Warnings: Blood and uncensored memory montage. Memory montage taken from LKH's writings for accuracy.

Chapter 3.

Our food arrived, surrounded by good smells, taking our minds from the disturbing conversation. Nathaniel poked at his meal with a finger before picking up the chopsticks in his fist and stabbing it. I picked up the two pieces of murdered tree and put them between my fingers awkwardly. Zane looked down at his plate of some meat and vegetable and grabbed with his fingers. Cherry had no trouble with the egg rolls she had ordered, chewing delicately. Jason sniffed his plate, and taking a chopstick in either hand, tried to spear his food from either side and bring it up to his mouth. Americans? You must be mistaken. We are from some previously unknown and uncultured tribe from the jungles of South Africa.

I chased a piece of wild baby corn across my plate, finally trapping it in a tangle of chow mein, and seizing it with the chopsticks. In success, I lifted it to my mouth. It escaped as my chopsticks crisscrossed and hurried back to rejoin the rest of its buddies. Narrow escape. I needed a fork. With a fork I could harpoon the food to death.

Cherry watched me struggle as Jason dropped food in his lap, looking down at it in disappointment. Zane happily licked greasy fingers, grabbing for more. Nathaniel was doing the best, stabbing pieces of his food and shoving it into his mouth before it fell off the sticks. Beyond my frustration at not being able to eat when it was right there in front of me, I felt happy. It was almost like sitting down with a family. A sick twisted family, but a family nonetheless.

"Should I get you a fork, Anita?" Cherry smiled. I frowned. I had great manual dexterity. I was not about to let two pieces of wood defeat me. I readjusted the chopsticks and seized a piece of water chestnut. Successful this time, I finally got to eat something. Bully for me.

Zane had nearly finished his plate, dropping food into his mouth with his fingers and licking them languorously. Nathaniel ate all of his sushi, looking at my plate. Jason was picking food out of his lap with his fingers and eating that. I finally managed to tangle chow mein till it didn't fall off. Seeing Nathaniel staring so hungrily at my plate, I also gave him some. He was a growing boy, or cat, or whatever.

I found myself observing the two strangers again as they chatted while awaiting their food. How had a mere human disturbed the were so easily? And how could that man have recognized Zane? Mysteries afoot. Or maybe I was searching for something. There was always a mystery going on for me. It seemed strange not to have one now.

"I'll only say it once, Zane. Put him down."

"He's mine! Mine!" Zane took striding steps down the hallway, and I fired. The bullet spun him halfway around, and staggered him to his knees. The shoulder I'd hit stopped working, and Nathaniel slid out of his arms. Zane got to his feet with the smaller man tucked under his good arm like a doll. The flesh of his shoulder was already reknitting, rebuilding itself like a fast-forward picture of a flower blooming.

Zane could have rush past me, to use his speed, but he didn't. He just came walking towards me as if he didn't believe I'd do it. He should have believed.

The second lead bullet took him square in the chest. Blood exploded out of his pale skin. He fell on his back, spine bowing, struggling to breathe with a hole the size of a fist in his chest. I went for him, not running, but hurrying. I walked wide around him, out of arm's reach, and came up a little behind him, and to the side. The shoulder I'd shot was still limp, his other arm trapped under Nathaniel's body. Zane gasped up at me, brown eyes wide.

"Silver, Zane, the rest of the bullets are silver. I'll make it a head shot and blow your freaking brains all over this nice clean floor."

I shook my head. Why was I suddenly thinking about that? I looked at Zane, who was licking the last of his meal off of his fingers. He'd broken down crying after that. Thus inciting the guilt trip. The bad guys weren't supposed to cry. I caught the green eye of the redhead looking back at our table. He was looking straight at me. How long had he been doing that?

"Geez, Dolph, if it wasn't happening with everything else, I'd say it could be almost any right-wing fruitcake. Did you get the machine gunner alive?"

"Nope," Dolph said. "The survivors ate him."

I blinked rapidly. What was happening?

"Then Nathaniel has to stay here at least another twenty-four hours," Kevin said. He rolled the cigarette between his fingers while he talked.

Stephen nodded. "That's what the doctor said. We asked when he told me I could go home today."

"Don't leave me, Stephen," Nathaniel reached out across the space between them, as if he could touch them.

"I won't leave you alone, Nathaniel, not without someone to take care of you."

I wanted to clutch my head. The memories were flashing erratically. I couldn't make them stop. Like something was digging. Searching. Pulling memories to the surface.

Wren and Tucker were having trouble getting the body into the bag. Wren finally threw the body across one shoulder and Tucker started squirming the legs into a bag.

"First you tame Asher. Now you seek to tame me. You have nothing I want, Anita."

"I have Jason."

Yvette hissed at me, all that careful beauty breaking down and showing the beast inside. She snatched at him around me, and he jerked back. She pawed at him like a cat, and I kept my body between them, moving us into the corner of the circle. I felt Jason's back hit the wall, and I grabbed Yvette's arm.

Padma collapsed to the floor with me riding his body. I rose up, hands flat over his chest, legs straddling his body. "We are the Thronos Rokke, the Throne Rock people, and we are no one's pawns."

Fernando knelt down just outside the circle. "Father," he said.

"His life or yours, Padma. His life or yours."

Padma closed his eyes and whispered, "His."

"Father! You can't give me to her. To them!"

"Your word of honor that he is ours to punish as we see fit, even unto death," I said.

Padma nodded. "My word."

Damian, Jason, and Rafael just suddenly appeared around Fernando. He reached out to his father. "I am your son."

I wiped blood off my chin with the back of my hand. The munin was leaving, draining away.

I could taste blood all the way down.

Jason grabbed my arm, breaking me from the memory, and I was still staring into green eyes. They turned away with a smirk.

"Anita." Jason shook me gently. I took deep breaths, trying to blink tears from my eyes.

"Anita, what happened?" Cherry had come around the table to kneel next to me.

"Memories." I shook them off. "Just memories."

Zane frowned, looking over at the two strangers, then back to me. "Do you want to leave, Anita?"

I found myself rising to my feet without thinking.

"We'll go shopping." Nathaniel got to his feet. "It's a good distraction."

I nodded, feeling numbed. There weren't many worse memories that could have come up. Except the Senora, Harold Gaynor, or Phillip. Maybe. We headed over to the register to pay, Cherry inquiring about the price.

Phillip sagged in the chains. Blood poured in a bright red flood down his chest. It splattered onto the floor, like rain. Torchlight glittered on the wet bone of his spine. Someone had ripped his throat out.

Finally coming to my senses, I slammed my barriers up, dashing out of the restaurant, standing on the sidewalk in socks. I gripped my arms and stared back at the door with horror. I had thought briefly about Phillip, and suddenly the memory resurfaced with punishing clarity. It wasn't right. Something wasn't right. I hadn't called the memory. Something...someone else had. Like a vampire. But the sun was up. All good little vampires should be asleep in their beds. I thought again about the redhead's piercing green eyes.

"Anita?" Cherry hurried out to meet me on the sidewalk, stomping her boots back on. She handed me my shoes and I put my hand on her shoulder for balance as I put them on.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly, looking at me with her azure eyes, under gray eyeshadow, ringed with black crayon.

"I'm fine." I lifted my hand from her shoulder. "I...something was bringing my memories to the surface. I had to get out of there."

Cherry shivered and nodded, crossing her arms as the boys came out, having put their shoes on before stepping out. Suddenly, looking at them, I was very glad I wasn't alone here.

Nathaniel paraded around in black leather, showing off the outfit he coveted while the female store clerks stared and giggled in appreciation. It reminded me of the time I had seen Richard eat Marcus, his old leader. I had worn an outfit like that. I hadn't enjoyed it. Shiny, black leather contrasted against light, creamy skin as Nathaniel turned to show me the back.

"Very nice, Nathaniel," I said absently, trying not to look too closely.

"I wonder how much this is." His eyes glowed with excitement, running his hands down the smooth leather on his thighs. I tried not to watch.

"Ta-dah!" Jason jumped out of a changing booth in black leather pants with whole strips of material missing in slashes across his calves and thighs. He wore a simple white shirt under a black vest like Zane's.

"Are normal clothes taboo for you folk?" I asked, blinking at him.

"We'd prefer to be naked," Zane rumbled next to me, observing Jason's outfit. "Clothes are for play."

No use reasoning with them. Nathaniel and Jason flung an arm around each other's shoulders, and grinned at me. They looked like they were waiting for wandering photographer to swoop in and take advantage. Maybe they were.

"I'm not paying for them, why are you looking at me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Cherry!" Nathaniel leapt at her. "Help me buy this!"

He drug her off to make use of the blonde's linguist skills. Jason followed. I looked to Zane, who was grinning.

"Anita, you are too tense," he scolded me gently.

"Tense, my ass." I tried to grin at him. To tell the truth, the restaurant experience had creeped me out. Something had sought out everything bad I'd done. Piercing green eyes.

My own eyes widened as a realization hit me. Telepath?

"Anita?" Zane asked, his fingers going to my arm as if to grab me if I fainted.

"Zane." I looked at him seriously. "That man, that man who seemed to know you. He was a telepath, I'm sure of it!"

I've met and worked with folks with gifts. The last clairvoyant to touch me and see blood had started screaming and refused to stay in the same room with me. That's me, life of the party.

Zane suddenly looked very worried. "Did he do something in the restaurant?"

I bit my lip and narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, he pissed me off royally!"

He grinned and pulled his fingers away.

"That's what I love about you, Anita," he purred. "You never change."

I didn't like the idea that some stranger knew that much about me. What did he plan to do with it? National Enquirer. I know the Zombie Queen's secrets: tell-all story.

"Anita!" Jason bounced back to me with a shirt. "Put this on!"

I warily looked at the shirt. It was a regular white T-shirt, short, to show the belly, and trimmed in baby blue. The kind of shirts young girls wore. On the front was a fuzzy, large, and sad-eyed baby penguin.

"You love penguins!" Jason grinned from ear to ear. I sighed, looking at Zane, who grinned madly.

"Penguins?" He chuckled. "How unique."

I looked at the shirt again, saw the penguin looking at me with those puppy dog eyes, and sighed, grabbing the shirt and going to pay for it. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a cute face.

Cherry bought herself a few sheer, see-through items, and Zane merely gave his approval on everyone's choices. Maybe it was the penguin shirt that caved me in, but Nathaniel presented me with a pair of tight, shiny, black pants that he claimed would go with the shirt. They were getting too smart. Working off the penguin. I actually bought the damn things and knew I'd never wear them. Jean Claude would have been pleased. The last thing I wanted to do was please him. This was MY vacation.

We kept walking with our bags of purchases, Nathaniel and Jason bouncing around like the kids they were, running into random stores and dragging me in to look at big-eyed Japanese toys and scaring me with the food. Jason actually picked up a raw and very wet and slimy squid and offered it to me. People ate that stuff?

Nathaniel picked up an absolutely huge red and silver fish with a gaping mouth and pretended to be kissing it hungrily. The storekeeper looked as if he wasn't sure whether to laugh or call the cops. For all their antics, I was starting to relax.

I tensed again. I could feel it. The power in the air. It signaled lycanthrope. And it was different from the ones I was with. I looked around till I spotted him. He was standing across the street in a small dark violet shirt that stretched over his thin body, and black pants that cling to his hips for dear life. Small, black gloves covered his hands. His hair was orange-ish, falling forward heavily into his eyes like an overhanging bush. He was watching us. Zane touched my shoulder again, having spotted the intruder.

Seeing I had noticed him, the man strode across the street smoothly, striding like a cat. My hand started to slide for the Firestar.

"Hello," he said pleasantly, smiling with sharp, white teeth. "Anita Blake?"

His voice had an Asian accent, but it was only slight. I could see the touches of lycanthrope in him. His eyes were a burnished gold, like predator's eyes. He was built lean and solid, like a creature that moved fast and agilely. His voice almost had a gravelly tone to it, similar to Zane's, and his upper canine teeth were a bit sharp. Tiny, little fangs. I could feel Zane tense beside me, and felt his power rise in challenge.

"Yes, that's me," I answered, my hand on the Firestar.

"I am Kannon." The young man folded one arm over his chest to grip his other arm. He cocked his head to one side so his hair fell to the side. He wasn't much taller than me. "The Master of Tokyo directed me to be your guide."

"Guide?" Zane's voice nearly growled. Kannon grinned at him.

"And what are you?" I asked. "You're not a vampire, so why do you answer to the Master of Tokyo?"

Kannon laughed and it was almost a yipping sound. Something clicked in my head.

"Werefox?" I asked him. He grinned at me lazily.

"We are called kitsune here," he explained. "Fox spirits to the people of Japan. And I came because I am the Master's creature to call."

The Master of Tokyo called foxes. Like Jean Claude called wolves. My hand eased off the Firestar.

"And he sent you because you speak English," I finished for him. That explained the hair. He looked Japanese, but that hair definitely looked like a fox's coat. Tawny red with black ends.

"Exactly." He nodded. "I tried to meet you at your hotel when we heard you had arrived, but you were already gone."

"How do we know we can trust you?" I asked warily. Foxes were known for their trickery.

"You can't," he replied truthfully with a grin and a sparkle of gold eyes. The power had slowly trickled off, and I felt Zane relax in response. Jason was peering at Kannon over my shoulder.

"So, I guess we met the natives," he remarked, staring.

"And what does the Master of Tokyo stand to gain by sending you?" I asked.

"I'm surveillance, of course." Kannon snickered. "If you stick your nose where it doesn't belong, I bite it off."

He was so honest, it was hard not believe him. Of course he was surveillance. If he had lied, I'd have known something was up. Probably still was. It's pretty rare for me to meet a vampire or shape shifter without a personal agenda.

"Okay, Kannon." I nodded. "Thanks for coming to help us."

He smiled brightly. "I'm sure it will be fun. What with what I have heard about America's Executioner."

My reputation precedes me. Was that a good thing?

"Honestly, I thought you would have been bigger."

He won me over. He was honest as a sharp stick in the eye. I always hear that phrase.

"Yeah, well, the neckbiters tend to underestimate me that way." I grinned back, and felt everyone relax. Kannon laughed that yipping laugh again.

"Welcome to Tokyo, Blake-san." He spread his arms. "How may I be of help?"