She gestures with her finger for me to follow her. “I love orange juice. Coffee is so overrated. It’s great being human and actually having taste buds.”
As I follow her from the office and down the long outside walkway to the end unit, she starts to sing, even pinching the hem of her dress and twirling. “Girls just wanna have fu-un. Oh yeah, girls just wanna have fun!” Waves of pleasure and anticipation waft from her like a bad smell.
I swallow hard knowing time is running out. I’ll soon be stuck in that room with this demon. I’m running out of options. I’m literally sweating bullets when she stops and slides the key card through the reader, all the while eyeing me suggestively.
‘You can do this Adam. Believe. Have faith’. Margrit’s words surprise me when they bubble up from my memory. My shoulders pull back, which the Leah-thing immediately misinterprets, glancing down at my lower body and licking her lips. Ugh.
When she opens the door, a waft of pine-scented cleaner masking the musty body odor of previous occupants drifts into my nostrils. A dresser with cigarette burn marks sits across from a sagging double bed, cheerfully covered in some kind of geometric print. I cross the room to peek out of the heavy curtains to the back, but everything outside is black as tar.
At the click of the door closing a feeling of claustrophobia threatens, now that I’m trapped here with this thing. She saunters over, snuggling close, her hands slithering over my back until they lower cupping my butt. It would be a nineteen-year-old guy’s dream come true if not for the creature inhabiting this young woman.
My hands feel like lead as I drag them up to rest on her hips.
“Mmmm... I can’t decide which is better. Being inside a guy’s body or a girl’s, anticipating and getting warmed up.” She rises on her tiptoes and her tongue rolls over my earlobe, before nipping it with sharp teeth. She’s even grinding her pelvis against me.
‘Believe.’ I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, even hitching it to feign arousal. My hand skitters up the curve of her waist and then higher until it rests on her breast, over her heart. It’s not the plush softness under my hand that I’m concentrating on, though.
Lean gutturally moans and tugs the elastic smocking covering her chest lower. Now it’s flesh meeting flesh, a fact I try not to dwell on.
‘Leah.’ I focus on the spitfire I’ve just met—annoying as hell but well meaning. ‘Leah’. A flash of her fills my mind, frightened, glancing over her shoulder as she runs away. It’s the same expression, the same girl who was in my dream. I’d foretold this moment when the demon would threaten her. And now it has conquered.
The Leah-thing pulls back, its face now revealing its ugly essence contorting Leah’s mouth into a snarl. “Stop it! Whatever you’re doing, just stop it!”
But I pull it closer with my other hand, still feeling Leah’s heartbeat under my palm. My mind is filled with another scene that makes my breath hitch. Leah as a middle-aged woman, her eyes full of affection staring back at me, taking my hand as we walk along a shoreline. My love for her brings tears to my eyes.
It’s us!
Oh my God. It’s our future that I’m seeing.
And somehow that vision strengthens the first impression of her spirit, her soul inside this body. Hope replaces fear, and she even manages a slight smile.
All the while, the demon hisses, twisting in my arms to be free. “You fool! It’s meeeeee you need, not the simpering wannabe that Leah is! She’ll never be anything!”
My grip tightens, holding on to the vision of Leah with everything I’ve got! I cry out aloud, “Leah! Come to me! You can do this! I need you to do this. We’ve got a future together!” Any qualm I might have had about letting Leah know how I was drawn to her earlier, vanishes in the moment. Honesty and love are all I’ve got to save her! “We love each other, Leah.”
For a moment the demon shrinks and its movements falter. I can hear Leah in my mind.
“Adam! Help meee!”
The desperation in her voice is an arrow to my heart. The words pour out of me, stronger this time, “We love each other, Leah! We will marry and have children! You have to trust me when I tell you that!”
Tears fill my eyes when I see into this body, a body that one day I will cherish as I do my own. Leah is expanding, getting stronger, starting to reclaim what is hers.
We SEE each other. We are one! Bonds of trust and love tie us, making us stronger.
“ADAM! Stop this! You’ll be sorrrrry!” But the demon’s voice is slurred and fainter than its earlier screams.
‘Believe, Trust yourself, Adam.’ Again Margrit’s words bubble up, A vibration that begins in my solar plexus expands, getting faster and harder. And it’s holding the real Leah deep inside, infusing her with energy.
What comes out of this thing’s mouth isn’t the Leah I love. It’s a harsh growl.“You’ll never beat me, Adam! I’ll kill you and this wretched girl! There’s always another body that I can claim. I don’t need you.”
It hits me then. In this last claim, the demon isn’t lying. Even if Leah and I manage to banish it from her being, it will prey on someone else.
No. This time it has to die.
It’s fighting tooth and nail, its claws trying to tear at my face. I grab its wrists and stare into eyes of pure hate. Leah is in the background a shimmering soul that’s coming forward, inch by steady inch.
“Leah! Stop! We can’t push this beast from you. Hang on to it just as hard as I’m holding these wrists. Between us, we can trap this monster. It can’t be free to infect anyone else.”
Her voice sounding in my mind is pure fear. “I can’t go on like this. It’s hurting meeee! I can’t breathe!” As if to underscore this, her nose begins to bleed, two thick red lines roll over her lips and fall from her chin.
Oh my God. It’s killing her from the inside!
‘Fear, anger, hate. Love is stronger and multidimensional.’ Again Margrit’s words resonate in my mind.
“You’ve got to be strong, Leah! Don’t be scared. We will beat this creature!” Even as I cry these words, I’m struggling to avoid the thing’s feet trying to kick me away. When its knee rises catching me between the legs, sheer agony threatens to fold me like a flap of paper.
“NO!” Its scream is far away and barely registers.
Stars float in the periphery of my vision and then everything gets kind of blurry. My grip on her wrists slips.
“Astaroth! By the power of light and love I command you to stop!”
I shake my head barely able to comprehend how Margrit’s voice just got louder in my head. I feel a strong grip cover my hands holding Leah’s wrists and a body presses against mine.
When my eyes open, I can hardly believe what’s happened!
Jake is beside me holding Leah’s arms high and he’s covered her thrashing legs with one of his.
Holy Mother of God! Margrit! She’s here. Rubbing ashes across Leah’s forehead. Hell! Even Preston is here.
Preston’s fingers stroke Leah’s cheek and he murmurs a litany of love. “Be strong, Leah. You can do this. You have to do this because I can’t lose you. I love you too much!”
When Margrit turns to me, there’s a goose egg on the side of her head but other than that she’s okay. “Help me, Adam! Call to her! She needs to feel the love you have for her.”
“But what about this demon? We need to destroy it, Margrit.”
“I’ve got this!” She faces the demon. It recoils and curses her in a language that’s foreign and guttural, but there’s understanding in Margrit’s soul.
The moment slows like honey, and the demon’s darkness clears, showing its true face. Eyes that burn like embers below a thick and hoary brow, curled horns of a goat protruding just above. Blood and gore pour over razor teeth in a gaping mouth.
“Adam!” Margrit’s voice yanks me from the shocking horror of its visage.
I look past it and Leah is there. Her aura expands, crowding the demon thing with tendrils of earthy
brown. Her gray eyes focus, and when we gaze at each other, words are a pale tribute to the love we have for each other. The pureness of her soul, her kindness and innocence capture me in a magnetic pull so strong that I lose myself in her being. We are one, even as Preston’s love surrounds her.
Margrit’s harsh words to the demon are a background noise when I meld with Leah. Jake’s grunts as he struggles against the demon’s last thrusts are whispers in the wind.
The peace and surety of us—Leah and me—are the pure essence of love. I would have died to protect her from this demon, and I know she would have made the same sacrifice for me. We’re in a never-ending circle—no, a sphere that swirls over us and through us. There is only love! I could stay in this state forever.
I don’t know how long we drift like this. It could be moments or centuries. Time is a concept that no longer exists, gazing into Leah’s soul.
I feel something touch my shoulder but I shrug it away. I don’t want to leave this space, but Margrit’s voice breaks through.
“Adam! Come back! Leah! Come back to us!”
The palms of my hand against Leah’s falls away and my fingers try to grasp hers but falter. I feel and see us separate, and a powerful sense of loss hits me so hard that I fall to my knees. When I come to, she’s in front of me, also on the floor.
“Is that it?” Jake’s voice is harsh bringing my focus and reality back like a slap in the face. He continues as I stare at Leah. “Is this damned thing finally gone?”
Preston lowers and he pulls his sister into his arms. “Leah. Oh my God. I thought I’d lost you forever.” When he eases back he takes a tissue from his pocket to clear the blood from her face. His voice is a soft moan. “Oh God, it hurt youuuu!”
“I’m okay.” Leah murmurs, tugging her dress higher.
Margrit steps over to where I am, and her hand rests on my shoulder as she answers Jake. “The damned thing is finished, not just beaten. It will be a long time before this beast leaves the depths of hell, if ever.”
The relief soaring through me is intoxicating. I can’t stop the quip, “You mean like when hell freezes over?”
She cuffs my head, but then leans over to plant a kiss on my hairline. “I believed in you, Adam. And more importantly, you believed in yourself.”
It’s true. After another moment savoring this wonderful truth, I look over at Leah. She’s enough in the moment, feeling embarrassed about her dress that she’s even blushing. It’s so sweet and innocent that I want to leap over and kiss her.
But I don’t.
She looks shyly at me. “All those things that you said...”
“They were the truth, Leah. We experienced the future—our future. That’s how I knew we could defeat this thing. We have to be together. It’s destiny.” I shift closer and even cup her cheek in my hand. “But this is now. We haven’t had a chance to know each other to actually feel love. We sort of borrowed... from all our tomorrows.”
She swallows hard, looking down and then her chin lifts. “It was amazing. But—”
Margrit places her other arm over Leah’s shoulder. “Neither one of you are ready yet. Marriage is a ways down the road for you two.”
Jake who’d been standing watching, still shell-shocked a bit from all this supernatural stuff, now bellows, “Marriage? What the hell? We fight this demon thing and you bring up marriage. Not to mention she’s only seventeen!”
Leah grins up at him. “And still a virgin!” She sneaks a quick peek at me. “I am, right? I mean—”
“Yup!” My hands pull back and fly high between us. “Not guilty! Although...”
Margrit slaps my hands, “Enough! You both have a lot of growing up to do!”
I look over at the three of them in turn. This could have gone so badly if they hadn’t shown up when they did. “How’d you find us?”
TWENTY NINE
PRESTON, with a big grin on his face is the first to speak. “Margrit, of course. Although I was picking up snippets of a seedy motel.”
I look at Jake and then pull his cell phone from my back pocket. “I tried to leave clues on this thing. You may have some odd charges on your bill. I wasn’t sure what button I clicked but I had to try something.”
“I’ll let you know, kid, if you pocket dialed Taiwan. I’m not sure the department will cover that.”
I look at Margrit when I pull myself up from the floor. “Are you okay? I seriously thought you were a goner when I heard your head bang on the pavement. Your, you know...” I glance at Jake knowing this is all more mumbo-jumbo for him to hear, but continue anyway, “your aura was nowhere to be seen.”
She chuckles, and her hand rubs at the bump on her head. “I was out cold. Jake was about to go into that seedy bar to call an ambulance when I came to.”
Preston jumps in. “It was actually only a few minutes that she was out. But it scared the heck outta us! Especially when that thing had Leah in its grip, and you seemed to be going along with it.”
Margrit slumps onto the bed staring at me. “I knew you weren’t. But I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to keep that secret from the creature. How did you manage to hide your intentions?”
I sit next to her, and it’s like we’re back at the stump, sitting together. “You told me that evil is self-absorbed. I used flattery like crazy to hide my true thoughts deep in my mind. It’s like I had two conscious parts, keeping a lock on the true ones that it couldn’t enter.”
Her head tips to the side as she gazes at me. “I didn’t teach you how to do that.”
I snort. “I’m a guy, Margrit. A hormonal nineteen-year-old guy! Think about it! I see a pretty girl and well you know what could happen to my body. I have to have another section in my brain to take over and well... keep things under control, if you know what I mean.”
Leah pierces me with a glare and fairly spits the words, “What girl? Are you ogling every girl and getting... well, you know?”
Oh my God! She’s staking a claim on me, and I don’t even know her last name! But still, her jealousy warms me.
Jake comes to the rescue. “He doesn’t live in a vacuum, Leah. I’m sure he looked at you the same way when you met.”
Preston stands up quickly, peering down at me, “Not my sister, buddy. You better not be—”
“Hey! Everyone take a chill pill, okay! We just battled a freakin’ demon, and now you’re getting all self-righteous about my nonexistent sex life?” Sheesh! Give a guy a break! “Can we go now? This place makes me want to take a shower.”
Leah stands up and grumbles. “You want to take a shower? What about me? I had that dirty stinkin’ demon inside me! I’m going to have to soak in a hot tub for a month to feel clean again!”
Preston goes over and hugs her as they walk out of the room. “Even though I know you’re totally clean, we’ll do a smudging over you when we get home.” When she gawks at him he adds, “Out in the backyard, out of Mom’s sight, okay?”
I help Margrit to her feet, and she holds my arm as we leave the room. She chuckles and whispers, leaning in closer. “Sure you and Leah are destined to get together? She’s nice but... well, she can be bullheaded too.”
I can’t help but smile. “I don’t understand it either, Margrit. But I saw us in the future. We were so happy and still so much in love even though we were old, man! I mean she was gorgeous! At forty!”
“That old, huh?” Jake guffaws from behind us, closing the door to the room. “Careful kid, I’m hitting the big four-oh, next year.”
Margrit pats my arm. “You’ll stay the night at my home. Even though the danger is past, Preston has a point. I’m going to smudge the hell out of both of us!”
When we get to Jake’s car, I pile in next to Leah in the backseat while Margrit rides shotgun. Sitting next to Leah, all I can think about is how wonderful it felt when we connected, borrowing from the future. From the warmth of her thigh so close to mine, to the way her body, her energy flow eases, drifting into mine, tentative at first.
I know she’s thinking the same thing.
It’s both thrilling and scary knowing our destiny yet we’re still practically strangers. The attraction on both sides is a presence that folds us both in its arms.
Jake breaks the spell.
“I spoke with Detective Cooke in Watertown. He and his partner will be here around ten tomorrow morning.”
I meet his eyes in the rearview mirror before he pulls out of the parking lot onto the street.
“I’ll be at Margrit’s.” I sigh, sinking lower into the seat. This isn’t over yet. There’s still the dead bodies left in Watertown to account for before I’m able to go home to see my family. It’s a surprise, a pleasant surprise, when Leah’s hand slips over mine and she gives it a squeeze.
“It’ll be okay, Adam.”
My heart flips and I grasp her tight. For a moment the trace of what we felt when we connected fighting the demon is there. It’s all kind of mixed up with Leah’s spirit, how kind and wonderful she is. It’s all I can do to stop myself from leaning closer and kissing her cheek but the timing is definitely off. Plus there’s her protective brother and Margrit. Jake might even deck me.
“Thanks, Leah.” I give her fingers a final squeeze and remove my hand from hers. Again, the sense of loss leaving her touch makes me feel kind of hollow. But that’s how it goes... for now.
Haunted By The Succubus Page 17