Free Destiny Strikes by Theresa Flowers-Lee

had acquired his home number and listed him in her cell phone’s emergency contacts, intimating a deeper relationship.
    The most damning piece of information came via text message.
    After 2nite, Mom. Watch. Travis will be begging me 2 marry him.
    The charade was complete with intimate apparel, among other items, contained within an overnight bag. Barbara had probably planned to break into his home. None of which mattered now.
    He released a harsh breath. “In other words, I-be-fucked.”
    He slammed his palm against the steering wheel, twice.
    Every instinct in him fired on all cylinders when it came to where to point the finger.
    “If she’s not trying to kill me in my sleep, then she’s doing a hell-of-a job ruining my life,” he swore as another bolt of lightning lit the cab of his truck.
    Shutting his engine off, Travis wondered how the hell he’d ended up in her driveway. Fresh from a murder scene, this was the last place he needed to be.
    All lights were off. Maybe he’d wait out the storm before leaving. There was a clap of thunder, and the subject of his neurosis came out of her home, naked as Eve in the Garden of Eden.
    “What’s the fool woman doing now?”
    Travis watched in rapt fascination as she walked sensuously toward the middle of the drive, her head tilted up. Lightning flashed, and cords of electricity came down out of the tempest above and wrapped around her body. Her hands reached at something above her head, and lifted her rounded breasts. Her slim waist and full hips highlighted in a pale blue and purple haze. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from parted thighs that exposed her bare sex. His teeth came down hard on his bottom lip as he stepped from his vehicle with no clear indication of what was happening in front of him. She never acknowledged his presence as he inched closer. In what appeared to be an enthralled state, she locked her wrists and cupped her hands together, then released a white-hot discharge into the uproar above her.
    Heedless of the danger, he moved closer. Stray arcs jumped and crept through his body from head to foot. Mesmerized, he watched as a spider web of lightning danced around Fallon, who caught and rolled in the slender hands before blasting it into the sky.
    Not half shocked by what he witnessed, sudden pain seared his hand, which woke him from his trance.
    Pulled toward her by an unknown force, at some point, he’d made it far enough that his hands had come to rest on her hips. Snatching them back, he shook his hands out in an attempt to relieve the dancing electric sparks that settled for tingling numbness.
    When his eyes rose to meet hers, his defenses rose at the intensity of hatred that filled her blank stare.
    Her mouth moved but it wasn’t her voice that passed between tantalizing lips. “Do you dare to challenge what must be, one who falsely bears my mark?”
    “Look, whoever you are,” he said, “I don’t know why I’m here, and I don’t know why you’re here. However, there’s one thing we share in common.” His hands did a passable Vanna wave over the deliciously nude body before him. “You are invading spaces I’m not comfortable with. So, if you don’t mind, I’m pretty sure when she wakes up, we’d both like to know who’s rooming with her.”
    “The only thing you’ve done tonight,” the mysterious voice bellowed, “is delay the inevitable. My children will judge Earth. She weakens more each time I awaken, and soon, I will rise.” Her words reverberated in the air and faded into silence.
    Thin whipcords of light crept from her shoulders and moved down and around her body sensuously before striking the ground with the intensity of a percussion grenade. Hands over his ears in avoidance of busted eardrums, Travis waited several long minutes for her to awaken and acknowledge his presence.
    Travis knew from the way she rode into town that she was irresponsible and trouble, but what he had seen tonight was downright madness.
    He