“You have the miko’s knife in your hand,” merged at the base of his energy sword so he could hold both at once, “and a line of sacrificial sheep over there.” I gestured with my head at the ninja as I stood, shoving his sword back even further by kicking my blade into his.
He paused, looking like he wanted to comment on my unorthodox technique, but he didn’t.
I said, “You’d have already started killing them if we weren’t here to stop you.”
He drew back into a casual guard, as if he had no interest in fighting. He touched his chest with the fingertips of one hand. “Ah, you wound me!”
“I wish.”
He shook his head sadly and stepped back, keeping his sword between us. “I told you I only want what is mine. Not their lives, only the blood-tears within their bodies. Those, I need.”
I stared at him, letting my sword tip graze the concrete. “Really?”
By way of answer, he blurred moving in, sword licking the air just in front of my face.
I pushed my hilt upward, my arms at full extension. The diagonal bar of my aura-sword lengthened a bit, as I took a small step aside his attack. His light blade slithered along my sword, getting tangled in my violet lightning. A heavy shower of red sparks sprinkled to the concrete floor, cooling into extinction. He nodded approval. “Very nice. You have potential. I like that in my animals.”
You’re going to pay for that crack.
His red-light sword vanished—snapping out like a switch had been thrown—leaving only the obsidian dagger in his hands. With a clatter, he compressed his wings, folding them snuggly against his back. Balanced across his palm, he held out the stone knife. “You want to do this for me, I’ll let you.” Languidly, he flipped the knife and caught it so the hilt pointed my way.
“I don’t trust you.” He might just want me disarmed to make things easier on himself.
He sighed, bent, and placed the knife slowly on the concrete, stepping well back.
I hesitated, then remembered what Cassie had told me about battles never going to the faint of heart. I didn’t completely let my sword die, shortening it to a couple of feet. Kneeling, I reached for the dagger, my hand not quite touching it. I paused, wondering if the knife were going to go all weird on me once I touched it.
“Afraid of a bite you can’t see coming?” He made a sudden bob of his head, gnashing fangs on empty air to illustrate. “Where would be the fun in that?”
My heart thumped painfully. My pulse leaped into overdrive. I gave him a scornful, “No!” What I feared was that he’d rip my heart out and eat it in front of me as I dangled in his bloody claws. Apprehension sped my fingers as I plucked the knife from his palm. Using peripheral vision to see all of him at once, I was aware of the whole space lined in blurry green characters floor to ceiling high above. I asked, “Why do you want the tears?”
He gave me a slight grimace and shrugged with one shoulder, as if he barely cared about his own motivations. Something told me I was being played. He’d gone to entirely too much trouble for something unimportant.
He said, “The tears are made from my blood. In someone else’s hands, they can be used against me. I have had enough of that from the miko bitch.”
He sounded reasonable, but I thought there was more being left unsaid. “What will you do with them?”
He held still. Didn’t he like the question?
I heard voices stirring outside the fence. The ninja were coming around, disconcerted to find themselves someplace other than where they remembered being—I got this last especially from Ryuuza and Aimi who were using English. My other friends were yelling over each other, and arguing with shadow men. Torrent towered in their midst.
These were the guys I’d left outside the torii gate. With the miko dead, they’d been able to enter the property. I was glad of the reinforcements, but didn’t really know what to do with them. They’d breached the property, but the demon’s barrier remained, and I had a hunch it was stronger running off the miko’s inner demon.
With more courage than I knew I possessed, I turned my back on the demon, the obsidian knife squeezed tight in my right fist as I moved up-slope toward the rent Tukka had made in the fence. I had no intention in giving the demon his tears. When this became apparent to him, he’d probably roll the minds of those with tears in their bodies, using them against me, or maybe he’d just walk them straight into the cage where his freaky claws could rip the shards out of their dying flesh.
I had to prevent this. I had a plan. And a snowball’s chance in Hell of pulling it off with the demon’s mark I wore. I sensed it was more than decoration, though specifics eluded me.
Tukka dislodged his massive bulk, letting me slide past him, out the gap. As if this were a cue, the bodies packing the aisle grew still, every eye turning my way. There were more than a few troubled glances at the black knife I carried.
Ryuuza, Seiza, and Aimi waded through the crooked line of lady ninja, coming to the head of the column. From where I stood, I saw motion from the corner of my eye that told me the demon had followed me to the fence. He crouched like a zoo tiger, waiting for a raw, plucked chicken to be tossed in. He was keeping a close eye on what I was doing. Yeah, this was about a lot more than just getting his crystallized blood back. He was poised to claim each demon tear as I cut it out.
Ryuuza opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her as Torrent cut between us. His back to me, he faced her and the kunoichi bristling with weapons.
“She’s a friend, Torrent.”
The shadow man loomed like a monolithic slab of stone; big feet were planted wide as he studied the others. “She commands an armed force. Your father would skin and filet us alive were we to risk your safety, Princess.”
Yeah, but he can risk my life by pulling Taliesina away, leaving me caged with a demon. Typical male randomness.
Including Onyx, the rest of the shadow men clustered closer, supporting Torrent.
Faced with the shadow man threat, the lady ninja found immediate focus, drawing weapons at Ryuuza’s back. She half turned to glare. They made no response to her, also knowing their duty.
I rolled my eyes. “You guys really need to stop posing, or you’ll wind up a vampire in your next life.” I snagged Torrent and Onyx by their arms and tugged them back down the passageway, away from everyone else. When I thought we were far enough not to be overheard, I turned on them, leaning in with a fierce whisper, as if scolding them. “Onyx, you know that trick you used to take the demon tear out of Cassie?”
“The shadow slide?” He nodded, a look of surprise on his face. “What about it?”
“When I give the word, can all you shadow guys do that pooling together thing you do, and suck out the remaining tears from their hosts?”
Onyx said, “Sure, why?”
“I need it done at light speed, before the demon realizes I’m pulling a fast one.”
Torrent smiled coldly, “Preemptive assault, I like it. What do we do with the crystals when we get them?”
“Hang on to them. I don’t know what the demon can try when he learns we’re abandoning him here, so for phase two, you guys concentrate on getting everyone upstairs, and outside. Got it?”
Torrent straightened, stiffening into a kind of parade rest. “Give the word. It will be done.”
“Great.” I stomped back toward the front lines. As I passed Fenn and Cassie, they both called my name, “Grace?”
“Trust me,” I said.
“With my life,” Fenn said. “Oh, wait, did that all ready.”
I frowned at him and kept going. Geez, stab a guy and he never lets it go.
Reaching Ryuuza and the rest, I noticed Sanchez—the ever diligent PRT specialist with smart phone in hand—nonchalantly taking pictures of the demon script in the cage. Wearing the miko’s body, the demon craned his neck and offered Sanchez a smile, though no one said cheese.
With Torrent and Onyx flanking me, I stopped in front of Ryuuza.
She shot a glance over my shoulder at the smirking demon. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Dead,” I said. “Demon possessed. Those red crystals all over her body are anchoring the demon to this side of the veil.” I was glad of the opening her question had made. “Speaking of demon tears, that’s how all these ninja were controlled, why they were willing to work against you and your family. Even now, the tears are a threat against your clan. As long as they are in you, the demon can highjack your mind and turn you into puppets.”
He chortled from inside the cage. “True.”
I said, “Fortunately for everyone, he wants them back. Your part in all of this will be over, if you’ll trust me to remove the shards.”
Aimi stared at the knife in my hand. “No way am I letting you cut me. You could accidentally stab me a couple dozen times.”
I could see the idea wasn’t going over too well with any of them, though more than a few were rubbing different parts of their bodies where something might have been lodged just beneath the skin.
“You’ll like it even less if I have to come out there and do it myself,” the demon hissed.
Steel scraped steel as the kunoichi drew their katana, crouching in combat postures, weapons poised at various angles. A deep silence gummed the air.
I peered deep into Ryuuza’s eyes, my voice soft, “I’m going to save all of you. Trust me.”
Aimi said, “You can’t trust her. She’s working with that abominable creature.”
“I do trust her,” Ryuuza said.
“Why?” Aimi demanded.
Seiza answered, “Because she’s kitsune, and her words were simple, direct, with no hedging to them.”
“If the demon owns her, she’d be able to lie. She’d be corrupted!” Aimi insisted.
I put steel in my voice, “Then I’ll just have to prove my good intentions, not that you can stop what I’m about to do.”
By this time, I hoped the demon was lulled. I barked a command, “Shadow men, now!”
They melted into crashing surf. The darkness poured over me, the girls, and the ninja. Within the wave, everything was lightless and icy, with living currents swirling around us. Blind, I was torn from my feet and sent rushing headlong away. The darkness withdrew, climbing into vertical columns that became shadow men once more. They ringed Ryuuza and her dozen or so ninja, crowding them up by the elevator. Beyond the two groups, Tukka, Sanchez, Cassie, and Fenn backed toward us, having dashed past the demon’s cage.
Cassie used a shield of orange foxfire to deflect a hail of tears from the demon.
Onyx pressed the call button and the door dinged open.
I shoved Ryuuza inside. Aimi and Seiza shielded Ryuuza in the car as more ninja piled in. The door closed and they were on their way.
The demon didn’t leave the cage, and even pulled back his crystal swarm. Outside the cage, I saw the reason. Shaun. He stared at me, eyes red as blood, under the power of the demon. Either the shadow men had missed one demon tear, or the demon had managed to get another tear in Shaun after the first was removed. Either way, I hated it.
“Nothing we can do for him now,” Onyx said.
Seared with bitter cold, breaking inside me, my heart screamed, No! Don’t leave him. But Onyx was right. I couldn’t endanger everyone’s escape right now. I turned away from Shaun and left him there.
Guided by Sanchez we crossed a labyrinth where packing crates were stacked high. Our feet created a rhythmic drumming as we ran to a flight of stairs in a corner. The stairs led us up to a door in the ceiling. It was thrown aside and banged loudly. The stairs took us up into a storeroom with a lot of pantry goods on shelves. The light was off up here, but lines of light outlined another door. Sanchez threw it open and we saw a fancy kitchen with stainless steel appliances and grey-green marble countertops. Everyone surged through, and we slammed the door as if the demon were hot on our tails.
Then we saw the bodies and froze. There were servants, fallen to the floor, asleep or dead.
“Your work?” Cassie asked Sanchez.
She answered tersely, “No.” She checked the closest body, turning a dark-haired woman over. The victim had skin the color of a fish’s belly, white, edging toward a white-green where shadowed. Her eyes were red with burst blood vessels. There were trails of blood from the ears, but the dry blood had an odd grittiness to it.
Sanchez jumped back from the body. I smelled her fear, a coppery tang spoiling the air. She said, “Don’t touch them. Don’t get close.”
“What is it?” Onyx asked.
Sanchez hurried us out a sliding glass door, into a flagstone courtyard where morning sun winked through swaying tree branches. There were more bodies out here, dressed in black, guards with swords and machine pistols on straps. They had also collapsed.
“Did the demon do this to them,” Fenn asked, “with the tears?”
I thought Sanchez was going to stay silent, but she finally answered. “If the demon tears are dissolving inside human hosts, mixing demon blood and human, benign viruses might not stay that way. We could be looking at a preternaturally spawned contagion here.”
My voice came out strained, thinned by horror. “We’ve all been exposed!”
“Exposed to what?” It was Ryuuza and her entourage, approaching us from the same exit we’d used.
Sanchez pulled out a cell phone. “No choice now—gotta break mission silence. A demon-human virus could easily shift from blood-borne delivery to air-borne—can’t risk it. We need CDC containment here ASAP. And until we know what we might be spreading, no one can leave the property.” She walked away and began a series of frantic phone calls, delivering messages thick with military jargon.
Ryuuza and what was left of the ninja formed a tight ring around me, as if I couldn’t be allowed to escape until they got their answer. The black masks were off the women’s faces. From their grim expressions, I knew they’d seen the bodies inside.
How do I tell them we might all drop dead from a demonic plague?
THIRTY-ONE
FIRST BLOOD: a duel only fought to the first sight of drawn blood, as opposed to “to the death” or to an opponent’s “yielding.”
They took the death sentence rather calmly. Maybe it was their Asian mind set. Maybe their martial arts training. Maybe they simply didn’t believe me. Whatever, Ryuuza turned to Aimi and Seiza. “Take charge of the house and any of our people still alive. Secure any documents and laptops the miko might have brought here. Sensitive material shouldn’t be left lying about for anyone to read. Otherwise, we will cooperate with authorities fully.”
Ryuuza’s guards nodded and began bossing around the ninja, sending some back inside and others around the building to keep guard.
Thanks to Onyx, I already knew the demon shards had no effect on the shadow men. I turned to Torrent. “Until the PRT get here—and whoever else—your people should help guard the mansion. No one gets off the property who might be infected. No one else goes in who’s not in protective gear. Got me?”
He inclined his head in acknowledgement, and the rest of the shadow men took up perimeter positions.
Ryuuza stayed with me. “Are we really going to fall over dead, bleeding from our ears?”
Leaving Shaun behind, I thought I was saving everyone else. Maybe not. “Torrent,” I caught his gaze, “I need to see the shards you took out of everyone.”
“Here.” He knelt on the flagstones, his palm flat to the surface. As he straightened, standing once more, the red crystals were left on the ground in a small, glistening pile.
”I wouldn’t touch them,” Cassie said.
“Right.” I squatted low and peered down on the pile, wagging my head a little as I studied the shards. “Most of these are narrow and worn, with a smaller number that are double sized.”
Ryuuza said, “The miko bent the kunoichi to her will months ago. The same is probably true of the house’s staff.” She pointed to Seiza and Aimi. “We were just recently hit with the demon tea
rs, probably the large ones.”
“Less exposure might mean you got off lucky,” I said.
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Fenn said.
Sanchez returned from making her calls, her face set in a hard mask. “PRT is taking control of the site, but CDC will be here as well, a joint operation. Since this site is in lockdown, we need to establish a secondary quarantine site for treating and housing those of us who’ve been exposed.”
I thought of the temple where I’d left a dead guard. Once I got everyone settled there, I could sneak away and try to do something for Shaun. I’d had to leave him behind, but I was going back for him, something I doubted anyone else wanted me to do. “I know just the place. Follow me.”
We weren’t on the side of the house that faced the shrine. I had to lead everyone around a corner, then off past the trees with the rope charms wound around them. With the miko dead, there was no unseen wall to breach. We passed the pool with the bamboo rocker arm that fed it, clacking as it emptied each time.
“What is that thing?” Sanchez asked.
Usually on the snobby side, Aimi surprised me by answering, “That’s called a shishi-odoshi, which means scare the deer. The sound is designed to scare off deer, birds, and other beasts that might eat someone’s garden.”
It continued to clack at us as we pushed on. I lead the way to the back of the temple, winding around the Japanese maple to a back door. I’d left through an upper window earlier, Tukka hot on my tail, so I didn’t know if the door was locked. Sanchez held me back, going on point. The door opened to her touch, showing a dark hall. She motioned for quiet and drew her .45, holding it in both hands as she stalked forward.
We gave her plenty of room, slinking along in her wake. Beside me, Fenn’s eyes were slits as he breathed deeply. He murmured, “I smell death, but it’s not recent.”
Sanchez half turned to glare at him over her shoulder.
He stayed silent after that.
Tears and Shadow (kitsune series) Page 23