The Apsara Chronicles Boxed Set

by T. G. Ayer

  She raised an eyebrow. “Know anyone who’d have wanted to kill you?”

  Gianni paused. “Yeah. Good point. Then again, I guess an FBI agent would probably have more people out to kill him. Or her,” he tacked on giving her a wary look, as though she’d have been offended by his reference to the FBI agent as male.

  She rolled her eyes. “Did you get anything?” Vee asked, following the act of someone who’d almost gotten run over. “How could you lose him?” Vee asked, feeling a little guilty. But the question needed to be asked or else he’d wonder.

  Gianna glared at Vee. But she recognized his flushed coloring as anger and embarrassment for having lost the guy. “Not sure how he got away. I wonder if they had it on autopilot.”

  Vee nodded. “Could be. Especially if there was no sign of a driver.” Vee agreed with him in the hopes that it would help end the conversation faster. But she doubted the auto-pilot reasoning more because of how fast the cab had tried to swerve from an impact with the truck. Autopilot would not have cared what was in the way. And even remote-jacking wouldn’t have encouraged avoiding the truck. Only a living being would want to avoid killing himself.

  And, just because the demon could have jumped before the crash didn’t mean he wouldn’t have instinctively swerved. Not all demons were that skilled and it was likely she’d been attacked by an amateur.

  Vee jerked her chin at the cab, indicating she wanted to have a look. Gianni looked like he was about to say Vee couldn’t look at the car, but then caught himself. Perhaps he suddenly realized who he was speaking to.

  He waved her onward, following close behind as she headed to the car.

  She bent over and scanned the interior through the broken passenger window. Her vision shifted briefly as she studied the auras within the cab. And sure enough, Vee recognized the combination of shimmering lines and ragged patterns that made up the aura of a rakshasa demon. She hated being right sometimes, especially when it raised the possibility that the two demons who had attacked her this morning may not have been there looking for the bhayakara demon. They could have been after Vee herself.

  Vee focused her thoughts and straightened, then inspected the exterior and circled the cab more to get a better idea of speed and impact. She didn’t need the information, rather was merely going through the motions in order to not look suspicious.

  Still, at the end of the day, she had to find out who was it that wanted to kill her.

  It could be anyone ranging from a cop on the force, all the way to the demonic underbelly of New York City. Perhaps a visit with Cressida Lane was called for. Not that Vee wanted to, considering the woman gave her the creeps.

  Gianni was speaking, and Vee had to force herself to pay attention. “Don’t worry. We’ll find the bastard who did this. We’ll check all the footage from the traffic cams around the block. I think we should get you a couple security guys. Keep an eye on you in case something else happens?”

  Vee smiled. “Now tell me how that will look, Gianni? An FBI agent with a security detail of local law enforcement?” Vee shook her head, suspicious now that perhaps Gianni had orchestrated the whole thing, in order to justify having Vee watched twenty-four-seven. What better way to get info on her activities than to be the one to ‘keep an eye’ on her safety? “Don’t worry Gianni. I’ll have the FBI look after my safety, thanks. My boss will be onto it the moment I tell him.”

  “Better do it quick ‘cos I’ve already called it in.”

  Vee gritted her teeth and walked a few yards away. What were these guys up to? Were they taking advantage of the incident and hoping to put her ability to do the job in question with the threat of her safety being an issue? Were they hoping a security detail would hamper her investigation? Or hoping to ingratiate themselves with her, save her life, give her a security team, and maybe she’d allow them access to the crime scene?

  Or had it really been a demonic attempt on her life and all Gianni and his team were doing was protecting her?

  Vee retrieved her phone from her pocket and rang Rossi who sounded surprised that she’d called him again so soon.

  She proceeded to give him a rundown of her near-death experience.

  “Do you really believe that your life could be in danger?” he asked, his tone filled with concern.

  “I don’t know sir. I don’t see how. But I don’t doubt that it is odd that the cab-driver happened to be a demon—species I am not particularly familiar with—who disappeared before anyone could question him.” Vee kept her voice low as she watched Gianni approach her.

  “Demonic? They can disappear right?” asked Rossi.

  “Yes, sir. That’s possible. But I don’t believe a cab would be the kind of transportation they would use.”

  Gianni now stood at her side, and Vee had to remind herself to give less away as she spoke.

  “Right. I’ll get Brent onto the traffic and security cams to get us more details.”

  “Thank you, sir, but I believe that would be a dead end.”

  Rossi paused. “Very well. Do you need security?”

  “Not at this time, sir.”

  Rossi chuckled. “Why did I suspect that would be your answer?” Vee laughed and Rossi rang off seconds later.

  She turned to Gianni. “See,” she waved her phone at him, “My boss is organizing an FBI security detail for me.”

  Gianni looked a little disappointed, making Vee more suspicious now.

  Vee smiled. “Thanks, Gianni. You saved my hide. I’ll keep you posted on my security detail.”

  “Happy to save that hide, Shankar,” Gianni said giving Vee a lascivious look up and down. “And just let us know if there is anything we can do.”

  “Thanks. I will.”

  Like hell, I will.

  Chapter 65

  Vee was hurrying down the sidewalk away from the hotel, when a black SUV pulled up. Her phone pinged with a message from Karan to say the SUV was his.

  As she jumped in the back seat, she glanced over her shoulder and watched Gianni staring at her. She pretended not to notice and slide inside beside Karan who looked concerned.

  “Don’t tell me you already know?”

  Karan nodded. “We have our own intelligence grapevine.”

  Vee grunted then said, “Better change your plates.”

  “What?”

  “The plates for the SUV. Gianni over there will be running them as we speak. Hopefully your identity is hidden, or he’s going to know who you are.”

  Karan gave a cool nod. “What happened?”

  “A cab came at me, clearly aiming to run me down. Gianni managed to throw me out of harm’s way. Cab crashed, but before anyone could go over to check, the driver—who also happened to be a demon—had disappeared.” Vee stared over at Karan waiting to see if his face would give something away. But nothing.

  Instead, he sighed, studying her bruised cheek. “I do not like that your life is in danger.”

  “And somehow you believe that it was not in danger in the past?”

  Karan stared at her. “You’re not taking this seriously. I have had word that the Demon Horde Assembly is troubled by an uneasy political climate, which only increased the problems that result from infighting and struggles for control. The pey demons have split from the Assembly and are attempting to establish the strength of their own Core.” Karan sighed then shifted in the seat and was staring at Vee. “And now someone out there wants you dead?”

  Vee wasn’t sure how to respond so she remained silent. She’d never seen Karan this worked up before.

  He sighed again and looked away. “You’re important. More important than you know.”

  “So you think I need to get myself protection? That I need to hide myself away?”

  “I know you can take care of yourself, but that doesn’t mean you need to be reckless.”

  “Trust me, I am far from reckless. Not too long ago, we dealt with demonic home invasions. Whoever these assholes are, they don’t scare me.”

/>   Karan nodded and tapped his finger on the side of the leather folder that sat in his lap. “I hope you are right. We need you alive.”

  Vee suppressed the desire to tell the man that she was capable of looking after herself. But instead, she forced herself to nod. Of course, he needed her to be alive.

  To do his investigative work, that’s why.

  Karan dropped Vee off at her home, assuring her that he’d glamored the vehicle for a large part of the trip so they would have lost anyone attempting to tail them.

  Vee smiled in acceptance, aware still that such maneuvers would not stop anyone who’d decided to surveil her properly. She headed inside, watching the street just in case. After shutting the door, she studied the street again, accepting her nerves were on edge now and she may as well double-check.

  Just as a precaution.

  As she watched, she messaged Rossi, bringing him up to speed on Karan’s update on the Demon Horde Assembly’s internal upheaval. Rossi responded confirming he’d put the team on high alert.

  At least he was taking it seriously.

  The house was silent, and Vee took the opportunity to hide in her room for the rest of the evening. Even food wasn’t something she was interested in, especially after having spent her afternoon at the suffocatingly warm hotel room.

  An hour of training, a shower and then bed.

  Just what the doctor would order.

  At the thought of the doctor, Vee’s mind drifted to Nivaan. He’d been in Europe for the last month on mahabidala business, and his absence had pointedly confirmed to Vee how much she cared about him. Long distance relationships sucked.

  Good thing he’d be home tomorrow.

  Vee fell asleep thinking about Nivaan’s cheeky smile.

  Chapter 66

  Denial can only last so long.

  The next morning, Vee awakened after a restless sleep. She’d played the whole scene over and over in her head, wondering if she could have missed some small detail.

  Someone had tried to kill her. She had to accept that and move on to step two: find out who they were and hopefully avoid a third attempt.

  Third, because she was pretty sure the attack of the killer pey couple had also been a hit. Thankfully, so far Vee had managed to evade those attempts. Now she was left with wondering who they worked for and why they wanted her dead.

  Vee forced herself into her training gear and headed down to the gym. After an hour of various weapons exercises—including the trishula—Vee figured it was time she stopped avoiding the inevitable.

  She had to go see her Mom.

  A strange feeling coiled in Vee’s gut as she stepped off the elevator. She’d been thinking about Karan and the last words he’d spoken before he’d dropped her off at home last night. His parting comment was something to the effect of a warning for Vee to take care of herself.

  She was well aware that she was an important asset to him, but she still couldn’t understand why. What did Karan hope to gain from feeding Vee information regarding demonic crimes against the people of New York? Even Rossi had mentioned recently that although the enigmatic snitch was valuable and was helping their team fight supernatural crime, he too couldn’t understand where they were headed.

  Though Vee had suggested cutting him loose, Rossi had disagreed, insisting they needed to see this through. Even if they were being used, they were cleaning up the demonic rogue element within the city. That in itself was enough of a reason to play nice with Karan.

  But Karan wasn’t the only person whose strange behavior remained on Vee’s mind.

  Radhima’s ghost, or rather Radhima herself, was present for a reason as well. As much as Vee wanted to keep ignoring the fact, she knew it was both unhealthy and irresponsible. Add to that she could be hurting her grandmother’s feelings by ignoring what was right in front of her own eyes.

  Now she hurried through the hall toward her mother’s office, feeling a slight twinge in her knee as well as her shoulder. Though Gianni had been kind enough to save her from death, he’d inflicted a few unnecessary injuries on her instead. Nothing that needed medication though. Not yet.

  Vee ventured into her mother’s front office where Kesha—her personal assistant—stood, arms akimbo, staring down at a collection of plas readers that were spread across her desk. Devi and her team, which included Vee, had long ago gone the green route in that the entire building was run off solar power generated from the solar panels and blinds installed on every window in the building.

  They were completely off the grid with only backup generators at the ready in case of a power failure. In addition, Devi had insisted they move away from paper, so staff no longer printed documents out on destroyed trees. Devi had been impressed by the plas reader tech, and now every staff member used plas readers to send files that in the past would have been printed on paper, whether for visual aid, or as a discussion or sharing point in meetings, or just to keep in a tray, the plas sheets had become such a commonality in the building and at home that seeing a sheet of paper sometimes offended Vee.

  Kesha’s dense black curls hid her face as she studied the plas screens, but before Vee could call out to her, she looked up. With a welcome smile, she waved Vee inside.

  Devi stood in front of her plasma screen, pausing and rewinding a video. She shut it off quickly as Vee walked deeper into the room. But not quickly enough. Vee had seen enough of the recording to know that her mother’s mind was still focused on the golem that had entered Vee’s lab and had attempted to kill her.

  The lab surveillance had caught the entire thing on tape and Devi seemed to be studying for clues to…what? Vee would have to ask her at some point.

  But Vee had come for an entirely different reason. She went to her mother, and they embraced. Vee kissed her mother’s cheek and smiled. Since the night that everything had changed in their lives, since her dad had been returned to them in exchange for Radhima’s life, since Mac had moved out of their home, since Vee had been bestowed with the trishula—not to mention having her wings reveal themselves—her relationship with her mother had changed.

  A subtle difference—a tiny bit more affection, a kiss on the cheek, a touch on the arm, Devi straightening Vee’s hair—little things that had raised Vee’s awareness that she actually did have a mother capable of affection.

  Vee smiled and then drew back. “You look tired, Mom.”

  Devi smiled almost absently. “You look damaged, child.” She frowned as she studied Vee’s face, then traced a finger along the bruise on her daughter’s cheek. Vee smirked. “Wish I could say you should see the other guy.”

  “What happened?”

  “In the battle between Vee and the sidewalk, the sidewalk won.”

  “You fell?” Her mother’s tone implied that she found that hard to believe.

  Vee sighed. It wouldn’t pay to play games with her mother about what had happened. The woman had her ways and would find out eventually and then she’d nag Vee to death about not being told earlier. It was a lose-lose situation.

  “Someone tried to run me over. A creeper detective shoved me to safety.”

  Devi’s jaw dropped. “Please tell me they caught the asshole?”

  Vee shook her head. “He’s the one that got away in this instance.”

  “How the hell is that possible?”

  “Cab was empty when the cops went over to check it out. Was only seconds after I was hit.”

  “What are you saying? Demon attack?”

  Vee nodded. “Yeah. Auras confirmed it. Besides, how else would the driver’s seat be empty within seconds of impact? The airbag would have hindered a quick escape. And even if you consider the vehicle being on autopilot, the seat held enough aural presence to confirm a demon did sit in it. Plus, the driver swerved to avoid hitting a parked truck.”

  “Not something an autopilot would do,” Devi murmured.

  “Still, it makes no sense. If you’re a demon and you want to kill me, won’t you use your super easy appea
ring-disappearing ability? A hit and jump would be more likely.”

  “Someone trying to scare you?”

  “Possible. But it would mean that someone has demons on their payroll.”

  Vee rolled her eyes. Exactly what part of ‘the demons are out to kill me’ didn’t surprise her?

  Chapter 67

  Devi sighed and waved a hand at the double sofa seating arrangement in the corner of her office. Vee sank into the soft cushion and sighed with relief as she leaned her head onto the backrest.

  “Sore?”

  “Somewhat.”

  “What drugs?” Devi asked.

  “Nope. Not taken any yet.”

  Devi brought Vee a glass of pomegranate juice, to which Vee responded with a wrinkle of her nose.

  “You know I despise that stuff,” she said, making a face at the drink.

  “Drink it. It’s good for you.”

  “Sometimes I think mothers were invented to torment.”

  “Ditto.”

  Vee rolled her eyes, accepted the drink, and sipped. She swallowed and set the glass on the coffee table, careful to ensure she used one of the many coasters her mother had set around the room. The woman was totally OCD about watermarks on her furniture.

  “So, I need to speak with you about something.”

  “I knew this wasn’t a social visit,” Devi said, bringing her own glass with her and drinking. She took a seat beside Vee and set her drink on the coffee table before turning her attention her daughter.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s about Radhima.”

  Devi’s mouth tightened, and her eyes glistened. The mention of her mother was enough to bring her back to the reality that the matriarch was gone.

  “Are you finding it hard to cope, honey? Need to talk?”

  Vee shook her head. “No. I mean yes.” Vee paused and took a breath. “I’m coping, but I need to ask you a sensitive question.”

  “Okay,” Devi said carefully, her lip curving in an amused smile.