Juro had said there was no note, but when he died, I found one among his things.
Juro my love,
This world is changing in dangerous ways. I fear for what might happen if I stay. Please, I beg you on our love, do not seek me out. Let me go. Forget me. Take care of Valaria and love her always.
Hana
Could Hana have left a more obtuse Dear John letter? I don’t think so. I never forgave Hana for leaving us and what it did to Juro. She was not the woman I’d thought she was.
“Nope, I’ve never known a witch and hope to keep it that way,” I replied, fighting to keep the bite from my voice. “You?”
“Same here,” said Kenshin. I could have imagined it, distracted as I was planning my break-in, but I thought I heard a note of sadness in Kenshin’s voice.
I rose to standing. “Time’s up. You go do something loud over yonder to distract the lookout, and I’ll find out what’s going on. If I’m not out by nightfall, feel free to come join the party.”
“Wait one damn second,” said Kenshin jumping to his feet. “I…I…” His eyes widened, and he leaned his ear to the left as though he was trying to listen carefully to something. I heard nothing and was about to protest when a loud noise somewhere went kaboom. Kenshin didn’t waste any time and made a run for the building.
Not knowing what in the hell had just happened, I followed on his heels.
Chapter 12
“You’re really athletic,” said Kenshin, as I dropped down from the window sill into the hospital room. We’d lucked out and landed in a large closet used for storage—multiple old gurneys strewn across the space.
“Girls can do anything boys can do.” I smiled, adding a mental better onto the end.
“Guess so. Now what? You’re leading this suicide mission. When I die, I plan to blame you.”
“Happy to. And don’t be such a downer. You’re almost certainly, probably not going to die today,” I drolled, adding a wink.
“Your optimism on my chances is refreshing.”
I opened the door a crack and let the bouquet of the hospital wash over me, trying to envision where each of the scents originated. No one near, I moved out into the hallway. Since Kenshin wanted to talk with Akemi, I figured we could start by finding him. A male scent lingered at Watanabe-san’s house probably from Akemi’s old clothes, and I could smell that his and another man’s scent were the nearest to us, likely on the same floor and probably only a few turns away.
As I made my way towards Akemi, I hugged the wall trying to ignore Kenshin’s nearness and the warmth of his breath on the back of my neck. Its heat sparked odd, unsettling sensations.
Halfway down one hallway, I picked up the voices attached to the two scents we followed and pulled us into an empty room, closing the door. “Someone’s coming,” I mouthed.
Kenshin’s brow furrowed. “Athletic and with dog hearing.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Did you ever think that maybe your hearing was just particularly bad?”
The lines in Kenshin’s brow deepened as he thought this through. He shrugged. “You’ve got me there. It could be.”
Kenshin put his ear to the door and after several seconds smiled as he caught their voices too.
The two men must have paused at the T in the hallway two doors down from us. I knew because the strength of their voices had leveled.
“What is the problem with him?” asked one man.
Kenshin had his ear pressed to the door, straining to hear. “It sounds like Akemi. Maybe. I think.”
It smelled like Akemi too, but I couldn’t say as much. Despite being able to hear the conversation perfectly well, I put my ear to the door for appearances.
“I’m a doctor,” said another voice. His occupation explained the eau du formaldehyde I was getting. “I deal in flesh and bone, not the supernatural. The Kami who made him would be better able to answer that than me.”
“The patient has shown no improvement in cognition. It’s been more than a week.”
“That thing is…is…a beast. You should put it down.” At hearing of a beast, my senses strained to pinpoint the animal smell I’d detected outside. It was nearby and…Oh God, no.
I turned and put my opposite ear to the door, so I no longer faced Kenshin. My fangs drew down at the smell of blood. The beast, whatever it was, had started to feed, a human on its menu. I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath, trying to focus my attention on the voices outside the door. You are not hungry. You are not hungry.
“Traditionally the oni were known to have higher cognition. They were more like you and I,” said Akemi.
“Yes, and clearly the Kami went wrong in their making of that thing, now didn’t they?”
“I agree, but it’s your job to tell us how. We’ve rigged up the best tech of old to help you figure it out.”
The doctor’s smell grew spicy with irritation. “You’d need a doctor of old to understand what those machines are saying. I set bones, remove bullets, and create herbal tinctures for ailments. I can’t help you.”
“You’re not very useful to us then,” said Akemi, his own anxiety growing.
“Afraid not.”
“That’s very unfortunate for you.”
“What? I—”
The doctor’s voice cut off as a fist struck flesh followed by a crumpling sound as the medical man fell to the floor.
Kenshin leaned closer to the door trying to hear better. “What’s going on?” he whispered.
“I think your friend just cold-cocked the doc.” And unfortunately, he’d drawn blood. You are not hungry. You are not hungry. I fumbled in my backpack, pulled out the sake and took a very long swig.
As I drank, two new smells grew closer, accompanied by feet slapping the floor. “Put the doctor into the feeding rotation,” commanded Akemi. The two new recruits swore as they manhandled the limp and broken man up and onto one of their shoulders before retreating down the hall.
“Feeding rotation?” asked Kenshin, stepping away from the door to find me swilling a large bottle of sake. It wasn’t a good look. “What are you doing, drinking at a time like this?”
My fangs were still down. Retract, retract, retract, I commanded, bottle to my lips. You are not hungry.
With a disgusted frown, Kenshin tried to snatch the bottle from my lips. My hand shot out sending him flying. He landed on his derriere with a thump. Fangs down meant vampire strength. Not hungry. Retract. Retract. Goddamn it, retract.
My fangs finally obeyed as I took my last gulp. Nonchalantly, I wiped an arm across my wet lips and re-corked the empty bottle. Nothing to look at here. I gazed down at Kenshin as if my ability to send a grown man flying across the room wasn’t remotely strange. “You forgot the rules. No touching, unless you ask.”
Kenshin peeled himself off the floor with a groan and rubbed his backside. “I was only going to touch the bottle, not you. Sheesh, woman, overreact much? And how are you even standing right now? That much sake that fast and even I would be laid out flat.”
“Alcohol doesn’t affect me. Never has.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Says your medical degree?”
Kenshin’s eyes flashed. “Speaking of medical degrees. What do you think is going on here?”
The room fell quiet as we thought through all we’d learned. Each piece of information was part of a larger puzzle, and I reworked the pieces slotting them into different positions until I finally found something that made any sort of sense. When I finished assembling the puzzle, I didn’t like the picture that formed. No, I didn’t like it at all.
“Follow me,” I said, opening the door. I needed to see the beast. It could confirm everything I feared.
“You didn’t answer my question,” snapped Kenshin.
“Later,” I popped back, following the beast’s scent down the hall. I could still smell blood, but it was older now and coagulated. The animal had finished feeding. Thank God for small favors…and large quantities
of sake.
“What are you doing?” seethed Kenshin. “You’re going to get us killed.”
“If you’re so worried about your safety, why don’t you go back outside?” I said, praying he’d take me up on the offer. I really didn’t want Kenshin seeing the beast.
“There’s no way I’m leaving you in here alone.”
I stopped and turned to face him. “I’m a big girl. I don’t need a knight.”
“Yeah, you do. You just don’t know it yet.”
I rolled my eyes.
Kenshin mimicked me and gestured down the hall. “Proceed then. Today is a good day to die.”
Ugh, Kenshin was so…so…infuriating. And gallant. But mostly infuriating. I quickened my pace wanting to put distance between us. Rounding a corner, the beast’s scent grew suddenly strong. Following my nose, I opened a nearby door. “In here.”
Kenshin and I entered a balcony room overlooking a surgical theater. Chains jangled below us, a figure hidden in partial shadow secured to the far wall.
“It looks human,” said Kenshin.
“It’s not,” I replied, pulling out my camera and snapping a shot of the beast.
“How do you know?”
I stepped to the edge of the balcony—which had once been enclosed by a window—and pried loose a shard of broken glass and dropped it into the theater below where it shattered. The beast came alive at the noise, leaping to the edge of its chains and snarling. The shirt it wore was covered in blood, as was its face. “Still think it’s human?” I asked, handing Kenshin my developing shot and snapping another. I waved the second print in the air to speed development while Kenshin pocketed the first.
Kenshin shuffled back a few steps. “Nope. But what is it and why is it here with the Kami?”
I could have downed another bottle of sake. Such was the empty pit of dread in my stomach. “They haven’t succeeded yet, but the Kami are trying to make a vampire.”
Chapter 13
Kenshin studied the creature below us as I put the camera back in my bag. I could hear his heart go wild as he tried to process what I was telling him. “That’s a vampire?”
“No. They’re trying to make one. I didn’t say they succeeded.” I stared down at the creature, thanking a non-Kami higher power for not letting me turn into something so wretched.
“But vampires were killed off decades ago and at great cost. Why would anyone want to bring back blood-sucking oni?”
I pointed at his arm. “Says the man with an oni tattooed on his body.”
Kenshin was about to reply when I heard voices approaching the surgical theater from the lower level. I pulled Kenshin down into a squat.
Two men entered, one of them Akemi. The beast howled at their arrival and pulled at his chain.
“The doctor didn’t know what was wrong with it,” said Akemi, his voice showing distress. He smelled of peppery fear.
“I think it’s time to burn this place and start fresh,” said a new voice. The man behind it had a familiar odor and tone of voice. There was a side-note of…something…woody that could only be detected at close range.
“Perhaps the subject we picked for the transformation was a poor choice. He was a low sort of fellow. The guy was head of a cock-fighting ring. Maybe we should try a woman next time?”
My blood spiked at the mention of a female. Midori loved me, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be a vampire herself. Plus, what were the odds the witches would get it right, and she wouldn’t end up a hell-beast instead?
“No,” barked the second man. “We must find a suitable, virile male. Amaterasu has commanded it.”
“You know best, Sir.”
“That is what they say,” said the man, plainly not believing it himself. “You have ten minutes to clear the building.”
A door opened then slammed shut. The man who smelled and sounded familiar remained. Every fiber of my being wanted to pop my head up for a quick look. All I’d need was a nanosecond for my curiosity to be quelled, but I’d be putting more than myself at risk. From the deference shown by the priest, the man below was a Kami, and I had no idea what powers he might possess.
“We need to get out of here,” whispered Kenshin.
“No. We’ll need to wait until he leaves,” I murmured back. We were in an angled observation area and our only exit was in full view of the room below.
We listened as the Kami paced, his hard-soled shoes tapping out a beat. After a few minutes, a zapping sound joined the tap. Buzz. Whizz. Crackle. Then the Kami began to speak. “Sato-san. I want to apologize for what we’ve done to you. It was for the greater good.” The Kami paused, and I concentrated as another round of buzz, whizz, crackle filled the space around us. “At least I think it was for the greater good. I hope it was.”
The beast howled, chains jangling as he fought for his freedom.
“If we’d got it right, you would have been immortal. That would have been good for you, no? Even the Kami aren’t immortal.”
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
I fought the urge to look. Be smart. Don’t do it. All Kami are the same. Bad news, whichever way it was spun.
For the next minute, the Kami paced the room. I pictured him striding in circles just out of the beast’s reach. What was he waiting for?
“I hate myself for this,” said the Kami, voice cracking.
Seconds later the room exploded in blistering heat.
I found myself propelled out of the hiding space as Kenshin grabbed my wrist and ran for the door.
I should have followed.
I shouldn’t have fought his grasp.
I shouldn’t have looked.
The entire situation would have turned out very differently if I hadn’t.
But I did turn back…and what I saw stopped me in my tracks.
I noticed his eyes first, their honey color, and the way his left eyebrow quirked up, breaking his perfect facial symmetry. Then came the mouth, nose and chin. “Juro,” I screamed, not even thinking what revealing myself might mean.
The Kami’s eyes found mine, his face contorting into a pained sort of bafflement. “Valaria? Valaria Valentin?”
My insides simmered with love…with hate. The man standing amid the flames below looked like Juro, but it wasn’t him. I knew that with certainty. Many strange things had happened in this new world, but headless men rising from the dead was not one of them. Of that I was sure. “Who are you?”
The question was but a whisper, but somehow he’d heard. “I am Miikio.” He said his name with such confidence, as though he expected it to answer all my questions. It answered none. Miikio. Who was Miikio? “Are you Valaria?” he asked again.
I nodded, too stunned to deny it.
“But you should be old…dead and…” Miikio’s words faded, his eyes ducking away as realization dawned. He ignored the fire surrounding him. The beast, Sato-san was already charred flesh and bone. The room wreaked of burned meat. Smoke drifted up to the balcony making my view hazy as Miikio’s eyes returned to mine, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. “You’re a—”
I leapt off the balcony, not wanting him to say the word. Vampire. Not wanting Kenshin to know. Such was my state of panic, it didn’t cross my mind that mere mortals didn’t dive off balconies. Fear breeds idiocy.
Miikio was unperturbed by my entry into his space. “I had no idea there was one left. This is perfect. The Kami need you.”
“No.” I seethed.
“Yes.” He nodded. “You are what we need.” With a flick of his finger, Miikio produced a cut along his forearm. It was shallow, but blood pooled at the wound.
My fangs immediately lowered. I had no control. The fire. Miikio. The blood. Chaos reigned, stoking my hunger. There was no controlling it.
I lunged for Miikio’s throat. I could already taste his blood. I could already feel its warmth slide down my throat. I was powerless.
Unable to control any of it, I was a hair’s width from
tasting him when fire shot through my body, sending me stumbling away. Miikio’s hands were electric.
A shot rang out. I expected to feel the pierce of a bullet, but nothing came.
Miikio backpedaled, taking a bullet to the shoulder. We both stared up in shock to see Kenshin on the balcony, gun held high. He leapt down, landed in a squat, then rolled, coming up with the gun at the ready again. He’d shot Miikio, but his gun was leveled at me, his face warped with confusion and disgust. Now I was the monster in his eyes.
My fangs out, my feral nature revealed, I turned away from him. Blood poured from Miikio’s shoulder. I sank into a crouch with a vampire’s hiss, my need to feed outweighing all else. Blood. Give me blood. I am an animal, and I must feed. Yet, I wasn’t a stupid animal. I didn’t want another jolt from Miikio. I waited, watching for my opening. The room was aflame. He would need to turn and run, and that’s when I would strike.
But he didn’t turn, and he didn’t run. Instead, Miikio placed a hand on his shoulder, healing the gunshot wound in an instant, then the gash on his arm. Somehow he made the smell of blood disappear from the room, giving my senses and sanity back to me. He held out a hand. “Valaria. You must come with me.”
I shook my head no as I looked at the Polaroid of the beast I still held in my hand. In it, he snarled and foamed like a rabid animal. None of this was okay. Not Kenshin knowing I was a vampire. Not the existence of a Juro doppelganger. Not the witches trying to make their own vampires. This was not how my world was meant to be.
And so…I ran. I ran through the flames, letting them burn and bubble my skin. I ran blindly, feeling nothing. Mindlessly, I ran faster than my legs had ever carried me.
Out of the building.
Out of the town.
I ran until I could run no more.
Tokyo's Last Vampire: Division 12: The Berkhano Vampire Collection Page 7