by T. G. Ayer
"Good trip?" she asked, giving Maya a sober head-to-toe examination.
Maya made a face and sank onto the nearest stool. "Successful mission, yes. Good trip, no." She placed her elbow on the table and rested her head into her cupped palm, then closed her eyes, feeling a wave of bone-searing fatigue begin to swallow her whole.
Claudia patted her arm, pushing it out of the way and Maya's head dropped so sharply she had to straighten hard to ensure her face didn't smack into the table.
"What was that for?" she grumbled, giving her aunt a dark look.
"Because you need to get moving." Claudia was already behind her, grasping her upper arms and helping her to get back onto her feet.
"Moving? Where?" asked Maya, a little disoriented and almost heartbroken as she watched her seat being pulled away.
"Prague."
"What?" asked Maya, finding herself wide awake all of a sudden, her gritty eyes widening. "Prague? As in Prague, Czechoslovakia Prague?"
Claudia rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, her dark hair cascading in rich waves down to her waist.
"Could have sworn I spoke in English," said Claude, an impatient gust of air exiting her throat. Her body language implied she was already half way out the door. Dressed in her fighting clothes, jeans, dark boots and a leather jacket over her signature silky shirts, Claudia made a bad-ass picture.
But, Maya ignored her and said, "You mean another international flight?" Her tone was dry and impatient. She was too tired for games. And as much as another hunt would be interesting, she still felt like she was walking under water. Surely nobody could be ever-ready to function under these conditions.
But Claudia was nodding vigorously, clearly oblivious of Maya's fragile condition. "Yup. Sorry, chica. In this business you need a go-bag. Ready at a moment's notice."
Maya groaned. "My go-bag went and only just got back."
Claudia chuckled and patted Maya's back with deceptive gentleness. "Get moving, honey. Missing girls, possible rakshasa demon. Our flight leaves in two hours so we need to head out to the airport like . . . now."
"Are you serious? Am I being punked?" Maya asked, half hoping Claude would admit it was all a joke.
Her dad dragged his gaze from his laptop. Looking at her over the tops of his glasses, he said, "It's no joke Maya. They've requested you for this particular case. No turning it down."
"Why me?" she asked, successfully holding in the whine in her voice. Something told her she didn't really want to know.
"They need a bloodhound," was all he said before looking back at the screen, his expression indecipherable. Maya had the distinct feeling that he was laughing at her despite his stern composure.
"Move your butt, Maya. We don't have time to waste." Claudia's tone rang a little sharper than Maya expected and her eyes widened.
She threw her hands up in front of her, making a show of defending herself against Claudia's cantankerous tone. "Okay, Miss Grumpy Pants. I'm going." As she moved away from the table, she grumbled, "I just wish Nik was around to help get us to Prague without having to take another flight."
"Well, why don't you dial your driver and tell him to pick us up?" Claudia folded her arms and then raised an eyebrow. She too was well aware that when Nik was gone, nobody could contact him unless Maya had Sabala to send a message.
And, of course, Maya had no Sabala.
Filled with annoyance, disappointment and fatigue Maya turned on her heel to head back upstairs and ran face first into a chest. A firm, well-muscled one at that.
Firm, and familiar.
Nik.
Maya took a step back from him, for propriety's sake of course, and lifted her annoyed gaze to meet the demigod's pleasantly unaffected one. Yes, she had a right to be annoyed with Nik, though she did manage to rake him from head-to-toe with a gaze that bordered on hungry. Good thing she was facing Nik and her parents couldn't see her expression.
Damn he was good to look at. Those dark, smiling eyes, wavy hair that cried out for Maya to run her fingers through them . . .
Cut it out, Maya.
A glance to Nik's left, did confirm that Claudia had witnessed Maya's face in all it's besotted glory, but right now, her aunt knowing her lascivious Nik-related musings was the least of her concerns.
She closed her throat on a sigh. It made a kind of cosmic sense that Nik would appear when he was truly needed, not just because Maya had missed him, or because she'd needed to talk to him. And now that she'd gotten over her initial feelings when first seeing him, she accepted, to a certain extent, that she had no right to be annoyed with him.
It's not as if they were married, or even in a formal relationship. What they had had developed as she'd learned to control her powers. What they had was a little strange too, considering Nik was a 62-year-old demigod.
But she could handle it if he could. Her parents didn't seem to have a problem wrapping their heads around their daughter dating the half-god son of Yama, Lord of Death.
Maya swallowed hard, her suddenly parched throat protesting the action and making her muscles constrict.
Could it even be called dating?
"So how can I help?" Nik gave her a soft smile. His dark hair hung ever-so-casually over his forehead, high cheekbones shadowing a firm jaw. His patrician nose and bearing were a dead giveaway of his regal upbringing.
Maybe she should have clarified the actual status of their relationship, but she'd never broached the subject with Nik. Probably because she was afraid of what he'd say. And right now, she couldn't handle the rejection.
Dev cleared his throat, the sound almost making Maya jump. "We need to get Maya and Claudia to Prague. Is there a way you could give them a lift?" he asked.
Beside Nik, Claudia had a nervous smile on her face, and Maya suspected she really didn't want to be zapped from the kitchen to another country half way across the world. Claudia thrived on control.
Nik grinned. "I'm happy to take you. But I may have to leave you there and return later to fetch you."
Maya's ears buzzed and she blinked away a wave of dizziness.
The room around her fell into heavy shadow, the lines of strangely placed furniture and the sense of a low roof and close walls made Maya feel all the more disoriented.
The odor of dust and rain filled her nostrils, an oddly pleasant smell.
Thunder rumbled and a door to the left let in murky light that in a blink was blindingly bright as lightning crackled somewhere overhead.
The tiny shack, with its dirty white walls and roof of almost rotted wood, smelled of warm metal and burning wood, scented heavily with fried food.
A low grunt bounced against the walls and Maya shifted her gaze to the woman standing beside a rough-hewn wooden table, a cellphone in her hand, a look of disgust smeared across her face like an eerie shadow.
"Where is he?" asked Claudia, fingers fisted, forehead crumpled in frustration.
In some strange way, Maya knew she meant Nik. Like in a dream, she sensed more about the scene than was obvious, like the gut feeling that Nik's absence meant a whole lot of trouble.
In the vision, Maya shook her head and she heard herself speak. "I don't know." Her hollow tone held a deep sense of hopelessness, and fear.
Maya's throat tightened. What was this strange vision?
A premonition?
One of being stranded in Budapest, unable to return home because Nik had disappeared.
Maya's stomach clenched painfully, and she let out a strangled cough as the dilapidated room disappeared and her mom's kitchen returned to surround her with comforting warmth. A coziness that felt a little empty after her vision.
She cleared her throat. "Er . . . I think we should have an alternate plan. Just in case."
The silence around her seemed deafening, filled with shock and criticism as her parents stared at her as if she'd been unforgivably rude to a revered guest.
Nik's gaze snapped to Maya, his eyebrows curved with curiosity. Despite Maya's concern, she couldn't
see even a hint of annoyance or judgment.
"In case of what?" He genuinely wanted to know.
Maya shrugged. "You never know. Something could come up for you." She hoped she'd kept her tone neutral, but from the tiny frown now creasing the demigod's brow, she knew he was suspicious. "All I mean is, we should be prepared. If we enter the country without stamping our passports what happens if we have a problem when we try to leave?"
"Oh, don't worry about that. I can easily get you into the airport and past the security checkpoints." Nik grinned, his white teeth flashing cheerily.
"You can?" asked Maya.
Really Maya? Way to ask a dumb question.
Heat bloomed on her cheeks as her parents chuckled, while Claudia snorted and said, "Duh."
She gave Claude a quick glare. "Of course, you can," she said, giving Nik a sweet smile, unable to keep the dry note from her tone.
Nik smiled, unaffected by her strange mood. "You are right, though. You do need a contingency plan. I'll get you to the airport and grab a couple of disembarkation forms for you so it looks to the customs officers as if you have arrived from a recent flight. They wouldn't suspect otherwise. And when you're done, I will come to fetch you. But I do understand. Peace of mind is important."
The strange edge to Nik's tone pulled at Maya's heart. Had she hurt his feelings? Or was he just preoccupied?
With a deep breath she gave her parents a look that said she was sorry, then grabbed Nik by the arm and guided him out of the kitchen and into the living room across the hall.
For a moment, they stood just inside the door, enveloped in uncomfortable silence.
Get to the point, Maya.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She folded her arms over her waist and waited, keeping her eyes on Nik's face.
He shook his head, his expression neutral but now the hint of tightness at the corner of his eyes said her words had affected him, even if it had been in a small way. Raising his hands up before him he said. "You didn't-"
"I know I did. But I have to explain."
Maya's tone must have had a no-nonsense edge to it because Nik remained silent.
She took that as her cue and said, "Something strange happened. I kind of saw us, like a memory, or déjà vu or something. We were stuck in an old house in the country, waiting for you, but you never came."
"And you saw this like a vision?" Now she had his attention. The tight lines around his eyes were all gone, which made Maya inordinately happy.
She nodded. "Yeah, it was weird."
"Okay. Best not to ignore it. Could be a sign."
"You believe in signs?"
"Of course. There is more about the universe that humans could learn in five lifetimes."
Maya gave a weak smile.
Humans.
Nice reminder that they didn't even belong to the same race.
Technically.
Chapter 7
Maya kicked her closet door shut before dropping a couple of changes of clothes onto the bed. Joss was folding them, strangely silent as she packed Maya's bag while Maya scurried around getting dressed.
She was dropping Kali's kapala and Chayya's pot into a side pocket of the rucksack when a knock on her room door had both girls glancing up.
Dev stood on the threshold, a comforting smile on his face. "You don't have to rush, you know. Now that Nik is taking you two, you are ahead of schedule."
Maya shrugged. "Better to get it over and done with."
"Just so you know, you aren't needed only as a bloodhound." Maya raised her eyebrows finding that unlikely.
"Like I have any other skill KALIMA would want." She snorted.
Dev laughed. "Well, maybe you're right. So a quick rundown?" Maya nodded. "The Eastern Europe sector became aware of this case yesterday. What the police think is a serial-killer could possibly be a demon. A string of girls have gone missing over the last few months, all late teens, all of a similar look; dark hair, on the shorter side, all independent. Many of them were backpackers and students."
"What makes KALIMA think it's a demon?"
"He's not the most efficient of killers. Along with personal items, the abduction scenes contained traces of non-human DNA."
Maya raised her eyebrows. "And we have the technology?"
He nodded. "Yes. Our bio-engineering department have a lot of fun studying demon genetics. The cops passed us some of the DNA found at the scenes and our tests indicated a presence of Rakshasa. That's where you come in."
Maya said nothing.
Joss grunted.
"What's wrong?" asked Dev, his smile amused.
Joss pointed a thumb at Maya. "She gets to have all the fun." She pouted.
Dev chuckled and stepped into the room to take a seat at the window. "I have a mission for you. If that makes you feel any better?"
Joss's face lit up. "Really?" She crawled to the edge of the bed, packing forgotten.
"We have a report of suspicious activity out in the San Fernando Valley. Someone complained about Eastern cult practices out in the desert and Leela is going to have a look." He smiled, his expression truly fatherly as he spoke to Joss. She'd become one hundred percent part of the family. "You girls don't have to worry about school either."
The girls both shared a surprised glance.
"Do tell," urged Joss, leaning forward.
"Together with Joss's parents, we've prepared the paperwork to remove you two from the schooling system."
"What?" Maya raised her eyebrows.
Joss managed a soft, "Wow."
Dev nodded. "With all the running around that we have to do, sometimes formal schooling can prove to be a problem. So your mom and I will oversee your studies. You both only have less than a year left before college so we thought it best you have some flexibility."
"Um . . . Thanks?" said Maya, a little uncertain how she felt about this change of schooling method.
School had never been a comfortable place to be, but being removed entirely from it was a little bit of a shock to her system.
Joss's shell-shocked expression said she felt the same.
"Hey, you two. Don't stress. It's not finalized so if you still want to go to school then we just do nothing."
"More hunting? Less timetables and teachers? What's not to love?" asked Maya.
Joss was nodding vigorously and Maya's dad smiled. "Okay. Joss, you go get ready. Leela is leaving in half an hour."
Joss jumped to her feet, gave Maya a wink and waved as she hurried out the room. Maya shook her head and smiled. To her dad she said, "That was nice of you, giving Joss something to do."
He nodded. "She's been keen to go on more cases. She's been training hard and studying up. I think she deserves a shot at being an agent."
Maya grinned. That explained the meditation books on the plane.
"Well, you just made one girl very happy."
She threw her toiletries bag into her rucksack and zipped it up. When she faced her dad, she frowned.
"What?" she asked, unable to keep the defensive note out of her voice.
Damn. That was sure to get Dad on her case now.
"Nothing," he said with a shrug, hopelessly failing to hide a smile. Then he cleared his throat. "You really should cut that guy some slack, Maya."
Her gaze narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?" Good thing she sounded less defensive.
"Cell-phones don't work in the underworld. Nik has to learn to adapt to a relationship and I'm assuming it's going to take time."
"Time for what?" Maya said, her voice a little too harsh as the advice hit home. She managed to soften her words with a self-deprecating smile.
Dev tilted his head and studied her face. "Time for him to adjust to being in a relationship where he is expected to reciprocate according to modern norms."
"Oh." That put Maya in a state of confusion.
Thankfully, he left that topic alone. "We are both very proud of you, Maya." Dev's eyes darkened. "Your Mom and
I have been very impressed with the way you've handle your responsibility. We just think you need to ease up on the pressure you put on your shoulders."
Maya shook her head, the movement sharp and frustrated. "You don't understand. Responsibility is the last thing on my mind." Suddenly she fell silent. Did she really want to talk about this with her dad right now?
He must have sensed her rejection because he rose and came to sit on the bed beside her. His arm tightened around Maya's shoulders.
Giving her a little shake, he sighed. "You can tell me anything. You always have been able to, so you know my ear is here whenever you need it. No judgment zone." The silence hung heavy as Maya's brain went a mile a second. "All you need to do is let yourself trust me," he said close to Maya's ear.
Maya frowned. Why shouldn't she talk to someone about what worried her the most? Her parents had taken care of her from the beginning, protected her all those years, knowing the day would come when Maya would come into her power. A power that they'd kept a secret ever since they'd found out the truth.
Maya let out a soft sigh.
"You are not alone in this, honey. You must remember that." Her dad's soothing voice brought back countless memories of bowls of butter-drenched popcorn and late-night movies, sneaking out for ice-cream with him when her mom was asleep, and brushing the crumbs from stolen cookies under the rug so her Mom wouldn't find out they'd taken them.
She cleared her throat, shoving her tumultuous emotions aside. "Okay. Maybe you can help. Even if it's just to listen to my first-world problems." Maya made a face.
Dev nodded, approval gleaming in his eyes. "That's my girl."
Maya quickly gave him a rundown of the fire-breathing incident on the plane and didn't leave out the fact that her emotions had gotten the better of her. But when she described healing Joss, his body stiffened beside her.
"Maya," he whispered, and Maya could feel the concern in his voice.
"What's wrong?"
Maya shifted her gaze to meet his eyes. And then she shook her head, feeling a tightness grow in her chest.
"See? I knew I shouldn't have told you anything. I didn't want you to worry, and now you're worried."
Dev chuckled. "Worrying is part of the deal."