The Seer's Lover (The Seven Archangels Series) (4 page)

Human abuse was bad, but demonic abuse was infinitely worse. Becca had endured physical, mental, and psychological abuse her whole life, but when she saw
what
had inflicted the torture on her, that her delusions were founded, the knowledge threw her over the edge of sanity. Pregnant and terrified, she moved in with Lucas and his father until…

Lucas banished the memory and watched the young girl still sitting at the table. “C’mon Marla!” The father yanked her arm and gave her a shove to get her moving. Then he squeezed her behind in the most un-fatherly of ways. The demon laughed and pushed the hair off her face. “I can’t
wait
to get back to the room.”

Lucas caught his illicit implication. Every muscle in his body tensed from pure hate. The teenage boy honked from a silver luxury sedan while the girl’s eyes welled up with tears and a look of utter hopelessness came over her young face. They headed for the car.

Lucas felt his pulse quicken. He cleared his head and went to take a step toward them.

Carmen’s hand landed hard on his shoulder. “What have you done? That demon works for Abaddon, the ambassador of Hell. Find out where they’re staying, and I’ll go with you to hunt them.
Tonight
. If we fail, all we’ve tried to protect will be lost,
mi sobrino
.”

****

Lucas knew just the person to tell him where the demons were staying.

Anna Cruz-Jones. For years, his part-time job at the Howler Monkey Lodge as a horseback-riding guide for Ron had allowed him to keep tabs on her. He ensured her realm was kept confined to the bedroom and nowhere else in Mal Pais. Poor Ron—her pawn. He really loved Anna, and any mention she was less than perfect would be rewarded with a right hook. Even though she treated him like shit, he took any scraps of attention she would feed him. Lucas felt sorry for him.

Anna preyed on the newlyweds with an impossible-to-deny-aphrodisiac touch. Lucas wouldn’t know. Without a girlfriend or wife to destroy, she’d never cast him more than a passing glance. She preferred to cause women emotional pain so deep it would ruin any chance they had of finding marital bliss. One more reason to refuse Jody's, or any other girl’s, advances.

In the few minutes it took Lucas to reach the lodge, the rain had abated. Stream rose off every surface in the hot evening air, from the gravel driveway to the misty trees and even Ron and Anna’s modest bungalow.

Lucas slowed his pace as he approached their front door. Ron’s car was gone. He wondered how to approach Anna after years of dodging her. But if anyone knew the whereabouts of this new demon family, Anna would. He could overpower her in a fight, but he’d have to touch her. And once she got her claws into you, literally, it was all over.

Screw that. Lucas could resist any illusions or temptations she offered.
Couldn’t he?

He had been trained to fight demons, both psychologically and physically while his childhood friends rode their bikes and played baseball. His father called their advantages “the speed and the sight.”

He could center himself to shatter their illusions, and he could see their next physical movement in advance, which gave him a huge advantage in physical combat—hence the reason demons hunted seers relentlessly. No matter what she pulled, Anna would be the last person he’d succumb to.

He squared his body and raised a fist to pound on the front door but then decided to risk a glance through the window first.

Anna wore a translucent, burgundy lace negligee that left nothing to the imagination. With her back to him, she danced a slow, hypnotic solo to bossa nova music, moving purposefully, arms raised over her head. He forgot where he was for a moment and watched her.

Practiced.

Sensual.

He tried to pull himself away but couldn’t. Anna embodied physical perfection. Her long, black hair graced with a bit of a wave, complemented her sleek, tanned body. When she twisted to the side, her generous tits and taut nipples made a welcome appearance. Dim lights lit the scene, but when Anna turned completely, Lucas saw her eyes and snapped back to reality.

Her eyes glowed. She smiled and gestured him inside letting her hand drag over her breasts and down, down…

He sucked in a breath. His body’s reaction contradicted his mind’s fight-or-flight response. He needed answers. His mind raced.
Turn and walk away.
Instead, he reached for the doorknob.

His father’s voice echoed in his head. “You have advantages she couldn’t guess at. Exploit her weaknesses.” He willed his body into submission to bring his mind into focus.

After everything I’ve seen…

After a demon killed my own mother…

He held the doorknob in his hand. How could he get the information from Anna without exposing himself or having to kill her? Although completely duped by her, Ron would be devastated if he killed her. Yet, wouldn’t Ron be far better off without her?

He let go of the doorknob, turned, put one foot in front of the other, and walked back to the stable. He would find answers another way.

When he opened the door to the barn, the horses pawed the ground and snorted.
What the…
He spun around. Anna stood right in front of him.

“Did you finally come to ask me for something, Lucas?” she said in her thick Brazilian accent. A sheer, red lace teddy draped her sleek body.

He backed away.

Lucas’s field of vision tunneled to include only Anna. Her wine-red aura pulsed in vertigo-inducing waves. He blinked slowly to center himself and dissolve the illusion, but found he couldn’t drag his eyes away from her. He couldn’t dissolve her illusions because she wasn’t casting any! Anna had something else going for her, something Lucas couldn’t fight—she dripped sheer irresistible sexuality.

“Like what you see?” The voice whispered in his ear even though her lips never moved. Invisible fingers ran through his hair and glided down his neck.

He found her eyes and stared into their ruby depths.

Stop!
He summoned every ounce of his energy and turned his back on her, pretending to nonchalantly fold a blanket. “I see Ron’s wife. I came by to ask a question.” He paused. “A family came into the restaurant tonight and said they were your friends. The man left his wallet on the table when they left. I’ll return it to them if you tell me where they are. Where are your friends staying, Anna?”

Lucas steeled his resolve against her powers and turned to face her once more. Immediately, a pulsing pain wrapped around his back and pulled him toward her. He arched his back and moaned even as his feet took a step forward. Instead of lessening, the pain intensified.

“I don’t have any friends.” She licked her lips. “Why is it I haven’t decided to taste you before now?” A long forked tongue snaked out and flicked up and down his cheek like two tiny knives.

An illusion; this he could fight.

The knife-like protrusions sent an unusual ripple of pleasure down his spine. He suppressed a moan and forced himself to concentrate. The tongue vanished. Lucas repeated, “Where your friends are staying?” He took another step closer to her.

“Come one step closer, and I’ll tell you anything you want,” Anna taunted.

He stood still. “I have to go. As pretty as you are, I’d never do that to Ron.” He struggled for breath to ward off the pain of her illusion slicing over his skin like razors. His back pain turned to spasms and brutal cramps.

She lifted an eyebrow as she released him from her spell, clearly amused. “Suit yourself, but never say never, lover. You’re lucky I was
ordered
not to kill you.”

“Ordered?”

“I’m really quite impressed you’ve hidden from me this long. Abaddon may promote all of us for finding a pure blood for him to play with—before he peels off your skin and rolls you in barbed wire.”

Ron’s car tires crackled over the driveway pebbles.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“To answer your original question, of course I know where Paymon and Nicor are. And they’re looking forward to playing with you before the boss gets here,
seer
.” Anna
demon-strated
to show her true fiendish form. Her face elongated, and her eyes transformed into black diamonds with glowing red centers. Her nails extended into claws. She lunged at Lucas and slammed her head into his before he could duck.

Her eyes were the last thing he saw.

****

He awoke in the hay, being licked by his faithful canine companions and staring at a horse’s three white socks.
Shit
, Lucas chided himself,
Anna had known the whole time.
He wondered how long he’d been out, why the demons hadn’t come for him, and where the hell Carmen was.

He needed to find his aunt. Now. She’d know what to do.

Rubbing his head, he pulled himself to his feet and looked at the horses. They stared at Lucas as though they’d been waiting for him to wake up all morning. “Hey, Gotzone.” He stroked the white blaze on the muzzle of the gorgeous chestnut mare. She nickered a greeting. The name Gotzone meant “angel” in Spanish, and this horse was exactly that to him, responding to his shifts in body language and posture before he even gave a command. She even hung around on the road outside Carmen’s restaurant when he worked the lunch shift. He loved this horse. He’d ridden her almost daily since he moved to Costa Rica.

He buckled her bridle and pushed open the barn door. He mounted her bareback but she reared up, snorting and pawing at the air.

A familiar silver luxury sedan was parked by the main house.

“There you are!” Ron said, practically running right into Gotzone. “Aren’t the other horses ready? Anna said she told you yesterday her friends from Casa del Noche wanted to go out with you first thing this morning. Apparently the girl struck a deal with her dad so she could go horse-back riding as the last thing they do together on their family trip.”

Despite the heat, the hair on the back of Lucas’s neck stood up. A shiver of fear mingled with disgusted anger ran down his spine. “No, she didn’t tell me.”

Anna held open the front door, and the family headed toward him. Paymon whispered something to his son and their auras expanded and darkened around them.

“Ron, Carmen needs me to work at the restaurant for lunch, so I won’t be able to—”

Ron shot him a pleading glance. “Nonsense. What’re you talking about? I’ll talk to Carmen, and we’ll pay you double. Hurry up and get the horses ready to go. Treat these people right for Anna.”

Lucas avoided eye contact with the men and tried in vain to construct an escape route. The fourteen-year-old girl approached and petted Gotzone. The horse allowed this but kept taking steps backwards, away from the demons.

Nicor stood close to his dad and glared at his sister. Unhappy she relished a moment of happiness; he flicked his wrist and flung a swarm of mosquitoes at her. The movement appeared inconsequential, like shooing away a fly. But as a seer, Lucas watched the insects descend on the poor girl who wriggled and squirmed, swatting at the empty air around her. She whimpered as tiny red welts appeared all over her skin from yet another unseen attack. She ran to her mother.

Lucas decided he would get the women to the safety of Carmen’s restaurant before battling the demons. He calmed his mind to dissolve the swarm and tensed his body for the inevitable fight. He checked his pocket for his—
NO! Anna took my knives. Shit.
He needed to get the women to safety—now.

“What’s your name?” Lucas asked.

She cowered behind her mother. “Marla.” She refused to even look at him.

The demons sneered and waited while he readied the horses.

The mother asked, “Is the trail ride dangerous?”

He wanted to answer, “Yes, dangerous for you.” Instead, he said, “It could be a bit scary. If just the men are interested, the girls could stay here with Ron.” Lucas offered them the out and prayed the demons underestimated a true seer’s advantages in a fight—the ability to see their next physical move before it happened and the control to dissolve their illusions.

According to his aunt, seers from diluted bloodlines were abundant. Tossed aside as the crazy street people rambling about evil and auras, most were diagnosed as schizophrenics, heavily medicated, or simply locked up. These dilutes were never trained to fight back or hone their skills. But Lucas’s undiluted and pure family bloodline trained for centuries to fight back and expose demons for what they were, hence threatening demon’s power over mankind.

“Absolutely not. The women are coming. Put them on horses,” Paymon directed.

Ron cocked an eyebrow at Lucas. “What’s the matter? I said these are Anna’s friends. Take care of them. C’mon!”

Reluctantly, he got the horses ready and put Marla on Nelly, a bomb-proof, twenty-five year old mare, who usually provided a sure and steady ride as one of the older, more experienced horses. A standard bay with black points, Nelly had been bitten by three snakes and survived. Lucas felt fairly confident that with whatever the boys threw at her, she would hold steady for Marla.

The girl looked thrilled, beaming with joy and stroking the horse’s neck. Nelly lifted her head, enjoying the attention from Marla.

Lucas helped the mother mount Rocket, his tallest black mare at almost sixteen hands high. She had a white star and one white stocking and carried the coveted Paso Fino lineage, as evidenced by her dark dorsal stripe. The mother looked completely inexperienced, but Rocket would do all the work if the lady would hang on and remain calm.

The two demons stood watching these proceedings with a smirk on their faces.

Lucas pointed to Bit and Bailey, his more roguish horses, saddled and ready to go. “Can you handle them, gentlemen?”

“I’d
love
some help.” Nicor mocked him.

With Ron still around chatting with Paymon, Lucas grudgingly helped the boy mount Bit, who was all black and a little headstrong. If Lucas got lucky, maybe she would throw Nicor off.

Lucas put his hands out, fingers interlocked to give him a boost. Once his boot touched Lucas’s hands, it morphed into a massive claw digging hard into his skin. He shattered the illusion but not before the claw ripped open his skin. Blood dripped from his palm, congealing in the dust. “Shit.”