by K. N. Banet
“The doctor?” I looked at Raph, not liking how washed out he was.
“He worked in the lab I was in. He was one of them. He might not officially work for Mygi, but he works with them,” Raphael explained, his voice rough.
“I figured by your reaction. That’s…good. We have a lead from this, and now we know it’s definitely about you and me and that whole mess. They went through a lot of trouble to make sure this didn’t come back on them, but now we have it.” I wanted to scream. Those fucking idiots really thought all of this would work?
“What was the rest?” he asked, rubbing his scarred wrist, the wonderful place where they had cut off his hand, then let his healing ability reattach it. It was by far one of the worst physical marks they had left on him. After months of seeing him, I had grown used to the damage his body had, but now that I saw him rubbing it, I thought about how many gunshot wounds and scars he had—five years of being a lab rat and another five on the run.
“Eliphas was doing therapy with Nakul and one day, brought in that guy, Doctor Bauer. The last memory was the good doctor blackmailing Eliphas, and he used a compulsion spell on Nakul. It was not pleasant. A compulsion spell is easiest to do when the person wants to do it and won’t because they’re too afraid. If someone wants to bungee jump but can’t get over their fear, a compulsion spell makes it easier. It gets harder by degrees, depending on how mentally stable someone is and how much they don’t want to do it.” I took a slow breath. “Using a compulsion on Nakul to kill another naga—me—went against everything. It was the strongest violation of magic they could have done on him. That’s why he was able to fight it off for so long.”
“The strongest violation of magic?” Raphael frowned. “Compared to what?”
“Doing that to someone is tantamount to raping their mind,” I answered, using the r-word I disliked so much. Raphael’s already pale skin lost more of its color, looking ashen grey at this point. “Before you ask, that’s why I threw up. The feeling of that level of violation struck a chord with me. I’m not talking about it further, but that’s what we’re dealing with here. Nakul will be lucky if he comes out of that sleep in the right mind because the spell finally won and forced him to try to kill me. It won’t be pretty for him.” I knew from experience how hard it was to overcome that level of pain and shame. After a hundred years, I could admit I never really did.
“Then, that fucking doctor went in and blocked the memory of Eliphas casting the compulsion spell to let Nakul believe he turned down the offer to kill me. Then Nakul had to live with the feeling of violation, knowing something was very wrong in his own mind but not what. The compulsion spell would have drawn him to find me over and over until he finally broke and completed his task.”
“Like Wesley hunted you down twice,” Raphael said, nodding slowly.
“Wesley must have been easy to spell. He’s not mentally sound. He would have taken the compulsion spell, it would have agitated him because he doesn’t like killing, and it would have continued to drive him into a frenzy.” I sighed. “Which was why he was too agitated to see when we were there and Tarak was walking us through. He said Wesley wasn’t fit for visitors, even for my walkthrough. Fuck.”
“You know, Korey mentioned Tarak knew about this guy. Do you think he was in on it and got caught in the blast by accident?” Raphael leaned on Monica’s desk.
“It’s a good thought, and there might be one person in the building with the answer.” I knew Kartane was waiting downstairs. “Let’s go. The witches have Eliphas’ second in command here. That’s what Monica showed me before I came up. We might as well get to talking to him.”
Raphael nodded and followed me out. Monica met us outside the door and led us. I didn’t think she had heard us, but she was leading us to Kartane.
“You weren’t eavesdropping, right?” I asked casually. “Because we were hoping to speak to Kartane.”
“I don’t need to read minds to know what your next stop was going to be. I wasn’t going to let you leave before you listened to him, and with what we saw in Nakul’s memory, I’m pretty sure we all know who is behind all of this.”
“Yup, just need to fill in some gaps at this point and call the big guys. Leave that to me.”
“I was planning to. I like the witches on the Tribunal, but I try not to speak to them often. Being under the radar is better than getting a reputation, even if it’s a good one.” She went into the basement first. I went down before Raphael, who was a little hesitant. I couldn’t blame him. We were going into a witch’s basement. Who the fuck knew exactly what went on down there?
She led us to a dark back corner, then opened the door, closing us in with Kartane, separated only by the bars.
“Tell me your story,” I ordered as I grabbed a chair from one side of the room. “What exactly are you doing here and not supporting the prison during a massive breakout that’s going to send ripples across supernatural society for decades to come?”
“I knew it was him,” Kartane whispered, looking up. “I caught him and Tarak sneaking in that healer and his crew. I knew something was fishy because Korey had no idea what was going on. Neither did Dian, and nothing is done in the prison without all three Wardens knowing. Tarak was all about helping Wesley, but Eliphas acted differently. He started letting that guy talk to other inmates for ‘therapy’ sessions…” Kartane sighed. “I’ll start from the beginning. There’s a backstory.”
“Please.” He had started at the bad part, but I wanted to know how it got bad.
“Eliphas had been doing therapy for the southern cell block inmates for years. It was something many of us did. Group therapy, individual therapy, work therapy, you name it, and we tried it in hopes it would lower the re-offender rate. He started working on the northern cell block inmates, which we all thought was useless, but then it really started helping at least one person…um…” Kartane seemed like a teenage boy about to talk about someone he knew I didn’t like.
“Nakul,” I filled in.
“Yeah. Nakul was showing a lot of improvement. He was a good inmate after starting those. Less solitary confinement, though fights will always happen, you know? Well, when Tarak and Eliphas brought in that healer for Wesley, everything seemed fine. It was fishy, but I was the only person who noticed, so I didn’t know who to ask for help. Maybe they had Tribunal permission, and I just didn’t know. I had no idea what to do. Then the guy started seeing people Eliphas was doing therapy with. I don’t know what was happening in that, but I didn’t like it.”
“How long was it going on?” I asked softly.
“At least a decade if not more,” Kartane whispered. “I should have raised the alarm sooner…”
“You should have,” I snapped. “I’ve reviewed the prison three times in the last decade. Any one of those times, you could have approached me and let me know the prison had unauthorized visitors. Neither of them mentioned it to me.”
“I know. I was scared Eliphas would know I ratted him out, and I…wasn’t keen on dying.”
“Moving on. Was there any suspicious activity recently?” I waved a hand for him to continue the story.
“I always made sure to check on people after they had therapy with that healer. They didn’t like him, but they never wanted to talk about it either. They probably just assumed it was allowed, and they didn’t have a choice in the matter, so they didn’t complain. I had to dig for information. Some thought he was creepy. Some were just uncomfortable. Then about three to four months ago, they started coming out of those sessions…different? They wouldn’t talk for the rest of the day. They didn’t remember the appointment. They didn’t know who I was talking about.”
“He was removing evidence of himself,” Monica muttered hotly. “That fucking monster.”
“Yeah…” I didn’t react. I felt cold. I encased my heart in ice for what I knew would be my task later in the evening. “And Nakul?”
“Oh, yeah…His last meeting with that guy left him all s
orts of messed up. He wasn’t happy anymore and was insanely paranoid. He kept saying someone was in danger, but he couldn’t tell me who. Everyone just assumed he had snapped again, and the progress with him was fucked. Everyone in the northern cell block is a little, if not completely, insane. They aren’t normal prisoners, you know that.”
“No, they aren’t,” I agreed coolly. “What happened yesterday? The day of the breakout?”
“You showed up, and something felt off. Eliphas made himself scarce to work on new spells for the prison’s defenses. He never missed a visit with you. He liked to poke at you because he used his updates on you to help Nakul. See, Nakul really liked hearing about you for some reason.”
“I’m his niece and the last female of our species. Most of the nagas like getting news about me as long as it’s me not being dead.” I tried to smile, but it wouldn’t form. My face stayed in its blank state. “Then Tarak walked me through the prison.”
“Yeah. I went to Eliphas and caught him pulling down the defenses slowly, so no one would notice,” Kartane said, looking away. “I tried to stop him, but then the detonation spells went off.”
“Ah shit,” I said, rolling my eyes to look at Raphael and Monica behind me. “How did we all miss that only Eliphas would have been powerful enough to lower all the prison’s defenses?”
“Everyone was too busy trying to hide or stay alive,” Monica retorted. “Everyone outside the prison was worried about what the criminals would do in our city. You were worried about not getting killed while killing them. He had us distracted too long to notice it in time.”
“Yup.” I looked back at Kartane. “What happened to his eyes?”
“I have no idea,” Kartane said, shaking his head. “He had them when I saw him.”
“Do you think he…took them out himself for the ruse?” Raphael asked. “Think about it. Kartane reveals he knows Eliphas was dirty. He was being blackmailed by this healer, then Kartane threatened to expose him. He needed a real good act to get us to completely forget about him as a possible suspect in the breakout and the hit on you.”
“Ah, shit. Which means he’ll be able to put them back in. We kill Kartane, he ‘finds’ where Kartane hid his eyes, and everything is right in the world.” I shook my head slowly. “And it all would have worked if I had died in the prison during the breakout like planned. I’ve made it through every layer of their trap—the explosions, the first couple of inmates, and the one I interviewed under the same compulsion spell. Wesley was recaptured by the Phoenix Pack. I killed Levi and those two fucking werewolves Hasan was keeping. I survived Nakul, the ticking time bomb sent to me in case none of the others worked.”
“Who knows how many more are under compulsion spells to kill you. It sounds like everyone Eliphas did therapy with was subjected to it or at least had their memories wiped of his existence.” Raphael rubbed his face, looking away again. “This is deep.”
“To kill someone like Kaliya, it has to be,” Monica explained nonchalantly. “You don’t go after someone like an Executioner without contingency plans. That’s asking to screw it up and get killed. They did everything they could, so this would go off in the way they wanted. It’s ingenious.”
“And very supernatural,” I muttered, looking at my roommate. “It’s just not normally done with an entire prison of dangerous and deadly criminals in such an affront to the Tribunal at the same time. Or with this much magic. This is probably the largest assassination attempt I’ve ever heard of.”
“But why?” Monica asked, looking between Raphael and me. “Why does this mystery man want you dead?”
“Because if I die and Cassius isn’t available, interested parties get to put Raphael back into a lab for safekeeping,” I answered as that piece clicked into place. “And if a bunch of criminals are also on the loose, Cassius would be too busy, and so would the rest of the Executioners and Investigators. They would be able to secret him away.”
Raphael nodded slowly.
“All of this,” he whispered.
“All of this to get back at me and get you back in their control. Well…that’s really fucked up, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is,” he said, kicking a foot at the ground in obvious frustration. “I really wish we could stick them with this.”
“I’m going to assume this is where I’m not allowed to be in the conversation?” Monica asked politely.
“Yeah. Raphael, we’ll finish this conversation later.” He nodded once, then I continued. “We’re going to head out, Monica. Keep Kartane. Feed him. I’ll call one of the Tribunal and explain the situation. Keep Nakul in a secure room with no small openings or under a magically-induced coma, which would be safer for everyone. I’m not taking him back to the prison.”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t either. We’ll keep him out for as long as you need and secure here. We won’t take anything from him. Who do we bill?”
“Adhar,” I answered because I was a petty bitch, and he was also a leader of the nagas. “I’ll send you his information so you can.”
“Thank you. You know how to leave?” She opened the door, and I nodded, walking out.
“Come on, Raph. I’ve got work to do, and I know you’ll want to be there.”
He followed me out as if we had been partners for years, and by the look on his face as we climbed into my BMW, he knew exactly what was going to happen next.
“Terry, put our bags in the back already,” he said, his face stoic.
28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I called Hasan as we hit the road toward the prison. Both Raphael and I were amped up but in a quiet way. He knew I was going to kill the Warden, but I didn’t tell him the plan yet. I needed the drive to really figure it out.
But first, I needed to speak to Hasan.
“Kaliya, these long absences of yours are growing concerning,” he snapped when he answered. “I’m alone, so feel free to speak freely. Tell me what the fuck has been going on in that damn city.”
“Eliphas is the one who orchestrated the breakout at the prison. He was being blackmailed by the ‘healer’ he brought in. I wouldn’t doubt your Investigator could find illegal monetary transactions if he looked for them.” I didn’t waste any time, nor did I give Hasan a chance to speak. “But none of that matters because I saw him commit the crime of using a compulsion spell on Nakul to kill me, and as an Executioner, I have the right to kill anyone who I know makes an attempt on my life.”
“Excuse me? You witnessed him?”
“I rode Nakul’s memories. Hasan, this is ugly, and before you take everything to the other Tribunal members, I have a favor to ask.”
“Ask away. I’m sure you’ve earned a favor during this mess somewhere.”
“Have you told the Tribunal about the third-party healing group Eliphas and Tarak brought in?”
“Yes, but we’re all stuck on that. Eliphas has told Johann the team was heavily vetted and uninvolved, so they believed him. Eliphas, for all his eccentricities, is somewhat of a golden child.”
“I don’t want to press the issue of the team in the investigation,” I explained, licking my lips. “I want Eliphas to take the fall for all of this right now.”
“Why?”
“Raphael recognized the doctor in Nakul’s memories. He might not officially work for Mygi, but he works with them or something. If he goes down for the prison stuff, I might not be able to use him to help Raphael.” I needed this man, whoever the hell he was. And before I killed Eliphas, I planned on getting information about him, if the damn witch gave me the option. If I had to kill him outright, that was okay, too. I had a feeling Eliphas kept information somewhere on him.
“Hmm, well, we can’t hide the involvement of the third party forever. My recommendation is to take down Eliphas tonight. I’ll do a full briefing with the Tribunal tomorrow about this healer and his connections to other situations you and Cassius are heavily invested in. You will continue the hunt for him at a later date when this
has settled.”
“That works. In the end, based on the Law, Eliphas is already a dead man. They can’t use the healer he hired to somehow shield him.” I nodded slowly. “Okay. That works for me.”
“Good. I’m going to head to the meeting room and call them all in. I want you to hash out the execution of Warden Eliphas with the entire Tribunal.”
Ah, fuck. He’s not going to cover for me until after I do it. He’s going to make me argue for it. Asshole.
I was put on hold. Raphael gave me a look as the aggravating saxophone music played through my speakers.
“Really?” he asked, half-chuckling. “I thought you were important, and they can just put you on hold?”
“They’re more important,” I reminded him. “And they like to subtly remind people that they’re in charge when some of us get a little too wild. I’m the definition of a little too wild.”
“I can tell,” he murmured. “Do you think you’ll get there okay before we get there?” He looked at the time, and my eyes followed.
“Yeah, but first, I have to argue with them.” I went silent, preparing my arguments. It wasn’t hard. I had contingency after contingency, just like the men who tried to kill me did, and I had my traps to kill others laid in waiting much longer. My entire life was based around finding the loopholes and reasons to kill anyone who might threaten me or my people.
“Kaliya?” Hasan came back seconds after the music ended. “I’m going to put you on speaker.” I heard chatter in the background all of a sudden, and Hasan shushed people. “Kaliya is of the mind Warden Eliphas should be executed at the soonest opportunity and is probably already on her way to do the job. Kaliya, please explain to the rest of the Tribunal what you told me.”
“Oh, isn’t that interesting,” Matilda, the female witch, said airily. “Eliphas? That’s going to be a fun story.” She was already skeptical.
“I have irrefutable proof Eliphas was behind the breakout and the person who used compulsion spells on not one, but at least three different prisoners to kill me. I rode Nakul’s memories with the help of the Phoenix Coven. I saw Eliphas use the compulsion spell and felt the way it made Nakul react. Then a memory spell was used on Nakul to block out the compulsion spell and replace it with a semi-false memory.”