Page 72 of Too Cursed To Kiss
Wald stirred, and we both snapped our attention to him. I was taking movement as a good sign.
Soda pulled him up to the pillows. His eyelids flickered. She leaned over him and felt around his cheeks and jaw. Shepressed an ear to his nose and mouth. Her candy-floss pink tongue darted out, and she licked him from lips to nose. Wald’s lips caught her tongue and sucked it into his mouth.
The ickiness and horror were a cocktail so bitter my throat closed, and I couldn’t swallow. I coughed and retched at the same time, turning away, and covering my mouth. I wasn’t going to watch, but I’d let Soda do whatever she needed to heal him. Wald was all that mattered.
But it still had looked like some sort of contorted mating kiss. A tirade of words in a similar sounding language the Grigores used was followed by a slap. I whirled back, ready to fight Soda if I had to.
Soda held a hand to her reddened cheek. Wald glared and then collapsed. The bastard had hit her.
“He’s going to be fine.” She grimaced, motioning me toward the door.
“He hit you? That isn’t fine.” I moved toward Wald. I actually don’t know what I meant to do, maybe yell at him? Shake him? Soda blocked me, and I stood there seething but also worried.
“He’s fine. I deserved the slap. I baited him with the kiss. I think it worked, but it wasn’t nice. He didn’t know. He doesn’t know what’s going on. Both the nightshade and the bark have strong hallucinogenic alkaloids, and he’ll be loopy for a while. He lashed out, probably thinking I was one of the agents. We need to let him lie peacefully.”
My look ofWTFmust have been clear because Soda walked past me and then turned, wiggling her fingers in a sort of wave.
“You aren’t leaving?” I asked, the terror of being the one responsible for Wald’s life descending.
She flicked back her candy green hair. “Wald’s healing maytake awhile, but I think it’s working. I have clients to see. Besides, he doesn’t want me here. He was quite clear I was never to set foot over his threshold again. He takes betrayal deeply.”
“Betrayal?” There was no way I was letting Soda leave until Wald was conscious, Britannia had arrived, or I had a better game plan. That was going to take food and alcohol. I was thinking pizza. “Can’t your client wait? Stay and have a drink. There’s a bar cart. Wald must have alcohol?”
“Oh, he does. The good stuff. Wald has excellent taste.” She had the narrowed eyes and the raised chin of a jilted lover, and the way she said Wald made me want to slap her. I flexed my fingers but didn’t move. I didn’t have the position of either lover or girlfriend—yet. But when Wald recovered, I intended to change that. I still wasn’t letting her leave. I was betting Soda hadstories.
“I guess I could stay for a bit,” she said, checking her phone. “I have an hour before my next client. We should leave him to the quiet though. Silence is healing.”
I glanced at the sleeping Wald, reluctant to leave him but Soda waved me to the door. “What exactly do you do?” I asked, feeling the tug of wanting to return to Wald as we walked back to the living room.
“I heal people.”
Duh. “You said that. Like an herbalist?”
“Sure. What’s your poison?” she asked, sidestepping the question and sliding open a wall compartment to reveal a selection of stylish glassware and more bottles.
“Bourbon, I think. Hang on, that might make me throw up.” I spotted a jar of cherries. My eyes started to tear. “Forget it, bourbon’s fine, I don’t care anymore. But drop three cherries in it. No, make that four.”
Soda raised an eyebrow but poured out an inch or so intoa tumbler, added cherries and then filled a glass with a clear liquid for herself.
“Vodka?” I asked as she perched on the edge of the couch as if she were about to flit off at any moment.
“Aquavit, my favorite.” Her huge almond-shaped eyes were the most startling greenish-blue I’d ever seen on a non-anime character.
I let the moment of mutual understanding pass as I savored a perfect bourbon-laced cherry. It rolled in my mouth, and all I could think of was Wald’s tongue. Damn. “Maybe we should go and check on him?” I got up.
Soda waved a long bony hand through the air. “Stop. I told you, he needs time and quiet. Check on him in half an hour.”
“Fine.” The cherries and alcohol sloshed in my stomach. I needed food. “Any interest in pizza?”
“Doesn’t matter. No one delivers out here.”
“Gah. Hadn’t thought of that. Let me see if there’s anything in the kitchen.”
“There’s always chips and cookies. Left of the fridge, Britannia keeps a cache.”
“Britannia comes here?” I bristled.
“Sometimes. Though I think Wald might eat them too. He likes crunchy things.”
