Taken (Many Lives Book 2)

by Laxmi Hariharan

  Now it’s Maya who looks at him warily.

  "I did," she replies.

  Her eyes slide away and for just a second she looks like the child from the family photographs at home.

  "I found I didn’t belong with them." she adds, her voice firm.

  "We are family." Jai insists. "You belong with us."

  "Are you?" she lashes back.

  Sensing her turmoil, the handsome shifter next to her puts out a hand and grips her shoulder.

  "I found my place, where I am wanted. With my people." She rubs her cheek against the shifter’s hand and the look in his eyes has Jai inhaling a sharp breath.

  The male loves her.

  He may be a beast, but it seems they all have a very human side hidden inside them. But she isn’t a shifter, she’s Maya. A completely 100 per cent human. His sister.

  "You knew who I was. Why didn’t you come to me, Maya?" He asks.

  Three years ago he’d first run into Maya at the local coffee shop. She’d been a waitress there, and Jai had noticed her instantly. He’d been drawn to her, had been sure that he’d known her; met her before.

  Then, she’d come to his poetry reading. And something about his words had disturbed her so much. He’d found her in tears afterwards. Had tried to calm her.

  It wasn’t till a few days later that he’d understood what about her had felt so familiar. Something in the way she’d looked at him…he’d seen her then, seen Ruby in that anguished twist to Maya’s features.

  And he’d suspected she was his long lost sister. But by then it’d been too late.

  "I searched for you, Maya," he says, his voice still soft, but with a thread of anguish. "But you were gone."

  "Well, you didn’t look hard enough," she snaps. "Not when the shifters kidnapped me as a child. And not when you saw me at the coffee-shop or even at your reading. You spoke to me, yet you didn’t even recognize me." She sounds more childlike than her years, as if she’s gone back to being the little girl she was when she was taken.

  "You can’t blame me for that," he says, frustration twisting his voice. "You were five when they took you, and then seeing you years later, a grown-up woman, it’s no surprise I didn’t recognize you as my sister. In my head you were still a five-year-old, can’t you see that?"

  A surge of despair has Jai taking a step forward, only to pause when the male next to her steps between the two of them. He aims his gun at Jai.

  "Its fine, Luke." Maya lays a hand on his shoulder.

  But Jai notices that Luke doesn’t move out of the way, much like he’s shielding Aria behind him.

  He’s glad she’s had someone to look out for her. Someone other than him. Because he hasn’t been around to protect her.

  And he won’t be able to shield her now that she’s back.

  His little sister’s back. But yet not. She looks like Ruby, like part of his family, but she’s not. She’s chosen the beast inside, chosen to live uncaged. Uninhibited. Without walls. She’s one of them now. A shifter. She's wild. Free. More hybrid than human.

  A part of him envies that, envies that she never had to put up walls. That she didn’t have to carry the heavy burden of promise. Of duty.

  Except now, seeing her hold his sword, he realizes it’s that very vow to his mother that has defined him. He’s lived his life by it and now when someone tries to take it away, he can’t let go. Because he’s lived by the sword and that promise and now it’s so much a part of him, it’s become him.

  And he has no choice but to see it through.

  "Maya, you’ll hurt yourself," he says, meaning it.

  He can see in her eyes what she wants. What she’s going to do. Why she wants the sword. And he can’t let that happen.

  Not now.

  Not when Aria’s life is at stake, when the lives of the thousands in his city are in danger.

  "A little too late for you to be worried," she replies.

  Then she moves fast. Jai has barely even registered that she’s closed the distance between them before she pulls out the sword and presses the blade against Jai’s throat.

  Aria takes a step forward but Jai squeezes her hand, and she comes to a standstill. Her muscles tense, nails digging into his palm, but he doesn’t take his attention away from the woman in front of him.

  The woman who’s a threat to the future of this city.

  "I won’t harm you," says Maya. "Well, not yet at least, but for now you need to come with us."

  At a slight nod from Jai, she lowers the sword. Then she stalks out on her heel, leaving it to Luke and the other shifters to make Jai and Aria march behind her.

  49

  A short boat ride away, we disembark. Wading through the shallow waters, we reach the rocky beach. It’s on the same island that Gilbert had pointed out on the trip to Elephanta.

  I follow Jai up the winding path leading up the slope of the hill.

  Maya leads the way with Luke right behind. Two other shifters bring up the rear. They don’t even bother to train their guns on us, as if very sure that we aren’t going to try and escape. And they’re right.

  I know we’re in danger, Jai and I.

  I know Maya is unpredictable too. She may be Jai’s sister, her eyes so like his, my heart catches in my throat every time I look at her, and yet there’s a madness in them. A glint of something not quite human. As if living with the shifters has made a beast of her too. And then we turn a corner and I gasp. There facing us is a group of wolves, larger than any I’ve ever seen. Each animal is tall enough to tower over me in height, and broad enough to span the size of two full-grown men.

  Shifters.

  I’ve never seen them before, not like this. Out in the open, naked. No armor, no clothes. Just them. And us. And this island they call home.

  And it is their home, for when I look past the group facing us, look up the slope it is to find the entire hillside covered with wolves.

  Not hybrids.

  These are wolves. The animal essence of the humans whose genes had been mutated by the fallout of the killer tsunami. The storm had been triggered right here, at the temple on top of the hill where Ruby Iyer had touched her sword to the sacred stone and triggered the start of the new world.

  And now I’m back here, twenty-nine years later, with her son and her daughter holding the same sword she had once clutched in her hand.

  A feeling of foreboding shivers down my spine and my gut twists with unease. Something isn’t right here.

  And it’s not just the hordes of wolves who stand quiet as we walk by. It’s not just that they line the path, reaching out to touch Maya as she passes. Some of them brush her legs, nudge her affectionately. As if she’s more than their leader. As if she’s their savior.

  It’s not just that the clouds have begun to gather on the horizon. Dark, gray, stormy, as if they’ve held on to a secret for too long and are now just waiting. Waiting. Biding their time.

  Moving closer to Jai I squeeze his hand, and he grips mine back. Some of the tension leaves his shoulders. As if just by touching him I’ve managed to ease the stress inside him. As if I’m grounding him.

  Then we move forward and walk up the slope to the plateau on top of the hill, where we pause.

  There’s a break in the clouds and the moon shines on us suddenly. A full moon whose silver light picks out the gray-brown and gold in the pelts of the gathered wolves.

  The sun has set a while ago and yet the warmth of the day lingers.

  It’s muggy and though the sea is all around us, the air is still. It’s waiting. Waiting, but for what?

  The sweat trickles down my forehead and then I sense Jai start as if he’s seen something, and I look up and see it too.

  The small white dome in the middle of the plateau. It’s a temple, small, almost a shrine. Built in the traditional style of the temple I’ve seen at the edge of the Jungle, and yet it’s different. The white of the building sparkles. It’s new, not more than a few years old. I know it’s a replica o
f the temple that must have been here before the tsunami swept it away.

  But it’s not just that. In front of the temple are two figures.

  Even from this distance I can tell that one of them is hurt for he leans on the shoulders of a slimmer man.

  And a little distance from them, another man is looking at us. There’s no mistaking the cocky jaunt of his shoulders, his thrust out chest. His legs are spread apart and he stands with his arms folded. It’s the General. And he too is waiting for us.

  I know it’s Vik who’s hurt and a wave of anger washes over me. As we get closer, I sense something more from him. A wave of raw emotion reaches out to me, twisting my heart, making my throat close. I try to swallow down the despair, helplessness, the hope that vibrates off Vik. He’s recognized Maya. He knows she’s his long-lost daughter. And he wants to go to her and take her in his arms. And he can’t. He won’t.

  The shifters motion us to a stop while Maya and Luke move forward. Maya has the sword sheathed by her side. She has no other weapon. No gun.

  Reaching the General, she holds out the sword to him. But before she can say anything else Vik cries out as if he can’t stop himself any more. Can’t hold himself back. He moves towards her, only to be stopped by Vishal, who grabs him and pulls him back.

  Next to me, Jai’s, muscles bunch together and I know he’s going to do something that will put his life at risk. But even I couldn’t have predicted what happened next.

  50

  He’s hurt. His father is hurt. Bleeding from a cut to the head. And it’s clear he’s suffered a few blows to the side from the way he’s favoring his ribs.

  Vik leans on Gilbert, who looks at Jai and gives a slight shake of his head. Warning him not to make any unnecessary moves. Warning him that Vishal still had a few surprises in store.

  But when Vik cries out on seeing the sword in her hand, in his daughter’s hand, Jai knows it’s because at that moment Maya looks so much like Ruby. The girl he’d loved, the woman he’d never forgotten. And now she’s standing in front of him. And once more it’s the time of the tetrad. He looks up and sees the full moon hanging there, ominous. Glowing in anticipation. Waiting.

  The son watches Vik, sensing what his father is going through.

  But the soldier in him surveys the land, sees the wolves gathered around the temple. Their numbers swell till the entire plateau is filled with them.

  And still they’re calm, quiet, alert, their noses sniffing the air as a faint smell of electricity, of copper wafts towards them. There’s a storm brewing. And Jai’s not sure he can stop it.

  Then Vik breaks free of Vishal, or perhaps Vishal lets him go. He limps towards Maya, favoring his leg, but with a straight posture. Regal. Every inch the solider he’s always been. The Guardian of this city.

  Just like Jai.

  And perhaps like Jai’s children after him.

  And Jai knows then that this is him. This is what he was born to do. He’s been running away from it all his life. But now, with the hand of the woman he loves clasping his palm, surrounded by the remnants of his family, overlooking the city of his birth, the city his mother had died protecting, the city his father had spent his life cherishing, it’s so clear to him. He knows what he has to do then.

  His mind made up, he squeezes Aria’s hand. When he gets her attention, he jerks his head to Gilbert, who’s watching them closely, before looking to where Vik has come to a stop in front of Maya.

  Aria nods and after one final squeeze he lets go of her before focusing all his attention on Maya, who shakes off Vik’s hand.

  "You’d do this? Destroy the city of your birth? The city your family has spent their life building?" Vik asks.

  She laughs at that, a short bark. "So now I am your daughter?"

  Vik’s eyebrows furrow. "You were always my daughter," he says.

  "You didn’t recognize me when we met."

  Jai shoots a glance at Vik. So they’ve met too? Was it the one time Maya had forayed into the city? When she’d stayed for a few weeks to try to find her family? The time that Jai had met her too?

  Vik frowns, his features twisting as he tries to remember. "I would have recognized you anywhere," he insists.

  But Maya is already shaking her head. "You didn’t, then. For I’m not like you. And this is not home. This city where you keep out those who need your help the most… No it can’t be where I belong."

  "You belong with your own blood," Vik says, his voice firm, strong. As if he’s hoping to run down her objections by sheer will power.

  "I belong with my adopted family," she shoots right back, glancing at Luke and the wolves behind him. They stand silent, grounded. Watching them closely in a way that indicates they can’t quite understand what these humans are fighting over. That in their world things are straightforward. For them, the extended pack, family is everything. And now that Maya is one of their own, that embrace extends to her.

  And the bald way that Maya states her intent, the sheer resolve that comes through, shows that Vik has perhaps met his match.

  For Maya is just like Vik, far more than Jai will ever be. That once her mind is made up, there’s no changing it. And it’s ironic that it’s precisely that which leaves Jai with no choice but to do what he must.

  "You look just like your mother," Vik says, still trying to appeal to her. "But you have a choice. Don’t repeat Ruby’s mistakes."

  "You’re right," she snorts, tossing her head. "It’s my choice. And as you say, this is Ruby’s sword. And I’m her daughter. So it’s mine by rights, isn’t it?"

  She moves to brush past him when Vik stops her with a hand to her shoulder. "Why? Why do this?" he asks, his voice shaking with the bitter knowledge of what is to come.

  At which Vishal steps forward, flanking Maya on the other side.

  "It’s simple, bro," he says. "Maya here has the ability – other than Jai of course – to trigger the tsunami tonight, at the time of the blood-red moon."

  "You’d turn Ruby’s daughter against everything she died for?"

  Jai winces on hearing that.

  "I’ll do what it takes," Vishal says and that is the final straw.

  Jai has always known that the day would come when Vik’s iron resolve would snap. He has always wondered what it would take to push him over the edge. And that when it happened, he wouldn’t want to be at the receiving end. That perhaps it wouldn’t even happen in this lifetime. But Vik’s next actions prove him wrong.

  With a speed that makes it seem as if he’s moving almost as fast as the shifters, Vik springs at Vishal, lashing out with his fist, getting the other man with a sharp crack to his jaw. He’s sent reeling to the ground.

  Before Vishal can recover, before anyone else can react, Vik is on him again, dragging him up by the collar, his amber eyes blazing as if the fire within them could consume Vishal at any moment.

  And in them Jai sees a sudden flash forward to the future, to twenty years later, when he’s laying low the man who has led his own daughter astray. And then that moment too is gone, leaving a gnawing hole in its place. As if the fates have shifted, and his destiny has already been charted. Unless… Unless he does something about it. Unless he steps up now and puts an end to this.

  Jai clutches his fists at his side then.

  Patience.

  He needs to wait.

  Wait.

  Just like the wolves. Just like the shifters next to him, who have gone still; silent. Statues bound to the night, to whatever is going to come next. They seem to know what’s in store but Jai can only guess. And whatever it is, he cannot let it happen.

  Next to him, Aria slides to the side, gently. One step. Another. Silent. Like a shadow. The shifters don’t even notice. Rapt as everyone is by the drama unfolding in front of them.

  As Vik lets go of Vishal, he takes a step back and swings again. And again. Then there’s a slight pause, just a second to gather his strength, drawing on that inner force inside that is so Vik. And he lets loose
a final punch. His movements are smooth, fast, power-packed, befitting the experienced combat soldier that he is. And it would have laid Vishal flat, should have knocked him out, except he recovers.

  He sidesteps Vik, and when the other man slides by, Vishal grabs him around the neck, powerful arms squeezing his throat. Vik comes up short, is held captive.

  It’s almost like watching a replay of them fighting as siblings. Now they’re grown men.

  One fights for his family.

  The other for power.

  Vik struggles in Vishal’s mock embrace but Vishal holds on, locking him in, immobile. Biceps bulging, throat chords stretching.

  "So you’ll destroy the city?" Vik’s voice wheezes out, cracking on the last word. "Use your own family to fulfill your ambition, regardless of the price the rest of us pay for it?"

  "Not this city," Vishal laughs. "No, I’ve been training Maya to target the power of the sword towards the West."

  "New London?" The words snap out of Jai before he can help it and he swears inwardly.

  He hopes he hasn’t drawn attention to Aria, who has now reached the far right of the small gathering, diagonally opposite Gilbert.

  Vishal nods without even looking his way, his eyes never wavering from the sword.

  "Among others. If your very talented sister wills it right, she should be able to unleash nature’s force on most of the big cities of the West."

  "But why?" Jai cries out.

  "Economics," he says as if it should all be very clear to them. "Today, the supply of rare earth metals comes from the West. New Scotland and some reserves in Argentina, those are the last deposits left on this planet.

  "But over the last few years I’ve been using the shifters to work the mines in the north of Indostan. We’ve reopened them and now have our own supply—’

  "So you want to destroy the big cities of the West, destroy their last remaining resources of rare earth metal? Then when they are at your mercy, trade cheaply?" Jai asks, moving forward casually so he’s closer to his father. Closer to his sister. Closer to his uncle.