Gods Ascendent: The Apsara Chronicles #2 Read online

  The ghost grunted and tightened her folded arms. Today, Radhima wore a fitted jacket in a soft teal, and a pair of black jeans. And teal cowboy boots, patterned in a bright pink thread.

  “What are you wearing?”

  “Are you going to ask me that question every single time we talk?”

  “Yes, if you’re going to wear something different every time.”

  “I think she looks great,” Syama chimed in.

  “You stay out of this,” Vee said, turning to glare at Syama.

  Syama grinned. “Stop being so hard on her. She has a right to wear what she wants.”

  Vee opened her mouth and then shut it. She’d been about to argue the fact that yes, her grandmother had a right to wear whatever she wanted, but jeans and cowboy boots were things Vee had never imagined to be part of her style. It was going to take some getting used to.

  Vee sighed and rolled her shoulders. “We have work to do. Let’s keep our heads in the game, okay?” Vee said, pretty sure that her words were more for herself than Syama. Or Radhima.

  Akil had taken up position in a nearby tree, with a view of the entire clearing. Probably the best place to be at this point. Vee headed down the hillside and avoided stepping into the deep puddles of muddy water that dotted the ground.

  “These look rather regular, don’t they?” asked the ghost.

  Vee started at the sound and glanced to her right, but Radhima was no longer revealing herself. Vee sighed. “You have a good eye. They seem to follow a pattern similar to what footprints would look like.”

  “Why would someone make holes like that in the ground? Strange shoes? Stilts? Spoked wheels?” Syama was ticking off options that Vee had already considered but had nothing additional to add. Not yet.

  “To be honest I don’t have a clue,” said Vee, keeping her voice low. “Let’s have a look at the crime scene itself before we try to make any deductions.”

  Syama nodded and kept just behind Vee as she walked. Glamored as she was, Vee had to also be careful of talking to her in front of people. Having invisible sidekicks was turning out to be more of a hazard than she’d expected—not to mention ghostly grandmothers.

  Vee crossed the shallow clearing and walked onto the neatly manicured lawn of the estate. Despite the cold, and the intermittent snowfall, the grass was lush and verdant. Had it not been for the strange, slippery substance found scattered across the lawn, the view would have been idyllic.

  From where she stood, the pieces of pale detritus resembled the shedded skin of a reptile. Vee shuddered as she closed in on Monroe. “What do we have?”

  “Something large and very reptile-like.”

  Radhima—always a stickler for language—muttered, “Reptilian,” as Vee asked, “What makes you think reptile?”

  Monroe jerked a chin at the papery thin coils of pale skins that littered the lawn. Vee crouched, withdrawing a pen from her jacket pocket. She lifted a long piece and studied it. “They look like sausage casings.”

  Monroe snorted. “Couldn’t have put it better myself.”

  Vee shrugged. “I could have been more specific and said porcine intestine?”

  Monroe shook her head and mimed a barf. “No thanks.” Then she stared around the lawn. “The place is littered with the stuff. I’m not sure what to make of it.”

  “What’s this place got to do with our missing mom-to-be?”

  Monroe crooked a finger, and Vee hurried toward her. By the time Vee had reached her side, the woman was already crouched beside another long stretch of shedded skin. She lifted it away to reveal an oval-shaped locket on a slim gold chain.

  Vee’s eyebrows rose. “I’m guessing Susie had a similar locket on the gold chain she left in the bathroom?”

  “Well, identical, yes. But we know it’s not Susie’s. That we have locked up in evidence.” Monroe didn’t need to explain, but Vee could tell the detective needed to work through how she felt about one more lead that gave them nothing.

  “So this must belong to Lucy.” Vee leaned closer.

  Monroe was nodding and lifting the chain away from the skin. She dropped it into her gloved palm and held it out to Vee who nodded. “Yep.”

  A pang of sadness filled Vee at the senseless death of Susie and the growing likelihood that her daughter, Lucy, had met the very same fate.

  “But what does Lucy have to do with these…things?” Monroe waved a hand at the remains of shedded skins that littered the lawn. Then she sighed and rested her hands on her hips rocking back and forth on her heels. This was one case that was stumping them all.

  “Could be any number of things,” said Vee. They were empty words, just filler to help appease the detective.

  Monroe snorted. “Well, let’s just hope it isn’t what it looks like. Because the last thing I need is to find out that there is a giant snake roaming the streets of New York, snacking on pregnant women and shedding its skin as it goes.”

  Vee adjusted her sight, aware that it may well be impossible to clear the lawn so that she could get a better look at the aural patterns around the place. She wasn’t surprised to see a twisting meshwork of ragged aural residue that implied a large group of people had traversed this lawn a few hours ago. Vee paused. Not people.

  Demons.

  More specifically, pey demons.

  “It’s not snakeskin,” murmured Radhima, drawing Vee’s attention from the auras. Vee blinked, surprised she hadn’t flinched at the sound of the disembodied voice. Perhaps she was getting used to the ghost’s presence.

  Vee hunkered down again and studied the skins, this time trying to figure out what the sheddings had to do with pey demons. Syama grunted as she too leaned over Vee. “I’m not sure. I feel like I’ve seen something like this before, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “Well, when your finger finds it, can you let me know? ‘Cos I’m stumped.” Vee sighed and got back to her feet. She was turning to survey the lawn again when movement in the trees caught her attention.

  Vee tried to appear casual as she glanced over Syama’s shoulder and watched the figure, hidden by the shadows within the small forest to the north of the property. From this distance, it wasn’t possible to identify who the observer was, but there was one thing Vee could tell beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  Half-hidden amongst the trees and shadows was a pey demon.

  Chapter 28

  Syama,” Vee said, keeping her voice low.

  Her tone must have held sufficient warning, enough that it would make Syama stiffen. The hellhound glanced at Vee. “Where?”

  Vee pasted a smile on her face. “Behind you, due north, within the trees. Pey demon. Not totally sure, but I see enough to make me bet on it.”

  Syama nodded. “Okay, how do you want to do this?”

  Vee thought for a moment. “Let’s go inside the house, preferably somewhere out of his sight. He needs to think that we haven’t seen him, and what better way than to appear to leave the lawn?”

  “What excuse you going to make to Monroe over there?” Syama asked, darting her gaze in the detective’s direction.

  Vee shrugged. “Don’t need to explain myself to her.” With that, Vee turned on her heel and strode off toward the house. Glancing over her shoulder, Vee saw that Syama was standing there, frozen on the spot. Vee turned and waited for the hellhound who eventually moved and began to hurry toward Vee. “You okay?”

  Syama nodded. “Yeah. I just needed a moment to gather my thoughts.”

  Vee nodded. Though she wondered where her ghost had gotten to, she didn’t ask. Radhima had an odd habit of appearing like a thought come alive. She’d come when she was needed.

  For now, Vee awaited Syama’s arrival as she stepped into the front hall of the mansion to which the expansive lawn belonged. Inside the living room to the left, a woman paced the black carpet, her red kaftan flowing behind her. The pair of cops speaking to the woman wore the body language and expressions one would bear when coaxing a wild animal, spines curved
, heads somewhat bowed, voices low.

  Vee hid a smile and turned to stand near the tall floor to ceiling windows that sat beside the doorway. Through them she watched the tree line, hoping to catch sight of the demon. Vee was disappointed to find that all she saw were shadows.

  “Still there?” asked Syama from beside Vee.

  “No idea. I can’t see him anymore, but it could just be the angle from here. Or he could have left thinking he was in the clear.”

  Syama nodded. “Ok. You wait here. I’ll go check the place out. Track him a little, see where he is and what he’s doing. Be back in a few.” Syama disappeared, and Vee disliked the feeling of helplessness.

  She knew Syama was safe, hell the hellhound had done far more dangerous jobs before she’d ended up on Vee’s detail. Still, Vee worried. Part of caring about people Vee guessed.

  She forced herself not to pace as she waited for Syama to return. A shadow on the lawn drew Vee’s attention, and she shook her head as she watched a white owl fly close to the entrance than change direction. Seconds later, Akil came up behind her, the heels on his shoes making low thunking sounds on the slate-tiled floor.

  Before she could speak, Syama shimmered beside Vee, her eyes wide. “I found him. And I don’t think you’re going to like where he went.”

  Vee shrugged. “Just take me there. I don’t want to know now.”

  Syama nodded and held onto Vee, shimmering into nothingness. They reappeared inside dense tree-cover and sank to the ground instantly. Beyond the thicket was a rectangular clearing and at its center was a manhole.

  Nothing else in the clearing appeared disturbed, but Vee knew that if Syama brought them here, it meant only one thing.

  She was going to have to enter the sewer.

  “Crap,” Vee muttered.

  Syama grinned. “Exactly. I knew you weren’t going to like it.” She gave Vee an apologetic smile.

  Vee shrugged. “Girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do,” Vee said just as her cell phone began to vibrate. Good thing she always turned the sound off when she was about to head to a crime scene.

  “Monroe’s trying to get a hold of me I see.” She spoke mostly to herself as she tried to figure out what to tell the cop. In the end, she just messaged Monroe to keep her posted and that she’d had an agency emergency, ending with a request for samples of the snakeskin to be sent to her lab at Shankar Industries. “Let’s hope that doesn’t piss her off even more.”

  Vee glared at Syama, knowing she was being unreasonably annoyed with the hellhound. It wasn’t her fault that the pey had led them to the entrance to an underground tunnel or bunker, or whatever it was. Vee would bet it was the sewer system though. It was just the way her luck worked.

  “It’s not so bad,” Syama said, her tone soothing.

  “Speak for yourself,” Vee muttered, staring at the manhole cover.

  Akil cleared his throat—sounding oddly human, though he was currently perched in a nearby tree, all feathers, and beak, and great big black eyes. “I’m with Vee on this, sorry Syama. Anything underground and filthy is just not my thing.”

  Syama raised her eyebrows. “Says the guy who was just way underground, and very very filthy not two days ago?”

  Akil snorted. “That experience only serves to compound my dislike for this operation.”

  Vee sighed and straightened her spine. Man up, woman, she said beneath her breath. Out loud, she said, “Either way, we have to do this. If it’s possible we can track him to where he’s holding Lucy, then we’d better get moving. We don’t want to lose him because we were squeamish.” Vee looked over at Akil, and then at Syama. “You guys can do the glamor thing and throw it over me as well. I don’t think I’m good enough at it to use it under pressure.”

  Syama nodded and glanced over at the manhole, her expression hardened. “Let me just give the place a scan, see where we can arrive safely. Wouldn’t be good to arrive in front of a patrol and get blown to bits.”

  Vee lifted her eyes at Syama’s dramatic scenario. It was more like being ripped to pieces than blown to bits. Vee studied the clearing for aural imprints. After a few moments, she let out a disgusted breath. “There are way too many aural patterns to track anything specific. It’s good in a way, in that it confirms the demons’ presence here, but I’m not going to be able to pick one out of that tangle, let alone try to find the killer’s specific aural pattern.”

  She raised her eyes to meet Syama’s gaze. “We’re going to have to rely on you once we get in. At least until we’re able to identify specific aural patterns.”

  Syama nodded, her eyes shifting to dangerous blood-red. “It’s what I do,” she said, smirking. “I’ll be in hellhound form until we get inside. It’s just easier to track the smells.”

  They fell silent as Syama shimmered and her body grew translucent. A cloud of swirling gray and black shadows convulsed and reformed until Syama solidified again, in the form of her hellhound.

  The beast stood shoulder high to Vee, two pairs of gleaming black eyes watching Vee with the strangest expression. Vee nodded, and Syama turned and trotted off toward the manhole. As she moved she shimmered away and faded to nothing.

  The moment between Syama’s disappearance and then reappearance felt ten times as long, with Vee imagining all sorts of awful alternate scenarios.

  But, thankfully, Syama returned in what Vee confirmed was three minutes and twenty seconds, and solidified in place in her hellhound form. The large black beast shuddered, shaking her head the way a dog would when about to shake off water from its fur.

  The movement dispersed a blast of black and gray shadows which swirled and then converged to form Syama’s human shape.

  “We’re good to arrive in one part of a long stretch of tunnel, but we have to hide quickly because from what I saw the patrols are not spaced out too far apart. I tried to search further in the tunnels, but I didn’t want to spend too long apart from you two. It’s best we stay together.”

  “Yeah. Worst case scenario we jump straight home.”

  Syama nodded, and the two women headed to the manhole. The route meant they would be walking into the bare sunlit clearing, bringing them into unprotected space. As they approached, Vee scanned the surrounding bushes and trees, oddly aware of the incongruous beauty of the forest, the sunlight streaming through the trees, dappling the green carpet of grass that covered the ground.

  The scene was idyllic, and yet to Vee, it represented a doorway to a hell she didn’t want to imagine. Seemed best to wait until she met her hell face to face instead of spending too much time dreaming up possibilities. In Vee’s experience, her imagined possibilities tended to be too tame, with the actual events usually far worse than anything she could have dreamed up.

  Both Syama and Vee bent and studied the manhole, the gray metal covered in flecks of rust. It appeared to be a few decades old and yet, apart from a few flecks of rust it was clean.

  “This looks like an entrance that had been used a lot in the recent past.”

  Syama nodded then pointed to the left of the manhole where a small shred of translucent white skin lay pooled on the grass. Vee eyed it with disgust and suppressed a shudder. Syama’s face mirrored Vee’s discomfort. She took a deep breath and focused on the manhole cover. “Well, then, good thing we can bypass that entrance.”

  Chapter 29

  Vee found herself more than ready to get inside. In fact, she felt they’d wasted a little too much time already.

  Syama was nodding, her expression grave. “I’ll see if the way is clear and come straight back.” She glanced up at Akil who’d flown closer to a tall oak that threw a shadow over the pair. “You watch her,” she said, her tone hard, as if she thought that the owl shifter would not do his duty.

  Vee frowned, then shook the thoughts from her head. She had to concentrate. She’d deal with these two and their strange undercurrent when they were home.

  “Well,” she said to Syama who was staring up at Akil. Syama met her gl
ance, a question in her eyes. Vee lifted a brow. “Waiting for Kaliyug to be over or what?”

  Syama rolled her eyes and disappeared, the air glinting with a thousand tiny pinpoints of light. In Syama’s absence, Vee glanced up at Akil, her eyes narrowing. The owl lifted his wings, fluffed them out and then rotated his head around for a full turn.

  Vee clicked her tongue silently and faced the hole in the ground, waiting for the hellhound to return.

  Seconds later, Syama shimmered into solidity beside Vee and nodded. “We’d better go quick. The way is clear, but we may not have too much time. We’ll be glamored, but some high-level demons can see us. No telling what level demon they’ll have on security detail here.”

  Vee nodded and reached for Syama’s arm, glancing up at the sirin who’d already taken flight. Within seconds, Akil was beside them as Syama’s form shimmered and she jumped Vee inside a darkened tunnel. The air smelled wet and musty, and thankfully didn’t stink of a sewer. Although that was no guarantee they wouldn’t come across one soon enough.

  The tunnel was a round pipe made of brick and mortar, harking back to the days when New York’s waste and water was still under construction. This particular pipe had a shallow stream of water at ground level and bore no watermark at all.

  “This must be an old or no longer used tunnel.”

  Akil materialized beside Vee, although she could tell he was still glamored from the faint glint of silver at the edges of his body. “What makes you say that?” he asked, studying the brickwork.

  “Regular use of the tunnel, meaning water passing here all the time, would leave a horizontal line along the tunnel wall. We don’t see any sign of that which suggests this tunnel has been closed off or had been unused for decades. It takes years for a watermark to dry off enough to fade away. And there is still a chance that this is an entry tunnel only and has never been used to transport water into the sewage or wastewater systems beneath the city.”