by T. G. Ayer
The pey let out a soft growl, lifting his horned head into the air.
Shit.
Vee recognized that movement, wishing her glamor was good enough to use to extricate herself from the danger she now stared in the face.
The pey demons was calling out to someone. Partner or mate, Vee didn’t want to find out for herself. She had to do something. Fast.
At her side, the trishula still cut into her ribs, its awkward angle making its position more than painful. Vee moved her hand up her thigh, aware that the demon’s red eyes were tracking her fingers as she slid it toward the weapon. She lifted her other hand, reaching for her chakra, successfully distracting the creature long enough for her to grab the triple-bladed spear and give it a firm shake.
The movement allowed the magically endowed spear to take its full form. The golden blade lengthened, and even as it grew longer, Vee was spinning it around, holding it at her shoulder like a javelin.
During the last two months, Vee had been schooled in the use of the weapon Lord Shiva had bestowed upon her, had spent hours practicing hard in the hopes that someday—when the time came—she’d be able to use it either to protect herself, or to save someone else, and to honor the god who’d seen fit to give such a priceless treasure to her.
She hadn’t exactly imagined the scenario being that of defending her life against a pey, of all creatures. They weren’t even supposed to be out of whatever hell it was that they had been banished to.
Vee was about to send the trishula hurtling through the air, hoping to impale the oncoming demon, when a noise to her right drew her attention for a fleeting second. Another demon lingered there, soot-black hair in disarray, a bloody smile on her face, her demon teeth gleaming.
Double shit.
Chapter 3
A pey was bad enough. But when faced with his better half, things went to hell in a handbasket fast.
The peymakilir, likely the mate of the demon salivating over Vee, growled low and rasping. The sound was enough to distract Vee from her aim.
As if they had planned their course of action, both demons ran at Vee. Instinct ruled her limbs as she lowered the trishula so the end sat at her hip, its point aimed at the pey. His mate, however, Vee had little defense against. Her chakra was on the other side of her body, lodged between her hip and the pillar, her satchel she’d left at home, having decided at the time that this job didn’t need a bag of stuff that went kablooey.
Bad move.
She felt for the knives strapped to her thigh, grabbed one and released it straight at the demonwife. The blade hit the creature in her chest with a loud thunk, but she still kept coming. In a second smooth move, Vee grabbed blade number two, noted that the pey was a yard from her and still on his way to impalement, and let the knife loose.
The second blade hit the peymakilir in the throat, but she still kept coming.
Vee’s heartbeat ratcheted up as she considered herself, for all intents and purposes, doomed.
She inhaled sharply, convinced she was dead, and then saw a multitude of red laser lines splayed across the pillars around her. The cavalry was here, but possibly a little too late for Vee.
She exhaled and felt the impact of the pey against the three points of the trishula. To her right, the peymakilir hurled herself at Vee. Even as Vee twisted herself around and attempted to throw her spitted demon onto his mate, she was prepared, bracing for impact.
It had all happened way too fast for her to do the smart thing. Despite all her FBI training, despite her apsara training, acting on instinct had been her only option.
An explosion ripped the air and Vee ducked her head.
Someone had thought it would be a good idea to blast the head off the peymakilir before she sank her teeth into Vee’s throat.
Again, a move born out of instinct.
Vee felt a moment of relief at not being alone in lack of smarts. Had Vee been in that agent’s place, a rifle would have been sufficient. A bullet to the brain, and then move fast, perform the rites and toss the body into the nearest fire.
Vee sighed and twisted back upright, allowing the trident to drop to the ground and release the pey. He was barely alive, with a triple blade to the gut insufficient to put him out of his misery.
His mate, on the other hand, was definitely dead.
Vee got to her feet slowly and tugged the trident out of the pey’s body. She wanted to tell the agents who had surrounded her that they were wasting their time taking the bodies back to the lab in the hopes of researching the biology of these creatures.
Rossi had recently mentioned that they’d wanted to study the demons in the hopes that the R&D division could look into the development of ammunition to help Vee’s team defend themselves against the demon horde that seemed to steadily become larger and harder to fight.
But Vee knew what would happen to the two demons within a few hours after death. The pey and his mate would not die as the bhayakara demon had—in a puddle of ammonia and sulfurous muck. No. The pey couple would disintegrate, their bodies rapidly drying until a mere movement would disturb the pile of ash they would become. Ash so pure that nothing—not even DNA—would remain for testing purposes.
It was sad and amusing at the same time.
Black-clad agents milled around as Vee got to her feet using the trishula to support her weight. Vee sniffed herself and wrinkled her nose. She needed a bath. Badly.
But, with Assistant Director Rossi’s head bobbing in the distance as he made his way toward her, she knew she had no place to run. Something splattered the floor at Vee’s left ankle, and she glanced down. The chakra was dripping demon sludge.
Just fabulous.
The trishula had ceased its magical glow and now shivered, as if it somehow sensed the presence of so many people. Vee held it up and waited as it shrunk in size, allowing her to attach it to the sling at her shoulder.
Rossi approached—wrapped warmly in a dark wool-lined coat—and Vee was relieved to find Brent Cadiz with him. At least Brent would be on her side. She straightened and turned to face the two men as they approached, appreciating the wary glance they gave her.
Rossi looked a little stunned. “I’m not even sure what to say,” he said staring at the sludge puddle and then at the dead pey. He seemed to be avoiding the pile of remains that amounted to the female demon.
The pey moaned, trying to turn toward Vee. The keening sound ended on a high note that had the closest agents—including Vee—slapping their hands over their ears.
“What the hell?” Brent squeaked and stepped away fast, clutching his laptop close to his chest. “That thing is still breathing.”
“Yep,” Vee said, smirking, her amusement helping to keep the pain from her throbbing wing at bay.
“He looks…angry.”
Vee stared at Brent, her face void of expression. “Wouldn’t you be angry if your wife’s brains were splattered around the warehouse, right after she’d been stabbed in the chest and throat by two flying daggers?”
Brent grunted in response, then took another step away from the moaning demon. “Perhaps we ought to put it out of its misery.”
Rossi looked over at the techie. “I’m a little concerned, Cadiz. Such a disregard for life could be dangerous.”
“That thing…” Brent turned to look over at the body of the peymakilir, “…isn’t human.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not alive,” Vee replied.
“But you’re the one who just killed them,” the techie said, eyes wide, though a little suspicion had begun to crease his brow.
“I don’t kill all of them, Brent. Besides, that’s a moot point. If you guys hadn’t come, I would have had to kill them anyway.”
“See? Dispensable.” Brent smiled smugly, then folded his arms as he leaned toward the pillar behind him. He missed and stumbled then scrambled to right himself. Vee hid a smile as he straightened and tugged at the lapels of his coat.
Vee sighed. “Not dispensable. Dangerous. They were
threatening my life. It was either me or them.”
“Don’t look to me like it was you or them. Looked more like it was you or her…it.” Brent pointed at the remains of the female demon.
Rossi grunted and silenced whatever it was Brent had been wanting to say. “What’s your assessment here, Agent Shankar. You’ve got two very different, unrelated species in one location.”
Vee nodded. “I suspect they may not be related. I have a feeling that the lead was solid. It led me here to find the bhayakara. He’s the one you saw over on the other side.”
Brent frowned and glanced over his shoulder in the general direction of the demon’s liquid remains. “You mean the puddle of yellow slush?” Vee nodded. “Right,” he replied, looking a little uncomfortable now.
“So what about these two?” Rossi jerked a chin at the dead—and dying—demons before them. “After Slushy over there? Or something more sinister?”
Vee shrugged. “Perhaps they were lying in wait for him? Who knows. He didn’t seem too much of a threat, so I’m wondering if he could have been an informant of some kind.” Vee glanced down at the bodies of the two pey demons lying at her feet.
“Or?” Rossi probed, seeming to easily read her train of thought.
Vee sighed. “Or it could be that they were tracking me.”
Brent’s eyes widened. “I’ll get onto traffic cams in the area.” Before anyone could respond—or add to his task list—the techie was gone, hunkering down a safe distance from all present demons and setting up his small workstation. Before long he was tapping away at the keyboard, paying no attention to anything around him.
Rossi cleared his throat. “So anything you want to tell me about these demons who are on your tail?” he asked softly, his eyes still on Brent.
Vee shook her head even though Rossi couldn’t see her face or movement. “No clue. I’ll have to put out a few feelers to see what I can dig up. The odd thing was they didn’t seem desperate. They almost appeared to be calm, as if the kill was routine, as if they’d been through the tag team thing before and it had been easy for them in the past.”
“They were comfortable with each other?”
“With this type of demon, they are more than likely a mated pair.”
“Can you give me a debrief?” Rossi’s eyes sparkled with interest. Vee had enjoyed working with him. His open-mindedness had been a huge help when she’d started out working for his off-the-books FBI squad. Now he’d begun to take strange demons, and tales of deific beings and god-given boons in his stride.
Vee nodded. “I’ll email it once I get back home.” She made a face again at the amount of demon blood and gore she had on her person.
With a short nod, Rossi turned and then stopped. He glanced over his shoulder at Vee. “Go home, Shankar. You need a bath.”
His words generated a round of good-natured chuckles from the agents within hearing distance, and she shook her head, trying and failing to glare angrily at them. She turned on her heel and headed across the warehouse, deciding to scan the place one more time.
As she circled a stack of containers across the way from where the demonic couple had ambushed her, she caught sight of a new aura, a strange pale yellow that hadn’t been there before. Vee had passed on this route when she’d moved away from the bhayakara demon and hadn’t seen any sign of this aural signature.
The voyeur had to have arrived after she’d killed the bhayakara.
Someone had been watching Vee.
She stepped closer to the aura and stared at the floor. The remains of a cigar littered the bare concrete. Vee reached into her pocket for a tweezer and a plastic bag. She proceeded to retrieve all the pieces of the cigar as well as some of the ash that had been left behind. She labeled the item then continued on her way, the bag dangling from her fingers.
As she closed in on the place where the two other demons had been killed, Vee realized that the person who’d been watching had not been in a hurry to leave. He’d waited for her, likely up until the point when he’d seen her kill the first demon.
Vee crouched again. Ashy footprints marked a small narrow spot behind two crates a mere twenty feet from where Vee had sat after she’d fallen against the pillar. He’d ground the cigar into the floor with his shoe, leaving a smear of tar and charcoal on the bare concrete. Didn’t seem to be the careful type.
Her quarry was long gone now, not likely that he’d stick around to get himself caught.
Rising to her feet, Vee thought about the two pey demons. Now, who exactly was following who? Had he set you up, or were you two trying to set me up?
Vee shook her head.
She’d provide Rossi with the full report on the incident before she went to bed that night. Or was it morning already?
For now, all she knew was she had to get home soon, before the blood dried into her jeans and she’d have to throw them out. As Vee turned to walk out of the warehouse, she frowned. Getting clean was her top priority. But she also had to pay a visit to Karan before he got too impatient.
He’d been the one to send her on this wild demon chase to begin with. He ought to be informed of her brush with death. And also be told that someone else was watching her. Other than him, of course.
Given the lack of the voyeur’s interference, Vee considered the possibility that perhaps it had been Karan himself who had been observing her. But she shrugged the suspicion away. That would make absolutely no sense. Karan was a puzzle. He was mysterious, and well connected. But there was something else about him—like his ability to freeze time, of course—that made her wary of him. The last thing Vee needed was to rock the boat in terms of their working relationship.
She still wasn’t entirely sure how she’d landed this gig, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Vee strode out of the building and headed into the bright moonlight with one thing in mind, and one thing only.
A hot bath, and a jasmine and cocoa butter bath bomb.
Okay, so maybe that was two things.
Chapter 4
Without Syama to transport her from place to place with her magical teleportation ability, Vee was forced to use the mundane method of walking and taking public transport home.
She would have done so tonight if Rossi hadn’t arranged a car for her to take her home. The man was far too observant, and Vee had to remind herself that he was a trained agent.
She slid into the back of the car and gave the driver her address, then fell into an almost morbid silence as he drove off. Vee checked he phone, in case Nivaan had left her a message, she missed the guy too damned much.
She smiled at the memory. Of Nivaan and his adorable niece Sona. Vee had tried hard not to think too much of Nivaan, more so because the man’s mere existence made her weak at the knees. She was no wilting wallflower, no fainting Miss. And yet when Nivaan was around all she wanted to do was to faint in his arms so that he would sweep her up and take her away with him.
Vee grinned at her strange imaginings. The object of those fantasies would burst into uncontrollable laughter should she ever admit to having them. Vee considered telling him—and making a fool of herself in the process—just so that she could hear that laugh.
She shook her head and hid a smile. Who would have thought that Vee Shankar would ever fall for a guy?
She sighed as the cab zipped through the city streets. Reality only hit her when she was alone, without the stress of catching and or killing demons to distract her.
Vee stared out at the city streets as they flitted by, but all she saw was her grandmother’s face.
Radhima.
She’d been so young at heart, so filled with the love of life that she’d often drawn Vee out of her own self-pity. Now she was dead as a result of something Vee had done.
Maybe that deed had been done when Vee had been a kid. So what? It had still been her fault. She’d been the one to open the vortex, to kill the demon Kasipu, to cast her father into an uncertain hell. She’d been the
one to bring the wrath of the demon’s brother down on her family, and in the end, cause the death of her beloved grandmother.
A pained sigh echoed within the vehicle and Vee glanced up to check if the driver was annoyed or upset about something. But the man’s eyes were focused on the street ahead, and he didn’t even twitch when he caught Vee staring at him in the rear-view mirror.
Frowning, Vee turned her attention back to the view of the city. At night the lights were so beautiful, the shadows and darkness hiding the bleak sadness of what lay within the abandoned alleys, and beneath the overpasses. The homeless had never been anything but a consistent issue for the city, both financially, and in a humanitarian light.
But ever since the demons had begun to seep through into the city, the homeless population had burgeoned. Demons preyed on them, decimating their numbers, but those same demons eventually joined their number, more so when they discovered that our world was not the land of milk and amrita they’d believed it to be.
This time it was Vee who sighed, and when the voice spoke in her ear, she almost jumped out of her skin.
“You know, I always thought you were a responsible, level-headed child.” Radhima shook her head and studied Vee’s face. “I expected more from you.”
Vee snorted. The apparition had haunted her ever since her grandmother’s death. Vee knew she was generating this ghost, probably born out of her own desperate need to see her grandmother again.
“What?” said the ghost, her eyes narrowing. “Now you won’t talk to me?”
Vee glared at the apparition. “Not here. You’re going to make people think I’m crazy.”
The ghost snorted. “For a smart young woman, you’re terribly dense.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Vee snapped, forgetting that the driver was directly in front of her. A glance up confirmed that the man was now paying attention to her, his scowl saying he was probably wondering if he should take the turn for Bellevue instead.
When Vee glanced back at the apparition, she found Radhima’s eyes staring down at Vee’s phone. Vee rolled her eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh. As she picked up the phone and pretended to take a call, she had to admit that her imaginary grandmother was pretty smart.