Kael Jai: Outcast

Kael Jai: Outcast

By E.J. Deen

KaelJai.com

Copyright Cassandra Blizzard-LeBedz

All rights reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including any information and storage retrieval system, is forbidden without the prior written consent of the publisher and author. For information about "fair use," contact the author.

This is a work of fiction. All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

Published in the United States of America.

Chapter One

The people on the streets of New York City were bundled up against a frigid winter.  Small drifts of snow lay scattered on store canopies and parked cars, and puffs of mist hung in the air from street grates, building vents, and vendor carts as warm air met bone-chilling temperatures.  But the chill in the air didn’t bother him.  His internal temperature remained constant in most weather conditions.  His luminous green gaze scanned the crowd of people as he walked along the busy sidewalk, his black leather coat open, revealing the white t-shirt beneath.  Snug blue jeans and a simple pair of black leather boots completed his wardrobe.  He wasn’t even wearing a warm winter hat, unlike the people flowing past him on the city sidewalk.  He wasn’t focused on them at the moment.  Anxiety churned in his stomach, a dread that had plagued him since he’d been dumped on this planet.  It was worse this morning.  The sense that something was wrong made him jumpy and hyper-vigilant.  He was supposed to be safe in New York, but he knew he wasn’t.  He would never really be safe, and he would never be able to shake the anxiety and the sense of dread that plagued him.  Not until he died or he killed Jindom.  That was his ugly reality.  The truth he carried with him while he pretended to have another life far away from his home.  His real home.

He could handle having been cast out of his home, but he couldn’t handle the fear of what had happened to his province since, or the thought of what would happen to these people of earth when Jindom finally came to kill him.  He’d been thrown to earth through a portal, abandoned to fend for himself, alone and alienated from his people.  Alienated.  Alien.  That’s what he was considered in this world.  An alien.  An unknown.  It was hard to think of himself as alien, or even different.  But to these people on this planet, he was an anomaly, something to be feared, perhaps even dissected.  The thought made him grimace.

It had been nearly a full year.  He’d managed to survive, keeping to himself mostly, and interacting with humans only when it was necessary.  Money hadn’t been a problem.  Their technology was still limited and full of weaknesses.  Hacking had become a must for him in this new society, and he’d siphoned enough money from a few billionaire bank accounts to keep himself comfortable and out of reach. 

He looked human, for the most part, although there were some noticeable differences.  His body metabolized food differently.  He could conserve energy for long periods of time, build it, store it, and manipulate it.  He could literally draw energy from nearly any source, including the atmosphere around him.  His body was designed to sustain itself on multiple levels, through food, water, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and from sapping energy from everything that gave off energy.