The Seer's Lover (The Seven Archangels Series) (36 page)

“Have you found Nara? My baby is here somewhere. Help me find my baby so we can get out of here.” He rushed from one bed to the next.

Calise steadied herself on the door handle and spoke without a break in her voice. “So that was your plan all along? Find your baby and to hell with mine? I should have known you were lying when you said you wanted to help me. Michael’s not even here, is he? You want a prisoner. You want
me
and
your child
to live together and be a family. Well think again, because I’m not going anywhere with you.”

In the blink of an eye, Shane’s weight was pressed hard against her. His breathing ragged, he tried to kiss her.

Calise slapped him hard and spit in his face. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want you. I never wanted you. You tricked me from the first time you met me. You knew you could seduce me. You
knew
I would worship you. You might as well be a demon because you are no better than one.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed and his body tightened. “I promised to try to help you. If Nara isn’t here with your son, that’s
not
my fault. You said you loved me, and we would be together.” His voice amplified and he slammed his hand back and forth over his heart and hers. “We
will
be together.”

She pushed him back. “You belong with Nara. You and your demon daughter.”

His eyes widened.

She crossed her arms and pressed on. “Yes, your daughter is here. With Liza. She’s a demon, Shane. A demon! You want me to raise a demon with a father who’s just as bad as one? You lied and tricked me in college. You broke into my apartment and threatened me. You’ve brought me here promising me my baby. All lies!” Calise screamed. Her eyes welled up with tears as she watched her words break Shane’s heart.

Again
.

“Calise, you’re wrong—” he pleaded.

“I hate you. You can die dreaming about me for all I care. You’ll never have me again. Get away from me. Lucas is a better man as a human than you ever were as an angel.”

He backed through the nursery, bumping into cribs as he went. With each step, he seemed taller and darker. His chest heaved and his body shook as his heartbreak turned to full out anger.

Then he vanished. Alone, and without help, and she couldn’t have felt any weaker.

A hand squeezed her shoulder and she jumped.

“Bravo, Calise, bravo.” Nara clapped condescendingly. “Almost there. There’s only one more thing you have to do.” Nara’s cold and calculating voice in her ear sent a shiver down Calise’s spine.

“Where’s Michael?”

Nara shrugged. “Make Shane fall and I’ll let him rot in the nursery with the other whining blobs. Too bad you won’t be so lucky. Now,
succumb
…” she rasped.

“Huh?” Calise turned around to ask but she was gone. A piercing sound hit her. It was like the roar of an eighteen-wheeler approaching at eighty miles-per-hour. She sank to the ground, covering her ears.

The door to the nursery busted off its hinges. Shane stood in the opening, the hollow circles of his eyes rapid-fire cycling—transitor, demon, transitor, demon. He held his head tall, his demeanor changing from meek to powerful. “I’ll never have you? Is that what you think? Well, you’re wrong! You’ve forgotten how good I am. I’m going to remind you. Over and over.”

Shane raced forward to loom over her. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the nursery.

“Shane! No! What are you doing? Let me go!”

“Shut up,” he commanded and she lost her voice. He couldn’t hear her when she tried to scream, “Nara made me do it!”

Her legs kicked and dragged, and she grabbed onto his sleeves for leverage before all her hair got ripped out. Her neck cracked in pain, and her head throbbed as he continued to drag her. She clawed at his arms and kept screaming even though no sound came out. Her world went silent, and she watched the doors with the tormented children behind them pass by. The dim flickering hall lights led her to her doom.

Nara had said, “Succumb.”
To what?

The room he dropped her in smelled like semen and blood. Rusty tools were all over the place, and she caught glimpses of tattered clothes strewn in the corners. This was like an S&M dungeon from hell. He grabbed her wrists, dragged her to the far wall, and a shackle clicked, binding her wrist to the wall. She fought, but he bound her other wrist to the wall and then put a gag in her mouth.

“You
will
remember how great we were together, one way or another,” Shane assured her, then ripped her shirt open.

She moaned and shook her head.

Succumb.
Nara wanted him to rape her. He would fall and become a demon. She had a flashback to when Shane saved her from
the creep
in college. He lit up the room that night when he busted in.
This isn’t happening.

“Don’t worry, I
won’t
be gentle.” Shane unbuckled her belt and roughly pulled down her jeans.

Then it happened. He didn’t just have the intent to rape her anymore; he was in motion.

He fell and Calise watched.

The gray cloud of his aura covered him and cold wet air surrounded them. She inhaled moisture and mold, coughing and gagging with the ball in her mouth.

Then she heard a sound that reminded her of hot wax being ripped from the skin. Shane screamed. Something ethereal and white left his body and floated toward the heavens.

Was his essence ripped from his soul?

The haze around him turned from gray to black and began to retreat. Shane was naked, down on all fours. She looked on helplessly while his fingers grew and long yellow nails covered his nail beds. Webbing appeared from his knuckles and spread back to his arms. He raised his soulless eyes to hers, and they were empty and glowing red. Black circles surrounded them and when he opened his mouth to yell out, razor sharp teeth appeared. He clawed at his hair, which all fell out, leaving him looking like a hairless rat. He screamed again as red horns exploded from his bald head above his ears. The horns curved toward the back of his head in the shape of the letter “S.”

In the presence of a monster, she froze in fear as tears rolled down her cheeks.

It was over.

She’d lost.

Every hair on her body stood up and cold sweats overtook her as the being rose to his full height and, with burning eyes, advanced on her.

He pointed a finger at Calise, and it grew and wriggled toward her. She clamped her legs together as the yellow fingernail slowly crept up her leg to her inner thigh. As it was about to enter her, she heard a voice.

“That’s enough, baby. If that claw is going in anyone, it’ll be me.” Nara stood in the doorway to the dungeon holding a baby bundled in flowing red silk.

He snapped around to the sound of her voice, and Calise again saw the familiar shag of hair that was Shane’s. “Give her to me,” he growled. “Give me my daughter.”

“Of course, my love. Now, we are together as it was always meant to be.” Nara transferred the cooing bundle to his waiting arms. “Come along now, Daddy.” Nara pulled Shane in for a kiss but all Calise saw were two long pink worm-like tongues wrestling in circles over the baby.

He flicked his red eyes toward Calise. “What about her?”

“Liza will be down here to dispose of her,” Nara promised.

“Good, because the filthy human deserves to die. They all deserve to die.” Shane held his demon baby tight. “Do you trust Liza?”

Nara laughed. “Of course. She’s in my service, so she knows what the penalty is for her disobedience. Good-bye, Calise Rowe. And good fucking riddance.” Nara blew her a kiss of black smoke, and the door on her prison was slammed shut and bolted from the outside.

In the darkness, creatures began to skitter up her legs then bite. Calise screamed.

Did minutes pass? Hours? She had no idea. But when the heavy bolt slid open and the door to her cell opened again, Liza was there, holding a gun.

“Help me Liza!”

Her sister-in-law waved a hand in front of her eyes. Her red eyes gleamed.

Calise's whole body racked with convulsions. “They were eating my skin, and the pain—What happened? Where did they go?”

“It was an illusion. I know what I have to do.” Liza backed up and raised the gun to Calise.

CRACK!

The gun fired.

Chapter 35

Calise knew she was dead, but she had no pain and could still feel her body. She opened an eye and found that her right hand was free from the shackle. “Liza, I thought—ˮ

“I know what you thought, but as I said, I’m going to help you.” Liza smiled and covered Calise’s almost violated body.

Liza raised the gun again, but Calise stopped her. “Wait. Look down.” The red in her eyes melted away and became the eclipsed circles that Shane’s had been when he was a transitor. Her charcoal-colored aura faded to gray and the smell in the room became distinctive. “You smell like modeling clay.”

Liza muffled a sob. “I do? I do! I miss Max. I want to be with Dean. I want to go back to the Father. We have to hurry. I had strict orders to kill you within the hour and when I’m discovered…” Tears of relief washed over her. She wiped at her face with the back of the hand holding the pistol.

“I’ll help you, I promise. Just get me out of here,” Calise begged.

Liza took a few steps backwards, aimed and shot at the chain holding her other wrist to the wall. “Tell Dean—”

CRACK.

Calise tugged at her wrist, but it didn’t budge. Liza’s eyes looked different, vacant. Then she sank to her knees. Dean appeared in the doorway directly behind her with a gun pointed where Liza had stood. “Dean!”
What did he do?

Then realization struck. He’d shot Liza. Calise’s eyes dropped to the floor where Liza clutched her stomach, and her breathing became labored. “Get me down! We have to help her!”

“Help her? She was going to shoot you. I…I was protecting you.” Dean stammered, staggering toward his sister. “Are you looking for this?” He dangled a key and jammed it into the lock freeing Calise’s other wrist.

She rushed to Liza’s side while her brother stood by watching, in shock.

“Liza. Hang on, girl. You’re going to be okay. Dean,” she cried, “do something!”

He shook his head, walking in circles, avoiding them. “She was going to shoot you,” he repeated.

Then she heard it. Gutteral and heavy. “Cali.” Lucas was in the doorway.

Damn, she was happy to see him, but there was no time for hellos. “Lucas, she’s transitioned, and she’s not going to make it. What do we do?”

Liza’s breathing slowed, and her eyes were closing. Dean stood back, dumbstruck. How would Calise ever explain to him what he’d done?

Lucas reached into his pocket and knelt down beside Liza. He touched a thorn to her heart. Her head rolled back as her torso rose up off the floor. When her eyes snapped open, they were white gold, like an angel. “Yes, thank you, Father,” she managed to say before going limp in his arms.

Lucas set Liza’s head back down gently. Then her mortal body disappeared into sparkles of white crystals.

Calise jumped on Lucas, hugging him and burying her face in his neck.

“I heard the shots, and I thought…” Lucas voice wavered.

“I’m fine. You’re here.”

They could have been under a microscope in a lab. They could have been in Times Square on New Years. They could have been broadcast on the big screen at a Packers game. They could have been watching the Southern Lights in the Antarctic.

Or it could have been in a dungeon in Russia with her brother.

Calise got the kiss of a lifetime. Lucas clutched her face in his rough hands then traced her features with his thumbs. His eyes were on fire with passion and relief, and when he pulled her to him, she melted.

It doesn’t matter where you are, what you are doing, or who is watching. When a kiss takes you out of your body and you can feel the love inside your soul, all that matters is who you are with.

Calise was with Lucas, and that’s exactly where she was supposed to be.

Her brother cleared his throat, and Lucas held up a finger to him. When Calise saw that, she had to smile. Lucas helped Calise to her feet and wrapped his arms around her protectively.

“I don’t mean to state the obvious, but where the fuck did Liza’s body go?” Dean said.

Calise left Lucas to hug her brother. “I’ll explain more later, but suffice it to say, she’s in heaven.” She put an arm around his shoulder. “You okay?”

Dean started stammering. “Pretty sure I’m not and I’ll be dealing with a fuckton of PTSD later. Wait, Liza had you captive Cali, and she tortured children, right? God knows, she tortured me for years. Are you saying she was ‘saved’ or something?”

Lucas led him out of the dungeon. “She asked for forgiveness in the end, and it was granted. I promise I’ll tell you everything, but right now, we need to go get Michael.”

“Did you see him? Is he all right? Where is he?” Calise had so many questions.

“Ellen found him in the nursery. He’s safe,” Dean said.

When they reached Liza’s private quarters, they found Michael, asleep in Ellen’s arms, cradled in the warmth of a fuzzy baby blue blanket on the bed. “He’s all right, Cali. Nara didn’t hurt him, not a scratch.”

Emotion overtook her, and she knelt down and sobbed. Lucas and Dean wrapped their arms around her. Ellen caressed Calise’s cheek with a warm touch. She welcomed the relief as it flowed through her body.

Michael safe.

Lucas alive.

Nara was gone, but at what price to Shane?

And Liza…

Ellen slid off the bed and gave the baby to Lucas. Ellen and Dean left, giving the three of them some privacy. Calise crawled onto the bed and lay her head down in Lucas’s lap while he stroked her hair.

“That phone call…it wasn’t me. Shane was using my voice,” Lucas began.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re here now and they’re gone. Lucas, I…” Her heart swelled with love for her boys. “I made Shane fall. That’s why they left; it’s what Nara wanted all along. She had his baby—a demon baby.”

“Shit. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you. I won’t forgive myself. I know you did what you had to do and…I forgive you,” Lucas said.