The Search for Starlight

by Elyse Salpeter

  Kelsey shook her head. “I’m not going back with you under any circumstance, so stop trying to convince me.”

  Raga suddenly swooped to her sister’s side and grabbed her wrist angrily. “Why do you keep denying who you are? Feel me, Tanha. Feel what we are! We are sisters. We are princesses of the hell realms. We are not petty, meek creatures. Feel the energy and darkness pumping through my veins! This is who you are!”

  Kelsey tried to pull back. “Release me!” She tried to pry herself away from Raga’s fierce grip, but her sister held her firm.

  “You leave me no choice.” Raga closed her eyes and her body glowed.

  Kelsey gasped and her body arched and began to shimmer.

  Raga’s eyes flashed. “Yes, you feel it, don’t you? Let the power come through, Tanha! Take it in. Find it and let it come out. You’ve hidden it away for too long.”

  Desmond jumped back as Kelsey’s body rippled before him.

  Kelsey moaned in pleasure. Her wavy brown hair became darker, straighter and longer, and her skin turned from a porcelain to a dark olive.

  “Let me… go,” Kelsey panted, torn between desire and pain, but the changes continued.

  “Tanha, you feel who you were, don’t you? Come back to me,” coaxed Raga.

  Kelsey’s bright blue eyes widened as they turned from blue to nearly black, and she stared in awe as a sari shimmered around her and replaced her top and jeans. An emerald bindhi appeared between her brows.

  Desmond fell to his knees in pure shock as Kelsey transformed back into the exquisite Indian Princess of the Underworld that she’d been.

  But her features twisted in fury. “Stop this! Let go of me! This is not me!” she shrieked.

  With a grunt, Desmond threw himself forwards and tried to push Raga’s hand away. The moment his skin touched hers, Raga turned to him and bared her teeth.

  Desmond fell to the rug as pain ripped through his gut. He shrieked and doubled over in agony.

  Kelsey pulled with all her might and Raga released her. Kelsey bent down to Desmond’s side as he writhed on the ground.

  “What the hell did you do to him?”

  “He tried to touch me. No one touches me unless I wish it,” Raga said.

  Kelsey’s body shimmered again and began to change back. Her eyes flickered from brown to blue and the bindi disappeared. She heard Desmond’s breathing gradually calm as her own porcelain skin returned.

  “Desmond, please speak to me.”

  All he could do was gasp in pain.

  Kelsey seethed and turned to her sister. She reared up and pointed her finger at Raga. Raga’s eyes widened in surprise as her body rose off the ground and slammed hard into the ceiling where Kelsey pinned her. “I swear on everything holy, you lay one hand on him ever again, and I will end you.” She flicked her wrist and Raga flew across the room and hit the far wall, slamming violently into Kelsey’s framed photograph of the Bodhidharma monastery. Both the picture and Raga fell to the floor.

  Raga rolled onto all fours and crouched like a jungle panther. The demon temptress licked her lips and grinned lasciviously. “That’s right, Sister. Do it again to me. Let your anger flow. Feel the power of what you are! You know you love this.”

  Raga raised her fingers and flames erupted from the tips. With a hideous grin, she pointed them at Desmond and flung the flames towards him. Streaks of fire soared across the apartment.

  Kelsey threw herself in front of Desmond and caught the flames with her body. They hit her and enveloped her, and Desmond shrieked at seeing Kelsey consumed by fire.

  “Don’t worry, Desmond.” Kelsey’s voice floated from inside the flames. “I’m fine.” She stood and opened her arms wide, the fireball flowing along with her every move in a sensuous dance. Every part of Kelsey’s body was alight with fire, but she was not hurt.

  Desmond watched Kelsey sit contentedly inside the flames. She began to play with her fingers. With each finger twitch a flame disappeared until eventually the entire fire died out. She stood there, gloriously strong, staring back at her sister.

  Raga crossed her arms, satisfied. “So, now you know what you can do and what you are. Even on Earth. You can thank me later.”

  Kelsey had a strange expression on her face. “Go home, Raga. Unless you know anything else, leave.”

  Raga stood. “You will bring Caim back to me?”

  Kelsey nodded slowly, considering. “I will. When I’m done with him.”

  Raga stood for a moment longer, hesitating. “And will you come back to Father’s side?”

  Kelsey didn’t answer and for a moment Desmond’s heart clenched in fear.

  Raga laughed uproariously and dissolved in wisps of smoke, leaving only the scent of her exotic perfume behind.

  Kelsey turned to Desmond, whose eyes were wide in bewilderment. “Are you okay?” she asked, softly.

  He swallowed hard. “Are you?”

  She stared at her fingertips and nodded. “I know who I am now, Desmond. I know what I can do. I’m a demon.” She turned to him. “I’m so tired of people using me and it stops now. No one is going to set me up to die. I refuse to be a victim any longer. I am no one’s pawn.”

  “And what about the soldier who’s after you?”

  “Let him come. It’s time I found out who he is and what he really wants.”

  Desmond slowly stood. “I’m staying here tonight and don’t bother telling me no.”

  She didn’t argue. Her boyfriend was so brave, but so naïve. She had no misconception that Raga could have easily killed Desmond if she had wished to. Just her touch had nearly destroyed him. A memory came to Kelsey suddenly.

  She and Raga were lying on a thick lion’s pelt, playing a devious little game they both enjoyed immensely. Gorgeous slave boys crawled towards them, trying to mate with them. Tanha and Raga knew the power they held over them, and each time the boys touched either of their naked bodies, blistering burns would appear on the slaves’ skin once they began to copulate with them. No matter how many times the men received agonizing burns, they could not stop. Their incessant need, the girls’ pull, was too strong, and eventually the boys would combust, bursting into flames right on top of them. Tanha and Raga would laugh as their tortured screams filled the palace. They’d then sit back and watch them burn down to ash and then reincarnate in front of them, whole and beautiful to start the dance all over again.

  “Kelsey?”

  Kelsey blinked and glanced up at him.

  He tentatively touched her cheek. “You’ve been doing this more and more, you know. You think I don’t notice, but I do. Where are you going?”

  “My memories are returning and I’m having flashbacks. Bits and pieces of my past just keep popping up, either from my life in Naraka or one of my previous human lifetimes.”

  “It’s not just your memories coming back, though. It’s much more.”

  She bit her tongue, remembering the feeling she had as she turned into Tanha. Remembering the power and pleasure she felt when Raga had pushed her. She could still feel the energy coursing through her veins. It was… amazing.

  “Am I scaring you, Des?”

  He tentatively took her in his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder and breathed a deep sigh of relief. She hadn’t pushed him away yet.

  “It will take a lot more than combusting into flames and turning into an Indian goddess before my eyes to scare me, Kelsey.”

  She leaned back and made a face, and he laughed a little. “Okay, maybe concerned is a better word. But I swear I love you more than you could ever know.”

  “I love you too, Desmond.”

  He rubbed her head. “Want to tell me about the memories?”

  “I’d rather not. They’re not good ones.” Kelsey remembered the depravity of what she and her sisters had been capable of, and the horror of what her father continued to inflict. No, she did not want to share the atrocities she had committed in her previous life with this man she held dear to her heart. Instead, sh
e stood up and held out her hand. “Come, let’s go to bed before your body implodes after what you just had to endure this evening. I don’t think you calmed down all night. Actually, I don’t think I did either.”

  With a sheepish grin, Desmond gladly followed her into her bedroom.

  Chapter Nine

  Robbie stood silently inside Kelsey’s apartment. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance this time and had portalled right inside the front door of her apartment, rather than into her bedroom. Not to mention he knew about the surveillance now outside and inside her apartment building. He’d seen the plainclothes cop in his unmarked car while taking a casual walk of her neighborhood earlier in the evening. Another stood inside the front door of her building.

  The apartment’s entrance hallway was dark and he allowed his vision to slowly adjust to the gloom. It was three o’clock in the morning and no sound whatsoever disturbed the surrounding silence. If she’s as human as they say she is, she’ll need to sleep. He gently rubbed his eyes. After treating them with cool compresses and an ointment given to him by a healer in Pritvhi, the swelling had gone down considerably and he could see more clearly than earlier in the day. Robbie listened for a few more moments, trying to get his bearings. To get a feel for the demon who resided in this dwelling. Surprisingly, the scent of orange blossoms lingered in the air, reminding him of the calming weekly meditation sessions in Pritvhi. Beneath the initial sense of quiet, a tinkling of water, perhaps from a table fountain, rang lightly in his ears. He turned to his right and next to him hung a wall rack with a leather jacket on its hook. He’d seen Kelsey wearing it at the bar this evening. He leaned over and sniffed. The leather held a deep, rich aroma and he figured it was expensive. Robbie listened further for any other sounds, but nothing but the faint water burblings could be heard in the apartment.

  To his left an open door led into a small room that appeared to be a walk-in closet. In front of him a long hallway stretched further into the home. He started to slowly inch forward, passing first a kitchen entrance to his left. It was spacious for a New York City apartment and large enough to showcase an island display at its center. He continued walking and entered a large open great room. He paused again, taking it all in. A glass dining room table stood next to him on the left, piled high with books and papers. In front of him lay an expansive, open living space. When he craned his head toward where the kitchen was located, he saw the wall broken open to show a pass-through from the kitchen to the dining area with a long counter and seating bar. Beyond the kitchen he saw another more casual seating area, and a sliding glass door that led to the outside balcony he knew was also there. That’s where he’d portalled in from last night and at the time he’d been surprised at the amount of flowers and plants this demon had cultivated in the small space. He didn’t care what Master Dov had said. Kelsey was a demon at her core, and only demons could make his demon charm vibrate the way it did. Call her whatever you wanted, but he knew the truth about her spirituality.

  And she was obviously rich. He figured she probably acquired her wealth from nefarious actions. Normal humans didn’t hold such luxurious dwellings in as tight a space as New York City. His own quarters in Pritvhi were spartan by comparison.

  Robbie turned back to the living space and took it all in. A comfortable looking U-shaped couch, which could easily seat eight, faced an entertainment center that took up the entire left wall. A flat screen television was positioned in the center, and the rest of the alcoves held books and framed photos of Kelsey with a myriad of people he couldn’t identify in the dim light.

  Beyond the living room, on the far side of the apartment, was a half wall. A bathroom door stood open between two closed doors on either side. Robbie knew the one on the left was Kelsey’s bedroom. He assumed the one on the right was another bedroom.

  He remained in the dining area, just trying to get a feel for this demon who attempted to be human. If you get into the mindset of a demon, you’ve already won, Robbie. The apartment felt unsettlingly comfortable to him. It was not what he’d expected a demon’s apartment to look like. Then again, what did he expect? Torture weapons on the walls as display pieces? Couches with nails on them? Pools of blood stored in glass mason jars? Black painted walls? There was none of that. It was all just too… human.

  Instead of torture devices, sculptures of the dead or books on brutality, Kelsey had pictures of the mountains of Tibet, monasteries and lotus flowers decorating the walls. Golden statues of the Buddha rested on some of the coffee and end tables. He even found the small table fountain he had heard, sitting on a console against the right hand wall. Robbie remained still, listening to the small stream of water trickle down the rocks and gurgle into the little pebbled collection pool below. Except for one photograph in a broken frame resting against the floor, the entire apartment exuded a great sensation of peace. His eyes rose to the painting above the water fountain. His vision had adjusted enough for him to make out the image of Kelsey riding a fedelia. Wait, a fedelia? How did Kelsey even know about them? Fedelias only lived in Xanadu. Had she been there? The thought troubled Robbie. Demons were forbidden in Xanadu. It didn’t make any sense. In fact, a lot of this mission continued to not make sense to him.

  Robbie took a step further towards the living room and stood in front of the sofa table which separated the dining area from the great room. Kelsey had filled it with photographs, candles and other little knickknacks. One of the candles still burned, though the wick was low in its holder. The light from the flame revealed the displays on the table. His eye caught sight of one photograph and he moved towards it and picked it up. It showed a family. Two parents, a little girl with pigtails and a little boy; all smiling for the camera.

  Another sense of déjà vu hit him and a strange feeling fluttered in his gut. The girl with the pigtails again. This is the same girl from my visions. He realized these people seemed somehow familiar. Robbie stared at the mother in the photo and his sense of unease grew. The deep, old sadness began to creep into his core. A sadness that he’d held for the first two years he lived in Pritvhi, but which he had been trained by Master Dov to lock away in the back of his mind as an emotion that would only get him hurt. But now for some reason it returned to settle in his gut again.

  “See anything you like?” a low voice growled behind him.

  Robbie whirled around and Kelsey faced him with a revolver trained at his face. She stormed up beside him and shoved the muzzle into his cheek so hard he felt his teeth rattle and his cheek painfully hit his gums. He tasted blood.

  Kelsey pulled the gun back an inch and with her free hand gripped his left wrist. The wrist of the hand that wore his ring, preventing him from escaping back to Pritvhi. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot you, do you understand me?”

  She knows how I portalled?

  Robbie froze in indecision, trying to decide what Master Dov would do. He realized, nothing. He’d wait her out and catch her off her guard.

  “Answer me!”

  Robbie simply stared at her. He wasn’t scared of this demon or her gun, or even of death. This life he lived was only temporary, but he desperately wanted to complete his mission for the Emperor and Empress.

  Kelsey Porter was at least a half a foot shorter than him and was dressed in a silky pink floral and black Japanese kimono robe cinched tightly around her waist. The talisman he needed hung from a leather cord, secured around her neck and slightly covered by her loose, flowing hair. She didn’t appear to have been asleep, even though it was the middle of the night. She was waiting for me? Why didn’t his charm go off? He realized too late he’d not brought it with him, already knowing where she lived.

  Robbie took a deep breath and closed his eyes, waiting now for the demon’s temptress powers to finally seduce him. For his body to lose control. That’s how demons worked. The more time you spent with them, the more you were overcome by their influence. Robbie stood there for a full minute and waited, ready to put his mind training to work thwarting an
ything the girl threw his way. But nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see her just standing there, staring up at him with a sarcastic, cock-eyed expression on her face.

  “What, did you think I’d eventually just walk away if you kept your eyes closed long enough?” Kelsey glanced at the photograph still in his hand. “Put that down right now. Gently.”

  He slowly lowered it to the sofa table.

  “Now, who are you?” she asked.

  He said nothing and without warning, Kelsey took the barrel of the gun whippet fast and smacked him in his temple. He had no time to react. Intense pain made his knees buckle. He swayed on his feet, but remained standing. Kelsey trained the gun back on his face in the instant it took him to catch his breath. Her other hand still gripped the wrist of the hand with the portal ring.

  “Let’s try this again,” she snarled. She stood so close to him that he could smell her perfume; some floral, exotic scent. “Why are you following me and why did you try to kill me?”

  He squinted. “I didn’t try to kill you. I just wanted to subdue you long enough to get the talisman you’re wearing.”

  “Why?” she glowered.

  He decided to speak to keep her talking. “I was asked to find it and take it back to the people who hired me.”

  Kelsey’s face puckered. “Who are these people?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.” At least he was talking. That should satisfy her for the moment.

  It didn’t.

  Without warning, Kelsey hit him again with the barrel of the gun. This time the cylinder did more damage, and he fell to his knees in pain and shock. Kelsey followed him down, the gun back in his cheek. She never once released his wrist. The two of them knelt on the floor, contorted in a weird embrace. Robbie saw stars and felt blood now trickle down his cheek.