by Aja James
His eyes met Ava’s, and she saw a flicker of some very strong emotion, perhaps grief, perhaps pain, perhaps the connection of a father to his son, however tenuous.
“I thought he would stay to challenge me when his skill reached my equal. I thought we would talk then, after we put the past behind us. But he left without a word. Tonight was the first time I have seen him in almost six hundred years.”
Ava stared at him, trying to look inside of him.
Why was he doing this? Why was he doing things that hurt his own son? Why did he fight Ryu so long ago, almost killing him? If this was what vampires did to their own flesh and blood, no wonder there weren’t many of them running around in the world.
The smile was back on the stranger’s lips, as if he had heard her thoughts and found them diverting. But as Ava looked closer, she saw the sadness behind the smile, the bleakness beneath the nonchalance.
Oh Ryu.
She didn’t know why the stranger, whom she was certain by now was actually Ryu’s father, entrusted this story with her. Maybe he just wanted to talk to someone who knew his son and she was the closest one on hand. Maybe he didn’t expect her to live long enough to repeat it.
If only she had more time to talk to him. If only she could talk to Ryu and better understand—
“Let’s do it.” Sōsuke’s voice broke into her thoughts, abruptly cutting off the connection she was starting to form with the stranger.
He walked over with a long syringe in his gloved hands.
“The suspension fluid is ready, and in just a few minutes, the stem cells will be ready to mix in. We have enough for two shots.”
He regarded Ava with a wild light in his eyes.
“One for you, and one for me. Ladies first.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ryu left his ride a quarter of a mile away from the light tower and advanced the rest of the way on foot in the pitch black of night.
Gabriel and Inanna had sustained heavy injuries as well, but were strong enough to continue the search and fight, though they wouldn’t arrive for another ten or fifteen minutes.
Ryu couldn’t wait.
He had to go in alone even if it meant certain death. He had to do everything in his power to ensure Ava’s safety. He refused to consider any other scenario apart from her getting out of this alive and whole and going on to live a long, fruitful life.
When he was within ten yards of the tower, he stilled and braced every muscle, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling with awareness. A split second later, shadows swarmed him from every direction.
Ironically, as Ryu engaged in battle, the Master’s words from long ago echoed in his head.
When at full strength, attack quickly, go for the kill with the utmost efficiency, or at a minimum execute debilitating blows to make sure your opponent is down. When wounded, attack smartly, use your opponent’s strength against him, draw him in. Use precision instead of force, calculation instead of speed. Leave your body behind. Only the mind matters.
Those lessons came in handy now as Ryu’s strength waned and his vision blurred. He fought completely on instinct, focusing his mind on cutting through the shadows to the blood and flesh within them.
Minutes later, six piles of dust littered the ground around him. Only Ryu remained standing.
Though barely.
But before he could take a restorative breath, the Master coalesced a few feet in front of him, standing in the way of his path to the tower.
Ryu saw that he was unarmed, just like he’d been when Ryu challenged him the night of Misaki’s death. This wasn’t cause for celebration, however, since Ryu knew what he was capable of just with his bare hands and feet.
“You know you cannot win against me,” the Master said, as if reading Ryu’s mind, as he always seemed to do.
“You have become a true shadow ninja, formidable and skilled, but in your current state you are no match for me.”
Ryu shook his head. “Prove it. Or get out of my way.”
The Master tilted his head slightly as if Ryu puzzled him.
“Your… ‘sweetheart’, the good doctor, says she loves you. She would want you to live, I think. If you leave here now, I will not pursue. She would have her wish.”
“Good to know,” Ryu said, trying to keep his voice steady despite the pain from his wounds and his receding strength. “I’ll be glad to take her with me as I leave.”
“I’m afraid not,” the Master said, almost apologetically. “She is still needed to complete the research.”
“Then we have nothing more to say,” Ryu bit out. “I’m not leaving here without her.”
The Master sighed.
“Then come,” he said, “I will take you to her. But first—”
Before Ryu could react, he felt something drill into his side, rupturing a kidney. As he exhaled on a gasp, he realized that the drill was the combined points of the Master’s fingers as he punched a hole the size of his fist into Ryu’s abdomen.
Ryu dropped to his knees, his brutalized body no longer obeying his will. Before he could fall forward onto his face, the Master took hold of one arm and started dragging him like a large game hunter with a carcass the rest of the distance to the light tower.
Can’t have you causing trouble while the good doctor completes her work, the Master’s voice sounded in Ryu’s ear, as if he were inside his head. If you die, I’ll make sure you’re with her in the end. If you live, you can challenge me when you’re ready.
Ryu tried to get loose of the Master’s grip, but his body wouldn’t respond. He could barely stay conscious at all.
He hardly felt the gravel the Master dragged him across on, nor the change from small rocks to cold hard stone. He didn’t hear Ava’s cry of shock and distress when she saw his broken body thrown in a crumpled heap a few feet in front of her, nor felt her crouch before him and take his face in her hands.
He was too busy fighting to keep his soul from departing and his body from disintegrating. None of his organs seemed to want to work anymore.
“Doctor,” the Master said, drawing Ava’s attention though she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Ryu, her hands shaking as she took in his condition, tears flowing freely and unconsciously down her cheeks.
“You would do better to spend these precious seconds making sure you have a viable serum. In his current condition, your blood would not save him even if he drank every last drop. Neither of you would survive the process.”
He moved closer, taking the syringe from Sōsuke, who was viewing the situation rather like a driver passing by a horrendous freeway accident, detached and fascinated at the same time.
The Master held out the four-inch cardiac needle in front of Ava.
“How could you do this?” Ava whispered furiously, unable to make sense of a father’s violence and apparent disinterest in his own son.
The Master crouched down so that he was eye level with Ava, his words so low only she could hear them.
“You can still save him,” he said. “If the serum works, you will have the healing powers to supply all the Sustenance he needs from your blood. If it doesn’t, you can die together. Don’t waste more time, Doctor.”
Ava took the needle and stared with unfocused eyes at the yellowish clear fluid in the pump, a bit like champagne when viewed under direct light.
She was numb with shock and devastation. The ninja’s words made perfect sense to her in that moment. It sounded like a win-win from her point of view: she could live with Ryu or die with him. She’d do anything to save him. Even if the probability of success was a fraction of miniscule.
She took the needle and prepped it with detachment. She opened her blouse and unclipped her bra in front. She desterilized the area where the needle would be inserted just below her left breast, close to the center of her chest, with the same surgical efficiency. She sucked in a breath and positioned the needle.
And punched the needle directly into her ventricle, simultaneously injecti
ng the serum.
*** *** *** ***
“Wake up, Doctor.”
She wanted to sleep longer. She was so tired. She wanted to sleep for a few days at least. Her whole body ached and tingled. She felt weighed down, yet had the sensation of floating.
“Wake up, Ava Monroe.”
Why did the voice keep echoing in her ear, like the droning of white noise in the airplane before her anti-motion-sickness pills took effect. Had they landed already? Was she in Japan?
“He is dying. You must save him.”
What? Who was dying? Ava’s eyes rolled behind her lids, which quivered as if struggling to raise themselves.
“Remember what you said. Remember that you love him.”
She frowned in concentration, her mind trying to wake up her body and reassert control.
Wake up.
Abruptly, Ava bent ninety degrees at the waist, upright, and opened her eyes wide.
She was in a basement full of high-tech lab equipment. A body lay on the ground a few feet away, face down. He was in a white lab coat.
Sōsuke?
Yes, it could only be him. He’d brought her here to the foundation of the light tower. But where were the shadow ninjas?
Ava scanned the shadows around the cavernous space. None of them moved. She couldn’t recall when she saw the assassins last. They had gone out with the stranger earlier.
The stranger.
He was also nowhere in sight. But Ava could have sworn she heard his voice. First beside her ear, and then inside her head.
Why did she need to wake up again?
Ryu!
She looked down and saw that he was sprawled beside her in a bloody heap, much like a couple of days ago when he’d taken her to the safe house after the lab explosion.
She scrambled to roll him onto his back.
And gasped. He was in worse condition than that day. His face had taken on a grayish hue.
Ava immediately reached for one of the daggers secured in the leather over his chest and slit her wrist open. She opened his lips and pushed her wrist between them, angling downwards so that the blood flowed in a steady stream into his mouth.
He wasn’t swallowing. Her blood started leaking out of his mouth.
“Ryu,” she said desperately, smoothing his cheek with her other hand, “baby, please drink. It will make you better. Please don’t leave me.”
Nothing. No response.
Her breath came more rapidly in wet, gurgled gulps. She couldn’t keep the grief and panic at bay anymore, tears streaming just like her blood, plopping in fat drops onto his face.
“Ryu, I love you,” she whispered, her breath hitching. “Don’t leave me. I love you!”
Suddenly, he gasped deep and long. She thought it was his last breath and froze in terror.
But then he swallowed. And another swallow. And another.
He was taking her blood!
After a few gulps, he curled his body around her just like before, like a large predator immobilizing his prey so that he could feast as much as he wanted, as long as he wanted. Instead of passively swallowing what she gave him, he grabbed hold of her wrist and sealed the area with his mouth so that not a single drop of precious, life-giving blood could leak out. His drawing on her vein increased the flow of her blood through her body and into him.
But unlike before, Ava felt only slightly light headed despite the amount of blood he was taking from her. Her body felt energized. Ultra-sensitized. It was as if the more he drew from her, the more her body produced to meet his needs.
His eyes remained closed, however, and he didn’t even seem conscious. It was as if his body was acting on its own volition to do what was necessary to heal itself.
After a long while, so long, Ava lost track of time, she felt his tongue lick across her wrist, helping the wound to close. His hold on her loosened and he fell back again, his eyes still closed.
She looked him over, cut open his leathers and patted him down. The most severe wound in his abdomen was starting to heal, though it still looked horrific. The broken skin and muscles had tentatively knitted together to close the wound but the whole area the size of a large fist was a dark blackish purple. His skin tone was still unusually pale beneath the layer of golden honey.
His chest rose and fell shallowly, but regularly.
Ava didn’t know much about vampires, but she felt like he wasn’t imminently at death’s door anymore. Which was infinitely better than a while ago when he was mostly on the other side.
Just as she exhaled in relief, the heavy door to the facility opened slightly.
Ava threw herself over Ryu out of pure instinct.
Then the door opened further as Inanna and Gabriel entered, weapons drawn.
“Is he all right?” Inanna asked, immediately coming to crouch beside Ryu, whose head Ava held in her lap.
“I think he’s out of danger.”
Gabriel went over to check the body lying face down a few feet away. He shook his head when the females looked to him to determine whether the man was alive or dead.
“Looks like he injected himself with something but didn’t survive it,” Gabriel said as he quickly assessed the situation. “He likely died of exsanguination due to organ failure.”
Ava was reminded of her own injection and felt the area where she’d punched the needle into her heart. It was slightly sore, but she could feel no wound.
Did that mean she’d succeeded? She certainly felt different. Why did the serum work for her and not for Sōsuke? Was she simply lucky? A one-in-a-billion kind of lucky? Or was it too soon to celebrate just yet?
“I don’t see any way up the tower,” Gabriel said as he tested the walls, floors and ceiling. “And the ground is solid underneath. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else here.”
“There is,” Ava said firmly. “There must be. Sōsuke said that we are working on the research here because the source for Genesis is here, somewhere close. He must be in the tower.”
Inanna straightened with alertness. She stood up and slowly scanned every corner of the chamber. Ava didn’t know what she was looking for or what she could see from just standing there in one place, but suddenly she seemed to have found her target.
She moved quickly across the room to the far wall and began feeling around with her hands.
“It’s hollow here,” she said, “There are narrow stairs behind this wall.”
How did she know? Ava wondered. It was as if she could literally see through walls. Was this one of those Gifts Ryu said she didn’t know about?
Gabriel helped her feel out the space and, together, they pushed a part of the wall toward the bottom where it joined the floor and a section of it suddenly gave way, revealing the passage with winding steps that Inanna described.
“Stay here with Ava and Ryu,” Inanna said to Gabriel. “I’ll check it out alone.”
“Will you be all right?” he asked, his expression one of concern.
She took a deep breath, as if bracing herself.
“Yes. If he is up there, I need to see him first.”
“Be careful.”
She nodded before disappearing into the dark passage.
*** *** *** ***
Someone was coming up the tower steps.
The prisoner bestirred himself enough to listen to the echoes in the stones that resonated through the walls to his ears.
Very light steps. Whoever that was approaching was either very light on his feet or light period.
But not her. He’d recognize her footfalls anywhere. This was not it.
The prisoner was curious enough to push himself to a sitting position. It was a painstaking endeavor, as he was extremely weak. It had been days since he’d last been fed. It was almost as if he had been forgotten. Either that or he was being tortured with a prolonged starvation.
It didn’t matter which. The result was the same. Just sitting up made his enervated muscles shake in distress.
The steps were getti
ng closer, and the closer they got, the quieter they became. The prisoner could almost smell their caution.
And then they were at the iron door. There was a period of silence broken by small sounds as if the visitor was trying to figure out the best way to open the door. The prisoner was certain by now that they had not been here before. There was not the sureness and purpose of movements in unlocking and opening.
He waited for the visitor to reveal themselves, only mildly curious.
Finally, the gate opened soundlessly, and the prisoner knew from the gush of fresh air that flowed into his cell.
He raised his head, his foggy turquoise eyes open but unseeing as a familiar scent drifted to his nostrils.
Tamarisk blossoms. With a hint of wild rose.
He knew that scent. It had been many millennia since he’d smelled it.
He inhaled deeply and kept his blind eyes raised toward the visitor, intense and unblinking despite their lack of function. For the first time since she’d stolen his sight, he wished he could see.
He didn’t dare speak. He didn’t dare move so much as a hair. What if it was just a hunger hallucination? What if it was one of her mind games? He didn’t want to fall victim to false hope. The devastation of reality was too brutal to endure.
And then he heard the whispered word that made the breath seize in his lungs—
“Papa?”
Goddess above! Please let this not be a cruel trick or his desperate imagination. Please—
The steps came swiftly and softly closer. He heard a rustle before a small covering was gently draped over his lower body. He touched a shaking hand to the material and felt that it was fine buttery leather. He kept staring out into the never-ending darkness with his wide-open eyes, willing the return of his sight but to no avail.
Then something soft brushed the side of his face. Fingers whisking some strands of his hair back.
“Papa,” his angel’s voice said, unsteady with emotion. There was too much feeling in that one word for him to identify each emotion separately, but he heard one thing loud and clear: love.