Pow! I stumbled forward, grabbing hold of the worktop as Bob and Rose spilled out of me. They were radiant in the dark, their ears pricked.
“What the fuck?” I blurted.
“Akira?” Ray questioned.
My babies shot off, rushing straight out of the penthouse into the night. I gasped and coughed as they pulled on me. It was like before when they’d gone to Zach, but different, like they were calling me, not hunting down the guy I had the weird connection to.
Zach had felt them, and now they were…
Rushing and rushing, through the sky, the smells of the city, of rotting waste and death and burning and…
Bow. Zach was over in a wasteland in Bow in some rotten glass building right in the slums, stinking of silver and blood and something else. Mama Rita? No…yes.
Mama Rita.
He’d killed her. She was all over him—that’s what my babies were picking up, tickling my senses.
I had to go right now and figure out a way to sneak out of here.
The upstairs bathroom!
I blew the candle out and went upstairs, passing another male wolf who gave me a nod and entered the chrome and white room that was practically on the sterile side, like no one had ever used it.
Locking the bathroom door, I turned the shower on and crept to the window. Being as quiet as possible was how to get this done with all this super hearing in one place.
I unlocked the bathroom window and slowly pushed it open. The air that came in was cool, and it felt like a wind was starting to pick up. Could be a storm was coming.
Okay. No falling. I stepped onto the window ledge and leaned out. Thank the tenshi G lived in the penthouse. I twisted, reached up, and grabbed the side of the roof. With one smooth movement, I pulled myself up, closing the window with my foot as I went.
There.
“What you doing up here?”
Ah, shite! It was a wolf called Neil. He was new, quite friendly, tall and slim and sunburned from the holiday he’d been on last week.
No time to talk. I rushed him and knocked him out with a crack to the head.
Sorry! I told him on the inside, catching him before he hit the dirt.
I lowered him gently down. He wouldn’t be out long, but I’d have enough time to get over to Bow before he could sound the alarm. It wasn’t far from here.
Whoa. This was going smoothly. Not wanting to shit on it, I headed for the fire escape and was off into the perma-night.
* * *
I’d made it to Bow Church by taking the skytube to Stratford, then changing trains to get to this station without any bother at all. Lucky me. It wasn’t too far from the slum borders.
The fact it was night worked in my favor, even if it was wrong. I headed for the crossing point; the streets empty apart from the odd person who was too engrossed in whatever they were doing.
Good.
Not one to hover, I got to work.
* * *
Man, I wasn’t gonna be doing myself any favors with this. At least it was only one guy with my dagger in his heart.
Wanker had started shit I’d been so careful to avoid. The building I needed was just around the corner outside of this maze of tall houses and flats all beyond repair, and I’d thought I’d made it problem-free. I almost had, but then this piece of shit had to go and be the big man.
I’d passed some people who’d paid no attention to me at all. Most slum residents tried to keep their heads down, but some were the eyes of their gang rulers. This dead guy wasn’t top dog, but an upstart needing to impress. His gray skin was pock-marked, and he was way too thin.
Now, he was dead.
I scooped him up and dumped him between some industrial bins. Shit thing to do, but the shadows would hide him. Unless I was being watched.
Fuck it. I pressed on, turned the corner, and came face to face with the building.
Bow hadn’t always been a slum but had fallen to the hands of Billy Knuckles after the mazoku attack. No one had stepped up to take it back off him. Proper tragic as a lot of people had lost their lives to Billy and his bloody regime.
One day, he’d get his.
I headed over to the broken wall around the tall glass building. The wall was basically rubble and vines, and even bones. Lovely.
In what would’ve once been a carpark, all the asphalt was cracked, and there were two fresh bodies. Warlocks. Looked like they’d had a spat. One of them had a leaking skull, half his brains hanging out.
I didn’t give a shiny shit about either of them.
The main entrance of the building was wide open, no door in sight. I went in and took to the stairs, Bob and Rose going on ahead.
Yep. Zach was up there, stinking of my bestie.
* * *
At the top of the building, the roof was gone, leaving behind dirty and brittle shards of a glass wall. There was a pile of rubble in the middle of the space, piled higher than me, climbing above the broken walls. The moon was so bright, basically on top of the building, casting down its light to show every miserable inch of this place. Up here, the wind was tougher, whistling with menace and whipping up some of the junk into a rustling frenzy.
Brick and glass and twisted metal, newspaper, and general waste formed the cone of trash. It stank of mold and cabbage. At its peak, on his knees and slumped forward, was Zach.
Shit.
I got to it, climbing the pile with my katanas still out. Slipping made me put one away so I could get myself a bit more balanced on this sliding mess.
Halfway up, I froze. A few feet away was the beginning of the elven circle, drawn in faint silver and not blood. It encircled the top half of the rubbish pile. But just before that, inches from my trainers was a black line, curved and also a circle, with slashes cutting through different points of the circle line.
A mazoku trap. Only a skilled bastard could draw one of them and have it work well. There weren’t any mazoku around yet, but it looked pretty nifty to me. SCU agent? Whoever had drawn this had some big plans, and the only person here was Zach. With him was the smell of the trash and of Mama Rita.
He wasn’t moving. I sent Bob and Rose to him for a better inspection. He was alive, his heart beating slowly.
The wind continued to howl, churning up some yellowed paper by my feet.
I scooped up the smallest piece of stone I could find and tossed it at him. It hit his left arm, no reaction coming.
Ah, man.
He was so dirty, hair matted and greasy and dusty all at once, blood all over his jeans and tee. Yeah, he still reeked of Mama Rita. Now, I was really taking him in, I noticed the black chain around his neck, a blue cube dangling on the end, looking as if it were mega heavy and causing him to slump forward.
My senses prickled, and I spun. No one there to the eyes, but I knew better than that.
“Do me a favor and don’t bother with this hiding shit.”
Bob and Rose were off, hunting down this sneaky fuck who so badly wanted to get the drop on me.
Movement from above me. I spun, thinking Zach might be stirring, but he hadn’t moved.
More movement. An elf. I drew my other katana, ready to slice heads. Something whizzed through the air. I deflected it. A chain! It crashed to the floor.
Bob and Rose had found the elf on the other side of the trash pile.
“No,” I whispered. “How—”
Something heavy hit me in the back of the head, and the trash pile came up to meet me.
Chapter Twenty
When I came to with my skull rattling, I was on my knees.
“What the fuck?”
Reaching up to rub the back of my head, I froze. There was metal around my neck, cold and heavy. A blue cube was hanging on the end of it, not doing my neck any favors.
“What the fuck?” I repeated, trying to move. My limbs were weighed down by magic, not responding to me.
Shit!
My brain was catching up, waking up, remembering the last thought I’d had
before being smacked in the head.
The elf my babies had found.
Her.
It wasn’t possible!”
“Mama Rita,” I said.
“That’s my name, sweetie.”
I lifted my head, the chain heavy, and there she was, standing next to Zach with her head firmly on her shoulders and not in the pink box that’d sat on my kitchen table. She was dressed in a black robe with a high collar, very much alive, with a black stone embedded in her forehead. Man, that looked nasty—her skin around it swollen and red.
“What the—”
“Don’t be a parrot,” she cut me off.
“How is this possible? You’re dead. I saw your head in a box.”
Having a pounding skull and being confused as hell at the same time seriously sucked hard. I was so fed up with taking knocks to the dome!
Hissing. She smiled, not answering me. I’d moved farther up the pile, into both circles. Oh, shit!
At the edges of the black circle, eight mazoku pressed up against invisible walls. They were trapped, their red eyes one me, trying to escape. They reminded me of frightened cats, aggressive and backed into a corner.
“They really don’t like you,” Mama Rita said.
“What’s going on. You…was it you all along?”
I wanted to puke, to go back to being knocked out. She was my best friend, not a killer. I trusted her more than anyone. This wasn’t happening. Man, I wanted to deny it so bad, even if all the smells and sights and feelings were real. It could be a waking dream like the petal ones. Yeah, could was a great fucking word. But it wasn’t real. This was real. I always knew the petal dreams were dreams, that my body was out for the count. My body was present in this moment, looking up at my bestie, the murderer.
“Yes,” she admitted. “Guilty, guilty, guilty.”
“How could you?”
“Well, you take a silver knife and—”
“Shut up. You know what I mean!” Fuck! This was a rusty nail hammered into my heart. “You’re my friend. What—”
“You want to take the high road with me?”
“But, you’re you.”
“Nice of you to notice.”
She’d always been sarcastic, which cracked me up. This was different now, though. Cruel and alien.
“I have to take care of business,” she said. “Not that I’m explaining everything to you. However, do you fancy a bit more revelation, sweetie?”
“Think you’ve lost the right to call me that.”
She laughed. “Is that so? Doesn’t suit you anyway.”
“What’s this big revelation? Can’t see how you can trump being alive and hanging out with Zach. By the look of it, though, I wouldn’t say you’re besties.” Seriously, what the fuck was this?
“You figured it all out without the facts,” she said.
“Don’t talk in riddles!”
“Zach is your half-brother.”
I swear something heavy dropped inside me, a huge ton of bricks deep in my soul, crashing into a spiritual chamber. “What?”
“He’s your brother, Akira. You see, your father was grieving your mother when I met him.” She put her hands up. “Don’t try asking me anything because I have no clue who she is like no one seems to. So, he was grieving and showing a vulnerable side. Yes, your dad had a weak moment. And I was there to help him through it. We had a brief affair, tons of sex, much of it unprotected.”
Hold it together… “But you’re an elf.”
“I was a woman there for him.”
“But—”
“It didn’t matter that I was elven, Akira. I was there in the seedy bar he’d visit while your nannies looked after you.” The wind danced through her raven hair, wafting up the stench of the trash. “He blamed you for her death. He hated you, told me in his drunken moments.”
“My dad doesn’t drink.”
“Are you being serious? Maybe not now, but then. You don’t think he had a past, Akira? Well, he did. With me in dirty hotel rooms, in back alleys, fucking all his pain away. Just like his son, really. That’s what you’ve been doing, isn’t it?” A shadow passed over her face, deadlier than I’d ever seen before. “Do you know what he did?”
“Apart from knocking you up?” I was shaking, ready to cut her head off for real once I had use of my arms back.
“He tried to have me killed.”
“What?
“You heard correct. He wanted me dead when he knew I was pregnant with your brother over there. Came to his senses, he said, couldn’t have me making a claim to his power.”
How was I supposed to answer that shit?
“You have no idea what it’s like to be spurned and then have your unborn child cast aside too. Hitoshi Murakami is an evil man. You’re probably thinking I’m the evil one after killing those wolves and Paul and the SCU agents, and I don’t care. I really don’t. You think I enjoyed being your friend? Listening to you whine on about your daddy issues? Do you?”
I didn’t react, pushing aside the agony of more rusty nails in my heart. She was going for the jugular.
“Pathetic,” she carried on, “a sniveling little brat. Sure, I get you hating your dad. That’s the only thing we have in common. The rest was just a pain I had to live with, to get closer to you, to watch how you tick. When the time was right, I could strike—when you loved me.”
I did love her. I kept quiet.
“But now, I’m free to get this done.”
“Get what done?”
“Bring the end.”
Not fun to hear her say that. “Whatever it is, I’ll stop you.”
“You—”
“Aki!”
Gabriel! I turned my head to see him out the corner of my eye, the fucked-up necklace biting my skin as I did. At least I could move a bit, just not enough to get up and kill her.
“I was wondering when you’d show up,” Mama Rita said.
“Good to see you’re well,” G responded, a growl to his tone.
“Better than ever,” she said.
“Nice trick.”
“Thanks. If you went back to look inside that box, you’d find a lovely rotting cabbage head in there. Nothing more.”
Was that why it stunk of cabbage here? Some residual magic? Coincidence?
I operated on facts. I liked facts. They had the power to put things into perspective even when shit like this betrayal hurt. Mama Rita wanted to bring something bad. Didn’t matter that she hadn’t explained her plan. Nope. She had to be stopped. I had two swords on my back that could stop her.
Now, to get this necklace off!
“If you come any closer, Gabriel, I’ll pull his tongue out of his head.”
My babies stirred at the reaction he was having, at the deep growl that drowned out the sounds of the wind. He could be quicker than her any other time, but she had two ritual circles drawn and some mazoku trapped in here with me and Zach. They’d avoid me but defo go for G.
Which came to the next ‘what the fuck’ moment. “They’re not attacking you or Zach,” I said to her.
“No. They’re not.” The black stone in her head glinted as she spoke. She’d done something to it to make that possible.
“Are you working together?” Gabriel demanded.
“Just stay there and be quiet.”
Zach was my brother, Mama Rita, his mum. I was doing so well not to fall apart. All it would do was make her smirk at me for a job well done, on her part, for shocking the shite out of me.
“I’m disappointed,” she said. “I was expecting more gasping. But then that’s you, isn’t it? No wonder you can only get men as meat, not as love. Too cold, too empty.” She tapped the space over her heart. “No one will ever get in there. You’ll always be alone and pathetic, sucking off confused men down back alleys. At least Paul’s out of your hair now. You’re welcome.”
Nope. Wasn’t rising, not giving her any verbal smackdown.
“Don’t come up here, G,” I said. “Yo
u can see, right?”
“Yes.”
“He’s right, Gabriel,” she said. “You’ll be torn apart.”
Another growl.
“Your phone won’t work,” she said.
“Fuck off,” Gabriel replied.
“See? No signal. You could always try running off to get help.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“Of course, not.” Mama Rita laughed. “Time to begin.”
She clapped her hands together, and Zach’s blue cube flashed a brighter blue. His body jolted. Within seconds, he was on his feet, moving like a puppet on strings, his eyes starting to open.
“Now you,” she said to me, clapping her hands.
Elven magic washed over me as my cube flashed too. My spine and legs and every other part of me straightened, not in my control. I was on my feet, unable to move. A puppet, cold strings painfully tight inside and out.
Bitch.
G growled again. “If you hurt him, I’ll—”
“Oh, be quiet. All you can do is make threats. Down, doggy. Down.”
More growling.
Sucked to be helpless. Fine. She was right. But there was always a way out. Then, I’d wipe that smile off her face.
Zach was alert now, eyes wide, on me. He couldn’t move, though, and was just as clueless as I was.
Mama Rita was watching me too, like a bird of prey staring at a mouse who was truly screwed. She spread her arms, winked at me, then brought them together with an almighty clap.
Zach surged forward, arms flailing, then was plonked right in front of her. She took a step forward, pressing herself up against his back, her arms wrapping around him.
“My son,” she said, and his eyes bulged at her touch. He wouldn’t be able to hear her. “We have always been destined for great things.” She stroked his hair, kissed his cheek. “You’ll never know how much I love you, how much it pained me to play all those tricks on you and those people who raised you. It should have been me.” Tears started to roll down her cheeks. Why the hell did it make me want to comfort her? Damn lingering emotions for a bestie! “We could have had a wonderful life together if it weren’t for that man. I hate him and will hate him when he’s dead. But, at least he’ll be dead, along with the rest of them. They’re the scourge of the earth, tyrants and devils in pretty clothes. They’ll be gone soon, Son. Mark my words, they will be gone. All of their power will crumble because of us. We will avenge the theft of our time together. We’ll finally be mother and son, greater than any wolf.” Her head shot up. The smile was long gone, her face full of rage. “One day, you’ll thank me for this.”
Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4) Page 19