Jai’s breath comes out in a whoosh.
Chapter Seventeen
Jai knows he should thank Vishal for saving him from the brunt of Vik’s anger but he can’t bring himself to do so. Vishal had not done it for Jai’s well-being. To him it was another opportunity to get back at his brother.
"It’s understandable that the Mayor does not want to share this city with shifters," says Vishal, picking up from where Vik leaves off.
He does this a lot. Playing the de facto parent when Vik is not around. Which was quite a lot growing up.
Except he normally never agrees with Vik. If anything he encourages Jai to rebel against his father. So Vishal agreeing with Vik is rare. And twice in the space of a few minutes is just plain odd. Enough for Jai’s instincts to go on alert. Enough for him to wonder what his uncle is up to. What is he plotting?
Oblivious to Jai’s thoughts, Vishal continues, "Bombay is on the cusp of becoming one of the most prosperous cities in the world. The tsunami gave us a chance to wipe clean the haphazard growth of the last hundred years. To clean the city of dirt. Of the unwanted and start all over again."
Jai’s heard his uncle say this many times before and never reacted. But today he can’t stop himself from speaking up. He’s stayed in this city and yet always managed to stay away from the refugee situation, from the shifter menace, from the plans his uncle always seemed to have for this city. But no more.
Meeting Aria has brought the entire situation home. Made it all so personal. Suddenly the reality of everything that's happening around him hits. As if waking up from a deep sleep and finding that everything he cares about is under threat.
"People," Jai says in a low voice. "The tsunami killed people, families. It’s why they never forgave Ruby either. It’s why she made me swear to stay on and protect the city. To make up for some of the hurt she caused."
"They misunderstood her," Vishal raises his voice. "They have no idea what a blessing in disguise it was. She gave this city new life. A fresh start. A chance to do it right this time."
"A fresh start at what?" Jai asks, knowing the answer yet wanting to hear Vishal say it.
"To grow our economic power, make up for lost time, to become richer than the West."
"Becoming an economic powerhouse? Is that all it’s about? Power, wealth—"
"Control," Vishal bites out. "He who has power has control over his destiny."
"Is that so important?" Jai asks, his voice soft.
The other man’s desperation, his need to prove himself, reaches out to Jai. A part of him wishes he could do something to soothe it.
Vishal starts and his features twist in recollection. "When you grow up like me, always on the outside, you learn very quickly that it comes down to control. He who has power has control over his own life, over his circumstances."
Vishal’s speaking about his stepmother disowning him, casting him out. If it hadn’t been for Vik’s father he’d have grown up on the streets. Something he’s not likely to ever forget.
Yet, the desperation, the complete acceptance in Vishal’s words, still takes Jai by surprise. He knows his uncle would be the Mayor of Bombay in a flash. But just how much he wants that, the fact that he wants more than that, is only clear now.
His vision does not stop at controlling this city. It’s larger, more dangerous. But what?
He wants to say something, refute what Vishal has said then, but stops.
That kernel of something, that "gut instinct" which Vik hates so much, makes Jai hesitate. No, it wouldn’t do to rub Vishal the wrong way. Best to play along for now, keep him talking.
Jai flashes a smile at Vishal. "You’re right." He says, "Tell me more. How can we have more control over the future of this city?"
Vishal’s features brighten; it’s as if a weight has lifted off his shoulders. As if Jai is finally becoming the kind of the nephew he’s always longed for.
Flinging an arm around the younger man, Vishal grips his neck in a friendly hug. "Shifters, Jai," he says. His eyes narrow, even as his lips pull back into a smile.
It’s the first time Vishal has revealed a little more about what he’s thinking. Jai wants to prompt him but knows Vishal can’t be hurried. Instead he focuses his attention on the older man. Knowing the best way of encouraging the other man is to show that he’s listening with rapt attention.
Biting his inner cheek, he waits…waits for his uncle to tell him what’s on his mind.
Letting go of Jai, Vishal walks to the head of the long table, from where he can see the entire room at vantage point, and folding his bulky arms over his chest, he trains his ink-black eyes on the younger man.
Jai knows what is expected of him.
He drops into a chair, letting the other man tower over him. Conceding power to him. Knowing that’s the only way to make Vishal feel secure enough to share.
Vishal doesn’t disappoint.
"I have a plan for a powerful alliance. One which will take me a step closer to realizing my dreams," he says.
And with each word he grows calmer, focused, his breathing steadies. And in that second Jai knows that ambition is the only thing that grounds Vishal to this life. It feeds him, gives him a high that nothing else can. Not love or lust or family.
"You want to team up with the shifters?" Jai exclaims in a flash of intuition. "I thought you hated them?" His mind races ahead, trying to join the dots, trying to understand what exactly Vishal has in mind.
"I still do," the older man replies. "Animals." He spits out the words. "Filthy half-breeds that they are," he mock shudders.
"But you’ve found a way to work with them?" Jai asks, his mind racing now. "An inside connection perhaps?"
"Ah!" Vishal shakes his head, his eyes almost twinkling with suppressed excitement. "You’re not getting me to confess everything now… But then some things don’t need to be spelt out, do they?"
He bares his teeth in a smile and Jai wonders if these are just the ramblings of a person with half-formed plans.
There’s no way Vishal could even be speaking with the shifters. They are not known for their helpful nature and definitely not when it came to humans. Not unless Vishal’s promised them something they want. Promised them a space, a home of their own. It’s the one thing they would do anything for. But not even Vishal would do that, would he?
Would he team up with the shifters for power?
Chapter Eighteen
An hour later Jai rides his bike away from the Council headquarters and towards home. After that initial bout of sharing Vishal had clammed up as if suddenly aware that he’d spoken more than intended. Yet, the talk has left Jai with the feeling that time is running out. That his uncle will not stop till he fulfills his dream. And all he’s doing now is waiting for the right opportunity. One that can come anytime.
Jai needs to find out more of what Vishal is up to. The only way to do that is to give his uncle the confidence that Jai is on his side. He must stay close to Vishal, shadow him. Get to know his innermost thoughts. Perhaps then he has a chance to protect his father and this city.
As his mind goes over everything he knows, Jai finds himself thinking about the girl who’s stumbled into his life. There’s something there, he can’t put his finger to…a pin-prick of something not quite being right. A part of him wonders why his instinct made the leap from Vishal to Aria but before he can question it further that too is gone. Instead, thoughts of her crowd his mind.
Of how his heart already knows what he wants from her. Yet his rational mind still resists what his gut is telling him: that it is her. She is the one for him.
Now as he heads home, he can’t ignore the inevitability of what he feels. He’s surrounded by her. Her indigo eyes which lighten to an almost gray-blue when she’s angry. Deepening to a violet when she’s aroused. He’d noticed that, been fascinated by it.
Every time he’s touched her, let his skin rub over her she has shuddered. He wants to pick her up and keep her safe, and the inte
nsity of those feelings still take him by surprise. He’s still unsure what to do about them. There’s more than lust, though that is present too. That "something" which draws him to her. Which has him turning to her, thinking about her, smelling her even when she isn’t physically near him.
He guns the bike, speeding up.
Wanting to get to her.
Wanting to see her again and find out for himself if everything he feels for her is real.
Surely it’s not like you just meet someone, and within a few days, hell within a few hours, do they have such an impact on your life. The only other time his life had been shaken so much was when his mother had made him take an oath to protect his city. Made him swear on her sword. The sword!
His mind jolts and he swerves, almost going off the road as he realizes he’s left the sword behind. It’s not like he’s been extra careful about it, but he’s also never let the sword out of his sight, not since he started using it as his own. He’s even taken it with him on his occasional forays to poetry jams. It has become a part of him. Until she came along and displaced it.
And he’s been preoccupied enough with thoughts of her to leave it behind, with her, in his home.
And then he knows that’s been her intention all along. That’s why she’s appeared in his life. To distract him. Get close to him.
To take his sword.
Even as he’s thinking it, his heart protests that it’s not true. That Aria does feel for him. She hasn’t been faking her reaction to him. The way her presence pulls at him, tugs at his gut. Her eyes that see through him. Her lips that tempt him to touch her and run his hands through her hair and feel her shiver against him.
The engine’s idling and he doesn’t know when he braked to a stop. He’s sitting on the curve of the road that takes him onto the narrow bridge which links this island to the next one where he lives, and he can’t go on. Can’t bring himself to move another inch. It’s as if her eyes are calling him back.
And yet he’s too scared to move.
Too scared about what he’ll find when he reaches home. But a part of him wants to find out too. Can’t wait to find out. His mind insists that the chemistry is just an added bonus, and perhaps she even feels something for him. But all along, she’s been goading him, getting under his skin. Trying to get to the sword. And as he thinks that, he knows it’s true. And he’s left her alone with the sword.
He sets off again, speeding up, determined to make it back as soon as possible. To prove that sick feeling inside is wrong. She can’t have deceived him. Not like that.
Chapter Nineteen
Jai walks in the door and knows she’s not there. The bed is made up and when he turns to the table on the far side of the bedroom, he can’t see his sword. White heat pours through him and rage shivers up his spine. Then it’s gone. Replaced by a cold certainty. A hard knot of deliberate silence. Fisted so tight that he can’t feel his heart anymore. Can barely breathe.
His mind is clear, though.
Ice cold.
He thought he meant something more to her.
He trusted her.
But he never told her how he felt.
And good thing too, for it turns out he is wrong about her after all. She's just another desperate refugee. She had faked her feelings for him.
Not the chemistry or the lust. No, not that. Even in the aftermath of discovering her betrayal, he knows that "feeling" between them is real.
But she has deceived him about everything else.
And she has taken his sword.
She’s also shown him how tenuous that promise he made to his mother is. She has exposed him as a fraud, which he’s always known he is. But now it's out in the open and he must face it: That he’s never intended to fulfill his oath, to be a Guardian, to protect his city.
However much he’s fooled the world into thinking otherwise. Fooled even himself. Still, deep inside he’s always known he won’t be able to see it through. He has lived with the secret fear that he will let his mother down. And now he has.
Hearing the front door open, he swings around, gun already in hand.
He hears someone walk in, then Aria appears at the bedroom door, his sword slung over her shoulder.
She pales on seeing him. A quick intake of breath.
She’s scared. Good. She should be.
"What are you doing back here?" he asks, his voice dangerously low.
She saunters into the bedroom and places the sword on the table, back in its place, saying, "Wrong sword. I took the wrong sword, can you believe that? In my hurry to leave I took yours. I’d forgotten that you’d taken mine, put it away for safekeeping."
She’s trying to look all relaxed but her back is straight, stiff, her stance wary as she leans a hip against the table.
Her eyes dare him to defy her.
"Which reminds me. What are you doing back here?" she drawls. "Thought you took off in a huffy fit."
A familiar irritation crawls up his back, lodging at the base of his neck, setting off a dull throbbing.
Gun still pointed at her, he moves forward till he towers over her. Till she’s forced to tilt her head right back to peer up at him. Pine and mint. His shampoo. She smells of him, yet different. Her scent mixed with his.
Desire hits him and he almost groans out aloud. Pleased his hand is still steady he slips the gun back into the belt around his waist.
"You expect me to believe you took my sword by mistake?" His voice is neutral, with just the right tinge of disbelief.
She reddens, "If I’d wanted to steal it I’d have been long gone don’t you think?"
"I don’t know what to think," he says.
And then it’s his turn to inhale sharply when she steps closer, bridging the gap between them. Close, so close, almost touching. If he moves just half a step forward…
"Don’t think," she whispers and he watches her lips form around the words.
Don’t…
He walks past her, crossing the living room, to the wall of books she’d admired so much earlier. Putting as much space as he can between them. Except it’s not nearly enough.
"I believe you." He tilts his head, his tone indifferent. "It’s just a sword after all, an easily made mistake."
He presses against a section of the wall, and it slides away to reveal her sword.
Picking up her blade he throws it at her, and she’s quick. She catches it, slinging it over her back, securing it, all in one fluid motion. She’s a fighter all right. Her instincts sharp and trained to kill and to defend herself and her family.
Just like him.
"So, this is goodbye then?" she asks, her tone indicating she knows it’s over.
"It’s best if you leave tonight," he says, trying to keep his face free of all expression.
"Why put off the inevitable, right?" she asks, hanging her head, letting her hair fall over her face, covering her eyes.
He can’t see what she’s thinking, and that bothers him. Bothers him that he won’t see those eyes again.
But she must go.
If she stays another night, it will be akin to tempting fate. Opening up possibilities where none exist. Making him hope. And that he must not. Not now when he has his sword back. And he can go back to being what he is.
A soldier.
A Guardian.
A son bound by his promise.
And this time he knows he will fulfill it. He’s been given a second chance to prove himself and he must take it.
"It’s time for you to leave," he agrees. "Goodnight. Ariana," he says formally.
She opens the door to leave, then turns and asks, "What would you have done if I had taken the sword?"
In her eyes he sees curiosity, and something else. A burning hope that he’ll ask her to stay.
"We’ll never know now, will we?" he says, his voice cold, emotionless. Already hinting at the soldier he’s becoming.
He wants to say something, leave her with something to hold on to. But he doesn�
�t. And then she’s gone.
Turning, he smashes his fist into the book case, punching right through it, the books scattering to the floor.
Chapter Twenty
Jai comes awake in an instant, white noise rising in his ears. It takes him a few seconds to place that the buzzing is not in his head. It’s his mobile phone. Reaching for it, he sends the half-empty bottle of whiskey on the bedside table crashing to the ground. Switching on the lamp he swears at the liquid pooling on the floor before forcing out a hello.
"Jai? The Jungle… It’s on fire," Gilbert’s voice bursts out.
"Fire…? What?" He struggles to focus, fighting against the layers of sleep, against the hangover beating against his temples.
"The camp, Jai. The refugee camp is on fire. The shifters have attacked and in much larger numbers. We need to get there, right away."
The urgency in Gilbert’s voice finally slaps him awake. "The team?" he asks, clearing his voice.
"They are with me already," Gilbert snaps.
"With you?" Jai swears again. "Why didn’t you call me earlier?"
"I’ve been trying to reach you for the last half hour…"
"Yeah," he grinds out.
The liquor had worked all too well in knocking him out. He’d been determined to get drunk after she left. A vain bid to forget her. And then it hits him.
"Ariana!" Jai exclaims.
"What happened to Aria? Isn’t she with you? Jai? Answer me!" Gilbert’s voice rises in alarm,
"She left last night. She’s—"
"At the camp!" Gilbert exclaims. "You let her go?"
His disbelief makes Jai cringe. A sick fear twists his gut. She has to be okay. She must be. If not… He stops himself from thinking further.
Flinging off the covers, he’s on his feet and headed for his clothes. He barks out, "I’m on my way."
Jai disconnects before Gilbert can say anything else. He’s dressed and on his bike and speeding down the road in less than five minutes.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 132
