Ryuu patted my back as I hiccupped and snuffled. “I just wanted to make Kit happy,” he said in a moronically innocent voice. “I didn’t know she’d wreck it, honest.” I snorted into the tissue. And he had been worried about my over-acting?
Mr. Marshall sighed. “Of course, I’ll have to call your parents. Kit, I had no idea that you were still having so much trouble adjusting.”
I sat up straighter and stared at him through my watery eyes. “No! Don’t tell my dad. He has enough to deal with.” I didn’t have to fake the panic. If Dad thought I was struggling, that would be bad. Like, more therapy bad.
The principal gave me a stern look. “You should have thought of that before you destroyed someone else’s property.”
I blinked at him, trying for doe eyes. Ryuu piped up in a pathetic whisper. “You’ll have to call my aunt, sir. Both my parents are dead.”
Mr. Marshall rubbed his head as if he were developing a migraine. Then he sighed. “Fine, I won’t call them this time. But you’re both spending a week in detention. And if you get into trouble again, I’m calling them.” He drummed his fingers on his desk. “And don’t bring that baseball bat to school again, understand young lady?”
I nodded forlornly. I didn’t have to fake it much. I felt naked without my bat.
As we left the office, Mr. Marshall watched us with a tired expression, as if he just knew we’d be back. “Try to stay out of trouble.”
Ryuu gave him a grave look from under his dark brows. “Of course, sir.”
When we reached town, I leaned against the rough brick face of the drugstore and wheezed. “I thought I was gonna bust,” I panted.
Ryuu chuckled and handed me my bat. “Oh God, I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel. Did you see that vein in his forehead?”
I shook my head, sobering a little bit. “I’m just glad he didn’t call my dad.”
Ryuu nodded. “No good deed goes unpunished. Don’t forget- we still have detention.”
I nodded, but I thought of Vanessa’s little sister and I couldn’t be that upset. She had come to us this morning to say thank you. Vanessa had no clue what had happened, but her sister had known something was wrong. We’d given her older sister back. It was a good feeling. It was worth detention.
I stood and fell into step beside Ryuu. “I’m sorry your make-out session went so badly,” I prodded. “I never knew you had the hots for Vanessa. And you were sooo smooth too.”
He raised his chin and slanted a dark look at me. “It bothered you.” He seemed happy about that. “You were jealous. Now you know how I felt when you went out with that idiot jock.”
I laughed a bit too loud. “Jealous over a little kid like you? No way.”
He stopped suddenly and stood staring at me with those dark eyes. Then he reached out and ruffled my hair, just the way I used to do when he was a little boy. “I’m not a little kid,” he said seriously. Then he turned and started walking again. No, he really wasn’t, I thought.
I stood rooted to the spot, watching him. A breeze ruffled his shiny hair, sending the longer tips dancing. A faint, ghostly silver haze of smoke twined around him like a spirit and for a moment, I imagined I had glimpsed the man he would grow into. I blinked hard and the haze was gone. Ryuu was just Ryuu again.
He turned to look back at me, just now realizing that I wasn’t with him. His dark brown eyes caught the sun, glowing like topaz, lit from the inside. Then they went dark again. The first, fat, puffy flakes of snow were beginning to fall, and they clung to his shiny hair and long lashes, so he was as silvery as the ghost of his dragon energy. I pushed myself into motion, managing not to stumble over my own awkward feet.
“Keep up,” he teased as I hurried along.
“I’m trying,” I said in a breathless voice, and something and fiery shifted inside me.
Epilogue
Rich peals of laughter filled the quiet afternoon. A short, slight boy of Japanese heritage stood from where he had been lounging beside a pretty, dark haired girl, listening to her read. She stopped mid-sentence and gave him a petulant look.
The boy ignored her completely. He had little use for her. And even less use for the stupid romance story she was reading. He followed the sound of laughter to the back of the house, his sock-clad feet silent on the polished wooden floors.
He passed a couple of servants and he could tell that they were curious as to the cause of the uproar. Though being well trained, they didn’t meet his eyes or give any sign of what they were thinking. The boy reached a pair of ornate, sliding doors.
“Obasaan?” His voice was quiet and respectful.
He was ushered in by a laughing voice. In the middle of the room, an old woman sat cross-legged in front of a low table. Her snow-white hair was swept up in a stylish bun, and her clothes were arranged to stilted perfection. He’d never seen her laugh so freely.
In front of the old woman were her writing things, and he gathered she had been composing letters. As he knelt opposite her, she tossed an opened envelope and crumpled letter into the trashcan at her side to make room on the table. He caught a brief glimpse of a formal seal on the envelope, and wasn’t surprised that a letter from The Order would end up in the trash. She set a folded piece of paper on the table and wiped her eyes, which had teared up with laughter.
She gazed at the boy with a hint of mischief in her eyes. He was handsome, her grandson, though his hair was bleached blond. She knew he thought it made him stand out, but she privately thought young men dying their hair was rather absurd. She wondered what her daughter’s son looked like now. He was bound to be tall, with that huge Yankee father of his.
“Do you know what I have here?” she asked, tapping the folded sheets of notebook paper.
The boy frowned down at the inelegant paper. It looked like it had been torn from a notebook- not the crisp, beautiful parchment that usually adorned her desk.
“No Obaasan.” He was dying to ask, but politeness forbade it.
A soft, sly smile spread over the old woman’s un-lined face. “This,” she said in a conspirator’s whisper, “is a letter from the US.”
The boy looked like he’d swallowed a bug, but when he spoke, he was all politeness. “Is it from Aunt Dawn then?”
The old fox shook her head. “No.”
She enjoyed watching the boy squirm, knowing that he was trying not to show it. His tone, when he spoke, was casual, as if he had very little interest in the answer to his question.
“Is it from the half-breed then? Why would he write to you?”
She placed the letter on the desk, and he saw- for just a moment- the slanting lines of English scrawled across the page. “No. Not our Ryuu.”
She cackled like a mad woman, and it grated on the boy’s nerves. But he would never let her be displeased with him. “You seem very happy, Obaasan.”
She tucked the smile away out of sight and appeared to gather herself. “Go call one of the servants and have them bring that little trunk down from the attic,” she ordered imperiously. “I think I have some things to take care of in the States.”
The boy left, closing the sliding doors behind him. The old woman ran a graceful finger over the signature line of the letter. “Katherine,” she said to herself. “It’s about time he found you.” Then she tucked the letter away and went about her task with a sly, fox-like smile.
~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading Kami Cursed! The next book in the Dragon and Phoenix series, Kami Kissed, will be out fall 2013. Your feedback is always appreciated. I love to hear from my readers! Please visit my blog Dragon and Phoenix or find me at Goodreads. Happy reading!
Table of Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
/> Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
other books
Kami Cursed (Dragon and Phoenix) Page 18