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

by K. N. Banet

  Actually, this is the worst. Sinclair was almost normal, other than the turning into an unidentifiable beast. Honestly, nothing is even comparable to this.

  “Are you okay?” Raphael’s voice was like sweet honey, thick with concern. I enjoyed the sound of it. I never let myself revel in the pleasures of life anymore. Raphael was a pleasure of life, even though the entire situation was complicated.

  Only I can have a complicated relationship with a man and not get sex out of it. And without him knowing just how complicated it is. Fucking figures. Not like I can tell him. ‘Oh, didn’t I tell you? I can only breed with one person on the planet due to biology, and that person happens to be you. My female organs think I need to jump your bones. You cool with that?’

  “Fine,” I said, finally pushing myself up. “Just getting tired.”

  “I can drive. I feel pretty good right now.”

  “No. I don’t know how you’d react to hostiles on the road, and if we’re attacked…I just don’t want to risk it. Sorry.” I wished I could let him drive. A little shut-eye would be nice. “And I know the roads better than you, which will prove useful in the storm over Phoenix.”

  “Figured I’d offer,” he said, sounding only a little put off.

  “Thank you for the offer,” I whispered, meaning it. “I just can’t take you up on it. Maybe next time.”

  “Maybe.” He chuckled darkly.

  Sad that we both assume there’s going to be a next time.

  18

  Chapter Eighteen

  To kill time on the drive, I called Hasan using my hands-free Bluetooth set up. I liked technology. I liked the first phone, the first beeper, and the Internet as they all became publicly available. If there was a way to communicate easier, or really anything else, I wanted to use it. So, the new BMW was done up with all the latest technologies. It probably didn’t seem like much for humans, but I could still name dozens of supernaturals who liked living off the grid, only dealing with technology when they were forced to.

  “Yes?” Hasan didn’t sound tired, but there was a lack of professionalism to his greeting that didn’t seem normal. I didn’t know him well enough to know if he sounded pissed off.

  “Hey, you wanted me to call about the prison. Raphael and I are driving back to Phoenix.”

  “Go ahead,” he said. I distinctly heard leather rubbing together, like a chair or couch. He’d probably had as little sleep as I did as we approached ten in the morning my time. I didn’t know where he lived or the time for him, but he had been up when I called about the prison breach, and the likelihood he got any sleep since then was slim.

  “First, let me say, I have no solid suspects, only hunches I intend to keep to myself until I have more information. I don’t want arrests or anything else happening until the majority of the danger has been resolved.” I knew better than to say, ‘Oh, Korey did it in my professional opinion’ because it could easily get an innocent werewolf killed.

  “Understood.” He wasn’t as talkative this time.

  “Okay, first thing, the prison definitely had unauthorized guests. You’ll want to talk to Callahan or Corissa because it has to do with Wesley.”

  “Tell me everything you learned.” He seemed to perk up. I wondered if he wanted to stick it to the werewolves, or if he really cared about Wesley.

  I’ll assume the latter. The Last Change and the problems that come from it are also a werecat problem.

  “Korey didn’t know who it was, but Tarak and Eliphas hired outside help for the research and therapy for Wesley’s problem without authorization. I know initially, the Tribunal put people on the task, but Korey made sure to tell me this was a different team. A healer of some sort and his staff. She’s going to look into it because Tarak and Eliphas were very hush-hush about it. Since Tarak died last night very suddenly, it was never passed down to her. I didn’t want to go after Eliphas yet, so I left her to deal with her fellow Warden. Eliphas will tell her, and I won’t need to use any intimidation or my position. It’ll help them bond. If it’s a problem…well, I can always drive back down.”

  “What are they doing down there?” Hasan asked though it seemed rhetorical.

  “I don’t know,” I answered anyway. He growled on the other end. “I asked her to contact me with details as she gets them. I can have her send them your way as well if you want.”

  “Do that. I want to handle this personally without the witches or werewolves protecting their own,” he said with a snap. “Just so I can slam that prison with a charge of illegally allowing guests, and my peers won’t be able to stop me, and ride my fellow Tribunal members for not keeping a better eye on it.” He was now very grumbly. “Brion leaves while I’m gone, and everything goes to hell. I had to get on to Callahan for not having an up-to-date review. He and I are already swamped with other problems and—”

  “Werecat and werewolf shit?” I was curious, and I wanted to stop him from ranting about his peers, my other bosses.

  “Is it your business?”

  “No, but I’ve heard the werewolves were harassing some werecats over opening lines of communication, thanks to that Jacky Leon thing.”

  “It has nothing to do with you, so how did you hear about it?” Hasan demanded.

  I was glad to have him off the prison. The less he worried about the immediate problem, the more free rein I had because he wouldn’t want to order me around. I knew how to work my bosses, and Hasan, while new to me, was just another big bad ruler of the supernatural world.

  “I hear things. I work part-time as a bounty hunter when things are slow,” I reminded him. “My region is normally much more well behaved, and it helps me keep up with recent news.”

  “Ah, that’s right.” He sighed. “Yes, tensions are escalating but not between Callahan and me. The problems have been local and isolated, and we’re trying to keep a handle on it.”

  “You know, earlier you mentioned calling in Coyotl to help here. Why him and not Lonan? He lives closer, and he knows everyone here.”

  “I texted him. He turned me down immediately, thanks to Wagner. As I said, problems have been local. Coyotl doesn’t care about that as much, but he also said no, mostly because he’s angry with me.”

  “Ah.”

  “Want to know why? I thought you were one of those nosy enough to ask.”

  “I do, but I wasn’t stupid enough to ask,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road, trying not to die of curiosity.

  “There are many things to be said of you, Kaliya, but I would never have considered stupid. I have heard brash and reckless, however,” he said, obviously teasing. He was warmer than his son and had more of a sense of humor.

  The only son I know, at least. He has like seven or eight kids. Maybe one of the others is a real comedian.

  “Brash and reckless are good ways to describe her,” Raphael said quietly from his seat. I looked at my roommate, narrowing my eyes as I drove. We weren’t in the rain yet, so I took some liberties I shouldn’t have, watching him for far longer than I really needed to. He had a gorgeous profile and a jawline that could cut glass, sporting a five o’clock shadow.

  Why does he have to be so nice to look at?

  “Ah, Raphael, I was wondering if you were in the car. Is there anything Kaliya hasn’t told me yet?”

  I glared, trying to somehow convey to him he needed to keep his mouth shut. He met my gaze and frowned.

  “That’s for her to say, sir. She’s the expert. I don’t know what she thinks is pertinent or not, or maybe she’s hoping for more information before passing it along.”

  “Respectable answer. You keep her secrets then,” Hasan commented nonchalantly. “Kaliya, is there anything else you want me to know right now?”

  “All I have are suspicions, and those won’t help you. Let me get concrete evidence.” I wasn’t ready to tell him about the attack in the prison, and I had a strong gut feeling no one at the prison would mention it to the Tribunal. It would make the Wardens look even worse,
and they wouldn’t want that after such a major breach. I didn’t trust much in the world or my fellow supernaturals, but I damn sure trusted the lengths they would go to for self-preservation. No supernatural let go of power easily or painted themselves in the wrong without a fight.

  “Okay. Keep your phone close. We’ll have news on Levi’s location any minute now.”

  “Amazing.” I hung up on him, no longer needing to keep the line open. I drove for a minute in silence before speaking up to the man beside me.

  “Thanks for watching my back. I have to be careful what I give the Tribunal until I have everything that could possibly sway the way this turns out. Normally, Investigators like Cassius don’t call in with checkups. They finish their entire case file then present their findings. If I send too much back too quickly, they’ll want to press me to go into a certain direction without all the facts.”

  “I get it. Like I told him, you’re the expert. I’m just along for the ride. The muscle. So, now we get Levi, then we get back to the investigation.”

  “Yeah, and thankfully, Levi should be the easy part.”

  “Really?” Raphael straightened up. “Why do you say he’s the easy part?”

  “Well, finding him was the hardest thing. He won’t be much of a fight when we’re right on top of him. Most of his kills were stealth attacks on people much less capable than me and less powerful than you. If we get the jump on him, he’s a witch, just as fragile and mortal as any human.” I shrugged. “Fact of the matter is, killing him is the easy part.”

  “That’s…good to know,” he said, chuckling softly.

  I was surprised. I didn’t know if he was becoming desensitized, or if he was just going off the deep end, but it was certainly not the reaction I expected. Before I had the chance to ask him about it or if he was okay, he continued, not missing a beat.

  “So, I’ve been thinking. What’s Levi’s game? You’re pretty certain he called in this storm. Why? What is he supposed to do after that?”

  “I would think when the storm is at its worst, and the roads start closing, he’ll start hunting. He has the rain on us now, but when he makes his attacks, his tornados and storms will do a lot of damage to the area. When it was over, people would be missing or dead. This might not be big enough yet, which makes it all the more important to find him before he begins hunting.”

  “Do you think he’ll see us coming?”

  “No. He’s always been an overconfident son of a bitch. He wasn’t found by other witches originally. It was Stan, a Tribunal Investigator, werewolf. He’s good at sniffing out people.”

  “Stan? A guy named Stan does the same job as Cassius?” Raphael started to laugh, and I didn’t really understand. I wondered what had snapped in my poor roommate as the laughter died off.

  “Really, what is wrong with you right now?”

  “Kaliya, Cassius, Sorcha, Sinclair, and now you’re telling me there’s a werewolf named Stan. It just seems so…normal.” He leaned back, shaking his head. I looked at his face for a moment, seeing the light in eyes, the humor. He was entertained by this.

  “Yeah. He’s a white guy from Maryland. He’s like eighty years old, very intelligent, but a rogue wolf. Never really fit in with a pack, so they put his talents elsewhere as an Investigator. He’s a tough guy, but I’ve never heard about him getting into many fights, which I take as something that makes him suited for the work of a pack Enforcer.”

  “Good to know,” Raphael said, waving his hands around like he didn’t know what to do with them.

  “Okay…” I was still a little lost. I grew up hearing and seeing all sorts of things about the supernatural world, so it took me the next few minutes to really piece together what had just happened. Raphael was still learning, and so far, I’d dumped him in the deep end of the supernatural world.

  I need to introduce him to more contemporary supernaturals, people he can relate to. It’s like socializing a puppy. I need to expose him to more than just what I deal with every day. I shouldn’t have kept him locked up in the condo for so long.

  “What’s a pack Enforcer?” He was finally settled and realized I gave him a new fun tidbit to learn.

  I was nothing if not a treasure trove of supernatural information, even defunct things many others didn’t know. I really enjoyed his curiosity. It had annoyed me when I first met him, but now, I appreciated it. He didn’t like not knowing, which was a positive in our world.

  “It’s the title of the few wolves tough enough to beat the shit out of nearly any other wolf but don’t want to be Alphas. They’re not always called an enforcer because it puts a target on their back with the other wolves, but you know them when you see them. Sometimes, they’re the second in command, protecting the Alpha’s back. A lot of times, they work for people like the Tribunal werewolves or the werewolf councils, enforcing werewolf Law. I know you’ve heard of the councils. The biggest is here in North America and deals a lot with the human press and governments. They’re the public face of the supernatural world right now, while the Tribunal remains a more shadow entity in control. Well, a shadow entity to the humans.”

  “There’s so much to remember,” he said, sighing. “Tribunal, werewolf councils, the fae clans, courts, and nobles. I’m amazed humanity hasn’t discovered all of you yet with the internet, pictures, and all the other modern technology.”

  “That’s because we have our grubby hands in all the pots. Supernaturals work at human research facilities, making sure research never exposes us. We have a Tribunal-run organization that helps keep magical creatures out of sight since humanity tends to kill anything special or different. They’re always looking for people to help, though. We have breakouts, and new creatures pop up all the time.”

  “And you didn’t take that job? It could have been a hell of a lot safer than the one you currently have.”

  “Ha, that’s funny.” The magical creatures were not safer than supernatural people.

  “Ah.”

  The conversation died off as he realized there were magical creatures out there a lot more dangerous than anything we were dealing with. It was interesting to think about. Out in the desert, there were a few interesting creatures that showed up, ones that successfully evaded most of humanity for centuries. Many magical creatures were so rare, young supernaturals never encountered one, and most never saw fit to bring them up because they weren’t much of a threat to someone in the modern world. Animal attacks were rarer than murders. They happened, but most people didn’t worry, and that was the way everyone liked it.

  But if someone was stupid enough to go looking for them…well, that ended up being bad news for most parties involved.

  “Have you ever seen any?”

  The conversation has been dead for ten minutes, Raph. How long have you been thinking about asking that?

  I glanced at him and opened my mouth to answer him when a loud buzz distracted both of us. He grabbed my cellphone and told me what it was before I could ask.

  “It’s coordinates. Hasan says good luck.”

  “Punch them in,” I ordered. A minute later, the screen on my dash had the route I needed to get to Levi.

  19

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was pushing mid-day when I parked the car three blocks from where the witches tracked Levi to. I didn’t know exactly where he was hiding yet, but from the look of the area, it was probably a warehouse or office building—hopefully abandoned. The last thing I needed was to have to call in cleanup for a bunch of dead humans. We were near the airport, which was already a bit of a hotbed for activity. If my recent luck had any say, it would already be ugly when I found Levi.

  “Why are we stopping here?”

  “Look how bad the storm is. There’s rain, hail, strong winds—”

  “And you want us to walk through it,” Raphael said, leaning to look out of the front windshield. “Really?”

  “If we drive right up, he’s going to see us coming. Look how many cars are on the road
, Raphael. There’s not a lot of traffic. Now, look at my car. We stand out like a sore thumb. We need to sneak up on him. We can’t park at the door and not expect trouble.”

  “I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just bitching,” he said. “I mean, I heal. The hail isn’t going to do a damn thing to me, but you? Have you looked in a mirror since we got back to your condo? You’ve been hurt since then, too. I thought you healed faster or something. I know you get sluggish in the cold, but does it mess with your healing too?”

  “On a hot day, resting in the sun, sure, I heal a little faster than humans, but I’m not like you or most other supernaturals. I’m fragile, but I’ll be fine. I know how to work through the pain, and nothing is fatal or permanent.” And I’ll pretend like I’m not insulted or touched by your concern. Prick. “This is a bad day for me, but it’s not something I can’t handle.”

  I cut the engine and jumped out, leaving him there. I didn’t realize he had paid that much attention, but it wasn’t surprising anymore.

  I hated the weather the moment I was exposed to it. I had kept the BMW warm to stay awake and active, especially since I was injured, but it was blisteringly cold outside for me, and it probably wasn’t even under thirty. The rain was a bit icy, a serious problem for me. The hail was huge, near golf ball size in some cases. The winds were too strong, threatening to move me.

  This is bad.

  Levi had had several hours to ramp up this storm for whatever purpose. Being so close to the origin meant we were in the worst of it, and it was ugly.

  “Kaliya, I’m serious. We can park a little closer, so this doesn’t beat you up!” he called over the car. Starting to walk away, I didn’t respond. Before I made it ten steps, he was beside me and grabbed my shoulders from behind. He moved around me and walked in front, which was nice since we were walking into the wind. The hail had been hitting me in the face.