Lucifer
(Sons of Old Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Annabell Cadiz
Genre: New Adult, Urban Fantasy,
Paranormal, Supernatural
Synopsis: 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.
Excerpt
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.
VOTE FOR LUCIFER!
Highly Anticipated Indie Reads 2013
About
the Author: 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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