Lucifer
(Sons of Old Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Annabell Cadiz
Genre: New Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural
Have you ever wondered what could be hiding
in the shadows?
Well, for eighteen-year-old Zahara Faraday, she doesn’t have to wonder. You see she comes from a lineage of Light Witches, those who have chosen to help protect and serve between the supernatural world and the human world. The only problem is Zahara, like her father Solomon, is as human as a human being can be whereas her mother, Mia, and her Aunt Catalina, were born as Light Witches. As a family they hunt down rogue supernaturals—creatures who harm humans or who have committed an act against their kingdom.
Zahara’s hunting skills are usually kept dormant since her parents would prefer she live life as a normal human girl without knowledge of the supernatural world. She plans on doing just that—except when she finds a couple being attacked by fairies, she has no choice but to step in. Before she can return to pretending to be blissfully ignorant, Zahara encounters a problem she isn’t the least equip to handle: Bryan Hamilton, the good looking new co-worker she has to help train. In a heartbeat, her best friend, Becca King, has set her up on a double date with herself and her new crush, Rekesh Saint-Louis, who happens to be the most powerful leader of the biggest Imago Coven in South Florida –supernatural creatures with the ability to control water . . . and suck out human souls.
Zahara has no time to focus on how she’s going to explain her double date with her best friend and the enemy they have a tentative truce with to her parents because soon one of the members of Mia and Catalina’s coven is found murdered with a strange tattoo of a snake with wings carved into his arm.
Zahara is then thrown into a whirlwind battle with an angel determined to have revenge against God, an Imago coven she doesn’t think they should trust, and slew of dream-eating fairies and powerful Nephilims, hybrid children of angels and humans, more than happy to rip her to shreds. Normal just got a deadlier definition.
Well, for eighteen-year-old Zahara Faraday, she doesn’t have to wonder. You see she comes from a lineage of Light Witches, those who have chosen to help protect and serve between the supernatural world and the human world. The only problem is Zahara, like her father Solomon, is as human as a human being can be whereas her mother, Mia, and her Aunt Catalina, were born as Light Witches. As a family they hunt down rogue supernaturals—creatures who harm humans or who have committed an act against their kingdom.
Zahara’s hunting skills are usually kept dormant since her parents would prefer she live life as a normal human girl without knowledge of the supernatural world. She plans on doing just that—except when she finds a couple being attacked by fairies, she has no choice but to step in. Before she can return to pretending to be blissfully ignorant, Zahara encounters a problem she isn’t the least equip to handle: Bryan Hamilton, the good looking new co-worker she has to help train. In a heartbeat, her best friend, Becca King, has set her up on a double date with herself and her new crush, Rekesh Saint-Louis, who happens to be the most powerful leader of the biggest Imago Coven in South Florida –supernatural creatures with the ability to control water . . . and suck out human souls.
Zahara has no time to focus on how she’s going to explain her double date with her best friend and the enemy they have a tentative truce with to her parents because soon one of the members of Mia and Catalina’s coven is found murdered with a strange tattoo of a snake with wings carved into his arm.
Zahara is then thrown into a whirlwind battle with an angel determined to have revenge against God, an Imago coven she doesn’t think they should trust, and slew of dream-eating fairies and powerful Nephilims, hybrid children of angels and humans, more than happy to rip her to shreds. Normal just got a deadlier definition.
The fairy moved slowly, his eyes roaming the park for
movement. He sniffed the air as the breeze wafted through the bushes then
turned his attention sharply back to the bushes. Zahara jumped back to her feet
to steer him away from Becca and took off running. The fairy ran after her,
moving so fast Becca thought he could merge with the wind. She let out a long
breath and stumbled out of the bushes, knowing her best friend couldn’t fight
him alone.
Zahara just ran, trying to find a place to hide and catch
her breath, but seeing none. She staggered forward as the wind pushed her from
behind and was suddenly gripped by the neck by a hand composed of pure muscle.
The fairy threw her onto the ground and raked his nails across Zahara’s face.
Zahara managed to cover her face with her arms, and cried out as she felt the
skin ripping open.
“Hey! Get the hell away from my best friend, you demon,
tree-hugging bastard!” Becca yelled and rammed herself into him. She fell to
the ground with the fairy and drove the dagger into his side as hard as she
could. She flipped herself up off the fairy and jumped back to her feet,
standing hunched forward with her muscles locked as the fairy stood.
He removed the dagger from his side and threw it onto the
ground, eyeing Becca with a hard glare. Zahara aimed another arrow at him, but
the fairy swung his arm out, throwing Zahara into the air with the strength of
his power. He pounced on Becca, who managed to dodge him and stay on her feet.
She eyed the dagger quickly, trying to measure how far she would have to jump
to retrieve it. The fairy moved toward her and Becca leapt, except she couldn’t
move. Her arms and legs were as rigid as an iron board. She couldn’t even
blink.
The fairy curled his lips into a wicked smile and grabbed
her hair, yanking her head back forcibly and bringing his lips to hers. Becca
tried to close her eyes. If she closed her eyes than he wouldn’t be able to
steal her memories or her dreams, but she couldn’t make her eyes listen. Her
brain was sending out a loud warning signal, but nothing was happening. The
fairy opened his mouth slightly and inhaled deeply. Becca saw the memory before
it left her. It was the one where she had gone to the Father-Daughter Dance at
church with her dad the year before. She could feel the memory fading, her
dad’s smile and warm arms around her disappearing into darkness, as the memory
was sucked out through her lips, a thick layer of blue, corporeal energy,
before being transferred into the fairy’s mouth. Becca could feel tears
streaming down the side of her face.
Zahara got onto her knees, and wavered back and forth as she
tried to shake the pain out of her head. She grabbed another arrow from the
canister strapped across her shoulders and aimed for the fairy. She blinked a
few times, since her vision was still out of focus, shifting between seeing
Becca and seeing a blurry version of her. She shut her eyes tightly and opened
them again, staring intently at the fairy, and shot off the arrow. The arrow
bounced off some kind of shield the fairy had put into place.
Zahara growled underneath her breath and took off running
toward Becca and the fairy. She could see the blue stream of energy escaping
Becca’s lips and felt her heart pounding in her veins as she roared and
launched herself at the shield. The fairy paid no heed to Zahara’s attempt to
save her best friend. Zahara pounded her fist against the invisible shield. She
stepped back, breathing hard, and stabbed one of the arrows into the shield as
hard as she could. The shield cracked and burst open as the tip of the arrow
set itself on fire.
The fairy hissed at Zahara and threw Becca onto the ground.
Zahara tried to aim the arrow at the fairy, but was once again thrown back by
his power. Zahara lifted her head and grabbed the bow. She tried to get to her
knees—every muscle in her body protesting—so she could aim another arrow, but
the fairy threw her back again. Zahara cursed under her breath as her bow flew
out of her hand and she was smacked into the back of a bench.
Zahara looked up toward the fairy, feeling behind her back
for another arrow, but finding none. She cursed under her breath again. She had
forgotten to restock them after training. The fairy was moving with slow steps,
his eyes blazing in triumph as he neared her. He was enjoying having finally worn
out his prey and Zahara scowled at him.
Suddenly, the fairy turned his head sharply to the right and
another figure emerged. Zahara’s shoulders slumped back. She could not handle
fighting off two of them; she wasn’t even sure how to defend herself against
one of them without any kind of weapon. But Zahara realized the fairy wasn’t
moving anymore. He was crouched forward and his hands were in fists. Zahara
looked at the new figure and cringed. It was Rekesh. His skin revealed his true
nature as he slid off the glamour and the moonlight caressed his bare neck and
face, turning his skin silver.
Rekesh was an Imago, a creature born of a mermaid and the
fallen angel Kutiel. He could move ten times faster than any human and had the
strength to rip a human apart with his bare hands. During the day, he looked
like an ordinary person but at night, in the moments Rekesh dropped the glamour
of magic, his skin would turn silver because of the power of the moon. The moon
controlled the ocean and since his ancestry connected to the water, when
nightfall came, his strength increased, and so would his power to control the
element of water, if he had not been exiled from the Celeste Kingdom. Rekesh,
like any Imago exiled, was stripped of his elemental power, but that did not
make any less dangerous.
“You
have one chance to make this easy for yourself,” the Imago spoke out. He had
his hands placed behind his back, eyeing the fairy with patience as if he were
training a puppy.
Zahara
used the back of the bench to help her rise slowly to her feet, keeping her
eyes on the fairy and Rekesh.
“This
does not concern you, Moonlighter,”
the fairy spat.
“Attacking
humans is against the law, Pixie,”
Rekesh said. He had not moved. His demeanor was as relaxed as when he had first
stepped into the battle.
The
fairy curled his lip at the last word. “You are no longer part of the Royal
Court. I do not answer to you.”
Zahara
inched toward her bow, which was stuck in a bush twenty feet from where she
stood.
“You
are in my domain. Any supernatural creature caught attacking humans will be
captured and returned to the Kingdom from which you were exiled for sentencing.
Now, I can see you will not make this easy for yourself, so I suggest enough of
the idle pleasantries,” Rekesh said, before he launched himself toward the
fairy so fast Zahara barely had time to take a breath.
Zahara
took off running as Rekesh and the fairy fought, moving with the wind. She
could hear the thundering of fists and the cracking of broken bones, but could
not see them. She didn’t care. She ran to Becca, determined to get them out of
there before either one of the supernatural creatures had time to recover.
Annabell Cadiz was born in the sweltering heat of South
Florida. She was raised surrounded by Puerto Rican chefs and band of siblings
that weren’t all related to her. A self-proclaimed nerd and book-a-holic (her
room does hold much evidence to prove her claims are justifiable), she created
TeamNerd Reviews to showcase her EXTREME love for novels where, along with her
best friend, Bridget Strahin, she hosts book reviews, interviews, giveaways,
Indie Shoutouts and much more. She also blog tour services for authors. She
also had the pleasure of being published in three separate issue of Suspense
Magazine. She also adores Cinnamon Teddy Grahams, has an addiction to Minute
Maid Orange juice, and is a proud Jesus Freak. Lucifer is the first book in the Sons of Old Trilogy.
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