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.
He turned out the light, pulled the door shut, and puked in the grass. He slumped into the soft dirt and let his face fall into his hands, wondering how many murders would be on his conscience before he ended up sitting in the institution beside his dad. Stogey stayed beside him, licking his hand.
He didn’t know how much time passed before he got up. Sunk in his own wretched failure and unable to muster the warrior blood which ran pure through his veins, Lucas buried Harley then made an anonymous call to the cops.
****
Seriously, I must be nuts.
Her full body wetsuit squeaking with every step, she lugged her surf board to the beach to join the rest of her class. They’d completed their morning of classroom training with Bob the instructor and were supposed to continue here on the beach with on shore practice.
She’d packed string bikinis and the wetsuit that she’d worn in mini-triathlons in frigid Midwest lakes. Not really apropos for the eighty degree coastal waters of Costa Rica, but better than losing her top.
Her class consisted of the couple from her resort and a third man whose chest rippled with muscles which seemed to divert the blood flow from his head. “You scared, Cali-not-from-California? Don’t you think you’d be more comfortable without that wetsuit on?” Mr. Muscles, whom she’d nicknamed “Icky McIcks” waggled his eyebrows at her and laughed. Giving McIcks a shot of her wearing a bikini in the surf where a boob could pop out at any time was so not going to happen. She’d sweat and be a dork even with the temperature at a sticky ninety-two.
“Yeah sweetheart, the surf’s a bathtub eighty-two. Don’t you want to strip down a bit?” The smell of pot oozed from Bob’s pores.
The woman from her resort, Erin, had on a short wetsuit and the men wore swim trunks. Calise knew she looked idiotic. Maybe I should wear a helmet. “I’m good.” She flashed Bob a little “no-thanks-let’s-get-this-show-on-the-road” thumbs up.
Erin leaned over. “I appreciate your attempt at being conservative around my husband after what happened yesterday, but you may have gone a little overboard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember, at the pool yesterday? I was ticked off at the skimpiness of our host’s attire?”
Calise squeezed her eyes shut against a violent pain rocking her head.
“What’s wrong?” the woman asked.
“She massaged her temples. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember that.”
The woman crunched her face up as if she thought Calise was nuts. She returned to her husband.
Something tugged and nagged at the corners of her mind. What? The more she struggled to remember what happened right before she fainted, the harder her head pounded. All she recalled was lying in the sun by the pool. She shook the feeling off and focused on Bob who pointed at the roaring waves in the distance.
The salty air stung her nostrils while the warm wind whipped her hair. When she raised her hand, her wet suit squeaked. “Um Bob, I know you said Miguel is sick and you’re filling in for him, but isn’t it a little too windy to surf today?”
“Dude, Cali, there’s no such thing as a bad day to surf.” His slightly dilated pupils provided no reassurance. Her brother, Dean, had been so excited for her to try surfing, but she still felt a bit weak and had a nagging feeling she was supposed to be doing something else.
For such a glorious day, surprisingly few people dotted the hazy beach. One guy played fetch with his dog. The roar of the waves crashing on the sand drowned out his voice and the dog’s bark. A couple frolicked in the surf, and two young girls sunbathed on towels, chatting. The guy with the dog looked as if he were laughing at her so she smiled and flipped him off. A bead of sweat rolled down the inside of her bat suit.
Asshole. Okay, cute familiar-looking asshole.
“C’mon people, one more time.” Bob insisted on several goofy beach dress rehearsals to practice getting to a standing position on the board.
The waves appeared to be daunting tidal waves of death.
“We need to get moving because the tide’s changing, and these swells will soon be more than you newbies can handle,” Bob announced.
Calise translated that to mean death was at hand.
I choose life.
Instead, she picked up her surfboard and let the warm water race over her hands and feet as she pulled her board out to sea. No way she’d go home and tell her brother she chickened out. With a deep breath, she flipped a leg over her board and paddled out behind Bob and the other students. The distance lengthened between Calise and the others. Bob turned and shouted something inaudible to her. Her arms burned. She worked to paddle harder.
Splendid. What had Bob said?
Like a good student, Calise used all her strength to keep the board headed straight through the oncoming whitewater. She managed to turn her board around so she faced shore to wait for a wave. Turning back, she realized that as the slowest one who paddled out, she would ride the first wave in.
The others bobbed past the break point. A roar rose behind her with a wall of whitewater. On instinct, she started to paddle as hard as she could just as stoned-out Bob had said to do. The board did the rest. When the wave caught her, she did her practiced push up on the side of the board and launched her left leg forward and planted her foot in the center of the board toward the back. She pulled herself to a standing position. “Whoa.”
Her two-second success was a short-lived miracle because her right foot was not centered, forcing her off balance. She looked over her shoulder. Something loud and dark descended on her, and then everything went black.
****
After catching and corralling the horses, Lucas tried to get some rest. But the sun was already beginning to light up the ocean. He casually passed Casa del Noche which crawled with cops. Yellow tape roped off the demon’s beach house rental.
He played over how he could have done things differently. He couldn’t get Marla’s face out of his head; her screams tortured him.
A stranger leaned against his hut.
An angel.
Lucas approached warily, but Stogey bounded toward the stranger barking playfully and wagging his tail. The stranger threw a stick into the frothy surf and smiled.
“Nice dog. I’d ask if he was yours, but I know all dogs here roam freely, which is wonderful.” The sun shone right on the stranger’s face. His cropped, dark brown hair and commanding size made him appear like a downtown San Jose bouncer. He even had his arms crossed as if he was going to ask for an ID.
“What do you want with me, angel?” Lucas had had enough angels and demons for a lifetime. Good or evil, they were created from the same source according to his understanding.
“You can call me Alejandro.”
“I’m Lucas.”
“A seer like your father?”
“What’s it to you?” He wanted to collapse in his bed with Stogey cuddled next to him until forever, and not deal with any more supernatural beings.
“I was on call for you last night, so to speak, with the demons. What happened to those women was not your fault, and I’m here to implore you to forgive yourself.”
“So you’re the angel that would have been summoned if I’d touched one of my necklaces? If you were so close, why didn’t you just stop them?” Lucas clung to the fringes of his patience.
“That’s not how it works, and you know it. Everything must have balance.”
“What do you mean, balance? I see evil, I touch the necklace, angels appear. That’s balance. Why do I have to summon you to stop them?” Lucas demanded.
“That’s not for me to answer.”
He conceded the angel did at least look remorseful, or maybe he was sad he missed the chance to fight. “What can you answer for me then? Why are you even here? Just to say, ‘So sorry you didn’t get there in time to save Marla, Lucas?’ Well, it’s too little, too late.” He started up the stairs.
“Your aunt hasn’t told you anything? You have no idea what’s going on around here?”
“If it’s so important, I’m sure she would tell me. Good night, Alejandro.” Lucas turned to face him but the angel was gone.
What was Carmen hiding?
Lucas couldn’t sleep, so he and Stogey retreated to his favorite place on earth, the beach.
****
He threw an old tennis ball for Stogey. He already missed Harley who would have been rolling in the shallow water to cool off so he could keep up with Stogey. He observed Bob’s latest class of wannabe surfers about to test the Costa Rican waters. Lucas knew enough to stay out of a serious surfer’s way. The tough sport was for those with a death wish, and he already seemed to have one without it. Then he did a double-take at Bob’s group. Wasn’t that the girl he and Ron had picked up in Paquera? In a full wet suit? He edged closer for a better look.
The poor girl fidgeted and wrung her hands. Lucas figured she must be terrified. Her shiny blond hair whipped in the wind, dancing like straw in a field. He loved the way the tight suit accentuated her curves. For a second, he let himself imagine peeling her out of it…slowly.
She faced the ocean practicing on her surfboard. When she stood, she held her arms straight out to her sides and swayed back and forth as if flying. He couldn’t help but laugh.
She flicked him a look and then flipped him off.
Lucas chuckled and gave her a thumbs up. She was so damn cute, lugging her surfboard through the waves in that black cat woman suit. He couldn’t remember laughing in a long time. Like a normal person. He watched the girl paddle out to sea.
The nasty waves in the distance made Lucas hope she had some previous surfing experience. He sat down to watch her. Stogey laid his sandy head in Lucas's lap. When she caught that first wave, Lucas knew immediately she was in trouble. Bob and his other students floated beyond the break and couldn’t see her. She stood for a second before the wave broke and swallowed her. He craned his neck to find her and found his heart racing. Where is she? Stogey stood up and barked. Her board surfaced. She didn’t.
Lucas ripped his shirt off to eliminate drag and Stogey followed him into the water. She surfaced face down about twenty feet from her board. He dove in and swam toward the lifeless form then grabbed her and flipped her over—it was the girl from the resort.
“BOB! HELP!” Lucas carried her unconscious body back to shore and laid her on the beach. A small gash on her head bled profusely so he wrapped his shirt around the wound and checked to see if she was breathing. She wasn’t.
“C’mon sweetheart, I’ve had a shitty week so far. Breathe!” He forgot everything in his rulebook about physical contact with non-seers. Deep emotional and physical contact could mean passing on the sight, but he never paused to think, he just acted. He plugged her nose, tilted her head back and blew into her mouth repeatedly until Bob arrived and took over. Lucas stumbled backwards away from them. Lucas held his breath until the girl sputtered back to consciousness and water spilled out of her mouth. Bob turned her on her side.
Lucas heaved a sigh of relief. Her face was perfect, more beautiful than any angel he could ever behold. He felt…warm. Everywhere.
Time to walk away.
Bob swore. “Lucas, man. Shit. Isn’t that your place? Can you take her there to rest and get some ice for her head or something? I can’t leave the whole rest of my class out there. I’ll check on her later, I promise!”
He couldn’t believe Bob pawned the girl off on him, but he sure wasn’t going to leave her laying on the beach bleeding. He heard himself answer before his brain even processed the words. “Yeah, I’ll take her.” He picked her up and carried her back to his place.
****
Calise heard something.
Something fantastic.
“Yeah, I’ll take her.” Like a tiger purring.
Want. To snuggle. With said tiger.
A man’s voice. She couldn’t open her eyes yet, but she needed to hear it again. Vaguely aware of being carried, someone placed her on a soft bed.
“There you go. Stogey seems to be taking a liking to you. Crazy tourist, what were you doing out there anyway?” A noise like a waterfall preceded a cold compress placed on her forehead. Her head throbbed and the washcloth stung.
A gentle finger traced her face. She yearned to drink in the sound of that voice again.
“God, you’re beautiful.”
Clearly, now I’m hallucinating. Like the roar of a wild animal, his voice rumbled in her mind. She opened her eyes and he backed away.
A ball of fluff nestled behind her knees. She reached down and something licked her. She lifted her head to see but a jab of pain made her grab her head.
“Hey there, that’s my dog, Stogey. You’re okay. Lie down.” The man cupped her head in his hands and smoothed out the wrinkle of pain next to her eye with his thumb. He eased her head back on the pillow and readjusted the washcloth.
“You’re Lucas, right? You picked me up in Paquera with Ron?” she managed. She needed to tell him something. What is it?
“Yeah, and you’re Cali?”
“Calise.” She corrected him. “I wasn’t quite the star student today, huh?”
“You ever been surfing before?”
“Nope, first time.” Lucas. Paquera. Ron. The resort. Why couldn’t she remember what was so important?
“You did manage to stand up, for about two seconds. Then the wave knocked you over, and you must have hit your head and swallowed some water.”
She peeled the blood-soaked washcloth off her forehead.
“Keep pressure on that cut.” He leaned against a small sink. “You weren’t breathing when I pulled you out of the water. Bob thought I should bring you to my place until you felt better.”
“Please tell me Bob didn’t give me mouth to mouth.”
A faint smile cracked at the corners of his mouth.
She glanced around at the one-bedroom bungalow. Sparsely decorated but functional: bed, hot pot, sink with running water. “Were you born in Mal Pais?”
“I’m from Kansas. Moved here in high school.” He crossed his arms and watched her.
If he kept talking, maybe she’d remember what she needed to tell him. And something about him was magnetic—more than the deep sadness of his eyes or his broad shoulders and dark, gorgeous locks which were physical. Something about his voice exposed him: raw and yet so tender. “You like it here?”
“I like Gotzone and Stogey.” The dog’s ears perked up. “I love the beach. Saving tourists who are trying to kill themselves surfing in a full body suit. That is nice by the way,” he teased.
“I flipped you off, didn’t I?”
He nodded.
“But you were so laughing at me!”
His deep, masculine laugh soothed her. He filled a glass with water and handed her two Tylenol from his bedside table. Then he pulled a small wooden stool out of the corner and sat down next to the bed with a bandage. He removed the cloth from her cut, smoothed her hair away from the cut and put on the bandage.
She melted at his touch. “Thanks. Who’s Gotzone?”
“My horse.”
All at once, a rush of memories hit her—Anna whispering, “Someday I’ll let Lucas take me for a ride…”
“You work for Ron?”
“I thought we established that. We picked you up in Paquera.”
“No, you don’t understand.” She tried again to sit up. How could she warn him about Anna or tell him her eyes glowed red? In her bungalow yesterday, Anna had seemed normal. Comforting, even. “I need to find this Carmen that Juan Torres told me to ask for.”
“Relax there, missy. Carmen’s my aunt, and Juan Torres is one of her cousins. You need to get that wet suit off, you must be boiling.” He stood and went to the other side of the bed, put a knee on the mattress behind her, and brushed her hair off to the side. He took his time dragging the zipper down her back.
The click of each hook down the track let in cool air. She shivered with pleasure. How about you peel it off? No, wait. His aunt was the right Carmen!
Her head swam.
“I’ll give you some privacy,” he said in a rough voice.
She turned over. He wouldn’t look at her and she noticed his hands were trembling. “I left a blue bag on the beach. Did you see it?”
He nodded.
“Wait.” She reached for his arm before he got up. “Is she the only Carmen in Mal Pais?”
Lucas stood and headed for the door, “No, but she’s my favorite.”
After he left, Calise rolled onto her back. What could she say to him? “Hey, I think your employer is a demon and wants to have sex with you. Be careful.”
Shit. Shit. Double shit.
He’d think she was crazy, like everyone else.
She winced with pain when she stood. Stogey licked her hand, circled a few times, and then plopped down on the pillow she’d abandoned.
Although sore and probably sporting some sexy bruises, she peeled off the wet suit and surveyed the room hoping to find a mirror to assess her damages. She spied a family picture on his end table. Lucas wore a graduation cap and gown and two proud-looking parents hugged him. His bedside reading table held Treasure Island and Enigma and a smattering of classical CDs, including Bach and Vivaldi.
Dude needs to get out more.
Wasn’t she the pot calling the kettle black?
Calise limped outside. Her vision became double and her head throbbed, so she crawled into the hammock under the overhang. All she saw before she drifted off to sleep were Anna’s flaming eyes.
****
Lucas retrieved her bag and told Bob he’d make sure she got back to her resort. He rushed back, taking the stairs two at a time. He found her outside sound asleep in the hammock, so he covered her with a light blanket then ran a finger down her cheek. He’d like to find her napping here every day.
A friend.
She wouldn’t stay, of course. She was on vacation so why couldn’t he be her friend until she left? That might sustain him until…
Until what?
Until his miserable reality continued to unfold and bite them both in the ass.
Sure, make a friend. And don’t forget to tell her that you see angels and demons, your family has necklaces that summon angels, and your father is in a mental institution. Wait, he almost forgot—he exposed himself as a seer two nights ago, let two women die yesterday, and an army of demons were likely on their way here to kill him today.
Not really the most desirable guy on the block. He needed to get her back to her resort. Now.
The ticking minutes delayed the inevitable. He needed to get Calise away from him and forget about her. But she snored peacefully like a lap cat, and he possessed neither the strength nor the desire to rouse her.
With his blanket snuggled around her, Lucas found he was jealous of both the inanimate blanket and the animate woman. The blanket was allowed to comfort her in a way her couldn’t, and Cali, who existed in naivety of the world he knew, could invite peaceful bliss into her dreams.
But the blanket hadn’t saved her life, he had. He’d succeeded today at one thing, and if demons murdered him tomorrow, she would be the one person in his life he hadn’t failed.
He should let that sustain him. He should wake her up right now and get her back to the resort. Good deed accomplished. But he didn’t budge.
Five more minutes…
She moaned softly in her sleep and stretched. He steeled himself for what he must do. Her eyelashes began to flutter. A shiver of satisfaction rippled through him. He’d been so relieved when she opened her eyes on the beach. He was so relieved she’d open her eyes here and the first thing she’d see would be…him.
Sexuality, apparently, had a life force. A power that took over and screwed with the mind, pummeled the heart into an erratic beat, and pawed at the subconscious with a burning desire to connect. Lucas wanted to connect with this woman whatever it took.
Too bad, seer. She’s not like you, no matter what you think you heard. Bringing her into your world is not an option. So get the hell out of hers.
Until she uttered two simple words that changed everything.
“Anna…demon…”
She blinked drowsily. They held each other’s gaze. “I remember now,” she whispered. Her hands squeezed the blanket until her knuckles turned red.
“What do you mean?” He must have heard her wrong. She couldn’t be a seer. Yet if she understood him, then maybe, just maybe… Tantalized by the raw enticement of the idea, he allowed it—couldn’t stop it, actually. Neither spoke while he drank her in.
Lucas banked the moment in his memory and turned his heart on low and brain on high. At all costs, her protection was more important than anything. “You aren’t safe with me. I need to get you back to Ron’s resort.” He attempted to sound indifferent.
“You want me to go? But I need to tell you—”
“Not now.” Should he send her back to Anna if she knows the truth? “I have to work.” If Anna so much as breathes on her wrong… “I can walk you—” Footsteps clamored up his staircase.
On his feet in a matter of seconds, Lucas withdrew two hidden Buck knives.
“I came as soon as Bob called about Cal—” Ron held up his hands. “Whoa! What the hell, man? Who are you expecting?”
“Uh, sorry. Nobody…” Lucas stammered. He tucked the knives back into his boots. “I’ve had some trouble with kids…” He deliberately let his voice trail off. Cali stood shivering next to him in a sunflower yellow bikini. “Let me give you a shirt to put on to walk home in,” Lucas said, rushing inside his bungalow. He couldn’t bear to say good-bye to her.
Without a doubt, he’d heard her wrong; he’d heard what he wanted to hear.
Better she think him an asshole. “I’m late.” He tossed the shirt at Ron and leaned on his railing looking out into the ocean. He had a lot of questions for Carmen that needed answers.
Calise put on the shirt and grabbed her bag. “Thank you, Lucas,” she said aloud. But when she brushed past him, she whispered in his ear and this time, she spoke distinctly. “Stay away from Anna.” She didn’t look back.