Pairings/Characters: Mostly Kyle / Zoe. Madison, cameos by other characters.

Spoilers/Warnings/Triggers: Through Season Three of AHS. AU with the setting approximately around some of the events of "The Axeman Cometh" but diverging in story from it and from some earlier facts, most importantly that Madison has not died and been resurrected, but is just plain alive. I have also fictionally adjusted the timeline of Season One as occurring in the relatively-recent past and not concurrent to Season Three, which will make sense when you read the story. Mature themes, language, and explicit sexual situations in a lot of flavors. Trigger warning for some noncon bordering on dubcon because of taking place in AHS-world where magical realism is a foundation. (Real world equivalent would be noncom for sure.) Power-related kink and mild violence, drug use. Disclaimer: All characters and concepts belong to the original authors, and their copyrights are sacrosanct. None of this world is mine.

A/N: Written for the ahs_exchange on LJ. Winner of "Favorite Character" for Round 4, Jan. 2014. (Character name is a spoiler, but you'll easily be able to guess who it is.) Title is from "Long Snake Moan" by Polly Jean Harvey from To Bring You My Love, 1995. Italicized text is either a character thinking rather than speaking aloud or a character remembering a scene, in other words, a flashback. I edited a little since the exchange posting to clarify / fix a couple of things. Title song lyrics at the end. Special note: All voodoo references are fiction and based on limited research and not first-hand knowledge. No offense towards the culture or religion is intended.


The only light was in a pool on the floor, like it was poured over him, moonlight milky and pearlescent in a low-grade throbbing ebb and flow, maybe from the wind blowing something around outside the greenhouse, like lava if it was cold-molten instead of hot. And, yeah, Kyle was bathed in it, sleeping the sleep of the enchanted sailor charmed into a near-death trance by a couple of creepy mermaids who'd dashed his ship on some rocks, except it was a couple of witches who had, in fact, resurrected him from the actual death one of them had previously dealt him by dashing the party bus he was dragged onto, unconscious then too, by his scumbag frat buddies, dashed it into a street-level death roll, fire and flames included at no extra charge, and this sleep was in actual fact enchanted by magic also because otherwise they could have never gotten him chained up or to shut up with the bellowing and freaking out over that being chained up part.

Zoe sat on the floor next to Kyle trying pretty hard herself not to freak out over all that had happened and over what she and Madison had done, the punishment she had meted out in the hospital to that utter piece of shit rapist, Archie, not because of some big guilt complex over it, more because she didn't feel particularly bad about giving him what he deserved. Instead, she kinda saw it as correcting what fate and karma had screwed up by taking Kyle instead, not that she thought it was her right to decide those things necessarily, just that she didn't actually care whether there was some mystical plan that some deity had set in motion that would only work if things played out like they had before the witches intervened.

If there was, then she did think that deity generally sucked and was probably some kind of sadist or was just not that impressive if it couldn't spin its web without letting so much random bad shit happen to good people all the time. Zoe was for free will anyway, and for witches that clearly meant you could try to fix things at least some of the time and then see how it turned out. At any rate it seemed better than just some asshole somewhere knocking over the first domino and then grinning insanely or, worse still, taking a nap while all the other dominoes got torpedoed whether they'd done anything to deserve it or not.

As for her partner in this venture, maybe Madison was a messed-up person before all of this even started from being something of a sad cliché of a child star and from having followed the path that sort of life could set you up for, especially if you really did have shitty family, which Madison apparently did, but it didn't make what they did to her any less heinous. Then, Madison saying Kyle would have done the same thing to justify not feeling bad about killing an innocent person just showed how messed up she really was, her world view that was so skewed she could think that there wasn't even such a thing as innocence, a perspective Zoe hoped she'd never grow so jaded as to share.

The main freak-worthy thing that she was so confused about now though was what they'd done together by resurrecting Kyle, and Zoe didn't know how much of it was the spell and how much of it was how it felt when she thought it didn't work and was kissing him goodbye, only to have him come roaring back all fucked-up Frankenstein's-monster-whirlwind-of-chaos-matricidal-boy. Now that Misty had mostly healed his scars, they were nearly invisible in the dimness, and, with his eyes closed like this, their particular Frankenstein's monster's face didn't fit the parallel at all because there wasn't so much as a scratch on it, porcelain-pale and perfect in the moonlight, and without her even deciding to her fingers reached out and traced a path of loopy curves over the cherubic waves and curls of his hair, their near-platinum a stark contrast to the other-end-of-the-spectrum darkness of his eyes that had been lively and bright with humor and intelligence when they'd met but had something murkier than their charred coal blackness looking out of them now.

Since he was powerless to explain, Zoe didn't know yet if it was some remaining fragment of the old Kyle when he clung to her like he did sometimes, if it was him showing her because he couldn't tell her how terrified he was and him needing her because she was the last good thing he recalled from before he died, or if the consciousness in his head now didn't even remember her, didn't remember Zoe at all, and only reacted out of some feral-animal method of assessing those around him as belonging to one of a binary of duly-limited or more like dually-limited categories, as either dangerous or as essential to his survival, and he'd put her in the latter category.

It hurt not knowing, but it wasn't stopping her fingers from leaving his hair, the tip of the index one following the line of his Cupid's bow upper, a quick glance to make sure he was still out for the count, before ever-so-gently measuring the fullness of his lower lip with the side of her thumb. The ache was still there too, the one she'd felt growing, the paradox of a knot of pain simultaneously blossoming out in her chest, as they'd talked that first night, then because her witchly curse had meant she couldn't have ever really had him if she had decided she even wanted to because it would mean his death and now because she knew she did, wanted what was left of him, even though just talking to her at all had indirectly killed him anyway and thus compelled this resurrection. She'd breached the laws of nature with magic to have him back, and the power to do so came from the same place as the essential thing preventing their union, and it stood implacable sentry right where her body told her she wanted him still.


Madison waited until Zoe had gone and stepped out of the shadows and over to the figure on the floor that had absorbed so much of the other witch's interest. She stared and stared and tried to imagine what the other girl had seen to keep her lingering there beside him. She sat down on the greenhouse floor in the same spot and brushed her fingers over Kyle's hair and mouth just as Zoe had. He had beautiful lips for sure. Overall, the face was definitely pretty for a boy, but because she'd been on the ball they'd given him a better body than he'd had before, which, if you considered resurrection as canceling out the necrophilia aspect, was like some hotness-enhancing Hollywood makeover on witch-crack, and she oughta know from the things she'd seen, not to mention that at least everything on Kyle was real and not made of plastic. Since he didn't actually rape her, and since Zoe seemed to have a thing for him, she was glad they'd brought him back. Additionally, regarding things "on him", that was one pretty sweet cock she'd picked out for him too. She'd made damn sure she was the one choosing that bit, since Zoe wouldn't have known jack about how to pick a dick. "Heh, that's a good one, 'pick a dick.'"

She continued her exploring down Kyle's chest and over the taut torso they'd selected for him more or less together, carefully lifting the hem of his t-shirt to take a good look and then holding it up with one hand while she ran the palm of the other over the bare skin a few times. Nice. While she was at it, she might as well make a thorough inspection, so Madison slid the heel of that same hand down lower over the fleshy area in the front of his jeans. Kyle stirred a bit in his sleep and made a few little animal grunts. The cock that was now his was responding to her touch too, and she always had enjoyed how that got her a guy's full attention, except for in this case he was asleep still. Now that he was hard, she changed over to a light grasp encircling what she could through the fabric and moving her fingers slowly up and down. She knew she was playing with fire, but then that wasn't a new thing for her in the figurative sense even if it was in the literal one. Madison grinned to herself at the thought of using her growing powers over the kind of people who had always tried to steal additional things from her in exchange for having only grudgingly relinquished what she had earned and thus actually deserved in the first place.

Now that she knew she was a witch, she was going to go for it whenever she could get away with it, Fiona or no Fiona. And meanwhile old Kyle here was getting hotter and harder, and that meant he was getting a little more vocal, not that he was any more articulate than most guys when she was rubbing on their dicks.

"Zooeee."

Madison's hand went still.

"Baby's first word. How precious."

Her tone was all "what-evs" sneer, like she gave a damn what this turnip wanted or who he wanted it from. But then Kyle's eyes flew open. The drowsy dull sheen vanished almost instantly from his eyes, and a rage that seemed called up from the inky depths of the deepest sea took its place. His chains rattled violently as he strained to slap her hand away. Unable to reach, he opened his mouth to howl. Madison recoiled, but only for a second, before her now-empty hand flew up and made a slicing motion across her throat, the knuckles next fluttering past her own briefly-closed eyes. Silenced once more, Kyle's head hit the floor with a little thud as her spell sent him back to dreamland before he could raise the house with some ill-timed caterwauling.

"Way to over-react, dude." Did he now remember that it was she who'd snuffed him? Or was it that her very touch was so repulsive because of his unfathomable attachment to Zoe? How could that be? He barely knew her before he got shredded on the bus, and it had been her idea, not Zoe's, to bring him back. Zoe would have just sat around sniveling and moaning, and she'd owed her that much after being the one to kill him in the first place, to give it a shot, but this pretty freak was going to show her he was grateful, and soon. Actually, both of them were going to. So maybe her first reaction had been all blasé Hollywood, but her eyes were hard, hard and cold like some reptilian creature that had grown a damn hard shell a long time ago out of necessity to try to shut out pain but had frozen solid at the same time from the inside out. You did what you had to to survive after all. No use crying about things now, not when it worked so much better to do something about it instead.


He was a little west of San Antonio with maybe 500 miles left to go. On I-10 it was a straight shot. Maybe he'd have to pick up something with a nasty low purr when he stopped for the night. This Prius was too fucking quiet whenever he took a break from listening to music, which ruined the whole driving halfway across the country ambience of the trip. It did get mileage like a motherfucker, which was saving him some cash, but he wasn't about to roll into NOLA in this thing. It was a freakin' hilarious cliché that the late, unlamented hippie-looking dude owner of the vehicle had been holding a nice stash of weed, some pretty kind buds at that, strong without being overly speedy, which he adjusted for with the occasional bump of coke to get the perfect driving-alertness quotient, enough to keep focused, but not enough to get him so wired that he couldn't stand being cooped up in the car for hours.

As a matter of fact, everything was winding down now at about the right time, his buzz sliding downhill into a pleasant, spacey hum, which meant that the decision was more or less made: he'd stop in San Antonio for some food, sleep, and to boost a hotter ride, hotter in the sense of an engine that kicked some ass, since it would be no more nor less hot stolen-car-wise than this one. It was smarter to switch anyway. He really loved it when a plan came together all smooth and easy-like. There would be plenty of time for excitement when he got to The Big Easy her own bad self, and he'd make sure it worked out that way because the only hell he knew for sure, plain and simple, was boredom, a state he could not abide, and Louisiana was anything but that.


"Yes, this is Zoe."

"It's me, Misty, Misty Day."

"I remember. What's up?"

"How's Kyle?"

"About the same. He seems fine physically and all, but he's still too freaked to let run around loose. The thing with his mother, you know—"

"I get it. Well, I'm mostly fine, I guess. But anyway, it's you, you and that Madison. I'm callin' about somethin' else, to warn you."

"What? Warn me about what?"

"Somethin's coming your way, maybe our way really. I don't know for sure, just that's why I'm callin' you from a pay phone in a diner. Whatever it is smells power, power like we used to, um, fix the broken things we wanted to get back in working order. Anyway, I'm layin' low at my place, and I know a couple of other things I can do to keep it off me, but it may be too late for you two to just hide."

"How do you know this?"

"I just do is all. And everybody knows you can't take somethin' back from that side without giving somethin' in return to fill the space, and you don't usually get to pick what. It's the balance of the universe, how it has to be."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know. Keep an eye peeled mostly and be ready."

"Okay. I just, I don't know what to say here exactly. Thanks for the heads-up at least, Misty."

"It's all right, Zoe. I have to get goin' now, but watch your back around that place too, in general, okay?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means whatever's comin' might not be the only thing you gotta watch out for. Girls can get awful mean if they never learned how to share, and I don't get much of a sharin' vibe offa that Madison, if you take my meaning."

"Yeah, I guess I do, but I think Madison is more of a diva from being a movie star or whatever, not out to get me or anything."

"Doesn't hurt to be careful all the same. I gotta go now."

"Okay. Thanks again, Misty."

"Take care of Kyle for me."

"I will."

"Bye."

"Bye, Misty."


"I am so fucking bored. I hate being bored. It's the worst."

Zoe looked up from the mildewy-smelling tome she was poring over looking for protection spells and charms. There was one using sage that had looked a little promising, but then it had turned out to be for houses mostly, which meant it wasn't quite right but might help if she couldn't find anything better.

"I'm certain there are worse things, Madison."

"Don't be a smart ass. Come out and play with me."

"Seriously?"

"God. No sense of humor either. We're in New Orleans, for fuck's sake. Let's go to the Quarter and find a party."

"The last party we found didn't turn out so great, if you recall."

"Jesus. Would you lighten up please? Yeah, that one did have its own special kind of suckness, but does that mean we never leave the house again? We're young. We're hot. We should be out dancing and driving them out of their minds wanting it."

Zoe raised a brow.

"Okay, well, that just means you can't do that one thing. Did you flunk sex ed. or what? There's more than one way to get off, right? I doubt your vag. amputates fingers or tongues or vaporizes dildoes—"

"Oh my God! Just shut up—"

"I will if you go out with me."

"Fine, I could use a drink, or ten. Let's go."

"Oh no, you're not wearing that.. You can borrow something of mine."

"I have my own clothes. Let's just get changed and go. It actually sounds pretty good to get out of here for awhile, take a break."

"From being a mopey bitch."

"Or not."

"Thin skin much? You know I'm just kidding. He's not going anywhere. Obviously. He'll still be here when you get back. Anyway, I have the perfect earrings for you and all that hair. You need something dangly, heh heh, to even be visible."

Zoe didn't even have to look up from marking her place in the book before closing it to know that Madison had crudely mimed a swinging dick when she said the word "dangly", and besides she could tell by the way the shadows on that side of the room shifted around on the wall in her peripheral vision.

"So you just really want me to be your dress-up Barbie then, don't you?"

"Now, you shut up."

Madison finished scrounging through the tangle in her jewelry case and held up a pair that were narrow spirals of what was probably white gold or platinum with a single teardrop red gem at the end of each.

"Those are nice, thanks. Rubies?"

"Yep. Not slippers, but still perfect for witches."


Zoe had her back turned, checking out the serpent earrings in the mirror. Madison just hadn't been able to resist.

"But I have to kill the snake myself?"

"Yeah, girl. Go to the store I told you. They have the pet ones for sale. Skinny little green snakes look a lot like you. How you goin' to hex somebody with a snake curse if you too scared to do the sacrifice your own self?"

Being so focused on the transaction at hand, Madison hadn't even seen him coming until he was standing right next to their table.

"Hey, Cherice. How ya been?"

"Aw, Melly. Shit. When you get back in town?"

"You know I can't stay away from Lurene's cooking too long. I need the heat."

"I never seen you eat a bite. All you do is drink your dinner. You a insult to Lurene's gumbo."

Melly was a guy in his early twenties maybe, thin, but with nice shoulders and dark, wavy hair.

"You ought to know just because you don't see a thing happen doesn't mean it hasn't. I eat plenty. Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

He turned his gaze to her, and Madison took in the easy grin that didn't match the intensity in the eyes. She knew the type. Coke maybe, or meth., but he was smokin' hot all the same. The smile was working for him.

"Sorry, Melly. This here's Madison. Madison, this is Melly. He's a devil, but it goes down nice mosta' the time."

"Nice to meet you, Madison."

"Same here, Melly."

He didn't move his eyes from hers, and the smile never wavered when he continued.

"Cherice, darlin', you give this girl her money back, and go on about your business. We're all friends here now. It'll be all right."

"Melly, come on. Madison here knows what she wants. She ain't no delicate little flower, not a bit. She don't want you interferin' in her business."

That's right. I don't know what you overheard, but I'll bite the head off the snake myself if I need to. Sometimes I spit. Sometimes I swallow."

"Charming."

He turned to look at Cherice who was still clearly hoping to close her deal. Instead, what might have been a flicker of fear passed over her face. It was so fast Madison couldn't be sure, and besides she couldn't see that well over the mug of beer she'd raised to her lips. Negotiation was thirsty work.

"Here you go, Ms. Madison. You tell her, Melly. I wasn't tryin' to do nothin' wrong. You know that's the truth."

"You go on now, and we'll see you around. I'll tell her. Like I said, it's all good and fine."

"Okay, Melly. Bye now."

Madison watched Cherice attempt to flee the scene with her dignity still intact and decided she did okay with it from walking nice and slow, which made it look more like sashaying out of her own choice rather than what it was. Then, she turned back to face Melly.

"Well, was she fucking with me or what?"

He was all politeness still.

"May I sit?"

"Yes. Go ahead. I don't know why I'm asking you that. Why should I trust you any more than her?"

"Well, I guess you can't. Cherice isn't a fake, but if she was selling you what I think she was, you don't want to get into that. Cherice mostly sticks to Rada, and what you were buying is all Petro, the dark side of that stuff too, which fits with your pile of cash she just parted with like it was her firstborn child. You sure you want to go down that road?"

"I know what I'm doing. Like she said, I'm not some shrinking whatever. Some people I know need setting straight, and I'm doing it so it will stick, by breaking him since he's her favorite pet monster, or he wants to be. Doesn't matter 'cause, either way, it's none of your business, Melly."

Madison drawled out the word, almost singing it, just like she was saying "smelly" instead. He needed to know not to try to lord it over her. It wouldn't work out well for him, and she didn't necessarily want to scar up the nice packaging this time, not if she didn't have to.

"Besides, what kind of name is that?"

"It's the kind that's mine, that's what. I could ask you the same thing, except I know the answer: the made-up actressy kind. Anyway, like I was sayin', some doors you open, then you can't close them back, not for money, not for anything. I'm not sure you're getting that, so, yeah, it may be none of my business, but I was just trying to help. What exactly did she tell you to do?"

"How do you know about this stuff anyway, white boy?"

"Pot, kettle. Answer the question."

"And a bossy little bitch too. Okay, I don't care, so I'll tell you and get your big important opinion on it."

"Talk about a bossy little bitch."

If you didn't know that they were both smirking their faces off while trying to be all cool and bad-ass, you'd think they were getting ready to have an actual fight of some kind. Madison liked it. She didn't like people who didn't push back, and she definitely wasn't one of those people herself.

"Only if you tell me how you know about this stuff, your credentials."

"Spoken like somebody who's spent way too much time with lawyers."

"So?"

"So, besides my street cred., I'm a grad. student at Tulane, or I was—"

"Expelled?"

"Not exactly. World religions and history. Fascinating stuff."

"But no diploma? Too bad."

Melly tapped the side of his head. He was wearing a silver-toned ring on his index finger in the shape of a skull with the eyes x'ed out. It was creepy, but still sorta sexy, which was not at all surprising anywhere really, but especially not in this town.

"They can't take back the knowledge I got. It's all still in here."

"Okay, fine. Cherice said to take some hair from the head of the person and tie it to a snake I killed myself. Then, I was supposed to bury it in the yard. Also, keep some of the snake blood and put it in his food. It's supposed to make snakes grow inside him, make him sick, not kill him because I could stop it once I got my point across. Satisfied?"

"That was never going to work. She mixed two curses together, probably so you wouldn't call too much attention to yourself from one of the less tourist-friendly Petro loa. The guy might have gotten sick from drinking animal blood, but it wouldn't be because of any actual voodoo. In this case, I think my girl Cherice was doing the right thing for you."

"Tourist, huh? You don't know who you're dealing with, not to mention you don't sound local at all yourself."

"I never said I was."

"Okay then."

"Damn straight, 'Okay then'."

There was that killer smile again, the bastard.

"Now, let me get you another drink, and then I'll tell you how you take care of this business once and for all. First off, you may be going after the wrong one, but, don't worry, we'll get that all sorted out."

And they had. The best way to show Kyle who was large and in charge around here was to focus on Zoe, on getting her in line. It would work out better for the plans Madison had that went way beyond some patchwork Cabbage Patch doll-boy too, not the only thing she hadn't filled Melly in on, but it was the most important. On the smaller potatoes side, she hadn't bothered to mention that growing a pile of snakes in Kyle's guts couldn't have killed him even if it had worked because he'd already been dead and resurrected, so all Melly's "Don't go over to the dark side, Luke" stuff was bullshit. The bigger picture was that Madison was going to be the next Supreme, and she was going to make sure that Zoe wouldn't be trying to stand in her way. Didn't mean she couldn't play with her cake before she ate it though, and she'd always had a hard time deciding between desserts when there was more than one flavor to choose from.

"Okay, I'm ready. I just have to take Kyle some food, and then we can go."

"Fine. Just don't take all night about it."

"Wasn't planning to."

"You do need a drink. Or something."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"Okay, if you say so."


"So good thing. Not 'thing'! Wrong…wrong! Is 'person'. Girl. So beautifulness. Wrong. 'Beautiful', not 'beautifulness'. Head is wrong, wrong, wrong."

"I wish you could talk to me and tell me what you're thinking."

"Mmmm...Eeee. Zooee."

"Yes! It's Zoe. Good, you do know me. I didn't mean to make you feel worse. Jesus. That's the last thing I want to do. It seems like you're already getting calmer every day. It'll be okay, Kyle, I promise."

"Okay."

He nodded.

She put her hand on his, then rested the other on the manacle around his wrist.

"I really want to take these off and leave them off, but they're not to punish you, Kyle. Do you get that? They're to keep you safe even though that probably doesn't make any sense."

He raised the wrist Zoe was touching, fingers awkwardly brushing over her hair.

"Soft…. No, safe."

"No, you were right. Hair is soft, and the 'safe' thing? It's like, sometimes when people are hurt, like in the hospital recovering, and maybe you don't know where you are because of being confused from your injuries. So, to keep you safe, they put these restraining straps on you to keep you from hurting yourself by mistake or getting up too soon. It's not exactly the same thing, but you are hurt, Kyle, and it's not safe for you to go out on your own yet, but it has to get better. It has to."

"Getting. Not safe. See things here..."

Kyle moved his other hand to his head.

"…See things right..."

He shook his head sadly.

"…Words wrong. All words wrong."

"No, Kyle. Not all wrong. I think I get it. I think you're saying you can think of things in images and concepts, but the words are getting mixed up sometimes. Is that right?"

"Yes."

He smiled.

"Okay then. It will keep getting better then. It's already better than it was."

"Yes, better."

"I brought you something to eat. Are you hungry?"

An image of Zoe with no clothes on popped into Kyle's head, slender and leggy and with perfect little pink nipples. He wanted to bite them.

"Yes. Hunger."

"Good. I don't know what you like, so I'm sticking with kinda boring stuff. I think you can manage the sandwich yourself. It's PBJ. Let me take this off your right hand. I think you're right-handed…."

She removed one manacle.

"…Okay, here ya go."

She placed the bread in his hand, but he just looked at it. Zoe sighed.

"All right. We can try both. I know it's hard to eat a sandwich with just one hand, but first, look at me, Kyle."

"Yes."

"Please, please don't try to run away. Please, Kyle? I don't want to make you go to sleep again. Please don't make me. I want to be able to trust you."

Naked Zoe in his head had the same face on, and one word to call it was "sad", but that wasn't all. Besides that, he was getting very distracted because all he really wanted was to kiss the mouth, put his hands on the pretty skin, wanted to a lot.

"Trust me."

"Okay, it's off."

She massaged his newly-freed wrist and gave him a look that was still too many things at the same time. It was way too hard to think of the words for it, especially when she was touching him. He could feel his cock beginning to stir. He took a huge bite of the sandwich and started chewing.

"Hungry."

"Okay, I brought you some chicken noodle soup too, but I don't think you're ready for a spoon yet, not with something hot anyway. So, I put it in a mug. That way we can help you just sort of drink it, but you have to chew the chicken and the noodles and stuff, okay? I'm sorry, Kyle. I don't want to be talking to you like you're a little kid. I know you're not, but I don't want you to choke or burn yourself. This sucks. I'm so sorry, Kyle, for everything."

"No cry, Zoe."

The hunger in his belly and something much like it in his cock and naked Zoe in his head and sad Zoe right here got all jumbled up, and it made his brain hurt. To make it stop, he dropped the sandwich and grabbed her, fingers biting into her upper arms, his mouth latching onto hers like a drowning man who was going down for the last time and she had the only air left in the sea he was drowning in, the Sea of Zoe. So good. The searing need born of wanting and deprivation made him greedy for more, so he pushed one hand between her legs, fingers curled, rubbing, rubbing. One finger breached the cloth stuff that was in his way from the side, and he got her wetness on him.

"Mmmmmmm, Zoe."

She was kissing him and making sounds, but then it stopped. He fell backwards like what that mean girl did, but yet not, not as hard, like Zoe cared about not hurting him, which was very good. They'd both pushed him down without using their hands though. It was very confusing.

"No, Kyle. Not like this. Please settle down, okay?"

"How?"

She looked confused too.

"What? Oh, I didn't mean you were doing it wrong. I meant, 'not now', 'not right now.' It's gonna be okay though. See? You got a little excited, but you're not trying to break things or losing your shit. You really are doing better, I think. Come on and eat your soup, okay? I know you're still hungry."

After she left it was just dark. Kyle sat with his knees pulled up to his chest and one arm wrapped around them. The other hand smelled like the ocean if it was sweet too and not just salty. It smelled like Zoe. He licked the finger carefully, the one that had gotten some of her on it. He had to be careful because he didn't want to lick all the Zoe's smell off, but he couldn't wait forever. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, breathing in her scent. Naked Zoe in his head opened her legs and smiled at him.


This Lurene's joint was a perfect dive bar, quintessential New Orleans as far as Zoe knew, which, admittedly, was from severely limited experience considering that this was the first one she'd been to. It was nice and dark, and the bar itself was some kind of really dense-feeling old wood, and that was dark too, varnish etched with scratches, the tables and everything else worn with time and use and not some faux-antique mechanically-distressed bullshit. The beer was a local microbrew on tap that Madison had ordered without even asking her first, some reddish-amber-colored kind that she said was a "lager". At any rate, it was cold and tasted right for the setting, kinda rustic and historical, not that anybody else would use such terminology for describing beer.

Something about the aroma coming out of the glass made her think of Kyle, of his open mouth and his tongue snaking right on in and coiling with hers, and she could still feel the hum where his fingers went questing too, every bit as urgently as his tongue. When one of the fingers breached her panties, the jolt of sensation had been so sharp and clear: it was like the snake finally bit, and she woke up with a snap, the lust-induced trance penetrated at the last second by the sudden nearness of impending catastrophe because, before that, she hadn't wanted him to stop, had drifted along for a little while just riding the tide of what was happening, probably because it was what she desperately wished she could have.

Even now, just breathing in the mingled grain and sweet and spice from the lager and letting the flavors roll around in her mouth brought it all back, the low hum down where Kyle's fingers had briefly been quickly morphing into a prickle of tingling on the outside and a hollowing contraction on the inside, her cunt impervious to Zoe's first-hand experience of what would happen if she succumbed to this desire, her body making room for him, inner and outer flesh waxing turgid and lush with heightened blood flow, waiting for Kyle to...

"Hell-oooo, Zoe. Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry."

'Yeah, okay. I was saying the bartender told me the band will start soon. He said they always start late, but they're worth it, real-deal New Orleans swampy Zydeco shit and definitely stuff we can dance to."

"Sounds good."

Zoe took a couple of gulps of beer and then decided to finish the rest.

Madison flashed an only-slightly-mocking leer.

"I know what you were thinking about, and I don't blame you."

Zoe made a study of setting her empty beer glass down dead center on the cocktail napkin.

"Yeah? I thought Nan was the clairvoyant one."

"Don't need the sight to know you can't wait to have our new pet zombie put that mouth where it can do some good, since he can't use it for much else than slurping his dinner."

"He's not a zombie. And don't be gross."

"Don't forget I've seen him naked too. You liked him before. There's nothing wrong with wanting him now."

"What I want is a shot. You're the big expert, so what should we get?"

"Now you're talking. Also, I think we've been looking at this Kyle situation the wrong way."

"What do you mean?"

"He's already died his one natural, biological death. I was just giving you shit about him being a zombie, but he sort of is in the one way that counts, lucky for you."

"What are you even talking about?"

"I'm talking about how Kyle is only actually alive by magical means, so your coochie curse can't kill him now because he's all 'Been there, got the t-shirt.'"

"Maybe. I don't know."

"We'll see. We'll definitely see. Okay, I'm not in the mood for tequila, but nothing too sweet either. I know..."

Madison waved the bartender over.

"...What's a good bourbon for shots?"

"You girls lookin' to sip and savor or just want somethin' to chase with beer?"

"The second one."

"Then Four Roses Yellow is a good choice."

"Two shots then and another round of beers."

"Yes ma'am."

The bartender poured the whiskey and served up the requested beers. Zoe picked up her shot glass and took a whiff.

"Never had bourbon before, but here goes nothing, I guess."

Madison held up her glass.

"We should toast: 'Witches rule. Let the boys drool.'"

"Some more than others."

Madison stopped with the drink an inch from her mouth.

"Which part?"

"Both."

Zoe smirked and started to down her shot but hesitated when a strange feeling almost like a shiver went down her back. Turning to look, she saw a dark-haired guy at a corner table looking back at her. Instead of hastily glancing away in embarrassment at being caught, he grinned a slow molasses grin while something in his eyes even at a distance in the bar light made her feel like she was in the middle of one of those dreams where you're unaccountably naked in public, but the frisson of uneasiness that inspired, instead of making her want to flee and find her metaphorical clothes, was mixed up with a keen desire to preen and blossom under the heat of his brazen assessment.

"Like that guy."

Madison peered over to see who Zoe was talking about.

"That's not just any drooling boy. That's Melly."

"What's a 'Melly'?"

"Bottoms up, and then you can ask him yourself 'cause he's headed our way."