She stripped down until she stood naked in front of him. “Drew, come back to me. Feel my touch, my love. Focus on me.”
He put his hands on her shoulders, lightly caressing her skin and, for a second, his touch felt like Drew’s, his lips moved like Drew’s. She smiled and unclasped his pants then pulled him down onto the floor with her. She kissed him again, deeper, even as she felt his hands slip around her neck.
“Drew!” Paul’s voice boomed through Drew’s mind. “Hurry!”
Drew wanted to hurry. He knew he had to hurry, but he couldn’t remember why. Everything was so dark, except for a pinprick of light off in the distance. He moved toward it and, as he got closer, he heard Laura’s voice, he felt her sweet touch. He must be dreaming.
Love and tenderness overwhelmed him.
Then he saw her beneath him. Felt himself moving inside her. Saw hands wrapped around her neck. Her blue eyes bulging, her beautiful lips parted, gasping for air.
No!
Drew jerked back, pulling his hands from Laura’s neck.
She gasped a breath.
The presence within him howled and struggled to push him back down into the darkness. Drew fought with everything he had. Laura’s light was strong. He flung himself toward it. He started to move within it, faster, harder. He felt it enveloping him. He felt her everywhere, her breath on his neck, her tears on his skin. Her warmth surrounding him.
Her strength filled him. He pushed against the presence, visualizing it as a black toxic cloud. The more he pushed, the stronger he became.
“Drew!” Laura screamed, and thrust against him. She burst into a million bright tiny lights. They circled around him. He breathed them in, breathed her in and pushed the darkness out. The foul dark cloud of evil.
Deep inside him, he heard a roar of protest. The presence surged within him. A tension expanding, growing so big he thought he would explode from the inside out.
He fell on his back and it burst out of him, a black lethal cloud that reached for the sky.
“Oh my God, Drew. Drew!” Laura shook him hard.
He opened his eyes and stared at her and thought she had to be the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.
“Hi,” he said, and smiled.
She stared intently at him for a moment then grinned.
“What?”
“You’re giving me that crooked smile again.”
“My smile is not crooked.”
“Yes, it is.”
He reached up and touched her hair and let the overwhelming love he felt for her fill him. He looked around the room and remembered where he was, and everything that had happened.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said.
“I couldn’t leave you. I love you. And I refuse to let you go.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and pulled her next to him. “Good. Because I love you, and I have no intention of letting you out of my sight. Ever again. What do you say we get out of here?”
“Where to?”
“I was thinking the desert.”
“Really?” she asked, pulling on her clothes.
“As long as we’re together, I’ll go anywhere with you.”
Hand in hand they walked out of the house and as they approached the car, Drew turned back. A flicker, a shadow that, for a second, looked like Paul stood in the window. A blue-green light flashed, then it was gone.
Was this what it would be like? Without Kafu’s presence within him, were flickers and shadows of the dead all he would see? The thought filled him with giddy relief.
Suddenly flames devoured the curtains behind the windows.
Drew stopped. “The house is on fire.”
Laura looked back at the house, then at him and smiled. “Let it burn. The earth around here needs a good cleansing.”
They got into the car and drove away and though Drew couldn’t tell if Paul was there or not, he lifted his hand in a gesture of thanks and said a silent goodbye.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6613-5
BLACK MAGIC LOVER
Copyright © 2010 by Cynthia D. Cooke
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