The Kala Trilogy: An Urban Fantasy Box Set

by Teagan Kearney

  And no Vanse. How on earth was she supposed to get any sense out this lot? “Hey! Excuse me!” At first, no one paid her any attention. She yelled louder. “Hey, where’s Vanse?”

  As they registered their master’s name, every vampire simultaneously ceased howling and lamenting and turned to face her.

  Shit. She’d never seen her end coming in this fashion; she stepped back, ready to run, wondering if it was too late or if she had time to call up the Bandrui to save her. This felt like one of those times when your life is supposed to flash before your eyes, but her brain was syrup and refused to process the scene before her. Her mouth opened in shock when they dropped to one knee and bowed their heads to her. Absolute silence followed, during which Tatya imagined the one sound everyone had tuned into was the boom boom of her heart. Would they tear her apart, in which case, she didn’t imagine eight pints would go far among this lot, or would they drink her dry in order of priority? But not one vampire moved, and she saw no sign of blood lust, merely a sea of heads acknowledging her. What in the name of everything that was holy was going on?

  “May I rise?” A young man spoke but kept his head bowed low.

  “Er... yes. All of you, get up.” She was about to say get on with what you were doing but thought better of it.

  Every vampire in the room rose, and stood silent, their blood tears evaporating, their eyes fixed on her.

  This was bizarre, and way past creepy. “Fabio, isn’t it?” Tatya remembered he’d helped when Vanse had been sick.

  “Yes, Milady.”

  “Where can I find Vanse?” Realizing her life expectancy had increased, she pushed a small amount of power into her voice. Appearing weak before a host of vamps, however polite they seemed at the moment, wasn’t a good strategy, despite the need which made her want to beg them to tell her where he was, because not being able to sense him hurt. But they already knew that.

  Fabio spoke to her feet. “Vanse is missing. He was here earlier and left on private business. Then from one moment to the next, none of us could connect to him. He’s not dead. We would know immediately if that had happened. However, Seigneur Vanse planned for such an emergency.” A ripple of emotion crossed his face and he stopped, struggling to regain control before continuing, “and as his official consort, his orders are that you are in charge.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three: The Search

  Tatya smudged the room, fragrant cedar and sage filling the air. Lately, she’d barely had time to do more than her morning meditation, and not even that on the days Corwin had called her out early. The room, near the bottom of her to-do list, was a dingy, unappetizing shade of beige. In an effort to brighten and personalize the space, she’d hung a large black and white zigzag patterned Indian blanket on one wall. In pride of place on the top shelf of a small bookcase underneath the window were a few precious items, Changing Sky’s rattle, her drum, a set of prayer beads given to her by Aunt Lil, and Sean’s pipe. The rest of the shelves were filled with paraphernalia such as incense, candles and the large sandalwood box where she kept her crystals. An intricately designed Tibetan carpet, another present from Aunt Lil when she’d turned twenty-two, which she used as a meditation mat occupied the center of the floor.

  She’d left Fabio in charge at the lair, instructing Vanse’s followers to obey the young man and continue as normal until she returned. Her knowledge of their business or what looking after them entailed was zero. Yes, she’d contemplated being Vanse’s Consort, but in that vision, she continued to live a normal life in her own place. The prospect of contact with vampires without Vanse to buffer the reality of their lives filled her with trepidation; yet she was amazed he had such confidence in her that he’d leave them in her care.

  But if Vanse was missing and not dead then she’d find him. The absence of the bond hit her again. Since he’d given her his blood, it was always there, a thin luminescent cord binding them to each other. If activated it was like being in the same room, but with telepathic abilities where she didn’t need help to read his emotions, feeling them as if they were hers. Somehow, they merged, yet both retained their individuality; together they became whole, each complementing and enhancing the other. Love strengthened you and gave a reason for living, but it also softened your core, creating vulnerability and weakness.

  She looked out of the window. As the last building on Main Street, she had an open view of the land to the south. The sun broke through the high banks of white clouds, spilling long shafts of sunlight across the lush grassland. A few vehicles drove south, and a murder of crows wheeled high above. She looked at her watch, two thirty pm. Was it only this morning she’d sat with Corwin and Forked Lightning? It seemed an eternity ago.

  Tatya thrust her indecision aside; she needed a clear head for scrying, and Aunt Lil had always told her, don’t cry till the milk’s spilled. She closed that soft sweet place inside, resisted its pull, locking it tight, walling off and toughening her defenses against any emotion threatening to undermine her willpower. She couldn’t afford to indulge in the luxury of loving him right now.

  As if in agreement, the subtle refrain of the Bandrui chant became louder. The Bandrui said they’d always be with her, and she hoped if Angelus had returned, she had a chance against him. He had to be mixed up with Vanse’s disappearance because her brain couldn’t conceive of any other explanation for his vanishing. She had no idea where Vanse stood in the vampire hierarchy, but he was powerful. To have stayed alive for as long as he had meant he had accrued powers beyond many other vampire masters. They’d thwarted Angelus once before, and they’d do it again.

  The smudging sticks had burnt down, and Tatya lit four sticks of sandalwood incense, positioning the incense holders in the four directions. Opening the box containing her crystals, she withdrew a handful of small colored ones, placing them at regular intervals between the incense. When she was satisfied, she stepped inside the boundary, using the last three gemstones to close the crystal circle she’d created. She sat, closed her eyes and inhaled the sandalwood, the scent reminding her of Vanse.

  She sought the thread of the Bandrui mantra, aware of the power contained within the refrain. Yes, there, a stream of iridescent colors, swirling just below her conscious mind. Focusing on the changing patterns, the intimacy she had enjoyed with the three priestesses returned as the rising and falling refrain filled her mind with joy.

  And power.

  She didn’t wait but drawing from the immense well now available to her, she sought for signs of her tie to Vanse. She was anxious and searched with care. If she hurried, she’d miss a detail, an important clue. But it was as if he’d never existed, and all that remained of him was a ghost memory. She flew up and outward, seeking southwards. She soared higher, over the silver ribbon of road, looking down at the rocky ridges, and forested covered slopes that rose beyond Orelton’s grassy plateau.

  An upsurge of relief nearly unbalanced her as the golden chain, faint and nearly invisible at first, blazed into life. Gladdened, and slowing her search as the connection strengthened, she screamed as a current of brutal pain blasted her. Someone was hurting Vanse, but she focused on the golden cord and hung on tight. Veering to the right, clinging tightly, and struggling to ignore his suffering, she followed the trail of pain pouring along the link. From one instant to the next, the connection went dead. As Tatya searched for clues to where Vanse could be, she realized the travelled as far at the Gluskap Forest.

  She withdrew back into her body, confused for a second as traces of his pain flickered at the edges of her vision. Satisfaction at finding him alive vanished as realization dawned. She’d found out where he was and had an idea of who had taken him, but why? She ran, stumbling down the stairs, and grabbed her phone.

  Corwin picked up on the first ring.

  “Bill, I need a favor. How soon can you be here?”

  “Give me ten minutes. What’s up?”

  “I’ll explain when you arrive. Just hurry.”

  “Hang on. I�
��ll be quick as I can.”

  Tatya sat in her truck, key in the ignition, tapping a rapid rhythm on the dashboard while her eyes flicked from the rear-view mirror to the road ahead. She breathed a sigh of relief as she caught sight of Bill’s car, his own trusty black Ford saloon, not his official vehicle with its look at me red and blue flashing lights.

  Despite his bluntness, Bill was a consummate police officer and knew when to practice discretion. He’d barely seated himself, before Tatya’s foot hit the accelerator and they shot out into Orleton’s southbound traffic.

  “Hey, slow down, Tat.” He leaned out, slammed the door closed and fastened his safety belt. “Now, what the hell’s going on?”

  “It’s Vanse. Forked Lightning’s werewolves have kidnapped him. I don’t understand how they managed it, but before I call an all-out war between them and the vamps, I want you to help me find out why.”

  “I’m not going to ask how you know this, but supernaturals aren’t under my jurisdiction, Tat. Having said that, I’ll do what I can. Do Vanse’s people know?”

  “I went to St. Raphael’s looking for him. It appears he’s left instructions I’m in charge in his absence.”

  “Did he tell you he’d done this?”

  “No, he didn’t, and they’re in meltdown, but I ordered them to carry on as normal while I try to locate him.”

  “Good. Any serious trouble between the vamps and the weres and we’d have to call in the super squad. A war will have repercussions and penalties that’ll hit them both. We have the authority to expel them from the county for up to a hundred years for serious breaches of the peace. Although after last year, Tat, we really don’t want to see more rampaging monsters.”

  Tree and bushes blurred passed as Tatya hurtled along, overtaking a twenty-ton truck and flashing through the tiny gap between it and the oncoming car by a cat’s whisker.

  Corwin groped in his pockets and sucked on his inhaler as they rocketed back onto their side of the road. “Tat! I said slow down! Neither of us will be of any help to Vanse if we end up smeared over the highway.”

  “Sorry, Bill. I can’t think straight. He’s injured and in pain.” Tatya tightened her grip on the wheel. Vanse was suffering, and all she could think of was getting him out of wherever it was they were keeping him. Nothing else mattered.

  “This must be to do with the dead girls. A vamp is involved and maybe they think Vanse has information on whoever it is?”

  “But if Vanse knew anything, he’d have told me.”

  “Would he? If it turns out to be one of his own, he might want to sort it out in-house and keep it away from the public’s notice. Supernaturals prefer to deal with their own when they break the rules. Even when the law states we investigate because the situation affects humans, it’s not easy to get them to surrender jurisdiction. He wouldn’t be the first to ignore the law.”

  Over to the right, a dark smudge lay along the far horizon, the edge of the Glusgap Forest.

  Tatya took the left turn to the rez without slowing. “Vanse would never jeopardize his standing in the community that way. I’d sense it if he was keeping secrets from me.”

  “Are you positive? He must have quite a few tricks up his sleeve. He’s been around a fair number of years, and he’s shared a lot with you, Tat, but has he told you everything about his past?”

  She shoved the lump swelling in her chest back into the place it came from, something she’d done from childhood, and sought her anger, the default emotion that kept her functioning when everything else was a disruption. “I doubt it, but last year, when my life was on the line, I trusted him, and he came through for me. Just as you did. Have you forgotten what he and Changing Sky did for me?” They skidded to a halt at the entrance to the reservation. “I’m going to have a nice little chat with Forked Lightning, but he’ll be more amenable if I’m by myself. I’ll send you an alert. Use your phone to record what he says. Okay?”

  “Don’t be rash, Tatya. Don’t attack him or zap him, or whatever it is you do. Just talk. If he knows anything, I’ll ask the tribal police to put pressure on him.” He stared at Tatya, his eyebrows drawn together, deepening the furrows on his forehead. “Try to draw him out, don’t antagonize him. He’ll just withdraw and you’ll learn nothing. Promise me you’ll behave.”

  Tatya’s mouth lifted in a small smile. “Don’t worry, Bill. I’m not a violent person.”

  “Well, that’s what I thought till you sent a demon back to Hell. You’re capable of stuff even you don’t know you can do. Now promise me—only talking.”

  Tatya climbed out and looked Bill in the eye. “Sheriff Corwin, you have my word.” She pointed to his pocket. “Phone.” And with that, she marched passed the faded rusty sign and into the reservation.

  Fifteen minutes later she knocked on Forked Lightning’s door. A bunch of kids hanging outside the first house she came to had eyed her with hostility, but pushing a little power into her voice when she asked where he lived for the second time had gotten her an answer. In the normal run of things, she didn’t use her powers to get information this way, but today was a whole other ball game.

  Forked Lightning’s house was set apart from the rest. He probably didn’t want people seeing who visited him, especially when those visitors were pack members who weren’t from the rez. She wondered if everyone knew he was a were. She knocked. No answer. Studying the woodwork, she noticed it had been freshly stained, and wondered at the useless details picked up by the mind when reality did a paradigm shift. She rapped again, louder—she’d given the house a quick scry, and he was in there.

  The door opened and Forked Lightning, wearing just his jeans, chest bare, no shoes, his jet-black hair hanging smooth and glossy to his waist, stepped out onto the porch, closing the door on the tantalizingly spicy smells wafting out from the house.

  Tatya pressed the alert button on the phone in her back pocket, planted her feet wide, and glared at him. “Where is he? I know you have him. I want him released.”

  “No.”

  The way he said the word, cold and flat, with his face closed and eyes expressionless told her everything. The werewolves had Vanse. “Why?” If this was a monosyllabic conversation, she could do that too.

  “You know why.”

  “Actually, I don’t.”

  “Well, unlike your friendly sheriff who sits around like a good little boy while a woman does his work, we don’t wait till something happens. We set another trap, and we caught the bastard.”

  “What?” Tatya paid no attention to the childish dig at Corwin. She understood their ignoring the sheriff’s warning and giving in to the urge to do something. In similar circumstances, she’d be tempted to do the same. But they’d caught Vanse? How was that possible?

  “Yes, you heard me. We asked, someone volunteered, and this time, none of your bumbling deputies were around and we caught him as he was about to sink his fangs into her neck. There’s no confusion. Your relationship with those bloodsuckers is your business but that master vamp of theirs, he’s the killer.”

  None of this made any sense. “That’s not possible. I’m connected to him. It’s similar to how you and I are linked, but stronger. I’d know if it was him. The description Alice gave said the attacker had red hair. Vanse has black. Listen, I’ll connect with you and him, we did it with Changing Sky and I’ll prove it to you.”

  “What you had with Changing Sky isn’t what you and I share. I have no choice in that matter. In this I do. Your past relationships mean nothing to me. The vampire hasn’t told you, has he?” For a brief second, sympathy flared in his eyes. “He’s a shapeshifter.”

  Tatya’s brain refused to work. No, no, no. Whatever Forked Lightning said, this wasn’t true.

  “Tomorrow night the moon is full, and he’ll pay for his crimes.”

  Full moon, when the weres transformed into wolves. She flashed on the Tarot card she’d drawn. Is this what the cards had been telling her? “You’re not handing him over to the sheri
ff?”

  “No, we’ll have justice our way. Stay out of this, Tatya. He killed members of our pack and nothing’s going to come between us and our revenge. Anyone who does will get hurt. That I promise you.”

  “The Vanse I know couldn’t do this. He has no reason to kill weres. Something’s wrong. I need to see him.”

  Forked Lightning’s expression didn’t change.

  “At least let me say goodbye to him.”

  “Why should I do that?”

  She swallowed the hurt sitting like a block of cement in her throat. “Because I love him.”

  A light prickling sensation crawled over her skin as Forked Lightning activated his link with her. This was the first time they’d connected since Changing Sky had bound them. She felt weird connecting with someone other than Vanse, not wrong, but different. Her empathy told her he had his anger on a tight leash. She lowered her shields, she needed him to sense the truth of her statement.

  Then he withdrew. “I’m bound by my oath to Changing Sky to help you, but I can’t allow you to see him without meeting with the pack first. This murderer has caused too much pain for me to assert my authority without their consent. I’ll be in touch.” He turned, his movements quick and graceful as he opened the door behind him. “Oh, and even if you tell the sheriff, without proof that we have him, he can’t do anything. Besides, he’ll never find him in time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Contact

  The last deep gold rays of sunlight slid across the wall as Tatya finished smudging the room. Twice in the same day. It had been a while since she’d done that.

  After returning from the rez, Bill went home. Winona would have dinner on the table, and he’d better not be late. Before leaving he made her promise to call if she needed him.