Chapter three
“Did I ever tell you about the time I got slutted out by a vampire?”
Amaya choked on the water she was sipping, her eyes watering. She tucked the phone into her shoulder so she could talk and wipe her face. “Trace, please!”
“Nah, I’m for real. By the time he was done, I was ready to sign up for a convent. I was finna give my life up to the Celestials.”
She busted out laughing because her cousin was entirely too much. “Please be for real.”
Thankful for the end of her shift, Amaya carefully stripped off the clean suit she wore on top of her street clothes. Working in the sacred garden, they had to be careful of outside contamination.
Tracy sighed on the other end of the phone. “I almost asked him to marry me, but you know how the Chawi are.”
Amaya nodded, though her cousin couldn’t see.
They were both Chawi, or witches as humans would call them.
There were strict rules in place about the Chawi and Bayi marrying and mating.
While not exactly illegal, it was strongly discouraged, the result a curse over the whole family that none wanted to risk.
She shuddered thinking of the stories her mother and grandmother told to discourage such a pairing.
“Besides, if I were going to risk the wrath of my parents, let it be for one of those fine ass Bayi in the balaclavas,” Tracy lamented.
Amaya snorted. “You don’t even know what they look like under those masks. Not to mention every last one of them are killers. You’d marry a killer?”
“And would,” Trace said quickly.
“How are we friends?” Amaya shook her head as she rolled her clean suit into a ball.
Tossing it over to the laundry basket in the corner of the employee locker room, she shimmied her shoulders as it landed in the basket.
Smoothing down the top of her hair, she tuned back into their conversation.
Not that Tracy would stop talking even if Amaya wasn’t listening. Her cousin was a yapper.
“Girl, you need me, or else your life would be boring. Speaking of, are you coming out tonight? You don’t have work for the next couple days.”
“I promised mom I would spend time with her tomorrow,” she said.
“What that got to do with you coming out tonight? Besides, it’s the full moon. You can stay with me after and avoid them wild ass shifters that live around there,” Tracy added.
God, that sounded tempting. Their neighborhood got wild on the full moon.
There were four silver locks on their front door to ward them away from her and her mother, but that didn’t stop them from banging on the door trying to get inside.
An unmated and unchaperoned Chawi was a powerful temptation to most supernaturals.
The witches’ magic tended to combine with whomever they mated, making the match a powerful one.
Their landlord didn’t allow individual wards other than what they put on the house Amaya and her mother were renting, which was understandable, but put them in a precarious position during the full moon.
“The answer is still no,” she told her cousin, leaving the locker room and tracking through the Archive towards the exit. Checking the time, she relaxed, knowing she had a good thirty minutes before the bus that took her home every night arrived.
“Want me to talk to you while you ride the bus? Your stalker is probably waiting patiently for you to get on.”
Amaya snorted. “That man ain’t worried about me.”
At least she hoped not.
Her and her alleged stalker rode the same evening bus, and sometimes Amaya caught the stranger staring at her. Mentioning it to Tracy had garnered the man the title of stalker, and her cousin brought it up every time they talked.
“It’s all that chaos energy, it brings out all the looney birds. Which brings me back to my point. You should come out with me and stay the night on the compound.”
“And leave my mama to the marauding shifters? Girl.”
Tracy cackled. “Not marauding! Spell it.”
Amaya joined her in laughter, her smile dropping when she stepped outside and spotted her uncle pacing the stairs that led to the Archive where she worked.
“Trace, let me call you back. Uncle Paul is standing out here looking mad suspicious.”
“Stay on the line, girl. He could be worse than the stalker,” Tracy joked.
“Bye.”
She disconnected the call and eyed her uncle before stepping closer.
He was her mother’s youngest sibling and the only one who was consistently in their lives.
As the baby of the family, he was spoiled, and in his fifties, that hadn’t changed.
Her Uncle Paul had a desire for riches but lacked the funds and common sense to get there.
Knock-off labels, fake accessories, and strong, cheap cologne was his daily uniform as he went from one hustle to the next in search of easy money.
Paul looked up and relief flooded his face. “Maya,” he breathed out, closing the distance between them.
“What’s happened?” She eyed him.
He looked around, paranoid, and her gaze swept the entrance to try and discern his worry.
“I need your help.”
Her heart started thumping. “Who’s with mom? Is she alright? Did you leave her alone to come here? How long has she been at home alone?”
Amaya was starting to get pissed the more questions that popped into her head.
Her uncle was the only person she could count on to watch her mother while she worked.
There were some days when Anita didn’t need it, but then there were days when the magic ate away at her mother’s mind and she was delirious and needed minding.
Fear swirled within her anger. Amaya couldn’t afford a nurse to sit with Anita and she’d already cut her working days down to three a week.
Anything less than that and she and her mother would be out on the street.
“Uncle Paul!” she called to gain his attention when he didn’t answer.
He ignored all her questions. “Listen to me, Amaya! I need your help. I need you to shield me.”
“From what?” Her eyebrows bunched, but then her magic gave her the answer to the question a moment later.
All around him, the residue of chaos magic swirled, out of place because her mother’s brother didn’t have access to it like Amaya and Anita.
The jagged edge of its power was familiar to her and there was only one source that left behind that type of magical signature.
She grabbed her uncle’s arm and led him away from the entrance to the Archive.
“Where did you get a piece of the Akachi?” she hissed, careful to keep her voice down.
He snatched his arm away. “Come with me and I’ll explain.”
Reluctantly, she walked with him to the beat-up car he’d had for as long as she could remember. Carefully sliding into the passenger seat, Amaya sighed at all the old candy and food wrappers strewn everywhere. She buckled in and he sped off.
He didn’t speak until they were well away from the Archive.
“I got the piece from the Bayi.”
“Oh, fuck no,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “Stop the car.”
She reached for the door, ready to hop out the moving vehicle. They hadn’t quite reached the highway that would take them to her neighborhood. She could probably survive if she jumped at this speed.
“Would you just calm down?” he snapped.
She growled, balling her hands into fists in her lap. “What do you mean, you stole an Akachi piece from the Bayi? What Bayi?”
She wracked her mind. The Akachi pieces were heavily monitored when they were found. The power in the stones was unpredictable and dangerous and most times when a piece was found, it was voluntarily turned into the Archive. So how would her uncle even come across a piece to steal?
“I was doing work at Levi’s compound.”
“King Levi? You done lost your damn mind!”
She did open the door this time and her uncle swerved to brake on the side of the road. She was out before it stopped moving.
“Amaya!” he yelled, jumping out his seat and standing at the door. “I just need you to shield me for a couple of hours and I’ll make enough money to move you and my sister out of that dumpy—”
She cut him off, not bothering to slow her steps. “Fuck you — respectfully. You don’t just steal from the King of the Bayi. He’s going to send his enforcers to kill you and I would like to be on the other side of the city from you when that happens.”
Her Uncle Paul was her mother’s youngest brother and Amaya had lost track of the numerous schemes he cooked up to earn “easy” money. Every chance he had to hit a lick, he took, and as usual, the family was left to pick up the pieces.
Not no more. She was excluding herself from this foolishness. She valued her life way too much for that.
“Amaya, please! I left the piece at your house.”
She stopped walking and her heartbeat stopped with her feet. She whipped around. “Surely you… Tell me you’re lying.”
“I’m sorry. It was the only thing I could think to do. Your mother’s power…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Amaya’s vision dimmed along the edges, her breathing choppy as anger filled her. Her magic flared out and the metal street signs near them bent towards her, dust swirling and kicking up at her feet.
“You know the consequences of your sister using her magic and you still… I will never forgive you for this.”
Paul blanched, his caramel skin going ashen. “I’m sorry, and I understand, but I’m doing this for Anita.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Amaya chanted on her way back to her uncle’s car, tucking in her magic before any real damage occurred.
She slammed the door as she got inside. They took off, the silence thick in his junky car.
Her leg was shaking as she sat forward, willing his car to go faster.
If the Bayi beat them home before she could fully shield her house…
A shiver went down her spine and tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want to lose her mother.
For a moment, she breathed easier when she got to their house.
Dusk had fallen and night was beginning to cool down the air.
The Bayi could move around during the day, but they mostly kept their hours to full night.
If she could just… She shook her head and pulled out her house keys with shaking hands.
The first tear crested her eye when she found the door unlocked.
In her heart, she already knew what that meant.
The door was pulled open and she encountered a balaclava-clad giant.
He was way taller than her, his presence looming over her.
The vampire grabbed her arm and snatched her inside while his counterpart did the same as her uncle tried to run.
The front door fed right into the living room, so there was no time to prepare herself.
Two steps in and she came face to face with the King of the Bayi.
Levi Cauly.
The tall, brown-skinned vampire wore all black.
A simple t-shirt tucked into cargo pants and combat boots, yet even that didn’t diminish the power of his demeanor.
The gold chain that lay against his shirt sparkled in the darkened room, matching the diamond studs at his ears.
His narrow face had high cheekbones, a stately nose, and full pink lips.
The beard framing his elegant and angular visage was cut low.
By the time she made it up to his dark, menacing eyes, Amaya understood that there was no getting out of this situation.
She could only hope that this night would not be her last. The smile he gave her was sinister, the gold of his bottom grill glinting in the dim light.
It was the last thing she saw before a bag was tossed over her head.