Retaliation

by Charles Tillman

  He was so lost in that gentle touch that he didn’t register when Kenjii moved closer. He stiffened momentarily as Kenjii’s soft lips gently brushed his. When he didn’t resist or move away, the lips became more insistent. Hungry, even.

  Akio’s arms came up of their own volition and embraced Kenjii. He leaned into him, pulling his warm body close as he responded with a passion he had not felt in several lifetimes. His blood ran hot as he allowed himself to succumb to the salvation of connecting with another being.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Liaoning Province, China

  Isamu laughed. “Do you see how your little catamite begs? Does it tug at your heart?”

  The pain was back, but somehow, Miko knew this time that he was dreaming. It was as if he were an observer of the events playing out. He still felt it and heard screams he recognized as his own, but his mind was clear.

  Ogawa held a glowing piece of metal in the coals of a fire. He pulled the red-hot metal out and smiled as he held it to his face.

  “We have saved the best for last,” Isamu taunted. “We have enjoyed seeing your pain as you watched his pretty face while his body was slashed and burned repeatedly. Heinz has told us how to keep him alive without turning him, and the blood he took from you made him last beyond what I thought possible. I should thank you for this, this knowledge will make our future times playing with humans much more fun. Now, watch that face you debased yourself over as it is destroyed. Enjoy the pitiful sounds he makes as he dies.”

  Miko watched as Ogawa held the metal closer to his face. He was stretched tightly on a metal bed frame that was leaning against the wall. The torturer’s sadistic grin loomed large as he moved the heated metal close enough for him to feel the heat.

  Miko woke with a start, his face burning from the heat. He jumped to his feet, his hand going to his face by instinct, his mind expecting to feel burned and ravaged flesh. The pain disappeared at his touch, and he came fully awake. The memory of what he had seen in the dream was seared into his mind.

  Why? Why did they do that to me? Who did they force to watch?

  Miko froze as memories came crashing into his mind of being caught in the dark that night by a gang who preyed on men like him, abusing them and killing them for sport. Red eyes. An oni. No, not an oni, the banpaia who had taken their blood and saved him. The apartment over the small store, being there with him. Spending hours just sitting and holding one another, no words spoken but each being content with the other’s presence. So many nights of warmth and comfort in each other’s arms.

  Miko almost sobbed at his loss. The name was just on the tip of his tongue.

  “Who are you?” he whispered.

  He collapsed to his knees in shock, his body jerking as if it was taking blows as his memories returned, each one stronger than the last.

  Kamiko Kana coming to his apartment in the night. Her telling him not to move or speak. Being able to see and hear everything but helpless to do anything when his lover arrived. How she’d called him to her and commanded he kneel before her. His movements wooden like those of a puppet on a string as he obeyed.

  Isamu and Ogawa had been there. He recalled how Kamiko told the kneeling man that his punishment was to watch his lover die at the hands of those two.

  The memories were broken, like a shattered mirror. Scenes flashed one after the other in rapid succession.

  Being locked in a dark room with rats and insects tormenting him while he heard Isamu’s laughter as he heaped abuse on someone through the door. Being dragged from the cell and tied to a metal frame by Ogawa. The laughter of them both as he screamed his throat raw from the pain of his body being broken and burned. Having bitter and metallic blood, just a few drops, dripped into his mouth and then the torture starting all over again.

  All the while, the man watched, unmoving, his face like stone, not speaking or showing any emotion. Kamiko looked into his eyes several times during the ordeal, telling him to always remember every detail and know it was his fault.

  He remembered Heinz arriving after Kamiko had ordered the man to leave. After Ogawa had burned his face for what seemed like an eternity. How Heinz had slit his own wrist and forced it against his burned and battered lips, dripping the bitter blood into him. How he had ordered him to forget what had happened, to tell him anytime he thought he remembered anything from his life before.

  Heinz had tampered with his memories countless times over the years.

  There were still holes in Miko’s memories, blank spots he could almost see. They were just beyond his grasp, like an image seen from the corner of his eye but gone when he tried to focus.

  Why can’t I remember everything? Who was I before they did this to me? Who was that man? I know him. He was…is someone special.

  He knew the answers he sought were not in China. He needed to go to Japan. If he couldn’t find the answers in Chiba, perhaps he would have better luck in Tokyo. In any case, he knew that even with Kamiko Kana dead at the hands of Michael’s granddaughter, someone should still be there who would have the answers. One way or the other, he had to learn who that mysterious-yet-familiar man in his dream was and if he still lived.

  With a plan firmly in place, Miko set out into the darkness with his path clear. First, he had to feed. Then he would make his way to Shanghai and catch a ship bound for Japan.

  He had followed the river after the fight with the Weres until he tired of the hard terrain and lack of people. He turned north out of the rough and unpopulated terrain and was surprised that he had only made it as far as Jinzhou in the Liaoning Province.

  The journey should have taken him one night to make, but because he’d followed the changing direction of the river, it had taken four.

  After feeding on four victims and leaving the entire family on the floor of their shack, he headed south. His plan was to go southwest through the farmlands, avoiding the time-consuming mountain route to Tianjin. He would then head in a southerly direction parallel to the coast until he arrived in Shanghai.

  He knew he would be able to get passage on one of the steamships that had started a trade route between China and Japan. According to the reports Chang had shown him, it would take around two days if the weather cooperated. Miko felt Shanghai was a better option than Vladivostok since they had used that port several times before. The chances of whoever had destroyed the Acheng site knowing about their connections there were not worth risking.

  Miko ran through the night. An hour before daylight, he was about thirty kilometers from Tianjin, and he stopped at a small cluster of houses adjoining a series of tilled fields. The scents of humans and the water buffalo they used to tend the soil were heavy in the air.

  He slipped through the moonless night, his senses alert for danger until he was next to the largest house.

  Empty; that’s odd. I would have thought the workers would gravitate to the largest. He shrugged and moved on to the next.

  That house yielded the same results. He knew there were humans around. He thought it odd that they were not in the houses. Miko was about to move on to the next village when a noise from a barn caught his attention. He slipped through the village, being sure to stay in the shadows until he was at the rear of a barn.

  There were noises of people and animals coming from the barn. A cow lowed from inside as if it was in pain, and he could hear voices inside.

  “Just a little more,” the strained voice murmured. “You’ve almost got it, girl. Just a bit more.”

  Miko slid the door open just enough to see inside. A man knelt in the straw behind a very pregnant cow that was lying on the floor. A woman held a lead rope attached to a halter on the animal, and two teenagers, a boy and a slightly older girl, stood ready with towels and a bucket.

  “Here it comes.” The man grunted as he delivered the calf. The girl moved in with the towels, and the man took one and wrapped the calf in it. He handed the bundle to her, and she carried it to the side.

  Miko watched them for a
few moments as they tended to the cow. He was weak from pushing his body so hard, but for some reason, he hesitated. Just as he started to push the door open and take the blood his body craved so badly, a memory crashed into his mind.

  It was a warm summer night, and the smell of cut hay surrounded him. He was looking out of an opening at the night sky. His hand held another in a familiar, comforting way. The memory continued, and words came with it.

  “Why do we have to hide all the time? You come to my apartment or arrange to meet in seclusion. Are you ashamed of me?”

  A soft hand cupped his face and stroked a finger along his clean-shaven jaw.

  “No, there is no shame, only great danger. If we are discovered, we will both be killed.”

  “I don’t understand. You are not someone who is easily killed. I saw what you did to the men who attacked me. That was not the actions of someone who needs to fear anything.”

  The man beside him pulled away a bit and looked deep into his eyes. He found himself drifting away from the conversation, lost in those deep pools.

  “It’s true that I am a capable fighter, but the people I speak of are just as capable and more. If we are found out, I would be helpless to resist if my queen ordered it.”

  “Who is this queen? We don’t have real royalty anymore, only the puppet emperor who now answers to bureaucrats.”

  The figure shook his head. “She is not a human queen. She is like me and controls many more. If she ordered it, I would have no ability to resist, even if she ordered me to kill you.”

  He drew in a sharp breath, his eyes going round with shock. “Surely you jest. No one could hold that type of power over you.”

  His lips tightened into a straight line. “She can do that and more. Please, let’s enjoy the time we have and not dwell on things we have no power to change. Be happy that I am here now and will return to you as soon and as often as it is safe.”

  The memory was interrupted by a voice close by. Miko’s eyes shot open and he found the man standing in front of him, a wicked-looking pitchfork held in his hands.

  “What do you want?” he called, his voice trembling as his body shook. “We have nothing of value. Come into the light so I can see you.”

  Miko stared at the man as his family moved farther back into the barn. The hunger rose in him as the man’s heart rate increased and the smell of fear emanated from his body. He took a step forward, his body moving by instinct before his mind even registered it.

  The man stabbed the four sharp metal tines at him. Miko’s hand blurred, catching the makeshift weapon and ripping it from his hands. He caught the man by his shirt and pulled him close. Feeling his fangs lengthen, he drew back to strike like a serpent into the soft flesh that held what he needed just below the surface.

  His eyes wandered to the other three people huddled in the back and he froze. The woman had pushed both children behind her, the girl still holding the newborn calf close. It was the action of a mother protecting her young, not unexpected in this or any age. What caused him to pause was not the terrified look on her face; that was not unexpected either since he had seen it many times.

  What made him pause were the words he heard in the woman’s mind. They came unbidden, and he knew they were not his thoughts.

  Honored ancestors, please do not let this xīxuèguǐ take him. Please let him take me instead. My children cannot survive without him.

  Miko shook his head to clear the strangeness. His eyes focused on the woman again as more words came.

  He stops. Let him look over and see me. She took a step forward, shaking off the hands of her children as they tried to hold her back. “Yes, look here, see me. Don’t take him. Please, take me instead.”

  Miko pushed the man away and stared hard at the woman. She took his actions as agreement and slowly walked toward him. The look on her face told him she was afraid but determined.

  Miko looked at the family and was struck by what he saw: love, compassion, and caring. Things he had not felt in many years, but because of the returning memories, he realized they were something he’d once had.

  He hesitated briefly, then nodded once at the woman and disappeared into the night. Though he needed to feed, he believed the person in his dreams and memories would think less of him if he had taken that family.

  When that thought came to him, he stopped and almost returned to the barn. It was foolish to not take what he needed because someone from his past who might be dead would disapprove. The frightened woman had been a willing sacrifice, knowing her death would not be as dangerous for her children’s survival as her husband’s. He could provide for and protect them better than she could.

  Miko stood in the darkness, torn between what his body needed and what he felt inside was right. It was a dilemma he had never encountered before in all his memory.

  He shook his head, disgusted at his weakness. Then he trudged on, leaving the family in peace.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Sacred Clan Base, Liaoning Province, China

  “Zi,” Pan called from inside the house where the radio was. “The scouts have found the Forsaken’s trail. Where’s Cui?”

  Zi looked up from his meal and pointed at the hill about one hundred meters distant. Cui was walking around the top with the satellite phone pressed to his ear. “Master Peng called again for an update. Since the report of Kang’s team being killed came in, he has demanded hourly updates.”

  It had been several days since scouts had discovered the dead team, but they were still no closer to finding the Forsaken. They had tracked him into the mountains and lost his trail after he went into a river.

  “What have they found? Have they located the Forsaken?” Zi demanded.

  “Not yet, but there have been more bodies found.” Pan waved a hand. “Get Cui! Master Peng will want to hear this, too.”

  Zi ran the short distance, and in seconds, he and Cui were at the house.

  “What is it, Pan?” Cui asked after setting the phone to speaker mode so Kun could listen in.

  “Sir, we just received two reports within minutes. Team Seven found three dead bandits on the road near Linyi. Then one of the teams Grand Master Peng sent out after Team Twenty-Four was found reported another near Funing County. All had bite marks that match the Forsaken we seek.”

  “He’s headed south. Recall all the teams north of Funing County and reposition them south to the coast,” Kun ordered over the phone. “I am sending all the fighters left in the temple to join the ones I sent out earlier this week. He is close to the coast, and I imagine he is trying to get to one of the functioning ports to flee our wrath.”

  Cui motioned to the radio operator who had been listening, and he started transmitting Kun’s orders to the team.

  “It is being done now, Master,” Cui assured him.

  Kun didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, he continued spewing orders. “Cui, your team needs to go south to stop him. You have seven hours before dark, so use that time wisely. Do not fail in your duty to the Clan.”

  “Yes, Grand Master. We will leave immediately.”

  “Good. Our people in the towns have all been warned to look out for the Forsaken. We have a large presence in that area, so he will not be able to pass through undetected like he did before.”

  “Master Cui,” the radio operator called. “The team at Funing just reported that they have found his trail. They are tracking him to the south as the Grand Master said, and the trail is less than four hours old.”

  “Grand Master…” Cui started.

  “I heard him. Get moving now,” Kun demanded. “I will go to the site at Lu’an, where there is a base radio. These damned mountains interfere with the signal so much. I will coordinate the search from there.”

  Before Cui could answer, Kun started shouting orders to people at the temple. He came back on the sat-phone when he was done. “Have your radio operator notify Lu’an that I am coming there and for them to contact the radio-equipped teams in the area t
o coordinate the hunt. We have over one hundred radio operators scattered across the area, so he can’t escape us now.”

  The phone signaled that the connection was terminated as soon as Kun finished speaking. Cui nodded at the door, and Zi and Pan went out at a run to gather their belongings and collect Ren.

  They were all in tiger form and running south five minutes later.

  Nishitama District, Tokyo, Japan

  Li and his team had been running hard for the past two days. After learning the fate of the team sent to Wajima, Grand Master Peng had ordered them to go to Tokyo. They were supposed to try to contact a criminal boss he had dealt with before WWDE. He didn’t know if the man was still alive but thought it was worth trying to locate him.

  The address he had given was a grand house surrounded by a high stone wall. Wu and Jin had reconnoitered the night before and found only two entrances, each obstructed by heavy iron gates and guards carrying military-style rifles. Shao had tried to approach it on foot, but motion-detector-activated lights prevented him from getting close. Within moments of the light activating, there was a group of three heavily armed men at that section of wall and two more looking down with scopes on long rifles from the top.

  Li had decided it would be best to approach the house during the day, so the team had found a place to hole up half a kilometer away. His plan was to approach it alone, leaving the team out of sight but close if he needed them.

  As Li approached, a black SUV pulled up to the gate. After a conversation over the intercom, the gate swung open and admitted the vehicle. The humans appeared to be focused and alert, more so than guards performing a boring routine duty. They were on edge, like they were expecting trouble.

  Li walked up to the box affixed to a pole outside of the gate.

  As he was reaching for the button, a harsh voice came out of the speaker. “We don’t need any of whatever it is you’re selling. Leave.”

  Li looked at the guard inside the gate with his rifle held ready. It wasn’t pointed at him, but it would only take the guard a second to do so. He pressed the button, and the voice came out again. This time it spoke in mangled Cantonese. “We don’t want any of what you’re peddling. Go away before we call the authorities.”