by T. G. Ayer
The alarm rang in her ears, worse than a bad bout of tinnitus, and the magic finder vibrated in her hand making her newfound own inner sensors go nuts—both enough to distract even an experienced agent. If she didn’t get rid of the thing, she was going to end up killing the demon by vomiting all over it.
Maya was probably being over-imaginative, but her luck had always been the worst, so if she did end up dealing the death blow with the remains of her lunch, she’d never live it down.
She tapped Joss on the arm, waiting only until the other girl turned to give her a questioning look. Maya thrust the device at her so quickly that Joss had little choice but to grab it before it fell.
Without giving her surprised friend any explanation, Maya edged past and followed Mirov down the stairs, focusing on deep breaths and a settled stomach. She’d explain later, though she had a feeling Joss would forgive her.
They descended the wooden slats of the stairs which let out creaks and groans loud enough to make Maya wince. The noise was accompanied by the ticking of Sabala’s nails on wood and the increasingly rapid magic-finder alarm on their comms and she was about to tell Control to shut it off--because it wasn’t like they needed confirming at this point--when silence filled her ears. She winced as the sudden vacuum of sound stabbed her eardrums.
Thank goodness.
Not that the ringing inside her mind had stopped. But, one less nauseating alarm should be a plus in anyone’s books. As Maya reached the last few steps, she was able to see over the railing bars to the scene beyond.
A square metal brazier sat in the middle of the circle, a small roaring fire burning brightly within, spitting embers and emitting and eye-watering smoke. Incense spewed a collection of thick and fragrant clouds of haze from various corners around the circle.
Maya squinted in the almost opaque air. The dense smoke made it difficult to scan the place with the kind of accuracy she preferred, though the night-vision goggles she hated with such a passion was now coming in handy.
But she couldn’t stall her descent, not if she wanted to avoid being too far behind her supervisor in case all hell broke loose. Mirov had already reached the bottom of the stairs and was studying the line of seven pairs of shoes all neatly set against the wall, a motley collection of sneakers, leather boots, ballet slippers and sandals.
It made sense as part of the ritual would likely have been removal of the shoes, possibly to indicate vulnerability. This basement certainly wasn’t a holy place where bare feet indicated respect and the need to maintain the purity of the area.
Sabala brushed past Maya as she, and Joss a moment later, joined Mirov. They turned to study the magic circle and the people currently holding the spell together. Strange to think that every person before them, all frozen as though time had come to a standstill, was essentially a human battery currently funneling energy into the spell that had brought the demon over to the human world.
She felt a pull of sympathy for these teenagers and for their families who will have to deal with the aftermath, whatever the result of this night would be. There was no certainty that any of them would survive.
None at all.
Chapter 9
Maya pushed her empathy aside and focused, using some of the techniques her Reiki tutors had taught her. She studied the circle, the kids, the demon, committed to memory the fire and the blood, the incense, the energy of the air itself.
The magic thrummed against her senses, like waves against a shore, growing stronger as she took another step closer to the circle.
Beyond the sandalwood and jasmine of the incense, another smell tugged at Maya’s senses, confirming what the feeds had revealed, only now in technicolor, and techniodor as well.
The heavy scent of copper simmered in the air around them, confirming the circled had been drawn with blood, still fresh judging by the condition of the kid lying beside the demon. Sabala stalked along the edge of the circle on the other side of the basement, lips raised, canines bared, eyes tracking every moment of the demon.
Thankfully, other than Maya, only Joss could see and hear the hellhound, and only because he allowed her to. He could glamor himself entirely, even from Maya, but she found it strange that the creature within the circle hadn’t yet registered the hellhound’s presence. Sabala was more or less a bounty hunter whose main role was to hunt down escapees from the underworld and return them to where they belonged. Hell.
Mirov glanced briefly over at Maya now, eyes filled with something she couldn’t identify. Doubt? Regret?
No time to think about it now.
They approached the demon who swayed within the circle, oily black-and-red hair curtaining her face. Her human shape was clearly-defined as she moved to a silent melody, hips sinuous as a belly-dancer.
She was most likely Rakshasa-born if she’d come through the gates in such a solid humanoid form. Which begged even more questions as to the nature of this ritual, and what this demon truly was.
Then again, there could have been eight kids, with the demon having already taken the body of one of them. But Maya wasn’t so sure. She studied the demon’s movements, instinct insisting the creature’s limbs moved too naturally to be those of a spirit newly born into human form.
Such a possession was a strange thing to watch, and gladly Maya had only seen one on an old video recording in the agency’s archives. The sudden jerky movements were reminiscent of horror movies where heads spun around and limbs snapped about in a strange abnormal ways with the possessed scrabbling up and down walls like human crabs.
The demon they encountered now was not a previously unhoused spirit. Which made this band of teens damned lucky they didn’t draw one of those roaming buckets of evil instead.
But still, the straw they had drawn would likely be the death of a few, if not all of them.
Joss moved forward with Maya at her side, each step silent on the concrete floor as they approached a girl at the edge of the circle. Maya leaned close to the slim teen who sat cross-legged near her, head bent, strawberry-blonde pixie-cut hair molded to her skull and glistening with sweat. White jeans, white leather jacket—both streaked with blood—a tennis bracelet sparkling on her slim wrist, diamonds shimmering in her ears; she didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the drably-dressed group.
Her fingers were clasped together, resting limply on the cross of her legs, and within them she held a round package wrapped in black fabric. It glistened with slick moisture, most definitely more blood.
Maya touched a finger to the girl’s milk-skinned throat and confirmed a slow, though ragged, pulse. She looked up at Mirov and gave a jerk of her head, hoping he would understand that though alive, the girl was not at all guaranteed to survive. He moved to check the kid beside her. Dark-haired, red-and-black checked shirt over a bloodied tee, red-stained jeans, bare feet.
Maya’s palms filled with warmth as she stepped carefully around the magic circle until she was directly opposite Mirov with Joss at her left. A show of force, yes, but neither of them had the power Maya possessed—not that it made her big-headed. She merely felt the weight of it on her shoulders more greatly now than ever.
She waggled her hands at her sides and sensed the energy filling and overflowing from her mind. She’d struggled with this technique, to the point that poor Nik had needed some time off from training sessions, that was how frustrated he’d been.
And Maya’s own frustration had only been greater.
Thankfully, persistence paid off in the end and she’d managed to use her fire and create two perfectly formed batons, eerily similar to the ones she had used when she’d learned kathak at a young age.
Similar wooden sticks were commonly used in many Indian tribal dances, both northern, as well as the southern kolatam. Maya found herself fairly adept at working with them, often in a way similar to the baton-twirling of a marching-band.
Muscle memory from her dancing sessions had given her a level of liquid smoothness in the movements which had resulted in a
sort of capoeira-with-fire-sticks kind of performance.
Her fiery batons differed somewhat in the one end tapered to a blunt point, like a short pool cue. The pointed end had allowed Maya to direct her aim better although Nik had argued that she’d be using far too small a portion of her power. He’d insisted she learn how to channel more energy into the pointy end, or train with a wider muzzle for blasting fire into an enemy.
She was still practicing.
For now, she turned her palms toward the circle and glanced down just to ensure her weapons were ready. They shimmered with fire, their surfaces which should have been round and smooth according to her training master, undulated with flames which ran up and down and around as though desperately seeking a path out of their containment.
And Maya was so ready to give it the opportunity.
But when she looked up, she met Mirov’s eyes which were filled with warning and disapproval. He shook his head and pointed a toe at the bloody ring protecting the circle.
And Maya gritted her teeth.
She couldn’t use the batons unless she got close enough to the demon, which meant either waiting for the creature to leave the circle or entering it to take her on.
Neither of those options were acceptable to Maya.
She hesitated, both frustrated with being unable to act, and tense as her insides clamored ever harder at being so near the dark demonic magic of the circle.
“Careful,” came Claude’s whispered words over the comms. They’d barely spoken for fear the demon would hear them or sense them, but Claudia had taken a chance anyway. Risky? Or an act of concern?
Maya didn’t want to think about it just now.
Instead, as she focused on the demon, the creature lifted her head and let out a growl, baring a collection of human and sharply pointed almost vampiric teeth.
Her movements were lightning fast, like a badly edited movie where the scenes are cut too short and the visual experience is jarring. The demon snapped forward and grabbed the boy with her clawed hands, then sank her teeth into his neck.
Maya blinked, her only outward expression of the shock she felt.
This shit belonged in bad vampire movies, not in real life.
And worse, they had to accept one glaring fact: they were going to lose the boy.
Well, that they had already lost him.
Chapter 10
In the time it had taken for Maya to blink and breathe, the demon had reduced the kid’s throat to a pile of bloodied meat and bone.
And then the creature rose slowly to her feet and stared at Maya, red eyes shimmering with fury, hunger, and something that made her want to shudder with worry.
The demon was happy?
As far as Maya was concerned, a happy demon should be a dead demon. No second chances. Just a one-way trip back to the underworld.
Which just so happened to be Maya’s job.
Worse still, the demon’s face had changed; her loose grey skin now appeared fuller and had taken on a more life-like hue. She’d fed on the boy’s soul, that much was certain, and both the soul and the blood of the boy had infused the creature with corporeal energy.
And each person she consumed would only make her stronger, more powerful and more dangerous. Whatever entity the kids had summoned, it was no low-level demon they could control to do their bidding.
Maya took a breath and met the creature’s eyes, refusing to breathe or show any emotion when the demon smiled, the expression a garish sneer as blood and flesh dripped from her teeth and lips. The creature flung out her hands and began to laugh, the sound scraping Maya’s eardrums, and drawing a snarl from Sabala.
And then, in a ragged flash of movements, she came at Maya, arms outstretched, bloody claw-like nails reaching for her face. Instinct took over and Maya threw out her hands, palms open, fire tingling within her flesh.
The fire power had been gifted to Maya by Kali, a boon for her loyalty in a life lived previously in which she’d spent decades serving the goddess. Her wish to fight along with all the agents whom she’d corralled for years had been granted by the benevolent Kali, and the mother goddess had gifted her with a second life in which to fight.
Radha hadn’t asked for the fire, but the goddess had granted her the gift anyway, perhaps hoping to give Maya an advantage against the growing darkness of the age of KaliYug.
That power had lain dormant, though if Maya thought about it, a bound power was only dormant because of being trapped. But now it flowed within her, searing her veins and simmering within her limbs, sparking within her mind, a constant reminder that there lay a power within her which was capable of destruction.
Perhaps Maya’s parents had had good reason to bind her powers all those years. And those powers had come into being in a big way, incinerating a boy who’d attacked her, who’d been intent on molesting her.
But her fear had built the fury of her fire and it had spilled over, reducing the guy to ashes and nearly destroying the bathroom in which he’d cornered her.
Even the knowledge that he’d been a demon hadn’t made her feel better. For a long time, she’d struggled with coming to terms with a human body being different when in possession of a soul, to when the soul had been taken, eaten, destroyed or sold, leaving the exterior form a mere shell.
Maya had incinerated a shell, the body of a boy she’d gone to school with. She understood it now--he’d died long before she’d turned his body to embers. But, along with knowledge had come questions. Hundreds of questions, all still needing answers.
And those questions would have to wait.
Now, she had to deal with a demon who looked about ready to go on the rampage. And it was Maya’s duty, two lifetimes over, to ensure the demon never got the chance.
Just as the fire spilled from her palm, Maya swept her hand out in a gentle arc, the elegance of the movement not at all fitting treatment for the creature standing before her. The stream of fire lengthened, almost like a long rope and her heart began to thud.
She’d meant to focus her fire the way she’d learned, to use the power it contained to slam the demon off-balance so agent Mirov could do his thing, but none of that happened.
Maya’s fire streamed from her hand and flung itself around the demon’s legs like a whip, something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, if you didn’t count the fact that the fire appeared to move exactly the way a snake did, undulating, sinuous.
The fire snake wound tighter around the demon who scrabbled at the flame-rope winding around and around her until she appeared to be bathed in fire up to her waist, as though she wore a flickering burning hula skirt. But she wasn’t having fun at all.
The demon screeched and Maya shook her head as the sound burrowed deep into her skull.
And as the demon howled and writhed against the rope of fire holding her captive, the kids around the circle began to sway to the sound of her voice as though she sang some song Maya couldn’t hear.
But it didn’t take Maya more than a second to make the connection. The rhythm of the magic inside her had changed and the teens in the room were all moving in time with the rhythm of the power emanating from the circle.
The demon was summoning the kids, probably waking them, even though Maya’s rope of flames held her prisoner.
“She’s far more powerful than we thought. We need to ascertain exactly what spell was used here.” Maya’s dad’s voice echoed her thoughts on the team’s comms.
But she wasn’t ready to give up and leave all these teens in danger of being killed by this demon, or worse, being used to do her evil bidding.
Maya focused her mind and sent a burst of unadulterated energy into the rope, and the demon screeched in response, her shoulders curving, protecting herself from an onslaught of power that wouldn’t stop until Maya let her go. The creature threw her head back and howled again, tugging against Maya’s hold on her fire.
Heart thudding, Maya held on for dear life. This part hadn’t been in any of her training sessions
. Her energy coiled within the rope and sang its own song beside that of the demon. A part of Maya registered the sound of her own fire magic humming and crackling around her, eerily similar to the pulsing magic of the summoning circle, and the dark power the demonic vampire possessed.
She pushed the thought away, uncomfortable with what it could mean, and focused her concentration and her power on the demon.
More fire, and more power ran down the line of her fiery rope and into the demon whose screams grew ever louder. As one, everything in the room made of glass shattered, the screens on the magical detector, and on all their night-vision goggles, the faces on a few watches the kids wore on their wrists, and a dull shattering Maya could only assume were smartphone screens bursting apart inside various pockets, though somehow that list hadn’t included hers. Was she protected somehow?
And if so, did it mean Maya could keep going until she put this evil creature down?
Chapter 11
Sabala let out what sounded like a snooty sniff, and Maya glanced over at the hellhound beyond the magic circle, then over at Joss to confirm her friend was still cool and collected as she watched the insanity within the circle. Then the air behind the vampire demon shimmered and two hulking creatures began to slowly take shape.
‘Creatures’ was the only word Maya could get her head around right at that moment because the uninvited guests were humanoid in form, though still of the demonic variety. Was the vamp-demon bringing in reinforcements? And should that even be possible?
Maya forced herself to focus. She had to stop the demon before the minions she’d summoned came through the portal. There was no telling the havoc they would cause in a world with little to no defense against them.
