Longarm ignored the man's knowing grin and headed for the stairs. He was too tired and concerned about Claudette to care about anything else.
He had thrust the key into the lock and was about to turn it when he froze suddenly. Out of habit, he had glanced down before opening the door, and he saw that the end of the match he had closed between the door and the jamb when he left the room the night before was now gone. It was an old trick, one that he used frequently when he was staying in a strange place, and it had saved his life more than once. He always put the match just an inch or two above the floor, so that anybody opening the door wouldn't notice it when it fell.
But he noticed when it was gone, as it was now, and its absence warned him that somebody had been in his room while he was gone. Might even still be there, he thought.
He had paused only an instant in opening the door, such a short time that his hesitation had probably gone unnoticed by anyone lurking inside. He twisted the key the rest of the way as he drew his gun, then in one smooth movement he drove his shoulder into the door so that it slammed open as he went into the room in a rolling dive. He came up in a crouch, the Colt held tightly in his hand, ready to fire.
Claudette sat up sharply in bed, gasping in surprise and holding the sheet in front of her bare breasts.
'Custis!' she exclaimed. 'What-'
Longarm came to his feet and kicked the door shut. 'Are you alone?' he asked.
Claudette let the sheet drop, revealing the firm globes of her breasts. She patted the pillow next to her. 'Do you see anyone else in here?' she asked.
Longarm had to admit that he didn't. She was undoubtedly by herself in the bed--a situation he intended to remedy as soon as possible. Just looking at her pebbled nipples made some of his weariness go away.
He holstered his gun. 'Sorry about busting in here like that,' he said. 'I didn't think you were here. I asked about you down in the lobby, and the clerk said no one had shown up looking for me.'
'I came in the back way and persuaded one of the bellmen to let me into your room,' she explained. 'No one in the lobby saw me.'
Longarm didn't ask how she had convinced the bellman to cooperate with her. Probably the less he knew about that, the better. He shucked his gunbelt and coat and vest, then began taking off his shirt and tie. 'Did you find Marie Laveau?' he asked.
'I saw her. I spoke to her, me.' Claudette sounded as if she found that difficult to believe even now. 'But she would tell me nothing, Custis. She remember my gran'pere, though, and his gran'mama before him.'
Longarm frowned as he sat down in a chair and pulled off his boots. 'Just how old is this Voodoo Queen anyway?'
'No one knows,' said Claudette with a shake of her head. 'She is old, very old.'
'Did she send those zombies after me?'
'She would not admit it if she did, her. But I think maybe SO.'
Longarm sighed. 'Looks like I'm going to have to go see her myself, maybe buy myself a magic charm to ward off walking dead men.'
And if he did, he couldn't wait to see Billy Vail's face when he put in an expense voucher for it!
Claudette threw the sheet aside, revealing her body in all its glorious nudity. 'Come to me, Custis, and hold me, you. I want to forget all about voodoo and zombies and men with guns for a while.'
Longarm certainly shared that sentiment. As naked now as she was, he slid into the bed and put his arms around her, drawing her to him. Their mouths met in a heated kiss. Longarm parted her lips with his tongue and used it to explore her mouth, tasting the hot, wet sweetness of her. She reached down between them and closed her fingers around his shaft, which was already erect and throbbing with need. All of his tiredness and confusion and frustration had vanished. He was able to put it aside and live entirely in the here and now for a time, concerned only with sharing his passion with Claudette.
Neither of them was in any mood to wait. When he reached between her legs and probed her core with his fingers, he found her drenched and ready for him. She rolled onto her back, spreading her thighs wide, and he moved over her and positioned himself to drive into her with a single urgent thrust. She gasped as his huge, rail- hard manhood filled her.
Her moisture coated his shaft as he moved it in and out of her. Her hips began to buck against him. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around him, locking her ankles together above his surging hips. Her arms twined around his neck and pulled his head down to hers, and once again their mouths molded together. He could feel her breasts flattened against his chest, the hard nipples prodding insistently against his bare skin.
The rhythm of their dance was timeless, universal. Longarm lost himself in her, driving his manhood deeper and deeper, reaching the inner core of her so that she gasped and cried out in ecstasy. Just as he could stand it no longer, she began to spasm around him, and thankfully he plunged deep within her one last time and held his shaft there as his own climax shook him. She shuddered and thrashed as his seed fountained into her, filling her to overflowing.
Longarm groaned as he collapsed onto her, barely able to support some of his weight with his elbows so that she could still breathe. Both of them were shiny with sweat. His pulse was hammering wildly in his head, like some mad carpenter building a gallows in Hell.
He frowned as that thought went through his head. Why in blazes had such a grim image sprung to mind at a time like this?
Then he heard something... a faint scraping... No, it was more like ...
Slithering.
Longarm's head jerked up. Draped over the headboard of the bed was the biggest damn snake he had ever seen and Longarm was practically eyeball to eyeball with it, so close that he could see its tongue flickering in and out of its mouth so fast that it was almost a blur.
Frozen there like that, he barely noticed when the door burst open behind him and the men with guns in their
