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

by K. N. Banet

  “He’s going to be furious with you,” the butler finally said, opening the door farther. “Downright furious. You need to stop visiting looking like this. Come over for dinner, not half-dead or on the run from some great evil. Lord Cassius isn’t back, by the way. When you declared the Code Black, Mary Anne left to get him because we knew you would need help. She hasn’t returned, and neither have the Lord and Lady.”

  “Do you have any word at all about what’s going on in the fae lands? I heard it was some clan challenges?”

  He froze, and I took the chance to walk past him into the large entryway of the mansion.

  “How?”

  “I’m Kaliya Sahni, Tribunal Executioner and one of two leaders of the nagas. I have my ways.” I took a page out of Hasan’s book, giving myself a good private laugh.

  Leith’s stare was unamused. He looked at Raphael as the big man passed him, then at the bag.

  “Well, at least you’re in good shape. That healing factor you have is astounding. You should find a way to sell it, then charge Kaliya. If she’s not going to take care of her fragile form, you might as well make money off it.” He glared at me again, then walked out of the room.

  “I always like seeing him,” Raphael said casually, following the butler. I glared at his back, then hobbled after them.

  “You’ve got an attitude today, Leith, and I’m not sure I like it,” I said, limping all the way into a sitting room off the dining room and kitchen. I wasn’t in this space a lot, usually allowed to be much more casual and hang out in their kitchen. “When is everyone going to remember my literal job description is ‘kill people’? I have to maintain the power and authority of the Tribunal by delivering swift punishment for the crimes committed against them. Like, what about that sounds safe?”

  “You’ll worry Lord Cassius if you keep showing up like this,” the butler said, pointing to a couch. “Sit down—”

  “And why the hell should I care about that? Huh?” Anger took over the exasperation in one fell swoop. I sat down, though, not stupid enough to try to stay standing. “He knows me. He knows what I do. If he’s got a problem, that’s his problem, not mine.”

  “People don’t like to watch their friends get hurt,” Raphael said, cutting in. I watched him put the bag with my uncle on the low center table. “It’s reasonable for them to worry.”

  “Yeah, I know, but…” I trailed off as I realized what I was doing and sighed. “I get it, but there’s nothing I can do about it except quit my job, and I can’t do that. Asking me to fix this and stop getting hurt is the same as asking me to go back in time and never get the job to begin with. Once an Executioner, always an Executioner, with only a few, very rare exceptions. I’ve been doing the job too long to be able to walk away like those exceptions.” Like my semi-friend, Narumi, in the Pacific Northwest. The kitsune switched from Investigator to Executioner, then back again because they had needed someone for the job in her region. She hadn’t had the job long enough to make any real enemies.

  “Forgive me, Lady Sahni,” Leith said, sighing heavily. “It’s been a stressful night.”

  “No shit.” I looked over at him again, giving him the most exasperated look. “And I came here to rest and heal. I’ve been in a few hard fucking fights since this started, and I need to get off my feet before I fall off them.”

  “Have a seat while I get a medical kit. Raphael, what’s in the bag?”

  “A snake,” he answered. I watched the butler frown, confused.

  “Another one? Kaliya—”

  “He hitched a ride out of the prison without me catching him. He’s been following me around since,” I explained, meeting the butler’s confused gaze, watching the realization dawn on him, watching him remember the very snake that would be in the prison. “I need him for information, then he’s going back. I need a secure room to hold him until I’m ready to talk to him.”

  “We kept the enclosure from the last time,” Leith informed me quickly, taking several steps away from the bag toward an archway. “It’s down in the basement.”

  “I’ll take him.” Raphael grabbed the bag again. I wanted to say no, that I would, but once my ass hit the couch, there was no moving it. I was too tired, too hurt, too fucking dizzy, and there was no way I was going to manage more stairs.

  “Nakul, if you leave that enclosure, I’ll kill you on sight,” I promised as they walked out of the room, knowing my uncle could hear me. Raphael held the bag uncomfortably as if he expected Nakul to pop out and argue with me, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. “No questions asked, no conversation to be had. You’ll just be dead. You can leave it when I come down to talk to you.”

  I nodded at Raphael and let them walk out of the room. While they were gone, I considered the idea that Cassius and Sorcha had kept the temporary habitat. I didn’t even want to ask because it reeked of a private joke aimed at me.

  I really hope Cassius didn’t tell her I sometimes like to sunbathe under my own heat lamp. That would be weird.

  When they walked back in, my eyes were fighting to stay open.

  “She needs to rest,” Leith whispered. “I trust you to wake her up. She needs those injuries cleaned and treated before she passes out.”

  “I’m awake,” I informed him when he was done. “But thank you for the concern.”

  “Of course, Lady Sahni,” he said gently, sitting on the small table in the center of the room, facing me. “Now, let’s see what’s wrong.”

  “Who’s all here right now?”

  “Just me and Terry,” he answered. “Hopefully, Lord Cassius and Lady Sorcha will be back soon.”

  “Why don’t you just call them Cassius and Sorcha?” I was tired of the Lord and Lady business tonight. “You’ve worked for him forever, and you know he probably doesn’t care. I do it.”

  “I’m not the leader of the nagas,” Leith reminded me.

  “Ah, yeah. I am that, aren’t I?” I snorted. “Not that I really talk to any of them…”

  “You okay?” Raphael sat next to me.

  “Let’s just do this and let me get some sleep. It’s too cold.” As if on cue, I shivered.

  Leith worked fast, patching up what he could. I winced as he stitched up some of the deeper cuts.

  “Does she come here like this often?” my roommate asked, the nosy prick.

  “Often enough,” the butler said ominously.

  “Please, it’s only been a few times.”

  “It’s always when you look bad. This is by far the worst I’ve seen you, and I saw how you looked when Lord Cassius brought you back from the fight with Sinclair,” Leith snapped. “You know I’m honored to work for a leader of my people. Lord Cassius, even though he passed up the throne, is a respected member of our community. He’s built bridges with different species and within our own since his father granted him title at his majority. He’s the only fae who claims to be a friend with the nagas, and you are the leader of them. I’ve been asked how it feels to work in a household that sees so many important people.” He gave me a hard stare, putting aside the needle he’d been using on my ribs. “I can’t tell them the leader of the nagas is constantly trying to get herself killed.”

  “What is your deal tonight?” I demanded. “Shit, Leith, you normally aren’t such a fucking asshole.”

  “He looks out for you, he worries about you, and when everything started happening, you didn’t come here straight away. He’s your ally, and I say you consider each other friends, but we were obviously the last option. You know he’ll be upset about it too. Locking down here is—”

  In my haze, getting away from the place I killed Levi and Raphael helped me with those werewolves, I hadn’t considered why I had avoided the mansion for the entire night.

  “All the important fae are missing,” I told him, watching how the butler reacted as I spoke. “You’re right. I’m the leader of the nagas, who are being silently exterminated. So, when all the fae I know in power suddenly disappear for whatever fuckin
g reason, then there’s a massive prison breach where the inmates are trying to kill me, some consciously and some under spells, I get a little fucking paranoid. So, I didn’t come here.”

  Leith’s eyes went wider and wider.

  “You’re an Executioner. Why would they try to kill you? You’re supposed to be killing them. They’re the criminals and despots who escaped their cells when they should be serving time for the crimes they committed against the supernatural world and the Tribunal.”

  “Someone wants me dead, and I don’t know who. For all I know, it could be one of the fae who conveniently went back to the fae lands right before it happened. See the problem?” I felt bitter all of a sudden. Everything I had ever done was to protect my people and uphold the Law. I gave both of those tasks everything, and I thought they were fairly honorable goals, even if the work I did for them wasn’t. I made mistakes and got people I cared about killed, but those were on me.

  This was a grudge match, and I didn’t know who I was playing against.

  “You don’t trust Lord Cassius?”

  “I trust that he’s a loyal man who will do as he’s told, and someone could use that against him,” I explained. “But I’m here, so obviously, I didn’t really believe it.”

  “It wasn’t Cassius that bothered her,” Raphael added. “It’s Sorcha, though don’t ask me about the politics.”

  Leith looked like he had come upon some great discovery.

  “Lady Sorcha does have a history of being on the wrong side of fae law,” Leith admitted softly. “Well, trust me when I say this, Lady Kaliya. Lady Sorcha is honorable in her own way, and she has never resorted to third parties to kill her enemies. And she’s never killed anyone else’s enemy for them. She’s an arms dealer, you see. Well, she was an arms dealer. Now, her most prized weapons float around in the world, and she’s working on getting them back. Anything she makes now is art out of silver and steel. Beautiful things. She only killed people who encroached on her business. She wasn’t an assassin like you, and she certainly has no reason to kill you. She only did business with fae.”

  “Why only fae? And holy shit, she’s a fucking arms dealer?” Raphael was muttering at the end, obviously shell-shocked.

  Yeah, I wasn’t expecting an arms dealer either, dude.

  “Because she’s not stupid. Working outside the fae gets the Tribunal involved,” I explained. “And you’re right, Leith. I should have never suspected Cassius and Sorcha, and when Raphael said we should come here when this started, we should have. Happy now?”

  “Much happier. Now, here’s something to ease the bruising and ache before you sleep, so you can be well-rested.” He handed me the jar of ointment, the same type I had used at home. I opened it and sniffed, making sure. Yup, still smells fucking awful.

  “My room? Do I still have one?”

  “You always have a room here, Kaliya. Lord Raphael, you have one as well, the door across the hall.”

  “You called me Kaliya,” I smirked.

  Leith glared, and I took my chance to get up and leave, knowing my roommate was on my heels. Raphael opened my door, then stepped inside. I turned and frowned at him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to help you with that,” he answered, pointing at the jar.

  22

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “No.” The last thing I needed in my state was his hands all over me. With his shirt off. On a bed.

  My fangs had been down from the moment he took his shirt off. I never got them to lay back down. I was too tired for even that small measure of control.

  There’s only so much self-control I can have in one day, and we’re past that point. One bite would be all too easy right now.

  “Are you more flexible suddenly and can rub it into your back?” He kicked my door shut with his heels, and I was struck with the feeling of being a naughty teenage girl. That door needed to remain open, or things were going to happen my chaperone wouldn’t like.

  “I’m not telling you about how flexible I am.” Oh, for the love of the gods, Kaliya, don’t pick this moment of all moments to go into the gutter. You suffered a head wound, not a lobotomy.

  “I’m sure we can find some other time to talk about how flexible you are.” He stepped up closer and took the ointment out of my hand. “Sit down, please.”

  “What’s with men and wanting to do this? I don’t need someone to take care of me, Raphael. You can go.”

  “I don’t want to go,” he whispered. “I want to make sure one of my only friends is taken care of and can get a good…day’s sleep. You were thrown into a wall. Two if we include the explosion at the prison. I’m sure your shoulders and back hurt like a motherfucker.”

  I pulled my shirt off to show him exactly what damage I had taken, wobbling as I did. He was right, I wasn’t suddenly more flexible; much less flexible, actually. I had seen the initial damage in the mirror at the condo, but I knew it was worse now. By the sharp intake of his breath, I knew it was much worse.

  “How are you standing?”

  “I was trained to,” I answered, keeping on my feet. “Because that’s all I’ve got right now. My own fucking wits and the training I went through before I got this job.”

  “You’ve got me,” he reminded me, grabbing my elbow with feather-light fingers. I sat on the bed and let him rub in the ointment. “Have you never had a partner?”

  “Cassius sort of was for a long time. Well, I was more like his deadly sidekick.”

  “You’re still friends with him, so I don’t know why you sound a little bitter.”

  “He walked out on me right after I fell asleep the last time we had sex. And I’m not bitter. He’s just the only thing I’ve had close to a partner, and that’s how it turned out. I’m happy for him now. He seems a lot happier with Sorcha, and that’s good for him.”

  “You know a lot about him, more than you let on. When he showed up and I met him, it seemed like you two were begrudging friends, but I’m honestly a little jealous of him right now.”

  “Why?” I snorted, trying to ignore the feel of his super-hot hands rubbing my shoulders, working in the ointment, and giving me a massage at the same time.

  “Because I can see how much you genuinely care about him. I just hope he knows how lucky he is to have someone like you in his corner.”

  I blinked. The combination of everything over the last night and day hit me as I formed my response to the man beside me.

  “He’s not the lucky one,” I whispered. “I am. I’m a train wreck, and everyone knows it. Everyone knows I cause trouble wherever I go, people get hurt, and they die. Like Carter.”

  He leaned over to stare at me, eye to eye. Whatever he was thinking was behind an emotionless mask. I didn’t want the emotionless mask. If he wanted to have this conversation right now, I wanted to know how he felt.

  “He’s lucky to have someone like you,” Raphael repeated.

  He went back to rubbing in the ointment. I reached into the jar and worked on my belly and ribs, so he wouldn’t have to, careful not to mess with the stitches Leith had just done. He did my lower back, then stood up.

  “I’ll leave you here since you can reach the rest,” he said, putting the jar down on the bedside table.

  “Raphael,” I called out as he reached the door. When he looked back, I met his gaze once again. “I’m lucky to have you, too.”

  Somewhere since the prison breakout happened, everything had changed between us. The near dying stuff was hard to do alone, and I had done it alone for so long, and this guy, who had so much on his plate, was here helping me when he could have hidden.

  “Get some rest before you admit to having more emotions than your cold-blooded nature can handle,” he teased, then left the room.

  I laughed weakly and finished treating myself, then fell back onto the bed, glad I could finally get some sleep.

  I wasn’t sure how long I slept. When I sat up, the pain was there, but it wasn’t debil
itating. It took all of twenty seconds for the nasty headache to make itself known, though, the most painful repercussion of my night.

  “Fuck,” I groaned, rubbing my temples. I staggered to my feet and went to the bathroom, groping as I stepped into the shower and turned on the hot water, trying to quickly warm myself and get moving. Just because I was rested, didn’t mean anything was resolved. I had to find my phone and check in with Hasan, though I figured the werewolves probably passed on the major developments. I felt guilty, not calling before passing out, but I knew the Tribunal would understand. They knew their Executioners got beaten up.

  When I stepped out of the shower, the headache was still there, but the heat and water had loosened me up enough not to feel like I was hobbling as I got into fresh clothes. Again, I was glad that Cassius was thoughtful enough to have clothing for me in his mansion. This time, I promised myself I wouldn’t be petty and petulant about it. What I had talked to Raphael about had really hit home. I was lucky to have Cassius and knew I needed to show that appreciation more.

  Once I was dressed, I walked out to hunt down anything to eat. I had eaten a massive meal only two evenings ago, but I knew the night and the sleep burned through all of that. I could eat a horse and intended to find a meal comparable in size if I could.

  “Good evening,” a gruff voice greeted me as I made my way into the kitchen.

  “Hey, Terry,” I said, trying to smile. “How are you doing? Everything been safe and secure here?”

  “Yup. You look like shit. Been cleaning up the prison mess, huh? You the one who got Leith all fucking worried?” The big werewolf was staring at me, something between disgust and annoyance on his face.

  “Yup. You don’t need to thank me,” I mumbled, reaching for the refrigerator door. He was suddenly next to me and held it closed.

  “I don’t like your guy. Why is he here?”

  “He’s helping me. Is this about the smell thing?”