Dorian and Lord Tanaka laughed, shimmered, and became huge wolves of grey and white, and solid black. They wagged their tales at me and barked. Then, the black wolf lowered his head, raised his butt in the air, and wagged his tail even harder. Tadashi placed a ball of white snow in my gloved hand.
“Will you allow them to tease us this way?” he asked as he packed another ball.
“Nope. Let’s get ‘em.”
I threw at Lord Tanaka. My ball landed about two feet in front of him. He cocked his head to the side and made a sound I interpreted as a wolf laugh. Dorian ran behind us, turned, and used his hind legs to kick snow all over us. After a few more attempts at revenge and a great deal of laughing, I had had enough. I gave up and encouraged Tadashi to go play in his wolf form.
I ventured off through the snow to their cave and the spot where their clothes always rematerialized. The snow crunching underneath my feet made it easier to reach the bags hanging from the tree. Shaking the snow from one, I folded the clothes they had been wearing and placed them inside. Then, I got the other bags and started filling them up. In one suit jacket, I felt something hard like a knife and sheath. Pulling it out, I discovered what looked like a bloody rib. It was sharp on one end with a bloody stump on the other.
“Gross!”
I dropped it and wiped my gloved hand on the snow covered ground. I finished filling the bags with clothes and carried them to the trunk of the transport. The large black wolf had followed me. As I closed the back of the transport, he grabbed my coat with his teeth and yanked me. I fell on my butt. He barked, wagged his tail, and seemed to dare me to do something about it. I chased him and tried my best to peg him with snow, but he was too fast, darting in close and then running away. He herded me back to the cave. One of the wolves had made a nest of pine branches. I sat on it and shivered. The black wolf curled up next to me. I removed my gloves, buried my cold fingers into his thick warm fur, put my head on his side, and dozed off.
“You must allow your mate some sleep. You cannot play with her constantly,” I heard Dorian say.
A warm wet tongue was licking my nose. I yawned at the wrong time during another nose lick. The brown and white wolf shimmered into Tadashi. He smiled at me and then walked over to join Dorian at their bag of clothes. When I sat up, my warm napping buddy stood and trotted over to join them. I pulled on my gloves.
“Do I want to know why you had a bloody rib in your pocket?”
Lord Tanaka now wore pants and shoes. “It is not a rib. I took one of Liam’s fangs as punishment. I will not tolerate such treatment of my pack.”
Shocked to silence, I wondered how he had managed to rip out one of the giant sea serpent’s fangs. Back at the Wisteria, Tadashi took a warm bath with me. Afterwards, he didn’t let me dress. Instead, he led me away to the second floor with the two of us wearing only towels and robes. He ushered me inside a room made of wood.
“Close the door,” Dorian said.
Tadashi tossed my robe aside with his. I clutched my towel. Then, he closed the door. He took my fingers in his, sat on a wooden bench, and drew me down beside me. “Rest your head in my lap. I’ll try to remove the snarls from your hair.”
It was just the four of us in the sauna, so I took him up on his offer. Tadashi’s gentle fingers in my hair were relaxing, but the fang had turned my thoughts to Liam and the events surrounding our encounter. Suddenly, I sat up.
“The Laconian Sector is far from Cassini. How could those mobsters have had pictures of Winks with that painting if it had already been returned? How did he get it back to the owner and get back here in less time than it took you and Dorian to go to Monoceros? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What pictures?” Tadashi asked.
With a lot more attention to detail, I told them about the mobsters, their attempted blackmail of me, the house where Liam had planned to keep me, and what had happened with Kiyohime.
“Was there a picture of Colwyn with the painting?” Lord Tanaka asked.
“Um, no.”
“Perhaps, he was not working alone,” Dorian suggested.
“Maybe.”
“You could ask him,” Dorian said.
I snorted.
“He’ll never admit to anything. He would never say or do anything that could endanger you. We will tell him all of this and then bend to his judgement. Agreed?” Tadashi asked.
I shrugged and nodded allowing him to pull me back down to his lap. Something still nagged at the back of my mind. I simply couldn’t figure out what it was.
Later that afternoon, Tadashi and I told Winks everything. Winks grinned. “I may have had a meeting with someone. That person may have spent a fortune on a piece of art closely resembling the one you describe. However, if a person were implicated in such a despicable scheme, the person would have the buyer beware defense.” Winks smiled at us innocently. He did not explain how he had managed to cross a universe in a few days’ time. Tadashi kissed me and returned to the Wisteria.
Chapter Fifteen
Winks and Cosmo were busy at work in the basement. They planned to keep the raw silver that Snappy had given to Cosmo in its pristine form. That way if the Protect and Serves ever tried to bust them for precious metals, they planned to say they had prospected it all which was kind of true. Winks just mostly prospected out of other people’s safes.
Being married to Tadashi was something I very much enjoyed. I got to spend all of the unsupervised time that I wanted with him. I could kiss him all I wanted and didn’t have to worry about any chaperone putting a stop to it. Unfortunately, Tadashi did have duties at the hotel, and I did get bored easily.
After taking Snappy for his walk, I hopped onto my hover board and went to work. Mr. Tavora looked up at me in surprise when I opened the door. He was searching for something on Cora’s desk.
“Oh, good. You came in. Cora was not feeling well, so I sent her home.” He looked pointedly at a recently cleaned section of office floor. “Deal with these for me.” Mr. Tavora picked up a stack of orders for various ship captains and handed them to me.
I spent the morning going up and down Wharf Street and the docks searching for them. The first mate, of the one captain who I had not yet been able to find, sent me to his captain’s private residence. The building was on Frog Street. I held my hover board under my arm as I climbed the steps and entered the foyer. The captain owned three of the building’s apartments for his immediate family, his parents, and his sister and her family. I thought about how nice that was on the ride up in the lift. The captain’s wife sent him to the door. I handed him his orders from Mr. Tavora and left being eager to grab a fish sandwich on the way back to the office. I entered the lift and took it down. Before I had made it to the lobby doors, pain exploded in the back of my head and made my dolphin helmet roll. Then, everything went black.
Freezing cold water slammed into my face. I drew in a sharp, shocked breath and gasped while water dripped from my hair and into my eyes. When I attempted to wipe my eyes, I discovered that my hands were tied behind my back. My ankles were tied to the legs of the chair upon which I sat. In confusion, I blinked at a world of black, white, and grey.
“You keep being difficult, Clue Taylor, or should I say Shimizu?” An angry man with black hair and large nostrils came into view. He had his hands clasped behind his back, but he bent at the waist to look at my face. “You can’t escape to the spirit realm if you are already here.”
“How?”
He sneered at me which made the big black holes of his nostrils look even bigger. My head throbbed, and I tried to move my shoulders to ease the pain.
“I’ve been having you followed. After Liam turned back to Kiyohime and betrayed my associates, I knew I would need to be more careful with you.”
“What do you want?”
He looked at me like I was stupid. “I want Antero returned to me.”
My ignorance wasn’t feigned. “Who?”
I felt the air behind me stir. He h
eld up his hand. “Stop. She can’t escape me.” A person behind me backed up. I wondered if he had been prepared to strike me again. We were in a house in a room with no windows. “Antero is my little pet. Kiyohime has stolen him and my city. It will be many years before I am once again strong enough to inhabit the mortal realm. It will be longer without Antero upon whom to feed. You will pop in, take Antero, and pop back out again.”
“Hey, go fuck yourself.”
He smiled, let out a roar that made my blood vibrate, and showed me his true form. He stalked back and forth in front of me. “Perhaps if I were to feed well enough on your spirit energy, I could one day take him myself.” He whipped his tail from side to side. His scales were a sickly green and yellow. The yellow matched his slit-pupiled eyes. “You don’t fear me because the other dragons protect you. The Okami protect you. Kiyohime even protects you.” The dragon walked around me in a slow circle which caused the person behind me to skitter away. “It was either you or Kiyohime who destroyed my hold on Liam. He wanted you all to himself. What did you do to change his mind? Answer me.”
I thought about Liam’s note. “I don’t know. He gave me a boat and told me he wants to marry me.”
When the dragon came around to my left side, he sniffed my neck. “What do you want, Clue Taylor?” he asked as his breath moved my hair. “How do I guarantee your cooperation? Threats to your father didn’t work.”
“I don’t want anything.”
The dragon snorted. “Mizuchi will learn what you want,” he said. Then, he opened his mouth and struck. The green and yellow water dragon sank his fangs into my left thigh. There was no puncture wound. There was no blood. Like the mononoke, he fed on feelings. Mizuchi didn’t feed on loneliness and sadness but on greed and lust. He drained my spirit energy through his bite. Slowly, he withdrew his fangs. “Antero is always a rich meal. He hungers for wealth and power. He sustains my spirit form. Without him, I have dwindled. You will help me free my servant, or I will drain you of every trace of your spirit energy until I have sucked your very soul from you.” Yellow eyes glittered at me as though he had won. “You think to agree and then betray me. I can taste your plans in your spirit energy.” He laughed. “You refuse to be controlled by greed or lust, but you can be controlled by other means. Bring him.” Mizuchi struck me across the face with the end of his tail.
When my swirling vision cleared, I saw Mr. Julian. He had put up a fight and had the bruises to prove it. His hands were tied behind his back, and a gangster held a blaster rifle to the back of his head. Mr. Julian didn’t look at me. He stared straight ahead with a stoic brave expression plastered onto his bloody and bruised face. Mizuchi struck out at me again with his fangs making me shudder. He groaned in enjoyment as he drained my strength.
Releasing his bite, he said, “Yes. I see this will work. Clue Taylor can be controlled through her loyalty to her friends. You will return Antero to me, and follow the orders of my men, or I will have your friend killed. Is that clear?” I nodded which sent waves of pain through my skull. “Kiyohime sleeps. She gorged herself on three of her headless enemies. Find Antero.”
I felt a sickening twist in my gut as I was wrenched from one reality and into the other. Mr. Julian seemed shocked. I realized that he hadn’t seen either me or Mizuchi moments before.
“Don’t…”
Someone backhanded me and prevented me from finishing my attempted reassurance. Maybe Mr. Julian would be right to worry. A black cloth sack was pulled down over my head. My ankles were cut free of the chair. My hands remained tied behind my back as I was jerked upward and shoved to stumble blindly along. Without any type of assistance, I hit the left side of my head while getting into the transport. Two doors closed. There was someone beside me and a driver.
Sometime later, the transport stopped. A knife cut through the bindings on my wrists, and the sack came off of my head. It was night in Dorado. We were in an alley a street away from Kiyohime’s building.
“You will pop inside, get Antero, and pop back here with him. If you don’t, your friend’s head goes pop,” the man said in a cold dead voice.
I grasped Cassini’s spirit realm layering it over my consciousness. The man beside me was a Yokai. His ghostly form stared at me. I concentrated on being near the former mob boss, Antero, and felt the pull and stop of slipping. Opening my eyes again to the same world of grey, black, and white, I found myself in Kiyohime’s bedroom. Across from her bed, colorless flames danced in the fireplace. When I looked at her sleeping form, I knew I saw the powerful serpent demon in color, but the inky blackness of her hair and her pale skin were disorienting. I hoped she would wake. The naked Yokai watched me from within the confines of the plasti-glass spirit box in the corner.
“Finally, you have come to free me,” he whispered through a ghastly smile.
“Not by choice, not after what you did to Winks.”
“Get me out.”
“How?”
“You can appear inside, and then we can leave together. Hurry while she sleeps. I will reward you for this in ways you never dreamed.”
“I don’t want anything from you. You destroyed Kiyohime’s ability to love. You stole from her when she was simply trying to survive. Yet, she let you live.” My thoughts began to spin. “Who do you think sent me?”
Antero said, “I assume you have come because I told you about Umibozu. I’ve heard from visitors that his threat has been neutralized.”
“No, Mizuchi will kill Mr. Julian if I don’t return you to him.” I could make out confusion on the ghostly face.
“Mizuchi? Mizuchi is a water dragon.”
I nodded. “Mizuchi has been feeding from you. He had faded away. He’s been feeding from you since you walked in mortal form. Now, you are a prisoner, and he grows weak.”
“That cannot be. I would have known.”
I shook my head. “Dragons are stronger than Yokai.” I slipped inside of the spirit box, grabbed the ghost, and slipped back into the transport where I dry heaved onto the flooring after releasing the spirit realm. A naked, deposed mob boss sat to my left, and a gangster sat to my right. The transport sped off into the night.
Kiyohime, with glowing red eyes, sat up in her bed. “Follow them. I won’t be far behind.”
The draping behind her headboard moved, and her servants shimmered into view after deactivating the visual displacement shields they wore. They removed the devices and left. Kiyohime pondered what her Little Mouse had said. A new hate sparked and flamed within her, and her eyes warmed to a brighter red.
The gangster passed a stack of clothes across me to Antero. As the Yokai pulled on underwear and pants, I could see the fresh claw marks that Kiyohime had given him. “I am fortunate to have such loyal men. I did not find the prospect of spending eternity as Kiyohime’s plaything to be appealing.”
“She’s not exactly my type either, but I hear she swallows,” the gangster said. The two of them laughed. My head hurt so badly that I couldn’t even roll my eyes at them. “This one is a different story. What are you going to do with her?”
“He’s going to give me my friend, and then we’re leaving,” I said.
My declaration was met by a troubling silence. I began forming a contingency plan for what to do when they double-crossed me. With my head uncovered, I was able to see a little of the dark landscape. The isolated house to which we were driving was by a lake and surrounded by tall trees which added to its seclusion. I thought I saw movement in the forest but dismissed it. The transport came to a stop on a brick paved driveway a few feet from the front door. The driver opened Antero’s door. Once he was out and had begun making his way up the steps, the gangster to my right shoved me out so forcefully that I landed on my knees.
“You’re a fucking asshole! You know that, right?” I asked him as I dusted off my hands and knees. The red bricks were similar to those of which our fireplace had been constructed, and a fierce determination to see them again filled me. The gangster shoved me bet
ween my shoulder blades up the steps and into the house.
The windows had been covered with expensive tan brocade draperies. Antero began to greet and give orders to his thugs. “I don’t want our plans overheard. Give the girl the hostage and let them go,” Antero said.
When the spirit realm encompassed us like a big bubble, I could tell that Antero felt it, too. Antero had a calculating expression on his ghostly countenance as he observed Mizuchi’s human form in the spirit realm.
“Oh, our plans won’t be overheard,” I heard Mizuchi say as his Yokai gangster shoved me forward and into the inner, windowless room. There, Mr. Julian remained tied to a chair. He didn’t see as I was shoved back into the one beside him or as Mizuchi and Antero joined us. “See, I kept my word. He wasn’t harmed. Eel contributes nicely to the ambiance of greed and vice in Dorado.”
“You said you would let us go.”
Mizuchi grinned and said, “Oh I will. I just need a little something from you first.” Mizuchi shimmered into his dragon form and sank his fangs into my guts. He pulled my spirit energy from me hard and fast causing me actual physical pain. He stopped before he had managed to kill me. I was too weak to escape. Mizuchi dropped me to the floor, assumed his human form, and gestured for Antero and their goon to follow him out.
Meanwhile, Mr. Julian sat and continued to be oblivious to everything happening in front of him. Too weak to move, I laid there. Bits of what almost resembled snow began to fall from the ceiling. They began to collect in a pile beside me. The pile became a line that soon became a square. I managed to turn my head and look up. In horror, I watched as a long hairy limb came from a square hole in the white ceiling.
“Run, Mr. Julian.…”
It was pointless. He didn’t notice the tiny falling ceiling particles. He couldn’t hear me, see the danger, or even get up since he was tied to the chair. The appendage was followed by another and another. I was too weak to do anything but watch as the monster emerged from above with limbs radiating outward like a dark grotesque caricature of a snowflake’s spires. Then, a face appeared. The concern and determination on Yago’s face slowed my racing heart. The hole he had made in the ceiling was large enough for his abdomen.
Clue and the Sea Dragon (The Clue Taylor Series Book 2) Page 18