The Seer's Lover (The Seven Archangels Series) (30 page)

Everything else melted away. Lucas was here…

His breathing got hotter and hotter, and she couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Someone cleared their throat. They came up for air like two teenagers getting caught by their parents for necking.

Sarah didn’t hide her appraisal of Lucas while she scanned him from head to toe. “How about an introduction?” She elbowed Ellen in the rib.

Calise laughed. “Sarah and Ellen, this is Lucas. Ellen is the doctor, and we’ve known each other since we were little girls.”

Lucas shook her hand. “Cali is fortunate to have a lifelong friend in such a
high
place.”

Sarah crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “What am I? Chopped liver?”

Calise rolled her eyes. “Sarah is a band manager on occasion and social worker by profession.”

“
Mucho gusto
,” Sarah purred at Calise’s Latino hunk.

He lifted her hand and kissed it. “
Mucho gusto, tambien
.” Pleased to meet you, too.

Sarah wilted. “Damn, that second language thing is super sexy. How did you two meet again?”

“She was drowning during a surf lesson, and I pulled her from the ocean.”

Sarah and Ellen looked at each other then said at the same time, “Typical.”

They all burst out laughing.

Calise couldn’t get Lucas out of the bar fast enough and most of her clothes were off before she even hit the bed. Tonight the lovemaking would be fast, rough, passionate, and possessive. She loved it. Passion can be a rushed tumble to quickly say hello or a long drawn out courting and teasing. Either way, as long as it was with Lucas, she didn’t mind.

They had all night and neither planned on getting any sleep.

Chapter 28

The beach at Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve

Costa Rica

Shane hadn’t yet been a
transitor
for a month. He had eleven more months to make this right or the Father would erase him from existence. He needed some help to take down Nara and get his baby away from her. He had alluded to Liza that he knew “a real charming halo” and hoped that Liza understood that to mean he knew of an
a-r-c-h
angel which would be their only hope in defeating Nara. Alejandro was the most powerful angel Shane had ever encountered, so he pinned his hopes that the guy was an archangel in disguise. And therefore his best chance to defeat Nara. Without Anna’s intervention that night, Alejandro would have decimated them all. With the angel’s help, Shane imagined he could defeat Nara and claim his child.

His thoughts drifted back to Calise. With her by his side and his child safe, maybe Shane could help Liza ascend to get himself back into Father’s good graces. Calise would be eternally grateful, and they would be together. He needed to be an angel again. Because then, she certainly couldn’t resist his love.

The night at her apartment hadn’t gone as planned. Shane replayed the scene over and over in his head as he crunched his way down the trail to the beach at Cabo Blanco. Why couldn’t he make her understand how much he needed her? Deep in his core, he knew the only person who could redeem him, was Calise, and the sand in his hourglass ran out with each passing day. Fading into nonexistence after his year was up was not an option if he could find a chance for the two of them. He wouldn’t give up; he would find the strength to rise again.

I need to be convincing with Alejandro. Maybe he will be sympathetic to the fact that Lucas is about to have offspring
. He hoped Alejandro’s attachment to the seer would be enough to woo him into a fight with Nara.

It was blazing hot in the jungle today, and Shane dripped sweat even with the canopy of trees overhead, blocking the direct sunlight. Moist air clogged his lungs and he hurried to reach the beach to feel the breeze. He worked again through the rationale he would use to influence Alejandro to go to Russia with him. If he failed, Shane had precious few other resources to tap.

The sound of a woman screaming and crying brought him back to his senses. He rushed down the final steep descent to the beach and was hit with the hot afternoon wind off the ocean that tossed the leaves on the palms above him to and fro. But the salt of the ocean wasn’t the only odor on the breeze. It also carried a more pungent, dangerous scent.

Blood.

A human man in dirty khaki shorts, sandals, and a tattered t-shirt rushed up behind Shane and pushed past him on the fringe of the trail where the jungle gave way to the sandy beach. He watched the man make his way down the beach to the source of the screaming, where a group of agitated men gesticulated wildly. All he could see was the backs of their heads; they seemed focused on the person in pain.

Shane ran over to the group of seven men and pushed his way to the front. He recognized Alejandro who was physically shielding Anna from the men, standing like a wall of steel. Her wailing was intermingled with cries of pain as Shane tried to catch a glimpse of her. Whatever this was, he needed these human men gone and Anna calmed down so he could talk to Alejandro, or he was sunk.

The man who passed Shane on the trail was a stocky little dick who pointed at Anna with a dead look in his eyes. He was young and would have been decent-looking if he didn’t look like a zombie from Night of the Living Dead. All the young men resembled seriously pissed-off, bedraggled insomniacs. Anna’s conquests requesting payback?

Shane shoved to the front of the fray and began to assist Alejandro by muscling the men away from Anna. The angel never acknowledged Shane but kept his eyes locked on the mob.

A brutish oaf of a man pointed at Anna and moaned, “Repent, Jezebel!”

Anna sat behind Alejandro on a hammock, looking weathered and frail. Bits of mud and blood were stuck to her face, and her clothes were ripped and ragged. She spat at the man’s feet. “Never.”

Shane didn’t know what to think. Anna was a seductress—true—but what did her old lovers want with her? She lurched forward clenching her stomach. Shane watched it grotesquely expand and protrude unnaturally like a snake with a mouse in its belly. Alejandro cupped his hands around her shoulders and begged, “Please, Anna. This is enough.”

Shane couldn’t believe it—he watched the fast forward of a pregnancy. He turned to look at the men’s faces. They were cold and judgmental like witnesses to an execution who believed the criminal was getting her just desserts.

Anna
demon-strated,
showing her true form. She had claw-like hands and the face of an old hag. Horns protruded from her head, and her thick forked tongue slithered out and whipped at Alejandro’s face, leaving red marks.

Shane was horrified—human men watched this! He looked back and forth from the men, whose glazed over faces didn’t seem to register the significance of what they witnessed.

Her lips turned black, and her red eyes contracted to slits. Then as her demon belly protruded out into a round ball, she emitted a scream of pain so piercing, that it drove all the men to their knees, covering their ears. Alejandro held her and murmured, “I’m here, my love.” Blood rushed from between her legs as she sank deeper into the hammock beneath her. Alejandro ignored the slash marks on his face from her tongue and scratch marks on his arms from her claws, as he soothed her, “Push, Anna. It’ll be over soon.”

Shane took over as the physical blockade between the men and Anna so Alejandro could attend to her. If he killed Anna for the men, Alejandro would surely retaliate and not agree to help him, but if he fought these men would that just make matters worse? She lay back on the hammock, arched her back, and spread her legs. She yelled through gritted teeth. Her stomach shrank back down to its original size. She uttered a final yell as the child was expelled from her womb. It was limp and motionless. Alejandro wrapped the infant in an old cloth as Anna resumed her human form again and sobbed, “Let me see my baby, Alejandro. Please.”

He wiped off the child the best he could and handed her the still-born baby. Anna clutched the bundle and hummed to it.

Shane wanted to stagger away from the grotesque sight. He had no idea what was happening, but sure as shit Alejandro wasn’t about to go anywhere with him. Anna’s face twisted in pain as she stared at the lifeless form. He needed to get rid of the humans and find out what was going on.

The mob’s mumbling grew more and more agitated.

“She deserves this, my wife walked in on Anna and me when she seduced me on my honeymoon,” one geeky man cried. “My whole life was ruined by her! And yet—she is so beautiful. I had a vision…the being said to come here today to this beach and I would be at peace.”

The brute pushed forward and piped up, pushing the first aside. “After she lured me to her bed, I kept seeing her evil delicious face every time I was with my wife. I left my bride because I could only see this miraculous slut in my head. She tortures me, and I want more of it. My visitor also told me if I came here, I’d find peace,” the man testified.

More accusations flew like knives at Anna. These were the men whose lives she destroyed, by luring them to her bed. Now they were back and with each one of them, she was fast forwarding through a pregnancy and giving birth to a still-born child.

But why?

These men weren’t here for payback; they wanted justice. Shane realized their one collective thought was one and the same.

If I can’t have Anna for myself, I’ll kill her so no one can have her.

He pushed the men back to give him and Alejandro a wider protective circle around Anna. Alejandro hissed, “What are
you
doing here?”

“I need your help.”

“As you can see,
transitor
, I’m a little busy right now.” Alejandro said, elbow to elbow with the advancing mob.

“Is she a witch?” the one pretty boy from the back yelled. “I’ll take her and burn her at the stake—after I’m done with her!”

“She’s my Jezebel. If I can’t have her, she needs to die!” yet another incited.

“She should be stoned!” the stocky one howled and picked up a stone to hurl at Anna.

Shane caught the rock mid-flight and tossed it aside.

The men cocked their heads.

“She’s mine.”

“Stand back.”

“I’ll fight for her.”

The men had turned on Shane. He glanced at Alejandro who had produced a shield around Anna and himself. So he was on his own.

They came at him one at a time, itching for a fight. “I really don’t want to have to hurt you,” he confessed, balling his fists at his sides. His body tensed, ready for action. “But if you fools want to try, I know I can’t stop you. I’m just giving you fair warning, because I
don’t
want Anna and I can promise you, you’ll all be on the ground when this is over,” Shane smirked.

A small part of him itched for the fight. The slow humans were no match for him, but it would be fun to see if he could slow his reaction time enough to fool them into thinking they were fighting a human. The angel part of him pulled him toward resolving this peacefully, while his own inner demon wanted to see these guys bloody and flat on their backs.

Don’t kill them
, his conscience warned.

“I guess you don’t yet realize we are dangerous because we have nothing left to lose,” shouted the pretty boy, pushing his way through the group. With a war cry, he was the first to run at Shane who easily ducked his punch, grabbed under his attacker’s arm and around his back and slammed him easily to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Shane blinked slowly to keep a rein on his temper.

They aren’t worth it
, he repeated in his head.

The brute circled behind him, and the stocky guy picked up a short stick. When the brute grabbed him from behind, Shane stepped wide and back with his left foot and flexed his arms outward putting the brute off-balance. He grabbed him by his right arm and tossed him into the stocky guy. Their weak, sluggish human attempts to hurt him practically made him laugh outright.

Three men were on the ground, and four were still standing. “That whore ruined our lives. You defend her?” the geek said, pulling out a short knife and stepping forward.

“You’re the dipshit who slept with her. Why are you taking it out on me?” Shane retorted.

“You don’t understand
anything
about my Anna. I’m not here because I hate her!” the man continued.

Twisted. There’re all here because they think they have some deluded chance of winning her back…

“I understand more about obsession than you’d think.” Shane thought about what he’d like to do to Lucas for touching his Calise. The geek shot his hand out to stab Shane who sidestepped the knife thrust, grabbed his wrist with one hand and a clump of hair with the other simultaneously slamming his left foot into the back of the geek’s knee bringing him to the ground. Then used his right knee to smash the guy’s elbow with a crack. Writhing in pain, the geek screamed and held his dislocated elbow.

“Oops,” Shane said.

From the side, the beefy guy caught Shane with a swooping right hand to the temple. His head snapped sideways, and Shane’s vision went black for a fraction of a second. When it returned from a pinhole in the center of his field of vision, the men’s faces all changed into Lucas.

That was the last straw, his temper snapped.

He grabbed the brute and pulled his head down and smashed the guy’s nose with his knee with a satisfying crunch. He let him fall to the ground and slammed the next guy with the heel of his hand to the nose. Warm, sticky blood coated his hands like oil. Shane dodged a left hook from the last guy standing then delivered a devastating sidekick to his femur. The man howled and fell to the ground, staring at the stark white of his own bone protruding from his upper leg.

“You had enough?” he asked the brute and stocky guy who were still trying to get up. Not a bead of sweat dotted Shane’s forehead, and his respirations never spiked. Chump change fighting sluggish humans. The two crowded him, their faces set and resolute. A hot, deep pain seared the back of Shane’s shoulder. He turned his head to see the geek’s knife sticking out of his back and a smug look on pretty boy’s face. Shane retaliated with a back kick to his solar plexus that launched him through the air into a palm tree. Pretty boy slumped to the ground.