by Jasmine Walt
“Those kids don’t have a father,” he blurted before snapping his mouth closed.
“The man who raised them would argue otherwise. You’re a good guy, Anil. Why are you allowing this to happen?”
It was his turn to lean in. He spoke low and fast, his voice almost a hiss. “You think we have a choice? Rohan is in charge now, and we do what he says. There’s no one powerful enough to challenge him.”
“And what is he doing, exactly? What does he want with those kids?”
A yaksha approached the bar. “Another round, Anil.”
The bartender jerked back from us as if he’d been scalded. He nodded at the patron. “I’ll bring them over.”
The yaksha wandered back to his table by the door.
Anil licked his lips. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He shook his head. “It’s called a survival instinct for a reason, Nina. You should know all about that. Now get out before someone takes exception to you being here.”
“Just tell me one thing. Are the kids here? Do you have them here?”
He locked eyes with her. “No.”
He walked to the other side of the bar to prepare the drinks. Nina turned away, grabbed my arm, and led me out of the bar.
We exited into the cool night air, my heart in my boots.
I needed her take on this. “Do you think he’s telling the truth that the kids aren’t here?”
Nina nodded. “I’m sorry. I just . . . I can’t believe Rohan would do this. I don’t understand why.”
We were headed to the car when the sound of boot steps alerted us that we were being followed. Nina and I both spun, ready to defend ourselves.
The young lad who’d tried to sneak up on us held up his hands in surrender. “Whoa. I’m not going to hurt you.”
He appeared to be about fourteen or fifteen, his body in that lanky and awkward adolescent phase.
The kid couldn’t have hurt us if he tried.
Nina blinked at him. “Raj?”
He lowered his hands and grinned. “You remember me?”
“Of course I remember you. Come here.” She pulled him into a hug and ruffled his hair. He blushed, and she stepped back. “Look at you, all grown up.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, ya know, growing up. Especially now that Rohan’s in charge.” His lip curled. “I hate him. When I’m older, I’m gonna challenge him.”
Nina reached for him, cupping his shoulders. “I think you’d make a wonderful pack leader.”
He smiled. “Look, I didn’t come out here just to say hi. I heard what you asked Anil, and I think I can help.”
My pulse jumped. I glanced behind me to Garuda’s car. The dark windows made it impossible to see inside, but I held up a finger in a just-one-sec gesture before turning my attention to Raj.
“Go on,” Nina prompted.
“Ma says the pack is no longer free—that we’re working for the demon lovers now, and we’re all going to hell.”
Demon lovers?
“The other day, they brought in these kids, three boys. They were so scared. I asked Ma what was going on, but she told me to be quiet and keep my head down. Then Rohan got a call, and he and two other blokes loaded the kids into the van and drove off with them.”
“Shit,” Nina said. “They could be anywhere.”
Raj smiled slyly. “I followed on my bike. The van parked, and Rohan’s guys handed them over to these other men dressed in weird robes. I had to leave, ’cause I didn’t want to get caught.”
If we could find the drop-off point, maybe we could trace them from there. It was a long shot, but it was the only one we had.
I stepped around Nina and spoke directly to Raj. “Can you show us where they took the boys?”
He nodded. “Meet me on the main road in five minutes. I’ve just got to fetch my bike.”
“Where is he?” Ajitah said for the third time.
“It’s been six minutes,” Garuda said.
Ajitah jiggled his leg and tapped his thigh.
I glanced at Garuda, noting the tick in his jaw.
Shit, if Ajitah had been like this the whole time we’d been inside the bar, I couldn’t blame Garuda for looking like he was about to explode. But who could blame Ajitah for being agitated? Those boys were his babies.
A tap on the window signaled us to get ready.
The sound of a motor grew louder as it drew nearer. Nina’s bike roared to life, closely followed by the car engine, and then Raj flew past on his motorbike.
Nina followed, and Garuda took up the rear.
The boy was way too young for a bike that size. I’d visualized a sports bike or something, but Yaksha played by their own rules.
We roared into the night, Ajitah leaning forward in his seat, eyes scanning the road ahead.
I leaned between the front seats. “Any idea where he’s taking us?”
“Back onto the North Circular Road,” Garuda said.
My gaze was drawn from Ajitah’s firm thighs to Garuda’s masculine hands on the steering wheel. The tang of electric thunderstorms warred with the stimulating aroma of freshly cut grass and citrus.
I leaned back and lowered the window further.
Man, it was hot in here.
We drove in silence for another fifteen minutes or so until Ajitah broke it.
“I think we’re headed toward the Richmond Park Estate.”
“Yep, looks like it,” Garuda confirmed.
We pulled up at the Richmond Gate five minutes later. Ajitah was the first to jump out of the car. I followed a moment after and joined him at the battered iron gates that remained perpetually shut. Seventeen years ago, this twenty-five-hundred acres of land had been a well-maintained park, a popular tourist attraction, and an oasis of nature in a concrete jungle. Now it was an untamed wilderness the council promised to set to rights, but had never found the funding to do so. The aerial tramways had diverted funding from many of the city’s projects, one of which had been the upkeep of the larger parks.
Now the only people who ventured through these gates were those looking for a place to do mischief or hide. A lot of homeless had set up camps across the parkland too, and the news had covered this phenomenon, naming Richmond Park as the new estate for the poor and destitute.
“This is where they handed the kids over,” Raj said. “It was late, like almost midnight.”
“And they didn’t see you?” Garuda asked.
Raj shook his head. “Kept way back, upwind so they wouldn’t smell me, but I have excellent eyesight.”
Ajitah moved to the gates. “You think they took them in there?”
Nina joined us, her nose in the air. “If I had something belonging to one of them, I might be able to pick up a scent.”
Ajitah reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a ratty-looking piece of blue fabric. He held it to his chest for a beat before passing it to Nina. “It’s Jimmy’s blankie. He says he doesn’t need it anymore, but he keeps it under his pillow all the same.”
Nina took it carefully and held it to her nose, inhaling deeply.
“I can help too,” Raj said.
“No,” Nina said. “You need to get back. If Rohan finds out you helped us . . .”
Raj’s nostrils flared. “I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be, at least until you’re strong enough to take him on. Be smart. Stay alive.”
For a moment, I thought he might argue with her, but then the defiance drained from his stance. He nodded.
“I hope you find them.”
“Thank you,” Ajitah said.
We watched him get on his bike and roar away.
Nina inhaled the blankie again, then paced up and down the pavement, but she kept coming back to the gate.
“You think they’re in the park.”
“I won’t know until we get inside.”
The gates were open wide enough to let
a very slender person through. Ajitah grabbed the bars and heaved. The sound of metal scraping concrete filled the air. No one called out. No cars came to a standstill to ask what we were doing. The park was a lost cause, and no one gave a damn. Probably why whoever had taken the triplets had used it as a drop-off point.
Ajitah stepped back, and Nina slipped through.
“An aerial perspective could be useful,” Garuda said.
He took long strides away and launched himself into the air, his body expanding into something epic and formidable. My stomach lurched, and the hairs on my arms stood to attention. I breathed, slow and even. He wasn’t here to hurt me. Garuda wouldn’t hurt me. And then he was no longer visible, although I could sense he was still there.
“Where did he go?” Ajitah glanced around, scanning the area where Garuda had stood a moment before.
“Right here,” he said from above, “just in stealth mode. I’m going to make a circuit. See what I can spot from above.”
The gooseflesh on my skin died, telling me he had flown away, and I followed Nina into the park. Ajitah made up the rear, but not for long. He pushed ahead, acting like Nina’s shadow as she sniffed her way down the path and into a copse of trees to our left.
The sun winked out, blocked by the thick foliage above, leaving only long shadows and the overpowering scent of damp earth and pollen. My vision adjusted to the sudden gloom. I filtered through the scents that filled the air—animal, human, plant, and smoke. How did Nina separate it all from the scent of Jimmy’s blankie? Yaksha noses were truly amazing.
Nina moved quickly, silently, and I matched her in terms of stealth, moving lightly on the balls of my feet. Ajitah, on the other hand, was like a steamroller, flattening everything in his path and leaving a clear trail for anyone who wanted to follow.
Nina stopped, sniffed the ground, and then shook her head, morphing into beast form.
“That’s better.” Her voice was a thick rumble.
She loped ahead, emerging from the trees, bounding across an overgrown walkway, and diving straight into another thicket of trees.
“Here, it’s strong here.”
She ran ahead, pausing every now and then to sniff the air, the ground, a tree.
“Over there.” She stopped and padded in a circle, her hands—now elongated paws—scraping the ground.
“Right here.”
There was nothing there but dirt. “What do you mean?”
Ajitah fell to the ground, joining her in pawing at the earth. After a moment, I followed suit.
Two long minutes of digging around in the bracken and soil unearthed nothing.
Ajitah sat back, his chest rising and falling, his eyes dark pits of despair. “There’s nothing here.”
Nina slinked away, sniffing the ground and circling back to us. “I don’t know what to say. The trail stops here.”
I stood up and paced the spot. We were out of the way, off the beaten track, in a part of the woodland that was too dense to be a good spot for a homeless person’s shelter. The foliage was too thick to let in much sunlight, the ground too prickly with twigs and pine cones to be good for laying down a sleeping bag.
We were only a few feet away from a huge oak, its trunk easily four feet wide.
I approached it. Leaning against it, I looked out at the scene before me for some clue. Ajitah was on his hands and knees, head bowed, shoulders rising and falling. Nina continued to sniff the area, her movements becoming more and more agitated. She moved away from Ajitah, trying to widen the circle, attempting to find another clue.
This couldn’t be it.
Not another dead end.
Not after all this.
I threw my head back against the tree in agitation. The bark gave way with a click, and I froze. Ajitah and Nina looked up sharply. I tucked in my chin and leaned my head away from the tree trunk.
“What the—”
I didn’t get to finish the thought because the ground opened and swallowed Ajitah.
21
Nina scrambled forward, pawing at the ground where Ajitah had been a moment ago.
“A trap door?” I turned to the tree, running my fingers over the bark where my head had rested until I’d found the switch. “How the heck have they set this up? And who are we dealing with?”
Nina joined me at the tree. “What do you want to do?”
There was only one choice. “I’m going to go after him.”
I stepped over to the spot where Ajitah had been just a moment before. Nina ran her fingers over the bark until she located the hidden access point.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
I crouched down, preparing myself for descent. “Do it.”
Nina pressed the button.
The world stood still for a long second, and then the ground beneath gave way. I was falling. Not an Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole kind of fall, more of a water-slide-without-the-water kind of fall. The chute tilted enough to spit me out at the bottom in a standing position. I was in a huge tube tunnel made of steel. The ground beneath my feet was a metal grill over pipes and cogs. Decision time—go left or right? Which way had Ajitah gone? I was half tempted to call out for him, but there could be guards on patrol down here. Instead, I picked a direction and set off. My boots clanged against the metal grating, and the sound echoed up and down the tunnel. Stealth was so out the window. Best to keep Vindra handy. Her markings flashed blue, telling me she was down for whatever.
Good girl.
I reached an area that ended the T-shaped corridor and peered left then right. The tunnel to the left was shrouded in darkness, and the floor was smooth steel, while the one to the right was lit up, ready for Christmas.
Dark, ominous route, or brightly lit welcoming one? Dimly lit corridor to deter unwelcome visitors? Brightly lit one to lure them?
I turned left.
I’d barely taken two steps when the gloom was illuminated by a flashing red light and a blast of cool air slammed into me. Through squinted eyes, I saw a whirring turbine filling the tunnel up ahead. Stepping onto the corridor must have activated it somehow, which meant I’d made the wrong call. A low rumble filled the air, which was suddenly ripe with moisture. My pulse kicked up. I knew what was coming. I turned to run but slammed into a steel barrier.
No!
When had that happened?
Shit!
I spun toward the turbine, the gurgle and whoosh of water getting louder as it surged toward me. There was nowhere to run. Pressing Vindra back into her sheath, I took a few slow breaths as my heart tried its best to break out of my rib cage. Water crashed through the turbines, churning toward me like an angry sea. I inhaled one final deep breath before the water pummeled into me, slamming me up against the steel wall. Knocking the breath I’d just taken from my lungs. I panicked, thrashing, fighting against the fluid that wanted to invade my lungs.
I was going to drown.
I was going to die.
I needed to breathe!
And then, as if on command, the water released me, surging backward to leave me suspended in a pocket of air. I exhaled and inhaled in quick succession, sucking at the air like a hungry leech.
Alive. I was fucking alive!
The water churned around me, motivated by the chugging turbine. This was obviously a trap for snoopers, and I’d been caught, but how long would it stay active? How long could the average creature hold its breath? No clue. The minutes ticked by. My bubble held. I was doing this; I was commanding the water to leave me be. My plan was working, but how long could I keep the surge at bay? My pulse fluttered, and I closed my eyes, forcing my heart rate to rest pace.
Calm, Malina. Calm and steady.
Three minutes, four, five, and then with a muffled click, vents slid open in the floor and the water began to drain. My bubble popped, and I hit the wet ground, chest heaving as the panic I’d reined in ran laps around my trembling body.
That had been close. Way too close.
The steel barri
er behind me retreated into the wall with a soft hiss.
“Looks like we have a live one,” a voice drawled from behind me.
I turned my head to look up at the speaker, managing a yelp just before his boot connected with my face.
22
“Malina. Malina, wake up.”
Ajitah’s face hovered above me, his dark brows knit together over stormy gray eyes. What the heck was going on? What was he doing in my room? Wait . . . The tunnel, the water, the boot to my face.
I sat up. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I was worried about you. Your face . . . It looked pretty bad for a while, but it’s healed.”
I reached up to touch my cheek, smooth, unmarred, and pain-free. All that aside, we were in a glass box. No bench, no seating, just the cold, hard floor on which I’d awoken.
Ten out of ten for originality.
Beyond our glass prison was a sleek high-tech lab. A quick circuit of the box—three meters squared—proved it to be airtight except for a couple of vents linked to piping that melted up into the ceiling. I lifted my chin to indicate the vents. Ajitah nodded. He’d already clocked them. They were probably used for air, but they might also have other purposes.
“Do you know who captured us?” I asked.
Ajitah shook his head and began pacing. “I landed in the tunnel. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded. I could have fought, but I was hoping they’d take me to someone in charge so I could find out what happened to the boys. Instead, they shoved me in here.” He tapped the glass. “This stuff is unbreakable.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, the material of his polo shirt straining to accommodate him. It looked like they’d taken his jacket and my hoodie. Vindra was gone too. I resisted the urge to pat my abdomen to check if my vials were still there, or to check for the laser pen tucked into the hidden pocket of my trousers. A tiny camera was fixed to the spot where the wall met the ceiling. They were probably watching us right now.
I turned my back to the camera. “They’re watching us. They know we’re awake. Someone will be along soon to check on us, reveal their evil plan, that kind of thing.”
