Kaliya Sahni: Volume One (Kaliya Sahni Volumes Book 1)

by K. N. Banet

  The old ways didn’t work. Not a single time in my life has his way of doing things ever worked.

  So, I snuck out the window. I charmed the snake that lived in a bush under the window and used it to lead the others away from me. I stole money and found a way to get out of India before they found my trail. I was proficient at being alone by then, after surviving without my family. I never went back. When I left India, I stayed gone. It was twenty years before Adhar and I spoke again—twenty years without seeing or speaking to a single one of my own kind.

  Trying to chase away the thoughts of the other nagas, I went back to the story.

  “I got into some trouble, nearly got myself killed a couple of times. Went through some bad shit until I was seventeen. Hisao found me by accident and took me in. I trained with him since he knew I would never go back to the shelter of a naga compound. He pointed me to the Tribunal and becoming an Investigator or Executioner. I picked Executioner. I knew if I didn’t pick whichever one gave me more power to protect myself, I would never be safe. I picked up languages, having already trained myself to learn on-the-fly, thanks to the time I lived on my own after my family died. I changed, leaving behind things that made me a naga and an Indian. Luckily, I have a look that can blend in with a lot of different places. I learned how. Finally, I settled in America and never left. I like it here. I like pretending I’m American and belong here.”

  He leaned back, confused or surprised.

  “That…sounds kind of like me,” he said softly. “Running from things you don’t understand and can’t control. Running from bad people who wanted to do things to you that you didn’t agree with. You’ve just been doing it longer.”

  I froze, knowing he was right. I never really considered his situation with mine, not like that.

  “I found a way to stop running,” I finally corrected. “But, yeah, you hit the nail on the head. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about most of that, and I didn’t even get into everything.”

  “I have a feeling we’d be here all night if you did,” he said, a dark chuckle filling the room. He stopped, looking guilty. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Mind if I ask one more thing?”

  I shrugged, not really caring anymore. We’d lived together for four months and never really talked. It honestly felt good to tell him about me, to show him more of myself. I wanted him to understand me. I probably wanted more than that.

  “Where does Nakul fit into all of this?”

  “Oh.” I snorted, looking toward the bedroom I had locked my uncle in. “We thought he was dead for a long time. From my understanding, Adhar and others had gone to his home, found the bodies of my aunt and cousin, but not him. They’d assumed he was captured and killed. Wouldn’t be the first time. They actually thought that happened to me until they caught wind of my movements. It wasn’t until I was an Executioner and met Cassius that I heard about Nakul again. I didn’t know it was him at first, but Cassius was working on the case and in the area. I got nosy. At the time, we hated each other. He was so prim and proper, and I was…just not either of those things.” I rubbed my hands together. “I looked over the case while he was bitching about something, and it stuck out to me. Everything felt familiar as if I’d seen it or heard about it before. The bodies were placed and positioned, and the families were similar. I asked to go into one of the crime scenes, and I could taste one of my own kind in the air, and I knew who it was. Cassius kept me on to help. We chased Nakul for a while and finally caught him. He was…batshit insane. He’d completely lost his mind. He was so driven by grief and anguish, he’d lashed out in the most painful way he could.”

  We sat in silence for a long time. I stared at my closed windows, wondering if I would be able to watch the sunrise or if it was too dangerous. It took my mind off the thoughts of the past creeping up in the dark.

  “I’m really sorry for always giving you a hard time,” Raphael said quietly, breaking the silence. “I know when we met, I was an asshole. You killed people, and that’s wrong, and I was so single-minded about it. Do I agree with it? No, but…”

  “You understand,” I finished for him. “That’s all we can hope for, right? Understanding each other.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not just—”

  He jumped and stopped when my phone started ringing. I quickly grabbed it, this time checking to see who it might be.

  “What’s going on, Paden?”

  “Look out your window,” he ordered.

  “No…” I trailed off. “I don’t think I will. Why don’t you just tell me?”

  “There’s a storm brewing over the city.”

  That doesn’t sound good—only one explanation for that.

  “There was no rain in the weather report this morning. None for another week, actually,” I said nonchalantly. “This is good. City needs rain.”

  “Kaliya.” Paden didn’t sound amused.

  “Sorry, but I’m not confirming anything over the phone, and you know it,” I replied. “I’ll give you an update later. Thanks for the call.”

  I hung up on him before he could try to dig for more information. I knew what he wanted. He wanted confirmation, and I had no intention of giving that to him for him to sell to whoever he could before dawn broke. I turned to Raphael and sighed.

  “Levi is in the city.”

  I stood and walked to one of my sealed windows, using my phone to open it. When Raphael walked up beside me, I wondered what he was thinking, seeing the storm brewing over the city. It looked natural, but there was nothing natural about it. Lightning flashed, and the crash of thunder came soon after.

  “What are we going to do?” he asked softly.

  “We’re going to go out there and find him before he destroys the city, looking for me.” I was unable to tear my eyes away from the sight. There was a lot of power brewing in those clouds, but I knew Levi’s weaknesses. I just needed a chance to take advantage of them.

  “Absolutely not,” Raphael said quickly, grabbing my wrist as I started walking away. “You are not going out there to hunt him down. It sounds like a great way to get killed.”

  “Someone has to do it, and it’s my job,” I reminded him, looking down at where he was touching me before looking up into pitch-black eyes. “I have to do whatever is necessary to protect this city and the supernatural world as a whole. I have to be willing to put my life on the line.”

  “Kaliya, please. You don’t know where he is. Do you even know how to find him?”

  “No, but I can track him,” I said, knowing he had a point. Always with this man. “I’ve tracked harder to find people in a short amount of time. It’s about knowing who to ask for help.”

  “And who would you go to?” he demanded.

  “A local witch coven. They would be able to prod the storm with their own powers and find the source. Most witches who can do weather magic of any degree need to be at the center of the storm, but Levi is a special guy.”

  “What exactly did he do? If we’re going to hunt this guy down, at least tell me about him.” I saw the defeat and resignation on Raphael’s face, and it was prominent in his voice. I was most surprised he was still willing to help me. He’d been serious about that. He’d have my back.

  “He was always a strong weather-based witch, but one day, he was expelled from his coven. Only a few months later, a storm brewed over the town where the coven was based. There were no survivors by the time he was through. As they died, he took their eyes and their lives, transferring their innate power to himself. He’s as strong as thirty witches at this point. That’s why he can call storms this big. Luckily, he’s still just a human. He’s vulnerable.”

  “How many people did he kill?” Raphael asked softly, looking back out at the storm, black spreading through the veins of his face.

  “Twelve people that night. He wasn’t caught for a while. Humans have the tendency to get drunk with power, and that sort of theft of magical power gives them an insa
ne rush. He went on a killing spree.”

  “What did he want?”

  “No one ever really figured that out. Some say he was trying to make himself a god. Some say he was learning how to steal the power of supernaturals, and that accelerated his power. They found dead werewolves, fae, and others in his hideout. Whether he got power out of them, no one really knows.” I finally pulled my wrist out of his hand while he was distracted with the thought of Levi out and about.

  “See why we need to deal with him? If he’s out hunting for me or anyone, really, he’ll probably only get more powerful. We would have to go out there, eventually. I need to deal with Nakul’s memory problem if we want any more answers.”

  “Yeah, I get it,” he said softly.

  We both changed into better clothing and grabbed ample rain gear. I checked out weapons and ammo, replenishing the ammo, even though I hadn’t used much at the prison. I shoved the car keys in my pocket and started walking out the door, just in time for me to hear the ding of the elevator at the other end of the hall. Before Raphael was able to react, I shoved him back into the condo and slammed the door closed, leaving me alone while the elevator door opened. Before I could turn back around, a body slammed me, threatening to crush me.

  13

  Chapter Thirteen

  Can’t catch a fucking break tonight, can I?

  I struggled as furred arms wrapped around my core and squeezed, forcing the air out of my lungs. I felt the distinct crack of a rib beginning to give way to the pressure. My arms were pinned to my sides, so I reached for my firearm in the holster. I managed to pull it out and fire a shot, feeling a hot burn down my thigh. The brute roared and let go, stumbling back. I fell to the ground, barely catching myself before my face hit the floor. I could taste gunpowder and blood on the air and blindly fired behind me. The condo door swung back open, and I scrambled in. Raphael tried to push it closed, but he was met with a massive man trying to push his way in.

  I fired through the gap, hearing an animalistic scream. It didn’t slow him down, though. I kept firing until I ran out of bullets, wondering if any of them helped. Between that and the size of the man, I had some idea who and what he was.

  “Oh, shit.” I crawled away a few more feet from the door while Raphael stood in a standoff against the werewolf who had done something no werewolf could do. I found our bags and grabbed another clip, this one loaded with silver. I turned back and began to take aim.

  “Raph, let him through!” I ordered.

  Raphael looked over his shoulder like I was crazy.

  “Do it!” I yelled.

  He jumped back, and the werewolf monstrosity barreled through, snarling. Drool fell from the movie monster’s mouth in long strings like a rabid animal. This was what humans wanted werewolves to be. This was the version of them that inspired monsters.

  Why did they keep you in the prison? Why couldn’t they find some other hole to keep you?

  “Raph, back off,” I ordered, aiming for his legs to bring him down. I took a shot, but the damn wolf moved faster than I could blink, tackling the closest living creature to him, my roommate. Unable to take another shot, I watched as they rolled and fought across my condo, knocking things off the walls and sending furniture into different areas of the room.

  Wesley must have realized I wasn’t the biggest threat in the room because he was ignoring me now. It gave me a chance to take stock. Wesley was kept in a special cell that must have been unlocked when the prison’s systems failed. He’d been a special project. Not quite a prisoner, but definitely not allowed his freedom.

  Whoever let him out was a sick son of a bitch. Wesley didn’t deserve what was going to happen to him. The others certainly did, but not Wesley.

  Before I could tell Raphael to hold him for me to kill him, the werewolf was thrown out the window. I stood shell-shocked for a minute as I realized what Raphael had just done. Those windows were able to withstand bullets. They certainly weren’t supposed to allow bodies to be thrown through them. It was just a piece of the ultra-strong puzzle Raphael was and a stunning one at that.

  “Shit,” I whispered, letting it trail off as Raphael ran over to me, bleeding from a dozen places, his shirt torn to hell.

  “Kaliya, we need to go,” he said swiftly, grabbing my arm and tugging. With his free hand, he grabbed one of my bags. “Kaliya.”

  I watched the window as I saw Wesley begin to stir on my patio.

  “Fuck.” I started moving, realizing that wasn’t going to put the werewolf down for the count. I grabbed the second bag and ran out with my roommate, going into the service hallway. I deadbolted the service hall door before jumping into the elevator. While we went down, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, glad to see it made it out. I didn’t need another Sinclair style security breach.

  “Who are you calling for help?”

  “No one. We have help in the condo,” I answered, hitting the button to disengage the security in Raphael’s room where I had locked away my uncle. “If those two tangle, it buys us time. Wesley will fly down the stairs and meet us in the parking garage if I don’t give him something to chew on.”

  “And your uncle is a good idea for that? Don’t we need him?” Raphael tried to grab the phone from me, but I was fast enough to get away.

  “He’s better than nothing or, you know, just being dead,” I snapped, not letting guilt get to me. Nakul had come with me and given me good information and wanted to help, but he was still one of them—one of the bad guys, one of the murderers who should have died when they were caught. Keeping Raphael and me alive was the first priority. Everyone else could go fuck themselves, especially my uncle.

  “There’s a chance Wesley would sniff him out anyway and pick a fight. We’re just making it easier. Once we’re in the car, I need to call Hasan again. This is a major secrecy breach.”

  “Really? Do you think that guy walked all the way here, looking like that?”

  “Walk? No. Run? Very possible. Wesley isn’t normal.”

  The elevator dinged at the parking garage, and we ran for my BMW, jumping in. I started the engine and pulled out, glad to be getting away from yet another attempt on my life.

  “I think we should go to Cassius’,” Raphael said as we turned onto the road.

  “Nope. Fae. Can’t trust the fae right now,” I said evenly. “That stands. Every fucking one of them is conveniently missing. Remember?”

  “That’s right. What about…Paden’s? He’s a good friend, and he’s a fae, not missing.”

  “He’s got a wife he needs to keep on lockdown, and he’s an information dealer in his spare time. The Jackalope doesn’t pay his bills. I can’t give him anything that might jeopardize the position of the Tribunal, and details about a mass prison break that aren’t already public could very well do that.” I considered other options, sighing as I figured one would be better than the rest. “It’s not finished, but we’re going to my desert home.”

  “The one where Sinclair attacked us?”

  “Yup.” I hit the gas and got onto the freeway. Rain was pouring down now, meaning Levi had finished the spell, and the storm was at full strength. Going after him now seemed like a terrible idea. Wesley, Nakul, Erline, Dunter, Levi—how many other monsters would come crawling out from under the bed while I tried to regain any semblance of control over the situation?

  “What was he? Wesley.” Raphael leaned back in the seat, getting comfortable.

  “A werewolf.” It wasn’t that hard to figure out.

  “No. Werewolves and werecats only turn into actual animals, big ass wolves or big ass cats.”

  “Big ass sabretooth cats, but yeah, you’re right.” I shrugged. “Wesley isn’t normal.”

  “Obviously,” he snapped. “Kaliya, this is where you start telling me what we’re dealing with, remember?”

  “Oh shit, yeah. Sharing. That’s right.” I was frazzled, but I saw no reason why he couldn’t know about Wesley. “Wesley is a werewolf, but he’s not reall
y a bad person or anything. Someone else turned him into that, dumped him in the middle of a small town in the Rockies, and a massacre ensued. He’s gone into what’s called the Last Change. Werecats and werewolves sometimes completely lose it and can’t finish going between the forms. They’re cursed beings, so it makes sense it would end poorly, right? They’re normally killed when it happens. They have no humanity, no reason. They’re mindless killing machines.”

  “So…this just happens, and they’re killed when they’re found. But not Wesley?”

  I could understand his confusion.

  “Wesley has moments of clarity, of humanity no other werewolf or werecat has after experiencing the Last Change. He was found in the center of that small town, crying over a little girl he had killed.” I thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t been one of the people to find him. What an awful sight that must have been. “They knew then something was wrong…with him, with the entire situation. The problem is, when he tries to remember what’s happened to him and who did it, he goes into a rage, freaks out, and starts killing again. Others have tried to probe his memory to discover anything, but it’s always a dead end. So, he’s kept in hopes someone could one day discover how to fix him because this wasn’t his failure. Not that he’ll ever live on his own again, but he’s just a victim.”

  “Like me,” Raphael whispered.

  “Like you,” I agreed softly. “I’m honestly pissed off he’s out. If he can’t be contained, he’ll need to be killed, and that helps no one. Certainly not him.”

  “Why was he at the prison? Was it for security?”

  “Yup.” I nodded sharply. “I would bet my life’s savings the breakout agitated him more than normal…” I trailed off, realizing my train of thought was wrong. There was another thread here, and it was something I could use. “No…”