The Seer's Lover (The Seven Archangels Series) (6 page)

“Tie his hands, Nicor, and I’ll retrieve the women,” Paymon spat, kicking Stogey as he rushed past the injured animal toward the women.

Nicor retrieved rope from his backpack and secured his wrists moments before Lucas was able to focus enough to dissolve the illusion of the barbed wires.

Paymon returned with the women, whose tear-stained faces showed no opposition. He held them by the hair and barked, “All of you. Down to the beach. NOW!” Then he shoved everyone forward.

Lucas cast a quick glance back at the dogs, both wounded but breathing. He caught sight of Gotzone who’d retreated up the hill away from the fray, but lingered, watching. He wouldn’t say good-bye to these animals.

The demons had only glimpsed his capabilities. Although he was rusty in actually fighting a demon, the techniques his father had drilled into him weren’t something your muscles forgot. This wasn’t over—but unless he did something fast, they were all dead.

He whispered to the women, “Stay close. When you can, run to Carmen’s. She’ll know what to do.”
If she isn’t out looking for me.

The women nodded almost imperceptibly.

The demons bound and gagged Lucas and the women together near a cluster of trees by the beach and left. Unable to untie himself or reach his necklace, Lucas waited with the women for the demons to return. He inhaled and exhaled with purpose, channeling his inner calm for the next stage of this battle. He found peace and strength, as always, in the beach and the ocean.

Clouds in magenta hues mingled lazily with shimmering gold, burnt orange, and cotton candy pink above a slate gray Pacific Ocean. The sea lapped calmly at the shore as if worn out from producing the day’s thunderous waves. Lucas pulled the calm of the evening around him so he would be fully collected to fight. Marla and her mother clung to him, the first man who understood they lived on the incessant verge of terror. Keeping both women safe and taking on two demons would be…difficult.

Damn, he hated demons.

Stray seagulls scanned the shallow water for dinner, diving periodically and resurfacing with their catch. The ocean swallowed the last glimmer of the sun and the evening breeze made the heavy heat more tolerable as the daytime humidity tapered off. The briny scent of the ocean and the evening serenity of the waves would have just yesterday brought Lucas his daily measure of peace. But today his years of hiding had finally ended. Holding the lives of two terrified women in his hands, the seer blood that ran through his veins once again burned hot.

****

When the men returned hours later, they removed the gags and led their captives to the beach. Their feet crunched in the sand when roars pierced the air from the canopy above them. The women looked up apprehensively. “They’re just howler monkeys,” Lucas explained. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, there’s plenty to worry about,
seer.
” Paymon halted the group.

Lucas shoved the women behind him, wishing like hell he had his knives. He leaned against a peach palm tree. Nasty, sharp thorns covered the bark. He managed to loosen the ropes that bound his hands. Still, with no weapons, he felt naked.

“Oh, that’s cute. You really think you can fight Nicor and me?” Paymon waved a hand between him and his son with a bold laugh. In a fraction of a second, Nicor shot forward to stand by his father’s side. “How much
seer
blood actually runs in your veins?”

The demons still underestimated him. Good…

The impatient son threw the first punch. Lucas blocked the blow with a speed that made the father’s eyes narrow. “Hmm. He might be fun for you, Nicor.” Paymon smoothed back his thinning black hair and folded his arms. “He’s all yours. For practice.”

Lucas allowed the boy two quick jabs to his gut and staggered back a few paces, doubled over and coughed. Paymon clapped Nicor on the back with a derisive snort. “See, he’s a pathetic
dilute.
Kill him.”

Lucas held his hands up in mock defeat, edging backwards to the tree line. “Wait, don’t hurt me. I won’t tell anyone.”

Sneering, Nicor lowered his head and charged forward like a psychotic bull. Anticipating this, Lucas used his full speed to snatch him by the shoulders and channel his inertia in a semi-circle. Lucas slammed the boy into a tree. “Go!” Lucas told the women and turned to take on Paymon.

Nicor howled in pain and peeled himself from the thorny bark of the palm tree Lucas had pinned him to.

Paymon almost delivered a crushing strike to Lucas’s head. He escaped that and several more, dodging every blow to both demons’ growing chagrin. Their auras pulsated in an ebony strobe light.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” the father spat, and threw a black barbed cord from his index finger that caught Lucas around the neck. In the fraction of a second he had to prepare, Lucas got his fingers underneath the wire to afford himself a few extra breaths. Paymon reeled him in. “I stand corrected. Your blood is not diluted. My boss, Abaddon, will be very interested in that tidbit. Good news for you.”

Even though he made every attempt to hold his ground, Lucas slid toward the demon, working to dissolve the illusion. Seconds before his airway would be permanently severed by the barbs, Lucas remembered the necklace. While grasping for the charm with his free hand, the tension around his neck subsided abruptly. The barbs had vanished, and his forward momentum made Lucas fall face first in the sand. Saved by Marla. She had broken her father’s concentration by kicking at his shins and pounding on his chest. “Let him go, Daddy! Let him go!” she cried.

Paymon yanked the girl backwards by the hair and knelt next to her. Before Lucas could scramble to his feet, the son jumped on him, pounded a knee into his kidneys, and pulled Lucas’s arms behind his back. Ropes materialized from the sand and snaked around his wrists and ankles, binding him tight until Nicor retrieved real rope and retied his feet and wrists.

Lucas watched as the father’s forked tongue oozed from his mouth and entered Marla’s ear. The girl convulsed and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Let her go and kill me,” Lucas said, calmly.

Nicor pressed Lucas’s cheek deeper into the sand. “Not a chance,
seer.
I’ve been waiting for this trip to kill my human mother and sister since I turned eighteen and found out who I really am.”

“Besides an asshole, you mean?” Lucas said.

Nicor kicked Lucas hard in the side. “Shut up, filth.”

Eyes squeezed shut but wet with tears, Marla whimpered softly. Her mother approached and held her hand.

“It’s time,” Paymon said.

Nicor pulled his mother away from Marla and shoved her toward the water.

“Watch how it’s done,
seer
.” Paymon lifted his chin with a go-ahead signal.

“Son, please. I’m your mother.” She backed away from him.

“You’re human, and humans are worthless playthings. Now that I know what I am, it’s time for me to enter into my full powers. Father and I are done with you.” He advanced on her slowly.

Struggling in vain to loosen the real ropes, Lucas could do nothing but watch.

“Husband, spare me. I can still be of use to you!” The waves lapped at her weathered brown riding boots.

“Please, babe, you never were and never will be of
any
use to me, except to torture and birth my demon son. Nicor, be done with her,” Paymon bellowed.

Lucas watched Marla’s sandy tear-stained face as she opened her eyes to see her mother one last time. Nicor materialized a yoke out of nowhere which locked onto his mother’s shoulders. Then, with a flick of his wrist, Nicor lifted her twenty yards in the air and flung her into the ocean.

Her hand rose once out of the water before she vanished. Lucas mind flooded with memories of his mother.

“We let her go easy,
seer
. What we have in mind for Marla is more…calculated.” The father dragged the girl, kicking and screaming, up the hill away from the beach.

“Wait,” he implored. “I’ll tell you everything. Who I am. Where I’m from. What we have.” The words were his funeral—and Carmen’s—if he didn’t stop these demons.

“We? All right,
seer.
Hurry up and talk, but your time is short if you don’t impress me.” Paymon sneered.

Nicor unbound his feet, but left his wrists bound behind his back. Lucas lurched to his feet to catch up with them.

“Well?” Paymon barked.

Hiking up to the main road, he thought about the repercussions of what he was about to say. “I’m—I’m a…”

“Time’s up, you worthless little
seer
. Whatever lies you spout, we won’t believe you anyway,” said Nicor. “Father, leave him for Abaddon, and let’s get to the finale and ditch this hell hole.”

Paymon laughed with approval and threw Marla over his shoulder. “Fine.”

The earth rumbled under Lucas’s feet. He saw where the hole in the ground would appear and jumped clear. The earth gave way with a massive crack. The son balled his hands and suspended Lucas in the air above the chasm. “Don’t worry about Marla. We’ll take our time with her. And if you survive this, don’t try to run, because Abaddon
will
find you.”

“NO!” Lucas shouted as Nicor released him and his body fell into the crater.

Chapter 4

Calise opened her eyes to see Ron and Anna’s worried faces hovering over her.
What happened? Wasn’t she just sunbathing by the pool?

“Heat sickness, don’t you think, Ron? Here, have some water, dear.”

A silky soft hand rested on her shoulder, and Calise swore she smelled her Nana’s apple pie. She took a tentative sip of water.

“I’d call Dean or your mom, but I think you fainted because it’s so unnaturally hot here. Don’t you think that’s it? You’re dehydrated, is all.” Ron busied himself arranging a platter of fruits and chicken on the small coffee table.

How did she get back to her bungalow? Sitting up, Calise leaned her body into Anna’s. She rubbed her eyes and shook herself awake. “I’m so embarrassed to have put you through so much trouble.” Calise pulled away.

“No trouble at all.” The words came from Anna’s mouth, but her voice sounded like Calise’s mother.

“Anything for Dean’s baby sister,” Ron said.

“I don’t remember anything after being at the pool. I’m sure I only need a nap and some water.” She lowered herself back into the bed.

Anna pulled the sheet over her. The sheet appeared to move in slow motion. When the fabric touched Calise’s bare skin, the material soothed her as if pure silk covered her. Her eyes drooped and her mind swam in a fog.

Something has happened.

She fought to snap herself out of the delirium, but her thoughts swirled into cool water and warm breezes. She succumbed to slumber and dreamt of a pillow fight with her college girlfriends. Anna was there in a red lace teddy. The girls sank into the feathery softness of the bed together. The bed became a cloud floating over the ocean. The girls wrestled and giggled. Everyone wore white nightgowns, except Anna, the most beautiful woman she’d ever laid her eyes on. Calise crawled to reach Anna, willing the dream to go on forever. She continued to repeat her name: “Anna—Anna—Anna.”

****

The demons disappeared with Marla. In a place where the cavern’s opening narrowed, Lucas slid to a halt and wedged himself sideways. His feet pressed on one rocky wall and his badly scratched back pressed the other.

He braced himself as best he could but realized the loose dirt wouldn’t hold him for long. Pebbles shaken loose from the earth descended into the abyss. He started to slip. His hands, still tied behind his back, cut against a sharp rock. Legs shaking with exertion, he sawed feverishly at the rope binding his wrists. He loosened the knot just before his feet lost their purchase, and he managed to grab a sturdy root.

He dangled there panting when a familiar loop of leather appeared—Gotzone’s reins. The mare had managed to flip the lead over her head and extended them to Lucas. He transferred one hand to them at a time. “Whoa, girl. Back up nice and easy.”

He heaved his body out of the crevasse and collapsed on the ground sweating and breathless. Gotzone prodded him with her muzzle. He dissolved the illusion and the earth returned to its former state. No earthquake. No crack in the ground.

Panic seized him—
Marla!

With a rush of adrenaline, Lucas mounted Gotzone and raced after the demons. He remembered Ron said they’d rented Casa del Noche, up the beach a half a mile. Stogey appeared alongside them. He limped but kept pace. Upon nearing the rental house, Lucas pulled back to slow the horse. Multiple rows of palm trees set back from the road surrounded the property. He dismounted far enough away not to be seen, then crept closer. The element of surprise provided his only advantage.

All the lights were off. He tiptoed around the place. Beside the bedroom window, he saw a pile of something. Stogey bolted ahead to check it out, and started whining. Lucas rushed over to quiet him. “Shh, Stogey, what is it?” Harley—not moving. Whip marks covering his back exposed bits of muscle and bone. They killed him for snooping around their bungalow. Stogey lay next to Harley and licked his face. The dog looked back and forth from Lucas to Harley.

“Harley, why did you have to follow them?” Lucas stroked his fur. “That little piece of shit, I’ll go kick his demon ass myself.” He headed for the bungalow, planning to bust inside.

The door stood ajar. A dark, sticky substance covered the handle.

He flashed back to the day he opened the door to his own bedroom and found his girlfriend, Becca hanging from a fan. He buried the memory, edged the door open and flipped on the light. His instinct proved correct…he’d smelled death.

Blood glistened in pools on the floor and splattered the walls. Bits of flesh and organs mixed with still moist pieces of clothing. Pink cotton turned to revolting crimson and lavender chiffon to matted black. Marla was dead.

Becca’s memory and Marla’s reality pierced him like a hunter’s arrow that missed the heart but hit the victim, leaving the prey to wander and bleed out over time. His failures coated his inadequacies in cruel repetition. Again, he’d been too late, merely a witness to the cold path of evil. Lucas reminded himself to breathe, which let in the odor of rank hygiene and disembowelment.