The Portrait, Part 2

A little treat for those of you that have been waiting for the next installment of The Portrait....

Chapter 1

France 1835

Adrienne sat next to Luc’s body holding tightly to his lifeless hand. He had only been dead an hour and his skin was still warm to the touch. With tears running down her cheeks, she turned her attention to the other woman in the room, a voodoo priestess named DeLuca. DeLuca had been stolen from her native land of Jamaica in 1830, four years before the abolishment of slavery. She was a beautiful woman with skin the color of milk chocolate and a very voluptuous body. Her high cheekbones accentuated her almond shaped dark brown eyes, making them look more alive than they already were. Her jet black hair was wrapped up in a turban on her head. She had been working for Adrienne’s family since her capture and she and Adrienne had become great friends.
“Are you certain this will work DeLuca?” Adrienne asked sniffling.
DeLuca smiled sadly at Adrienne and stroked a knuckle down her face, “I swear it Adrienne. Is that the most recent portrait of your brother?” She asked referring to the oil painting leaning against the wall.
Adrienne nodded, “Oui.”
DeLuca nodded her head, “Then it will work exactly as I said it would. We will trap his soul into the portrait and when his one true love lays eyes on his face and reads the incantation that we will attach to the back it will call forth his image from the portrait and he will live once again.”
“Do you think it will happen in our lifetime?” Adrienne asked hopeful.
DeLuca marked Luc’s head with a cross made out of chicken blood then placed a gris gris in his free hand, “I don’t think so mon ami his love in this life has already left this world. He will have to await her arrival in the next.”
The tears began to fall freely down Adrienne’s face again, “So, I will never see my brother again?”
“No, no,” DeLuca clipped. “I’m throwing in a little extra power to make the portrait a means to travel back and forth between our time and whatever time your brother awakens in. That way he may come back if he chooses to.”
Adrienne’s face brighten, “Oh thank you DeLuca!”
Deluca smiled, “Are you ready mon ami?”
Adrienne placed a small kiss on Luc’s cheek before pulling away from him, “Oui mon ami. I am ready.”