Free Love's Long Shadow by Ciara Knight Page B

gate of their trucks watching the flames. Shadows moved in strange patterns around them. Sammy’s skin pricked in warning. Instinct told her these boys weren’t human, and certainly not from Heaven.
    A dark force folded in around her. A sense of desperation propelled her forward. Her body ached to join them. Her mind and soul demanded she stay hidden. Drawn to the crowd, she took a small step forward.
    “Stop.” A deep voice startled her from behind.
    She whirled around, breath caught in her throat. A small-framed young male stood a foot away. She shuffled back from him toward the beach. He grabbed her by the elbow with the speed of an angel…or demon.
    A warm tingle surged from his hands and goose bumps erupted, covering her body. A musky, deep earth scent drew her closer. His soft eyes peered over black-rimmed glasses a couple inches above hers. No way those chocolate spheres contained evil.
    The ones in the circle were full of depravity. Nothing ebbed from his body in warning and no dark shadow cast over him even in the muted light left in the sky.
    He stepped away and shoved his hands in his short’s pocket. His face cast with an orange glow from the bonfire on the beach. “Why are you out here alone? Where’s Alexander?”
    Sammy’s mind swirled with possibilities of how they knew each other and she reached the probable conclusion, Alexander had threatened him. “Listen, if my brother demanded you stay away from me, don’t worry, he’s gone away for a while.”
    “He left?” He lunged forward, strong fingers wrapped around her arm. An image of a dark figure enveloped in a pale-purple light flashed like a shock to her memory. Softness caressed her skin sending tremors down her arms and legs. Pure joy erupted deep in her core and snapped from nerve to nerve throughout her entire body. Her arms and legs turned weightless and she thought she’d touched Heaven. She gasped and clung to him, never willing to trap her soul in her heavy body again.
    He let go and shuffled away, his gaze downcast. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
    Sammy clung to the rumbles of euphoria that remained. The sweetest taste, reminiscent of fresh picked strawberries, coated her tongue. And the perfumed scent of honeysuckle, her favorite smell on earth, lingered. Did she remember something from Heaven? She only had the vaguest of memories, barely a recollection of life before she fell. If so, she longed to connect to him again for one more moment of bliss.
    Glass shattered in the distance drawing both their attentions back to the party.
    “Go home. You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a harsh whisper.
    He strode past her and sauntered onto the beach where the party raged on. An air of confidence exuded from him in spite of his puny frame, even his deep voice contradicted his appearance. There was something about him. Warmth deep in her belly remained and spread outward as she watched him from the tree line.
    He couldn’t be one of them. The anxiety that eroded her soul when she watched the others didn’t exist when she looked at him. In fact, a little light fluttered deep inside that made her long to talk to him more.
    He joined the group but sat off to the side on a small box. She stood there for a while watching. Some of the guys pulled girls into their trucks, but he remained alone until he stared straight at her for a moment. A shiver raced down her skin to her toes.
    He stood up and walked around the other side of the trucks then disappeared out of sight.
    She waited a few moments but he didn’t reappear. The party died down and the bugs continued to pester her so she gave up and headed home.
    The world had grown dark under the canopy with only the light of the moon to guide her way back to the main road. She stopped to get her directions straight but it wasn’t easy with such little light. If the trees weren’t so thick overhead, and she’d mastered maneuvering through tight spaces, she’d fly home. Grounded for now,