Charlie's lovers (her sister Desiree and her ex-girlfriend Yasmin) are stolen away from her. By a man. This man is a terrorist. His name is Ramón Gabriel, and he is a former Colombian right-wing death-squad terrorist turned Dictel corporate mercenary turned Islamic terrorist who answers to Rashid. His MO: he seduces women in such a way that they become his love slaves; then he turns them into what can only be called weapons of mass destruction. This terrorist, you see, happens to be an incubus. A demon lover.
Charlie only really comes to know that this Colombian ex-Dictel man is stealing her lovers away when she finds out that he is the man both Yasmin and Desiree scream for as they're trying to kill her. Just before Desiree's trial, she even sees the incubus in action, up close and personal, as he leads Desiree on a violent invasion of her own home (her father Cedric's) to steal weapons with which they hope to murder her mother. Charlie is forced to fight her own sister, then try to keep an enraged Cedric from murdering his own daughter.
Thus, Rashid is a major villain even early on. Of course, this villain fights archvillain Colonel Tom Becket to the death in the novel's last fight scene (which I'll need to intercut) and loses. But early on he seems hellbent on taking away from Charlie everyone she's ever loved.
As it turns out, Rashid's real target is Charlie herself. He steals her lovers (and murders her fiancé) to clear the way to take over her life for himself. But by the time he tries, her hatred for him makes her immune to his demon-lover powers. She gives him a psychic slap, then a physical slap in the face.
Charlie's challenge is to free the enslaved Yasmin and Desiree (and hopefully as many of his other love slaves as possible) from the demon lover before he turns them into suicide bombs or faith-based missiles — and he nearly succeeded with both of them, also succeeding in getting them thrown into jail on murder and other charges. To rescue them from him is to save their lives, for he fully intends to drag them down into his grave with him. He has mind control powers, so he's very difficult to fight. Charlie herself barely escapes having her soul "devoured" by the incubus. To save Desiree, she has to rely on Shira to lay one of her voodoo curses (or at least the illusion of one) and use the faith Desiree has been indoctrinated in as a weapon against her. But the only thing that can save Yasmin is a car accident that robs her of her memory, which she must recover if the woman will ever have a chance of keeping Dictel from taking over America.
Before I end this entry, I should conclude with a few words about Drusilla Becket, the mother of Charlie and Desiree and the one Rashid is intending to kill when he foolishly challenges Cedric, a superior fighter, in his own home. Three words, to be exact. She's a succubus.
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