Tokyo's Last Vampire: Division 12: The Berkhano Vampire Collection

by Tiffany Wayne

  “What is so important about the second volume that you would risk yourself like this?” I asked, my voice wavering from the flood of contradictory emotions. Compassion. Disgust.

  “The Romanian might have been the witch who brought the Rift upon us. If so, her casting would be in her second volume, and if we know what she did, there’s a chance we could reverse it. Our Division is dying. The domes keep the radiation sequestered. The Kami have been desperately trying to mediate the effects of the radiation for years through magical means, and it worked for a while, but it has weakened us. Our fertility has diminished. We bear few children, magical or otherwise, and we are not immortal like you. In Shinto, the Kami are symbols of fertility and growth, so you can imagine our dismay at the barrenness cursing us.”

  “You need to stop, or you’re going to die,” I replied, trying to keep my facial expression impassive. Hana had been shriveled and burned by the radiation. The room smelled like decay because she was rotting from the inside out.

  “A few sessions with Miikio and I will be as good as new, but he has been away.”

  “Away, tending to the beast,” I noted. Miikio was powerful, but I didn’t know if anyone was capable of fixing what ailed the woman before me.

  As quick as the veil fell, Hana put it up again, perhaps sensing my shock. “The beast was—” A knock at the door interrupted her thought. “Unfortunate,” she finished.

  With a flick of her hand, the door opened.

  “Valaria,” cried a voice. A sound that stilled my heart. Nooooooo. Not here. Not now.

  Chapter 21

  Kol entered the room gulping air, with tears and snot racing down his reddened face. My stomach plummeted at seeing him so terrified. When I spotted the graze on his cheek, it took everything I had not to vamp out, as raw, unadulterated rage crept through my body. Only the worst of the worst would hurt a kid. Kenshin walked next to Kol, bent low to whisper in his ear, using his magical voice to calm him. Behind the two was Miikio, his expression blank, as if none of this was a big deal. I tried to capture his gaze, but he refused me, instead ducking his eyes. From the attention he gave it, something on Miikio’s shoes was utterly fascinating. “What’s the meaning of this?” I screeched. “Why did you bring the child here?”

  With Miikio refusing to meet my eyes, I turned to Kenshin…desperately wanting to know what was going on. He shook his head and shrugged, his face painted in deeply creased lines of worry. This was not good. Not good at all.

  I nearly jumped when a hand came to my shoulder. Hana. She stood behind me, and although I was inches taller, it somehow felt as if she towered over me. Her breath radiated on my neck. In. Out. In. Out. “We must make sure you can create a vampire, Valaria. We have brought two friends to help you.”

  Ideas ping-ponged around my head as I tried to understand what she was saying, but nothing made sense. Where was the person she wanted to be turned? Kenshin was Kami and Kol was only a boy.

  Hana signaled to Miikio with the flick of her hand. The blankness fell from his face, replaced by fear. The action was so swift Miikio must have known what was coming. Standing rooted in place, he shook his head almost imperceptibly, and Hana groaned theatrically in response.

  Hana closed the distance between her and Miikio with far more speed than I would have thought her capable and landed a swift smack on his cheek, instantly turning it red. She held out her palm. Refusing to look Hana in the eye, he put a gun in her hand. “You are a disappointment, dear boy. This world was not made for the weak.”

  “I know, Mother,” he replied, voice barely audible.

  Hana ran a proprietary hand through his hair, then licked a finger to remove a smudge from his face as though he were still a child. “You’re lucky you’re beautiful,” she said, then turned.

  Then fired.

  Kenshin fell to the ground.

  Kol and I both screamed.

  Miikio slammed his eyes shut and refused to look.

  “Turn the boy into a vampire,” said Hana, “now, or your friend dies.”

  “What?” I asked, not believing my ears. My heart raced. My fangs descended. Blood perfumed the room. I dug fingernails into my arm to distract myself with pain. “Kol’s only fourteen. He will never grow up and never grow strong. If he survives the transition, he’ll be weak.”

  “Sounds delightful,” said Hana. “He’ll be easy to control.”

  “But…I…I th—th—thought you wanted vampires for procreation?” I stuttered. Adrenaline steamrolled my entire being. I could hardly hear with all my sensory focus falling on my sense of smell. Iron. Copper. Salt.

  Hana stared at me quizzically. “He’s of sufficient age.”

  I gasped, darting a glance at Kol who looked impossibly young. He shouldn’t have to feel this almost uncontrollable need to feed every time a drop of blood falls. “No, he’s not. What’s wrong with you?”

  “There are many his age in the flesh dens.”

  “I don’t care what they do in the dens. What you’re talking about is rape. You plan to force your Kami, who are deathly afraid of vampires, to mate with males of the species who will more than likely be unwilling?”

  Hana cocked her head to the side and tapped a finger against her lips. “I doubt my Kami will be afraid of someone so young.”

  “You are sick.” I seethed, kneeling next to Kenshin. I tore off a piece of my clothing and used it to put pressure on his wound. My vision tunneled until all I could see was red. My every sense was attuned to the blood flowing from Kenshin until his hand crept over mine, pulling me back into the room.

  Our eyes connected. “I am at peace with death,” he wheezed. “You can let me go with a clear heart.”

  “No,” I cried. “No, no, no.” I looked to Hana, ready to beg for his life. “Please, don’t do this. Kenshin is one of you. He’s a good man.”

  “He is weak,” she said, preening her glamour of hair.

  “For the first time, I’m glad Juro is gone from this world,” I spat. “The Hana he knew is dead.”

  “That is because I—am—Amaterasu,” she replied, pausing at each word for effect.

  “I liked Hana better,” I bit back, wishing I had my own magical powers with which to fight Amaterasu. My eyes darted from Kenshin to Kol and then back again as I wracked my brain for some grand idea about how to get us out of this mess.

  I jolted at Miikio’s voice. “Mother, what if we turn Kenshin instead? A Kami has never been turned. Who knows what we might create. Is it not worth a small experiment?”

  “Do you hear yourself?” I said, glaring at Miikio. “Experiments? These are people’s lives.”

  “No, we mustn’t,” replied Amaterasu, voice worried. “To mix such powers in a forced way could be catastrophic. Natural birth is the only way.”

  Kol wrestled himself from Miikio’s grasp and came to my side. “Do you want this?” I asked, hoping Kol had secretly wished to become a vampire. But there was to be no miracle. Kol shook his head no as he wiped snot from his face with a sleeve. “But I will accept it, if I must.”

  Kenshin squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. Let me go.”

  “But I’ve only just found you,” I whimpered. I didn’t know what I had with Kenshin, but after years of cutting myself off from the world I really, really wanted to find out. Not caring that my enemies might see, I leaned down and planted my lips on Kenshin’s. Thankfully, I did a better job than the first time we’d kissed. My lips only caressed his as tears trickled down my cheeks. “This isn’t okay.”

  When I next looked up, I found Amaterasu standing over us, an imperious puppetmaster. “Embrace your nature,” she commanded.

  I wanted to laugh. “It’s not my nature I’m worried about. It’s yours. The Kami may have started out trying to help the people, but it’s become something else. You’ve become someone else.”

  Amaterasu shrugged. “Maybe. But I am what I am.” She focused on the ceiling as if asking for patience. Apparently, she didn’t find any because sh
e declared, “This is taking far too long.” Her eyes fell to Kol. “You want to fully understand why I brought the boy here when I could have asked for another to be changed?”

  I didn’t have time to answer before my nightmare imploded. Amaterasu raised her gun and fired.

  Kol fell to the ground next to me.

  Blood poured from a wound square within his chest.

  Kol’s eyes blinked at me, not understanding.

  I didn’t understand either. Not really. A woman I’d once thought of as a mother had shot a boy I’d treated as a son. It was incomprehensible.

  Horror.

  My heart stopped.

  My world ceased to turn.

  “It was so I could raise the stakes,” said the she-devil. “Now you will lose two people if you continue to defy me.”

  Chapter 22

  I screamed but no sound came out. I was struck with such disbelief that my voice was stolen. “Mother,” cried Miikio, falling to his knees next to Kol. He moved to place his hands over the wound, to heal him.

  “Don’t you dare touch that boy, Miikio,” commanded Amaterasu. To my horror, he obeyed.

  No way could I let this stand. I wouldn’t. I grabbed Kenshin’s hands and forced them down on his wounds, and then I was airborne. In one giant leap, I sailed across the room and landed on Amaterasu, wrapping my hands around her neck. It was pencil-thin and fragile. I felt the weakness of her bones underneath. But as my fingers twisted to snap it and rid this world of her evil, something underneath my hands began to build.

  Heat.

  Electricity.

  Power.

  Without laying a finger upon me, I’d been hurled across the room, slamming into the pedestal holding her beloved spellbinder. We both crashed to the floor. Undaunted, I returned to my feet to make another run at her. I grabbed anything and everything within arm’s reach and lobbed it as I made my way back towards Amaterasu. A chair. A vase. A mirror. Another vase. A golden Buddha. More. More. More. I was fast and landed solid blows. Then I was on her, squaring a punch before being catapulted across the room again. Before taking another breath, I was up and moving again after falling flat. I wanted blood. Her blood. I didn’t want to drink its putrid filth. I wanted it to flow. I envisioned it seeping out of her, releasing her evil. I was halfway to Amaterasu when an invisible punch to the gut sent me sliding across the floor until I was pinned to the wall. “You cannot best me,” screamed Amaterasu. But as she spoke, her veil fell.

  Enraged and hysterical, I laughed. “Look at yourself. You are a frail old crone.”

  Seeing herself in the fractured panes of a nearby mirror, Amaterasu’s grip on me tightened.

  “You’re a weak, old hag,” I baited.

  With a twist of her wrist, she snapped the long bone in my arm. Regardless, I would not be silenced. “You’re the wicked witch from the storybooks,” I shrieked.

  A demented howl exploded from Amaterasu.

  My other arm fractured.

  “Mirror, mirror on the wall.”

  Amaterasu’s elbow came up to deliver another blow, but instead, she crumpled into a nearby chair, breathing hard.

  “Your sun is fading,” I shouted, seething.

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Yours is fading faster.” With what power she had left, Amaterasu sent imaginary razor blades slicing down both my cheeks. Once her wounds were delivered, her grip released, and I collapsed on the floor.

  Close by, Kenshin rolled onto his stomach and crawled towards me, commando style. He stopped just shy and reached for my foot. At contact, my mania eased, but only slightly. “Don’t let all of us die,” he begged. “That’s not the answer.”

  He was right. His touch calmed me enough, and I could see my folly. But how could I get us out of this? I knew the answer wasn’t to bend to Amaterasu’s demands. She was corrupted, whether by the spellbinder or the radiation, I didn’t know. However it happened, the Hana I knew was lost, and although Amaterasu was frail, she was also powerful. I would need an army to defeat her and her Kami, and all I had was two injured friends. I needed more time. But how could I dissuade Amaterasu from her current path? What did she want more than vampires? It certainly wasn’t my love and affection?

  I pulled my thoughts inward, shutting out the pain of my broken bones, the smell of blood, the sight of my two dying friends. Time. I needed to buy us some time. I stared down at my lap to block out the room and pushed off Amaterasu’s glare. Time.

  Time.

  Time.

  Time.

  Amaterasu’s breathing slowed. Soon she would attack again. Time.

  Time.

  Amaterasu stood. Her feet shuffled across the floor.

  Time.

  Another invisible razor blade sliced down from the tip of my forehead to my nose, covering my face in my own blood, red, warpaint. Inside, I screamed in frustration.

  Valaria, what will it be?” she asked, reaching down to pick up the spellbinder. “Your friends will be dead soon.”

  And that was when time stopped. When the clichéd lightbulb clicked on.

  I looked up, finding her eyes, no longer fearing them. “What if I can give you something better than more vampires?” I asked.

  “And what would that be, my dear?” she asked, voice ripe with disdain.

  “A way to bring down the domes separating the divisions.”

  “That’s impossible without the second spellbinder.”

  I smiled up at her and may have even batted my eyelashes. “When I saw your book, I recognized it. I didn’t want to tell you, given that you’re, well, evil, but you’ve left me no other choice.”

  I paused for effect. Amaterasu knew where this was leading, and I wanted her salivating with need. Feel my pain, bitch!

  One heartbeat.

  Two.

  Ten.

  I watched Amaterasu fight to maintain control. The veil of her glamour rose and fell multiple times. Her hands balled in frustration. “Yes, my dear. Go on.”

  “Volume two, I know where it is. Heal my friends and I’ll take you to it.”

  Chapter 23

  Miikio was wan and unsteady as he ushered Kol, Kenshin, and I back to the dungeons. He smelled of fatigue. Two priests had to carry Kol and Kenshin who were in a post-healing stupor. By some miracle my ploy about the second spellbinder had worked, and I’d bought us more time. Now, I just needed to figure out what to do during the stall. My broken arms were already healing, thanks to Amaterasu forcing one of her priests to feed me. I’d left the poor woman with plenty of blood, but her fear was so great I doubted she’d mentally recover anytime soon. Because of my healing arms, I walked the halls unbound. I pondered making a run for it. If I could reach the Yakuza, I could ask for their help. They would want Kenshin’s release. But they might negotiate instead of fight unless I told them the whole story about the Kami’s experiments and their desire to create vampires for breeding. The story was so ludicrous, I doubted they would believe me. I doubted anyone would. Besides, I might need to show them I was a vampire, which was treading on dangerous ground without Kenshin to vouch for me. If only I still had the Polaroid photograph that Miikio had discarded. The one where the beast appeared as a feral animal. Kenshin probably had the first photo I’d taken, but that only showed a man in chains. It meant nothing without the second photo. All my allies were in a dungeon. Running would only put me farther from them. Deep inside I knew going to the Yakuza without Kenshin was a mistake. Plus, the Mount wasn’t close to Tokyo. Escaping when they brought me to the library for the book was a far better choice. Items in my room included weapons, and I knew the streets of Tokyo well.

  Not knowing what my plans might entail, I decided to work on Miikio. He hadn’t been fully onboard with what his mother had done and seemed a weak link. If I could make Miikio see reason and turn him to my side, getting out of this nightmare with all my friends alive would be a lot easier. I accelerated my pace until I was at Miikio’s side. “She’s not right,” I said. “I kno
w you realize that. I saw how stricken you were when she shot Kol. You don’t believe in her cause.”

  “She’s my mother,” he replied, with a what-can-I-do shrug.

  “You had a father, too. A father she never let you meet because she was afraid of you. She thought you might be a demon curse. Such was her so-called mother’s love.”

  “She does love me,” he replied, scowling.

  “If she does, I didn’t see it. I saw a dog and a master.” Miikio didn’t reply but after several meters, I continued. “Do you honestly think what she just did was okay? What she’d planned for Kol was okay with you?” Miikio again remained silent. It was almost as if I were talking to a wall, but I kept at it. “What do the other Kami think? Do they want to breed with vampires? Will it be optional?”

  Still no reply.

  I decided to change gears. “Did she tell you anything about your father?”

  Miikio said nothing but his head subtly moved side to side.

  “Let me tell you then. Juro was kind and hadn’t fed from an unwilling soul in nearly eight centuries. He rescued me after the Rift. I was out with my biological family that day sightseeing, and we got separated when the tsunami hit. Juro and Hana found me and took me in. I was a kid who needed parents, and that’s what they became—a mom and a dad. Juro was a really good dad, too. Super funny and smart. He enjoyed telling stupid dad jokes and showing me card tricks. And he loved history. With eight hundred years under his belt, I’d guess he’d have to love it since he’d experienced so much of it first-hand. He adored giving history lessons, but they were never boring. Hana called him a natural bard. He loved sushi slathered in wasabi, ramen, unagi and hated sesame seeds…of all things. Oh, and books. He devoured books. Especially those by Kazoo Ishiguro and Haruki Murakami.” I touched Miikio’s arm. I wanted to look him in the eyes to drive home my next words. He gestured to the priests carrying Kenshin and Kol, telling them to continue on to the dungeons. I didn’t speak again until the taps of their shoes on the floor faded into nothing. I held Miikio’s eyes. “Juro was the better of your parents, and he would have loved to know you. In fact, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that if Juro knew you were alive, he would still be in this world today.”