by C. J. Anaya
Awesome.
I shook myself and reached for the door so I could get out there to help him, but a hand came over my seat and grabbed my shoulder.
“Don’t even think about it, Hope,” Victor warned. “I will assist Tie.”
“But—” My outraged rebuttal was cut short when something slammed against the vehicle. My door was wrenched open and the second nekomata grabbed my arm, jerking me from the vehicle. I kicked and flailed as he dragged me away from the group. I glanced back at the SUV. Victor frantically banged against the car door, but failed to open it most likely due to the damage the nekomata had inflicted.
“My master wishes to have a word with you, Princess.” Its foul breath and raspy hiss made me want to vomit.
I stopped my stupid attempts at wriggling out of its grasp and finally remembered that I actually knew how to subdue this heinous cat from hell. I switched tactics and went on the defensive, bringing my left hand up and smashing my palm into the cat’s snout. Its grip on me loosened as it let out an outraged shriek. I took advantage of the moment to jump in the air and land a swift roundhouse kick that knocked the stunned cretin to the floor. Kneeling down, I grabbed hold of his face and connected to him. I then commanded his ki to cause swelling in the brain. The swollen mass pushed down on the brain stem and damaged it while simultaneously damaging the nerves connected to the cortex. He was in a coma within seconds.
The crunch of metal sounded from behind and then Victor approached, swearing up a storm. Glancing up, I had to take in a deep breath to alleviate the guilt I felt at his obvious concern. The tightness in his jaw and the severity of his expression made me wish so badly that he had fallen in love with anyone else but me.
His eyes widened at the unconscious nekomata on the ground and then his gaze took me in.
“I’m still not used to you being able to take care of yourself.”
I ignored the disapproval that laced his words and turned my attention to Tie. He was already dragging an unconscious minion back toward us. The relief I felt at seeing him whole took the fight out of my knees and I crumbled the rest of the way to the ground.
Both Victor and Tie were kneeling next to me in an instant.
“That creature must have hurt her before she dispatched him,” Victor growled.
“Hope, look at me.” Tie cupped my face in his hands and brought my eyes to his.
Tears spilled from them as the enormity of the danger we faced washed over me, creating endless “what ifs” within my mind. The possible casualties we faced as we continued on to heal the veil made me feel more inclined to bag the entire thing and go hide somewhere no one would find us.
How many more people would I lose? How many more loved ones would I fail to save?
I gazed into the depths of his crystal blue eyes and saw nothing but love and concern for me. Tie believed I could do this, but my fears and worries made me wonder if his faith in me was unfounded.
“That thing could have killed you,” I croaked out.
His eyes softened and the muscles in his jaw relaxed.
“Impossible. I’m the most lethal kami on the planet. Just ask Victor.”
I smiled through my tears and then pulled him to me, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him despite the audience around us. Tie didn’t hesitate to reciprocate my affections as he pulled me into his lap and deepened the kiss, allowing our colors to mix and mingle, tasting each other with the possibility of a forever bond that could never be severed.
A few exaggerated coughs brought us out of our passionate exchange. I felt my face heat at the sight of my father peering over Victor’s shoulder.
“Is this public display of affection going to become a habit? Because there’s only so much a father can take.”
“Hear, hear,” Victor muttered as he stood. He masked the pain in his eyes with an attempt at indifference, but my most recent move had been truly callous even though I hadn’t intended to rub our relationship in his face.
I sighed deeply and then Tie helped me to stand.
“You need to remain far away from any altercations we have with Amatsu’s servants,” Tie said.
I stared at him in disbelief. “Are you crazy? I can take care of myself.”
“I’m not arguing your abilities. I’m trying to avoid a repeat of what ended your first life.” Tie placed shaky hands on my shoulders and drew me toward him. “We are still dealing with weapons from the underworld. You can heal us if we become injured, but there is no one capable of healing you. Only engage them if you absolutely have to, otherwise, leave it to the rest of us.”
I folded my arms across my chest and sucked in an annoyed breath. “I am not going to sit back and do nothing if this happens again.”
Tie’s eyes narrowed, but any argument he intended to voice was cut short by Ms. Mori.
“I think we need to discuss this on the way to the airport. These two might have been traveling with others.”
He nodded in agreement, but didn’t take his eyes off me, studying me as if he might find the words to convince me to simply acquiesce to his wishes.
Hello. Modern woman, here. I wasn’t about to cave.
“Fine. We need to dispatch these two so they can’t follow us or kill any other innocent people.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Victor said. “Get her back in the car. She doesn’t need to see this.”
I opened my mouth to make another useless defense as to my own personal, emotional, and physical strength when my vision went out of focus and then blacked out completely.
“Tie,” I said, reaching forward to try and grab hold of his arm when my body gave out on me again. As I lost the strength in my legs, his reassuring arm came around me, lowering me to the ground.
“Hope, what’s happening? Where are you hurt?”
I stared unseeing at the place where his face should have been.
“I don’t know what’s happening. I can’t see you. I can’t see anything.”
Just as I ended my sentence an eerie green glow expanded before my eyes and a dark cavern with stone-like furnishings and one crazy looking throne in the middle of it came into sharp focus.
“I’m not here.”
“What?” Tie’s tone was frantic as he felt my arms and torso, no doubt looking for injuries. “What do you mean you’re not here?”
“I mean that what I’m seeing isn’t here. It isn’t this place. I see a dark cave, weird lighting, and it feels cold.”
“Hope,” Victor said. I sensed him kneeling down next to me. A hand took my chin—must have been his hand—and turned it toward him. “Her eyes are wide open, but she isn’t focusing in on me. Look at her pupils, Tie. They’re dilated.”
“What the hell is happening to her?” Tie growled.
“Hope, I’m going to move one finger along your line of vision.” He paused. “There can you see that?”
But I wasn’t really listening. My focus had zeroed in on a singularly impressive looking individual who had just entered through an opening in the back of the cave. My eyes widened as a fierce longing gripped me. Without understanding why, I wrenched myself from the arms that held me and tried to move forward toward this strange being.
“Hold her, Tie. She might hurt herself.”
“Let me see. Step back and let me take a look at her,” my father shouted.
I couldn’t focus on everyone’s panic and worry with my current condition.
The man before me had my undivided attention.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
“Who is she talking to?” Tie asked.
The man’s eyes went wide as he searched for my voice within the cave…and then his piercing blue eyes found mine, his gaze freezing me in place. He stared at me as if I was actually present in that cavern with him. Then a slow smile spread across his face as his eyes took me in with appreciation and a desperate hunger. It shocked me to my very core to recognize that same desire within myself.
“I knew I would
see you again, but you’re still in spirit form,” he rasped. He considered me for a few moments and then carefully approached me, stopping mere inches away. “You’re not dreaming, though. You’ve come to me fully conscious. Your progress is encouraging.”
“My progress? I don’t understand. Who are you? Why am I here with you? What is this place?”
He reached a tentative hand forward, but it never made contact. A sharp pain pounded across my face and then my vision went back to normal as my father’s worried expression came into focus.
“Dad? Did you just smack me?”
The wrinkles around his eyes and forehead relaxed a little as he searched my face. Letting out a relieved breath he sat back on his heels. Only then did I notice that Tie sat next to me on the ground holding my right arm while Victor did the same with my left.
I looked at Tie. He searched my eyes and then let out a sigh of relief, gathering me in his arms and holding me close.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any idea what just happened. One moment I’m looking at you and the next moment I’m seeing a dark cave and a guy who didn’t seem at all surprised to see me there.”
“A cave?” Tie’s question was sharp and tense. “What did this cave look like?”
“I don’t really know. It was a dark cave and there was a strange guy speaking to me.”
“What did he look like? What did he say?”
I found myself feeling terribly reluctant to tell him about the man I’d just seen. Mainly because the feelings I’d experienced in his presence were things I shouldn’t have been feeling. I didn’t understand it and felt a little guilty for it.
“I didn’t get a good look at him. I’m really not sure where I was or who I saw.”
“Is it possible that her gifts have now expanded to seeing visions, or being able to prophesy on her own?” Victor asked.
“I don’t know,” Tie said. “But I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
“It was probably a fluke or something. I’m tired and I’m stressed, and I probably just had a memory from one of my past lives resurface and interrupt my reality here,” I said in irritation.
Why did I feel so defensive?
“Can that happen?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered, “but it’s the best explanation I have.”
“We have to move now you guys. Angie is finally waking up,” Ms. Mori said and then added under her breath, “Not that it would have hurt any of us for her to remain unconscious indefinitely.”
Angie. I’d completely forgotten about her condition.
I was the worst best friend ever.
Tie opened the door and then lifted me into my seat like I was some kind of toddler who had disappointed her parents. A millennium had passed and these two treated me as if I was still some delicate Japanese princess who couldn’t take care of herself.
Excuse me?
I’d severed a few heads from a few nekomata in both of my lives. I could handle a little blood.
Tie’s brief smile clued me in to the fact that he could sense my frustration and most likely thought it was adorable which merely added to my annoyance. If they thought I was going to sit back like some damsel in distress and watch them die on my behalf they were absolutely mental.
Kirby popped his head over the seat and wrapped an arm around me, giving me a squeeze. “Geez, Hope. The way you took that nekomata out was super cool. Do you think you could teach me that?”
I let out a chuckle, getting ready to tell him I could probably teach him a few moves when it occurred to me that he could learn everything he needed to know just like I had. Through a memory transfer. Couldn’t he?
Granted I had only ever transferred other memories to myself, and I had highlighted memories that already existed for Angie, but could I take what I knew and sort of download that information into Kirby’s consciousness? Obviously, our bodies would take some time to catch up with what our minds knew, but with training and practice maybe all of us could be capable of fighting back and defending ourselves. Not a single one of us needed to be left vulnerable. Right? I’d have to ask Tie about it once we had the chance. No use bringing it up in front of Kirby and getting his hopes up if it wasn’t possible.
“Once we’re in the air, we’ll see what we can do.”
***
Pulling into the Portland International Airport was unusual to say the least. In the movies, you always saw people in check-in terminals or crazy security lines as they fought to get to their flight on time. Home Alone came to mind and I had to stifle a giggle at the random paths my thoughts tended to take whenever I was under severe stress.
Instead of fighting through security checks and disgruntled airport employees, Victor surprised me with a chartered flight, one of the heavy jets that could make those long international trips a virtual paradise.
“I thought you guys were broke,” I said when we pulled up to the hangar.
Victor and Tie laughed.
“What made you think that? Do you have any idea how long we’ve been alive?” Victor snorted behind my seat and then opened his passenger door.
“We do have bank accounts, Hope. I’ve even got a savings account…among other things.” Tie gave me a smirk and jumped out of the car.
“Oh my word, I can’t believe I’m going to be flying on a jet that’s probably been used by famous actresses.” I looked behind me to see Angie awake and animated.
Kirby grabbed her by the arm and said, “Forget actresses. Just think of how many NFL players have been in these things.”
It was so subtle no one would have noticed it unless they knew Angie like I did. The moment Kirby touched her, her eyes went out of focus, the pupils constricting and then pulsing out again. She blinked a few times, glanced at Kirby and then immediately looked at me. The fear in her eyes made my stomach clench.
“Angie, you have to get out of the vehicle before we can,” my father said in a tense voice.
I looked past Angie and Kirby to see an annoyed Ms. Mori and my father stuck together in the back. I almost laughed at the unfortunate seating arrangement, but my mind was on whatever vision Angie just had. I needed to talk with her in private.
“We need to be on our way,” Ms. Mori said.
I bit back a sarcastic retort that would have been inappropriate and completely uncalled for since she was being civil at the moment and had no idea what Angie had just experienced.
My feelings toward Ms. Mori were very uncharitable. I didn’t understand why she hadn’t tried to save me from the abuse the emperor dealt out. I’d considered the cultural differences where women had no voice, no power, and no control over their lives in those early years in Japan.
But she never tried to shield me. She did almost everything in her power to avoid me, to cut me from her life. I didn’t understand that kind of emotional disconnect in a mother toward her child, which meant I couldn’t understand Ms. Mori. I viewed her as an emotionless robot. It was wrong to feel that way, but I didn’t know how to change it so I wrote her off in my mind and moved on.
She was here, and that was all.
I quickly got out of the SUV and the rest of our group soon followed.
A sense of relief filled me as I stepped foot inside the jet. We’d made it aboard without any other disturbances. There were no more attacks to deal with and no more people to heal. Most important of all, I hadn’t lost another loved one while I watched helplessly from the sidelines. Everyone I cared about was here on this plane. Tie smiled at me as he gave one of the attendants some of our luggage. Victor began barking orders as to seating arrangements, while Angie told him he was an annoying control freak and why couldn’t they just sit where they wanted for cripes’ sake.
Ms. Mori gave them both an irritated eye roll and muttered something under her breath that was most likely unflattering.
I watched as Kirby let out a whoop of excitement and barreled down the small aisle yelling, “I get the back
seat.”
It was a simple thing for him to be excited about, yet at that particular moment it struck me as terribly important that he be happy—that he experience the joy that clung so tightly to him—especially when I considered Kirby’s future if I had never pushed forward and healed him despite the resistance I’d come up against or the warnings I’d received.
Today was the day Kirby should have died from cancer.
And no one would ever know that but me.
My father pulled me in for a brief hug, and I felt the tenseness in my muscles melt away.
“Looks like we’ll be needing those passports you got us after all.” I said.
He barked out a laugh and pulled back.
“The only ones who weren’t prepared for international travel were Kirby and Angie, but we managed to get their passports squared away while you were in the hospital.”
He gave me a tired look, one filled with sadness and a sense of reluctant acceptance. Our lives were completely different now, and the events that loomed in the distant future left us both wishing we could simply go back to the way things used to be for just a few moments. I didn’t like the bittersweet nostalgia or melancholy that descended upon us. So I squared my shoulders and gave him another hug, pushing the past aside and embracing our current reality.
But I had no idea, really, just exactly what we were in for.
After everyone got settled, I grabbed Angie and headed toward the bathroom near the back, ignoring Victor’s remark about females and their strange need to powder their noses in groups.
Once we entered the rather spacious looking bathroom, I turned to her and got right down to business.
“Spill.”
She could barley meet my gaze. Her breathing came out a little labored so I rested a supportive hand on her shoulder, hoping it would encourage her.
“Tell me what you saw when Kirby touched you.”