Ash took a step back, looking up at him surprised. His guess, she read the emotions between the words and knew that he was still angry with her too.
Yuki held her hands out dramatically. “Then come. I’ll give them back.”
Tristan flinched. “Wh—what?”
“I rather enjoyed rooting through your dark memories, but I will gladly give them back, if you want them so badly.”
He glanced at Ash who was carefully stoic before frowning at Yuki. “What’s the catch?”
Yuki burst into laughter. “Mattaku, am I that transparent?”
The door opened behind the others, but Tristan was too focused to turn and look. Ash didn’t have to look to know who it was and he trusted her to watch his back.
“The catch, Ryōshi-san, is that you must feed from me. I’m willing to open my vein this very moment, for you and only you.”
Tristan bristled, taking a step back. Beside him, Desmond looked just as disgusted, but maybe for different reasons.
“Uh…” He looked to Ash for guidance. She gave him nothing, her expression stoic. “Not happening. I—Jesus…” He felt sick just thinking about her blood in his mouth, seeping into his body, filling his stomach. Maybe it would be different if he was already awakened. “No.”
“Very well,” Yuki answered before waving Tristan off. “Ah, Akane-san, come in.”
The Scotsman gave Tristan a snarl when they met gazes, which Tristan replied with an automatic finger and dropped his mental wall long enough to growl back at the bulky vampire. What’s your fucking problem?
Ash scowled at him for it but didn’t say anything. Neither did Desmond.
If Tristan hadn’t known that the fox-woman before them was supposed to be Akane, he wouldn’t have been able to tell himself. Her hair style was slightly different than it had been in France but that was all that’d changed—oh right, and she was dressed this time.
In her human form, she looked just like the other members of her skulk. As it turned out, the kitsune were more immaterial than corporeal. And once they joined a skulk under an older kitsune, they all took on their leader’s appearance. It was just their way. Akane’s skulk consisted of three others, all five-four in height, Japanese features, white-tipped bright auburn hair and fox ears where human ears should have been. Small, petite and soft.
And fucking vicious when cornered. Tristan had the scars to prove it.
“Thank you for seeing me,” Akane said in her high pitched Japanese accent and bowed. “It’s an honor to be taken into your service, Uruwashi-sama.”
From the bed, nearly hidden by the lengths of curtains, came Desmond’s sarcastic snort.
Tristan considered her a moment. That’s right, Akane had that tiny scar on her cheek. He’d seen it in her fox form too, back in France. “What do you want?”
Akane frowned at him, looking childlike with her youthful appearance. Guess he never really noticed before, but yeah, Akane didn’t look a day over twenty. Not bad for a being that was over five-hundred years old.
“I’m sorry… You don’t remember me.”
“No,” Tristan said, taking a step back so that Ash was next to him. He didn’t reach for his gun, but nearly had. “I remember you well enough. I remember you attacking us.”
Out of his peripheral, he could see Ash nodding. And he couldn’t be sure, because he didn’t want to take his full attention off the kitsune, but he thought Yuki was grinning at him in that fucking stupid way that said she was getting her way and liking it too much.
“Yes, we did. And I’ve apologized for that. It wasn’t our intention to harm an Uruwashi. We had no idea until the fae told us. How is he, your valet? I would like to speak with him again, it’s not often we find others who can speak to us in our language.”
Ash and Tristan exchanged a nervous look.
“Akane-san, what is it we can do for you?” Ash asked in a soft but commanding tone. Polite too, considering the honorific she didn’t have to attach to Akane’s name.
The kitsune smiled with a child’s innocence and folded her hands before her. “My skulk is having trouble with a troll.”
Tristan blinked at her a moment, processing that. Mamoru had told him about all of the shinwa, but he never expected to meet a troll. Not only were they recluse, but there weren’t all that many around. Apparently they had low birth rates. “A troll, seriously?”
Akane smiled. She was either really good at pretending she didn’t sense Tristan’s less than charitable mood, or she was genuinely that innocent. She did have a sweetness about her that Tristan couldn’t deny. If she hadn’t tried to kill him in the past, he might have actually fawned over her a little.
“Hai. We returned from Paris to find a troll had moved into our temple. You see, the temple is our home, our place of power. This troll, it comes out every evening shortly after dusk. At first it only disrupted the temple, overturning statues, cutting the bell free.” She sighed and shifted her weight. “Then its deviance escalated. It started killing the animals around the temple and dropping them at the entrance, a sort of blood offering. A desecration,” she hissed.
“A week ago it attacked Kohaku, injured her severely. She lost her tail and a leg. The beast ate them in front of us.”
A warning bell went off in Tristan’s head. Severely injured? Couldn’t the kitsune regenerate? They were, after all, less than corporeal, yet not entirely ethereal. Anyway, that’s what Mamoru had told him and it helped ease his mind from having hurt the skulk members back in that French hotel room. The one he thought he’d killed wasn’t dead.
Ash shot him a look. Even not being able to read her mind, he knew they were thinking the same thing.
Bullshit.
Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge, kitsune healing. So what was her game in lying?
Akane frowned, looking to the floor and crossing her arms across her stomach. “Then, two nights ago, when it attacked again, it ate Sango. There is only injured Kohaku and I left now, since we lost Kyō in France.”
That got the couple exchanging glances again. Something was off. The kitsune were undying. Tristan was being set up and they all knew it. He glanced at Yuki to see what her expression was and was met with an empty stare.
Akane looked up suddenly, her expression twisted in sorrow. “Oh, please, do not think I mean to take this order from you as payment for Kyō’s death. On the contrary we will owe you for the job once it is completed.”
Tristan crossed his arms over his chest. Did he call bullshit on this now or wait and see what happened? He tried to give Ash the time to speak up but she didn’t and he sighed.
“You know, I only hunt vampires. I’m not like this all around shinwa assassin. Vampires. Only.” Besides, a troll? A real honest to giant troll with acidic blood and Hulk-like strength? No fucking thanks.
“Perhaps,” Ash said softly, coming closer to him to put her cold hands on his arm. “You can help drive him away? You would not have to kill him, just relocate him.”
Tristan frowned down at her. Was she trying to get him to agree? She knew Akane was lying as much as he did.
“Ash?” he questioned cautiously, keeping his mind locked up tight to protect himself from Yuki and Desmond’s unwanted intrusions.
She turned slowly, looking stiff but her eyes were sparkling with mischief. She was definitely up to something.
He sighed, knowing he would regret this. “Fine then. I’ll go.”
Yuki’s enthusiastic response confirmed his fears. The old bat was in on it. “Subarashii!”
“Let me make this clear,” Tristan said, stomping up to Yuki. “I’m working for Akane. Not Yukihime, princess pain in my ass. Got it?”
Yuki’s saber tooth fangs seemed enormous up close when she smiled. “Wakatta.”
“Right,” Tristan said, turning back to Akane, watching the whole exchange with horror and awe. The more time he spent with Yuki, the less respectful he was with her. Stupid? Maybe, but she annoyed the ever living hell out of him
. And she knew it. She was utterly mad, but not walk on eggshells sort of mad. More like… mad professor. She was stronger, wiser and far more keen than most made her out to be. He wondered sometimes if her “malady” was all an act to hide the true horrors within. If they all knew her, the real her, they’d all be terrified.
He motioned to Ash. “Let’s get going, before it’s late. Daylight restrictions n’ all.”
“Actually,” she said and Tristan stopped to turn and look at her. “I will remain here, with Yukihime.”
He raised a curious brow at her. “Really?”
“Yes,” she answered, her smile turning sly. Her bright blue eyes darkened with a barely contained emotion. “It will do us good to catch up, Yukihime and I.”
So that’s how it is? Fine, he’d play decoy for Ash so long as it didn’t get him killed. “Well, you girls play nice, okay?”
“Wakatta,” she whispered, mimicking Yuki’s sassy affirmation from just moments before, and kissed him.
Off to the side somewhere Desmond was moving around and grunting in disgust at the show of affection. Akane and Yuki were openly staring, the same fascinated expression on their faces. Tristan only rolled his eyes, not giving a shit that he was being watched.
Ash’s attention shifted across the room, her eyes narrowing in a shrewd mien. “Take Desmond with you.”
“What?” Both Tristan and Desmond said as one and then looked at each other in revulsion.
Yuki chirped out a loud laugh, garnering everyone’s attention as she clapped. Of course, she commanded it so. “Subarashii! Dōkan desu.”
Ash smirked.
Tristan sneered. Of course Yuki would agree.
“Ash?” he asked in a cautious tone.
“You trust me, yes?”
He frowned. “Well, yeah…”
“Then take Desmond with you. He is good with trolls. Simon too. That will leave just us girls.”
His frown deepened as he looked around the room to the others. He didn’t know what she was thinking and being stuck with those two was the last thing he wanted but Ash had something in mind and he was going to trust it. He nodded, face screwed up like he’d bitten into a lemon. He leaned in close and whispered, “You’ll owe me.”
Ash gifted him with a sly smile and a wink. “It’s settled then.”
4: Suffocated Love
SIMON nearly hyperventilated and had a stroke when Desmond told the fae he was on duty, he was so happy. And that’s what it was, a duty. Simon was the healer, the cleric, the white mage. He was the shinwa recovery system and didn’t seem to mind at all as he trailed behind the others, happily chatting away. Desmond, whatever his role was, just annoyed Tristan, and Akane went off on her own, saying she’d meet them at the temple and did they know where it was? Desmond did.
Tristan still couldn’t believe he was actually doing this, voluntarily sticking himself with Desmond and Simon and leaving Ash behind. It wasn’t that he needed her help in the hunt. He could kill just fine on his own. That was a whole issue all on its own. He’d killed at least one vampire that didn’t deserve it. And while it’d taken awhile, the guilt of it was really starting to set in heavily now that he’d had time to focus and mull over it. He wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing anymore. And now a troll—Just how the fuck was he supposed to get a huge, stubborn, boulder of a troll to willingly leave its nest without killing it?
Tristan pulled the antique watch, a late Christmas gift from Ash that she found in Italy during their trip, from his pocket and checked the time. Almost nine, plenty of night left to get this done. He shoved the watch away and came back with his keys only to have them immediately snatched up.
“Desmond,” he warned.
The vampire laughed and shot him a sly sidelong glance. “I’m driving, mate.”
“The fuck you are,” Tristan snapped. His gun was suddenly pointed at Desmond’s head. He swallowed hard and looked at the gun in his hand wondering when he’d even pulled it. Sometimes he really scared himself. Maybe if he could remember parts of France he could understand what was happening to him. The thought to take Yuki’s offer serious was starting to weigh on him with those unwarranted deaths.
Desmond stopped and turned to Tristan. He wasn’t smiling anymore, his crystal green eyes staring hard as he considered the Uruwashi. “Hmm, you’re getting better at that.”
Tristan frowned and put the gun away. He caught a glimpse of Simon. He was farther away than he needed to be, looking uncertain and constipated. For once his mouth wasn’t running a mile a minute and Tristan was sure he’d just scared the young fae a little. Hard to imagine considering he lived with Yuki, but there it was.
Desmond didn’t even seem fazed as he went to Tristan’s car and opened the driver’s side door. “Faeries in back.”
Simon glanced at Tristan, looking tentative and unsure climbing into the back of the car. Tristan sighed deeply and got in on the passenger’s side, adjusting the gun to keep it from poking his ribs. The tiny car shook as the big Scotsman maneuvered himself into the driver’s seat, grunting.
“A micht wee, eh?” the man said when he managed to stuff himself in behind the wheel. Dude was actually shorter than Tristan but made up for it with double the bulk.
Tristan only glared back in answer. God, he felt like he’d just been crammed into a clown car. Desmond’s vampiric presence was heavy on his soul and he shifted, feeling violated for it even if Desmond had no control over it.
By the time they reached the end of the driveway, Simon’d found his voice again and was talking nonstop from the back seat. Even with the kid’s loud volume and the tiny confines Tristan managed to tune him out, lost to his own deep musings.
He was thinking it was almost over. They were this close to getting out of Japan and leaving Yuki behind for good. Maybe then he could truly start over, him and Ash. It was what they both needed, the catalyst to their relationship to bring things moving forward again. And maybe ease his conscious.
Back in Greece Ash admitted that not only did she have Yuki erase a few memories from Tristan’s mind—namely how he killed Lucien—but that she also had most of her own memories returned. Tristan was devastated of the hard truth, but deep down, he’d already known. It was the only thing to explain the lapse in events, the emptiness he now felt, as if a part of him were just gone. The fact that he knew he killed Lucien but couldn’t remember how was proof enough, really.
Then things in Greece had gotten pretty crazy with Ash’s predecessor trying to kill them, the elf and pythia mucking up the works, meeting a real Uruwashi to only later lose him and very possibly meeting his father—or at the least, someone who might know him. So after they left the Land of Gods, Tristan was hoping that Ash would finally tell him everything she remembered. It was kind of obvious she wanted to talk about it but didn’t know where to start.
That was almost two months ago.
Tristan never was a patient man, but he was trying to be with Ash. How long would he have to force himself to wait though? He wasn’t sure he could hold out much longer, not without growing to resent her, and in the end, himself.
“You don’t deserve her.”
From the back, Simon chirped a helpless little yip and stopped talking.
Tristan snapped to attention. “Excuse me?”
Desmond’s jaw tightened as he stared out over the snow-covered road. “Just as we said, she be too bloody good for yew. It’s no right for yew two to be together.”
Tristan stopped for a moment, holding back his first instinctual onslaught of curses. See, he was growing up, a little. With a more intense effort than normal because he was angry, he forced his mental block back into place. He never noticed if it was up or down unless he mentally prodded his defenses and once it was in place, or not, it was seamless and invisible to him. He really needed to remember to check it before he found himself in the company of less than favorable vampires. Desmond must have heard all of Tristan’s thoughts just now, why else bring it up?<
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“One,” Tristan said carefully. “Our fucking business is none of yours. And two, I don’t care if she’s a vampire and I’m Uruwashi. It doesn’t change anything.”
Desmond turned his head to stare at him long enough that Tristan shifted in his seat, feeing anxious. The vampire was supposed to be driving. Through snow. And not looking at him like… that.
Desmond let out a little breath as if preparing himself and turned back to watch the road. “Yew two haven’t done the bloody yet, have yew?”
“‘Scuse me?”
Doing the bloody? Sex, doing the dirty—vampires bite, bloody... yeah, whatever. Despite the fact that they actually had sex in Greece, Tristan wasn’t going to be childish and gloat. Besides, it wasn’t the guy’s business. Too bad it wasn’t Tristan’s since and wouldn’t until Ash could figure out how to curb her hunger. A sudden thought made Tristan flinch. Yukihime, the meddling shit, she had Ash’s spell book, the one Ash thought might hold a spell to help battle her vampiric nature. That’s why Ash wanted to stay behind, to wipe her hands of the old vampire and get her book back.
“That’s none of your goddamn business.”
“Shame, mate, don’t ken what yew is missin’.”
In the backseat, Simon eased himself into a corner, looking like he was trying to disappear.
“I told you, it’s none of your fucking business.” Damn, it was hard to bite his tongue. The question was, why bother? Tristan looked out the side window. Why not unload on Desmond, once and for all? Well, for one, it would be easier to do with swinging room.
“You don’t know anything,” Tristan said, feeling a little petty for it since Desmond had said the very same thing to him more than once in the past.
Desmond’s lips parted to flash his fangs in a nasty smile. “I ken Asta.”
Tristan kept his comments to himself. But the moment they got out of this tiny car…
“I ken she’s no getting what she needs.”
In the back, Simon was starting to make little high pitched noises, looking horrified.
White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) Page 4