The Hand of Kali Box Set Vol 2

by T. G. Ayer

  Maya’s dad had stopped to attend to Ria, which was the only reason they’d been safe from the explosion and the resulting fire. Maya’s shield had remained in place until the fire had burned itself off, by which time her dad had managed to find the girls in the alley, with Ria’s directions of course.

  “I’m sorry,” Joss said softly. “I didn’t expect what happened. I guess I’m more of a danger to you guys when I’m not with you.”

  Maya snorted. “Look. I think you may be onto something though. Those demons were following you but I don’t think they were there randomly, or that they were stalking you.”

  “What do you mean?” Leela asked. She’d been sitting on the sofa in silence, as though she didn’t want to move or speak in case the temporary peace in the room was shattered.

  Maya looked at her mom. “I think Kripali called the demons to her. I think they found Joss because the demon summoned her minions. I’m not sure that Joss’s location made her vulnerable because I can’t make sense of it right now, which also means there is a good chance Kripali will summon demons even while Joss is here with us.”

  Dev nodded. “Okay. The danger is only increasing. So Maya, why don’t you try tossing this mahavitala the hell out of Joss’s mind. Chayya left a note for you that says what you need to do. Of course, it’s possible that it won’t work.”

  “In which case, we may all die,” offered Maya.

  “You’re being a bit dramatic, Maya,” said Ria, though she immediately glanced down at her arm in its sling and looked like she wanted to take her words back.

  “Okay, where’s Chayya’s list? Let’s see if we need anything to get this thing started.” Leela handed over a sheet of yellowed paper on which Chayya and written a set of bulleted instructions, which wasn’t much at all. Maya squinted at the writing. “This doesn’t tell me anything more than what I already know how to do with my fire.”

  Dev rubbed his face. “Chayya did say it was possible you already know how. And that if that was the case, you’d have to learn better control in order to harness the power that you’d need to oust Kripali.”

  Maya nodded and dropped the note on the coffee table. Then she looked at Joss. “Do you want to be horizontal or vertical?”

  “Huh?” asked Joss, eyes narrowed in confusion.

  “Lie down or sit?”

  “Oh,” replied Joss sheepishly. “Lie down is probably best.” Joss shifted around and lifted her feet up off the floor. She lay back and lay her head on the pillow. “Right, let’s do this.”

  Maya nodded and settled on her knees beside Joss. Sabala came to her side and said, “Chayya is right. You have the skills hidden in your mind, and you saw for yourself how much raw power you have. I believe wholeheartedly that you need to focus on what you want and take it. That is the power of the goddess Kali imbued within your blood and your spirit and your heart.”

  Maya nodded. Okay, I’ll do it. Can you open a portal or something to Patala so I can send her through?

  I can only use a pathway to Patala. But if I go through, she’d have a path of least resistance to follow.

  Ok. That’s a good plan then. I’ll let you know when. Maya took a deep breath. “Everyone is protected, so I can go ahead. Joss, I’m going to be using a lot of power on the demon. You need to remain strong and keep the ward around your mind as strong as you can. Sabala can tell me if you’re in any danger.”

  Joss nodded and shifted her head on the cushion behind her. “I’m ready.”

  Maya glanced around and met her dad’s eyes. “Did the royal guard arrive?”

  “Of course. They’re all in position and will fire on anyone who threatens our lives.”

  “Good. I’m ready. I don’t know how long this will last.” And before her parents decided that they should be saying goodbye or hug her, Maya held onto Joss’s temples and sank into her mind.

  The process was familiar enough and Maya could almost see the pathways to the result she needed. But as she worked to push past the demons defences she heard voices in the background, as though someone was in the room with her parents and they were having a disagreement.

  But Maya couldn’t allow herself to be distracted.

  Step by step, she inched closer to Kripali, cutting off the demon’s access to the other parts of Joss’s mind which she’d been using to hide within. For a while this inside of Joss’s mind was oddly silent, but then, without warning the demon began to scream, loud, ear-shatteringly loud.

  Maya ignored the blood trickling from her ears and she remained focused on Kripali who was slamming herself around inside Joss’s mind like a caged animal.

  Pain exploded inside Maya head and she gritted her teeth.

  Pain was good. Pain meant she was still alive. So she breathed and pushed at the demon. Removing the mahavitala wasn’t about rituals or knowledge of demons. It was about slow, steady compartmentalisation. Pushing the demon back then shutting the access, then pushing further and closing down more access points.

  And soon Kripali was screaming, panic, terror, fury all churning inside Joss’s head trying to slam Maya down. But it didn’t work. And with the same instinct with which she’d lopped off a demon’s head and thrown an energy field up to protect herself and Joss from a burning fire, Maya thrust the mahavitala out of her friend’s mind.

  Maybe Maya’s own fury had helped her exorcise the demon from Joss. Or maybe it was something entirely different. Whatever it was, Maya watched as the demon flew away from her, as the creature spun inside a whirlwind of energy unable to defend herself against Maya’s onslaught.

  And then, with a force Maya was sure was enough to explode a house, she threw Kripali out of Joss’s mind and then yelled for Sabala. Maya couldn’t see what was happening to the demon, nor was she able to tell if Sabala had begun to transport himself to Patala.

  It was only a vague sensation deep inside Maya that told her Joss was freed from the persecution of the mahavitala. And Maya felt lighter, happier as she drew herself out of Joss’s thoughts.

  When Maya’s awareness of the room around her returned, she was stunned to find Claudia in her wheelchair, arguing with Maya’s parents. Maya looked around the living room to find an equally stunned Joss regaining consciousness and staring at the argument.

  Ria scooted over to the girls. “She came while you two were out. Said she had to confirm for herself that you all were alive or she wouldn’t be able to rest. She was terrified that you’d all been killed and she said KALIMA claimed to have no knowledge of the cause of the explosion at the house or the reasons for our disappearance. Not sure if your parents bought that, but they wanted to know how she found this place because your dad was pretty certain he never mentioned it to anyone other than your mom. Also, they didn’t mention anything to Claudia about suspecting the board was responsible for the house blowing up.”

  “The fact the we up and disappeared like that would tell anyone from KALIMA who is after us that we are onto them,” Joss replied and Maya could only agree.

  Ria merely nodded then said, “Well, Claudia claimed your mom mentioned it at some point. She insisted she came alone, and your dad checked and it does look like she’s telling the truth. She even offered for your dad to check her and her devices for bugs.”

  “Did she drive here on her own?” asked Maya.

  Ria nodded. “You know she’s got that souped up car of hers so she can drive.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. Does she have backup hiding in the woods somewhere?”

  The Royal Guard would have apprehended anyone lurking in the vicinity of the house. So, as we’ve not seen them report in with trespassers, we can safely assume Claudia is alone.

  Maya sighed as she watched her parents’ tense discussion with her aunt. Something was bugging her about Claude’s arrival but she couldn’t put a finger on it. “I guess we have to take her word for it,” she said quietly.

  Joss tapped Maya on the arm. “Well, whatever Claude does or doesn’t do, I know one th
ing,” Joss said, her eyes free of fear and worry for the first time in days.

  “Which is?” asked Maya warily.

  Joss threw her arms around each of her friends who sat on either side of her. She squeezed them both hard enough to elicit a chorus of groans and complaints, then gave a happy laugh.

  “I think I’m going to make one heckuva badass motherfluffin’ vampire demon hunter.”

  Epilogue

  The girls had laughed when Joss had claimed she’d make one heckuva badass motherfluffin’ vampire demon hunter. And Maya suspected the words were truer than Joss even realized.

  She gave Joss a hug, happiness and relief filling her because she’d saved her friend.

  The next thing the girls knew, Claudia was rolling her wheelchair out of the living room and Dev was seeing her out. Maya’s mom stood frozen on the spot for a while and then let out a weary sigh. She walked over to the sofa opposite Maya and sank into it, rubbing her temples as though she’d just gotten a super bad headache.

  The air beside Maya shimmered as Sabala returned. Maya asked, “Did it work? Is she in Patala?”

  The hellhound shook his head and said, “Maya, unfortunately there is no way for me to tell if she went through or not. My using the pathway was simply to allow her the path of least resistance. We can only hope that she did take it.”

  Maya’s dad had walked into the living room in time to catch Sabala’s announcement and he paused beside his wife. The couple shared a strange look, which only worried Maya even more. Claude had come here out of the blue and left her parents upset and off balance.

  Then Maya stiffened with shock as it just hit her what had been bugging her. She looked at her parents. “Did Claude get a protection tattoo or something to keep her mind safe from demonic access? I mean, she was in the field a lot.”

  Leela shook her head. “Not all agents have the protection tattoo. Claudia was a devoted follower of Kali but she didn’t complete the full process. She fell ill, and I remember she didn’t receive the protection from the Mother. And then the Mother died and things started to happen.”

  “And one thing led to another?” said Maya, worried now.

  Leela frowned. “Why do you ask, Maya?”

  Maya studied all the faces in the room. “Joss is safe. Kripali was thrown out of Joss’s mind. And Sabala opened the pathway to Patala for us too. We all had some form of protection with tattoos and things, so I didn’t worry that someone in the house would end up being possessed if Kripali decided not to return to Patala. ”

  Maya didn’t need to voice the rest of her fears. They couldn’t be sure though, not until time passed and they could verify it.

  But there was a very real possibility that Kripali never went to Patala. There was a very real possibility that the mahavitala who had turned Joss into a vampire had found herself another host.

  Inside Aunt Claudia.

  THE END

  Find out what’s next for Maya and gang in Gods & Mortals - Hand of Kali #7

  which releases Nov 2019

  &

  In the meantime, let’s talk about a certain sexy Demigod - Hand of Kali #6

  which releases Aug 2019

  Copyright

  tgayer.com

  Tee’s Blog

  Tee’s Newsletter

  SPIRIT & SOUL

  A HAND OF KALI NOVEL BOOK 5

  Copyright © 2019 by T.G. Ayer

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by T.G. Ayer

  Cover art © T.G. Ayer. All rights reserved.

  Edited by J.C. Hart

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the Retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Hand of Kali 5.5 - DemiGod

  Chapter 1

  Nik’s feet barely hit the ground as he ran, gravel skidding, boots spewing up handfuls of sand and stones in his wake. His mind was telling him two things. The first was to run, to run as fast as his half-god legs could carry him.

  And he was running.

  Running for his life in the dark of a moonless night along the main street of a little seaside village in Eastern Russia, with no backup. Such brilliant planning on his part was going to follow him probably to an early grave.

  The thing is, he couldn’t just keep racing along without actually knowing how far away he was from the beasts. He could hear the jabbering and yipping—a chorus of crazed primates. And so he looked back. That was when he broke the second rule.

  Don’t look back.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Nik swore loudly, then turned and focused again on fleeing. Looking back had been both a bad and a good idea.

  At least now he knew that it was likely he wasn’t going to escape the horde of little goblin creatures on his tail. Nik gritted his teeth and, with a yell that was more for his own support than to scare off the troop of maniacal, jagged-toothed fiends, he reached for the pole of the next streetlamp, using it and the speed of his momentum, to swing him around to face the oncoming horde.

  Nik summoned his power, a little hope rising in him as the magic swirled from his feet to his hands. The power of the earth filled him, but the problem was, the same power fuelled the creatures he faced down.

  He just had to wield it better, smarter. Then a voice inside his head laughed at him. Better and smarter would have been to avoid meeting the horde entirely. Carnivorous, demonic goblins were best avoided at all costs.

  But no, Nikhil, son of Yama—Lord of the Underworld, Deliverer of Justice—had thought himself too smart, believed he had the skill to outwit the chief of this particular clan of undead monstrosities.

  Nik spent a split second imagining the expression on his father’s face when Nik’s stupidity was revealed. Swallowing hard, he pulled the power to his hands, then infused it with flames, as Mother Kali had taught him, and then he took a deep breath.

  Centering his thoughts, filtering out the distraction of the blood-drenched teeth on the first of the approaching horde, Nik allowed his fire to fill his palms, then spun it into half a dozen smaller orbs. Within seconds he was flinging a dozen fiery missiles at the first of the creatures, enjoying the satisfaction of watching every one of his targets fall to the ground, writhe around encased in flames, and then sputter out of existence in a puff of embers.

  The only problem was he’d killed twelve, but there were still about two hundred of the creatures heading his way.

  Nik forced himself to focus again, staring hard at the monsters closing in on him. Again, he pulled his fire up to his palms, only this time he didn’t waste the effort on globes of light. Nik spilled the magical fire out from his palm, allowing it to flow in a thin stream. Then he drew the flames into a long snaking rope and spun it around his head, Indiana Jones style.

  The approaching horde was louder, now, the sound scraping at Nik’s eardrums, enough to reduce a mortal into a mewling mess. But Nik shut out the cacophony, forcing himself to focus on slaying the first line of oncoming demons.

  He yelled at the top of his voice, no words, just a scream that focused his concentration, pushing as much of his power into the fiery whip as he could. He swung the whip around and struck the closest of the creatures, the thinnest end slicing them in half as easily as a hot knife through jello.

  One swipe had eliminated almost thirty of the crazed demons, and Nik struck again and again, feeling a lilt of hope as he struck them down, line after line, send
ing the little beasts to the deepest levels of hell as he cut them apart, little pops and puffs of embers confirming his kill before he focused on the next line.

  It wasn’t long before he’d whittled the army down to no more than fifty, and he began to feel triumphant.

  She’d thought she could best him. Now he’d show her how wrong she was.

  And right then, when his ego had reared its head, when he’d enjoyed the first premature tasting of success, something stabbed him in the back of his knee sending him tipping to the side in shock.

  He regained his awareness quickly enough, dropping into a forward roll, half his attention on striking down another dozen of the goblins, the other half trying to figure out what had been stuck into him.

  The weapon was soon clear enough because it protruded out the front of his leg, having thankfully missed all his bones. Lucky for him.

  But, also not lucky for him.

  A warmth swam up his leg, spreading from the wound like an icy-hot fire, and Nik let out a scream, this one leaning more toward agony than triumph.

  “Damn all the gods of all the Lokas to the deepest darkest holes of Patala,” Nik grunted, aware the stupid curse meant nothing. He had never been all that good at curses.

  Nik forced himself to focus, to push past the pain of the poison filling his bloodstream, to pour all his energy into feeling the whip of fire and slaying the next two dozen gremlins.

  Small mercies, as he counted a little over a dozen of the creatures left. But despite reducing the horde to a very manageable number, Nik knew he would lose if he didn’t come up with a good enough plan.