Nocturnal Predators Reviews: Blog Tour: Order Of The Seers By Cerece Rennie Murphy

What would you do if you held
infinite power in the palm of your hand?

Order of the Seers

...begins with the journey of Liam and Lilith Knight, a brother and sister who are hunted by The Guild, a ruthless world organization that seeks to capture and exploit Lilith s unique ability as a Seer to envision the future. Soon after they are forced to leave their home, Lilith and Liam discover that she is not alone. Other Seers like Lilith are routinely kidnapped and enslaved by the Guild for the purpose of consolidating wealth and power around the world... see more on Goodreads

Read Chapter 1 of Order of the Seers HERE.

The Red Order

The Lost Seers embark upon a world-wide mission to save their kind from the tyranny of the Guild and unveil their greatest weapon - Developed in secret, The Restoration Project has the potential to awaken the supernatural ability within every man, woman, and child on earth and bring down the very foundation of the Guild’s power and authority.

But the Guild has other plans. Driven by the necessity for control, Crane Le Dieu creates The Red Order... see more on Goodreads.

Available At:
| Direct from Author | Amazon | Barnes & Noble |

Read Chapter 1-2 of The Red Order HERE.

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**Excerpt**

Order of the Seers Ch. 6: Chicago

“From what I’ve heard, Vancouver couldn’t do anything with her. So why is she here? You know she’s unstable.” The low tenor of Andreas Menten’s voice barely masked his growing irritation.

“How could you let your…infatuations jeopardize what we are building here? I don’t understand you.”

“Marcus will control her,” was Crane Le Dieu’s only reply as his eyes followed Alessandra’s procession across the courtyard of their compound. Even with her head down and the awkward coverage of the ugly brown coat she wore, he could still make out the subtle curves of her body as she moved. Andreas’ voice was less than a faint echo in Crane’s ear as his mind filled with images of Alessandra bound, gagged, and screaming—all for his pleasure. “She would be so… delicate,” he mused, as he traced the ridge of his top lip with the pad of his index finger.

“Crane!” Andreas shouted. “For God’s sake, get a hold of yourself! I’m not about to let your sick games threaten all the work I’ve done to create the Quorum we have here. Six of the best Seers anywhere in the world and we have them, despite the Guild’s constant monitoring. And why? Because I’ve been careful! I’ve been careful while you’ve been… reckless!” Andreas was irate as he slammed his fist onto the polished surface of his desk before continuing.

“And for what, because you can’t find more suitable outlets for your baser instincts? We’ve already lost one because of you. If that happens again, I’ll take those knives you like to play with so much and cut you myself.”

Somewhere in the middle of Andreas’ rant, Crane managed to tear his eyes away from Alessandra. When the pitch of Andreas’ voice finally disrupted the scenarios he had been playing out in his mind, Crane turned from the window toward his colleague and friend of over twenty years and sighed. “Andreas, you’ve always been so dramatic…and crass. I told you what happened with Natasha was…” Crane hesitated for a moment as he tried to control the smile that threatened to expose him, “...an accident.”

Andreas could only scoff at Crane’s thinly veiled excuse. “That ‘accident’ cost us a Seer and it took more than a little covering up to hide it from the Guild. I’m not going out on a limb for you again.”

Before Andreas could continue, they were interrupted by his assistant, Christof, as he entered the library.

“Forgive me, but Marcus is ready for you, sir.” As Christof addressed Crane, Andreas stared at each of the two men with a suspended expression of disgust and confusion.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“You see, Andreas,” Crane interrupted casually, “despite what you think, I am always prepared. Bring him in, Christof.”

Marcus Akida was always a sight to behold whenever he entered a room. Even though he was given the same dose of Luridium every two weeks, like all the other Seers, Marcus was the only one who showed an ability to resist some of its most common side effects. Luridium was developed and used exclusively by the Guild for two main purposes. The first was to establish and maintain the calm and passive demeanor of the Seer. The second was to create a reliable and mobile interface with the cerebral cortex and physiological functioning of each Seer. With the right equipment, the metallic properties of the drug could be used to track everything from heart rate to audiovisual impulses. It also had the added benefit of acting as a built-in tracking device.

These metallic properties also made Luridium highly toxic. The extraordinarily resilient immune systems that were present in all Seers made them able to tolerate the drug that would have killed a normal human in a matter of months. It was this resistance to Luridium’s lethal side effects that caused the Seer immune system to expel the drug from their bodies every fourteen days, necessitating the two-week dosing schedule.

Once a Seer had been on the drug for a month, a strong dependency developed, creating severe withdrawal symptoms if a Seer went for more than three weeks without a dose. It was the prolonged and constant exposure to the drug that created the loss of pigmentation in the skin, hair, and eyes, making them hypersensitive to the sun. Their features - the ash blonde hair, the cataract-like film over the eyes, the chalky pallor of the skin, and the long red robes they wore to protect them from the sun - were known throughout the Guild as the mark of a Purified Seer. This was true of everyone except Marcus.

Though he had the typical ash blonde hair and clouded eyes, his skin shone with the same ebony brilliance that it had the day he was captured from his small village in Tanzania. At a lean and muscular 6’4”, cloaked in the heavy red robe of the Seers, he was at once angel and demon; beautiful and terrifying.

To the Guild, he was their archangel. Marcus was widely known as one of the most powerful Seers the Guild had ever come across. To Crane and Andreas, he was the crown jewel in their Quorum - their prized possession.

…….

“You called, Crane? How can I be of service?”

“Ah, Marcus,” Crane smiled fondly. “You are such a comfort to me, always so willing to help. We have a new Seer who has come to us. She is very…emotional during our visioning process and she needs some help—your help, I think, to control this. My hope is that you will be able to strengthen her focus.”

“I will do my best,” Marcus answered in his most sincere baritone.

“I know you will.”

Crane smiled indulgently at Marcus before turning and waving his hand toward Christof, who immediately disappeared to retrieve his charge. Anticipating Christof’s return, Crane walked quickly to the coat closet to retrieve the red cashmere cloak that he had custom-made for Alessandra.

As they waited, Marcus kept his eyes on the patterns of the blue and white Oriental rug beneath his feet. He had seen the robe Crane had commissioned for his new Seer and was already deeply disturbed by the way Crane fingered the seam that connected the robe’s hood to the body of the garment. He prayed that this new Seer was as powerful as he had foreseen. They would need to build their bond quickly if she was to escape the plans Crane had for her.

Just as Marcus began to fear he might lose the battle he was waging to keep his growing unease from showing on his face, Christof entered the room behind a demure figure dressed in a dirty brown wool coat that exposed the frayed edges of her denim overalls. Her long, thick hair fell in pale yet lustrous contrast to the drabness of her outfit. Her eyes, like Marcus’, stayed fixed on the ground.

“My dear, who has you in such a state? Come. There is no need for a beauty like you to wear such rags,” Crane declared as he rushed across the room to stand before her.

He balanced her new robe in his left arm as he reached for the dingy brass buttons of her too-small coat. Marcus glanced up just in time to see Alessandra recoil from Crane’s touch.

She knows. She understands already, he thought with approval.

“Don’t be afraid, dear. I won’t…” Crane smiled then as he thought about the lie he was preparing to tell. He was about to continue when Alessandra’s head suddenly snapped up to meet Crane’s gaze. Her mouth fell open in what he guessed was either shock or terror. Moments of silence passed between them as he wondered vaguely which of the plans he’d had for her had caused the trembling of her lips. The movement distracted him, made his smile broaden as he took in the details of her beauty - the way the soft pink flesh on the inside of her mouth hugged her bottom teeth, the cream of her skin hovering just below the film of her outer dermis, and her veins betraying their exact location just under the skin on her neck.

Unconsciously, Crane’s hand rose up on its own to wipe the lone tear that was making its descent from the corner of her eye. She was afraid. She was afraid of him, and he was in love with her fear.

“Oh, my love…” Crane murmured.

For Andreas, the sight of Crane moving toward Alessandra as if he was both charm and conjurer dragged his thoughts back to the scene he had witnessed just over a month ago—of Crane basking below a body suspended and ruined by his skilled, brutal hands.

Andreas would never forget the enraptured look on Crane’s face as he smoothed the running blood over his cheeks with his eyes closed and his head moving slowly back and forth in ecstasy. Andreas had not feared any man before that moment, before he saw evil revealed to him in the face of a friend. Afterward, he tried to recover his indifference, but it would not return. The nature of what he understood his relationship with Crane to be had shifted from a partnership among ambitious equals to a tenuous arrangement between man and beast.

Andreas’ body reacted with violent revulsion as he tried to remain a passive bystander as Crane’s fingertips shadowed the curve of Alessandra’s cheekbone. Not again, he thought as his body gave voice to his rage. For his own self-preservation, he needed to get Alessandra away from Crane. He could not be a witness again.

“Crane! Stop this!” Andreas roared. “Give her to Marcus now!”

Despite Andreas’ words, Crane was still transfixed, imagining all the horrors she must have seen and hoping - hoping that he could recreate the look she’d just had, over and over again, but he managed to nod his head as he handed the robe to Christof.

“This is for you, my dear,” Crane whispered as he backed away from Alessandra excitedly. “You are a part of us now.”

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Author Info:

Cerece Rennie Murphy lives and writes just outside of her hometown of Washington, DC. In addition to completing the Order of the Seers trilogy, Ms. Murphy is also developing a children’s book series titled Enchanted: 5 Tales of Magic in the Everyday, and a 2-part science fiction series set in outer space.