Devotion Calls

“I sense things.”

At his explanation, Sara shook her head. “That’s how you knew someone…something was on your roof? You sensed it?”

Ricardo looked chagrined. Placing his hands on her thighs, he rubbed them and expelled a harsh breath. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.”

Amazingly she believed him. There was just something in the way he said it. In the way he held her hands now, in the warmth coming off them. A comforting warmth, starting where she was suddenly twining her fingers with his.

“What is this when we touch?” she asked.

“Energy,” he replied. “It’s what lets me help people.”

She inched to the edge of the sofa, tugging him till he settled in the V formed by her legs, and cradled his face. A tingle began there, radiating upwards. “So, what I’m feeling is some kind of… power?”

“Part is power from what I can do, and the other part is…attraction.”

He was probably crazy, she thought. So was she. Because she felt heat pool deep inside her as she let her eyes travel over his face, memorising every detail. Because as insane as this was, it wasn’t enough…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caridad Piñeiro attended Villanova University on a presidential scholarship and earned her Juris Doctor from St John’s University. Caridad is the first female partner of an intellectual property law firm in Manhattan. She’s a multi-published and award-winning author whose love of writing developed when her teacher assigned a project – to write a book for a class lending library. Caridad has been hooked ever since.

Caridad’s THE CALLING mini-series has been recognised by many as being a unique blend of paranormal romance and romantic suspense. The second book in the series, Danger Calls, was a Catalina magazine Top 5 Read and RIO Reviewer’s Choice finalist. Darkness Calls was an Affaire de Coeur reader’s poll finalist for Best Paranormal.

When not writing, Caridad is a wife, mum and lawyer! You can contact her by visiting www.caridad.com.

Dear Reader,

Even though THE CALLING is a vampire series, I like to mix things up to keep the series lively. So when I was considering what I could do that would be different in Devotion Calls, it immediately occurred to me that it was time to have a mortal with other-worldly powers as a hero. Sexy santero Ricardo Fernandez was my first choice, which made the selection of the heroine almost too easy – Sara Martinez. Having had a life experience similar to hers, namely a mother who was ill, I wanted to explore just how far Sara was willing to suspend her disbelief in acceptable ways of treatment in order to possibly cure her mother. It was a route I didn’t follow and sometimes I wonder if that was the right choice.

Then there came the decision as to who would be the villain. Another vampire? Nah, too easy. Another human? Didn’t seem right for this book. A mythical creature who wants to be human again? Bingo. I knew that a twist on the traditional chupacabra legend would be the perfect foil.

I trust that you will enjoy Devotion Calls and look forward to the next instalment in the series. Never fear – the next book will be Diego’s! Thanks for all your support for THE CALLING vampire series.

Caridad Piñeiro

CARIDAD PIÑEIRO

To my husband, Bob, who cooks,

makes me laugh and keeps me sane.

I couldn’t do it without you. Love, Bubba.

Chapter 1

Spanish Harlem, New York City

The saints’ eyes followed him as he worked, scolding him for using them for his lie. Mocking him for denying the truth about what he was.

Ricardo Fernandez paused and laid his hands on the altar that embodied the fraud that was his life. All around him the statues of the saints condemned him. But he was used to such censure from those who refused to believe in his powers. Those whose fears forced him to hide behind the guise of a santero.

He looked down at his hands and, as he had countless times in his thirty years of life, considered why he had been chosen to carry this burden. Why these hands, which looked just like those of any other man, possessed the power to give life or take it away.

If he was a lesser man, he might have fallen into the trap of considering himself almost godlike. He might have opted to sell his abilities to those who paid the highest price to be saved. He could have even made a perfect assassin, able to kill without leaving a trace.

But Ricardo had done none of those things. Neither regrets nor revelry had a place in his life now, so he resumed his task. With a gentle touch, he removed the offerings he had placed on the altar the day before: the fine cigar, now just a half-burned stub and a pile of ashes, and the shot glass of fragrant rum, which had nearly evaporated from the heat of the radiator just a few feet away. After checking the water level in the vase of sunflowers he had placed beside one virgencita, he shifted to the last offering.

A small pile of coins lay at the foot of one statue. He gathered up the money in his hand and thanked the deity. While he himself was not a true believer in Santería, his customers held to this faith and he wouldn’t besmirch their tenets. He hoped his prayer was deemed respectful enough by the deities that allowed him to use the powers with which he had been born.