Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4)

by J. A. Cipriano

“That isn’t a reason,” Reath mumbled to himself as Mitsoumi stepped up in front of him, glaring at the huge man. It was strange because even though Mitsoumi was a foot shorter and not nearly as bulky, he somehow dwarfed the bigger man.

  “It is a reason, Reath Al Akeer,” Mitsoumi said as he turned and addressed the audience. “In case you have all forgotten, Lillim Callina saved this city just a couple months ago from the Blue Prince. She also killed the dragon that threatened to take over the world.” He narrowed his eyes at the crowd. “And you would repay her valor by accusing her of a crime for which there is no proof?”

  “There is proof,” Reath said, calm leaking back into his voice as he spoke. “My daughter is missing and was taken to Fairy.”

  “I’m not saying we don’t send in a force to find both of them, but I am saying it is not to arrest Lillim. We will ask them what happened when they are brought back here,” Mitsoumi said with an air of finality.

  “Finally, someone says something intelligent,” my mother said, relief filling her face as she spoke. “I was beginning to think all the brains in this building leaked onto the floor.”

  “Diana,” my father scolded. “You can’t talk to people like that… here.”

  Reath turned and glared at my mother. She smiled sweetly at him. “Diana, this isn’t your heathen army. You will treat the councilors with respect,” he growled.

  “I have sat here listening to you berate my daughter for the last hour when all she has ever done is try to save lives. What have you ever done, Reath? When Manaka came, you hid. When the orcs came, you hid. When are you going to do something?” she asked, her voice laced with fury.

  “An excellent point,” Mitsoumi said, and his voice was like a sudden intrusion into the room. Everyone turned and stared at him. “For too long, we’ve kept our purest blood stuck inside these walls when they should be out there fighting. We use Manaka as an excuse, but besides my brother, the only noble who has ever been on the front lines in the last decade is Warthor Ein. It’s been going on for too long, and I don’t think it’s good for the Dioscuri. Dioscuri are supposed to fight monsters, not cower behind the pureness of their blood.”

  The room grew so silent that I could actually hear myself breathing. “What exactly are you saying, Mitsoumi?” my father asked after a moment of silence so long that it had grown into a very large, very awkward thing.

  “I am proposing a joint mission into Fairy. Both Diana and Reath will go. I will even send a contingent of Royal Guards with them. They are instructed to retrieve any and all Dioscuri within the borders,” Mitsoumi said, glancing over the room. “Have I made myself clear?”

  “And who will lead the mission?” Masataka asked from his seat on the bench.

  Mitsoumi turned to glance at him. “What do you mean, brother?”

  “Diana is head of the Dioscuri, so she should lead the mission. Reath Al Akeer is a councilor, and I somehow doubt that he will actually listen to her in the field. Finally, the Royal Guards report only to me. While, I have no doubt she will act professionally, and that my guard will as well, I’d rather not put either of them in a situation that could be cause for confusion,” Masataka said with a shrug.

  “And what would you suggest then?” Mitsoumi asked with a sigh that rippled through his entire body, and I had to resist the urge to smirk. Mitsoumi always sighed like that, it was his thing.

  “That you let me lead the mission. I will take my Royal Guards along. As your brother, Reath will respect my authority. Diana and I have worked together on numerous occasions, so I doubt her following me on this mission will be a problem,” Masataka replied and an annoyed expression crossed Mitsoumi’s face.

  It was an expression that let everyone in the room know that he knew he was being played, and he did not appreciate it. “I do not think you leading a mission to find Lillim Callina is a wise idea—”

  “Why are you so against Masataka leading the mission? It’s his job to track down lost Dioscuri!” Reath said, cutting off Mitsoumi.

  Mitsoumi whirled on the huge man, grabbing Reath by the throat and effortlessly forcing him to his knees. Gobs of sea-green energy dripped off Mitsoumi’s flesh, casting the room with a horrific light that was almost too bright to look directly at. “Did. You. Just. Interrupt. Me?” Mitsoumi asked, his eyes burning with silver fire.

  “No, sir,” Reath squawked, reaching up and wrapping his huge hands around Mitsoumi’s wrist. It was like watching a toddler try to squirm out of a parent’s grip.

  “Good. Not only would it be really rude to interrupt your king while he is speaking. It’d be dumb too,” he replied and released Reath. The big man fell backward, sprawling across the white marble floor. “And I don’t need to explain myself to the likes of you.”

  “It’s okay Mitsoumi,” my mother said as she got to her feet and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I will do whatever you think is best, but Reath is right. Masataka would normally be sent on these missions. I admit, I do not know your reasoning, but it will be odd if he does not come along.”

  The scene rippled, like someone throwing a stone in a lake. It started in the center of my field of vision before cascading outward. With each successive ripple, more and more transformed until the scene had changed in its entirety. Gone were the councilors and most everyone else.

  Instead, the entrance to the room was filled with Royal Guards. It had to be nearly every Royal Guard in Lot because I doubted Charlie would use his powers inside the council chambers. What would be the point? I smirked inwardly to myself because I counted only about two dozen people. See, I knew there couldn’t be that many of them.

  Even if there were enough Dioscuri willing and able to do the job, Royal Guards had to bond with a Vajra. Being Vajra compatible was rare because the damn things were picky. In fact, being Vajra compatible had been a requirement for becoming a Royal Guard ever since Masataka had successfully bonded with his Vajra, Maxi. Yeah it had a name.

  Masataka stood just in front of the guards, one hand on my mother’s shoulder as he guided her forward. She was covered in blood, but her skin held no traces of violence, probably because she’d healed whatever injuries had been done to her.

  Diana’s hands were bound behind her back with thick iron manacles that suppressed magical abilities. Warthor had used the same device on me last year, and the memory made me shiver. If Diana tried to call on her magic, those manacles would cause blinding pain directly proportional to the power she called. Evidently, even with two dozen Royal Guards at his beck and call, Masataka still felt the need to subdue my mother’s power. Well, at least he was taking her seriously.

  Mitsoumi and my father stood off to the side, frozen in mid-conversation. It looked like Masataka had burst in on a discussion, surprising them, and now, they both were staring dumbly at him. Neither of them were dressed formally. Instead, they were clad in skin-tight black fighting suits.

  Behind my father, I could just make out Joshua as he sat in one of the pews, hands clasped over his lap as he stared at the ceiling. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and an ugly red and green Christmas sweater with reindeers stitched onto it, which made no sense because I was pretty sure it was nowhere near Christmas time. So he had been here for this event. Had he been in the room for the last one as well? Had he come to the council meeting while Warthor left on his own to enter Fairy?

  “Masataka, what the hell are you doing?” Mitsoumi asked as Masataka sent my mother sprawling into the center of the room. She landed hard on her shoulder, barely rolling enough to keep from smashing her face on the floor. Without responding, Masataka put one boot on my mother’s back, pinning her before she could rise.

  “Diana needs to be stripped of her rank, right now!” Masataka said with enough coldness that it was very nearly glacial. “She interfered with the apprehension of Lillim Callina, allowing her to escape despite my best efforts. She even attacked me…”

  “Is this true, Diana?” Mitsoumi asked, kneeling down next to my mo
ther.

  “Yes,” she said through clenched teeth and the word sounded like it had been torn from her.

  “Brother, we don’t have time for this,” Masataka said. “We need to mobilize men to find Lillim Callina, right now.”

  “Why is that?” Mitsoumi asked.

  “Because your brother is crazy and trying to kill my dau—” Masataka’s boot silenced my mother with a kick to the side.

  “Diana!” my father screamed, finally breaking his shock and charging toward her, but before he reached the center, Mitsoumi held up his hand.

  “Stay back, Sabastin,” Mitsoumi said as he rose and stared at his brother. “Why did you do that?”

  “She’s pissing me off,” Masataka snarled, throwing his hands up like a petulant child. “All I’m trying to do is bring in her daughter, and she keeps mouthing off like a little kid.”

  “Diana is the Sagalie Tyee of the fighting forces. You cannot treat her this way, Masataka,” Mitsoumi said, shaking his head.

  “So what?” Masataka said with a shrug. “That and a few bucks will get you a cup of coffee.”

  “So? You could cause a riot among the fighting forces if they find out you did this,” Mitsoumi said, gesturing at Diana.

  “They won’t riot,” Masataka said, moving to the pews and taking a seat. “There is no fighting force anymore. There’s just Diana and a bunch of weaklings. Even if the whole of them besieged this room, right now, anyone in this room could wipe them off the planet with little thought.”

  “It isn’t Diana’s fault that Manaka’s forces took out half our Hyas Tyees—” Masataka cut off his brother with a wave of his hand.

  “Look Mitsoumi, I know you mean well, but honestly, Diana is doing a horrible job. The only Hyas Tyee of note under her command is gone. Thanks to her daughter, we’ve lost Caleb Oznek,” Masataka said with a shrug.

  “My daughter saved his life,” Sabastin said as he moved next to his wife and helped her to her feet.

  “For now,” Masataka said with a grin. “I’ve seen him. Caleb and the Blue Prince aren’t what you’d call ‘besties’ by any stretch of the imagination. I give that pairing a year, tops.”

  “Is that true, Diana?” Mitsoumi asked, turning from his brother and walking over to my mom.

  “I agree with Masataka’s assessment… sort of. I think that if Caleb keeps trying to protect Lillim, yeah the Prince and him aren’t going to get along so well. She’s clearly his kryptonite, but it was that way before he was the Blue Prince, too,” my mother said, and my stomach fell into my shoes.

  Was I really going to be the cause of Caleb’s demise? He’d once told me that I made him do stupid things… well, would he really do something that would cause the Blue Prince to reject him? For me? I swallowed and shook my head.

  “No… no that isn’t fair,” I said but no one looked at me because it was a stupid illusion that Joshua was showing me. I turned, glaring at him in the pew. “Why are you showing me this?” I asked, but he didn’t reply because this was illusion Joshua, and apparently, real Joshua was ignoring me.

  “Either way, this is all irrelevant. I have already tasked the fates with finding Lillim. They’ll have an answer soon. I’m going to find her, brother. I will bring her back here and she will pay for her crimes,” Masataka said as he stood and moved to exit the chambers. “I would propose you ‘temporarily’ demote her mother and father from their positions so they do not interfere further,” he added over his shoulder.

  “And what crimes would she be paying for?” my father asked as Masataka filed past his Royal Guards and shut the door behind him.

  “For being born,” Mitsoumi said so quietly that, for a moment, I was sure no one heard him but me. “That has always been her crime.” And with his words I got so angry that I couldn’t even see straight. I had lived my whole life under the shadow of my past life as Dirge Meilan, and frankly, I was sick of it. Joshua knew that better than freaking anyone.

  “How dare you?” I snapped, whirling on the fake Joshua and stomping over to him. Without thinking, I reared back and slapped him across the mouth. My hand passed through him like he was made of vapor and the feel of it on my skin was like the sticky fog that filled haunted mazes at theme parks.

  “Why are you showing me this, Joshua?” I screamed at the unmoving form in the Christmas sweater. “Why?”

  “Because, Lillim. I’m trying to show you something important,” he replied. The sound of his voice made me take a step back in shock.

  Joshua stood and brushed himself off. “Masataka isn’t going to stop coming for you. No matter where you hide, he will find you, and do you know why?”

  “Why?” I growled, barely resisting the urge to shake him.

  He stared at me for a long time before shaking his head and staring at the floor. “Do you know what Masataka does next?” he asked.

  “No, of course not,” I snapped.

  “Exactly… you don’t know that he went down to Gib’s village and razed it. Razed the entire village and began torturing people. He tortured innocent people, Lillim. I can show you if you like, but it’s pointless. I can show you how he found Kain and what he did to one of the most powerful people on the planet. Masataka is not your normal kind of villain. He doesn’t care about the swath of destruction he leaves behind because he thinks he is righteous.”

  “And what the hell does that have to do with anything?” I snapped, curling my hands in anger because if I didn’t get mad, I was going to start crying. I was going to think about how Gib was right, how just by going there, I’d basically ended his village…

  “Because he won’t measure and weigh stuff. He won’t hesitate to cross any lines that he has to cross because he believes he is right.” Joshua reached out and grabbed my shoulders, and his eyes bored into mine until I looked away. “He will not stop hurting people until he finds you and brings you back.”

  “Why?” I whispered, and part of me hoped Joshua wouldn’t answer because I was pretty sure I knew the answer. Even still, as he opened his mouth to speak my heart hammered in my chest so hard he had to feel it.

  “Because you aren’t Dirge,” he said softly.

  I tried to swallow, but my mouth went dry. I felt myself falling. I reached out to steady myself, trying to grab onto Joshua’s arm, but my hand slipped through his non-corporeal, illusion flesh.

  I hit the ground on my knees, and the pain of it was so distant I barely felt it. Without thinking, I tucked myself into a ball, wrapping my arms around my knees and rocking there on the floor. Tears filled my eyes, making my vision go hazy as I tried vainly to wipe them away.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, and my voice was so faint that I barely heard it.

  “For what?” the voice startled me, and I looked up to see Ordain standing there, a curious smirk on his face. Somehow, someway we were standing on the crimson dunes outside the house with the white picket fence once again. Joshua lay on his back several feet away, sprawled in the sand. It looked like he had been thrown.

  “For not being Dirge,” I said, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. “I’m sorry that I’ve caused all this.”

  “All what?” Ordain asked, kneeling next to me and taking my chin in his hand. He turned my head until he could stare into my eyes. It was like looking into the deepest, bluest ocean, and for a moment, I forgot how to breathe. His lips moved, but I didn’t hear any sound as he leaned in close to me so his breath was hot on my cheek.

  The feel of his mouth on mine made things low in my body tighten. He reached out with his other arm, encircling my waist and pulling my body against his own. The feel of him was like electricity surging through my veins, and without thinking, I reached out, wrapping my arms around his neck as he breathed into me.

  Hunger fell over me in a wave that made everything grow a little hazy as he pushed me backward in the sand, my shirt riding up as his fingers trailed over my stomach, causing little tremors to run down my spine. He broke our kiss, pulling back for a s
econd, and his sapphire eyes glinted as he leaned in close to my neck, his blond, colored hair falling over my skin and trailing across my flesh. He nipped at my neck, his breath so warm that I couldn’t help but shiver as a low moan escaped my lips.

  Which was pretty much when Ordain got tossed backward in the sand. One moment he was there on top of me, one hand slowly creeping upward under my shirt. The next, he was sprawled backward in the sand. Joshua stood over me, a look of rage plastered across his face as he turned and faced the fallen demon.

  “What in God’s name do you think you’re doing?” Joshua snapped, voice brimming with rage like a volcano just about to erupt. He wasn’t looking at me, not really. He was mostly looking at Ordain.

  Ordain sat up with one of those wooden gestures that made me think of a robot and stared blankly at Joshua. “I should ask you the same thing,” he said so casually that it made the hair on the back of my neck crawl.

  I swallowed and hugged myself. What the hell had just happened? If Joshua hadn’t been there, I was pretty sure I would have done whatever Ordain wanted me too. Which, while so scary that it made my stomach clench at the thought, wasn’t as worrisome as why he had done it.

  I was somewhat used to magical beings putting dark thoughts into my head, but there was usually a good reason why. Watching Ordain sit there with a look that suggested he didn’t care what happened at all, unnerved me.

  “She has a boyfriend,” Joshua snapped, pointing at me like I was exhibit A in a trial. “You should respect that!”

  “I’m the second demon,” Ordain said as he got to his feet and brushed himself off. “Not just a demon. I am The Second Demon.” He said it in a way that made me think of eight-year-old girls saying, “Whatever! I do what I want!”

  I shook my head and took a huge gulp of air to steady my heart. It was still trying to escape through my chest, but it was a little less frantic about it now. “Well, if your goal was to distract me, it worked,” I muttered, my voice still half-strangled because when I’d kissed him, I had wanted him. I had wanted Ordain with every ounce of my being, and now… I didn’t. It was a weird feeling to have, and besides, what would my boyfriend think?