“What’s that?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For trying to kill you.”
Oh, shit. “G—”
“No, Aki. Please. I’m sorry. It’s been eating me up. That’s part of the reason why all that stuff about my childhood came out. The way I’d lost control like that.”
“But that wasn’t your fault. It’s the moon curse.”
“Maybe so, but I could have killed you, and it took me back to that savage place again where I had no control anymore.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “I got up after being knocked down by that silver flash Violet hit me with. The SCU was closing in. I remember their sirens like a million screaming rockets in my head, but my whole body was full of bloodlust more than anything else. I’d gone down to my base wolf instinct to hunt and kill. Baser than a wolf. It wasn’t a need to survive, it was purely to destroy. And only for one prey. You. So I ran, picking up your scent, wanting your blood. The rage inside me, Aki… It was intense. So intense. I had no control, all I could see was you, all of me filled with you.”
“G…”
“I got so close, killed Violet’s driver, almost had you.” He slumped ever more, palms resting on his thighs. “Xavier stopped me, thank the tenshi, then the SCU caught me. If I’d got my hands on you—"
“Stop it, G. Now. I don’t wanna hear it. That ain’t right. No. None of it is on you. None of it. I’m alive, I’m okay. Safe. You’re strong, G, stronger than anyone I know—inside and out.”
Alright for me to preach, yeah, but I couldn’t stand it. It wasn’t his fucking fault.
A weak smile, but his shoulders were still hunched, his eyelids heavy. That was guilt. I’d seen it in my own face when I looked in the mirror during defeated moments.
It shook me up, the thought of him hunting me, getting a boner for my blood in a killing way. But it hadn’t been him. It was that fucking red moon causing all the shit, ramping up the chaos.
Not him.
Never him.
I got up, stretching. “I’m feeling the urge to say a prayer or two.”
We each had a bedside drawer, both containing a tenshi candle and prayer book. I took the ones in mine out.
“Fancy joining me?” I added.
“Sure.”
So, we prayed, me asking the tenshi to look after my buddy. I wanted to wrap my arms around him, hold him tight. But I resisted, praying until I couldn’t hold the tide of pure knackeredness back anymore.
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning, as I finished my Hottokeki (Hot Cakes) with syrup and butter, I almost gagged on the last bite of my grub at the news report.
I had the TV on silent, just ‘cos, while G was having a coffee out on the balcony, studying the maps. Tenshi knew how long he’d been awake.
I gulped down my coffee, clearing my throat of food. “G!” I yelled, then gulped air, coughing.
The man moved like lightning, practically diving into the room. “What’s wrong?”
I pointed at the TV, still needed to cough it out.
With perfect timing, his phone went off. That would be Dad.
Breaking news. Another three pixie hollows had been burned down, along with another attempt on Hyde Park, and a move had been made on Hitoshi Hospital. Fifty people were dead, but my dad and Sarah had already left the hospital in secret before the attack.
“Yes,” G said into his phone. “I understand. Thank you, sir. I will. Goodbye.”
I waited.
“It seems Mama Rita has teamed up with the banshees and Violet Cross.”
“No way! Oh, shit! They’ve joined forces?”
“It looks that way, Aki.”
“Just what we need.”
“The SCU also stopped two witches at The Spire fences, as well as a warlock and an elf.”
Take an iron pole and smash my face in. “This is bad.”
“It’s starting. Along with those at The Spire, nine others have been arrested. Their executions are scheduled for tonight.”
“But The Chief. What about the laws? He can’t kill the elf.”
“High Alpha doesn’t care. He’ll be addressing the world soon.”
“Shit will flare up here when that happens.”
“Everywhere.”
“Then we need to get moving.”
Chaos was really digging its grubby fingers in.
* * *
I called ahead to Uncle Ryoka as G drove us, all our stuff loaded up. Mount Tate, here we come. No enthusiasm there. Mama Rita, Violet, the elf, and those fucking banshees were a real balloon popper.
No answer from my uncle when I called ahead.
“That’s weird.” I tried again. “Nope. Must be still in bed. Not like he leaves the house, eh? Shit. Wait. Did he leave the house to get whatever it is that’ll help my swords? Or did peeps come to him? No, that would mean they’d know where he lives. But then how does it all work? How can he hide away but also—"
Overthinking. Gah!
He was oversleeping. That was it. We’d all been there before.
Twanging in my belly was ruining my reassuring vibe. Mama Rita again. News had me on edge. What else was she gonna burn down?
G pulled up outside the convenience store over the road from my uncle’s block, the rain nothing but a trickle, but still determined to make the streets wet.
I got out, my new black winter coat and boots on. It was bloody chilly out. I’d add the other layers for warmth when we hit the mountain.
That sensation in my belly wouldn’t let up. I hurried up the stairs, taking two at a time, and slammed a finger on the buzzer.
No answer.
G was sniffing the air.
“You don’t smell her?”
He knew what I meant. “No. She’s not here. Nothing on the wind but the smells of the city.”
“Thank the tenshi.” I pressed the buzzer again. “Just had a horrible thought. Wouldn’t put it past her knowing about Ryoka.”
“Let’s hope she doesn’t.”
I pushed the buzzer again. When he still didn’t answer, I fished the card that opened everything from my pocket.
G was trying the phone again. “Something’s definitely wrong.”
This went beyond courtesy. Screw it. My uncle had said four, and we’d been standing here for five minutes ringing the damn buzzer.
I placed the card on the entrance pad. The gate clicked open. I was at the flat door like a shot.
“Uncle?” I knocked. “You up? It’s gone four.”
No reply. Nothing.
“No door will be in the way, huh?” I tried it, putting the card on the keyhole.
Click.
“He wasn’t bullshitting.”
“Wait,” G said. “Me first.”
“But—”
“Stand back, Aki.”
“G—”
He wasn’t taking any shit. G took the lead, straight into the flat, battle-ready. I followed, hand on the hilt of a katana.
“Meow.”
Shelly. Sitting on Ryoka’s empty chair, looking up at G. The TV was on, the same news channel I’d been watching at the hotel.
No Uncle Ryoka.
“Uncle?”
I left the living room, checked the cramped bathroom, kitchen with dishes piled up in the sink, and the bedroom with crumpled sheets and no man in them.
“Where is he?” It wasn’t a mobile number he’d given me. The phone beside his bed, resting in its cradle, was the only phone I’d seen in the house. And it had no answer phone set.
I returned to the living room.
“Can you smell anything, G?”
“No. Only him and Shelly. Nothing else.”
I called up my babies. They went to G, as they did, curling around him. Between him, Shelly, Bob, and Rose, there was a full-on foursome going on.
They sensed my unease, though, my building anger. Not at them, but at the crappy situation. Where in Tokyo was Ryoka Takeda?
&
nbsp; “Find him.” Bob and Rose’s amber eyes blazed up at me. I got hit with a more intense version of the flat’s aromas—fully loaded cat in one layer, my uncle another, fried food beyond it.
“Go,” I told them. “He’s out there.”
He had to be.
G made another call. “Hello, High Alpha,” he said in Japanese. “We have a situation here. Ryoka is missing. No. Nothing.” He looked around, checking the sides of the chair. “No note. Okay. Thank you, sir. I will.” He hung up.
I was cracking my knuckles. If that bitch had arrived in the city, I’d pull her brains out if she’d laid a finger on my uncle. That twang, twang, twang in my belly was making me sick. Why couldn’t it go away? He had to be okay because, well, the tenshi were gonna throw me a bone. Yeah. I’d only just met the geezer. They couldn’t take him away now. That wouldn’t be fair. Why give him to me, offer all the promises of having a family member who might actually give a shit about me, only to rip it all away? That’d be a real dick move.
Shouldn’t really be calling the tenshi dicks, or the universe and fate and whatever.
Shit.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He’s contacting the relevant people, and they’ll start a search immediately.”
“What about Mama Rita?”
He pocketed his phone. “There’s been no sign of her anywhere.”
“Shit, G! What if she’s here? What if she actually knows about this mountain stuff?”
“Come on. We can’t stay here.”
“What about Shelly?”
“Meow,” the cat offered.
“We can’t leave her here.”
“What if he comes back?” G said. “And his cat is missing. We have to go, Aki.”
“What if he doesn’t?” He has to. “Wow. So you don’t actually love your girlfriend? Harsh.”
He frowned at me.
“Can we please drop her off at the hotel? They’ll look after her, and I’ll leave Ryoka a note.
“Fine.” He scooped the cat up. “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Er, duh. I wasn’t being serious.”
“I’ll see you at the car.”
“Cool.”
I wrote Ryoka a note with some paper and a pen I found in the bedroom. I left it on the chair, making sure the TV was off, and the flat was locked tight when I left.
All the signs pointed to bad things. I sent up a prayer, helpless, hoping my babies would find him, or my dad’s people would.
The uncle I’d only just discovered had to be okay.
He just had to be.
Chapter Twenty
“I’m glad you had the sense to think of the cat,” G said as we left the city. “I feel bad now.”
“Aw, what a softie.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Those were the last words we said to one another the whole seven hours. Well, maybe a few non-things as we stopped to pee and grab a hot drink. I was too tense to chat, and I knew he was too. The phone didn’t ring, and my babies hadn’t found Ryoka. They’d picked up his scent two streets away from his flat, but it’d faded within a few yards.
Shit.
Bob and Rose were back with me now, defeated.
The journey was made up of listening to the radio, the scenery, and waiting for the phone to ring with an update—which never happened.
There’d been one call, though. Apparently, construction of iron shelters for werewolves was already underway. My dad moved fast. Thank the tenshi. ‘Cos the petal woman had said the fourth moon would be silver.
Awesome move on Dad’s part.
We passed through Snow Corridor, towering walls of ice on either side, which was the last part of the road heading up to our destination. It was dead up here, just us and the moonlight. No one came to these parts anymore.
The temperature had dropped about two hours back, but the rain which had pounded us for about five hours had finally stopped.
“Just ahead,” G said.
We broke out of Snow Corridor, hitting an open space with the abandoned Murodo Station sitting like a dead, dark reminder of the past when the railways would run this way.
“Wow,” I whispered.
The mountain in the distance was breathtaking. Even in the dark, I could see the amazing scenery around me—the snow, the peaks, the power that was here. Forgoing my Henry VIII book, I’d been reading about Mount Tate. Its name meant that it was a mountain of three peaks—Onanjiyama, Oyama, and Fuji-no-Oritateyama. So proper massive. The don of the Hida Mountain Range I’d say.
We pulled into the car park near the entrance to the snowfields we’d need to cross, blocked by a pale, pearlescent barrier that stretched for as far as the eye could see.
Fun fact! In the almost-apocalypse, some baku had been born. Not the old school kind you saw illustrations of, like in the book I’d been reading—tiger paws, and part-rhino and painted all colorfully with swirls and shit. No. These were a new breed, and they looked just like foxes, but with two curly white horns sticking out of their heads, plus the red eyes of their mazoku creators. The picture in the book had been, well, sucky. As in, I didn’t wanna meet a baku. The extinct, classical baku ate your dreams and nightmares, then you.
Not these new baku. Okay, they still ate you, but through their horns. Get touched even a little by their horns, and you’d be drunk down as if the foxy fuck had two straws. Slow, painful, nasty death awaited.
The mazoku had made a lot of bad, creepy things in the world, and the baku hung around the grounds of Mount Tate—once a popular hiking spot.
Poor holy mountain had been tainted by those shadowy wankers and their furry offspring.
Aim of the game: Be careful. Real careful.
I got out of the car, drinking in the fresh mountain air. The peaks were all bloody from the moonlight.
“Look at those stars,” I said.
“Beautiful.”
The barrier was like the barriers in London—specifically the one that sealed off Canary Wharf. Tricky to get through, thankfully, but not a hundred percent impenetrable. More like ninety-nine percent. If you had the right gear, you could get through.
Thanks, Uncle.
Please be okay…
I strapped my backpack down around me. It was positioned in a way to allow for easy access to my katanas that were fixed over my coat. I tried it a few times to be sure. Quick draw of two. Then one, then two again. Yep. All good.
The snowfields were empty of life at the moment, from what I could make out. Nothing stirred or came at the barrier to try and escape.
That meant nothing.
“Ready, Aki?” G asked, fully kitted out. He had the tent strapped to him along with his backpack. If that’d been me with the luggage on my back, I’d have toppled over.
I rolled my shoulders. “I’m ready.” Stepping forward, I waved the keycard over the entrance point on the barrier. All barriers I’d encountered had these points. No idea why. Who’d wanna use the door?
Oh yeah! Me!
It beeped and slid open. We quickly zipped inside, the entrance sliding shut and locking behind us.
A pathway dusted with snow. Patchy red-tainted snowfields stretched out around us, rising and falling all the way to the mountain. A fog was rising across the path that went up. It was like we’d activated it.
“A junction up ahead,” G said. “Get up there, and we’ll be at Mikuri Pond. We go right from there.”
I nodded. It was so fucking quiet.
“If you see a baku, remember to avoid the horns.”
“And avoid stabbing one,” I added. This sucked not having the means to clean my swords, especially seeing as I was gonna have to use them regardless of them making me crazy if they swallowed something. I didn’t actually know yet if they would. It was only the same buzzing sensation as my lost ones I was going by.
Ah, nuts.
I had the small blades strapped at my ankles to use, and my fists and feet.
Not t
he same.
G nodded. “Only if you can avoid it. Don’t put yourself in any unnecessary danger.”
“Hello? Have we met?”
“Good point.”
The barrier door beeped. We spun at the same time, my swords out on instinct.
Yeah, so much for avoiding.
A guy in similar black hiking gear to us walked up the path. His face was hidden by his hood, condensation wafting out from the dark void that smothered his face.
“Colin?” G said.
My blood went colder than the snow. “You what?”
The hood came down, and there he was. Colin.
“The fuck are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Your father sent me. We’ve been watching you.”
“High Alpha didn’t tell me about this,” G said.
“Why would he?” Colin came closer. “The whole point was you wouldn’t see us.”
“Then why can I see you now?” I added tightly.
Was this some sick joke?
G growled. “Get the fuck out of here.”
“I’ve got my orders, Gabriel. I’m one of the best to protect the best.”
Wonder how quickly I could cut his head off. Would he be quick enough to dodge a slice? Yeah. Defo. “We haven’t got time for this.”
Dead stars.
Dead fucking stars could swivel. I wasn’t letting this prick get to me. If my dad did know about me and Colin, then he was an even bigger wanker than he already was. Tough bastard or not, Colin shouldn’t be here. He was scum, and I’d been crying over him once again, in a shower, broken.
The door beeped again.
“Kris?” G said.
Another of the uber ten wolves. Three now in one place—G, Colin, and Kris.
“Who the hell is watching my dad?”
“There are seven more,” Colin said. “Akira.”
“Don’t talk to him,” G warned. “If you’re here, fine. But you don’t say a fucking word to him. Do you understand?”
A scowl. “Whatever you say, Beta.”
Kris was a tall, lean guy with skin paler than a night vamp. He was mute and deadly—which was why he’d made it to the uber crew.
I put my katanas away. For now.
Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4) Page 39