Come Alive (Experiment in Terror #7)

CHAPTER NINE

“Well, what did you think about that?” Perry asked as we closed the bedroom door behind us. It was the first time we’d been alone since the morning, and the whole drive back into NOLA was filled with shitty radio, none of us even daring to talk about what had just happened. Well, I wanted to talk about it, but both Rose and Maximus were so uncomfortably tight-lipped that I wouldn’t even get any joy out of ribbing him.

I walked straight over to the bed and flopped face-down on it. I felt utterly and completely drained. I turned my face to look at her. “Come lie with me,” I mumbled against the sheets.

She lay down beside me, on her back, her eyes on the ceiling. “That was weird.”

“What isn’t weird anymore?” I pointed out.

“True,” she said, folding her hands across her stomach. She turned to look at me, her expression earnest. “Have you seen that woman before?”

“The crazy Mambo?” I shook my head. “No, never. Granted, I couldn’t really see her since she’s apparently a vampire as well. But no. You believe me, right?”

“Of course I do. I just think it’s weird.”

“As weird as her saying Maximus is immortal?”

“If not weirder. Obviously she is just a crazy old kook.” Crazy, and yet part of me wanted to believe her.

“She’s white, too,” she said. “I expected her to be Haitian or something.”

“Well, Ambrosia’s of mixed descent.”

At the mention of Ambrosia’s name, Perry stiffened. Interesting. It really did seem like my woman was jealous and I was finding it immensely flattering. I spent so much time wondering about Perry’s true feelings for me, if they were more than a sexual fixation, so it was really nice to see she cared about me at least that much. I really hoped I wouldn’t use it to my advantage, because that was definitely something the old Dex would do—make them jealous to see if they cared.

Nope, I told myself, you have to be more mature than that. I reached over and tugged at the band of her leggings, trying to get her attention.

“Hey, kiddo.”

She relaxed and smiled at me. “Hey. Sorry, I guess I’m just tired too. Jet lag finally catching up to me.”

“We could nap until we went to the bar.”

“Right. Like we would ever just nap.”

I frowned in mock disgust. “Hey, you don’t see me pawing you right now, do you?”

I turned over on to my side and pulled her to me, wrapping my arm around her waist until she was pressed up against me. “Let’s just sleep,” I whispered in her hair. “We’ve earned it.”

We were out in seconds flat.

***

Deep N’ Easy was located on Frenchman street, just out of the Quarter. Perry and I trailed behind Rose and Maximus as we walked down the rough sidewalk, peering at the never ending vibrancy around us, from the open-air bars spilling out onto the street, to the endless music coming out from all directions, to the various tattoo shops.

I pointed to one of them. “Ever think of getting a tattoo?”

She shrugged and bit her lip. “I have some ideas…”

“Tell me,” I said. I never pegged Perry to be one of those types; she seemed too indecisive for that.

She shook her head, suddenly coy. “No, it would be a surprise.”

“A surprise?” I both loved and hated surprises. “Is it a picture of my cock? Did my letterman jacket give you the idea?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not telling you.” She kept walking, trying to catch up with Maximus and Rose. I waited a few beats, concentrating on her, hoping I could get a thought out of her and find out what the surprise was. All I got was the sharp stab of a headache instead.

I hurried after her and she tossed me a smug look over her shoulder. She was enjoying her tattoo secret too much. I supposed I hadn’t been too forthcoming with my “Within your Light I Lose the Madness” on my back either.

“Is it a fleur-de-lis?” I asked, rolling up my t-shirt sleeve to show her the one on my insanely buff arm. “Considering there are fleur-de-lis all over the place here, you’d fit right in. And we’d match.”

Her eyes paused on my muscles briefly before her blasé look returned. “That’s pretty lame, Dex, even for you.”

“More or less lame than the cock?”

“Would y’all hurry up?” Rose yelled. They had stopped outside a bar, the slow thumping of bass pounding through the brick walls. The light inside was bathing everyone in red.

“Deep N’ Easy,” I remarked, reading the faded sign. “Just the way I like it.”

Rose shook her head, unimpressed, and we followed her inside where we lined up in front of the bouncer. I leaned into her. “You never smile, do you, Rose?”

She rolled her eyes and told the bouncer our names. He checked us off the list and told us to go inside.

Ambrosia spotted us first, waving casually from a table near the stage where the band slowly rumbled on. Like last night, it was a three piece set-up, but with a somber, coal-colored singer on acoustic guitar. His soul was bleeding out through the strings and I was excruciatingly jealous.

We sat down and Perry immediately got up and told us all she was getting the first round of drinks.

“Tell them you’re with locals!” Rose yelled after her. “Don’t let them give you the tourist price.”

Ambrosia smiled at Maximus and I and I felt strangely giddy inside. It didn’t make any sense and I had to shake my head to get rid of it. Fortunately, no one else had noticed. They were all staring at the band while Ambrosia explained who they were.

“Dead Frog’s Blood,” she explained.

“Poetic,” I said. “I guess they aren’t known for being upbeat.”

She leaned toward me, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, Mr. Foray, something tells me you know a lot about the blues. Even the blues can have a happy tale to tell.”

“Mr. Foray?” I repeated. “You make me sound so old.”

“Well, you can’t be more than twenty-five,” she said sincerely.

“Is it because I’m immature?”

“That.” She winked at me and then tossed her hair over her shoulder. “And your girlfriend can’t be much more than twenty-one.”

“She’s twenty-three,” I explained.

“And how old are you?”

I swallowed. “Thirty-two.”

“That’s quite the age difference. I’m impressed.”

I shrugged. “You gotta get them while they’re young before they know what they’re getting into.” I played it off like the age difference between us didn’t plague me from time to time. That little niggling fear that I wanted what I wanted from her because I was older and ready for more in life, while she was still young and almost virginal (well, a little more experienced after last night), and probably had fields of wild oats in her left to sow. I didn’t want to think about that.

Perry came back with the drinks: a pitcher of local brew for everyone else, a mint julep for herself, and a Jack Daniels and lemonade mix for me. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it would do the job.

We all clinked glasses across the table and got down to business. Maximus explained to Ambrosia about the haunted house we wanted to film, while Rose told her that perhaps we were better off looking into the whole zombie epidemic. Ambrosia wasn’t as thrilled with that idea.

“Rose,” she said with a smirk, “sending tourists off into the inner city isn’t the smartest thing you could do.”

“We’d be with them,” Rose said, pointing at Maximus. “We’re not tourists.”

“Right, as if that makes a difference,” she said. “I’m half black and I’d still get held up in seconds, if I was lucky. Trust me, I want to figure out what’s going on as much as you do, but I don’t think they came here to dig up Voodoo. Just ghosts.”

“Well,” Perry spoke up, a strange fire burning in her eyes as she looked at Ambrosia, “personally, I think investigating this whole zombie thing is a lot more interesting than the whole haunted house deal. I mean, I hate to sound condescending about the afterlife, but this is something new to us.”

If Ambrosia was put off by Perry’s argument, she didn’t show it. She smiled gently at her and said, “You’d be right about that. For as long as I’ve been studying Voodoo, I’ve never seen a single case of this happening.” >

I laughed. “Sure, but you can’t be much older than…what, twenty-eight?”

“I’ll pretend that was a compliment. I’m twenty-six. But I’m a descendent of the great Marie Laveau. Perhaps you’ve heard of her?”

I sipped my drink. “I don’t know, I hear a lot of things. Who is that?”

Rose spoke up. “Ambrosia’s mother claimed to be the daughter of Marie’s son.”

“Not claimed,” Ambrosia said, glaring at her. “Proven. I have the DNA.”

“Even though Marie’s children by Paris both died at a young age of yellow fever,” she countered.

Ambrosia ignored her and turned her million dollar smile on us. “To get back to the story, it is fascinating, Perry, you’re right. I just don’t think it’s safe. Zombies are one thing, but those neighborhoods, the real people, they’re a much bigger threat to your safety. Maybe after you get some haunted house footage, we can look into it more.”

“That’s just what I was going to suggest,” Maximus said, directing his goofy smitten gaze at her.

Right. Suggest. Like Maximus wasn’t all about telling us what we could and couldn’t do.

“So where is the haunted house?” I asked.

“Yes, and is it anything like the haunted mansion in Disneyland?” Perry added.

With a defeated sigh, Rose told us about the house, pretty much repeating what Maximus had told us: paranormal activity had doubled, as it had in many parts of the city post-Katrina, and a lot of researchers had been in there without picking up on anything too wild. Aside from the spike in the supernatural, there wasn’t anything too unusual about the house. It was built at the turn of the century and was used as a boarding house for many years before becoming a squatter’s paradise. Then the storm surge caused the breeches in the Industrial Canal and flooded the place. It was hard to tell if anyone had died inside.

“Tomorrow night we’ll go and shoot it,” Maximus said.

“Don’t we need special permission from the city?” Perry asked.

“You don’t need permission to do anything here,” Rose said dryly. “The Wild West, remember? The City that Forgot to Care.”

To accent that last bit, the band ended with a sad crash of the symbol and Dead Frog’s Blood exited the stage and Ambrosia got up, going around to each table and collecting tips for them.

When she came back, the music had turned to CCR over the speakers and she held out her hand toward me.

“Pardon me, Perry,” she asked, though she was gazing straight at me, “but do you mind if I dance with your man?”

I could hear Rose suck in her breath across the table and was so certain that Perry was going to tell her to f*ck right off, but instead she threw her head back and smiled at Ambrosia, “I don’t mind if he doesn’t mind.”

The thing was, I didn’t mind dancing with Ambrosia. I was tempted to touch her skin to feel how smooth it was. These were bad, bad urges and I didn’t really know why I was feeling them. Obviously I had a libido that just wouldn’t quit and I knew I was a pervert deep down at heart. But I shouldn’t have been thinking those thoughts with a gorgeous woman right beside me, the one that was mine, the one I loved, but I was. I didn’t understand.

Realizing that I hadn’t given her an answer and was leaving her standing there, that everyone was waiting for me to say something, I opened my mouth to say, “Actually I’d rather give the first dance to Perry here.” But I didn’t say that, because Perry looked at Maximus and said, “And while you guys dance, I’ll dance with Maximus here.”

I choked on my words before they could come out, feeling like I was kicked by a sharp-toed boot. Maximus looked just as surprised as I did, but he said, “I’d be honored, little lady,” and got out of his chair, as if he were a chivalrous gentleman doing her a favor.

Perry got out of hers, not even meeting my eyes, and together they went off to the dance floor. It took a few seconds for me to recover, so I shot Ambrosia my most becoming grin and leaped to my feet.

“You better be careful,” Rose said under her breath. I gave her a funny look, but she busied herself with her beer, like she’d never said anything.

I tried not to look at Perry and Maximus dancing together, having horrifying flashbacks to Rudy’s Bar in Red Fox, New Mexico, and once my arms were around Ambrosia and I was feeling the softness of her skin, I couldn’t even care less what Perry and Maximus were doing. All I could think about was this exotic woman in my arms, the elegance of her dance moves. Sure, we were dancing to “Bad Moon Rising,” but we managed to make it work.

“You’re an interesting man,” she said slyly, pressing herself to me. “All of you are. Your girlfriend. Rose’s ex-lover. You’re all very unique. But you’re the most unique of all.”

I raised a brow at her and grinned cockily. “Oh yeah? How so?”

She pondered the question for a moment. “You have a very large aura.”

I grinned even wider. “That I do.”

“It’s very powerful. You’re a lot stronger than you look. You’ve got a lot of willpower.”

“I do?” At the moment, I was afraid I didn’t have any. Suddenly thoughts of Perry entered my mind and my heart directed my attention across the dance floor. Perry and Maximus were dancing together. Jealousy kicked me in the gut, making me bleed, but the longer I stared at them, the more I realized how awkward they looked. Perry looked like she’d rather be getting a root canal, and Maximus was staring at Rose. Silly girl was trying to make me jealous now. God, I wished I could have been annoyed about that but I wasn’t.

I looked down at the cocoa-skinned temptress in my arms, and suddenly I had a feeling I knew what she was doing. She was a Voodoo priestess in training and one hell of a hardcore flirt.

“Thank you for the lovely dance,” I told her, my feet coming to a stop before the song was over. “But I’m afraid I’ve got a thirst that just won’t quit.” I nodded at the bar.

She smiled slyly, satisfied. “I knew it. More strength than most people, and more willpower than you think.”

I threw up my arms. “Too bad you ain’t a drink, baby,” I said lightly, and made my way over the bar. I heard her giggle behind me.

The second I was away from her and the bartender was handing me a Jack and Coke, local priced, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, a layer of gauze peeled away from my eyes. I leaned back against the bar and watched as the song ended and Perry and Maximus went back to the table. She didn’t look for me. I knew she was smarting over the whole Ambrosia thing, and even though I planned to turn her down, Perry’s insecurity wasn’t going to believe that. Besides, I probably had been staring at Ambrosia like a fool, just like Maximus was staring at her right now. I guess I wasn’t exactly the man to instill a sense of faith in people.

After I downed my drink and ordered another one, plus another Mint Julep for Perry, I went back to the table. Everyone was talking about ghosts, some of the worst they’d seen, and Rose was doing most of the gabbing.

I passed Perry her drink, to which she politely, albeit stiffly, thanked me. She turned to Rose. “So tell me, do you just see ghosts or is there more?”

She cracked a rare smile. “There’s more. If I concentrate hard enough, I can put people in a trance.”

“Like the Beard Man at your bar,” I said.

“Beard Man? Oh, Daryl. Yes. Like that. He never heard a word we were talking about. In fact, he wouldn’t have heard anyone. It’s almost like an invisibility cloak of sorts, comes in handy on occasion. I reckon it would come more in handy if I used my ability for bad, not good, but that’s only ‘cause being bad comes up more often.”

“Is that it?” Perry asked.

“That’s not enough?”

“How long have you had the whole trance hypnotist ability? Do you know where you got it from?”

She wiggled her lips and then said, “No idea. Just sort of discovered it one day.”

I called bullshit on that. But perhaps she didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe not in front of Maximus or Ambrosia. Maybe not in front of me.

Soon, while Perry got to discussing our time with Sassy(quatch), the band began to file back on stage. I felt like I was about to waste an opportunity if I didn’t act now.

I got out of my chair and stepped onto the low stage. The guitarist looked up at me in surprise. “Where y’at, son?”

“There’s a woman I’d like to impress,” I told him. “And she does love the sound of my voice. Do you think I could sing the first song? There’s a round of drinks for you fellas in it.”

That was all it took to seal the deal. I told them the song, knowing they’d be able to swing it, then grabbed the mic and brought it up to my mouth.

“Good evening, ladies and gentleman,” I said, my voice booming across the bar. Perry, Rose, Maximus, and Ambrosia all swiveled their heads in my direction while most of the patrons looked up in passing interest. “I know I’m not who you expected to see tonight, but the fellas here were gracious enough to grant me this song, this song I dedicate to the beautiful, the sexy, the crazy, Perry Palomino.”

I gestured to her dramatically with the swing of my hand, and even though we were already in a red light’s glow, I knew her face was turning redder.

I looked at the guitarist and said, “Hit it, boys.”

They sprang into a sparse but soulful rendition of Otis Redding’s “That’s How Strong My Love Is.”

A few people in the bar clapped at the old favorite, including Rose and Ambrosia, who were looking impressed when I hit those first notes with smoothness to spare. Maximus, however, was looking at me like he wanted to light me on fire. It didn’t matter what he thought. This song was for Perry.

“I’ll be the moon when the sun goes down,” I sang to her and only her, “just to let you know that I’ll be around.”

I had sung a similar song to her in Seattle, back at the Shownet Christmas party, the start of that beautiful, devastating night. At the time, I sung “This Guy’s In Love with You,” and I sung it with as much feeling as I could muster, because I was in love with her, I was in love with her deeply, and that song was the only way I knew how to express myself. She had no idea how I felt, even though I felt like half the Shownet staff must have had some inkling after that.

Now I had told her how I felt, she knew I loved her, and yet this Otis Redding song held as much passion and conviction as the one before. Because I still felt like what I had in my hands could slip through my fingers at any moment, and what I thought I might have in the end could turn out to be nothing at all.

When I was done, a layer of sweat on my brow, my hands shaking from adrenaline, the smoke in the bar was thick and I could barely see our table. But I could feel Perry watching me. I hoped she realized every word I sung was true.

“How about that from a white boy,” the guitarist said lazily into the mic. “Everyone give him another hand, his Redding almost puts mine to shame.”

I knew that wasn’t true, but I took the compliment anyway and went to the bar, ordering the band a round of drinks.

Perry appeared at my side, looking shy and embarrassed.

I smiled softly at her. “Hey, kiddo.”

She swallowed, licking her lips. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For that…for…trying to make me feel better.”

“Perry…”

She shook her head quickly. “I’m sorry. I’m being a jerk, I know. I just…I see the way that girl looks at you, how beautiful and thin she is, how you guys looked so good together, and I…I panicked. Dex, I’m not used to being with anyone, let alone someone like you. You have no idea how f*cking hot you are.”

“And you have no idea how goddamn sexy, beautiful, and amazing you are,” I answered back.

“You forgot crazy.”

I put my hands around her waist and pulled her to me. “Baby, we are both crazy. That’s why we’re made for each other.”

Then I kissed her hard, not caring who saw. And there were quite a few people that did. They applauded again and we both grinned against each other’s lips.

Now that we got some of those misunderstandings out of the way, the rest of the night went smoothly. I pulled Perry onto my lap, so Ambrosia turned her charms to Maximus for a while, then decided to make her rounds of the bar, seeing a bunch of people she knew. Rose proceeded to get a little drunk, which you’d think would make her looser and more carefree, but it didn’t. If anything, she got more uptight, more worried, her eyes scanning the bar.

Pretty soon things were getting loud and rowdy and people were dancing. Ambrosia was dancing from man to man, all of them fawning over her, while I kept Perry close to me, trying to keep my eyes on her, even though sometimes I felt compelled to look in Ambrosia’s direction. When we worked up a sweat, Perry excused herself to go to the bar and get us some water, sensible girl that she was. I sat back down at our table and watched her go, enjoying the view of her ass, the swing of her hips, the shake of her hair. She seemed a little more confident than she was earlier, and while I hoped it would stick around for a while, I knew it wasn’t going to be an overnight thing with her. It didn’t matter though, she was worth all the effort and then some.

Perry was being chatted up by a huge black dude who had eyes for only her cleavage. I would have stepped in, especially since he looked like he was saying some pretty cheesy shit, but Perry was giving him her patented “Piss off” look and blatantly ignoring him. >

The man kept on leering at her though, and I continued to put faith in Perry’s handling of the situation when the unthinkable happened.

In mid-sentence, whatever gross pick-up line he was trying, the man stopped talking. He reached up to his throat and held it, eyes bulging, skin growing slick with sweat that glistened under the red lights. Perry looked at him in concern at first, followed by shock. The man keeled over onto the floor, hitting it with a thud that shook the bar.

Someone screamed, then everyone screamed. People ran. Perry stumbled backward, looking horrified, more at herself as if she did something to him, but I knew she hadn’t. Someone bent over the man and felt for his pulse. I read his lips. “Dead.”

I got up and pushed my way through the frightened people, making my way over to Perry and taking her into my arms.

“Dex,” she whimpered into my chest as I stroked the back of her head. “He just fell.”

“I know,” I told her, watching as someone else listened for his heartbeat and verified what the other man had said. He was dead. Heart attack, who knew.

The ambulance pulled up just as we were leaving. I wanted to get out of there before the police started pulling people aside for eye-witness reports. We were done dealing with the police after what happened in Snowcrest, and Rose was quick to tell us we did the right thing, especially considering the way the cops were in NOLA. They could help you or royally screw you.

The five of us went around the corner, nervously peeking around at the flashing lights. We saw the man’s body get pushed out in a body bag and placed into the ambulance.

Ambrosia lit up a cigarette—I’d seen her smoking socially in the bar—and Perry stuck her hand out.

“I’d like one please,” she demanded, her voice shaking.

I would have said something about that, but she’d just seen a man die right beside her. She could have the whole pack if she wanted it.

While Perry smoked, Ambrosia told us about the man. She’d danced with him earlier. His name was Tuffy G (because of course it was), and he was an okay guy, he just got a bit pervy when he got drunk. As far as she knew, he was a bit overweight but there was nothing wrong with him. He was in his early thirties and lived somewhat close to the haunted house we were investigating. He tiled bathrooms for a living.

“Well, I guess sometimes people just die,” I said.

Ambrosia shot me a dirty look that still managed to look sexual. She flicked away her cigarette butt. “You know, for someone who sees ghosts, you don’t seem to have a lot of respect for the dead.”

“Dex doesn’t have a lot of respect for the living either,” Maximus put in.

“Shut it, ginger balls.”

“We should get going,” Rose interrupted us before we could get into another sniping war. “I have to open tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry that ended in a bit of a bust,” Ambrosia said apologetically. “Still hope you had a nice time. And I wish you the best of luck with the house. If you need anything before you go, here’s my card.” She handed it to me and I slipped it in my pocket. She looked us all in the eye. “Seriously, if you need anything at all, I’m happy to help. I don’t care how ludicrous it sounds. I like you guys.”

Rose grumbled something and then started walking down the street toward her truck. We said goodbye to Ambrosia and hurried after her.

Back at the bed and breakfast, Perry was still in a state of shell-shock. I ran her a bath, making it overflow with sweet-smelling bubbles, and led her over to it. I bathed her while she sat there, and I made her drink a glass of bourbon that I’d bought earlier in the day.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her as I ran a washcloth down her milky white back.

She shook her head. “I’ll be okay.” She looked up at me. “Dex, make love to me.”

I cocked my head, not hearing her right. “What? Now?”

“I need to feel you,” she said, her voice barely above a whimper.

“Okay, baby,” I told her. I brought her out of the bath, quickly dried her off, and then carried her over to the bed. I lay her down on it, then slowly, gently, covered her silken body with kisses, from the curve of her shoulder to her delicate ankle bones.

While I was inside, staring deep into her eyes, pushing slow, pushing soft while I was so hard, I felt a tingle at the back of my neck, a wash of heat covering my head.

I love making love to you, Perry’s thoughts crept into my brain. I need you, I need you.

I couldn’t help but smile and took us both over the edge. It wasn’t quite I love you. But it was a start.