Spirit & Soul Read online

  Spirit & Soul

  A Hand of Kali Novel #5

  T.G. Ayer

  Contents

  Authors Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Epilogue

  The Hand of Kali Series

  Also by T.G. Ayer

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  About the Author

  Copyright

  Authors Note

  AUTHORS NOTE

  Hindu Mythology is a living religion.

  Like, Christianity, Islam, Judaism & Buddhism, Hinduism has millions of followers around the world. Fiction featuring Hindu gods is not merely a matter of choosing a god, and placing them in a fictional situation, mainly because you risk offending that deities devout worshippers. Unlike the Greek, Roman, Egyptian & Norse Pantheon, Hindu & Buddhist gods must be treated with the utmost respect in any fiction. I hope I have maintained this ethic within my series.

  I have tried to maintain as much respect as possible while still using fiction to both entertain and educate the reader. The Kali series is filled with details of the various deities currently worshipped across the world.

  Some rituals and powers are fiction, of course.

  There is much in the Kali series that is part of my own journey in life. I hope my travels in India have lent some level of authenticity to the Indian scenes.

  My familiarity with Bharathanaytam through my mother and daughter, has inspired the choice of theme for this book. I hope I’ve given you, the reader, some insight into the beauty of the dance style. Both Bharatnatyam and the North Indian dance style of Kathak are widely practiced so if you are interested in taking up the art, you should be able to find a teacher/school near you.

  My descriptions and details regarding trance states are from having witnessed it myself. Information is available online for further reading.

  Demons, Zombies, Undead & other creatures and spirits are as per mythology texts and are available online to research.

  Much of how to eliminate these creatures is anecdotal & fictional. Sorry guys, if you come across a Vitala, you’re on your own.

  Chapter 1

  Forgiveness was far harder than Maya had ever expected it to be.

  Maya took a slow breath through the stinging at her mouth, then ran her tongue over the skin of her lower lip to remove the beads of blood welling up along the cut.

  Not that she was bothered at all by the injury. Wounds obtained during practice sessions were par for the course and normally she’d take them as a badge of honor. But today, both her busted lip—and the steady throbbing in her knee—were inflicted only as a result of her own lack of concentration.

  Now Maya sidestepped the pointy end of her sparring partner’s madu, allowing her fire to simmer against her skin and flow along her hand to form a warm armor of shimmering flame.

  She felt a ripple of triumph as the deadly end of the weapon skimmed her protective barrier from her outer elbow to her wrist, its cool point deflected as though a magnetic field existed around her arm.

  Then, stark white pain exploded at the base of Maya’s skull, the shock of the blow eliciting a raw gasp and instantly rendering her protective field null and void.

  And, unfortunately for Maya, her armor of flame flickered out too soon. Her opponent’s blade had failed to penetrate the barrier along most of the length of her arm, but her distraction canceled the protection before she was safe from the full arc of the strike.

  The sharp blade slid along the top of her wrist, slicing her skin open as it went, leaving her with a cut all the way to the knuckle of her middle finger. Maya hissed, more annoyed with being distracted than at the injury to her hand—or the throbbing from the blow to her head.

  She shucked her hand out then just as blood rose to fill the thin cut, she slapped her palm onto the wound. Best to hide the extent of her injury as quick as possible.

  “Where’s your head at, Maya?” her sparring partner asked in a voice rough with impatience. Her opponent’s tone was also filled with concern and a fair amount of regret. Still, she didn’t mention Maya’s wound either.

  Pushing back the blindfold from her eyes, Maya rested the strip of dark fabric on the top of her damp hair. She blinked as the bright lights from the fluorescents above seared her retinas, though even as her vision adjusted, her palm hand remained fixed to her wrist as she sent steady pulses of healing heat into the damaged skin.

  Sabala still sat near the door, a gleaming obsidian fur-covered, four-eyed hellhound guard, not even blinking when her blood was spilled. The beast was a gift from Lord Yama, the god of the underworld, and Maya had found she wasn’t able to go many places without him trotting at her heel.

  Now, Maya shook her head in reply to her opponent’s question. Though Maya’s admission sat ready and waiting at the tip of her tongue--her natural instinct toward honesty threatening to reveal the issues occupying her mind--she bit her tongue. The subject of her own worries would only create more heartache for the woman she sparred with.

  Maya forced her lips to curve into a smile and prayed her expression didn’t look as fake as it felt. “Not sure. Maybe I’m tired.” Her sweat-soaked gym shorts and racerback crop top stuck to her like a second skin, her arms, abs and thighs gleamed and sodden locks of hair were escaping her ponytail. The floor-to-ceiling mirror on the far wall confirmed her sparring partner looked no better.

  Releasing her now-healed wrist, Maya rolled her shoulders and clapped her hands, the sharp sound filling the silent room, absorbed quickly by the wall-to-wall mats. Curling her fingers in a ‘gimme’ motion, Maya grinned and said, “Hit me with it.” The cut had healed as swiftly as she’d expected and only a narrow smudge of blood remained to indicate anything had happened at all.

  “I know when you’re lying, Maya. Comes with the territory.”

  Maya pursed her lips and half-rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Mom. I know. No point in reminding me,” she muttered, supremely glad Leela Rao couldn’t really read her mind.

  Hang on, Maya thought. Do avatars of powerful earth goddesses have mind-reading powers?

  Maya thrust the thought away. Thinking along those lines was only tempting fate. A mind-reading mother was the last thing she needed.

  Leela smiled gently though her gaze flicked briefly toward Maya’s wrist--and the telltale smudge. “You’re usually focused, honey. Perhaps a visit to the Meditation Centre would help? Refresh your clarity-of-mind techniques?” she suggested as she swirled the curved horn of her madu in her right hand. Her left fist was empty, fingers tightly clenched and ready. White wrappings protected her knuckles, its stark purity marred by flecks of Maya’s blood.

  Her mom had been her substitute sparring-partner whenever Maya’s
sexy demigod boyfriend was busy with stuff the son-of-the-god-of-the-underworld had to do.

  She and her mom had been practicing for nearly forty minutes now, and Maya was all too aware that she needed to focus on using her fire as a weapon rather than as a reactionary defense mechanism.

  So many new abilities had come to the fore, more so because she’d begun to learn how to manipulate her fire with more skill. Had it not been for her distracted thoughts, Maya would have had real fun with her fiery staffs and batons.

  She shook her head. “I’m fine, Mom. But thanks for the reminder. Can we go again?” she asked, her expression neutral now as she tried to clear her mind.

  Leela’s eyes narrowed for a moment but then she relaxed. She’d begun to nod in agreement but was interrupted by a voice on the intercom which filled the small room. “Leela Rao, you’re needed in WTP3 for a short tech-spec revision briefing.”

  Leela sighed and shook her head, staring up at the little square box as though she wanted to aim an arrow at it and let loose. “Okay, I’m going to head up to see what these guys need. You keep warming up and I’ll be back in a bit,” she said as she stalked toward the door.

  “Mom?” Maya called, her tone dry as she lifted an eyebrow.

  Leela paused on the threshold to look over her shoulder at her daughter, a question in her eyes.

  Maya pointed at her mom’s sweat-drenched chest, abs and arms, all exposed by her sodden gym-clothes. “You may want to cover up. Wouldn’t want the boys and girls in Weapons Tech to get distracted with all that gleaming cleavage,” she said with a smirk.

  Leela’s eyes narrowed as she shook her head, her expression one of forced patience. Still, she strode over to the bench where she and Maya had left their sweatshirts, then drew it over her head without a word.

  As she left, Maya heard her muttering, “Thought it was my job to tell my kid to put on more clothes.”

  Maya chuckled, enjoying the irony. Even Sabala chuffed as though laughing at Leela’s expense. Still, her mom had also been distracted, and Maya suspected she knew exactly why—the very same reason her own mind wasn’t on track.

  Aunt Claudia.

  A little more than a month had passed since they’d returned from the mission to India where they’d discovered who had betrayed Maya. Claudia’s decisions, born out of anger and self-pity, had ramifications she’d never expected.

  The woman who’d been Leela’s best friend, who’d been Maya’s confidante and surrogate aunt through her entire life, had sold Maya out for revenge, and to regain the ability to walk.

  Maya had spent weeks wracked with guilt at Claudia’s paralysis after their mission to Prague, but she’d come to terms with the fact that it hadn’t been her fault things had gone wrong. Back then, even Claudia hadn’t blamed Maya. But they had eventually discovered the truth.

  Claude’s injury had fed her self-pity, which had in turn resulted in her blaming Maya. And fueled by her anger, Claudia had made a deal with the devil.

  Not literally, but close enough.

  A deal resulting in Maya’s dad in a coma, Maya injured and her powers almost taken from her, and with an admission by Claudia capable of ripping the family apart.

  But they’d kept that secret from the agency. They’d promised to work through things with Claudia. She was family after all. And Maya had tried to keep her word. She’d watched her parents work things through with her aunt, but she’d also sensed the tensions still simmering between the trio of friends.

  Was their friendship truly capable of withstanding such a betrayal? Only time would tell.

  Though she’d seen Claudia’s argument with the priest, her demands for Maya not be injured and even her insistence that the deal was over, Maya still struggled with forgiveness. Perhaps she wasn’t as good a person as she’d believed herself to be. But, the truth of it was simple enough.

  Maya needed more time.

  Chapter 2

  Maya’s mom had failed to return which meant the briefing had been more than a quick requirement of her opinion. It wasn’t at all unusual and Maya would have continued with her practicing on her own--or called in one of the other agents to throw deadly weapons at her--but she too received a page over the intercom.

  The voice on the comms set her on edge as it directed her to Medical Testing immediately. But, despite her irritation at having to hurry over to the testing lab at such short notice, she didn’t reveal her mood to the doctors.

  Sabala had kept her company though, the clacking of his nails on the tiles as he trotted at her side managed to offer her some comfort as she made her way through the warren of stark white-painted, white-tiled hallways and up three floors to Medical Research.

  Today there were two doctors in attendance, the flame-haired head of the medical unit, Dr. Pheadra Woden, who remained behind the glass of a screened-off cubicle staring down at a collection of monitors, and a thin grey-haired man named Harish whose gentle, grandfatherly demeanor had long since proven misleading.

  Maya had found the man terse whenever he spoke to her, either giving cold instructions or sharp remonstrations if she did something not to his liking. They called these sessions ‘Stress Testing and Neural Analysis,’ though Maya was beginning to feel more like a specimen in a lab than an agent who needed to be at peak physical condition for ultimate performance in the field.

  Now, she removed her sweatshirt as she sank onto the small cot near the door, while Sabala settled on his haunches halfway between Maya and the small cubicle at the other end of the room. He always sat in the same position, as though ready to move in case any of the doctors proved a threat. Thankfully, he never revealed himself other than when in the presence of her family who were already well acquainted with the hellhound.

  Maya waited for Dr. Harish to fix the ECG electrodes to her body, and the EEG neural leads to her temples and scalp. Unlike with the rest of the agents who worked for KALIMA, Maya’s tests certainly did more than measure her health levels.

  What had begun as tests to reassure the medical team that Maya’s powers were not going to potentially tax her health had turned into regular measurements taken every two days during which she did more than run on a treadmill.

  She’d mentioned the sudden regularity of the evaluations to her parents a few days before and, though they’d appeared to take it in their stride, assuring her they’d been part of the decision-making process, Maya suspected they hadn’t been apprised of exactly what was required of her during the tests.

  Dr. Harish pressed the last of the brain electrodes to Maya’s temple and gave her a quick once-over as he checked that everything was in order and that they were ready to proceed. Then he went to the screened-in cubicle to fetch her list of activities—which had seemed to grow each day.

  Today she had a total of fourteen exercises to perform and Maya gritted her teeth. Two days ago, the list had contained ten items; it seemed the longer they continued, the more intensive these sessions became.

  Still, she went along with it so she wouldn’t make any trouble for her parents. The last thing they would want was for her to be belligerent or uncooperative. Who knew, maybe one day these tests would end up helping Maya if the medical personnel had a more in-depth knowledge of how she worked physiologically.

  Dr. Harish retreated behind the screen and raised a hand to indicate they were ready and the electrodes were recording successfully. Maya got to her feet and walked over to the X taped in the middle of the floor with duct tape.

  Behind her, Sabala got to his feet, reshuffled himself and then sat back down, as though reminding her of his presence. Smiling to herself, she set the piece of paper on the floor beside the X and straightened to face the narrow corridor filled with targets, all suspended from wires set at various distances.

  Though one portion of the testing lab resembled a regular doctor’s office, the other section qualified as a shooting range as far as Maya was concerned, no matter the doctors’ glib labels of laboratory and research facility. Th
ey ought to just admit to what they were testing her for. She wanted to believe they were merely being tactful rather than lying, but that would mean she was just lying to herself.

  Now she pushed down her frustration and ticked off the first task. Opening her hand, she sent a globe of fire the size of a volleyball out from her palm straight at a bullseye on the ten-yard-target. The fiery orb hit the black dot in the middle of the red target, scorching the markings and leaving a bronze smear of melted paint dead-center.

  Maya waited for the ping of the doctors’ alarm before performing task number two: ball of flame at the fifty-yard target. Throwing flaming spheres at targets was hardly an effort but Maya was sure the doctors would eventually progress to something more difficult. Hopefully, it would be a while before they decided to do this whole test with Maya blindfolded.

  Then she cursed herself for tempting fate. Again

  Maya progressed quickly to one hundred, then one fifty and then closed the first set off at two hundred yards. She’d obliterated the target each time with her ball of fire, aiming dead center and hitting the bulls-eye repeatedly. She compensated for the distance of the furthest targets by increasing the intensity of the power infused within the fiery orb, her intention to ensure she achieved the same charred bulls-eye result on all her targets.