by T. G. Ayer
Devi and Raj rose and went to them to shake their hands. As Vee made to rise as well, a voice beside her said, “You stay put. They must come to you.” Vee was surprised to find Syama now stood at her side, with Akil guarding the door.
At her right hand, her grandmother agreed with Syama. “When they come to you, then you stand to receive their greeting. Do not bow or touch them.”
This was one of the strangest experiences that Vee had ever had. She obeyed and watched as the tallest of the three women completed her greeting of Vee’s mother. The Guild member was tall, her form curvaceous and her eyes sparkling. She exuded an aura of power, but Vee also read humility and serenity in her too.
She wore a pale blue silk skirt and over it a matching pale blue coat which appeared to be handmade and shot with gold. The collar and lapels were bordered with a wide band of gold-threaded patterns that glinted with jewels.
She wore a nose-ring, and giant hooped earrings that touched her shoulders. “Ceremonial dress,” supplied Radhima.
Behind her, a second woman followed, her own clothing a similar pale color, this time ice white with the barest hint of green. Vee studied the woman’s aura, which appeared as edges in a dark shadow. Her bearing was equally regal, but her expression was cooler, her gaze darting around the room and falling on Vee. Her eyes narrowed just the tiniest bit before she caught herself and pulled calm over her that appeared as a physical veil.
Vee knew before her grandmother spoke in her ear that this guild-member would have to be watched. “Ruvani Ghai. When she gets to you, tell her to drop her glamor. And be pleasant, remain calm as you speak,” Radhima whispered in her ear.
The first guild member drew alongside Vee and smiled, the dimple in her cheek deepening as she fell to her knees. Vee got to her feet and waited as the woman completed her obeisance.
“This is Ushara Naga. The High Mistress of the Guild. She’s the boss.”
Vee smiled as the woman got to her feet. For the shortest moment, Vee was at a loss as to what to say, but her grandmother’s voice guided her. “Namaste Mother Ushara. Peace be with you.”
Ushara smiled, her dimples deepening as she showed her happiness at the meeting. “Great Mother of Apsaras. It is my great honor to serve you. I am your humble hand, in this life and the next.”
Vee forced herself to remain in control of her eyebrows. Ushara stepped aside and drifted down the table to seat herself beside Devi. Vee was partially aware of the two women embracing each other with the emotional equivalent of two teenage girls.
The next guild member stopped before Vee, her spine stiff as she dropped to the floor. She performed the greeting and got to her feet, smiling at Vee. The woman’s face was round and bore a hint of a beauty that had been lost to age. She appeared to be in her late forties, dark brown eyes, fair-skinned, and straight hair parted in the center of her head. Her hands jangled with bangles and her garments seemed to hum with an aura that gave Vee the impression of beauty.
Vee smiled and said, “Namaste Mother Ruvani. Peace be with you.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed as Vee spoke her name, but she smiled and said, “Great Mother of Apsaras. It is my great honor to serve you. I am your humble hand, in this life and the next.”
She stepped away, and Vee was aware of Ushara’s condemnation.
“She wasn’t dismissed by you. Remind her about the glamor now.”
“Oh, Mother Ruvani?”
Ruvani paused on her way to take a seat at Raj’s left. She looked over her shoulder at Vee and waited.
Smiling, Vee said, “We’re holding this meeting with the utmost openness and trust in each other. There will be no need for glamors here.”
Ruvani’s eyes narrowed and her cheeks grew redder. But she inclined her head. “As you wish, Mother of Apsaras. I apologize for forgetting.”
Vee was tempted to tell her that she’d seen the woman draw the glamor over herself after she’d entered the room, but she suspected that would not be very diplomatic.
“You learn well, young grasshopper.”
The third woman to greet Vee was a woman named Keiron Armitage. The woman’s blonde hair hung in ringlets around her shoulders, the color accepted by the pale pink of her ceremonial garb. She voiced her greetings and Vee returned her blessings. The woman exuded a bouncy energy and Vee felt herself tempted to smile.
The last to greet her was a man named, Rohit Soheil. “He’s Keiron’s husband. Ushara is widowed, and Ruvani is married but currently estranged from her husband.”
Vee got the feeling—from the tone in her grandmother’s voice—that she was not a fan of Ruvani. For whatever reason, Vee shared that emotion.
Vee took her seat and Devi cleared her throat. “Ushara would you like to call the meeting to order? Kesha will be recording the meeting.”
Ushara nodded and spoke a few lines in Sanskrit that Vee understood meant she was calling upon the gods to bless their meeting.
Then Ushara looked over at Vee and said, “This is quite a report. I’m shocked that the Demon Horde has made such inroads in so short a space of time.” She paused and studied the report again. “May I ask how you know of this?”
Vee smiled. “I’m afraid I can’t divulge my source. Even the FBI do not know him other than what I believe is a pseudonym.”
Ushara nodded but Ruvani scowled, leaning forward to study Vee’s face. “How are we to know that this information is to be trusted if we can’t confirm the source?”
Vee pursed her lips. “You’re going to have to trust me on that. I’m not in a position to lie and there’s too much at stake for political games.”
Keiron cleared her throat. “What do you need from us? Considering you’re going to be doing much of the heavy lifting, it’s all we can do to offer what help we can.”
Vee glanced at her mother, her eyes urging Devi to respond. Vee had little idea of what she could expect from the Guild, let alone what she was in a position to demand.
“We’ll need tactical support,” said Devi.
Now that was not what Vee had expected.
Ushara nodded. “I can arrange that. We have a special ops team we can put at your disposal.”
“We can offer you an arsenal of pey weaponry with a focus on ammunition,” Keiron added.
Raj shifted in his seat, hovering his pen over his notepad. “If you can give me specifics on the ammo, we can cross check our store to confirm what exactly we need. I know we’ve supplied much of your stock, but we also have a few products in R&D that we could re-evaluate for use—it would be more experimental in this instance, but firepower is firepower.”
Ushara nodded and glanced over at Ruvani who picked her phone up off the table and began swiping and tapping. Seconds later she said, “I’ve emailed it to you, Devi.” She spoke to Vee’s mom, deliberately ignoring Raj who scowled at her rudeness.
Devi’s lips lifted in one corner as she studied Ruvani’s tight features for a moment. Then she looked up at Kesha. “Can you forward that email on to Raj please, he’ll check on the stock in the stores and armory for us and tell us what R&D can supply.”
Vee leaned forward. “I have one item I can offer.”
All eyes turned to Vee.
Chapter 36
After my run-in with pey brain, I’ve been working on a formulation that’s virus based. It’s based on the use of a natural born virus within the brain of the pey demon. I’ve formulated a clone virus with a tiny change in molecular structure that will present similar to encephalitis or meningitis. It’s not fatal, and I’ve prepared an antidote, but it’s sufficient to incapacitate a pey demon within seconds.”
“Are you ready for mass production?”
Vee shifted her gaze to Raj who was already scribbling in his notepad as fast as he was physically capable. “I haven’t tested on live subjects yet.”
“Perhaps you need to go hunting?” Keiron smiled, her eyes sparkling.
Vee shrugged. “I don’t believe I need to, but it will be h
andy to test the speed of symptom onset. It would help to fine-tune the impact.” The thought of testing the virus out on a living breathing species felt a little distasteful to Vee, and it must have shown on her face because Ruvani gave a soft laugh.
“Squeamish, are we?”
Vee frowned. “No. Not squeamish. I’m happy to defend people against a demon attack, whatever the species, but I don’t relish the thought of inflicting harm on some random pey we pick up off the streets. In addition, I’m not keen on alerting the pey leadership that we have a possible weapons solution. And it’s bio warfare which I’m not even sure is ethical.”
Ushara cleared her throat. “I understand your concern but if it’s contained, and a temporary measure…. Are there lasting or physically damaging side-effects of the use of your virus?”
Vee shook her head. “Nothing lasting. Swelling on the brain that will subside, fevers and chills that the body itself will manage. Symptoms will be resolved after three days and the demon will go back to being healthy.”
“I don’t see the point. Why don’t we make it lethal and get rid of them once and for all? Aren’t you the deadliest demon-killer this side of the millennia?” Ruvani asked, her tone dripping sarcasm. But her words hit a nerve for Vee.
“I’m not used to warfare at this scale, and my experience thus far is enough to prove it. Yes, I kill demons, but I’m not randomly attacking villages filled with innocent demons. I track demons who are causing havoc and harm, and if I can, I arrest them. Elimination is a last resort.”
“But the Demon Horde is spilling into our world. The whole point is to eliminate them.”
“Then it’s clear you’ve missed the point.” Vee got to her feet, noticing for the first time that her skin bore a faint shimmering glow. Not sure what it was, she dismissed it and began to pace along the length of the table, forcing Ruvani to twist around to look at her as Vee passed. “The Demon Horde was banished to Naraka millennia ago, at the end of the previous Yuga, for the safety of humanity and the other non-demonic races. Whatever their crimes were, even we do not know. But it’s our responsibility to control the influx of the demon element into this plane. It’s not our responsibility to terminate every single demon we cross paths with. Not all of them are evil, in case you didn’t realize that.”
“This is amusing,” Ruvani said, smirking as she turned her back to Vee and folded her arms. She leaned back and sighed. “Here we thought you were a great warrior, but instead you’re afraid of the demons.”
The tension around the table intensified as Ushara and Kerion both glared at the woman. But Vee ignored them and said, “I’m far from amused. You speak as though you are ignorant, and bigoted. We live in this plane with the humans, but they could just as easily turn against us because of our species. How would you like to be on the wrong end of an ethnic cleansing?”
Ushara shook her head. “I admit that I hadn’t considered this situation from that angle. But I understand where you are coming from. In the past, all we’ve done is react, kill the demons who cause terror, and that’s expanded to searching them out and killing them before they kill. And I suspect we have crossed the line many times already. What you’re suggesting is we work smarter, especially to ensure we don’t destroy all chances of coming to a common understanding with the Demon Horde—if that should ever come to pass.”
“Now you want to treat with them? Are you people insane?” Ruvani’s eyes were wide, her cheeks blotchy with anger.
Vee’s eyes narrowed as she studied the woman. Her aural patterns were mayhem, twisting lines of blues and greens that made little sense to Vee.
“That woman has never changed,” said Radhima at Vee’s shoulder. “Just calm down and move along with the meeting.”
Radhima was right though. “We’re wasting time trying to deal with your dissent, Mother Ruvani. Let’s address your objections at a different time.” Vee looked over at her dad. “Let’s get moving on production of the virus. I’m confident enough that we don’t need a field test. I’m not going to hunt down some innocent to perform the test, and we can’t afford to wait for another pey attack.”
Raj nodded and scribbled some more before motioning to Kesha and getting to his feet. “I’d better set things in motion. Do you need me for the rest?” he asked Devi and then looked at Vee.
Both women shook their heads, and he left the room with Kesha hurrying after him.
Chapter 37
Vee wasn’t as amped as she’d expected to be.
They’d made a decision to keep Rossi out of the loop for now. If that came back to bite her in the ass, then she’d deal with that when it happened. Worst case scenario, she’d lose her badge, but something told her Rossi wouldn’t arbitrarily set her loose. She’d become too valuable to him. Still, she was well aware that he would be supremely pissed off.
Vee and Raj had spent the last few hours with R&D, going over the virus she’d grown and pushing them through the process to transform it into ammunition that consisted of hair thin, needle-like glass chambers. These vessels would be filled with the virus, which would in turn be filled inside the weapons they’d selected.
Raj had agreed with Vee that the adapted, short-barreled shotgun would be perfect for effectively dispersing the needles. They’d redesigned the barrels to enable the dispersal to cover a wider trajectory, the ammunition exploding from the barrel in a wide pattern that covered a one-yard circumference.
Vee would have preferred a wider, horizontal trajectory but they had far too little time to work on the adjustment. Syama and Akil were performing recon, keeping an eye on the nest to ensure nothing changed in terms of the location or the security.
Even though Akil had assured Vee that pey demons would never move their nurseries as it posed too much of a risk to the embryos as they matured, Vee insisted they keep a close eye on the place.
They’d agreed to hit the nursery the next night. While Vee had toiled at her Dad’s side, napping for ten minutes at a time when exhaustion hit her hard, Vee had considered where Lucy was being kept and if she was still alive. It didn’t bear thinking about. And the thought that Monroe would be upset should they not find the mother and child, also twisted deep within Vee’s gut. If anything, she wanted to find the mother and child for Monroe’s sake.
Guilt too filtered through Vee as she worked. A strangely moved part of her wanted to bring the detective in on their mission, but her gut told her that would be a supremely bad idea.
The next evening, they were using the boardroom as a prep room, the redwood table covered in a leather sheet, was weighed down by weaponry. Syama had dropped off Vee’s go-bag, filled with all of Vee’s weaponry including the conch. Vee tucked it deeper into her bag and concentrated on the weapons.
She was selecting her ammo and filling the specially modified magazines when the door to the boardroom opened and Devi walked in, half a dozen women in tow.
They were dressed in all black, skin tight Lycra, hugging every curve without so much as a single wrinkle. Empty holsters hung from their waists and were strapped to their thighs and shoulders. Each woman wore a tactical helmet, visors black but shimmering with a red overlay that Vee knew would be showing them IR details.
She raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she grabbed her hair and began to wind it into a low bun.
Then women removed their helmets in one smooth move as Devi turned to Vee. “This is Alpha Team. They will be under your command.”
Vee nodded, despite the urge to ask who they were and where they’d come from. As their superior, she didn’t want to weaken her position of authority by appearing ignorant of their assignment to her. The look on Devi’s face told her she’d taken the right stance.
Vee faced the women and nodded. “Who is Team Leader?” she asked scanning the faces, a redhead, a brunette, a Korean, and three women on Indian stock. Vee approved of the mix and hoped the team would work well with her.
Not that they had much choice.
The shortest of
the women stepped forward. Her hair was long, black, and sleek, hanging to just below her waist. Her eyes were dark and she had eyelashes to die for. She nodded at Vee, her expression enigmatic. “Team Leader Shivani Virat, Mother Apsara.”
Vee nodded and withheld her smile. She knew she had to be neutral and professional. “Where is Bravo Team based, and who are they reporting to?” she asked, glancing over at her mom.
“Bravo Team reports to your personal security team, Mother,” Shivani answered, her neck stiff. “Team Leader Ashnee Pavan is reporting to Syama and they’re dispatching out of the basement. Comms will be online in ten.”
Vee nodded again. She was saved from a response when her father walked into the boardroom, his brow furrowed, a pair of glasses riding low on his nose. He carried a bright red file, on top of which sat a fat black suitcase.
As he hurried inside, weaving between tactical team members and chairs, it hit Vee hard that her father was a nerd. A scientist, and a bioweapons engineer. Vee hadn’t fallen very far when considering the apple and the tree.
He shoved aside a small stack of guns and opened a space for the box. “Here. You’ll want this.” He waved a hand at the box, then leaned forward to open it with a flourish.
Inside the black interior were two dozen gleaming golden balls.
“Did someone rob a quidditch match?” Vee asked, eyebrow raised.
Two of the tac team members snorted and two choked on their laughter. When Vee glanced over, she could have sworn Shivani had been one of the culprits.
Sense of humor? Check.
Raj turned to look at Vee. “What?”
Vee lifted a hand. “Quidditch Dad. Harry potter? The Snitch?” Her dad stared blankly. “Never mind.” She’d been tempted to respond with her usual retort of where he’d been in the last ten years, but had thought the better of it. He was in a professional standing here, as owner of Shankar Industries no less.