by Ayer, T. G.
"So he infiltrated them with ease. Definitely a pro. And he took them out with ease. More professional. But what I don't understand is why?" Logan got more comfortable on the bed and linked his fingers, his brow furrowed. "Is it a vendetta? Or an organized elimination drive?"
"I'd bet on the latter."
"What gives you that idea?" Logan asked. "We haven't received any news of other incidents."
"Maybe not on the North American continent."
I gave him a quick rundown of Gaia and Sini's presence and information. And the more I spoke, the darker his face grew.
"This is not good at all."
"Yeah."
He grinned at me. "Okay, so let me get into the system, see what I can find. You think you can get more information on the other deaths?"
I nodded. "I'll speak to Nerina. Check if she knows anything."
"Have they been helpful?"
"Very. They aren't holding back. The girl's death affected them all. And it's not only the death talkers who are grieving for her." Logan's head jerked up. "Anjelo was her friend."
"Crap."
"Ditto."
"He okay?"
"I think so. He's pretty determined to help so he's channeling his grief in a constructive way. The same can't be said for her mother. Kira was like a stone. Rock-hard, as if nothing affected her. Then suddenly she blew."
"Understandable."
"Ditto." I sighed. "Okay. I'd better get moving. I need to speak to a few people, then speak to Nerina. I hate that Tara isn't around, though. Not that it matters. I have no idea what type of weapons I need anyway."
"Identify the foe," Logan said. "Then arm yourself accordingly."
"Easy for you to say. While I'm identifying I might get my head exploded because I wasn't prepared."
"So could I. If you say this killer is after paranormals that would be me."
"We all have to watch our backs."
Logan nodded and swung his feet to the floor. "Right. Let's catch the bastard."
I burst out laughing.
CHAPTER 19
I WAS STANDING IN MY apartment trying to decide what to do next when someone knocked on my door.
For the first time in a long while, all I wanted to do was to dive into the bed and hide under the covers. Unfortunately, hiding under the covers wouldn't get rid of my visitor. So I did the adult thing and opened the door.
Nerina gave me a weak smile and I waved her inside. My stomach did a somersault, and I was grateful I hadn't had breakfast. What else had she come to tell me? Who else had died?
"Has something happened?" I asked, unable to keep the ripple of fear from my voice.
Nerina looked sad. "There has been another incident. Lady Kira has sent me here so I can keep you informed. She believes you need to know exactly what happened. She also believes that any knowledge we can provide may help you find and stop the killer."
I nodded and guided her to the dining room table and into a chair. I stood there for a moment, wondering if I should offer her something to eat or drink. In the end, I just sat down beside her.
"Tell me," I said.
She sighed and lifted her grey eyes to mine. "This one won't be easy." Then she let out a ragged laugh. "What am I saying? As if the first massacre was easy."
"It's okay." I covered her trembling hands with mine, pressing down gently to help stop the shaking. "I know what you mean."
How was Kira treating the people around her? Not with tender care. In her grief, the woman was likely amplifying her awfulness.
"How is Lady Kira?" I asked, feeling as if I should at least enquire. It was the respectful thing to do.
Nerina gave me a bleak smile. "Worse than usual."
I raised an eyebrow, surprised at her openness. "That's as expected. Grief does terrible things to people."
Worse, it does terrible things to terrible people.
Nerina bobbed her head, the movement making her hood slither off her head. She didn't seem to care, not bothering as the fabric drifted away to reveal her gray hair, and fall around her shoulders in a silky pile.
I gave her hand one final squeeze before moving away.
Death talkers, despite their humanity, became something other after their Turn. They lost their human scent, and even their skin took on a cool, almost bloodless feel. Spending a lot of time in the Graylands ate away at their humanity, the place being devoid of all life. There were rumors of ancient death talkers who walked the path of the dead for thousands of years. Some were said to still exist in a state of half-life.
At last, Nerina cleared her throat. "I'm here at your service, Kailin. I will remain with you to assist in whatever way you require."
This I wasn't expecting. I forced a smile. "You don't really need to, you know. I can handle it."
Nerina smiled too, a little self-deprecatingly. "I'm sure I'll probably end up in your way, but I'm here on the strictest of orders."
"Ah, I see."
I did see. Kira had sent Nerina to keep an eye on us.
Her face fell. "Please don't be offended."
"Of course not. I understand your position. And you're more than welcome to stick with us." I grinned. "We have nothing to hide."
Nerina shook her head. "I'm not here to spy on you. Despite my orders, I will only relay only the information that you wish me to. Lady Kira does not need to know how you tie your shoelaces, or what you have for dinner." She gave a conspiratorial nod.
I trusted her. A little. But I was still aware that her loyalty didn't lie with me. In any case, we really didn't have anything to hide.
"All right," I said. "I'll tell you where we are so far, but there are a few things we can't reveal simply because they are only leads. Nothing certain."
"That's fine," she agreed. "You give me the formal version and I'll pass that on."
I nodded, launching into a brief description of nothing.
After I finished, Nerina considered what I'd told her in silence. "Perhaps I can broaden the picture for you."
"I'm sure you can. Will you do another mind-meld?"
She nodded. "Come."
We got to our feet and she led the way to the sofa where she waited as I lay down with my head on a pile of cushions and straightened my clothes.
Then she knelt beside me as our sofa was barely wide enough to seat two comfortably, and only one lying down. Less than one. My legs stuck awkwardly off the other end of the sofa.
My stomach felt a little strange, churning in anticipation of the mind meld. My last experience hadn't been fun.
"No special juice this time?" I asked.
Nerina laughed. "Unfortunately, no. But having already had the experience once before, your body should be able to adjust very quickly."
I settled back down as Nerina held my hand gently within hers.
"Just remember, keep calm. Relax. Nothing that's happening around you is happening to you."
I took a deep breath and waited as the strength began to slowly leave my body. Although Nerina would be near to guide me, I still anticipated disliking the whole experience.
I did as she'd instructed me to do the previous time, leaned on her energy which pulsed beside me, a constant comfort.
Lights danced beneath my lids, much brighter than in the last vision.
I opened my eyes slowly, bringing my hand up to shield them from the bright sun beating down on my head.
Strangely enough, I felt no heat against my skin and even the air I inhaled was not warm at all. A good reminder this was just a vision. I wouldn't experience injury or death if it came.
But someone had.
I floated, weightless, and when I looked down in search of solid ground I found it a few inches below me. On it were the upturned toes of a pair of dusty, dark feet.
I shifted my view and saw that the feet belonged to an ancient woman whose blank white eyes stared up at the bright blue sky.
I'd found the source of my vision.
The land around me stretched
into the distance, dusty and dry, dotted by desiccated, skeletal trees that had probably last produced leaves hundreds of years ago. In the distance, a small collection of grass huts huddled together against the heat, while a little boy wielded a pale stick at an emaciated cow, herding the animal back to the tiny village.
No, not a stick. A slim rod of silver light.
Something shifted beside me and a man in dark military clothes moved past, his dusty boots making a hollow deadly sound against the dry ground, a holstered black pistol slapping against his upper thigh.
I tensed. Watched helplessly as the boy skipped along, unaware of the danger that followed him. There was nothing I could do as the soldier closed in on the child, drew the weapon, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
A blast of light spewed from the barrel, reaching out towards the boy and knocking him over almost instantly. The little body jerked and fell forward arms and legs in an ungainly sprawl.
The soldier continued past the cow, ignoring both child and animal as he headed for the huts.
This killing was entirely different from the last. This was no complex infiltration via friendship. Here was simple execution by a stranger.
Unable to move, tied to the spirit of the old woman, I was forced to watch from afar as the man went from hut to hut sending blinding flashes of light spewing through one doorway after another.
A few times I saw responding flashes of light--perhaps the people of the village trying to fight back--but they were soon overpowered. Then it was over, and the lone gunman started back toward me.
A shout sounded to my right but I couldn't see what was happening until the woman's spirit saw. I waited, heart in my mouth. Then two men ran towards the village, deep ochre skirts draped around their waists, their faces tattooed, colored necklaces swaying frantically around their necks.
This was a Masai tribe who had paranormal powers.
A Masai tribe who had just been massacred.
The soldier pulled a second weapon from behind his back and ran, sending bursts of bright lightning straight at the tribesmen. The Masai warriors gave as good as they got, sending their own streaks of silver energy bolts straight at the soldier. They would have won, their power was strong enough, but two more black-clad soldiers joined the first.
The three solders bore down on the approaching warriors firing non-stop. I swallowed hard, studying the guns. They weren't the normal, run-of-the-mill weapons, and the ammunition used wasn't of human origin. The killers were using paranormal ammunition.
Although the warriors had managed to fight off one man with their powerful air magic, they were defenseless in the face of this new assault. They died as the rest of their people had died and their murderers set fire to the village.
Smoke billowed around us and I blinked automatically before realizing that the acrid air had no effect on me. I hovered over the old woman's body while the entire village died, gutted that I'd been unable to help. It felt wrong. It was wrong.
My attention moved back to the men, now huddled together as one pulled out a sat phone.
He placed it against his ear and said, "Victor here. Mission complete."
The air buzzed and Victor nodded. "Yes, sir. Right away, sir."
He put the phone back into his pocket, slid his pistol into the holster at his thigh, and made a circling motion with his finger in the air above his head. They moved out and my view shifted to watch them disappear along the horizon.
I could still feel Nerina's presence beside me, and though it was a comfort, it did nothing to make me feel better. I needed to go back. Find this ammunition.
My mind immediately went to Tara, and then disappointment surged through me. I had no way of contacting her, so whatever information we needed regarding these paranormal ammo we would have to get it somewhere else.
More moments passed. I was beginning to wonder what I was still doing there when I heard the sound of feet slapping the ground.
A young girl sank to the sand beside the corpse of the old woman, her head bent forward so I couldn't see her face.
She wailed in anguish and threw her hands out over the body. Then she held shaking fingers over the woman's chest. Soon light shimmered, flowing from her fingertips, and sinking into the corpse.
The light burned so bright I wanted to shield my eyes, but I didn't dare in case I missed something. But, as I watched, tears pricked my eyes. The magic wasn't working.
The girl began to cry in earnest, rocking back and forth beside the body, wailing out her grief. The sound floated on the hot, thick air and faded away into the silent plain.
I felt my insides tighten, and knew Nerina was taking me back. But as I drifted away, the girl looked up. Her gaze followed me, those eyes glowing brightly, swirling light shimmering, disappearing only when she blinked.
She stared at me, eyes wide, surprised.
Then she blinked once more, her eyelids lowered. Before they lifted again I was gone.
CHAPTER 20
I MANAGED A HEAVY-LIDDED blink, then dragged my eyes open. Nerina had transported me to the African desert, and yet I hadn't been submitted to the intense heat of the blistering sun, nor had I taken scorching breaths of midday air.
I knew this.
It didn't matter.
I exhaled, forcibly expelling the air from my lungs, frantic for a breath of fresh cool air, as if the heat had parched my very soul.
A part of me recognized the desire to erase the hot air was really a symbol for the desire to erase the awful experience. I'd watched helplessly as a boy had been gunned down, as a village was decimated, and as an old woman died in the arms of a grieving child.
I hated just being a bystander. More than anything I hated that I'd gotten there after the fact, a mere observer, rather than be of any help.
My body convulsed in a shudder and soft fingers wrapped around mine, a comforting squeeze I didn't even realize I'd needed.
"How are you feeling?" Nerina asked, her voice soft and concerned. Her face without its usual cowl was unshadowed, and for the first time I saw color in her pale milky eyes. A honey brown that reminded me too much of the child I'd left alone in the desert, the one whose keening had struck my heart.
I cleared my throat, the sound rattling around as I slowly pushed into a sitting position. My head throbbed, a dull, insistent pounding and I suspected the trip had taken its toll on me, especially since I'd gone in without the special magic juice.
"I'm fine." I forced the words out. "Just tell me what the hell that was." My voice cracked in my too-dry throat and I hacked a cough. Clearly my body hadn't gotten the message that the vision wasn't real.
Nerina's mouth twisted into a sad bow. "I know how you feel. The first time I experienced that vision it took me hours to recover. The only difference between us and paranormals like yourself is that we experience every emotion as well as the impact of the immediate environment."
I nodded, wincing at the throbbing in my head. "Yeah, I definitely noticed that. As hot as it was, I didn't feel the heat in the air. Or the sunshine. At the time it made sense, since I wasn't actually there, but now I feel really strange. As if my body doesn't believe what my mind already knows."
Nerina nodded as she removed her hands and straightened. She folded her fingers in her lap. "It's because you are not a death talker. The vision we experienced was through the eyes of the old woman. Just for the record, for a short while after death, the recently deceased do experience environmental impact, so she would have still felt sunshine, and the heat of the day. She would have still been able to smell the dusty air and smell the blood."
I opened my mouth to say I still found the death talker's ability fascinating, when a knock on the door interrupted me and then a key scraped into the lock.
I drew on a tiny bit of my panther nose and confirmed that Anjelo and Lily had arrived.
Anjelo smiled as he held the door open for Lily, then shut the door behind him and handed her the key. Then he saw us.
"Wh
at the hell happened to you?" he asked, brow creased.
A hiss of breath escape my throat and I let my head drop back against the sofa. "You came just in time. Nerina was showing me what happened in Africa."
The pair took seats on the opposite sofa, both bore worried expressions while they waited.
I gave them a rundown, from African sunshine to Masai warriors with interesting powers. Anjelo's head moved almost imperceptibly left to right, the tiny action telling me he was still uneasy about me being in danger.
When neither said anything, I shifted my gaze to Nerina. "So, in essence we have a paranormal Masai tribe massacred by a team of unknown soldiers."
Nerina nodded. "The villagers were caught unawares. The surviving child told Sini everything. Her grandmother had taught her to run and hide in the reeds if anything bad ever happened. The poor child was hysterical, convinced she should have stayed behind, that she could have saved her people."
I shook my head. "From what I saw, that wouldn't have been possible. The soldiers were well armed, looked very well organized. But, what I don't understand is why send three soldiers to a tiny village in Africa, and send one man to kill a dozen teens in the US?"
Nerina inclined her head. "We wondered the same thing."
"Maybe they were learning," suggested Anjelo.
I nodded. "Which incident happened first?" I asked Nerina.
"The African village."
"I thought so." My head still throbbed but at least the pain was now receding. Pity the pain in my heart had nowhere to go. "My guess is they realized killing paranormals was easier than they'd expected. No need for three killers."
A somber silence fell upon room. An image flashed in my mind, the vision returning so suddenly that I had to swallow a gasp. The killer all dressed in black standing a few feet in front of me, his hands reaching out, the burst of paranormal energy from the muzzle--
Paranormal ammunition.
I frowned.
"What's wrong, Kai?" asked Lily, shifting restlessly.