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

by K. N. Banet

He stood slowly and looked at the bed again, paled, and looked away once more.

  “We can talk about it more on another night,” I said softly. I didn’t even know what time it was, so I turned to see it was four in the morning. “At least we got a nap in. I’m going to shower. You should probably eat something.”

  He nodded silently as I walked into my bathroom and turned on the water.

  What a fucking night.

  18

  Chapter Eighteen

  When I got out of the shower, he was making breakfast for everyone. There was enough food cooking to feed a small army, and he already had one small plate set up with portions meant for a child.

  I looked at it carefully, then up at him as he worked over the stove on a batch of eggs and bacon.

  “That’s for you,” he confirmed without turning around.

  I picked up the plate, which already had silverware on it, and went to the small breakfast table.

  “Can I tell you something strange?” he asked, still not looking at me. I watched his back as he cooked instead.

  “Yeah,” I said, pushing the forks on my plate around.

  “Is it…is it normal for supernaturals to be able to…feel each other?” he asked finally, looking over his shoulder.

  “I’ll need more description than that. Some can smell each other across vast spaces on the wind. I can, for lack of a better term, see thermal information. Others can feel the magic of others, while I can taste smells. We’re all different.”

  “I didn’t hear you walk up,” he said, going back to the scrambled eggs he was making. “I knew the moment you got out of the shower and left your room, though. I could feel you behind me, waiting for something.”

  “Do you feel Cassius and Sorcha?” I asked with a frown.

  “No,” he said, turning toward me after he put the eggs in a bowl for everyone to serve themselves. “Only you. I don’t know if it’s you or me, though. Is it something I’m doing, or is it what you are?”

  “How long has this been going on? It could be something more human. People get familiar with each other.”

  “Possibly.” He sighed and went back to the bacon. I could smell hash browns, too, something not on my plate yet.

  I started eating, wondering if he was going to answer my question. A timeline would help, knowing what I knew. If I had accidentally fucked up and got venom in him, I hoped I would know, but he was a different species from anything my people ever dealt with before. This was uncharted territory.

  “Raphael, how long?” I asked again after finishing off the bacon.

  “Remember when I admitted I watched you? Since then, at least. I didn’t know what I was feeling, but I felt drawn to you. Now, when I’m not looking at you, I can feel you moving around. At least five months, probably more, but I was confused by everything when we met.” He chuckled darkly. “I’m still confused by everything. I hate it, but there’s only one way to fix it, and that’s to learn.”

  I didn’t like hearing any of that. He was drawn to me, he could feel me, he knew where I was in relation to him all the time.

  I really hoped cambions didn’t also have mates. That could prove disastrous for me.

  Maybe it’s an emotional thing. He’s attached to me, which makes him more observant and magically aware of me.

  “Well, maybe we can find out more in the journals today,” I said with a smile, trying to hide my own panic.

  Oh, please don’t have fated mates like my people. I don’t need that stress. You’re supposed to move on and be with someone else, not want me for the rest of eternity.

  He nodded slowly, then went back to breakfast.

  I finished up and got to work. Cassius and Sorcha walked out of Raphael’s bedroom at seven, ate quickly, then settled in for another day of reading. Neither of them mentioned anything about possible screaming from the night or morning, but it didn’t take long for Cassius to see my neck, which was probably already a nasty color.

  “What happened?” he whispered urgently.

  “It’s okay. We worked it out—”

  “If he laid a hand on you—”

  “Cassius, it was an accident, and it’s not your business, anyway,” I snapped, a little too loudly. Something clattered in the kitchen, and I looked over my friend’s head to see Raphael trying to wash the dishes, looking ashamed of himself.

  Cassius didn’t believe me, but as he looked back at Raphael, he didn’t say anything. He glared at him, then looked back down to the journal he was reading. Beside him, Sorcha was staring at me with wide eyes.

  “It was an accident,” I repeated. It sounded as if I was covering up something nefarious, but in reality, I just didn’t want them to know Raphael’s personal problems.

  Cassius slammed the book shut and stood. He looked hard at Raphael, and I stood slowly, ready if I needed to stop this. Cassius didn’t even pay attention to me.

  “I need the truth,” Cassius said, not stiff as he normally was but genuinely furious.

  “Because my husband cares deeply for you.”

  That had been something Sorcha had said.

  “I woke up, and I…wasn’t in my right mind,” Raphael said carefully. “I thought I was somewhere else, and I thought I was in danger. Once I realized it was her, I let go. We talked about it.”

  I sat back down as Cassius’ shoulders slumped, and the fae nodded.

  “Okay.” He sat down and looked at me. “You should ice that.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it yet,” I said softly. “Let’s just let it heal on its own. It’s not as bad as it looks, just a little sore.”

  “It’ll be stiff tomorrow,” Sorcha pointed out.

  “Are either of you healers?” I knew the answer, but I was feeling petty since Cassius had decided to make a scene. They both went back to what they were reading.

  From the noise in the kitchen, I knew Raphael was already trying to either find or make an ice pack. I went back to reading, letting him do it. I knew what it meant to try to do something to ease a conscience. I wasn’t going to take that away from him, not this morning.

  When he came into the living room, he stood over me. I had taken an unceremonious seat on the floor, so I could put books and journals all around me. He put a makeshift ice pack in front of me, made out of sandwich bags and tape.

  “Hold on,” he murmured. He left the room, and when he came back, he had one of my scarves. I didn’t know how much he had to dig into my closet to find it, but I didn’t mention it. Using the scarf, I secured the ice pack at the front of my neck on the worst of the new bruising.

  Seeming both satisfied and guilty when I was done, he sat down in the armchair near me and quietly read.

  We were all deep in thought for most of the morning, trying to weed out any potentially useful information.

  “Cambions are infertile once their powers are activated,” Cassius said in a whisper. “No wonder he had books on summoning more demons. He probably got them from Mygi.”

  “That means humans were…” Sorcha trailed off.

  I shivered. This was the problem with too much science in the supernatural world. Trying to answer all the questions often led to a disregard for ethics or basic decency. These scientists were evil, although they probably didn’t think so.

  “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” I mumbled, shaking my head sadly. “So, they know a way to identify cambions who are still living normal lives. When they couldn’t breed the cambions for more test subjects, they decided to…” I waved a hand, unable to bring myself to say the words. “They must have hit a dead end finding more cambions.”

  “Or they couldn’t find enough to suit their purpose.”

  “But why?” Raphael asked. “They researched us, and we didn’t help them with anything they were working on. Why keep us? Why keep making more?”

  “Because science is never done, and by then, you all could have them shut down for their actions,” Cassius answered simply. “There’s a chance th
ey’ve gotten out of control, and that’s all there is to it. They’ve discovered something new, and they want to find a use for you. No other supernatural species would let themselves be experimented on like the way you have been.” Cassius leaned over and rubbed his face. “The cambions won’t ever be free of this unless we use force, Mygi’s research be damned.”

  By lunch, we were exhausted, but there were still things we needed to read through. We couldn’t skim. Every detail could matter, and while most of us could read fast, none of us could read that fast. We were still working on the timeline of the journals when Raphael cursed viciously.

  “I’m tired of this. Why can’t we find this guy’s name? Where the fuck is he now?” Raphael threw the journal across the room, then stormed out, his eyes a vicious red and black, then the gym door slammed.

  “I read this last night, but I didn’t want to say anything,” Cassius said softly, eyeing where Raphael left but talking to me. He picked up a black leather journal next to him and handed it over. “It’s about the mental stability of cambions.”

  “I don’t trust anyone’s words on mental health when they’re torturing people,” I snapped, trying to push the book away.

  “Fine, I’ll paraphrase. Even under normal conditions, even before their powers are activated, cambions are people with high emotions. They’re the people you see with passionate or vicious tempers. They fly off the handle quickly and fall in love too fast. It’s a species trait in the eyes of Mygi, so they tell all of their lab employees to be careful with the cambions. They don’t like to upset them even though they use several methods of keeping their powers only minimally useful. Apparently…Raphael was known as one of the worst.”

  Hearing Raphael’s name made me finally take the journal from him and see what Cassius was talking about. Sure enough, there was Raphael’s name and his lab designation, C-17, which I assumed meant cambion number seventeen.

  A violent temper. Protective over the others. Loses control over basic abilities very quickly, but health factor higher. Seems to have some emotional sway over the others.

  I closed the journal and sighed. “Does it talk about any others? Raphael told me a few of their names.” I held it out to him, wanting to get rid of it.

  “Not by name, not that I could find yet,” Cassius said, taking the journal back. “There’s also some talk cambions might have a biological ranking system, whatever that means.”

  “We need to…write all of this up, so there’s a direct resource,” I said, groaning. “I still need to look into who legally owned the home in Sedona. There’s so much here.”

  “We can bring Paden back in,” Sorcha offered. Both Cassius and I started shaking our heads.

  “Call Leith,” Cassius ordered softly. “He can start transcribing this and make a database of intel on the cambions we find here. It will take time…probably more than a few weeks, which we can’t waste right now. Raphael seems to be losing his temper a little more the longer this takes.”

  I nodded, agreeing. Leith was loyal and an extra pair of eyes. At the thought of Raphael, I leaned over further, trying to clear my head, but nothing worked. I felt like I was getting a migraine, but that didn’t make much sense.

  “He’s had a lot happen over the last few days,” I reminded Cassius. “And this?” I gestured to my neck. “He wasn’t lying. He really didn’t know who I was, and I was stupid enough to try to wake him up from a night terror. He got more memories back, so who knows what’s going through his mind right now. He’s feeling shitty and guilty for leaving people he knew there. He doesn’t remember how he got out. I don’t care if it’s biological or not, I’m going to give him a pass right now. It’s only fair. This is…so much worse than I thought and what he remembered, and it was already bad.”

  I stood and stretched. “Call Leith. I’m going to look into this guy’s house. There might be something.”

  19

  Chapter Nineteen

  I went into my public office and sat down to work. This was easy information to get. Sitting there, I remembered that I never told Paden anything about Sedona and sent him a text. It was vague and really didn’t tell Paden anything, but at that moment, I couldn’t muster any more. This was a job I could give Paden, but I wanted him following his own leads. The fact he even knew someone somehow connected to this was already a massively lucky break. I didn’t expect much more.

  The house gave me nothing, and I began to get the sinking sensation we’d potentially hit another dead end. The information about cambions was great, the evidence against Mygi was fantastic, but none of it gave us the full story or a way to save the cambions without risking their lives. I couldn’t risk the Tribunal deciding they needed to be exterminated. Cassius and I had to make sure our case was ironclad.

  So, I looked into this house and felt like I was hitting a wall. None of this mattered until I ended this—until I took down Mygi Pharmaceuticals, until Raphael was free from them and their desperation to get him back, and until all the cambions were able to live as supernaturals without the Tribunal going after them. Since I had none of those things yet, I had to keep working.

  The house revealed nothing. Records showed it under a fake name that had little documentation. It was a cash sale, so there was no bank financing, no shell companies to chase down…nothing.

  I sighed, knowing it took me over three hours to dig through that for little result. I had other things I needed to get done. Since Leith was helping them out there, and I was certain Raphael was still in the gym, I decided to check in on other things I couldn’t neglect.

  My public email was sparse and had nothing of interest.

  My private email had two new emails. Since they were to my private email, that made them interesting without even seeing who they were from. I clicked the one from Adhar. His email was lengthy, but it was all good news. Roshni’s parents loved the gifts, and he picked out some amazing additions to send in my name as well. He was impressed with my jewelry selection.

  It was a pleasant email, and I even replied, telling Adhar it was a great help for him to add more to the gift. Being out of the country made it difficult. Adhar and I did not like each other, but there were a few things we could agree on. Celebrating the birth of a new child was one of them. Wanting to protect our people was another. It was a bond I couldn’t break, not the core of it. We disagreed about the way our culture dictated the lives of nagas, especially young ones, disagreed about safety measures, and disagreed about taking a proactive stance against our unseen enemies, particularly that he believed it wasn’t conspiracy and I did. But this was something we couldn’t break, and for a moment, I took a bit of solace, knowing there were others who could possibly understand what I was feeling.

  Raphael should be able to have this sort of connection to his own people.

  I closed Adhar’s email once I was done with my reply, then clicked the second. I didn’t recognize the name, but the very first line sent shivers down my spine.

  Executioner Kaliya Sahni,

  You took all of my research. Decades of work you stole, and I want it back. I demand it back. You slithering, conniving little snake. You fucking bitch. You don’t know who you’ve pissed off.

  I stopped reading but kept the email open, started an IP trace, then went into the living room. Raphael sat by himself while Cassius directed Sorcha and Leith over their shoulders, pointing at different journals and spellbooks. They all looked up when I stopped where they could see me.

  “Hey, everyone,” I said to the group. “So, remember how we figured stealing all this and burning that house down would piss someone off? Well, our egotistical sorcerer has somehow gotten my private email and sent a wonderful professional email, requesting his things back.” I smiled.

  Cassius was the first one moving, knowing I was being funny and what I really meant. Maybe it was the idea of competition, but Raphael was second to run out of the room. Sorcha looked at me with a frown, then followed them.

  “I am goi
ng to assume you’re kidding,” she said carefully.

  “He called me a slithering, conniving snake, then a fucking bitch,” I explained.

  “He calls you worse things than that,” Raphael yelled down the hall.

  I spread my hands in a humored shrug. “I don’t read hate mail. I just trace the IP and send a warning that I’m not someone to fuck with.”

  “How would he have gotten your private email?” Sorcha crossed her arms, staring me down with that serious frown.

  “Sinclair could have given it to someone, and I never figured it out,” I said, groaning. “That’s the only way.” I knew that was going to come back and bite me. I hadn’t been expecting it to happen now. “He’s a little mad, so he probably isn’t thinking clearly.”

  “I’d say,” Cassius snapped as he walked back into the living room. “Good job on the IP trace, but it got blocked. His email did offer some good information, though, and an opportunity. He wants to trade information for his research. He thinks no harm, no foul. You get something, and he gets something.”

  “We’re going to arrest him, right?” Raphael demanded, looking at the back of Cassius’ head as he walked back in, then he looked around Cassius at me. “Right?”

  “Of course.” I shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we?”

  He shrugged, too.

  “Kaliya and I don’t make deals. No one in our profession does. One day, criminals will figure out we can’t be bought, but it’s unlikely. They always think they have the thing that will buy us off.”

  “We’ll do more than arrest him,” Sorcha said with a smile in her voice. “Tell me, husband mine, what is the Tribunal’s impression of torture?”

  “No,” Cassius said strongly, pointing around me at his wife.

  “Yeah, we’re not allowed to torture. We’re allowed to interrogate with force,” I explained, winking at her. “But torture is proven not to work. Confessions and the like are often made up just to stop the abuse. We won’t do that.”