Maybe Hell would have been better than this. There was neither dark nor light, only gray fog. Excluded, exiled to remain without really being alive, needing human contact he could not have. This place was neither Heaven, nor Hell. He did not deserve Heaven.
Almost anything would be better than two hundred years of frustration. Sorry I didn’t mean it. Hell is forever. This state of limbo would end someday, if he could make people understand why he appeared, what he was trying to do. He had to keep trying to reach Sabrina. She was his chance for redemption. He had no choice. There would be no other chance to save a soul.
“Granny, I saw the demon cat last night.” Sabrina Louise Boyd fumed. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Nothin’ you can do, child,” Granny Pearl shook her head. The red bandanna she favored had allowed wisps of stiff, gray hair to peek around its edges. “It ain’t up to you, honey lamb. When that cat shows hisself somebody dies. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it’s been forever. Nobody gonna to change it.”
“I won’t let it happen.” Sabrina clinched her fists at her side. There was nothing scientific about the way fear griped her insides. As a nurse, she realized there were things science couldn’t explain. Superstition influenced her life as much as it did anyone else’s around south Georgia.
“I‘ll find a way to stop it.” Fear threatened to choke her. She spoke around the ache in her throat. Granny’s health was fair for a woman her age, but at her age she could be easy prey to the evil cat. “There’s got to be a way to learn which of us is his target.”
“Don’t know, baby, don’t ...” The small head nodded as Granny drifted off to sleep. She’d done that a lot lately. When evening came she was worn out. Granny was going to have to see Doctor Joseph. Sabrina would make the appointment and take granny there.
There were days when knowing she would see Joe was the only reason Sabrina could work so hard at the hospital. Though they’d known each other forever, something in their relationship had changed since Sabrina had become a nurse.
Doctor Joe had teased her since he’d returned from med school to work at their small hospital. Sabrina had suffered from her crush on him. There was a good reason she wouldn't act on her feelings.
When he’d become engaged to Sabrina’s cousin, she’d been devastated. For years since Charlotte’s death, Sabrina had comforted the man she'd once wanted for herself. He’d finally asked her out. She hadn’t accepted his invitation. Being in the room with him was paradise and torture. How could she compete with a ghost?
Sabrina pulled an afghan the over the elderly lady who had been her salvation since the fire had destroyed her family. She touched the wrinkled, caramel-skinned face. An aunt and uncle had provided food and shelter, and a college education for Sabrina, the orphaned relative. Since then, Granny Pearl had given her love and devotion. She’d served as Sabrina’s nanny. No real grandmother could have loved a child more.
So many stories had been passed down over generations about deaths following an appearance of the black cat. Sabrina's parents had died in a boating accident after the latest reported sighting.
On melancholy days Sabrina climbed the narrow stairs to her attic. It had been her attic since her parent's death, but she had not been allowed to live here alone before her eighteenth birthday. On that day she had took over her own life. She and Granny Pearl had packed their bags and moved back in. Fortunately her financial guardian had tended the house well so it had needed little work to make it a warm home again.
She loved the memories of generations stored there. Some she had brought, a few at a time, into the main floors of her house. On nights like tonight they comforted her, especially years of family journals. Most especially the set she had stacked beside her.
Rubbing a shaky hand over her eyes, Sabrina opened another journal from the trunks she’d discovered in the attic. Sabrina almost managed to shake the feeling that she was not alone. Lately she’d sensed the presence of someone she couldn’t see. Crazy thought. The short hairs on the nape of her neck stirred but the journal beckoned.
The gold leaf binding showed signs of use and age, as had the other five. The spidery script was difficult to read, the language from a time long ago. The eerie sensation Sabrina felt as she read the inscription on the first thick yellowed page stunned her.
To Sabrina Louise McKeown on her eighteenth birthday, on this 19th day of May, in the year of Our Lord, 1795.
Sabrina Louise. There had been another Sabrina Louise those many years ago. Somehow she sensed there were answers for her in these words written by her namesake. Sabrina Louise wouldn’t let her down. After all, they were both of the clan McKeown, the American branch.
With each page the eerie feeling that she’d come home assailed Sabrina as she read. The other Sabrina ended each entry with a scribbled S. Louise or Lou. They still had the same name.
There would be no need to return to the volumes of church records or the public library to pour over histories of Yerby County or news articles for the past two hundred years. I need to refresh my memory. Strange thought. She’d grown up with stories of Demon Cat, the curse on the Yerby County McKeowns. Maybe it wasn’t so strange, after all.
Unseen, Devon watched the auburn haired beauty. He hated being a cat. He wanted to touch her. Her skin drew him, her scent made him ache in places he hadn’t felt for nearly two centuries. Frustration filled him as he fought his needs, carnal and frightening in their intensity. He knew her skin would feel like warm silk. It would smell of violets and rosewater. She was called Sabrina, unlike his Lou. It was difficult to separate them of late.
Could he touch her without her knowledge? Devon had made love to her in his thoughts, as the man she could not see. She would taste like nectar and --- he had to forget the needs he could not hope to appease. It would be wrong to use her to make him feel alive again. He had watched her disrobe. Exquisite. This was no time to torture himself with desire upon which he could not act.
He had to warn her. But would she understand? Sabrina had to be tired. He’d watched her all day as she traipsed from the Salvation Baptist Church to the Haven Methodist Church. Reading over her shoulder he’d relived years of trying to warn of McKeown family deaths. This time he’d make her understand. This time he just had to.
“Sabrina.” Granny Pearl whispered. “You need to get in bed and lie down for a while.” The gnarled, brown hand smoothed auburn curls from Sabrina’s smooth cheek. “Purty,” she crooned. “just like yo’ mama was. Got her blue eyes. She and that daddy of yours would be right proud to hear you sing in church. Like a angel, you sings just like a angel.”
Sabrina grinned. Granny’s eyes were as bright as chick peas, dark to the point of seeming black, sometimes bottomless in their ageless wisdom, always loving when they met Sabrina’s own blue eyes. “I have to keep reading until I find out how to prevent other McKeown deaths. Sabrina Louise had the answer. I just have to find it.” Sabrina worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she looked up Granny Pearl.
“Baby, you ought to take a nap, at least. You gonna make yourself sick if you don’t slow down. How you gonna stop what’s been goin’ on for as long as I heard tell? Doctor Joe needs to talk to you about taking care of yourself.”
“I will, if you will,” Sabrina sing-songed.
“What you talking ‘bout, girl?” Granny asked.
“I’ll talk to Joe if you’ll go see him for a check up.”
“That young pup? All I need’s a tonic from Spellcaster. What’s keeping you up so late, girl? You lovesick?” Granny grinned. “It’s about time you got together with Joe. He’s been grieving long enough.”
“I’m fine, granny. I have to finish these diaries. The Sabrina who wrote this diary tells about falling in love at her nineteenth birthday party. He is the handsomest man I’ve ever seen. His eyes look right to the deepest part of me. I feel we were destined to be together. I dare not tell mama or papa. They would never approve of Devon. But he makes me warm all over when he looks at me with those black as sin eyes. His flowing straight raven hair begs for my touch. It would take little to make me forget that I am supposed to be a lady. Lou.”
“Sounds like she thought she was in love with that Devon fella. It sho’ does.” Granny shook her head. “Young people always fallin’ in love with a purty face.”
Devon had watched over Sabrina for days. She could see him only when he became Demon Cat. They called him that. Maybe I am a demon, My Lou loved me. I just don’t know why she betrayed me. I would have loved her forever. I have loved her forever. Devon needed to know whose life was in danger this time. He wished he’d been able save Sabrina the pain caused by the deaths of her family. No one had understood then, either. The boating accident could have been prevented.
As tired as Sabrina was from reading all weekend, she pasted a smile on her face as she entered the small community hospital. All day Sabrina pushed herself.
When her lunch break came she had little appetite. She’d chosen a table away from the crowds, to think and relax. Joe had not allowed her solitude.
“Mornin’, nurse ‘Briny,” Joe whispered. “Where’s your lunch?”
“Joe Walker,” Sabrina narrowed her eyes at the hunky doctor. “Mind your own business. And don’t call me that. You gonna to eat all that?” His tray was loaded.
“You look like Hell,” Doctor Joe blurted. “See me in my office as soon as you help me eat this food.”
Sabrina read concern in his long-lashed, obsidian eyes, but she couldn’t let him think he could treat her like a kid.
“Thanks a lot, Doctor Joseph. You do make a girl feel good.”
He placed a hamburger on her tray. “Mustard, pickles, tomato, and lettuce, just the way you like it. Eat up.” He added french fries to the burger she had yet to touch. How had he missed noticing how drawn she looked? Everyone at the hospital had worked like demons to make up for the flu epidemic straining staff and facilities of the hospital. But he really should’ve noticed his friend looked so exhausted.
“Well, eat up, my girl, or I’ll tell everyone about our nickname for you, nurse Br...”
“Don’t say it,” Sabrina interrupted. “I’m not hungry. Go pester someone else.”
“But I’d rather pester you. You’ve lost weight and your skin looks pasty. Except for the bruised looking circles under your eyes.” Joe took a bite of his own burger and chewed as he stared at his Sabrina. Even exhausted she was beautiful, tempting and likely to get sick if she didn’t mind his warning. For months he’d dreamed about this woman he saw every day but could not touch as more than a friend.
“Lady, if you don’t clean your plate and see me in my office before you go back on the floor, I’ll hunt you down and drag you to my lair.” His Indian ancestors would’ve just bartered a few horses and blankets with male relative and taken her to his bed. Not a bad idea, but first he’d have to explain that her cousin was leaving him before she died.
Sabrina took a grudging bite of the hamburger. She looked like she was ready to complain. Her frown turned to a grudging smile as she swallowed. “You should be a chef. You made a hospital burger almost edible.”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that if I change careers.” In his dreams he’d wanted her. In the past he’d thought of her as a buddy. Maybe, just maybe, he’d loved her forever and hadn’t realized it.
“That was wonderful, thanks, I needed that - wait, no more, Joe, I can’t eat that cake.”
She tried to put the plate back on his tray but he chuckled, shoving it back in her direction. “I got that chocolate for you. I’m allergic, remember?” He wondered if he’d have a reaction if he kissed her, tasting the chocolate from her lips. Might be worth it. If they’d been just about anyplace else he’d have found out, now.
He stood to leave. “In my office, nurse,” he said loudly enough for other diners to hear. “ten minutes, please.”
He strode out with that natural swagger she’d always found so sexy. It would look strange if she didn’t comply with a doctor’s request.
Twenty minutes later Joe almost wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Her temperature was a little above normal but not much. Her pulse was fine, but his was racing. Her throat was a little raw looking but she’d said it didn’t hurt. Then, she’d unbuttoned the buttons on her white blouse so he could listen to her heart. Hell, her hands were none too steady as she undid the tiny buttons. His farely shook as he placed the stethoscope to the swell of her breast above her bra, if you could call that delicious scrap of lace and satin a bra.
Joe’s voice was thick, rusty as he asked the usual doctor questions, when he wanted to talk erotic, sexy love talk instead. His objectivity was shot to hell. All he could think about was how he could see her around after today without thinking about her taste in lingerie.
“Check your temp tonight, it’s a bit above normal now. Get some rest, Sabrina. Can’t have you sick, too.”
“I’ll make an appointment for you to see Granny Pearl for a checkup. She’s so stubborn you might have to see her at the house. You do still make house calls, don’t you.”
“For you, anything, hon.” Joe said as she left. And he meant it.
By the end of her shift Sabrina’s head was pounding from fatigue. She dared not sit and close her eyes. She might sleep. And if she slept she would surely dream of the cat and the strange way it looked at her, as if to hypnotize her, to possess her. It almost seemed to make love to her with its eyes. In her dreams it rubbed against her, like a pet, more like a lover. Damn! In her dreams it’s eyes were the tortured eyes of a man, sometimes Joe’s dark eyes. Maybe she needed to see the hospital shrink. Not likely. Joe had once been a friend with whom she could’ve shared her fears. Not anymore. She shared the erotic dreams with no one.
At nine o’clock it was still warm for a May night. Sabrina had been reading for at least an hour.
6, July, 1795
Devon kissed me. My first real kiss was wonderful. We met in the orchard on his farm. It is more like a plantation but they own no slaves. Papa says they will never be as rich or as good as the rest of us, but I do not care. He is so handsome and so gentle. He has plans to expand and become rich enough to take care of his family and me.
I never realized a simple kiss could do so much. I don’t think the kiss was simple. His lips on mine made me forget why I must keep myself pure until the marriage bed. When his hand moved to my breast I was loath to stop him.
His sense of honor was all that stopped me from letting him take me, then and there. Will I give in to the fantasy of giving myself to him? All my life I have been told I will roast in Hell if I give myself to a man not my husband.
When the slave drums beat at night I think about mating with Devon. Would it be worth eternal damnation? I should not write these words but I have no one with whom to share my wicked thoughts. Lou
30, July, 1795
I saw Devon cutting wood. He did not see me as I watched him. His hard body glistened with sweat and my own heated. Imagining his copper skin against my own paleness made breathing nearly impossible. There was an ache inside me like none I have felt before. He was so beautiful I could not say a word. When he realized I was there he grabbed his shirt, but it was too late. I had seen enough to keep me awake and wanting all night.
Surely other men cannot compare to my Devon. They do not make my heart race just by being in the same room. They do not make me dream of learning what to do about the dampness in my most intimate place or of lying with them. I know I am not a wanton like the wicked women who pleasure gentlemen for money. God in heaven, I want more than kisses from this man. I really think I am in love at last. S. Lou.
Sabrina dozed in the chair where she’d read for hours. Her skin tingled as she pictured the bronzed body of the man chopping wood. Shirtless and sweating, he looked like a primitive as his muscles flexed. Her body tightened at the thought of wrapping her self around him. The light feeling in her head gave way to a longing deep inside. She never felt this soul deep need. What he made her feel was more than sweet caring. She needed to find herself and she knew only Devon could give it to her.
Sabrina awoke disoriented, sweating, in need. She really needed to try sleeping in a bed, for a change. Leaving Lou’s journals was no easy feat, she felt so strongly connected to the woman. Probably because of our shared name, and I do love a good romance.
Reading the journals with Sabrina was as torturous for Devon as it was wonderful. I knew my Lou loved me, dammit! How did things gone so wrong? Why did she tell her family such awful things? I didn’t mean to harm her. I was so angry and hurt. Would the pain never go away? He had to find a way to forgive her. Maybe that was what stood between his success and those he had tried to warn. He would show himself to Sabrina again. She must understand he was not evil.
Tuesday wasn’t any easier to face than Monday had been. Sabrina needed the rest, but sleeping was no help when a man she had never met made love to her in her dreams. Dreams? God she hoped so. Last night’s dreams had gone beyond anything she could have imagined.
The demon cat had come to her room. He’d stared at her with his hypnotizing eyes. He’d rubbed against her body, sending burning heat through her thin shift. Her light sheet lay wadded at the foot of her bed but it would have offered little protection from this creature of the devil.
Her eyes had closed to avoid seeing the cat but had opened when Devon’s voice rumbled so near her ear, or was it Joe’s voice. “Love me,” he’d begged. “I need you to save me. Only your innocence can rescue me from the darkness.”
His breath was warm and sweet on her face. Her neck burned as he trailed kisses toward her breasts. They were bare, though she did not remember removing her gown. Of it’s own accord her body arched to him. Fear made her try to pull away.
Images of the demon cat flitted unbidden through her mind but they were replaced instantly by the tanned face she loved. His long hair trailed her body as he worshipped her like some pagan goddess, with his lips and tongue and teeth.
A niggling voice warned her to make him stop. Her body betrayed her as she gave herself to his possession. With each passing second her body tightened with need. A gasp tore from her parched throat. She was lost as her world exploded around her. She was sure she yelled his name.
“Dear God, what have I done?” Her world went black and this time her dream was different. There was no demon cat to taunt her. Joe stood before her naked. She’d opened to him, offering herself. Like a wanton she’d shared openmouthed kisses. She’d pushed him down onto the bed beneath her and worshiped his bronzed body.
From his muscular neck she kissed a path down and across both shoulders. As she kissed each vertibrea down to his waist Joe quivered, but stayed in place. He would be forever branded as he had claimed her, body and soul.
When Sabrina Boyd awoke memories of Devon were with her again. She knew his scent, the feel of his hot skin against her own, and she knew how Sabrina Louise McKeown had felt. She also knew that he had been Lou’s first lover. She envied Lou for the love Sabrina might never know in reality. How could she love her cousin’s husband, except in her dreams? There was no way she could take Rachel’s place with Joe.
In the light of day she fought the urge to thumb to later entries to see if the Devon and Lou would marry and live happily ever after. The question had barely entered her thoughts when a sharp pain pierced her heart, nearly doubling her over in its intensity.
The answer hit her, sharp and clear. No. She wanted to cry for Lou and Devon. It made no sense. They were long dead and gone. Sabrina wanted to cry for herself. How she cry for what had never been hers? That really made no sense. Sleep did not help her escape the confusion or the pain.
Sabrina sat across from Joe. The hospital cafeteria was noisy and crowded. Sabrina felt her face heat as she watched the handsome doctor enjoy his meal.
“Joe, you’ve got to stop staring at me. Is there something on my face?” Sabrina held her napkin poised to wipe. “My temperature wasn’t very high last night, barely above normal. Granny Pearl can tell you that I ate her famous chicken and dumplings last night for supper.”
Sabrina didn’t mention that she still hadn’t slept worth a damn. It was partly his own sexy fault. She wasn’t ready to tell him about Devon and Lou, or the diaries, or the Devil cat.
“No. I just can’t stop thinking about a dream I had last night. You were in it. Hell, it was the most erotic dream I’ve ever had.” Joe smiled as he leaned across the small table. “I can’t believe the things you did to me. Shame on you, Sabrina.” He was staring at her mouth, again. He was so close she could feel his hot breath on her face. She could almost taste him and she wanted to, right there. Heat coiled deep within her being as she imagined long fingers stroking. His voice was low and hypnotic. She couldn’t make sense of his words but his meaning was unmistakably erotic.
Only his name being called over the intercom saved her from total embarrassment. If Joe had been more specific about their shared dream, she’d never have been able to face him again. Just discussing it in general terms had turned her tired brain to mush.
After the long day at the hospital Sabrina couldn’t believe she had gone to find the spellcaster. He was known by other names. Some locals called him witch doctor, Shaaman, and other titles. No one knew how long he had been there, or how he got there. He was feared by some, respected by all.
It had taken an hour to find the old man and his cabin, deep in the swamps, difficult to spot, even for a person raised in the area. Another hour would barely get her back home before dark. Her head ached but she had no aspirin.
The cabin was ancient, like its occupant. Though Spellcaster welcomed Sabrina inside, she hesitated to cross the threshold into a world she did not understand. His skin was neither dark or light, just much wrinkled. White dominated the thin hair hanging well past his hunched shoulders. She handed him two soft, new blankets as part of her token of appreciation. His sightless eyes were as frightening as the things he told her about the Demon Cat. No one remembered a time when Spellcaster was not old.
Drums of all sizes clustered near a blackened fireplace. No one played them but their rhythm hung in the smoky air. The room, the sounds, and the jars and bottles filling shelves were as bewildering as the way she felt so drawn into his stories and the spells he had cast since she had known him. She knew better, she was a woman of science. But she was here for an answer science could not provide.
“I have always been here, in one form or another.” his aged voice rasped. “I have been in the wind, I have been one of the creatures who walk with four legs. The Demon Cat may be my brother, for all I know.”
For minutes the filmy eyes seemed to stare at Sabrina. “He has touched you,” the old man stated.
“No!” she denied, even as a memory tried to force past her consciousness.
“He has touched you.”
“I don’t understand.” Sabrina said. She hadn’t even asked her question. “Is it hot in here?“ She rubbed her damp brow. “What am I to do? Surely there is a way to stop the Demon. Can’t you cast a spell to send him away?”
“I will try but I do not believe he will go without what he desires. For nearly two hundred years the cat has foretold tragedies. Few people who see the cat want to admit it. I have seen the Demon Cat, myself,” The old man told her story after story about the mysterious creature, even of his own sightings. He’d seen the cat three times before the fire which killed her family. No one had mentioned that, before. Nothing he’d said told her why the harbinger of death appeared or how she could cheat death. Nothing had been said about the dream from last night and it was a dream. It was!
Devon had suffered all day as he denied himself by not following Sabrina. He could not stop the memories of his loving this woman. Last night he’d intended to watch over her as she slept. Need had overcome good intentions and he had shown himself to her as the cat. She had feared him.
His need to love had been so strong! Whether curse or blessing he’d felt the cat fade away and his human form materialize. That had not happened in the two hundred years since his death. Lust and need and his lost love had made touch her, and he was lost. Had he damned himself forever? Had he damned her?
All afternoon he’d awaited her return. It was nearly dark and he worried. There! She drags herself up the path. Damn! Sabrina, my love, you look so tired.
Forgetting her fear of him he raced down the path to reach her. What’s wrong? The crazy old man couldn’t help you? He cannot send me away. He cannot even help me escape my torment. Together we will try to save the one in danger.
The cat seemed frantic as it rubbed against her legs. It had never done that. She was too tired to chase it away, too tired to care. It watched as she stumbled, landing on the porch swing.
He leaped to the short brick column nearest Sabrina. He stared, unblinking, at the exhausted young woman. Do not be afraid, he wanted to say, I won’t hurt you. But he couldn’t say either. He couldn’t say anything. He could not say he loved her.
Staring into the mesmerizing eyes Sabrina saw something she had missed the first time she’d seen the creature. Drawn into their depths, her vision blurred. She saw the cat as it had been the night before in her dreams. The cat face was replaced by Devon’s. Devon’s beloved face became the cat’s. No! No! she wanted to scream. Her head became so light she began to drift into the air, toward the clouds. The name she tried to say aloud was Joe’s. She needed his healing knowledge to find her way back to lie.
A shrill cry rent the air of the night. No! No! Not his Sabrina. Her head lolled back as her eyelashes fluttered. Devon jumped to the seat of the swing. She was flushed, burning up. He couldn’t touch her but he felt her heat. He bowled again. Someone had to hear. Someone had to come to her rescue. Her breath rasped as her chest barely moved. It wasn’t fair. He couldn’t watch her die.
The pain stopped suddenly as Sabrina opened her eyes and looked up at her father, no, Lou’s father, no she was Lou. No, she shared Lou’s pain. He was so different from the man who had raised her. Lou hardly recognized the monster he had become lately. She heard her voice, as though from a distance.
“Papa, you don’t understand. I love him. He wants to marry me.” Louise McKeown clutched at her father’s hand. The scent of gardenias permeated the air as green velvet curtains stirred slowly in warm, sultry breezes. Gardenias, her favorite flowers, were suddenly so cloying, so nauseating.
“No daughter of mine is gonna marry a half breed bastard. His family might own land but they are still part red-skin. Stay away from that breed and his land.” He jerked his hand from her desperate grasp and pointed a finger in her face. “Stay away from that trash, or you will live to regret it. Do you hear me, girl? I would sooner kill you as let him put his filthy hands on my flesh and blood.”
She had heard but she could not obey him. Nor could she tell him the truth. She must get word to Devon. Papa would probably kill him if he knew what they were to each other, what they had planned. She loved Devon and she had to be with him. She just had to.
Tears stung her eyes as she sobbed. Sabrina hurt for her namesake. She hurt for herself. She hurt all over. Three days. She’d heard someone say something about calling in a healer, if she didn’t get better by morning. Granny’s gravely voice broke through the fog of her fever. “That chile dyin’ and you ain’t doin’ her no good, Joseph Walker. You got my baby in this new fangled, fancy hospital, hooked up to tubes and machines, and she’s just gettin’ worse. Thought you was supposed to be a doctor. That white coat ain’t helping. Hook up with her mind and tell her you love her. I know you do. She loves you, too. She’s just too stubborn to admit it to herself or you.”
Joe left Sabrina’s side only long enough attend to life threatening emergencies. He had to be reminded to eat. He hadn’t slept since he’d rushed to answer Granny Pearl’s frantic call to the hospital. Thank God he’d been there by the phone. He couldn’t lose her before he’d loved her for an eternity. She had to live to be his wife, the mother of his children.
Invisible, Devon had paced the halls of the hospital unseen. He had parked himself in a chair and reached for her hand. “Sabrina, fight, my darlin’ girl, fight.” When he had seen her approach the tunnel of light, he had panicked and yelled her name. When she had paused and looked toward him, he thought she saw him, that she would turn back. She did not. He saw the faces smiling at her, beckoning her to come to them. She must not cross over to the other side. He would not let her die. He would beg, if he had to. He would promise anything.
The hospital room faded and Devon could taste his own blood. He was once again being held by the angry white-eyes while Lou’s father wielded his whip across Devon’s back. I forgive you, my darlin’. He felt the lashes tearing the skin on his back. He gritted his teeth, tried to stay conscious. What have they done to you? How could they stop you from coming to me? If I live through this I will come for you. We will go away where we can be together always. I love you, Sabrina.
The tears streaming down his face were for Sabrina. This time he would say nothing against his woman. He would protect her, he would take all the blame, no matter what they said or did. Though they accused him of defiling Lou’s body, he would not admit they were lovers, or that she carried his child. Devon no longer felt the pain of the lashes. After all, he had been dead, lo these many years.
No, do not take her, he begged. Take me. I will do anything. I will go to Hell forever--I will stay in this awful limbo forever. I don’t care what she told those bastards about me. I forgive her for everything. I will do whatever you say. It will tear my heart out, but I will never touch her again. I will try to forget that her skin is like white satin and her body tastes like heaven. I am not entitled to heaven.
Lou McKeown banged on the window and screamed, but no one saw her, no one heard her pleas or her promises. Devon would think she had changed her mind, that she had deserted him. It seemed like she had been crying forever.
Huddled on the floor, beside her bed, Louise believed she had cried herself dry. The thunder of horses riding hard and fast had drawn her to the window again. Angry shouts---Bastard---dirty half breed---She saw her father dismount his black stallion, then pull a body from a second horse. “We will teach you to lay your dirty hands on a respectable white woman.”
“De--von-n-n!” she screamed until her throat was raw but they tied him to a tree. Her hands bled, but still she banged against her window. Someone had to hear her pleas, someone had to make them stop. She felt each lash as the whip snaked across the back of the man she loved. She would never love again, she would run away and have Devon’s baby and raise it herself. She would... Finally she lost consciousness.
For a moment in time Devon could see through the walls of the room where his love was screaming for him. He saw her anguish, felt her pain. It was almost more than he could bear, even after two hundred years. “I knew you loved me, my darlin’.” Devon cried. “I should never have believed you betrayed me. I should have known they were lying. I should never have told the truth, should have protected you. So sorry, my love.” In that moment Devon saw his precious woman bleeding to death as she lost their child. ”Oh, God!” Would that he had never seen this. Nay, would that he had known the truth then, that he had been able to protect her from such pain.
Again the tunnel of light lay ahead. Shinning faces smiled at Sabrina as she was drawn to join her parents. Obsidian eyes glistened as Devon shook his long, black hair. “Forgive me, my love,” he said. “Not yet, it is not time. You must go back, I will wait for you.”
The light was so bright it hurt her eyes. She didn’t want to open them, even as the deep voice coaxed her. Next to her ear Joe’s voice whispered. “I’ll kiss every inch of your body. I’ll make love to you twice a day, even if we have to escape to hospital broom closets.” She turned and moved from the light, waving at the man who sent her back.
“Come on, open those big baby blues for us, sweetheart. I know you’re in there.” Drawn to the deep, familiar voice, Sabrina forced her eyes open slowly. Just above her face, leaning over her bed, was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Of course her vision was still slightly blurred with sleep, but her doctor Joseph was close enough for her to detect deep circles under his eyes.
Sabrina, my love, I need you. Granny Pearl needs you.” Joe’s voice pleaded. “Come on, gorgeous, you’ve slept long enough.”
Her throat was gritty and a little sore. She tried to, clear it. His eyes are so black I can see myself in them. ”Do I know you?” she asked.
“Don’t you remember me?” His smile warmed her heart as he touched her cheek. “I’m the man who has been saying thoroughly naughty things to you while you were sleeping.” His lips were moist and firm as he gently kissed her forehead.
“It’s about time you came back. Your Granny has been so worried she was about to call in a healer. That wouldn’t have done my reputation any good, now would it? She wanted to send someone to get the Spellcaster and bring him here. He hasn’t been to town in at least twenty years. She kept talking about some black cat since she insisted I make a house call to come get you.”
“Welcome back, chile. That black cat was wrong, this time. Nobody died.”
“Honey, do you know who you are?” Joe asked as part of standard procedure. He looked so concerned Sabrina wanted to laugh at him.
Instead she answered with her rusty hinge voice. “I am Nurse Sabrina Boyd, the woman who loves you, Doctor Joseph Walker.”
“God knows I love you, Sabrina!” Joe kissed his patient, ignoring their audience. He kissed her deeply, urgently.
Sabrina wanted his kisses more than air but she knew her breath was awful. “Joe, I know I must look a sight, and I need a bath and a shampoo. and...”
“Soon, my beloved.” He kissed her again. “Marry me, Say you’ll be my wife.” He kissed her again. He needed to reassure himself that she was really conscious. An insistent tapping on his back finally made him end his kisses.
Light reflected from the black stone hanging from the chain around the doctor’s neck. A black cat. Sabrina’s eyes focused on the medallion Joe always wore. She had forgotten that he called it his charm, his protection against the evil spirits. She hadn’t noticed it lately since it had always seemed a part of him. She’d been distracted by his blacker than black eyes for the time she had tried to awaken.
Suddenly, Sabrina knew. A black cat saved me. The Demon Cat won’t be back.
“Don’t look so worried, Sabrina. I’ll give you as long as you need to recuperate before we start doing the things I mentioned. I hope you remember how to do the things you did in my dreams.”
Oh, yes, she was ready to claim this man for real, as soon as she could recover.
Devon had watched as Sabrina regained consciousness. Something felt different. But he was not certain what. Once again he was in that hellacious void. He’d made promises and was willing to honor them. Limbo? Hell? Which would be his fate? It didn’t matter.
How much time passed while he pondered, he had no idea. The air around him farely vibrated. The gray seemed to lighten. Fog began to lift. A tunnel formed as he watched. Whispers beckoned as the tunnel widened. Slowly he entered. Cautious, he moved toward a faint light ahead. The light grew as he moved toward the end, if there was an end.
Where would the tunnel lead? The only other time he had entered such a tunnel had been to call Sabrina back. That tunnel had surely led to Heaven. The farther he walked, the louder the sounds grew. They didn’t sound like the wailing of lost or tortured souls, but he’d never been to Hell. They sounded more like laughing and harp music. It was almost like a party or church social. It had been so long but he would never forget seeing Sabrina Louise at church socials. He had watched her mature as a young girl becoming a woman. He had loved the young girl. She was above his class, out of his reach. The woman had loved him as he loved her. She had ignored the rules of their society for him. She had died because of their love. He had died because of their love.
“Devon, come here. Devon?” He heard the feminine voice. Who in Hell would call him in such dulcet tones? Were they torturing him? Was that part of his punishment?
“Devon, my love, hurry. What is taking you so long?”
He hurried in spite of himself. If he was hurrying toward the devil he didn’t care. The light at the end of the tunnel grew. The sounds of laughter grew. Her beloved voice was so close he could almost smell her special scent.
At the end of the tunnel a feminine silhouette loomed, beckoning to him. Out-stretched arms tempted him to give up his caution. He raced toward the figure that had to be his Sabrina or the cruelest joke of all time.
He nearly knocked her over when he stepped from the dark into the light. “Oh, my God.” Sabrina was in his arms. “Thank you God. Please don’t let this be a dream. Please don’t take her away again.”
“Devon, my love. You’re finally here. I’ve watched you founder for so long.” He finally let himself kiss her. His lips touched hers in a kiss so gentle, so full of love he was sure he would die from the beauty of it all. Die? Too late. Sabrina seemed to breathe life into his soul. She kissed him back love and promise.
“Sabrina? My Darling I have missed you so much. What is happening? Where are we? They would never have sent you to Hell, would they?
“No, my Love. You are in here in Heaven with me.”
“Will they send me back?”
“No, my beloved we will be together forever.”
“Forever?” he asked.
“Forever, Love.”