by T. G. Ayer
But perhaps it was instinct helping Maya wade through and reorganize what she was seeing. It was almost like the artworks she’d once seen in a museum where a bunch of multi-sided pillars were arranged in a row, which lined up to form an image if you look at them from a specific angle.
And she had found the correct line of sight to see inside Joss’s memories of the basement. Maya held her breath, following the sequence of events as they arrived at the scene and as Joss stepped to the side of the circle to put herself in position.
Up until the point when the demon had knocked Joss out, everything from Joss’s memories matched Maya’s. What followed after Joss sank into darkness didn’t.
When Joss fell to the floor, Maya had run to her side, checked her for injuries and had been relieved to find just the bump on the head other than the bleeding nose and eyes. But the anger at her friend almost being hurt had fueled the need to end the demon’s little reign of terror beneath the toyshop. Maya had focused on the creature and had attacked with all her power.
And she’d thrown a deadly fire arrow, rendering the death blow, thereby consigning the creature back to whatever level of hell she’d risen from.
Only that wasn’t exactly what had happened.
The darkness within Joss’s mind—which indicated her state of unconsciousness—was suddenly lit by a ruby glow, as though light was being shone through a sheet of red glass.
And then, a low hissing laughter filled the red-shadowed haze, growing louder and more vicious. Joss’s voice filled Maya’s thoughts, pain screaming inside the prison of her friend’s mind and drenching Maya with pure horror.
A battle of wills raged, Joss’s warrior spirit against the determination of a creature of pure evil. The sound filled Joss’s memories, her cries growing ever angrier and ever desperate.
And yet Maya could sense the anger behind Joss’s pain as she pushed back. Until a sudden surge of energy hit her again, and the cackling laughter grew hollow as though dampened by a blanket, growing ever quieter.
Until only silence remained.
At first, Maya thought the demon had tried to access Joss’s mind to find a way to beat the team, find the loose screw. But the creature’s intentions were far more diabolical than anyone had given her credit for.
They had all underestimated this vampire demon. She hadn’t died against the wall, impaled by Maya’s fire. The demon summoned by the group of teens had found itself a new place to hide.
Inside Joss’s head.
Chapter 21
Maya sat in her mom’s office at HQ, pulling a thick pashmina around her shoulders with one hand. In her free hand, she held a mug of hot chocolate laced with cinnamon, nutmeg and something else she was certain was brandy. But she wasn’t going to ask.
Instead, she blew on the dark surface and sipped slowly, the act of drinking this cocoa for some reason turning into some sort of lifeline she wanted to hold onto for as long as possible.
Leela snorted. “Maya, you can take as long as you want to drink that but we’re not leaving this room until you tell us everything.”
Maya gritted her teeth. She was busted and she hadn’t even been here before her mom had figured she had something big to say. Made sense. The woman did have the strangest ability to understand Maya’s inner thoughts.
Plus, Maya had barged in with the intention of telling them what she’d discovered from delving inside Joss’s mind. She sighed, blew, sipped and then licked lips clean before setting the mug carefully down onto the glass coffee table that sat between her and her parents.
Seriously, she felt like she was being interrogated by them, even though they both only appeared worried, afraid. For both her and Joss, she’d guess from how swollen her mom’s eyes were. Her parents cared for Joss as though she were their own child, so Maya wasn’t surprised they’d be just as worried as she was about Joss’s condition.
Maya bit the inside of her cheek. She had almost forgotten that there were other people who also cared about her best friend. Tears burned her eyes and she shook her head.
Meeting her mom’s gaze, she started with the apology she owed them. “I’m sorry—” Dev lifted a hand to cut her off, but she waved him silent and shook her head again. “No. I mean it. I should not have kept stuff from you guys. I admit I wasn’t thinking about anyone other than myself. I’m sorry,” Maya said, ending on a whisper as she looked down at her fingers now fiddling with the fringe of her pashmina shawl. The dark wool was a garish red, a counter to the dull brown of dried blood still embedded beneath her nails.
Leela chuckled and then gave a soft smile. “We understand, honey. If we hadn’t, we would definitely have demanded you talk to us. But you needed the time. And just so you know, from the reports we received and from what we saw on the feeds,“ she met her husband’s eyes and they shared a look of worry, “it was plain enough that you did the best you could under the circumstances.”
Maya opened her mouth to reply that she really didn’t think she had done the best considering the condition Joss was in, but she paused, eyes narrowed as she watched her parents.
Something was off with the two of them.
Maya reached for her hot chocolate and took a sip, then said, “I know you guys are holding out on me, so maybe it’s time to tell me what you’re thinking?”
There was that shared look of worry again between the two of them, and Maya rolled her eyes. “Mom. Dad. I killed a vampire demon with a power I didn’t even know I had. I’m pretty sure I’m no innocent baby that you need to handle with kid gloves. So, can you please explain what’s going on? You’re worried about something and it’s making me worried. And trust me, I already have enough to worry about, and I’m not even counting the worry still unconscious back at home.”
She fell silent and sipped more hot chocolate, part of her wondering why the drink was making her feel as though it were the only thing grounding her to reality.
Dev cleared his throat and shifted forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “We saw most of what happened on the feed, Maya. We know what you did and how you eliminated the demon. But something else happened and I’m not sure you even know it.”
Maya frowned. “Something else happened?” As she asked the question, she had to wonder what the feed had revealed, that somehow, they’d know what had happened to her, that she’d been living in two realities at once. Then she blinked the thought away.
That wasn’t possible.
Leela got to her feet and went to the coffee cart beside the sofa. She poured more chocolate and handed it to Maya before taking away the empty mug. Then she sat down and ran her hands over her thighs, a nervous habit Maya had recognized a long time ago was a precursor to trouble of some sort.
Leela cleared her throat, did the shared-glance-of-worry thing again with Maya’s dad, and then said, “The feeds revealed a strange anomaly that the lab is still trying to investigate. But that isn’t the issue right now. The biggest question is what happened for those two minutes when you…when you appeared to…”
Dev tapped his wife’s knee. “Maya, I’m not sure what happened, but you need to see this. Maybe it’s best you watch the feed and see what we saw. Then you’ll understand better what our concern is.”
Maya nodded, more worried now than ever. But, despite her apprehension, her body decided this was the perfect moment to notify the room that she was hungry. Really, really hungry.
She smiled, her cheeks heating up. “All that energy, I guess I used up some fuel reserves,” she said, thinking of Nurse Lark’s breakfast plus seconds.
Leela smiled and got to her feet, waving at Dev to keep going with pulling the feed to the television on the wall beside the sofas. He didn’t take long, and it seemed only moments had passed when Maya’s mom was handing her a burger and fries—most definitely takeout—and her dad was ready to play the tape.
Burger in hand, Maya waved at him to continue. Though he looked worried, he reached for the remote and started the tape just after Ma
ya had unleashed her fire-sticks.
Maya downed the burger in seconds, truthfully not paying sufficient attention to the tape. She knew what had happened in the moments after, but when the tape rolled and reached the second when the memory-vision had hit Maya, she wasn’t sure what she was seeing.
She remembered it clearly, could still hear the familiar voice in her head whispering encouragement.
“Use your inner power. You have it for a reason.”
And it had only gotten stranger from there.
On the screen, Maya watched her face contort with confusion when she’d heard the ghostly voice. And a moment later, when the vision hit her, what she saw was not in the least what she’d expected.
The feed stuttered, lines of static rippling across the monitor, obstructing the view for precious seconds. And when it settled back into clarity, Maya let out a shocked breath.
The feed reflected what she’d been feeling, as though she’d been there but not there, as though she were in two places at the same time, and in neither place was she whole.
On the television, Maya watched as her form shimmered and faded into a ghostly haze, a transparent image through which she could see the stunned expressions on Mirov’s and Joss’s faces.
How had she not understood that the shock they’d revealed had more to do with Maya herself than the terrible vampiric demon they intended to kill? She recoiled, wanting to be as far from the truth on the screen as she could get.
Chapter 22
The backs of her knees hit the soft cushion of the sofa and her legs quivered, deciding they would no longer hold her upright. Maya sank down onto the sofa, her limbs limp, her eyes wide as she glanced at her mom and then her dad who were both sitting silently and studying her.
They’d said nothing the entire time Maya had been watching the replay of the feed, and now she could see they were both worried. Very worried.
She cleared her throat then glanced at the screen for a brief second before shifting her gaze to stare back at her parents. “I’m not sure what that…. I mean, I don’t know how to explain….”
Maya’s dad glanced at her mom and then focused on his daughter again. “Do you want to tell us what happened? From your point of view?”
It wasn’t a suggestion even though he’d couched it in kindness, in gentle persuasion. No, there was a note in his voice, one that leaned far too close to hysteria, one Maya did not enjoy hearing. And one she had to question.
Why was he so off balance?
She rolled her shoulders, then huffed. “It’s true. I’m not sure how to explain what’s on the feeds. What did Mirov say?”
Leela waved a hand, her expression weary. “He corroborates what the tape shows. He couldn’t explain it.”
Maya nodded slowly, a low throb behind her eyes making itself known with the movement. “I heard a voice.”
She hesitated then glanced over at the screen paused, currently paused to show the demon being flung away, a second before it had hit the far wall.
Maya shuddered. “I thought the voice sounded familiar.”
Dev tilted his head, his brow furrowed. “Familiar? As in you’d heard it before?”
“No. I don’t think I’d heard it before. It just felt safe, I guess. At the time, I thought it was a voice from…the past.”
“Could it have been the demon messing with your head and just wanting a good fight?” Leela asked gently.
“I sure as hell hope not, because then I’m going to want to know how that creature’s voice sounded as though I knew it from somewhere.”
Maya’s mom sighed and rubbed her thighs again. “I agree. The feeds didn’t appear to reveal that the demon knew what was going on inside your head.”
So why was she so triumphant in the end? Maya asked herself silently.
Then her dad said, “What did this voice say?”
“He told me to use my inner power. That I have it for a reason.”
“And you obeyed him?”
Maya lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “I did. I didn’t have much time to think it over really. And the next moment, shit just got weirder.”
She blinked, aware the profanity had left her mouth before she’d even realized it. But her parents appeared unaware, or perhaps they were overlooking it.
Leela asked, “It got weirder?” Her face, which had crumpled with concern as she asked the question, shifted lightning-fast into a grin a little too close to hysteria.
Had it not been for the giggle-chuckle her mother let out, Maya would have been really worried for her mom. Leela coughed and sobered her expression though her mouth twitched as she avoided her husband’s eye.
Maya wriggled in her seat. “Yeah. Many levels of weird. But I think that strange messed-up feed must have something to do with what I saw next. Everything around me faded a little, and I saw a different scene, almost like it was overlaid onto the basement. Like a double exposure photo, I guess.”
The silence between them was thick and tense, and Maya felt a sudden chill run down her spine. She reached for the pashmina shawl which had fallen on the white carpet and now resembled a puddle of freshly spilled blood.
How fitting.
Wrapping the shawl around herself, Maya said, “I saw things happening, almost in the same way that it was happening in the basement, but the location was different. A cave, or a stone building, and I was fighting another demon there too, wielding some power, although I can’t be so sure it was fire.”
“Could you tell when this was?” Leela asked softly.
Ignoring the question, Maya asked, “Why are you guys taking this so calmly?”
Dev snorted. “It’s not as if you haven’t traveled in time before. Maybe this was the same sort of thing?”
“No. It’s not time travel. It felt like I was in two places at once. Doing similar things, thinking similar thoughts, only the finer details were different.”
“Finer details?”
“Yeah, like smells, and the way I sensed the location around me, and I think I was barefoot, wearing something loose like a kurta.”
A memory filtered through to Maya, of hair touching her cheek, long dark locks tossed aside as she swung around while battling the other demon.
She swallowed and then said, “I had very long hair. That was odd.”
Leela sat back and gave her husband an I-told-you-so glare. He in turn sighed in defeat and said, “Okay, okay. You were right.”
Maya grunted. “What was Mom right about?”
Dev rubbed his chin, his stubble making a crackling sound. “Your Mom was pretty certain you would one day begin to remember, and she was right, but I don’t think even she thought your memories would be…dual-dimensional.”
Maya laughed softly, though she pulled the shawl tighter around her, fingers twisted within the fabric. “I couldn’t have found a better word for it.” She may have sounded amused and approving, but inside she was suddenly terrified.
Dev got to his feet then and began to pace. “There’s something else.”
Maya looked up, worried at the raw edge to his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“There is going to be an inquiry into what happened. With both Mirov and Joss injured and you manifesting unknown powers, the board wants to be reassured that you’re not a danger in the field.”
Fabulous. Just when Maya was beginning to think she’d done something good, people start pointing fingers at her. She shouldn’t be surprised though.
This certainly was her kind of luck.
Maya took a breath though her teeth were gritted. “Why bother with the inquiry when their eyes can tell them I didn’t endanger the team?”
Even as she spoke, a voice inside her mind mocked her. Do you really think Joss would have been so badly injured if you’d been able to control your own powers?
Heat simmered in Maya’s head and she shoved down her doubts. When she met her parents’ concerned gazes, neither of them appeared to believe she’d been at fault.
&n
bsp; Leela slid forward to the edge of the seat and peered at Maya. “Honey, you mustn’t take this personally. It’s standard protocol when agents are injured.”
All Maya could do in response was give a short nod.
“So, any thoughts on this voice you heard?” asked her dad again, rubbing this chin. The man needed a shave.
Maya lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I’m not at all sure. It was familiar, like I was supposed to know the voice. But nothing like I’d ever heard before.”
“Nothing at all like the Mother?” asked her mom softly.
“That’s the first person I suspected but I remember her voice from those initial visions. So, no. Unfortunately, not familiar as in Maya 1.0.”
Leela rolled her eyes though she followed the movement with an amused chuckle. “Fine. But it would probably help if we could figure it out.”
Pursing her lips, Maya retorted, “Unless you have a mindreading machine with sound-recording tech, that’s probably a dead end.”
Leela’s eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth as though to challenge the reply. But then she relaxed against the sofa and exhaled slowly. “If it comes to that, then we’ll count it as a blessing.”
Maya offered her mom a smile, now regretting her sharp tone. But everything seemed like it was going wrong, and suddenly all the pressure was on Maya to figure things out and offer resolutions and answers.
She was about to get to her feet when the voice said, “Perhaps it’s time you ceased to doubt your own abilities and focus more on expanding on what the gods have given you?”
Maya frowned and stiffened, glancing around the room. Finding nobody else other than her parents and the hellhound, she shook her head and turned to find her mom and dad both staring at her in shock.
“Did you guys hear that?” Both nodded slowly. “Thank goodness. I wasn’t imagining it.”
“Why would you think you had imagined it? I am pretty sure I was clear enough in the words I spoke.” The voice now sounded snippy and Maya’s eyebrows rose.
