Feel My Pain (Curse Bound 1)

“So, you’ve got ideas?” Roach asked. If the curse was something Zane wanted to pursue, maybe it was about time Roach got more serious about it too, because it wasn’t going away.

“Come on, Roach, it’s all bullshit. She can’t help us,”

Karla exhaled. “There’s so much gray in your aura. And what’s not gray feels dusty. Whatever brought you to me two months ago, you need to let go of the feelings that are congesting your energy flow.”

Zane gritted his teeth so loudly the noise made Roach flinch. “Oh, so now you’re suddenly helpful, huh?”

“I’ve always meant to be,” she said but took a step back.

Roach put his hand on Zane’s shoulder. “Just let her speak, there’s nothing we have to lose at this point.”

Karla exhaled, rubbing her long-fingered hands together. “Your auras are tied. I saw it when you first stepped into my home but didn’t know what it meant. You should listen to your friend. He’s a responsible man and wants to protect you.”

Zane crossed his arms on his chest, eyes narrow with anger, cheeks flushed, but he didn’t stop her this time. Did he like what Karla had said about their relationship?

Roach snorted and pushed Zane with his elbow. “Is that in my aura?”

“Yes. Its dark red and penetrates his. Maybe that’s the one reason why his isn’t all gray,” Karla said, and Zane stirred so rapidly, Roach was ready to keep him from storming out. But he only spoke, voice a low rumble.

“You can’t believe this trash.”

Roach snorted. “That my aura wants to penetrate? Sounds about right to me.”

Zane inhaled loudly and stepped forward, as if he were about to leave the room, but Roach grabbed his wrist.

“Oh. I see now. You’re… lovers,” Karla said as if she’d never met gay people before. Maybe there were none in her woo woo circles?

“No, we’re not. We’re stuck together so I fuck his ass, and we give each other head. That’s it,” Zane said, shaking off Roach’s hand. But at least he stayed put.

Roach took a step back, shriveling inside and losing all humor. Whatever bit Zane’s ass today had just come out through his mouth, and Roach hated being on the receiving end.

Karla’s cheeks flushed as she looked between them, but what was Roach to say?

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “Yeah, he also decided that to do that efficiently, he’ll move in with me and stay there like the leech he is. Any help pulling him off me would be appreciated.”

Zane said nothing, but leaned forward so his hair obscured his features.

In the stretching silence, Karla cleared her throat. “Maybe you’d like to sit down?” she asked Zane, and he spun around, walking off to the chairs by Gale’s bed. He sank low into one of them and stuck the lower half of his face under the collar of his shirt. He wouldn’t even glance Roach’s way.

“So… when did this curse happen?”

Roach rubbed his forehead, but Zane’s hurtful words lingered in his head, like broken ice floating on the surface and keeping him from seeing anything beyond it. How had he gotten in so deep with such a mean fucker? He was so dumb—falling for a guy who’d literally promised to kill him. “We met two years ago, and I think that’s when it started. We didn’t see each other until two months ago, but there’s been stuff happening in the meanwhile that makes me believe it’s been going on since then. Like, I got a tattoo, and it appeared on his back too. Or I’d wake up hungover when I wasn’t drinking. He got bruises he couldn’t explain, stuff like that.”

Karla watched him with a frown of keen interest. Maybe he was only a test subject to her, the living proof her beliefs were to some extent based in reality, but he didn’t care as long as she helped them or pointed them to someone who could.

“And neither of you has any idea how this might have started?”

“We only found out it was happening in the first place when we met again,” Zane said in a dull voice, curled up in the chair as if it offered him protection from something Roach couldn’t see.

Karla nodded. “You need to retrace your steps. Start where you met. I’d be happy to go with you and see if I can help you make sense of it all.”

“No,” Zane said without looking up. Just last morning, he’d set up a meeting with some conspiracy theory weirdo in order to find out more about the curse, yet now he was dragging his feet?

Roach spread his arms. “Why not? You got something better to do?”

“I won’t trust her again,” Zane said, rolling back to his feet, straight into pacing back and forth along Gale’s bed. “This woman’s a fraud, and I won’t go back there just because she wants me to do it!”