Gods Ascendent: The Apsara Chronicles #2 Page 17

  “Hi, I thought you might want to know asap,” she began, only to be cut off.

  “I apologize, Miss Shankar. But…Karan is not available.”

  “Oh…” Vee hesitated. This she had not expected. She’d even prepared herself for Karan to deny her information or help, or both, but his total absence caught her by surprise. She lost her balance, toppled over and landed on her ass, one leg inside the jeans. She ignored the garment and focused on the phone. “Can you have him call me, please? It’s urgent. And I mean it’s very, very, very urgent. I can’t stress it enough.”

  The voice on the other end of the line was kind and considerate. “I understand. I will convey the message as soon as Karan returns.”

  “Do you know when that will be?”

  “Unfortunately, he did not say when. I apologize for not being helpful, but I assure you, I understand the urgency. I do believe he’d want to hear from you immediately considering it is urgent. I will convey your message as soon as is possible.”

  Vee let out a sigh, thanked the man and put the phone on the floor beside her. She was still sitting there in her pink lace French knickers, one leg inside her jeans, the other bare and outstretch as she stared off into space.

  “Seriously?” said a voice from beside Vee.

  “Go away,” Vee snapped at Syama who was standing beside her. “Why is it that people keep barging in on me while I’m undressed?”

  “Well, if you could actually dress yourself like a fully functional adult, that wouldn’t be a problem now would it?” Syama folded her arms and grinned at Vee. “Need a hand?”

  Vee swore at Syama, but the hellhound remained unperturbed at the profanity. “Lucky it’s me and not Ma. She’d be washing your mouth out for that.”

  “With what? Ghost soap?” mumbled Vee as she got to her feet.

  Syama chuckled and sat on the lid of the closed toilet. “What did Karan say?”

  Vee shook her head. “That’s just it. I couldn’t get a hold of him. He’s unavailable.”

  “That’s new.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “That explains the position I found you in.”

  “Huh?” Vee asked as she buttoned her jeans and dragged the sweater over her head.

  “You. On your ass. Karan’s absence literally made you fall on your ass.” Syama giggled.

  “I’m glad I’m able to provide you with some comedic entertainment with which to while away your time.” Vee glared at Syama as she rubbed conditioner into her hair and combed it through the length.

  “Anyway. Akil is ready. What’s the plan?”

  Vee nodded. “Let’s get going to see Mom first. I need to talk to her and her R&D team first before we bring this up with Rossi.” Vee grabbed her hairdryer, then paused. “Is dad around?”

  Syama shook her head. “Not that I saw. He could be napping, but the man barely sleeps anyway so that would be odd.”

  Vee nodded. “Okay. I won’t be long.”

  Syama waggled her fingers and disappeared leaving Vee alone to dry her hair and contemplate her thoughts.

  Karan had actually not been available.

  Wonders would never cease.

  Chapter 32

  What in the mother’s name is that,” whispered Devi as Vee cast the video of the nursery filled with pey eggs onto the plasma screen in her mother’s office.

  Raj stood beside Vee, staring at the screen with the same look of horror on his face as his wife.

  Vee was still in shock about having been informed that her dad had gone back to work that morning, that he’d entered his old office across the hall from her mother’s and had been working in his lab—attached to his office no less—all morning. On what she wasn’t sure, but at this point, she didn’t really care. All she knew was that she was overjoyed that he’d ventured out of the house and was doing something constructive with his time.

  It made her hope that he was well on his way to recovery. Now she watched her parents stare at the video with the same horror she’d felt when she’d first seen it.

  “I wish I’d just torched the whole place, but I didn’t want to let them know that we knew they were there.”

  “That was a good idea,” her dad patted her shoulder absently, and Vee hid a smile.

  Devi turned to look at her. “You know what that is?” Her eyes were still wide with shock and more than once she’d run her fingers through her hair forgetting she had it in a tight chignon at the back of her head.

  “Pey eggs,” Raj replied, shocking Vee enough that she did a double take and stared at him. “It’s a pey nursery.”

  Devi nodded, seemingly oblivious to Vee’s shock. “I thought as much.” She paced for a few seconds then paused to look over at Vee. “What’s the plan? Give me context.”

  Vee took a breath. “It’s a case for the FBI, but at this point, I think secrecy is moot. I tried to get a hold of Karan, but he’s incommunicado for some weird reason, so we need to come up with a plan first before I take it to Rossi.”

  Her unsaid words hung in the air. If I take it to Rossi.

  “Are you considering moving on without the FBI to back you up?” asked her dad. For the first time, he seemed to be siding with the FBI. Again, wonders never seemed to cease.

  Vee shook her head. “There’s more to this than just a pey nursery.” She sighed and sank into the nearest seat. She waved at the empty seats beside her. “Best you sit. You’re probably not going to like what you’re about to hear. And I’m warning you two, don’t go all Mom and Dad on me.”

  Devi stared at Vee for a moment, her face darkening, giving Vee the impression that her mom was prepared to blow her top even before she found out the bad news. But her dad reached out and touched her mom’s shoulder. Devi glanced up at him and stared at his face, concern in her eyes. For a long moment, neither said a word and yet Vee felt as though the pair had held a long meaningful discussion just with their eyes.

  Then her mother inhaled, and her shoulders relaxed as she took a seat and faced Vee.

  “The case I’ve been dealing with for the FBI and also for our ‘advisor’ aka our snitch, has to do with a rash of pey demon attacks that have occurred within the city over the last few weeks. The agency has been on high alert what with the Demon Horde being shaken up due to political upheaval. The word on the street is that the pey demons have broken away and have created their own faction. Anyway, all of that wasn’t something we’d connected to the pey demon murders until now.”

  “Until now?”

  Vee waved her hand. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me just go back to two nights ago.”

  “When you came home with pey demon brains in your hair?”

  “Yeah, that night,” Vee responded eyebrow rising as she glanced over at her dad who shrugged despite the guilty look on his face. “Anyway, so I’d been sent to track a bhayakara demon and ended up running into a pair of pey demons. Or rather they ran into me. At the time I’d chalked it up to coincidence. Were they after me? No idea.

  “Later that day another case came up on our radar, a murder/abduction that led us to believe that the pey demons were up to something. The abduction victim is pregnant, and the pey stopped short of killing her the moment he’d realized she was pregnant.”

  Vee got to her feet and began to pace. Sitting down while telling this tale to her parents had her feeling supremely uncomfortable. “So, Mom, you know about the crazy killer cab driver that we identified as a demon from the aural patterns in the front seat. So way too much demon activity for us to be convinced that it was all a bunch of coincidences. And then someone tried to abduct me last night.”

  “What? I thought you went out with Nivaan?”

  “Yeah. Street parade, food. Was nice and all, until Nivaan spotted them. We drew them into an alley and Nivaan dressed them down. We maintained the image that I was some innocent human. I wanted to rip them to pieces, but Nivaan had another bright idea.”

  “I agree with Nivaan.”

>   Vee threw her dad a ‘who asked you’ glare then cleared her throat. “So apparently there is a hit out on me on the Dark Web. And these two bumbling idiots wanted the bounty and were on my tail. Nivaan pretended to abduct me—without revealing who he was of course—and we escaped.”

  Vee hesitated, not yet certain that she wanted to reveal the existence of the feathered stalker.

  “And today?”

  “Today we were called out to an estate outside of the city. The back lawn was covered with what looked like shedded snakeskin. I’d taken it as not connected until we found the locket of the abducted woman. And then I spotted the same pey demon in the forest beyond the estate property.”

  “And of course, you had to follow him.”

  “Dad.” Vee heaved a long-suffering sigh. “FBI agent here? Apsara? It’s my job if not my duty. Anyway, we tracked him to a manhole in the middle of the forest, and we nosed around inside the tunnels. It’s a stretch of old water or sewerage tunnels that appears to not have been in use for decades. We followed the tunnels which were both booby-trapped and well patrolled. They were definitely guarding something. We ended up coming upon that,” Vee pointed a finger at the still of the pey demon nursery. “Now I’m not sure how all of this ties together, but it’s connected.”

  “And why come to us?” Devi asked, smoothing the front of her suit jacket. Vee recognized that movement. Her mother was dying to get into the thick of figuring it out part but was controlling the urge so that Vee could give her opinion.

  “Because I think we have better weaponry, possibly also have projects in R&D that we could use.”

  “And?”

  “And because there is a combined threat to my life mixed up somewhere inside this case. Someone wants me enough to throw my face up on the DW and have dozens—”

  “DW?”

  “Dark Web, Dad,” Vee said, her tone saying ‘keep up, Dad. “And have dozens of bounty hunters on my tail. Those two were dealt with, but who knows how many more there are out there. I’ve been keeping on the DL for now—”

  “DL?”

  “Down Low, Dad,” Vee said raising her eyes, her expression saying stop cutting me off. “And I’m coming to Shankar Industries because I’m personally invested in the case. If I went straight to Rossi, he’d more than likely pull me from the case for being too close. Or he’ll throw a shitload of babysitters my way which would just hamper my investigation.”

  Devi got to her feet and began to pace. Seemed Vee had gotten that particular trait from her mother.

  “So we have the pey demons who have been on a killing spree in the city. They’ve broken away from the Demon Horde Assembly. They’re also mass-producing a new generation of demons. Then we have pey demons attempting to kill you, and a bounty on your head which may or may not be linked to the pey demons.”

  Devi turned to Vee who lifted her own fingers. “We have Karan who is currently MIA, we have the Demon Horde who are amassing their efforts on all fronts, and we also have a possibility that the two pey demons who attacked me after I’d offed that bhayakara, had been out to abduct—not kill—me.” Vee got to her feet and tapped the table. “If I have to consider the whole thing from a different angle, it’s possible that had the female pey not been killed by Rossi’s backup team, that the pair would have merely attempted to abduct me.”

  “So, assuming they want you, but not because they want you to be the main course at their birthing ceremony party, then we have to accept that they are after you for something important.”

  Vee sighed and walked over to the plasma screen. “Do pey demons and the apsaras have anything in common? Some past altercation or historical difference of opinion?”

  Devi pursed her lips as she considered the option while Raj shook his head. “No. The texts don’t define any negative relationship between the apsaras and their species.”

  “Then who would want an apsara dead? And second to that, should they be focusing only on me, who would want me in particular dead. Do the texts talk about anyone in particular who had a quarrel—or a bone to pick—with a powerful apsara?”

  Devi’s face was grim. “If anything, you’d be the best person to tell us.”

  Vee frowned. “Now why did I not expect that as an answer?” Vee asked, her tone a little higher than before. “Wait, I know. Because I have no clue, which is why I came to you two.”

  Vee sank onto the nearest chair, fatigued all of a sudden. The reality of the whole situation had just hit her like a punch to the gut, and she leaned over and groaned.

  When she straightened, she realized two things: one, her father was typing away at a laptop at her mother’s desk, and two, her mother was digging inside what appeared to be a secret room hidden behind a wall of books. How original?

  Vee shook her head and got to her feet. “What’s going on?”

  “We need the spell.”

  “What spell?”

  “The one to put you under so that you can share the memories of past powerful apsaras.”

  “What the what?” Vee stood very still as she watched her parents whose brows were furrowed as they concentrated on their respective tasks. “Wait a second. Why don’t you guys look surprised?”

  She walked closer to her mother, stepping across the threshold and into the little back room.

  “What are you looking for?” Vee asked hovering over her mom even though she knew the woman hated it when people looked over her shoulder.

  “Dad’s looking for the Guild’s details. I’m looking for something that I’d read a while back that could give us a clue as to who might be after you.”

  “The Guild? Why them?” Now that some time had passed since Vee had first heard of the Guild, she’d taken the mention of them in stride. Though she still wasn’t sure what they had to do with this particular situation.

  “They’ll be the one to help put you into the trance,” said a voice from beside Vee.

  Coming so soon after crawling around in creepy tunnels, the sound of a voice in her ear shocked Vee so much that she let out a low shriek and flinched so hard that she twisted on her ankle and toppled onto the ground.

  “Ma!” she yelled again. “Can you please stop doing that?” Vee glared at her grandmother, who was now wearing a purple sari, but had tied it in a new, and unusual way. Vee sighed. “Nice sari. You have to teach me how to do that,” Vee said, pointing at the way the fabric was draped over Radhima’s chest then drawn under her arm only to be looped straight back over the same shoulder.

  “I will. Now you deal with her,” Radhima pointed over her shoulder.

  Vee shifted her gaze to look at her mother who was staring at her, eyes wide, mouth open.

  Chapter 33

  Who are you talking to?” Devi whispered staring blankly at the space beside Vee.

  Vee rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mom. I’m not going to pretend anymore just because you don’t believe me. She’s here. She’s wearing a sari in a strange way, but it’s pretty cool. Said she’d teach me how to drape it.”

  Devi said nothing. She closed her mouth and just stared at Vee.

  “Ask her if she remembers the broken bust of Nefertiti.”

  Vee frowned as she rotated herself and sat cross-legged as she pulled a book from the stack that sat in front of her mother. She opened it and said to Devi, “Ma wants to know about a bust of Nefertiti.”

  Devi’s eyes widened, and her face went red. She let out a soft cry and seemed to sink further against the shelf. “No. How did you find that out?” Devi whispered. “And how can you say that to me so calmly?”

  Vee glanced up, frowning. She shrugged then cocked her head over to the ghost at her side. “I’m just repeating what she said. I got no clue what it is about.”

  “Ask her about staying out of sight of the eye of Nefertiti.”

  Vee rolled her eyes. “That makes no sense, Ma.” Her grandmother glared at her and lifted her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Okay then.”

  Vee turned to her mother w
ho looked far too pale to be healthy. She hesitated, wondering if her words would end up making her mother ill.

  “Ask her,” prompted Radhima.

  Inhaling deeply, Vee said, “She said to ask you about staying out of sight of the eye of Nefertiti.”

  Devi let out another cry, one of deep grief that got Vee to her knees. She ignored the book as it tilted and fell to the ground as she leaned over to her mother. “Mom? What’s the matter?”

  Devi hiccupped and then cleared her throat. Then she looked at the space at Vee’s side. “Is she really there?”

  Vee shook her head, earning a glare of suspicion. “No, I meant she’s at your side now. Over there,” Vee said, pointing to the spot beside her mother.

  Devi shifted her gaze. “This is weird.” She glanced over at Vee, hesitating and a little afraid.

  Vee shrugged. “Just talk to her. I’ll answer for her. She can’t move things just yet.”

  Devi’s eyebrows shot up, but she contained her surprise and shifted her gaze. “Did you tell her?” Devi asked, surprising Vee to no end. What was it that her mother suspected that Radhima had revealed to Vee? It must have been something incredibly important for it to be the first question she asked her mother’s ghost.

  Radhima shook her head. “I didn’t think you were ready. I won’t. Not until you say you are ready.”

  Vee relayed the message word for word and watched her mother burst into tears. Movement at Vee’s back had her turning to see her Dad standing on the threshold staring at Devi whose face was glistening with tears, her mascara smudged and her lipstick blotchy.

  He looked at Vee, a question in his eyes. His eyes were shifting away, back to his wife when he said, “Oh,” as his gaze settled on the spot beside Devi.

  Vee frowned then scrambled to her feet.

  “Close your ears, Vee,” said the old woman.

  “Why?’

  “I’m going to swear.”

  “Go right ahead,” Vee said with a smile.

  Her grandmother used a word that Vee hadn’t expected her to even be capable of saying. Vee’s jaw dropped.