Neon Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 5)

by Al K. Line

  A genuine smile, that actually looked like a smile, spread across his face as he took her in, admired her figure and focused on her face as she fussed about with his leg. He wasn't about to object.

  "Spark, aren't you going to introduce us? I feel a bit of a muppet being cared for without knowing what divine beauty is being so gentle with me." Dancer tried another smile, looking like he was straining. Maybe one day he'll get the hang of it.

  I rolled my eyes at the pathetic line, but Mitsu beamed at him, softened her rather forceful bedside manner, and treated him gently. Blimey, don't tell me she was falling for him. Come to think of it, I'd never known Dancer be involved with a woman in all the time I'd known him, and I'd known him a long time. Actually, I knew next to nothing about him at all. Our involvement had mostly been about business, never time for chit-chat. Plus, he'd always annoyed me until very recently, so there was that.

  "I'm still waiting for my own hello," I said. I stood for a moment and Mitsu finished up with Dancer and gave him a lovely smile.

  She turned and said, "Sorry, Spark, is not how I was expect to be meeting you. It is good to see you, it's been so long. But you must be careful, both of you. So stupid. I know why you came, bad idea, and you should reconsider. She is a dangerous lady now, very dangerous, and you are out of your depth. This not Great Britain, this Japan, and things very different here, as you know, Spark."

  "I do, but you know why I'm here so you know I won't change my mind. She killed my parents. She has to die."

  "I understand. Is matter of honor."

  "Exactly. Right, this is Dancer. Dancer, this is my old friend Mitsu Sakamoto. She is a very powerful, and very old witch. She is also very beautiful and will steal your heart, so be careful."

  "She has already stolen my heart. Pleased to meet you, Mitsu. Thank you for all you've done." Wow, he had it worse than I'd thought.

  "If you two lovebirds have finally finished, how about you fill us in on a few facts, Mitsu?"

  "It will be my pleasure. Let's start with the dogs. That was one of Kimiko's warehouses, she has many. Those cute little puppies you saw were young hellhounds. Babies, but still able to do lot of damage. They can glamor you like a vampire, and fill you with love while they devour you. You both lucky." I rubbed my face and watched my hands, now red and throbbing as the skin thickened, feeling anything but.

  "What were they doing there?" asked Dancer. He couldn't take his eyes off Mitsu, as if he was glamored all over again.

  "My guess is they being tended by the two men you chained next to zombies and were then eaten," Mitsu said, matter-of-fact. "They were only few weeks old so you get off lightly. I suppose you see as cute little puppies, yes?" We both nodded. "They were not. Because you are foreign and soft they appear that way for to seduce you, but they are being ugly beasts, like they have no skin. You can see the muscle and they are all strange and bent, mostly teeth and horrible eyes. Ugh."

  "Okay, thanks. Now, what was with the pig?" I had to ask, much as I was already itching to get back out and chase down Kimiko.

  "That was a katakirauwa. It is a pig."

  "Well, duh." I got a scary, nasty look and decided to shut up.

  "It steals your soul if it runs between your legs," she said in all seriousness. "It has one ear and casts no shadow, and it probably sensed that you were too stupid to understand and decided to have you."

  You know what? I'd forgotten just what a dangerous place Japan was for us Hidden. Being foreign made you very susceptible. It's like all the weirdness comes out of the preternatural woodwork to have a go at you, try to scare you off back to your own country.

  "Now I definitely want to go home," said Dancer. "How the hell can you live somewhere where puppies eat your face and pigs steal your soul?"

  Mitsu turned to him and said, "Do you not have gremlins and ghouls, and more goblins than anywhere else in the world? Do you not have giants and lots of trolls, and do you not all try to kill each other all the time? Do you not have—"

  "Okay, we get the picture. Look, the reason I called, apart from to catch up after so long and for some translating work, although that's seemingly been eaten now, is to get information I can trust about Kimiko Cocchi. Can you tell me?"

  Mitsu sat on the edge of Dancer's chair and said, "I can. But you should go home. Both of you, right now. She is law in Tokyo. She rules. You make big mistake coming here. A very big one."

  To be honest, I kind of agreed.

  Something weird happened to my face and the next thing I knew I was out cold on the floor. Seems it was a day for fainting. Maybe it was the sushi, or maybe it was because I'd sprouted tusks.

  My guess was the sushi, but I wasn't really myself.

  Some Shopping

  "Why have you got tusks?" screeched Grandma. "Take them off! You look like an anorexic walrus. And have you been letting something eat you? You have, haven't you? And you, Dancer, you're supposed to be looking out for Faz, making sure he doesn't get into trouble."

  "I am supposed to be doing no such thing," protested Dancer. Grandma gave him one of her uber-stares and he mumbled, "Sorry, Grandma. Yes, Grandma."

  My Grandma, have I mentioned how I love her more than life itself? I have? Well, I do! But she can be a little intimidating at times, never mind that she looks like an innocent old lady rather than the ancient witch she is. Still, she makes a killer cup of tea. Sometimes literally, so it always pays to be nice.

  Oh, yeah, the tusks.

  Kate dropped a worryingly large number of bags with even more worrying designer labels on them—I'd given her my bank card and told her to treat herself, not expecting quite such a number of treats—and dashed over to me. "Faz, Faz, what happened? You've got tusks!"

  I tried to speak but the large growths had forced my mouth open and my lower jaw back to make room for the disconcerting protrusions. As I felt them, it seemed they had taken over my incisors and were already below my chin and still growing. They began to curve even as I watched. I freaked, panicking that they would curve around and pierce my eyes. Death by gnashers was not the way I envisioned shaking off my mortal coil.

  What was wrong with this place? Soul eating pigs, puppies that ate you, now tusks. I just wanted to murder a beautiful and deadly Japanese vampire and go home. Nothing wrong with that is there? Not too much to ask when on vacation.

  Mitsu sighed like I was a special kind of idiot and said, "Is this really Faz Pound the great Black Spark, a dark magic enforcer who beat Hidden prison and survived? Surely this is idiot impostor who let animals eat him and can't even control own teeth." That told me, right? Never mind that I was gagging, my jaw hurt like hell as it was prised open wider and wider, and my tongue kept darting out like it had a life of its own, licking the fresh enamel on my deformed teeth.

  Kate and Grandma stared at Mitsu, not sure what to make of her. I wasn't exactly able to make introductions, it would have to wait. But then Kate introduced herself and Grandma and they began having a chat about the numerous shopping districts, Dancer and I seemingly forgotten. Mitsu finally told them what had happened and both Grandma and Kate tutted about our foolishness, nodding their heads as though it was exactly what they expected from the two fools with red fingers and faces. There were way too many knowing glances aimed in our direction.

  I tapped on the tusks, a dull thud that reverberated around my skull like it was full of keratin, then began worrying that it was and my brain was slowly hardening and I'd be nothing but a big tooth or grow a horn or something.

  As I began to really panic, the females took pity on me and Grandma said, "Faz, you dolt, you let a hellhound lick you, didn't you?" I nodded like a naughty schoolboy. "Well then, that explains it. You've got some venom in you and—"

  "Does that mean it's going to happen to me?" squealed Dancer, panicking and checking his teeth, hand all pink and shiny with fresh skin.

  All three women rolled their eyes and Grandma continued, "You've got to focus. Don't you know anything?" We stared at
her mutely, neither of us having a clue what she was talking about.

  "I read about this somewhere," said Kate. "Legend goes that they give a little of themselves to you if you survive contact. You start to turn into one."

  "Oh, well that's just great," moaned Dancer.

  My eyes widened as I pictured myself turning into a deranged, demonic puppy. "You either have to go with it or you have to get rid of the poison." I nodded, understanding.

  My eyes turned black with a vicious snap like a slap from Mitsu, and I saw Dancer focus. Magic eddied as we turned our attention inward, calling to the Empty for all we were worth. Universal essence came at our command and before I morphed into something freakish I let the truth of all things wash over me.

  Ink sprang to life as it channeled magic through my body, forcing it deeper into my hands and my face where I'd been torn and gnawed on, repairing the damage dangerously fast. I knew there would be a serious comedown for such rapid repair rather than letting it happen gradually, but just like Dancer, it felt preferable to turning into a rabid beast.

  My flesh burned as skin knitted together and muscle regenerated, and I felt sickness rise as the venom was purged as the tusks receded, feeling like they were spiking upwards into my nose then my skull while a loud ringing made me lose normal hearing. Vertigo hit, and I fell sideways onto the carpet as I vomited thick black trails of foreign dog venom in long lengths that looked like blackened and burned intestine. It snaked across the floor for a moment before dissipating, the corruption along with it.

  All I was left with was a strange sensation like I'd had some serious work done at the dentist. The nausea passed quickly, only to ride back to a peak of pain as payback hit for my magic theft. I spent a few minutes doing the old moaning and writhing about thing, but it still wasn't like it used to be, and, again, it was a comfort in its own perverse way. Yes, I know I have issues.

  When I came to, I found Dancer sweating in his chair, and the women sat on a sofa drinking tea.

  Charming, right?

  Some Good Intel

  After a shower, a change of clothes, and a vigorous brush of my teeth plus some aftershave to smell nice—I regretted that decision the moment it hit my fresh skin, and I may have screamed a little—I joined everyone and we sat around for an hour or so talking and getting to know each other, catching up on the gossip and most importantly of all, obtaining valuable information regards Kimiko, the state of things in Japan as a whole, and Tokyo in particular.

  It wasn't good news.

  Mitsu, bless her ancient heart, was a wealth of information and she didn't mind sharing. She wasn't worried about getting on Kimiko's radar, but told us in no uncertain terms that she would not be playing an active role in what we had come to do. She would provide information—for a fee, of course—but wouldn't step over that line.

  Turns out Kimiko was basically running the show. Over the last hundred and some years she had become more and more powerful, clawing and biting her way to the top of the Hidden food chain. Using, abusing, and discarding vampire and human alike in a quest for domination and absolute control of Japan. She was doing rather well at it.

  She was not, however, Head Vampire of Japan. That wasn't her goal, although she could have taken it if she wanted. No, she was intent on owning the country so was a face the media knew, and involved in much of the business that went on in the country, with special emphasis on Tokyo.

  Something had happened a century ago, Mitsu said, that had changed forever the course of the lives of the vampires and the entire Regular and Hidden populations of the city, and since then Kimiko was ruthless in her quest for dominance.

  She had money and influence and she built on it year after year, bringing more people over to her side, infiltrating the secret world of the Yakuza and uniting many of the gangs and factions that ruled Tokyo from the shadows. She murdered her way to prime position within the underground, a male-dominated underbelly of most business conducted in the city in one way or another. She was laughed at and scorned when she began to rise and become noticed—there had been women Heads but not so much in the twentieth century.

  Kimiko changed all that. She brought with her immense wealth and she paid the right people to let her get a foothold in businesses, helped by her ever-expanding army of men and women who were immensely loyal and grew year after year.

  It didn't hurt that she was a vampire. The Yakuza didn't know what hit them. She burst onto the scene in a whirlwind of terror and went on an extreme killing spree the likes of which they had never seen before.

  Kimiko was not subtle. She didn't play the waiting game or slowly get important people in her pocket to work on her rising position from the right side of the law, she basically came and wiped the floor with the unsuspecting and rather lax factions that believed they had the city and the country pretty much sewn up. She killed bosses, she intimidated those she could, she paid those that would accept, and she terrorized everyone.

  Most gangsters were Regulars in Japan until that point, and when Kimiko made her move the legend was born. Hard men whispered that she was a vampire, laughing nervously about such things, but Japan was rife with superstition then, same as it has always been, so it wasn't a stretch for them to at least half-believe the stories.

  She turned many to the darkness. Those close to becoming, or already part of her inner circle were given two choices—become immortal, or die. All accepted the former offer. As her influence grew, so did the number of vampires, until she was unstoppable, head of the Yakuza within a decade. Her people were everywhere.

  The Vampire Council could do nothing to stop her. She had no time for their petty politics, she wanted her own form of Council, one where the gangster life and loyalty were the prime driving forces.

  She got it, still had it.

  "And this is all down to Rikka," I said after Mitsu had finished getting us up-to-date on Japanese Hidden life. "When she killed my parents she did it because of a deal she made with Rikka. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but this must be it. He paid her, simple as that."

  "I am so sorry about your boss, Spark. That is terrible thing he did, and I never thought he was bad man." Mitsu took some convincing that it had been Rikka and Kimiko working together. She had known him a long time, although they hadn't been in touch for many years. She thought for a moment. "I think it go beyond money. When she came back here, which was right about time your parents die, maybe few years after, she had more than just money."

  "What else did she have?" I couldn't see what else would have made a difference to how she had managed to progress and build her empire.

  Mitsu looked at us nervously, all of us entranced by the history lesson and the insights into a culture we had no hope of understanding. "She had books. Secret books, special books. Books of magic." She took a breath and continued. "Just a year or two ago she received large number of new ones. Dangerous things, very powerful. People were scared and they talked."

  "Goddamn that man!" I knew exactly what books Kimiko had been given recently. I'd discovered a hoard of exceedingly dangerous tomes full of magic spells and knowledge that should have never been written down, information that should only ever be passed verbally from teacher to student.

  It was a job for Rikka that resulted in me finding them, so, naturally, he'd taken them. I assumed he'd destroyed them or locked the collection away somewhere very safe, maybe given them to the Council. I hadn't asked and to be honest it didn't cross my mind after his death. I was too sad and too damn angry to think about much else apart from revenge. I'd tried my best not to think about how Rikka had been directing my actions my whole life.

  What else would surface now he was gone? "So this was the deal he made with her. He gave her money and he gave her access to our world, to learn magic. Hell, you never said she could use magic."

  Mitsu looked at my face, at the others, and said quietly, "Forgive me, I thought you all knew this thing. Kimiko Cocchi is not only Boss, she is most powerful witch Japan
has ever known. For a hundred years she has ruled the Hidden. Nobody dare try stop crazy lady as she can do such terrible things. She has access to secrets no other Hidden know and her magic very strong. This woman has absorbed everything we take so many years to learn and master. Kimiko has library full of magic and she cannot be beaten."

  My tea had gone cold. I was, to put it mildly, a bit annoyed that Kimiko was some kind of uber-vampire-witch hybrid. Seems like it wasn't going to be so easy to kill her.

  I'd damn well try, though.

  A Moment

  Dancer, seemingly already over the worst of the break and unable to keep his eyes off Mitsu, offered to take us all out to lunch.

  Mitsu was as surprised as I was by the rapid healing, and Dancer looked guilty, like he'd done something without really thinking about the consequences. Grandma and Kate said they had other plans, I declined out of courtesy and because I needed time alone to think, and a very relieved Dancer practically ripped his new skin off his face he was smiling so wide when Mitsu lowered her gaze and said demurely that she would love to go for lunch.

  She warned him about being sure not to walk much, and that maybe they should eat in one of the many restaurants in the hotel. Dancer agreed, hobbling about and moaning with the pain I knew damn well was an act.

  Ten minutes later they were gone. Grandma took her shopping to her own room, leaving Kate and I alone.

  "You need to be careful, Faz, she sounds so dangerous." Kate looked concerned, she also looked tired.

  "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. This place is way too weird, though. What a morning."