The Apsara Chronicles Boxed Set

by T. G. Ayer

  Her dad smiled and pinched Vee’s cheek. “You always know what to say, huh?” He sighed and held her around the shoulders, leading her upstairs. “Someday soon, your Mom is going to have to talk to me about that herself.”

  Vee turned and pinched his cheek in retaliation, winking as she said, “Nothing is stopping you from going to her, you know. That company still belongs to you. Your offices and labs are all still there. Get a good night’s sleep and head out in the morning. Start fresh and let us know you’re okay. And if you’re not okay, then that’s okay too. Just don’t keep it to yourself.”

  Her dad smiled. “Such wisdom from one so young.”

  Vee rolled her eyes and hurried to fetch her shoes. She balanced on one foot at a time as she slipped the red stilettos on. Just in time too, as the doorbell began to ring. Her dad was at the door in light seconds, opening it to bestow his usual death glare upon poor Nivaan.

  “Come on, Dad!”

  Vee offered her dad her own death glare, but he pretended not to notice as he ushered Nivaan inside and shut the door. She waited as the usually awkward silence between the men thawed to almost comfortable, before being unable to take it anymore.

  Vee was just opening her mouth to inquire at the change in venue for their dinner when Nivaan lifted a finger, silencing her as he stared downward. She hesitated then followed his gaze to where it was focused: at her feet.

  “You can’t wear those.” His tone was admonishing, and almost parental.

  What the what?

  Vee’s eyes widened. Nivaan had never behaved like the overbearing boyfriend prone to mansplaining, but this instruction hovered on the line. “Err…why not? Pretty sure I’m capable of making shoe choices on my own. Or do you not like red stilettos?” She lifted one eyebrow, her expression icy.

  Nivaan grinned mischievously. “I like red stilettos. Actually, I love red stilettos…especially when you’re wearing them.” Vee gave him a harsh glare, and he paused, shared an uncomfortable glance with her dad, then he said, “What I meant to say was that, as perfect as your shoe choice is, they may not be as comfortable to walk in where we’re going.”

  Vee’s hands moved to her hips of their own accord, and she had to force them back down. She refused to appear a fishwife. “So where are you taking me?”

  “I hope you’re going to like it. The city is holding a cross-cultural promotional parade tonight. People of all shapes, sizes, and colors all mingling in the streets of New York. It will be glorious.” Nivaan ended his oration with such an excited grin that even Vee’s dad cracked a smile.

  Vee laughed. “If that’s the case, red stilettos won’t do.” She toed off the heels and grabbed them from the floor. As she whirled and scurried up the stairs, she yelled, “Be back in a sec.”

  Then she paused at the top step to send them each a warning glare.

  “I’m hungry, and I need to eat. So, don’t kill each other, okay?”

  Chapter 75

  She’d left the two men in the hall alone and all the way to her room she wondered if that had been a mistake. They’d been circling each other for almost a month now, and Vee wondered if it had to do with the fact that Nivaan was a mahabidala.

  She knew her dad had been involved in paranormal-related investigations—though more on the magical side than the hunting of them—but knowing that lion shifters exist and accepting when your daughter is dating one were two different things.

  Hurrying into her room, Vee snagged her walking boots and a pair of comfy socks. She also changed her jacket for one with a thicker down.

  She was about to head out the door when a voice stopped her. “You forgot to take a hat.” Radhima stood at Vee’s drawer and smiled at her.

  Vee paused. “Where have you been?”

  “Around. Thinking.” The old woman had a sad, far-off look on her face.

  “Are you feeling better now?”

  Another smile. “Getting there.”

  Vee nodded. “And I don’t need a hat. Stop nagging.”

  “I’m not nagging. It’s going to get cold. You should cover up, especially since you’re still healing from your injuries. If it were up to me, I’d have you in bed with a book and a cup of hot chocolate, not gallivanting around town with a boy.”

  Vee rolled her eyes. “I’m getting nagged by a ghost?”

  The ghost snorted. “I know what I’m talking about. Take the hat.” Vee grunted and turned on her heel, fully intending to ignore the old woman. “If you don’t, I’ll come with you. Three’s company, right?”

  Letting out a low growl, Vee stormed to the chest and grabbed a beanie from the drawer. She shoved it into her pocket, aware of the urge to stamp her feet— she wasn’t sure if she should be annoyed or amused at her reaction.

  Instead, she looked over at her grandmother. “Happy now?”

  “Quite.”

  Vee turned on her heel and headed out of the room. On the threshold, she paused and looked over her shoulder. “By the way, Nivaan is not a boy. He’s a grown-ass man.”

  As she walked off, she had to suppress a bark of laughter. She could have sworn her grandmother’s ghost had mumbled something about Vee having it wrong and that Nivaan was a grown man with a great ass.

  The old woman never failed to surprise Vee.

  Vee hurried back downstairs and found herself interrupting a somewhat passionate conversation about baseball teams. She grabbed Nivaan by the shoulders and physically turned him around. “Come on you big lunk. I know about you men when you talk about sports. You’ll be standing here all night.”

  Nivaan allowed her to turn him around and spoke over his shoulder as he went, “But you love sports too.”

  “Yeah, I love sports too. But when men argue about sports, they can go around and around in circles for hours just for the heck of it. I wanted a night in, but you wanted to brave the city streets. So, let’s go before I make you go yourself.”

  Nivaan headed outside and huffed. “Have you ever read Taming of the Shrew?”

  In response, Vee slapped Nivaan on the side with the back of her hand. Nivaan grabbed his gut and faked a pained ‘ouch’ before dissolving into laughter. With a long-suffering sigh, Vee muttered, “I’m dating a child,” then slammed the door to the sound of her father’s chuckles.

  Vee was smiling as she descended the stairs. Nivaan had gone silent. He’d reached the sidewalk and was looking up at the house. “How’s he doing?” he asked, his expression almost indiscernible in the gathering darkness.

  “You heard him laughing.” Vee smiled, tucking her fingers into her pockets as she stared at the house too. “I think he’s mending. He seems to be getting better each day.”

  “He’s come a long way,” Nivaan said as he hurried to his Jeep.

  Vee climbed in and fastened the seatbelt. “I think he needs help from a PTSD perspective. He’s been through so much, a lot of which we have no idea about because he won’t tell us what happened to him when he fell into the vortex.”

  “Does he appear emotionless or hurt?”

  “Lack of emotion, definitely. And there’s a sadness in his eyes. Whatever happened to him, he’s protecting himself from the pain. And I think he’s hurting because of Radhima. I think he feels responsible for her death somehow.”

  Nivaan smiled as he drove them through the streets. “You should become a therapist.”

  Vee snorted. “Yeah. Like I need a hole in the head.”

  The drive over to downtown was peppered with banter and light ribbing, which Vee decided had been good fun.

  After parking—Nivaan used a friend’s space at a nearby parking garage—they strolled the few blocks to where the parade was in full force. Floats were gliding down the street, and boisterous crowds threw confetti and streamers in no specific direction.

  Gilded polystyrene dragons followed garish skulls and women dressed in tall headdresses. Those followed a giant statue of an archangel which trailed a float containing a papier mâché effigy of the god Ganesh wit
h his rounded belly and curling elephant trunk.

  It was a hodgepodge of religious and cultural presentations that Vee assumed the city hoped would encourage cohesion amongst the different ethnic groups. For what it was worth, Vee believed the plan could work.

  As they weaved through the crowd, the street lamps flickered on, throwing myriad colored lights onto the passing crowds who sent up a cheer.

  Vee glanced over at Nivaan and grinned. There was no point in talking with the barrage of sounds around them, from music to chanting to yelling.

  As she studied his smiling face, Vee wondered at people’s perceptions. Nivaan was a respected doctor, with a reputation of skill that was unparalleled. He was also a lion shifter—a mahabidala—a thing from folk tales and horror stories. How many of the people walking this particular street would shriek in horror or turn on him if they knew what he was? The thought turned her stomach as she stared at him, recognizing his vulnerability. People were not ready to know the truth, to know they shared their streets, their workplaces, and even their governments with supernaturals.

  Nivaan’s voice in her ear made Vee jump. “Hungry?” he yelled.

  She winced and shook her head while sticking a finger in her ear and rubbing it hard. She hated anyone talking in her ear. Touching her ears came a close second.

  She took Nivaan’s offered hand, and they weaved through the crowd toward the food carts that lined one side of the street. The variety of food was astounding and Vee was spoiled for choice.

  “Dim sum or buffalo wings?” he asked as he too scanned the selection.

  “Both,” Vee replied with a grin.

  Nivaan nodded, and they headed down the line to make their choices and wait for their orders.

  As they took their snacks and drinks and began to walk away from the food area, Nivaan bent close to Vee, and with a grin on his face he asked, “You do know we’re being followed, right?”

  Vee blinked. She wanted to say something smart, like ‘of course, check your two o’clock and my six’ but she had nothing. Even with her FBI training—and her Apsara skills—she was so exhausted that she’d lapsed in her awareness of her surroundings.

  When he straightened, Nivaan said, “Don’t worry. I’m not sure a non-shifter could have detected them.”

  Vee had to acknowledge that despite her skills she didn’t have the nose to track a stalker the way animal shifters like Nivaan did. Not that it made her feel any better.

  “How did you know?” she asked as she chewed dim sum that was now tasteless.

  “One of them passed us by a few too many times. Amateur move. I got his scent, so it didn’t take me long to figure out what they were doing. They’re tag-teaming positions which is quite amusing because all it did was make it easier for me to connect the two scents.”

  “No doubt they have no clue you are what you are,” Vee said, smirking.

  “Good thing too, or I wouldn’t have made them.”

  Vee forced herself to focus on her food. Stalkers or not, she’d deal with them soon enough. Crumpling the wrappers, she looked around for a trashcan only to find the papers taken from her by Nivaan, who added them to his pile and tossed them into large trash receptacle a few feet behind him.

  When he turned back to her, he said, “Now what? Want to draw them into a dark alley somewhere?”

  Vee pursed her lips. “I think I quite like that idea.”

  “I didn’t mean you.”

  Vee’s eyes narrowed as she glared at him.

  “Be nice,” he warned before she spoke.

  Vee huffed and pasted a sweet smile on her face. “I’m fully capable of taking them down.”

  “How about we catch them off guard, but let them believe you don’t know you’re being followed?”

  Vee sighed and nodded. It was a good plan and would help bring whoever it was now stalking her out into the open. If they believed a third party was onto them while Vee remained ignorant of their presence, they may relent and leave her alone.

  She nodded, grinning as if she was having the time of her life. Then she said, “Selfie time? Could be we could get some well-timed accidental photobombs that Brent can run for an ID.”

  Nivaan nodded, and the pair proceeded to take almost a dozen photographs in front of various floats and at a number of different angles. Vee’s stalkers were ignorant of the fact that both of them had been caught on camera, both staring right at Vee at the time.

  “Lemme see.” Vee waved at Nivaan to hand over the phone and grinned, this time the smile genuine. “Got you, you bastards.”

  Nivaan smiled too in order to keep up the act. Then he linked arms with her and said, “Wanna clue me in on why someone is following you?”

  “Oh. Probably because someone wants to kill me.”

  Chapter 76

  “What?” Nivaan’s steps slowed, but Vee tightened her grip on his hand and pulled him along.

  “Day before yesterday, after I went to a murder scene, I was almost run down by a cab. But the driver magically disappeared. I suspected something was up, but these guys they have tailing me, just make me sure now that someone is after me.” Vee felt Nivaan’s grip on her hand tighten. She didn’t think he realized that his own fear and anger were being transmitted to her through a grip that was close to breaking her fingers.

  “Honeybuns?” she said, tilting her head close to him. Nivaan glanced over at her, amusement lifting the corners of his eyes. “Please don’t break my fingers,” she said with a sweet smile.

  “Oh shit. Sorry, Vee.” Nivaan let go of her fingers then began to manipulate her bones and joints.

  “Nivaan?” Vee’s voice rose with the question as the pair reached the edge of the festive crowd.

  He looked up. “What?”

  “What are you doing?” Vee asked, staring at his hands.

  “Checking if I’ve broken anything.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Do I have a fragile sticker taped across my forehead? I don’t break that easy. And besides, you’d know if you broke my fingers. I wouldn’t be walking along with a smile on my face.”

  Nivaan pursed his lips and appeared to consider her words. Then he shook his head. “I don’t believe so. I know you. You’d be all concerned about my feelings, and you’d hide the pain and slink home without telling me. I don’t trust you.”

  Vee studied him for a moment. “Good point.”

  Nivaan smirked, and they turned the corner onto a quieter street. The noise of music and celebration still echoed toward them and would mask any sounds of an attack. Vee had to remind herself that the attack in question could also be carried out on her.

  She put herself on high alert, scanning the street and listening to every step behind her.

  There, two sets of footsteps followed about a dozen yards back.

  Nivaan leaned closer to Vee. “This alleyway should do.”

  Vee nodded and followed his lead. “You do your shifter thing, and I’ll be bait?” she said softly.

  Nivaan opened his mouth, and Vee had a feeling he was about to tell her to stay somewhere safe. But something in his eyes changed as he looked at her, and she wondered if it may have been as a result of the death glare that she’d sent him.

  “Fine. Get back in the shadows. Beneath that fire escape.”

  “Okay. And I’m human bait, okay. I don’t really want to show them my power. It’s better I appear vulnerable, so consider me your damsel in distress.”

  Nivaan grinned. “Whatever the lady requires,” he said dipping his head in a short bow.

  Vee snorted and watched as he shimmered into nothing, pulling his glamor over himself within seconds.

  Just in time too, as the two men turned the corner. Vee watched them as she stood there at the back of the alley, taking up a position where she’d have plenty of space to work with if she found herself in a life or death situation.

  She began to pace, appearing to have not seen the oncoming men. They’d grown bold, following like this. It made Vee wond
er if perhaps they didn’t know what her powers were. All the more reason to not come out guns—or rather trishula, daggers, and needles—blazing.

  They were close now, and she glanced up at them. “What do you want?” she asked, inserting a short quaver of fear into her voice.

  The first man, whose mustache appeared to be the size of a small rodent, swaggered closer. “You just making this easy for us, aren’t you?” he sneered as he came to a stop to look her up and down. He had a thug feel with his ripped jacket, low-riding jeans and baseball cap on back to front. In his hand, he held a gun, a match to the one his partner now had trained on Vee. Guns? So perhaps these guys were not of the supernatural flavor if they were carrying around human weapons.

  “Ed, just remember we need to bring her in. Dead, we don’t get no payment.” The second guy, similarly dressed though he was portly to his partner’s skinny and had a glistening dark head. He glanced over at Rat-stache—or rather, Ed—pointedly staring until he received an agreement. Although Baldy had kept his voice low, Vee had heard every word, having strengthened that power years ago.

  “Shut your mouth. She’ll hear you.”

  “Yeah. She’s got super-hearing now?”

  Ed grunted and met Vee’s gaze as she backed away, her eyes widened with what she hoped looked like fear. She’d hate to have come across looking like she was demonic or demented. “Leave me alone. You don’t want to mess with me. My guy…he’ll kill you two.”

  “What? You’re concerned about our lives now?” Ed asked, his tone mocking.

  “I’m telling you. He’ll tear you guys apart.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you bitches will say anything to save your asses—”

  “Did it occur to you that perhaps the bitch in question would not want to be accosted by two assholes like you?” said a voice from the darkness above.

  A large dark shape moved, flitting from the third level fire-escape on the right-hand wall, almost gliding over to the landing closest to Vee.

  Vee’s attackers turned their attention to Nivaan, both staring up at his shadowed form.