The Sexy & The Undead

by Charity Parkerson

  “That shaman has a crush on you.”

  Ella’s felt her jaw drop at Samuel’s statement. “Shaman? Who? Randall? He’s no shaman. He’s only a pharmacist and he does not have a crush on me.”

  She wanted to add that if Samuel ever witnessed the twenty-minute eyebrow lecture she endured daily from Randall, then he’d laugh hysterically at the thought of Randall possessing any mushy feelings for anything, much less her.

  “A pharmacist,” Samuel repeated as he moved to the nearest shelf. Picking up the first bottle he came to, he read, “Angelica: mix three drops with lukewarm water at bath time for five nights in order to remove itching hex. Other uses include home protection from most curses if sprinkled weekly. Yes. I was mistaken. This is the average pharmacy, and yes he is carrying a torch for you.”

  She knew that she had caught sight of a cauldron in his office once. She would concede the shaman point, but a torch? No way.

  Deciding to let it drop, she flashed him a wicked smile. “Is there any Cherry Bark over there?”

  Samuel clasped his hands behind his back and perused the shelves. Finding a small amber-colored container, he read the label.

  “Cherry Bark/Wood: add one drop in a non-alcoholic beverage to induce moderate to severe lust.” Samuel paused and glanced over at her. “Tell me, how you did not realize this is not normal?”

  Ella shrugged. “Organic remedies are not that uncommon.”

  He shook the bottle at her as he moved in her direction. “Perhaps we should add a drop of this to your coffee.”

  “Okay,” she teased. “But I need to get to work and you need to leave so I’ll be here all alone with Randall.” She let that statement hang in the air for a second before adding, “all day long.”

  A growl rose in his throat and her insides did a girlie dance at the possessive sound. Leaning over the counter that separated them, he swooped in so fast she wondered for a second if he was going to kiss her, but at the last second, he tilted his head until his mouth pressed against her ear.

  “He may have you to himself during the day, but he’ll never possess you,” he whispered against her lobe. “However, I promise you that someday I will have that honor and I won’t need to drug you. You’ll be scratching my back and chanting my name as I tease your clit with my tongue.” Ella grabbed the edge of the counter for support as a fog settled over her brain. “I intend to ruin you for all others.”

  With that promise balanced between them, Samuel touched his lips to her cheek and disappeared.

  ***

  With his body still humming from his morning visit, Samuel kept himself hidden while walking the perimeter of Ella’s house. For many, it might seem an odd thing to do, but she was important to him and he needed to ensure that her home was fortified against intruders. The smell of magic hung heavily in the air, proving that she was an intelligent woman. The place had wards against a majority of magical creatures. Satisfied with the exterior, he materialized inside her living room. The walls were white and bare. There were no pictures of family hanging upon them as he’d come to expect from humans. An eclectic mixture of furniture filled the room, and even though they seemed to have been chosen more for comfort than style, it still looked nice. The couch was an odd red color and small T.V. sat in the corner of the room, but the focal point was a huge bookshelf. It overflowed with books of all sizes and genre. In the center of it sat the one lone picture in the room. Lifting it up, he inspected it closer. Despite the changes Freddie had undergone, Samuel didn’t have any trouble recognizing him. His eyes and hair seemed brighter and his skin looked healthier, but there was no doubt about who it was. Under Freddie’s arm, and tucked tightly against his side was Ella. They looked happy together. He flipped it facedown and walked away.

  Heading down the hallway, he noticed that most of the doors stood open and he entered the first one that he came to. It was divided into two parts. One side held a gigantic desk covered in several slivers of paper with tiny symbols drawn on each one. A stack of books, notes, and a coffee cup sat haphazardly on the floor beside it. As if attempting to offset the clutter of its other half, the opposite side of the room was immaculate. A single stool stood in front of an empty easel. An oak service cart against the wall held an array of brushes, each separated into a perfect line across the wooden surface. Samuel intentionally didn’t touch anything for fear of disrupting some process he didn’t understand. One of the walls was covered with a canvas-like material and although it piqued his curiosity, he chose to leave it undisturbed as well. Exiting the room, he moved past the bathroom, noticing absently that the mirror was covered with a tarp-like material.

  He found the next room bare, with the exception of a cot. It looked hard and lacking of any comfort. It also held another element that didn’t escape Samuel’s notice; there was nothing a person could use to hurt themselves. An unwelcome pang of sympathy for Freddie twisted in his gut, but he wasn’t there for him.

  Closing the door behind him, he crossed the hallway and entered the final room. A queen-size bed sat in the corner and it smelled exactly like her. A huge dry-erase board, covered in symbols the same as the ones from the desk, hung above the headboard, and bright yellow bedclothes sat in a jumbled mess on top of the mattress. Walking to the edge, he leaned over the bed and inspected the board closer. It appeared that Ella was working on some type of elemental formula, but he knew very little of such things.

  Lifting her pillow from the bed, he pressed his face against it and inhaled the lingering scent of her hair. He envisioned her blonde locks fanned across its surface and could almost feel the silkiness in his hands. Crawling onto the bed, he settled himself in.

  Her body had been where he was. The sheets that cradled his body had slid across her skin. His dick hardened at the picture forming in his mind. How often did she touch herself here? Did she brazenly spread her knees wide and bury her fingers in her heat or did she shyly stroke her wet folds beneath the cover of darkness? Setting his erection free, he stared down the line of his body, watching as he palmed it. Tugging the skin upward, he hissed between his teeth at the pleasure tightening inside of him. Would she primly allow him to take his satisfaction from her body or would she scream his name as he fucked her on her knees? Allowing his eyes to fall closed, he pictured both scenarios. Her eyes closed and her lips parted as he rocked himself slowly against her. Her head was thrown back and her back arched as he slammed home again and again. His hips rolled against his palm with no real thought. In his mind, it was Ella’s pussy pulling at his cock.

  Without warning, an orgasm shot through him, coating his stomach. He continued stroking himself until the final drop emerged. Every muscle in his body went limp in the aftermath of his fantasy. “Holy shit,” he breathed into the otherwise silent room. He needed to have the real thing soon or he was going to go insane.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Staying out of sight, Tam watched Freddie sitting alone in his empty bedroom. His head hung low and he kept twisting his fingers. A pang of longing punched her in the chest in the face of his loneliness. She knew too well how it could eat away at you until there was nothing but a shell left behind. It was true that they had not met under the best of circumstances, but she was very delicious, if she did say so herself. She couldn’t really blame him for wanting to bite off a piece of this.

  Stepping into the open, Tam prepared herself to disappear again if necessary, but Freddie merely stared at her.

  “So,” she began, clasping her hands behind her and casting a glance around the room. “This is casa de Freddie. It kind of sucks.”

  Freddie gave a short nod and grunted. Taking that as a “yes,” she snapped her fingers. “I know what this place needs; a menagerie. A fake one, of course,” she added for good measure. Freddie grunted again.

  “I take that as an official wish.” Conjuring her wand, Tam gave it solid flick and a variety of stuffed animals appeared throughout the room. Most likely, there was a taxidermist somewhere now staring at an
empty workstation, but Freddie seemed overjoyed. He rushed, in a slow zombie-like way to each one, and gave them all a taste of his teeth.

  Samuel poked his head in the door. “Hey, guys, I noticed an easel in this other room, but no artwork in the house. Who’s the artist around here?”

  Freddie shuffled in Samuel’s direction and slowly made his way across the hall. It seemed as if one of his legs wasn’t working very well today since it lagged behind the other as he walked. It was almost strange that he was a zombie. Besides the attempt on her life, the lifelessness of his hair, and skin that was beginning to drag, Freddie didn’t seem all that bad of a guy.

  Opening the closet door near the low-sitting stool and empty easel, Freddie gestured inside of it, in what appeared to be a forced motion. Tam noticed several canvases stacked against the wall inside and Samuel went down on his haunches. While he was busy inspecting the contents of the closet, Tam moved to the tarp-covered wall.

  “What’s this?” she asked Freddie, even though she knew he couldn’t answer. He waddled in place and she peeked behind it. A large silvery surface peered back at her.

  “Why’s the mirror covered?” she asked and with a solid yank, she pulled the tarp down. Freddie made a pitiful sound and turned away.

  “Oh my gosh,” Tam cried, rushing to his side. He had pulled his red t-shirt up to cover his face and his dark-colored blue jeans were riding low enough on his hips to show the band of his boxers. “Oh dear,” Tam said. “I’m sorry. What’s the matter?” she asked, tugging on his shirt and uncovering his face. His hazel eyes looked everywhere but directly at the mirror and her.

  Taking his face between her hands, she forced him to look at her. She half-expected him to gnaw her arms off, but he went completely still at her touch. She spent a moment holding his gaze until she knew that he was calm before she spoke.

  “That shiny thing behind you is not going to hurt you,” she promised. “I will kick its ass if it tries, okay?”

  When he grunted, she took that as a “yes” and tugged him over to stand in front of the mirror. She held onto his arm so that he couldn’t get away, but she need not have bothered because he didn’t move. Tam liked shiny things, and she spent a minute cataloging their images. Freddie was an average height, coming in at maybe five-foot-ten, so she didn’t look dwarfed by his side. His body was slim and she wasn’t sure if that was because of his strict zombie diet or if he was like that before his curse. Dragging pictures from the closet, Samuel moved around behind them, but ignored their presence as he focused on his task.

  “See, it’s just you,” Tam told Freddie when it became apparent he was not going to freak out. “And you’re perfect just as you are,” she added for good measure. A shadow rippled along the surface of the looking glass, capturing Tam’s attention, and Freddie moved closer to it. Tam dropped his arm and let him go since he seemed fine.

  “Hey look,” she called over her shoulder to Samuel. “They have folks in their mirror just like we do back home.”

  ***

  “Freddie! I thought that I told you not to eat in my bed,” Ella yelled as she pulled the fourth black feather from between her covers. What in the hell did he keep snacking on? When her words were met only with silence, she went in search of him. The door to her office stood open and she picked up the pace. Damn it, she must have forgotten to close it. Crossing the threshold, she froze in place at the sight that met her. The canvas covering had been removed from the wall, leaving the ten-by-ten mirror exposed. Freddie was attempting to climb it, showing no fear whatsoever of his own reflection while Tam sat cross-legged on the floor, watching him with a luminous smile. Samuel had several of her paintings spread across the room and was inspecting each one closely.

  “What is going on in here?”

  In her mind, the words sounded deadly, but leaving her mouth, they were wooden. At her question, Freddie shuffled over to her, grabbed her arm, and began tugging her in the direction of the looking glass. Reluctantly, she allowed him to position her in front of it.

  “Reflective surfaces cause Freddie pain,” she said. She knew her declaration was ridiculous in the face of the facts. Freddie was fine, but she was not.

  “How do you know? He can’t talk.”

  Tam was right, of course. She’d always assumed by his reaction that his image caused him physical pain, but he could not say as much.

  “Besides, there’s peeps in there,” Tam said, pointing out the shades moving inside the silvery surface. Stepping forward, Ella placed her palms against the cool surface before touching her forehead to the mirror. The shadow on the other side did the same before disappearing again. Her throat swelled and her eyes sought Samuel’s in the mirror.

  “Yes, I know,” she said finally before lifting the canvas from the floor and tossing it over the glass, hiding it from view once more. Without sparing a glance for anyone else in the room, she began gathering her paintings and stuffing them back into the closet where they belonged.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Samuel gesture toward the door and Tam took Freddie’s hand.

  “Come on, babe. I brought meatsicles for you,” Tam cooed, dragging him from the room.

  Samuel closed the door behind them with a definite snap. Before she could guess at his intentions, he wrapped his arm around her from behind and held tight. With his free arm, he pried the painting from her hands and leaned it against the wall.

  “Stop,” he ordered. “Just breathe, okay?”

  Ella did as he demanded and then before she could stop herself, she stamped her foot. “You were in my private space! I don’t know either of you and you are here going through my things,” she told him angrily.

  Placing the palm of his hand between her breasts, he covered the tiny vial that rested there.

  “You know me.”

  Her eyes fell closed at his softly spoken words. It was true. She had known from the very first moment she opened her eyes to meet his silvery gaze that she had done this.

  “It was a stupid spell done in a moment of weakness. I didn’t mean it.”

  He stepped away from her so quickly that she almost lost her balance. She knew deep in her heart that she had hurt him with her statement, but when she turned to face him, a playful glint lit his eyes.

  “I am very used to making women weak,” he said with a laugh. “Now, tell me about this painting,” he said, lifting it from against the wall.

  Ella hated the heaviness in the air, and she jumped at the change in topic. Part of her wondered if he had intentionally caused her to want to talk about her work, but she also knew a fake smile when she saw one, and that’s what he was wearing now.

  Moving to his side, she leaned in to get a better look. “It’s a symbolic piece. See the compass in the middle,” she said, pointing to the sketch of the miniscule arrows in the center of the canvas. She then pointed out the sun. “The sun is rising in the west and setting in the east.”

  “Ah,” he breathed. “Everything is backwards. Is this what life looks like to you?”

  His question caught her a bit off-guard and she shrugged in answer. He returned to staring at the picture that he held between his hands.

  “It is how life looks to me,” he said quietly, after a moment.

  The truth was in the lines of his face. He understood how she felt. It seemed unfair to her that a man such as he should know anything but happiness. Suddenly, she needed that for him. She wanted the world set to rights for him.

  Without a word, she took the painting from him and set it back in the closet with the others before returning to stand toe to toe with him.

  For a split second, she wished she’d changed clothes before he showed up, and she twisted the hem of her ratty gray t-shirt between her fingers in her nervousness. However, the shirt gave her an idea.

  “Would you sit with me while I paint? I’d intended on starting a new piece today, but I didn’t know that you would be here so early.” It was a trick, of course, but he didn’t ne
ed to know that.

  “I would like nothing more,” he answered so earnestly that she almost wished that she had planned to paint, but that wasn’t her intention.

  Gesturing toward the stool, she said, “Go have a seat over there.”

  He did as she bade and she enjoyed watching him cross the room. She felt like she could never tire of simply looking at him.

  “It makes me happy that you would share this part of yourself with me,” he said as he settled in.

  “Well, then I hope that you’re not disappointed,” she offered as she moved to stand between his knees.

  “What are you about?” His tone let her know that he was not complaining, only curious.

  “It is hard to get your tall ass down low enough for this,” she answered as she swooped in and opened her mouth over his.

  He tasted of spice and hope. It was a fanciful thought to have as Samuel’s tongue brushed hers for the first time, but so fitting. His arms gripped her tightly and his fingers buried in her hair, causing the nape of her neck to sting as he tugged. Her arms were trapped between them, leaving her unable to move, but she didn’t care. It didn’t matter who was in control as long as he was touching her. None of the sweetness from his kiss the night before was present in this one. It was hungry desire and need pooled with desperation and heat. He nipped at her lips and licked at her mouth. He stole away her breath and replaced it with his own. It was a meeting of souls. Tearing his mouth away, he kept his forehead pressed against hers, and his eyes remained closed. She stared at his closed eyes and willed the silver pools to open, and when they did, she sucked in a deep breath at the longing inside of them.

  She really did want to paint now. The vision of him right in this moment was one worthy of being frozen in time.

  “When I have you, it will be amazing,” he breathed, and the honesty in his voice would have caused her knees to buckle had he not been holding her against him. He was going to leave her shattered. She had no illusions.