Demon Wind

Tempting Fate - Paranormal

DEMON WIND

by

Kay Wilde

© copyright August 2004, Kay Wilde

Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright August 2004

New Concepts Publishing

5202 Humphreys Rd.

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

Jayden Parrish stood in front of the refrigerator with the door open smoothing the glass containing more ice than lemonade across her face and neck. The condensation from the glass dripped onto her chest and ran into the cleavage between her breasts. Growing up in the south, she should have been used to the sultry summer days but the extreme humidity sapped her energy, leaving her lethargic. The air felt so thick it was an effort to draw it into her lungs. If she didn’t feel honor bound to remain near the elderly grandmother who had raised her, Jayden would have moved to a less humid climate years ago. Her grandmother was the only person in her life who had always been there for her, the only person who had never let her down and Jayden loved her dearly. As she saw it, putting up with a few days of discomfort in the summer was a small price to pay for all the sacrifices her grandmother had made for her.

Hot and cranky, so at odds with her normally easygoing personality, the intrusive ringing of the telephone irritated the hell out of her. Reluctant to leave the coolest spot in her small beach cottage, she closed the refrigerator door and went to the kitchen wall phone.

"Hello," she answered.

"I’m just checking to make sure you’re home dear," her grandmother explained. "The weather is ripe for a Demon Wind tonight and I wanted to warn you to stay inside after dark."

Jayden rolled her eyes heavenward and prayed for patience. Her grandmother was the sweetest, most loving person in the world, and generous to a fault. She was also obsessively superstitious, a personality quirk which appeared to be growing worse with age.

"I’m fine, Grams," Jayden responded. "It’s hotter outside than inside and I have no desire to go anywhere."

"That makes me feel better. You just stay inside and you’ll be okay."

"That’s what I plan to do. I found the new mystery novel I’ve been looking for, so I’m going to turn in early and read in bed."

"You promise? You’re not just humoring an eccentric old lady?"

"I promise, Grams." Jayden insisted. The relieved sigh on the other end of the line was unmistakable.

While she might have been humoring her grandmother to ease her mind, Jayden also meant what she said. At the moment, she didn’t have the energy to do more than curl up with her book in the one air-conditioned room in the cottage.

"Okay. I’ll let you go, but give me a call in the morning."

"As soon as I get up. Why don’t I pick you up around twelve-thirty and maybe we’ll stop for a late lunch after your doctor’s appointment?"

"I’d like that," her grandmother answered, then added, "I love you, Jay."

"I love you too, Grams."

Demon Wind. Jayden’s grandmother hit her with that one about the time she reached puberty, claiming many a Southern Belle lost their virtue on a night of the Demon Wind. The Demon Wind warning was the least annoying superstition in her grandmother’s repertory. She only heard that one a couple of times each summer. Even as a young teen, it hadn’t taken Jayden long to figure out the old superstition was nothing more than a scare tactic designed to keep young girls from sneaking out at night.

With a rueful shake of her head and an indulgent chuckle, Jayden finished the lemonade in her glass and returned to the refrigerator for a refill before heading toward her bedroom.

The ancient window air conditioner groaned and sputtered as it struggled in vain to cool the small room.

While the room wasn’t cool, it was decidedly less humid than the rest of the cottage. Slipping out of her sandals, Jayden placed her glass on the bedside table next to the novel Jayden hoped she would find so engrossing that she’d forget about the oppressive heat.

Preparing to take a quick shower to cool off before curling up with her book, Jayden unbuttoned her blouse. The few times she wasn’t displeased with her less than ample breasts was when it was extremely hot and her adequate but firm breasts made wearing a bra unnecessary ... at least while she was at home.

The air conditioner began to vibrate with a metal against metal clatter. It sputtered, coughed, then died.

"Please, not today," Jayden groaned. Every time this happened, she promised herself that she’d replace the damn thing, but the weather always changed or something more pressing developed to eat up the extra money. Not bothering to re-button her blouse, Jayden merely tied the front together under her breasts, slipped her feet into her sandals, and headed toward the front door.

Stepping onto the front porch, she felt as if she walked into a blast furnace. Not a leaf, a blade of grass, or even the air stirred. Even on the calmest days she could always count on a gentle ocean breeze ... not today. It was as if some evil force had pressed a pause button, stopping all movement on earth.

"Get a grip," Jayden scolded herself. There were times when, even though she didn’t take them seriously, her grandmother’s dire warnings unnerved her. And then there was the sweltering heat. It did weird things to people.

The waves continued to wash against the shore. All was as it should be ... except the heat and the damn air conditioner.

Jayden spared barely a glance toward the sun setting on the horizon before making her way to the rear of the cottage where the casing of the air conditioner stuck out from her bedroom window. She picked up the hammer she’d left on top of the unit for just this purpose and proceeded to add another dent to the metal, dents caused from similar repair jobs in the past. The air conditioner began to hum.

"Come on old boy, you can do it," she encouraged. The hum grew louder, it started to vibrate, then quit.

So much for being nice. "Start, you son-of-a-bitch," she demanded, then gave it another hard wallop. The hum returned, the vibration, then with a cough and reluctant shudder, the motor took hold. "Thank you, God," Jayden said. Nevertheless, she waited a few minutes to make sure it didn’t stop again before replacing the hammer on top of the air conditioner in case she needed it again.

Returning to the porch, she paused for a moment as she shook the sand from her sandals. The sun was nearly gone. All that remained was a glowing red tip on the horizon. The sunset was another reason for Jayden to resent the oppressive heat wave. What Jayden considered to be a perfect evening consisted of a light dinner, a leisurely walk along the beach, and sitting on the front porch with a glass of wine to watch the sunset. For the past week it had been too damn hot and appeared to be getting worse each day.

At least the air conditioner had been considerate enough to throw its temper tantrum before she had her shower. Turning on the water in the tub, she then removed her blouse and tossed it inside the clothes hamper followed by her shorts and panties. Running her hand through the flow to make sure the water

temperature was just slightly warm, she pulled the lever to switch from tub to shower. Jayden stepped into the tub, pulling the shower curtain closed after her. Closing her eyes, she turned her face upward into the spray and raked her fingers through her hair to comb it back from her face, savoring the soothing sensation as the tepid water flowed down her overheated flesh.

Eyes still closed, she blindly reached for the shampoo bottle within the recessed shelf on the tub enclosure and proceeded to wash her hair, which was no easy task. Long and thick with a natural tendency to curl, the humidity made her hair even curlier and nearly impossible to manage. Sheer frustration had once compelled Jayden to cut her hair short and she’d ended up looking like a cross between Shirley Temple and Annie, with an uncontrollable riot of reddish-blonde curls. At least with her hair long, the weight pulled some of the curl out and she could either braid it or pull it back in a clip.

Rinsing her hair just enough to keep shampoo from dripping down into her eyes, Jayden squeezed soft soap onto a ball of soft nylon net. Working up a foamy lather, she washed her face, neck, and arms, then moved down her chest to her breasts. The slightly course nylon fabric caused her nipples to tighten and grow harder with each pass. A soft moan escaped her lips as she moved the lathered nylon down her stomach and between her legs. Jayden’s hand froze.

"Stupid," she scolded herself. "The goal is to cool off, not make yourself hotter." Enough said. Jayden made quick work of washing her body then stood under the spray until the last bit of soap was rinsed from her hair and body. She remained in the shower until the water became unbearably cold and her already sensitized nipples puckered to an almost painful hardness.

Returning to her bedroom wearing nothing but a skimpy towel wrapped around herself sarong fashion and another around her head, Jayden sifted through her lingerie drawer for something cool to put on.

Even though her beach cottage was on private property and in a relatively secluded area, she didn’t feel comfortable running around nude. Unearthing the white, barely-there fabric of the baby doll PJ’s she’d bought on impulse more than a year ago, she hesitated only an instant before asking herself, "What are you saving them for?" It wasn’t as if she had someone she wanted to entice. Living in an area where the average age of the locals was seventy, and the male to female ratio was three women to every man, she didn’t see her dismal love life changing in the foreseeable future.

Taking the manicure scissors from the catch-all pottery bowl, Jayden cut the plastic loop that attached the brief bikini panties to the top, and then cut off the price tags which also remained attached to the garment. Allowing her towel to drop to the floor, she stepped into the panties made of sheer, see-through fabric which left nothing to the imagination. The top consisted of thin spaghetti straps, a stretchy lace bodice which molded her breasts as if it had been painted on, and more see through, chiffon like fabric which fell from just beneath her breasts to her hips.

"Jeez. What a waste," Jayden said as she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror of her antique vanity dresser. She was almost tempted to change into something else, to save the baby dolls for when, or if, someone special came into her life. "Oh, what the hell." The baby dolls were comfortable, they were

cool, and there wasn’t enough fabric to restrict what little air was circulating in the room.

Taking a seat on the padded bench in front of the vanity, Jayden towel-dried her hair, picked up her brush made of wide-set plastic bristles and proceeded to brush the tangles from her hair. Knowing the lesser of her just washed hair evils, was to leave it loose to air dry, she returned the brush to the vanity and reached for the beauty secret her grandmother swore by ... vitamin E oil. At seventy-five, Theresa Parrish’s complexion was ageless and relatively line free without the aid of cosmetic surgery. While many of her grandmother’s friends caked on the make-up in a vain attempt to look younger, Theresa used her vitamin E oil as a moisturizer, and little else, which gave her face a healthy glow that defied time.

Not one to argue with success, Jayden moistened her fingertips with the oil and smoothed it onto her face and neck.

"Who would have thought something so simple and inexpensive," Jayden said as she screwed the cap back on the bottle. She knew that while her face looked greasy now, in no time at all her skin would absorb the oil, leaving her with the glow often attributed to the Parrish women.

After a quick trip to the kitchen for a fresh glass of lemonade, Jayden was finally ready to settle down with her book.

* * * *

Jayden didn’t know what woke her, whether it was a sound, or maybe the lack thereof. She felt disoriented, awake but not awake, here yet not here. Struggling to get her mental bearings, she succeeded only marginally. The novel she’d been looking forward to reading was by no means up to the author’s usual standards and had failed to hold her attention. She’d fallen asleep somewhere in the middle of chapter four. The light was still on. The hands of the clock on the bedside table were straight up, midnight on the dot ... and the air conditioner was no longer working.

The air was so heavy Jayden felt as if she were attempting to breathe through a thick quilt that covered her from head to toe. The sensation of desperation was overwhelming. She needed air. She had to get outside.

Using both arms, she pushed herself to a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her legs were weak, slow to perform the commands from her brain. It took two attempts before Jayden was able to stand.

She covered the short distance between her bedroom to the front door in a dreamlike daze. Once she was outside, she had to hold onto the porch railing for support as she took slow, deep breaths in an attempt to

pull reviving oxygen into her lungs. Despite the lateness of the hour, it was still unbearably hot and the humidity extremely high without the slightest breeze stirring.

The filmy fabric of her baby doll pajamas was plastered to perspiration coating her body as she stepped from the porch onto the hot sand. The full moon lighting her way, Jayden walked to the water’s edge until the waves washed over her bare feet and ankles, then she turned and began walking down the beach.