by K. N. Banet
I sat down, my mouth gaping. Apparently, seeing it the second time didn’t make it any more believable.
“How was that?” he asked, walking back to me. “I don’t think I need to do the smaller rocks.”
“Nope, you really don’t,” I agreed, looking at the massive rock pieces in their new home. “We can work with this. Let’s get back to training with the sword and getting you prepared for any real fights.”
“Kaliya…why are you helping me?” he asked suddenly, as I stood up and brushed the dirt off my ass.
“Why did you accept my help?” I answered back, looking up at his face. He still had red eyes, but the black was leaving. I knew if I caught his scent, it would be turning back to human as we spoke.
“I…” He looked away.
“Yeah. Same.” I couldn’t tell him too much. There were things I wasn’t comfortable with—like how I looked at him, and my fangs ached. How could I begin to tell him about my species and the problems with it when we didn’t even know what he was? It seemed unfair, to both of us.
He frowned, and I wondered what was going through his mind.
“I knew I was going to need help one day. Eventually, my luck would run out,” he said softly. “And there you were, trying to talk to me like no one else had. I took a chance. Running is tiring, and you started giving me answers, something I’d wanted for years.”
“I wish I could give you more,” I said, crossing my arms. “But in a lot of ways, I’m more blind than you are.”
“Yeah, but even if you can’t stop them from getting me, you’re giving me a heads up on this thing I’ve been in for a decade but didn’t know about. All this supernatural shit. That’s something. If I have to keep running, at least I’ll know more now than I did.”
I blinked several times, letting what he said sink in.
“Well, I’m glad I could help in some way,” I finally said, swallowing. “But I’m going to make sure you don’t have to run anymore. I’m not going to let them whisk you away. That’s not fair to you or to anyone else, really.”
“What do you mean?” He walked beside me, heading back for my house.
“Mygi shouldn’t be allowed to detain and experiment on whoever they want,” I said, crossing my arms. “The problem is, only certain species are protected. There’s no murder allowed, but there’s a lot supernaturals can get away with. If a werewolf kidnaps another werewolf, it’s handled by werewolves, internally without the Tribunal involved. Same for most species, which means if it’s kept quiet and no one makes a fuss…”
“It happens anyway,” he finished.
“Exactly. The point of the Tribunal isn’t to make us human, because we aren’t. It’s to stop wars that would expose us. To stop us from exposing ourselves. To keep us from driving each other to extinction. They don’t care much for petty things unless someone dies from it.”
“So, they wouldn’t notice if one human gets captured, and if they did, they might not care.”
“As long as it doesn’t expose us in the end.” I shrugged sadly, wishing I could help him more. “I’ve got someone trying to open a formal investigation. If we can prove they’re kidnapping humans off the streets, we might get a chance to take them down. If we can prove this is a multi-species conspiracy to potentially threaten and expose supernaturals who haven’t agreed to go public, we have a bigger case against them.”
“And it still might not work.”
“Yeah…Mygi is powerful. Not your run-of-the-mill criminal organization who was caught doing bad shit.”
“About your job,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You are a Tribunal Executioner, but…do you only kill people?”
“No. I send them to prison too. Killing people is just more common. If they try to evade their sentence, which we know they’re doing, and they don’t surrender when we find them, we kill them. End of story. No debate, no oversight. If they go on the list, they either surrender to us, or we kill them on sight. Supernaturals who go to prison are generally caught beforehand, and depending on the species, different crimes have different punishments.”
“What? That doesn’t seem fair,” he said, his frown so severe I wondered if he was going to wrinkle right in front of me.
“It’s not, but every supernatural has their own rules to play by. That’s what makes the laws so damn complicated. On top of that, they really aren’t about protecting the weak or keeping a functional society. The supernatural world is like the wild west. There're rules…good luck getting anyone to follow them unless you’re willing to back it up with brute force. Therefore, Executioners.”
“Jesus,” he mumbled. “Where’s the prison you barely use?”
“Why? You want to make a visit?” I raised an eyebrow at him in confusion.
“No, just curious. I feel like I’ve been dumped into a movie, and there’s a lot I don’t know and should.”
“In my region, actually. We tucked it out in the middle of the desert about two hundred years ago. I’m the first line of defense against escapees.”
“Let me guess…if they escape from prison, it’s punishable by death,” he mumbled.
“Yup. You have a lot of hang ups about the killing thing I do,” I commented, seeing my house as we went over a hill.
“I think killing others is wrong,” he replied.
“I can’t say you’re wrong, but I think it’s naïve, and that’s not a bad thing. Everyone in my world is jaded. It’s refreshing to see someone who believes in right and wrong and not the grey in the middle. And there is grey, Raphael. Lots of it. Most of the time, there’s more grey in a situation than black and white.”
The sun was going down, and I picked up my walking pace. I wanted us inside when the rest of the world came out to play.
When we got inside my gym, I grabbed the wooden swords and we got to work, the conversation put aside for the moment. Thankfully, because I wasn’t really looking to discuss morality and shit.
We sparred, clashing as I pushed him to remember what we went over earlier. I wanted him to learn quickly. It would only help us both in the long run. After twenty minutes of pure sparring, letting him figure it out, we went into forms and patterns as I corrected his form and showed him what each movement could do for him in a fight.
It was near eleven in the evening when my phone started going off. He nearly hit me on the side of my head as I pulled it out of my pocket and saw it was Paden.
“Stop,” I snapped, answering and pulling it up to my ear, wondering what Paden needed tonight.
“Kaliya, you have to hide,” he said, coughing.
My blood ran cold.
“Paden, are you hurt?” I asked softly. “What happened?”
“Before opening, that witch and fae working for Sinclair came by. They promised my wife would be okay if I did as they asked, but you know, torture is sometimes an irresistible urge. Warning, the fucking witch has a hard-on for pain.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, slowly moving toward the side of the gym and leaning on the wall. “Oh, Paden, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. We all know the risks. They didn’t kill me, so you can’t kill them, yeah?”
“Yeah…” But I wanted to, those motherfuckers. “Why you?”
“They know you have him, and after getting over their pissy shit, they came back with a plan. I had to give them something, Kaliya. I had to protect my wife.”
“I know,” I whispered. “What did you give them, old friend?”
“Your condo. It’s closer to me, and I figured it would buy you time,” he explained, coughing. “Can they find your desert place using it?”
“Yes, but it’s fine. It’ll take them a little time to connect the two places.” Or it should. I was already plotting how to get what Raphael and I needed and get out before we were caught in the middle of nowhere with no backup. “How long ago did they leave?”
“Two-and-a-half hours ago, roughly,” he answered, groaning. “Wife had to heal my vocal cords an
d my hands once Henley got me to her. He’s pissed. We’re going to hide out until this all blows over.”
“I’m sorry, Paden. I really am.” I felt terrible. Guilt shredded my resolve about Raphael, about all of it. I slid down, letting my legs spread out as I let it sink in. Sinclair and his people were torturing now to get him. The escalation was fast, which meant I had been right: the vampire wasn’t going to let this go—not now, not ever.
“I got you started on this,” he reminded me. “I started this. It’s a lesson learned, not to toy around with these things so brazenly.”
“We didn’t know…” I tried to find something to say. I knew Sinclair was dangerous. I had seen his work more times than I could count, but this was open. This was stupidly in the open. The only thing was, I couldn’t get Sinclair on the torture. His minions did it for him, and Paden didn’t mention him being there. I had nothing on the vampire himself, which was the way he always got away with things. Paden also brought up a good point. They didn’t kill Paden, so I couldn’t kill them.
Not yet, anyway. The moment they moved against me personally, they were fair game.
“No, we didn’t. Kaliya, you have to get somewhere else to hide.”
“I know,” I said, forcing myself onto my feet. Raphael stood close, frowning, the picture of concern. My fangs ached terribly, trying to tell me I should bite him, keep him, and use him for my own comfort. I shoved that feeling down so far, I was certain my face went blank because he got very confused.
“Paden, I’ll call you when we’re on the move,” I said coolly, knowing I needed to keep my head clear if I wanted to steer clear of Sinclair and the gang.
“Good luck,” he said, then hung up. I hated how raspy his voice had been, but that was a problem for another time. I could pay for him to have a repair done. I owed him for that.
“A good friend of mine, one who knows where my homes are, was attacked and tortured to try to find us,” I explained quickly, shoving my phone back into my pocket. “They left him two-and-a-half hours ago, which is plenty of time for them to have found my condo in the city and maybe even deduce where we are out here.”
“How?”
“No supernatural worth its power only owns one home. A smarter one has fake names and shell companies to keep fortunes and properties secret. The smartest supernaturals know how to work through all that and figure out where others are hiding, or hiding their money,” I said, beginning to jog out of the gym, letting him keep up. “Sinclair is one of the smartest supernaturals I know. He’s not going to take too long to find us here. We need to leave, and we need to leave right now. You have ten minutes to grab everything you own and two weapons.”
“Even guns?”
“I have all the ammo you could need in my car,” I said before darting away. He followed, but I made it to the house faster and started grabbing weapons from their cases. I found my bag and shoved them into the weapon case. I had a thigh holster and slid a handgun in it. I grabbed a thigh sheath for the left and put a simple hunting knife in it. My talwar was sheathed in its case, and I threw the belt around my waist, securing it. Finally, I went into my back safe room and pulled out one of the vials of my venom. I couldn’t take any chances. If this was going to be a fight, I was going to kill every fucking one of them.
They really think they’re going to come to my house and cause a problem? I don’t fucking think so.
“Raphael, you ready?” I called, heading toward the garage.
“Yeah!” he called from inside. I found him next to my BMW. “I didn’t see it last night, but nice Aston Martin.”
“Thanks. We’re not taking it. Get in.” I grabbed the keys for the BMW and unlocked it. He threw his bag in the backseat, and I saw the gun tucked in the waist of his pants. I had to bite my tongue to keep from getting onto him for it. I hadn’t told him where to find a holster, so that was my fault.
I hit the garage door opener as I got behind the wheel and cursed as I saw headlights coming up the drive.
“Fuck. We’re in for it now,” I mumbled, revving the engine and pulling out at an alarming speed. Glancing to my right, I saw him grab the safety handle, his eyes going red.
“Who are they?”
“One of them is the witch who was in the SUV. They’re our biggest nightmare right now,” I answered, still flying backward. The vehicle coming up the drive quickly slammed on the brakes and turned, blocking the entire dirt drive. A gunshot shattered the back window.
“Raphael, neither car I have can go out into the desert. We’re going to need to move them.” I grabbed the gun from my thigh holster and looked back through my destroyed back window. “And we might need to get the Aston.”
“Might?”
“Yeah, let’s see how the BMW holds up first. The Aston is my personal drive, not my work car,” I answered, opening my door. Luckily, the BMW wasn’t in the way at all since the dirt parking area in front of my house was large, but I needed Sinclair off my road.
I watched as the vampire in question stepped out of the SUV.
“Leaving so soon?” he asked. I saw his arrogant smile, that cold, cocky thing I wanted to rip from his face and felt my temper growing. “A good host should never leave guests without at least a refreshment or hearing why they stopped by.”
“Nice ride,” I said, ignoring his attempt at an insult. “Looks familiar. Have I seen it around before?”
His arrogance turned angry, but the smile never left.
“Yes, I got the strangest report from one of my team. They say Mr. Alvarez…flipped the other. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
“I do, but I’m not entirely sure it’s your business. You can afford a replacement, obviously. Or you can just bill me. I’ll replace it. No worries.” I grinned. “Nice visit, Sinclair. Now, Raphael and I are off to meet some friends.”
“You do realize because he showed off his abilities in public, he can no longer hide behind the shield of humanity, correct?” Sinclair leaned on the hood of his car. “Meaning the ten-million-dollar bounty on his head is completely legal.”
Yeah, I was really hoping that wouldn’t come up.
“And? Maybe I want the ten million. It’s not like you can kill me and take him. We both know that won’t turn out well.”
Raphael coughed from inside the car, leaning to look out my window. He was glaring, but then, I had just said I might want the bounty on his head.
“I don’t need to kill you, Kaliya,” Sinclair reminded me. “I just need to take him.”
“You can’t even attack me,” I snapped. “Don’t pretend you can beat and torture me like you did Paden and walk away from it. I’m an employee of the Tribunal, and I’m allowed to use deadly force to protect myself. If any of you step to me, expect to fight to the death.”
Sinclair’s eyes flashed in rage.
“So be it.”
“Raph, get out of the car,” I yelled. “Now.”
There was a fireball growing in the SUV as the doors opened.
15
Chapter Fifteen
I jumped away from the car as the witch threw the fire across my lot. I saw Raphael rolling out the side as a blaze erupted on contact where the fireball landed on the trunk, pieces flying inside the car and igniting the seats. Jumping back toward it, a gunshot went off over my head. I reached into the backseat and grabbed my bag, throwing it to the side before rolling to avoid more gunfire. Glancing up, I saw Sinclair waiting at the hood of the SUV, still smiling. The fae and witch were walking toward Raphael and me, another fireball growing in the witch’s hand.
I needed a plan. Raphael needed to get that SUV out of our way. It would leave the assholes stranded if he did enough damage, which would give us time to get the fuck far away from them.
“Sinclair, don’t be fucking stupid!” I called out. “You don’t want to have this fight with me.”
“Why not? You die here, I take the prize, and I never have to deal with you ever again. No o
ne will be able to prove I killed you.”
He was right. If there were no witnesses and if the witch disposed of me with no evidence, then there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.
“And how do you know I won’t kill you?” I asked, eyeing the two walking closer. Raphael was backing up toward the house, not the stupidest idea. I started walking backward, as well. If we baited them inside, it would be easy for me to kill at least one of them and get around behind them and get out.
“Because I don’t think you’re that skilled,” he taunted. “Light them up.”
The witch threw the second fireball, and I jumped out of the way, letting it scorch the dirt where I had been standing. Running for it, I looked back only to see the fae lift his assault rifle again and begin firing, this time in bursts.
“Go, Raph! Inside!” I roared. He turned and started at full speed as well, picking different entrances. He crashed through one of my windows, for which I couldn’t blame him, and I went through the garage. Glass shattered, and I hissed.
“NOT THE ASTON MARTIN!” I roared. Someone laughed, and I really couldn’t blame them. Every supernatural had their favorite toys and appreciated pretty things. The Aston Martin was mine.
“Apologies!” a man who I didn’t recognize yelled out. I could hear the laughter in his voice. “It’s a nice car!” More bullets rained into it, destroying the inside.
Shaking my head in disgust as I ducked inside, I didn’t bother finding a weapon. In a magical second, I shifted into my snake form and went looking for Raphael. He was going to need me. Hopefully, he didn’t try to kill me on sight like some people did.
