The Spirit Seducer (The Echo Series Book 1)

by Padgett, Alexa

  Mom screeched as one of the warriors grabbed her. She snatched up one of the glass pitchers of tea and slammed it into the demon’s face. He staggered back into another warrior. I yanked, but Layla’s firm grip kept me from leaping to her defense.

  “You can’t, E. She made me swear.”

  The beautiful birthday cake my mother had made and the other pitcher of iced tea fell from the table, forming a sticky mess across the concrete floor. Four of the warriors darted forward, outside of Zeke’s reach. They surrounded my mother and Coyote, who’d crossed his arms over his chest and watched the fight with burning eyes.

  Zeke shoved his spear into one of the warriors, who shrieked, high and horrible, before he, too, shattered into bits of glittering dust.

  My mom’s mouth screwed up with fear as a soldier rushed forward. Mom swung her pendant, which was now wrapped around her wrist, the metal chain clutched in her fist. She caught the warrior across his jaw. His face morphed into that of a cat as he snarled in pain, backing away. A deep laceration lay open and pink on his muzzle.

  Bits of the clay spilled across my mother’s pale shirt.

  “You can’t take away Sotuk’s protections. He and Sussistanako birthed you. He’s your god as well as mine.” But even as Mom spoke, the warriors surrounded her. Before she could flatten herself against the wall, the tallest demon, the jaguar-faced warrior who’d stared at Layla, pinned Mom’s arms to her sides. His eyes were bright with malice as he lifted her off the ground. She kicked and screamed.

  I tugged ineffectually against Layla’s hold, cursing her for doing nothing to help my mother.

  Zeke fought two of the demons, who darted in and around him, keeping him from reaching my mother.

  Coyote laughed, a deep boom of pleasure, and the jaguar-warrior swept my mother toward the sandy vortex of their cloud, as easy as tumbleweeds rolling in the wind.

  “I looked forward to more of a fight,” Coyote said on a sigh.

  “You can’t do this! Sotuk won’t allow it,” Mom yelled as she struggled.

  Coyote cocked his head to the side, his nostrils twitching. “He’s not stopping me.”

  I used my free hand to pry away one of Layla’s fingers.

  “I made some alliances of my own, Almira. I am the law of the land,” Coyote said.

  “Sotuk will not allow it,” Mom repeated in a shaky voice.

  Coyote raised his arms outward. “Then, stop me.”

  Layla sobbed, but she held me firmly as I struggled, frantic to help. Zeke continued to power closer to my mom, spearing one of the beasts and shouldering past another. Two more stepped into his path, ensuring he wouldn’t get to my mother before the jaguar-demon pulled her into that wind tunnel.

  Mom screamed, her fear lashing my heart. She continued to buck and writhe against the warrior’s side.

  With a huge tug, I wrenched my arm from Layla’s grip. In six steps, I was past Zeke and the warriors, on the patio where my mother was slowly disappearing into the swirling, sand-filled vortex. Her arms flailed as the jaguar-faced warrior tugged her farther in. Her necklace chain caught him across the face, and he bellowed, stumbling backward.

  He disappeared into the sand, but my mom, all five-feet-two-inches of her, struggled out of his hold. She scrabbled toward the edge of the cloud.

  The center of the funnel cloud was black and slimy. Things moved in the shadowy distance. They were big and hungry like the warrior who’d just disappeared.

  Forcing down my instinct to run away, I stretched upward and grasped the very tip of my mom’s fingers. As soon as her skin touched mine, I pulled back as hard as I could, but my feet barely skimmed the concrete.

  She didn’t fall farther in, but I wasn’t able to pull her from the cloud without more leverage. I yanked harder, settling my feet shoulder-width apart.

  “Hold her,” came a voice from behind me. Deep, dark like high-quality chocolate. I hoped it was Zeke. I needed him to fight off the demons to have a chance at saving my mother.

  The jaguar-faced warrior reappeared behind Mom. He had an angry welt across his neck where her chain had hit him. He growled, his teeth flashing yellow and deadly. He pulled at Mom’s waist, and her fingers slid from mine.

  I lunged forward as my mother went tumbling forward toward that shadowy hole. As her feet disappeared, she screamed again. The sound was horrific, a soul-wrenching agony. I managed to catch her flailing fingers one more time. I grappled with her hand, striving for a better grip. My head throbbed in painful synchronization with my pulse.

  Her mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear her well over the sounds of the fight. If she was telling me to let go, I wouldn’t listen.

  A warrior with the broken jaw bore down on me. Anger and fear galvanized me, and I slapped the beast. The hit was off-center and with my left hand. The demon snuffled, its eyes rolling back in its head. He stayed there, still. Like I’d frozen him.

  I didn’t have time to enjoy the moment because Coyote was in front of me, his beautiful face contorted with fury. He’d shrunk down to human-size, though he still towered over my five-one frame. I shrank back.

  “I’m coming, Echo,” that deep, smoky voice called. Zeke was farther away. I needed him here, next to me, fighting Coyote.

  “Help,” I whispered.

  Blood thrummed thick in my veins as Coyote’s lips parted, then slid upward in a genuine smile. Delight filled his eyes as we studied each other.

  I balled the fingers of my left hand into a fist. He raised his hand and wrapped his long fingers around my throat and his fingers dug into the sensitive skin in my neck. I unclenched my fist and gripped his huge wrist.

  Coyote ran his nose along my jaw. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep my mouth shut. My mind and body warred, one begging him to keep touching me, the other determined to free my mom.

  “They hid you well,” Coyote said. He brought his other hand up to trail his fingers down my collarbone.

  His fingers tightened around my neck, and I whimpered. Mom tried to pry my fingers from hers, much as I had fought Layla. I tightened my grip on her as Coyote tightened his on me.

  “I’ll go with you,” my mother cried. “I swear it on Sotuk's name and life. But leave Echo. She knows nothing of your world.”

  “You’ll unlock my desires,” Coyote murmured, ignoring my mother’s plea, his voice soaking into my chest. I felt him there, my skin turning hot and tingly. “After I unlock yours, darling.”

  Coyote’s breathing escalated as he brushed his lips against mine. Soft but firm, he exerted a calculated pressure designed to make me yearn for more.

  And I did—as much as I didn’t.

  His kiss felt wrong. My lips sought something else. Something I knew, deep down, that I’d experienced before. That touching of lips had been sweeter, the sensation filled with caring, not calculation. Coyote growled as he delved deeper into my mouth, my psyche. My headache mushroomed. Worse than it had ever been.

  No. I didn’t want this. I struggled against his hold.

  My necklace was hot against my skin, but something cold seeped from the clay. I struggled from his embrace, my eyes scanning the area in a desperate search for safety.

  Ghosts drifted around me, seemingly without direction.

  He towed me back into his arms and bit my lip, hard. I cried out, pulling back, away from his teeth. Coyote batted at the spirits, intent to pull me to him again. His hand wrapped around my wrist.

  I recoiled, both from Coyote and the ghosts who pressed, cold and ethereal against me. In the process, I let go of my mother’s hand—the hand I’d managed to clench tight until now.

  “Mom!”

  I slammed against Coyote’s shoulder in my effort to catch her fingers. Too late. Her legs and body were sucked into that black place.

  “So much power,” Coyote growled. His arm surrounded my waist, and he nuzzled into my hair. As I started to lean into his touch, my mom screamed. The sound was harsh, a vicious grate against my throbbing temples. The pain t
here boiled up and over, blinding me to all but my mother’s bright copper eyes.

  “Oh, Echo,” she whispered, her voice filled with such sorrow. “It’s gone.”

  With a snap, much like a rubber band, the pain vanished. My vision cleared.

  “Tell them—direct the spirits,” Mom panted.

  “Don’t touch me again,” I growled at Coyote.

  Those spectral forms—barely more than a mist—shoved Coyote back, away from me. Closer to the same black pit my mom was slowly falling into.

  A few more spirits worked together to hold my mother from sliding farther into the pit. Just her shoulders and head were visible. The closer the spirits slid toward my mother, the less substantial they became.

  “No!” I didn’t know who and what the spirits were, but I knew they were important. Connected to me somehow. “Don’t disappear,” I cried. They let go and once again untethered, my mom slid backward.

  Coyote, who’d been caught off-balance by the spirits’ sudden change in direction, fell past me. The spirits surrounding him pressed against him, pushing him toward the writhing darkness.

  Mom’s shoulders slid from my view. I couldn’t reach her. Not with Coyote between us. She managed to snag the back of Coyote’s shirt in her fist just before her hands disappeared. The ghosts shoved against his chest and Coyote’s startled breath turned into a yowl of frustration.

  The spirits surrounded me, trying to pull me away from the cloud as they had my mother. Whatever was in that black mass frightened them. Much as the spirits wanted to fly away, they stuck close to my body, using their energy to keep me from that pit.

  Coyote clawed at his shirt. His body shifted as he fell into that center, fur covering his face, snout elongating. I saw the wicked teeth parted in a snarl. His eyes flared, hot, into mine before he tumbled farther into that impenetrable darkness.

  He clawed me forward. My arm burned where he ripped through my skin. The pressure intensified around me as I, too, pitched forward. The spirits swirled around me, a vague keening filling my ears.

  I closed my eyes, waiting to land in whatever horrible dungeon housed my mother. Air rushed past my skin, cooling it.

  I opened my eyes and my mouth fell open. I was in the air, not in that pit. The spirits surrounded me. I thought I saw the outline of an arm. Transparent hair whipped through the wind.

  I couldn’t breathe. I wrapped my fingers around my pendant, hunching my shoulders. I tried to look, to find what touched me, but I couldn’t see well. It was like I was surrounded by the cloud Layla and I had watched. One of Coyote’s demon warriors tried to grab me. The spirits shoved him back, away from me.

  Oh please, oh please . . . I wasn’t sure what I was praying for. Had I unleashed something even worse than Coyote from my pendant? How?

  Wind slid passed my ears, further accentuating the rushing sound. I wasn’t anchored to anything—the ghosts were pushing me upward again. I broke through the top of the thick cloud like an out-of-control pinball.

  Chapter 4

  Santa Fe is the capital with the highest elevation in the United States—well above Denver’s Mile High status. Because I’d started my ascent at nearly seven thousand feet, I knew I wouldn’t have to go too much higher to lose consciousness. The ghosts drifted close enough I could just make out their concerned looks. They seemed to be talking. I couldn’t hear them—air rushed past my ears in thick shrieks.

  “I’m going to die,” I whispered to the spirits.

  That was okay. I’d just lost my mom. Fear and sadness pressed against my chest, the balloon expanding past the point of comfort.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to the ghosts flitting about my body. “For trying to help me.”

  The air thinned and I struggled to keep my eyes open. Too little oxygen. I was going to pass out. Because of my clandestine hours spent learning about gravity and mass, I knew I’d hit the ground shortly with enough velocity to break every bone in my body.

  At least I wouldn’t feel the impact when I finally hit the ground.

  Layla’s frantic screams below had quieted. The pain in my head had subsided completely. Instead, that something I’d felt when Coyote had touched me pulsed with a primal awareness.

  You do not die today, Echo Ruiz. The statement wasn’t so much spoken words as the words appeared in my head. The spirits surrounded me, comforting me.

  The air around me thickened, so cold I wondered briefly about frostbite. No, not from the thinning atmosphere. I was cradled within the spirits’ embrace. I shivered in fierce bursts, but I was safe.

  “How do you know that?”

  You called us. You are the one we’ve waited for. We won’t let you die. Not today.

  That was interesting. I had spirits who’d answered my SOS call. And they took their job seriously.

  “You can hold me?”

  As long as needed.

  The voice was stronger. Almost as if the more he talked to me, the more he strengthened.

  I forced my eyes open and blinked at the brightness of the sky. It was impossibly blue. Sunlight needled into my skin.

  I relaxed. Euphoria expanded as my mind welcomed the primordial magic pulsing bright within my head, beating faster than a hummingbird’s wings. Incredible.

  I was so high—above the clouds. A place humans didn’t belong. Layla—what had happened to her? And Zeke . . . I wanted to talk to him, thank him for helping me today.

  Blackness edged in as I lost consciousness. A memory, much like my dreams, slithered through my mind.

  Of the moment I’d met Zeke. I was ten, maybe eleven. He’d seemed so mature, maybe fifteen. He was tall and broad. His brooding brown eyes met my timid gaze. I’d known then he was more than the typical male I’d met, however briefly.

  “She’s the one?” he asked.

  His voice sent shivers down my spine. I stood taller and studied him more closely. He had a secret—it was buried deep in those chocolate eyes.

  My mother slid her arm around my shoulder, hugging me to her narrow frame. Her action was a silent message telling me not to step closer to the man-boy eyeing me with the same intensity I gave him.

  “Yes. She’s begun to have headaches. She says it’s a deep, pulsing pain. From the dampening ward I’ve placed on her, I think.”

  “Why not let her remember?”

  “She’s too young, Zeke. She cannot fight as you do.”

  Mom paused, waiting. Zeke nodded, his eyes never leaving my face. I was just as rapt as I stared back.

  “She’s not old enough or strong enough to face the realities of our world. Masau said you’d pledged your support. She needs it.”

  “I did,” Zeke said. He shifted his gaze from me to my mom. “Masau saved me. I owe him a great debt. If he wants me to watch over your child, I will.”

  “Did he not tell you who she was—rather, who her father is?”

  Zeke shook his head, his long bangs tumbling into his lashes.

  “Echo María Ruiz is the daughter of Sotuk,” she said. Pride filled her voice. “God of our realms.”

  Zeke’s eyes snapped back to mine, wide with shock. He apprised me more carefully, lingering on my eyes and my hands.

  “One of the Four,” he whispered, more to himself than my mother.

  “Yes.”

  “Will she remember this conversation?” Zeke asked. “Will she remember me?”

  “No.” Mom’s voice broke. She placed her hand at the back of my neck. I was sleepy. So sleepy, but I didn’t want to miss a moment with the tall teen in front of me. “I’m sorry, Zeke, but it is my hope she never needs to see you again.”

  * * *

  I was falling. And, it seemed, faster than I should. The air around me contracted. The scent of ozone filled my nose. Before I had a chance to process the stimuli, I landed hard on my side.

  I wasn’t on the ground. Wherever I was, it was warm, safe. Smelled delicious, too.

  Someone held me. I groaned, my hips and ribs aching from the forc
e of my weight slamming against my savior’s arms.

  I was disoriented, unsteady, but the nausea was worse.

  “That was horrible,” I whispered, my fingers tight in a leather jerkin. I wasn’t letting go, even if it was one of Coyote’s warriors; I didn’t have the strength to stand.

  His arms tightened around me, pulling me so close, I felt bones groan. I was going to die. Whoever held me was crushing me. I struggled, feebly.

  “Thank the gods,” he murmured.

  Oh. I stopped struggling, relief making my limbs even weaker. Zeke held me. Good. I wouldn’t have to try to fight again just yet.

  “I’ve got you, Echo.”

  “Figured that out. Thanks.”

  Now that I knew where I was—who I was with—I nuzzled closer, my nose pressed against his warm chest. He smelled of leather and sweat. While I wasn’t used to the scent, I really liked it. Just as I’d always liked him. I inhaled again, but my stomach hadn’t settled. I opened an eye, but the sun was bright, harsh even.

  The air was hot. Hotter than it had been in my backyard but just as dry. If it hadn’t been for Zeke’s presence, I would’ve thought I was in hell.

  “Feel sick,” I mumbled.

  “Moving through time and space will do that to you.”

  I cracked my eye open. Same bright blue sky I called my own. No clouds. The ground was covered in dusty bits of tired plant matter. A scorpion crawled near Zeke’s shoe, but I didn’t care. I was too busy freaking out about his words.

  I sucked in a deep breath of stale desert air. Everything was okay. I’d just misheard. Like a politician misremembers. I saw Layla move behind Zeke as I struggled to regulate my breath.

  “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, eyes flickering to Layla, then back to me. His tone made it clear he didn’t like what he was seeing. Neither did I. I wasn’t dead and I sure as hell wasn’t in downtown Santa Fe. There was nothing—and I mean nothing—nearby but scrub and saguaro cactus.

  “She’s hyperventilating,” Layla said.