After Moonrise: Possessed\Haunted (8 page)

He didn’t think he’d made a noise, though he was smiling, but
Aubrey chose then to look around her sister and straight at him.

“Come on in, Kent. We have a proposition
for you,”
she said, sounding both mischievous and raunchy.

CHAPTER NINE

“What’s the proposition?” he asked, wondering why even
though he sounded reluctant his feet were propelling him quickly to join the two
women.

“Aubrey wants to give you something,” Lauren said, still
looking flushed-cheeked and sounding a little breathless.

“But I need Lauren’s help.”
Aubrey
grinned at her twin.
“And she’s agreed.
Happily.”

Raef was almost as suspicious as he was curious. Almost. “All
right, what do you want to give me?”

“We’ll tell you—or rather, we’ll show
you—but first I want you to promise me you’ll open your mind and your heart
and be willing to just go with it.”

A red flag went up for Raef, but it was hard to assess the
warning when Aubrey and Lauren were both beaming full-wattage smiles at him. “I
need to know what it is I’m being open about before I make that promise.” Even
he could hear the bullshit in his voice. Hell, he’d agree to be open to
sprouting wings and jumping off the fucking garage if those two kept smiling at
him like that.

“It’s part of being open, Raef. You don’t get to know what
you’re promising—you get to be
open
to all sorts of
possibilities.” Then Lauren giggled, and her cheeks got even pinker.

Raef went from being curious to intrigued, and that trumped
suspicious. “All right. I promise. Now, what are you two cooking up?”

Aubrey stood.
“Just a little hope, and
that plus pleasure and joy makes for a feast.”
The ghost lifted her
hand and Lauren stood beside her. The women smiled at each other.
“Are you ready?”
Aubrey asked her.

“As I’ll ever be,” Lauren said. Raef thought she sounded
nervous.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll drive,”
Aubrey
said teasingly.

“You always were better at
driving
than me,” Lauren said. She shook back her hair and laughed. “Just do it.
I’m ready to take one for the team.”

Aubrey looked from her twin to Raef. She
really
looked at Raef—moving her gaze from his feet, all the way up,
slowly, to meet his eyes. Raef felt himself start to harden.
What the hell? Just her look does that to me?

Then Aubrey turned her gaze back to Lauren.
“Oh, please, sis! Take one for the team? This is going to be
better than buttered popcorn and Raisinets!”

Raef thought he heard Lauren whisper something that sounded
like “Nothing’s better than popcorn and Raisinets…” but he couldn’t be sure, and
what Aubrey did next blew his mind so totally and completely that he forgot
everything except what was happening right before him.

Aubrey and Lauren were facing each other. Lauren opened her
arms and Aubrey stepped into them, as if they were going to embrace. But their
joining didn’t end with a hug. Aubrey seemed to melt into Lauren. Slowly and
without any of the ripping or tearing or shattering that had come before, Aubrey
disappeared.

Lauren was silent and still for several moments. Then she
lifted her right hand. Staring at it, she traced the fingers of her left hand
down her palm, wrist and forearm. “Wow, I’d forgotten.”

“Lauren?” Raef asked, even though his gut told him her answer
before she did.

She turned blue eyes to him. Her smile widened. “No, Kent, not
Lauren. Or at least not
just
Lauren.”

“Aubrey!”

She closed the few feet between them. “Yes, it’s me.” She
lifted her right hand again, cupping his cheek. “You shaved just this morning,
but you’re already stubbly. All that dark, manly stubble. I like it. It’s going
to feel wonderful against Lauren’s soft skin.”

“Possession—it’s, uh, dangerous.” He sounded like an idiot, but
her touch had his pulse jumping and his dick hardening.

Her hand went from his cheek to his neck. Her fingers were soft
and delicate and so, so warm. They slid from there down the front of his
sweatshirt, pausing over his nipple, where she used her nails, lightly, to
caress him.

He inhaled sharply.

She smiled.

“For most people it is dangerous, but we’re twins. We shared
the same womb. It’s different for us.” As she spoke, Aubrey moved her hand to
the waist of his jeans. There she paused again, and slipped her hand up under
the edge of his sweatshirt, until her fingers touched the skin just beneath his
belly button. There she used her fingernails again. Lightly she stroked naked
flesh, following the waistline of his jeans.

“It’s still not healthy. Not right.” Raef was breathing so hard
he sounded like he was running a damn marathon.

“This is where the part about promising to be open comes in.”
Her fingertips moved down until they found his erection, and then she traced the
long, hard line of his cock—slowly—up and down. “Kent, you strike me as a man
who keeps his promises,” she whispered as she leaned into him. “Am I wrong?”

“No!” The word came out with a moan of desire. “But you’re not
alive. And you’re not Lauren.”

“Kent, just open yourself to me and let yourself feel it.” She
lifted her other hand and curled it around his broad shoulder.

“Feel what? All I can feel is you, and I’m fucking sure that’s
not right!”

She smiled. “Yes, feel me, but also let yourself feel hope—the
hope that there is more to this life than what you’ve known, or even what you’ve
believed yourself capable of.” Then, before he could say anything, or move away,
or second-guess what was happening, Aubrey kissed him.

She was sweet and soft, and so damn warm. Her mouth was open
and inviting, and he could not say no. His arms went around her and his tongue
met hers, touching, tasting, desiring, and as he moaned again and lost himself
in the taste of her, he
felt
it—hope. It filled him
to overflowing. He’d been right in the bedroom. It was better than pleasure and
joy. It was a rare and wonderful thing that lit him from within.

Raef stopped kissing her long enough to look down at her
flushed, smiling face. “I don’t care that you’re dead. I don’t care that this is
Lauren’s body. Right now—for this moment—I’m going to hope that somehow this is
all going to turn out right. And I gotta have you, Aub. I gotta.”

“Then I’m yours—for this moment.” She gave him a little push
and he sat back on the couch. Lauren had been wearing a pullover sweater the
color of her eyes, and a pair of ass-hugging jeans. Still smiling at him, Aubrey
pulled off the sweater and unzipped, then stepped out of, the jeans. She paused
for a moment, looked down at herself and laughed softly. “French lace from Muse
at Utica Square. Sis, I knew I could count on you for the sexy specialty
lingerie.” Her eyes found Raef again. “Do you like it?” Aubrey touched her
nipple through the pink lace.

How the hell could pink lace be so damn
sexy?

Raef nodded and swallowed. His mouth felt dry. “Yeah,” he said
gruffly. “I like it. A lot.”

“And this?” Her hand moved caressingly down her softly rounded,
womanly belly to the tiny triangle of pink lace that was the matching thong
panty.

Raef thought his dick was going to explode. He nodded again.
“Yeah, and that.” Then he had her gasping as he moved quickly, reaching around
her to cup her curvy ass in his hands, and pulling her forward so that he could
press his lips against the blond triangle of curls he could see through the
lace.

With a laugh that was definitely more breathless than she’d
been before, Aubrey stepped back, just out of his reach. “Now it’s your turn.”
She gestured at his clothes. “I want to look, too.”

Raef didn’t have to be asked twice. He peeled his sweatshirt
off and tossed it across the couch and, with a quick motion, stripped off his
jeans and kicked them away.

Aubrey widened Lauren’s eyes. “Commando? Always?”

“Always,” he said. “Your turn.” His eyes went from her bra to
her panties.

“Well, it only seems fair,” she said teasingly, reaching around
to unhook the bra, and shimmying out of it. She took off the panties more
slowly, letting him watch her glide them down her thighs and lift her gorgeous
little feet up, one at a time, and step delicately from them.

“Will you come to me now?” Raef opened his arms to her.
“Please.”

“Yes, Kent. Yes, I will.”

The wide leather couch became an erotic playground as Raef
explored her body. Her nipples were tight under his tongue, and he loved how
they filled his hands, but he stopped only briefly there—he had to taste her, he
had to feel her against his mouth. He moved down to the damp blond curls between
her legs. She opened her legs for him and he pressed his lips against her mound.
Then his tongue found her clit, and she moaned his name as he teased it—back and
forth. His mouth moved down, to the very center of her, and he guided her hand
so that her fingers took the place of his tongue. He looked up at her and met
her gaze. “Will you touch yourself for me like you did last night?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

And then her whisper turned to gasps and moans as her slim
fingers stroked herself, and his tongue teased and caressed along with it until
he felt her thighs tense and her body tremble. She called his name out as she
came and he pressed his mouth to her, tasting the waves of pleasure that washed
through her body.

Aubrey surprised him then, by reaching down and pulling him up
to her. She was laughing and flushed, and her hair was wild all around her
shoulders. “Your turn. Again.” She shifted her body so that she was on top of
him, and then, with a mischievous grin, began moving down his body.

He didn’t have to tell her. She already seemed to know his hot
spots—those two places on his body that drove him mad. Her tongue found the
first—his nipples—and he couldn’t hold back the moan of pleasure. She glanced
up. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Then she dipped her head and her tongue went
back to work on his nipple, lightly and quickly, teasing him while she flicked
the other one gently until it, too, was taut and ready for her tongue.

When she took his cock in her hand he had to grind his teeth
together and try like hell to think of taxes so he didn’t come. Her hand was as
warm and teasing as her tongue, and she worked both of them together. Just when
he knew he was going to explode, she stopped, pressed her breasts against his
chest, and kissed him deeply, playing the same game with his tongue that she had
with his nipples. In one motion, she shifted again, and straddled him. Tossing
back her hair, she sank onto him, consuming him with her wet heat. While their
gazes met and held she began moving up and down, sliding the length of him.

“Do you feel it? Do you feel me?” she asked him
breathlessly.

“Yes, oh, God, yes.” He did. He felt the heat of her body and
the pleasure it was giving him, and he also felt her emotions—joy and pleasure
and hope, most of all hope. His hands found her waist and he guided their tempo
so that his reality narrowed to only her. He was looking in her eyes as his
orgasm took him, an earthquake of feeling that shook the very foundations of his
world. He cried her name, too—the name of a ghost, the name of a woman he
couldn’t hope to really have, but who had somehow breathed life into his
battered soul.

When she collapsed on his chest he held her tightly, feeling
her heartbeat against his, feeling the slickness of their sweat between them.
She nuzzled his neck and kissed him and murmured something sleepily. He stroked
her hair, loving the silky feel of it. She sighed then, and lifted herself just
enough to look into his eyes.

“I have to go now,” Aubrey said softly.

There was a terrible tightness in Raef’s chest. “I know.”

“Even though we’re twins, this is hard for Lauren.”

Raef started to draw away from her, trying to gently slide her
aside. “I hope she isn’t—”

Aubrey pressed her fingers against his lips. “Shhh, don’t say
it. Lauren isn’t sorry. Lauren isn’t upset. She’s been here the whole time.”
Aubrey took his hand and put it over her heart. “She’s just letting me drive,
that’s all.”

“This isn’t easy for me,” Raef admitted, his voice
hesitant.

“Me, either. But we’re going to make it through to a happily
ever after,” Aubrey said.

“God, I hope so,” he said.

She smiled. “Hope—I like that. Hold on to it, Kent.”

Then Aubrey closed Lauren’s eyes. Her body went limp in his
arms. Raef felt a chill pass over him. He didn’t look. He didn’t need to. He
knew Aubrey was gone.

In his arms Lauren stirred and looked up at him, blinking
groggily.

“Hi,” he said, not sure what the hell to do and wishing Aubrey
had at least waited to get dressed before she’d unpossessed her sister.

“Hi,” she said.

Lauren didn’t move out of his arms, but he could feel the
tension in her body—her very naked body—because it was pressed against his very
naked body.

“So,” she said, “how do we make this not awkward?”

“I have no idea,” he said honestly.

At that moment his cell phone, which was still in the front
pocket of his discarded jeans, had the good sense to start vibrating.

CHAPTER TEN

“Might be the office,” he said, carefully pulling away
from her, grabbing his jeans and the phone in one quick motion. The number was
from After Moonrise, and, grateful for the reprieve, he punched the accept-call
button. “Yeah, Preston, what do you have for me?” Raef spoke into the phone,
keeping his back to Lauren while he pulled on his jeans.

“
Got the results of the
accidental-death search,
”
Preston said.

“Hang on, I’m gonna put you on Speaker.” Raef turned around to
find Lauren in the process of pulling on his USAF sweatshirt.

“Let me get some paper first,” she said when her head popped
into view. She hurried back to his office and he numbly muttered something to
Preston about waiting a second.

Actually, he didn’t remember much of what he’d said to Preston.
Raef was too busy staring at Lauren going and coming. His sweatshirt was huge on
her, coming almost to mid shapely thigh, but somehow it was even sexier than the
damn pink lace.

She sat on the couch, crossed her legs demurely, brushed back
her hair and held the pencil expectantly. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said.

He pressed the speaker button, thinking that he’d never look at
that old sweatshirt the same way ever again.

“Let’s hear it, Preston.”

“So, I think there are two cases over the past twelve months
that you’ll be interested in.” Preston’s voice was as businesslike and efficient
as he was. “One happened last January. Remember that bad snowstorm just before
the long weekend?”

“Yeah, I do,” Raef said. Lauren nodded agreement.

“On January 20, some local teenager, Charlie Padgett, took his
daddy’s Camaro for a joyride to Mohawk Park, along with a case of beer. The
storm dumped six inches of snow in an hour. Police report said the kid got drunk
and then stuck in the snow. He tried to walk out of the park and fell down and
froze to death instead. It was ruled an accident.”

“I’m hoping the tree connection is more than just the fact that
Mohawk Park has trees,” Raef said.

“Definitely. The kid’s body was discovered by a tree-trimming
team,” Preston said.

“Is there anything in the report besides the tree trimmers
being there for regular maintenance?” Lauren asked. “Were they there for a more
specific reason?”

Into Preston’s stunned silence Raef explained, “That’s Lauren
Wilcox. She’s working her sister’s case with me.”

Preston cleared his throat. “Oh, well, okay. Yes, Miss Wilcox,
the police report was thorough. TPD questioned the trimmers extensively.
Apparently they were under the direction of a consulting arborist who was
overseeing the cleanup after the storm.”

“Did they list the tree doc’s name?” Raef asked.

“Let me check.” Preston paused while Raef heard the tapping
sounds of a keyboard. “No, the report just says that they were under the
direction of a city-hired arborist.”

“What about the other death?” Raef asked while Lauren took
notes.

“The other was in April. Caused by a frat-boy binge, complete
with the kid choking on his own vomit, even though he was described by all of
his friends as a nondrinking nerd. There’s no direct arborist connection listed,
just a coincidental tree connection. The body was found by the campus
landscapers behind a very expensive pallet of saplings the university had spent
lots of alumni money on to replace the trees that didn’t make it through the
last ice storm in February. I figured no one would spend so much money on a
bunch of trees without consulting an arborist, so I thought you might be
interested.”

“Please tell me the university you’re talking about is TU and
not OSU-Tulsa or TCC,” Raef said.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” he said.

“Preston, you might have just served our killer to me on a
silver platter. Take the rest of the day off.”

“You know it’s already an hour past quitting time, don’t you?”
Preston said.

Lauren hid her giggle with a cough.

“Right. I’ve been, uh, busy.” Raef didn’t meet Lauren’s gaze.
“So, what I meant to say was for you to take the morning off. Tomorrow. And good
job.”

“Thanks, boss,” Preston said, with only a hint of sarcasm
before disconnecting.

“It’s Braggs,” Lauren said.

“Good possibility it is,” he agreed.

She tapped the paper she’d been taking notes on, frowning.
“January, April, July.” Lauren looked up at him. “If this is him, he’s killing
in three-month cycles. Raef, it’s October.”

“He’s due,” Raef said.

“So we’re going to go apprehend him, right?” Lauren was already
getting up and heading toward the pool of pink lace that was very near his feet.
“I mean, we’ll question him and see if he squirms?”

He sighed and grabbed her by his sweatshirt, lifting her up so
that she wasn’t bending over and showing way too much of her pretty little ass.
“
We’re
not.
I
am.”

She frowned up at him. “I’m going with you.”

“To confront the serial killer who murdered your twin sister,
still has her soul trapped and is ready to murder again? No, you’re not.”

Instead of pulling away from him, Lauren pressed her hand
against his chest. “I have to. It’s logical.”

“Putting you in danger isn’t logical.” Her touch was doing
weird things to him, and he had to keep reminding himself that she was not
Aubrey.
But, damn! She felt like her and looked like her
and even if she wasn’t Aubrey he really liked her and
—
Raef shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
“I’ll check him out and tell you everything. You’ll be in on all of it, but from
a safe distance.”

“There is no safe distance for me, Raef! I’m being drained just
like Aubrey is being drained. We don’t have time to mess around with this. The
bottom line is that it’s logical that I come with you because you’ll know as
soon as he sees me if he’s the killer.”

Raef stared down at her. She was right. If Braggs was the
killer the sight of Lauren, looking so much like one of his murder victims,
would evoke strong, negative emotions from him—emotions Raef’s Gift would
definitely be able to pick up.

He blew out a long breath of frustration. “You can come, but it
has to be on my terms.”

“Anything,” she said, hugging him hard.

Raef let himself hold her and breathe in her scent. “Stay close
to me. Stay quiet. And if bad shit starts going down you run like hell and call
9-1-1. Promise me.”

“I promise,” she said, and squeezed him tightly before letting
him go.

“And I want my sweatshirt back, too,” he said.

She had bent over to pick up her panties. She paused,
straightened, and with a smile that had his heartbeat speeding up, Lauren pulled
his sweatshirt over her head and tossed it at him. Then, very slowly, she said,
“Be careful what you ask for, Raef.”

He swallowed, muttered, “Thanks,” and retreated into his
bedroom as fast as his rubber legs could carry him.

* * *

T
HERE
’
D
BEEN
A
MAJOR
redo to the University of Tulsa’s campus over the
past couple of years. What had once been a nondescript entrance to a cluster of
light-colored stone buildings mixed with modern stuff stuck in a kinda dicey
part of town at Eleventh and Harvard had turned into a real university
campus—complete with a swanky stone-and-wrought-iron perimeter fence and
excellent landscaping.

Hell, they even had a fountain.

Raef was an ex-TU student. He hadn’t graduated, but he liked to
think that the several thousand dollars he’d paid in tuition during his three
long years there had bought at least a few yards of the new fencing. Or maybe a
portion of the fountain. Whatever. He still knew enough about the campus to pull
into the main entrance at Tucker Drive and take a right to snake around to the
bio building, Oliphant Hall. He parked in the west lot, shut off the car and
turned to face Lauren.

“Okay, here’s why we’re here. We need Dr. Braggs’s advice on
how to save the big old elm in my front yard because we heard he’s an expert on
curing Dutch elm disease.”

“There is no real cure for Dutch elm disease,” she said.

He sighed. “Look at me. Do you think he’d think I know
that?”

She raised her brows, and even though her eyes were tired and
shaded, they sparkled at him. “Probably not.”

“Exactly. So, if this is our guy you need to understand that
his first sight of you will elicit some strong negative emotions. He’ll be in
turmoil, even if he looks totally calm to you. I’m going to ask for his business
card—so I can reach him later about my elm, because right now we’re in a hurry
to get to a dinner date. You stay behind me. I’ll be between you and him. You’ll
be near the door. We’ll get in, and get out, and if I pick up negative emotions
from him I will make a call to TPD. They’ll take it from there.”

“And I’m supposed to?”

“Play blonde. You can do that, right?”

Instead of getting pissed and narrowing her eyes at him, she
blinked guilelessly and fell into a very good Okie accent. “Why, what do ya
mean, sir? I’m simply standin’ by my man like any well-trained woman would.
Could ya please help him so that he’s in a real good mood when he lets me fry
him up some dinner while he ‘reads’—” she air quoted “—the
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue?”

“Stop scaring me,” he said, trying—unsuccessfully—to hide his
smile.

“You lead and I’ll follow,” she said, obviously not trying to
hide her smile.

“Hey,” he said before she could get out of the car. “Remember
that this isn’t a game. If Braggs is our guy he’s a killer.”

Her blue eyes met his steadily. “I’ll never forget that. Don’t
worry about me. Do your part. I’ll be the silent bait and then I’ll stay out of
your way.”

He started to tell her that she wasn’t the damn bait, but she
was already out of the car and standing on the sidewalk that led to the front
entrance of Oliphant Hall.

Raef, you have lost your fucking mind,
he told himself.

Lauren didn’t stay on the sidewalk long. When he joined her she
was crouched over some short greenish bushes inspecting their leaves.

“Azaleas,” she said, before he could ask the question.
“Sleeping ones, actually, which is what they’re supposed to be doing this time
of year. They’re well tended—definitely in good shape. The groundskeepers know
their business here.”

“Ted Bundy had a girlfriend who said he was a good guy—and all
the while he was slaughtering young coeds.”

“Who?”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven. What does that have to do with—”

“Never mind,” he interrupted, feeling old and worried and
insane, all at the same time. “Just keep in mind not everything is how it looks.
And do exactly what I tell you to do.”

“Okay, I got it.” Then she touched his arm. “If it’s Braggs and
he’s arrested, what happens then?”

“Well, I’ll let the police know about the psychic entrapment,
and that we believe he’s taken his victims’ souls to the Land of the Dead.
They’ll bring in a shaman who specializes in soul retrieval.”

“Right away?”

He hated that she sounded so scared. “Yeah, I’ll make sure of
it.”
And if they don’t move fast enough, I’ll Track the
bastard to the Land of the Dead and kick his ass myself,
Raef added
silently.

“Then Aub will go free?”

“That’s the plan,” Raef said, his stomach suddenly feeling not
so good.

Lauren looked out across the campus, shivered and whispered,
“Yes, that’s what has to happen, no matter what it does to me.”

“Lauren,” he said, sounding sharper than he’d meant to because
of the worry for her that spiked in his twisting gut. “You won’t be drained
anymore. You’ll be able to—”

“I know,” she interrupted him, back to her steady, no-nonsense
self. “It’ll be okay. Aub and I will be okay.” Lauren took her hand from his arm
and started walking briskly down the sidewalk.

He didn’t have a clue what the hell to say to her. All he could
do was try to wade through the conflicting emotions this damn case was making
him feel while he caught up with her as Lauren followed the sidewalk around the
light sandstone building. Together, they turned to their left to walk beneath
white pylons that gave way to a very ordinary-looking glass door.

Raef had taken classes in Oliphant Hall—more than a decade ago,
but the smell had stayed the same. “Books and formaldehyde mixed with
testosterone and stress. I’ll never forget that smell,” he said.

“It was the same at OU. I think it’s a common higher-education
smell. Well, minus the formaldehyde.”

A petite girl with big blue eyes and straight, well-maintained
blond hair was coming toward them. She had a ridiculously thick
anatomy-and-physiology tome clutched against her chest and an
it’s-midterm-and-I-gotta-study frown creasing her otherwise lineless
forehead.

“Excuse me.” Raef smiled at her. “Do you know where we can find
Dr. Braggs?”

The girl blinked as if coming up through layers of essay test
hell, and pointed at the ceiling. “He’s probably still in the dissection lab on
the third floor—room 303.”

“Do you know if he has a class right now?” Lauren asked.

“No,” said the college coed. “Lab is done for the day.”

“Thank you,” Lauren said.

The girl smiled, nodded vaguely and hurried on her way from the
building.

Raef called on the recesses of his college experience and
accessed a few brain bytes that he hadn’t killed with alcohol poisoning. “Over
here.” He led Lauren a little way down the wide hallway to an industrial-looking
metal door that had been painted the same unpleasant yellow as the rest of the
first floor. “It’s the stairwell that leads up to the third floor. If I remember
correctly, and don’t quote me because halfway through my freshman year I changed
my major from Environmental Science to Beerology, this is how we get up to the
third-floor classrooms.”