A Sea of Blood and Magic

Chapter Seventeen

Once Patil's Eleos had driven about a block in front of us, we asked the taxiwallah to follow without catching up. He demanded the fare we owed before agreeing to it, so that cost us another couple of blocks' lead. It turned out fine, though, because the instant snarl of Mumbai traffic meant we could see Patil's car ahead of us, stopped dead just like we were.

We inched forward until we crossed into Navi Mumbai. This was mostly high-rise apartments, from what I could tell, many of them sleek and modern designs that could have looked at home on the cover of an architectural digest.

And then we kept going. The taxiwallah stopped and made us pay more once we got to the edge of town. Nik had to argue with him, the only words of which I understood were, "Oh-ho, boss!" which she repeated half a dozen times. I started wondering how long my thrall effect would hold if I ordered him to take us. We didn't have to find out. He finally agreed to continue once again, though he looked extremely nervous. At last Patil's sedan turned onto a paved road off of the highway, which led to a dirt lane. We told the taxiwallah to stop and walked from there, following the tire tracks. No other cars drove past while we tramped through the intense green grass.

"I should've brought bug spray," I complained, swatting away flies and mosquitoes. Even though I wore a salwar kameez, they swarmed to every exposed inch of my body. At least now they didn't bite, thanks to the gift of Nik's blood, but their tiny feet felt gross crawling on my skin.

"You should always bring bug spray," Nik agreed, mimicking my actions. "Too bad I forgot too. Where do you think we're going? I'm betting on mistress. We're going to get a good look at Patil's sex den and this whole trip is going to end up being a really expensive wild goose chase."

I wobbled my head back and forth, indecisive. "I wouldn't be surprised... except it seems like a really inconvenient place to keep her. Why not in Navi Mumbai instead, where she can live in one of those high-rises and... I don't know. What do mistresses do? Shop and gossip?"

"I think that's just in movies. Probably most of them have jobs that aren't sex." She wiped her face off with her sleeve. I stopped, throwing up a hand. "What?"

"I hear them talking." Concentrating, I added, "I think we don't need to get much nearer for me to listen in on the conversation."

"Good, because I don't want to get any closer to his guns than I need to."

We crept through the trees until we could spot a two-story farmhouse, mostly white stucco except its red tin roof and black chimneys. Patil's Eleos had been parked outside, and his guards stood on either side of the front door, firearms in hand, looking bored despite the badass sunglasses.

"Can you hear?" Nik mouthed at me.

Nodding, I crouched down on the ground behind a tree trunk, motioning to her to do the same.

"Tell me what they say," she requested, so as I listened, I repeated what I heard. Fortunately for both of us, they spoke in English.

The first person began. To my surprise, it wasn't Patil, it was the Englishman. "As you said, it was very easy. I'm positive they got the message."

"Excellent. If this convinces Manu to leave his damned island, that'll be the best outcome." The woman spoke in a pained voice, like an invalid.

"Shit," Nik exclaimed in an undertone. I made a shushing gesture.

"Where are the members of your congregation?" the Englishman asked.

"Where they should be, at the temple. Either working or offering sacrifices to my glorious father."

The last phrase finally made the vague sense of familiarity click into recognition. My eyes wide with astonishment, I whispered to Nik, "That white guy's talking to Cyneburg."