type to want to blow my head off with a shotgun?”

He smiled, close-lipped. “I reckon not.” His smile faded and he paid attention to his food. “But I guess I’ve changed too.”

“Well you’ve obviously upped your jackass levels.”

“Yeah. I guess this is just what people call the human experience,” he said before shoving a large shrimp po-boy in his mouth. He took a huge bite and sighed happily. “Now this tastes like home.”

But with cryptic comments like that, sometimes I had to wonder where exactly Maximus’s home really was.

***

By the time the three of us returned to the bed and breakfast, I was three sheets to the wind. Not stumbly drunk, but horny, loud, enthusiastic and hyper drunk. I kept wanting to drag Maximus and Perry into bar after bar in secret hopes of climbing on stage and taking over—it seemed like every single bar in the French Quarter had live music of the highest quality. But Perry was onto my scheme and the two of them basically forced me back to my room.

We quickly said goodbye to Maximus and I was eager to attack the living shit out of Perry behind closed doors. All that urge for music and no release meant I had extra energy in my blood, my dick hard as a rock and ready to go.

I also had my plan. Which was an incredibly immature plan, but a plan. And even though part of me felt for Maximus at times, his sob story over Rose wasn’t enough to eradicate that he slept with Perry when she was possessed, manhandled his way on to our show, and had some major problem with Perry and I screwing each other’s brains out.

So I decided to emphasize that very point. The walls between our rooms were paper thin and I was about to take Perry to whole new levels of orgasm. I was going to f*ck her like she’d never been f*cked before, and I was going to make sure Maximus could hear every single one of her moans.

I quickly locked the door behind me and started pulling off my clothes.

Perry smiled, blushing. “Dex, at least let me close the curtains.”

I nodded at them. “Close them then. Then get back here and start stripping for me.”

She frowned good-naturedly. “You’re certainly bossy tonight.”

“I’m a lot of things tonight,” I said. I walked over to my carry-on and peered inside. Yup. The vibrator was still there. I knew Perry was fairly inexperienced with sex so there was a good chance she’d never used one with anyone other than herself, and even on her own I couldn’t be sure.

She walked over to me and I told her to take it all off.

“Slowly,” I added.

“Are you sure you don’t want to sit down? We could re-enact the scene from True Lies.”

“Oh, baby, what we’re about to do will never be in any James Cameron film.”

She looked a bit nervous at that, so I walked toward her and helped pull her shirt over her head. “Do you want me to help you?”

“I think I got it,” she said. I stepped back a foot, her breasts still in groping distance, and watched as she shimmied out of her jeans.

“Don’t you think we should turn off the lights?” she asked, that strain of insecurity breaking across her brow.

I steadied my gaze at her, making sure she felt the heat coming off of it. “I want to see every single part of you. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Show me.”

She reached behind and undid her bra, and my erection twitched. I’d never felt so thick and so hard before. Even she was impressed, and I’d been impressing her a lot lately.

She slipped off her underwear next and tossed it across the room with a flick of her foot.

I grinned. “Perfect. Now get on the bed, all fours, facing the wall.”

She hesitated but I grabbed her around the waist, pressing her full breasts against my chest, my cock a pylon of steel against her. I kissed her hard, my tongue twisting and snaking with hers, my lips engulfing her wet ones. Then I pulled back, feeling dizzy with lust, and ordered her to get on the bed again.

She did as she was told. I added in that she had to keep facing the wall, no peeking. To her credit, she complied as I fished the vibrator out of the bag. I’d bought it just the other day, figuring she might have fantasies that she’d never learned to express. Petty as I was, it was a dildo not much bigger than my own cock. I didn’t want her to start comparing mine to her imaginary boyfriend’s.

I stood behind her, feeling the weight of the device in my hands, wondering if she was going to love this or if she was going to freak out. Only one way to find out.

“Spread your legs,” I commanded.

She did as I asked. Such a lovely view.

I lay down on my back and slid up under her, tool in hand like a vag mechanic. The tips of her breasts brushed against my face and I teased her nipples with my tongue. She moaned in response, back arching, wanting more. I was going to give her more.

I moved back down and put one arm around her waist, pushing at her lower back until her p-ssy was in my face. Then I angled the vibrator around, turning it on to a low buzz, and gently pressed it into her opening while I slowly teased her cleft with my tongue.

She froze. “What the hell is that?”

I removed my mouth from her sweetness. “Nothing you need to worry about. I packed a friend along on our trip.”

“It’s new, right?” she asked in terror.

I almost laughed. “Yes, it’s new. Now unless you’re going to tell me how badly you need my cock, I think you oughta keep your mouth shut. Moaning and groaning is encouraged though.”

I put my lips back on her wet ones and started stroking her * with my tongue in slow, delicious swirls. I pushed the vibrator further into her, wishing it was my own dick she was squeezing and ignoring my growing blue balls. This was about her. This was about rocking her world. This was about rubbing it in. Literally and figuratively.

It didn’t take long before it sounded like Perry was trying out for Jenna Jameson’s American Idol. I pushed her to the brink, thrusting in the vibrator while sucking her swollen * at just the right moment. She cried out—loud as hell—swearing, yelling my name, moaning, spasming in my mouth and shaking from head to toe. I quickly slid out from under her, using the moment as fuel, and pressed her flat to the bed. It only took a few quick jerks from my hand before I was joining her in our vocal Olympics, coming in hot spurts all over her back. F*ck yes. >

I collapsed on top of her, her ass the nicest cushion, and put my lips to her ear.

“What did you think of that?”

She only whimpered in response, her face down in the bedspread.

“I suppose we were a bit too loud. Pity the walls are so thin,” I remarked, oh so casually.

She finally turned her head, her cheek down and smiling. “I can’t believe you did that on purpose.”

“What?” I asked innocently.

“You made me come so hard I was screaming.”

“Hey, pipe down, people are trying to sleep,” I said, shushing her.

She tried to look annoyed but her face looked far too flushed and blissful. She felt as high as I did. “You wanted him to hear.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t have gotten you off like that?” I whispered. “Because if that’s the case, I’ll never give you an orgasm like that again.”

She grinned lazily. “Don’t threaten me.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t want him to hear.”

“How long are you guys going to be involved in this pissing contest?”

“Until I’m certain I can piss the furthest.”

She eyed me. “Dex, you’re unbeatable. Seriously. Let it go.”

I returned her steady gaze. “Perry, I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you. I’m not going to stop showing you off or rubbing it in to everyone I know anytime soon. Especially not to him and especially after tonight. You’re mine. And you’re mine alone. From now until the end of time.”

A softness came over her eyes, and I hoped it wasn’t pity. I cleared my throat and got off of her, wanting to downplay the heaviness of my words.

“I’ll get some towels to clean you,” I told her quickly, ducking into the bathroom to grab some. I came back to the bed and sat beside her, gently dabbing at her lower back until she was clean. “All done.”

I tossed the towels aside and she rolled over on her back, breasts splayed, her hair coiled around her like black silk. She’d never stop taking my damn breath away.

She crawled under the sheets and I joined her, flicking off the light until it was just us in the dark, the taste of her still on my lips.