The wind was knocked out of me. Couldn’t move. Oh, shit. Paralyzed? Nope. Toes wiggled. Fingers too. Back just throbbed like hell. I sucked in air, taking a moment to recover myself.
“Aki!” G’s hoarse cry was a boosting sound.
I forced myself up, muscles moaning at me. They wanted to chill out a bit more after I’d made them work overtime. My chest felt bruised too in the aftermath of that invisible stuff walloping me.
“I’m fine!” I called back, voice hurting my head.
Ugh. Headache, chest aching, and backache. Nothing better be broken. Didn’t think anything was.
Was that sobbing I could hear? Mama Rita?
“Sir? Sir?” a wolf hurried over. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll live.” I rubbed my chest.
“Let me help you down.”
“Just give me a minute.”
The whimpering was coming from the naked woman on the ground, curled up into a ball, covered in blood. Looked like she had all her body parts, though.
“Is that her?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. We are awaiting orders on how to proceed.”
I gasped, the intake of breath hurting my ribs. “Zach?”
A few feet away, also curled up, breathing erratic, was my brother, also drenched in blood.
“Zach!” I pushed myself off the bonnet, ignoring the pain, and hurried over to collapse by his side.
He looked up at me, smiled, then passed out. I smoothed the dark hair out of his one eye. He was alive. Fully intact and alive.
“I’ll get you for this, Akira.” Soft, broken, a far cry from the usual arrogant tones.
“Shut up,” I replied. “It’s over. You failed.”
“You broke us. He is mine.”
“We’ve already covered this. He ain’t yours.”
More whimpering. “This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
“Yeah, I’ve been saying the same thing this whole time. Can I get a blanket over here?”
A woman was on it instantly, SCU agent, draping a foil blanket over my brother.
Zach was alive. I’d done it. I’d saved my brother and stopped Mama Rita.
I groaned, clutching my forehead. “Shit.”
“Are you okay, Mr. Murakami?” the agent asked in Japanese.
“Bit dizzy.”
Energy dropping, ribs and back really throbbing, head too. Balls. I slumped forward, collapsing onto my hands beside my unconscious brother.
“Shit.”
“Let me help you,” the SCU agent said. “Come, sir.”
“Commence execution!” a guy ordered.
I turned my head to see three wolves surrounding Mama Rita.
It was time.
The end.
As more SCU inspected Zach, putting him onto a stretcher, I drank it all in. Mama Rita was herself again, minus the elf stuff, staring down the barrel of a gun.
“I have to see her die.”
Should be me killing her. Should be me. Should be me.
Ugh. Dizzy as fuck. Watch her die, then worry about the pain.
A burst of green light and the wolves scattered, tumbling backward.
Green light meant one thing—witch magic.
Trying to get up failed, my legs giving out. I cracked my knees on the asphalt, teeth grinding together at the fresh hurt. Nausea surged, and something cold slithered across my chest.
An effect of that invisible thing that’d struck me?
Whatever. There was a witch here. No guesses who. Worry about bones later.
My katanas were still on the ground. As I stood, I reached out for them. They came, their hilts landing in my palms. I clamped down on them tight.
Violet Cross appeared in the street, hands sparking with green power.
She wasn’t alone.
Lana the banshee was there too, plus the guy banshee who followed her around like a fly drawn to shit. Also, there was Sean, warlock wanker, a purple ball of magic between his palms. The whole crew minus the elf who’d been with them at the pagoda. Awesome. Whoopee.
The wolves were back on it, guns firing. A green and purple shield sprung up, deflecting the bullets. Impressive. That would take some serious magic to whip up, and magic-users burned out pretty fast.
Keep it up, people. Burn that energy. The SCU would bring that wall down, no problem.
“Sir, you must take cover,” the SCU agent insisted.
“But I can—” Another wave of dizziness. She caught me as I tumbled.
“Come with me, sir.”
“I can fight.”
“You’re in no—”
“Mazoku!” someone cried.
The hissing came, swirling snakes of smoke zooming into the street.
“Get in the van!” the SCU woman roared in my ear. “Now!”
I did as I was told, dragged to the nearby blue van and helped inside. It was pretty spacious, smelling of lemon air freshener.
“Aki!” G was strapped to a seat in the corner, fresh blood staining the bandage on his head.
The SCU agent helped me into the seat next to him, strapping me down. “We’re taking you to the safe house.”
Gunfire, white light, the roaring of voices, the crackle of magic.
“Hurry,” a woman said behind her.
Seconds later, Zach was brought into the van on the stretcher, strapped to the floor with some binds I hadn’t noticed a minute ago—a purpose-built space for a stretcher. He was still out of it.
The van was kind of like an ambulance, but with anti-magic equipment instead of med stuff.
Three women agents, including the one to get me to the van, got in and slammed the door behind them. “Hold on!”
With one rev, the vehicle tore off as the sounds of mega violence rang through the air. Banshee screams, guns, explosions, and the roaring of wolves.
“I should be out there…” My voice had gone all weak and pathetic.
“No, Aki.”
Head slumping to the side, it made contact with G’s shoulder. I loved that shoulder. Nice pillow. Wanted pillow.
Sickness, starting in the pit of my belly, a cold pulse in my chest, and I hunched forward, retching. Nothing. Dry. But it repeated over and over again, the aggression that was puking antagonizing my ribs.
“Sir? What’s wrong?” the SCU agent who’d loaded me in here asked. She had a metallic bowl poised for puke-catching.
“Don’t know—”
Vomit came, a steaming acidic red. Blood.
“I need to take a look at you.”
Stinging chest, so cold, so cold. Acid burning my throat, mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. Another round of spewing up the red stuff and I couldn’t move, slumped forward, the seatbelt biting into me, cutting off my circulation.
“What’s wrong with him?” G asked.
“I don’t know, sir.” The woman pushed me up gently to ease the pressure.
“Vision blurring,” I managed. “Can’t…” And more puke.
“We need to run tests.”
The van made a sharp turn. I slumped forward again, but the agent stopped me from getting hurt.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“I am Hari, and this is Ichika and Yua.” They were all pale, all dark-haired, and kind of looked like triplets apart from Hari having darker eyes than the other two. “We’re sisters.” That answered that.
The other two women were blurry as fuck now, but I said, “Konnichiwa.”
They all nodded and got to work, placing cold probe thingies on my skin as I puked some more, Hari catching it all in her stainless steel bowl. Poor thing having to deal with this crap.
“There is a reading of infection,” the woman called Yua said. “Magical. Elvish.”
Huh?
“Let me see,” Hari replied.
Sharp turn. More vomit. I couldn’t take much more of this.
“It must have come from the separation. Check him for any similar trace.” She was talking about Zach.
M
ore puke, more pain, and then the blurring vision went dark, my mind shutting down and dragging me into emptiness.
Chapter Four
Things didn’t stay empty for long.
I was dreaming of my mum—Sakura Murakami. Me and her having a picnic in the spring sunshine on the side of a hill overlooking Tokyo, then London. It kept alternating between the two cities, but the hill stayed the same with butterflies and birds and good food. I’d baked—
I woke up, eyelids heavy, adjusting to a soft light.
“Aki?”
I turned my head. G was in a single bed next to mine. Bed? Where were we? I blinked at a strange room, looking up a dark wood ceiling, then over to soft brown walls.
Even though my eyes were groggy as hell, the pain was pretty much gone. The odd ache, but nothing like it was before. And no needing to puke.
I sat up, rubbing the back of my head, stretching. Ribs were fine. Back was fine. Nothing broken. Man, I was so lucky lately to not break anything. Last thing to break had been my nose, which, on last look, was still crooked. Not bad for the list a war wounds when you took into account the shit I’d been through.
We’d both been through.
G still had a fresh bandage wrapped around his head but looked healthier than before. Less of a sickly look to him, though not exactly back to his old self. Yet.
Not his old self…
I groaned. “Mouth feels like it’s full of sand.”
“There’s some water there.” He pointed to a bedside table on my right. I took the bottle of water sitting there and gulped down the contents greedily. “Man, that’s good. How long have I been out?”
“Twenty-four hours, give or take.”
“What the fuck?”
“I know, Aki. I’m so glad to see your eyes again.”
“But…the moon…”
“It’s now silver.”
Holy shit! How could I have slept that long? “I’ve fucked up... No. Hang on. I’m supposed to see the silver moon, right? Four moons you will know and all that. It’s fine. Not fine. Didn’t mean that. So not fine. But I ain’t dead. This ain’t the end.” Clearly, I needed a slap to the face.
“Breathe, Aki. Just breathe.”
I did, sucking in air slowly.
“The doctor said you suffered an extreme trauma when you separated Mama Rita and Zach. It was elven energy that you broke, and it struck out at you, made you sick.”
Was that energy in my katanas now? I didn’t remember seeing the light show when they took power.
I spotted my blades between the two beds, sheathed and waiting to kill.
“Shit,” I said. “This is crazy. Is Zach okay?”
“Yes. He seems fine, according to the doctor.”
“Any word on my uncle?”
“Nothing yet, Aki. I’m sorry.”
“Really? I thought they would’ve got to him by now. What about Mama Rita?” I called up my babies. They needed a bit more time to go on a full city run. I rubbed their gray, furry heads, let them lick my hands.
“The wolves couldn’t find Mama Rita anywhere,” G said. “She’s gone again.”
“And alive. Now what?”
“I don’t know, Aki. We’ve been told to stay low for now. Your father’s attack on the elves still hasn’t happened.”
That surprised me.
“There have been gatherings at the tunnels, though. People trying to break in and join the elven cause. Or attack them. It’s chaos outside.”
“Twenty-four hours is a long time.”
“A lifetime in this case.”
“Can’t believe I slept all that time.”
“But you’re feeling okay? You look so much better.”
“Yeah. You? You look better too.”
“Getting there, Aki. Well on my way to being back on my feet properly.”
Back out in the field, though? No way was he up to that level. Not yet.
“I’ve been in this bed most of the time, waiting for you,” he added.
“Sorry,” I said.
“What for?”
“All the sleep.”
“You probably needed it. How much have you actually had lately?”
“Not a lot. Where are we?” I asked, ignoring the possibility of him not being by my side when I returned to action. It was a sucky feeling I didn’t wanna give any time to. I’d have to at some point, but for now, it could piss off and leave me the hell alone.
“A safe house in Taito City. It’s beneath a pharmacy. Plenty of medical supplies with a doctor, a nurse, and three guards. All werewolves.”
“Wolves who can’t go outside anymore.”
There was a window to my right, blackout curtains drawn across it. No moonlight getting in. I padded over to it, noticing for the first time I was in my underwear.
I took a look behind the curtain. An iron panel covered the window.
“That’s iron plating to deflect the silver,” G said.
“All wolves have taken shelter, right?”
“Yes. An order was released for werewolves to get inside. So many precautions were taken, apparently. I’m not sure every wolf made it, though, when the moon changed.”
This room had nothing else in it but these beds and a tall lamp beside each of the beds.
Pressure and realization weighed down on me and had me back on the bed. A mixture of grief over my mum, over Mrs. Wallace, the hotel staff who’d’ been killed or injured, the hospital attack—all of it crushed me.
“All those people, G. All those people…”
This was the first time I actually sat and processed the fact Mama Rita had sent that plane into the hospital. Dealing with the drama after she’d done it, things had got jumbled up, shoved into various places of the mind to deal with later. Now they were reassembling, taking a linear shape, making me face the reality.
All those people. All that death.
It sucks to feel helpless, to have the fate of the world in your hands, but having no way of stopping the chaos. I was only good for one thing. I couldn’t save the hospital or any other place Mama Rita decided to hit. Same with what the elves had done. I had so much power at my fingertips, and it only had one place to go.
I placed my head in my hands, riddled with frustration.
“Aki. Come sit with me.”
I looked up at that handsome face, that warm and safe space next to him on the bed. He pulled back the white covers, revealing his delicious body, his black boxer briefs and nothing else.
“I’ve gotta get back out there, G.”
I went to him. He lifted his arm, and I snuggled in close. Locked against him, his arm around me—the best cocoon ever. Just what I needed.
“Thanks,” I said.
He pulled me closer. “Stay there as long as you need.”
“What would I do without you?”
“You don’t ever have to worry about not being without me.”
But what if I did? What if next time he wasn’t so lucky? There’d be another attack. Hell, there might even be one coming up on this place. Every minute was danger. And he—
I stopped myself, cuddling up some more. Any closer and I’d be inside him!
He stroked my back as my fingers drew circles on his abs. “Wish we could stay like this forever.”
“Me too, Aki.”
“I’m so powerless, G.”
“Don’t say that.”
“But I am. As long as Mama Rita’s still alive, and the elves carry on with their bullshit. What am I supposed to do?”
He shuffled ever so slightly. “End the curse. That’s all you can do. Once it’s broken, let your dad take over. You don’t need to take on the responsibility of everything else. That’s not your fight. The moon curse is your fight.”
Man, did that make sense.
I sighed. “This whole me being an anomaly. Something that shouldn’t exist. Is this all my fault? It was through me Mama Rita could do what she’d done.” I’d touched on this before, shut it down, b
ut it was back again.
“Don’t go there again, Aki.”
“I can’t help it. I’m sorry, but if I hadn’t been born, then you would still be a wolf, there’d be no silver moon, and everyone would be better off.”
My determination had wavered a bit. Here was a whiney moment, feeling like a complete piece of shit, a burden. Being called an anomaly was really playing on my mind. Oh yeah, poor me. Whatever. But that’s what guilt does. It comes up and gives your bollocks a crush, never letting go because guilt is a first-class wanker.
“You’re feeling guilty for being alive?” G asked, sitting up.
I sat up too, his arm wrapped around my waist. “I’m a prick, right?”
“No.”
“I can’t ever give it back to you.”
“Aki…”
“I know you don’t want me thinking that way. But I do. I think about what if I had a two-way power where I could take and give back if I wanted. Then you’d be a wolf again. Crazy, right? Greedy too. Look at me wanting all the mojo.” Here came the hot wetness in my eyes, then the spilling down my cheeks. “I’m so fucking angry about everything. But this… The tenshi knew I had to take your beta power. They knew, G. Left it to me to figure out. And I did. What does that make me that I did, that I realized the way to fight King Daichi was taking away everything that made you Gabriel?”
His fingers traced my thigh. “I’m going to be honest with you, Aki. I don’t know how to deal with this. You’re right. I’ve lost myself, everything I’ve ever known.”
“G, I’m—”
“But,” he said quickly, stopping me from rambling on some more about how bad I felt (a.k.a. whining bitch), “I’ve also found something. You know, like the phoenix in the ashes.”
“What’s that?”
He chuckled. “You, silly.” His Texan drawl really came through in those two words. “You’re so dumb sometimes.”
“How rude are you?”
“We’ll get through this, Aki. We’ve both got our issues to work through. As long as we’re together, we can do this. I get you’re going to have these moments.” Serious face time. “I really do. Look at what you’ve been through, what’s going on around you. But you didn’t ask to be born, and you definitely didn’t ask for any of this. If you want to go down that path of thinking, we could all come up with something like placing the blame on your mom and dad. Yet, you wouldn’t. They fell in love with each other, as people do. They had a child, as people do. Things didn’t turn out as they’d hoped. That’s life. I know that. I’m coming to grips with that. I have to. It’s either that or be dead. I don’t want to be dead, Aki. Not yet. I want to live, to get through this, to experience life with you, see where we end up. I’ve finally found a guy to care about, to love, and who gives amazing head.”
Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4) Page 67