Warnings: Raw and uncut flower footage
Chapter 4.
Kannon led us through Tokyo, pointing out shops and naming buildings. He quickly won Nathaniel over, who bounced along with him with the kind of energy only the young have. It was starting to get late, the sun on its downward slope when I decided it was time to head back. Asher would wake soon. Cherry and Kannon were chatting on about the way the girls here dressed in little school uniforms, Zane was still scaring people, Jason was chewing on some kind of meat on a stick he bought from a cart on the street, and Nathaniel... I looked around. Where was Nathaniel?
"Stop!" I cried. "We're short a kitty!"
Zane immediately turned. "Nathaniel!"
"Anita!" Nathaniel popped out of a store just behind us and offered me a white and red-edged carnation.
"Ah, thanks." I accepted the flower, admiring the coloring of the petals. "You scared me a moment. Don't wander off like that again without telling us."
"Sorry." Nathaniel smiled. "But this store has the same roses you got earlier."
I stepped back and saw the same bouquet I had gotten from Jean Claude in the window of the small store. White roses surrounding a single red. It couldn't be. I stepped into the store, staring at the roses.
"Irrashai, konban wa!" a cheery voice called, jerking my gaze to the speaker. It was that same copper haired boy from earlier. He recognized me, giving me a cheery smile and waving. Nathaniel stepped in behind me, followed by the rest of the crew. There was a tall, slender redhead in the corner, cutting the stems of roses at an angle before putting them into a water-filled bucket. He glanced at us with a very disinterested look and looked back to his work. An honest-faced brunette was creating another flower arrangement behind the counter, and a tall, lithesome blonde with wavy hair to his shoulders turned from doing apparently nothing at all and I watched his eyes lock on Cherry. They all wore work aprons. Busy little florists.
"Konban wa," Kannon answered, stepping in behind me.
"Konban wa." The blonde stepped up, smiling at Cherry in a very inviting manner. She smiled back at him, catching the meaning of the look. I looked to the boy.
"The roses, in the window." I pointed. The boy looked at the roses and looked at me, nodding. Gee, articulate, aren't I? He obviously thought I meant those were the same he had delivered to me. I meant to ask why he was displaying that arrangement. Everything was out to aggravate me today. I looked to Kannon.
"Ask him about the roses. Why they are displaying them," I demanded.
"They are lovely, aren't they?" He smirked.
"Ask, dammit!" I snapped. Kannon grinned at me and spoke to the boy. He was almost as infuriating as Jean Claude.
"He says they liked the arrangement, it was different." Kannon looked back to me. "Does it upset you?"
I bit my tongue. Of course it did. It was Jean Claude staring me in the face when I had come here to get away from him. It's not their fault, they don't realize. Shit.
"No, it's fine." I shrugged. "It was just the same as I had delivered to me earlier."
Kannon nodded. "The boy said he had delivered the same to you earlier. He also says you are very pretty."
I had to smile at the boy, who blushed and scampered behind the register. Getting hit on by children now. A dirty, old lady? Me?
The tall redhead spoke quietly. Kannon turned and winked at him. "He asked if we were going to buy anything."
I looked at the sober redhead and then around the store. The tall blonde was already teasing Cherry with some kind of pink frilly flower and Zane looked ready to break his legs. Nathaniel was waiting patiently while Jason looked at all the flowers.
"Um, tell them if any more orders come for me, not to deliver them," I said finally. Kannon raised a black-dusted, red eyebrow and spoke to the boy. The boy looked to me and answered back quickly.
"He's asking if you didn't like it." Kannon looked back.
"No, it's not that," I sighed. "They come from someone I'd rather not get flowers from at the moment."
"An admirer?" Kannon grinned.
"Just, tell them." I grit my teeth, and Kannon explained. The boy looked to me and nodded with an understanding smile. I smiled back at him. The solemn redhead spoke.
"He says he apologizes," Kannon translated. I nodded to the redhead, trying to convey that it wasn't his fault. Boy, it's no one's fault. So who's is it really?
The redhead studied me a moment, as if he were sizing me up. There was something familiar about that look. I thought about it a few moments, looking back at pale eyes, eyes the color of Nathaniel's. But there was challenge and strength in this gaze, unlike Nathaniel's. A dominant. I was looking at a potential human dominant. You don't meet too many of those. And even less that survive to full potential. This was a young man yet. Here's to hoping he never had to put himself to the test.
It made me study him a few moments more. He was tall, and slender like Kannon, face almost feminine in its delicate lines. But there was no emotion to it. Even though his eyes held unspoken challenge, they were like dirty, lavender windows on a warehouse. Empty. Slender Asian eyes with that graceful tilt. Eyes that only knew sadness and anger, leeching emotion from his face. I'd never met anyone with eyes like that before. There was only person I could think with eyes somewhere near similar. Edward. Edward, the assassin, and his dead, emotionless eyes. Even this man hadn't reached that level of coldness. After thinking of the boy's eyes, it made me wonder. Maybe I'd underestimated the horrors of flowers and irate floral customers.
"Let's get a nice arrangement, one to distract us from Jean Claude's roses." I turned to look at the others. Nathaniel and Jason nodded eagerly. Those two must just love shopping. No matter what it was for.
"Zane," I heard Cherry saying warningly. I turned to see Zane glaring down the blonde florist, who was glaring back at him hostily. They were nearly the same height, eyes pinning each other. I was not going to begrudge Cherry a little romance while we were in Japan. Besides, he was a florist. There were more dangerous professions. And if you asked me, they seemed a little on the feminine side. More than likely no danger there.
"Zane, get over here," I said quietly. Zane turned to look at me, his power leaking into the air.
"Zane, leave him alone, and get over here," I repeated lowly. Zane looked back at the blonde one last time, snarled in the man's face, and stepped over to me. The blonde glared after him as Cherry tried to reclaim his attention and calm him down.
"I don't like him," Zane grumbled to me. "He smells of blood."
I blinked at the blonde. Blood? Why would a florist be involved with blood? He was already back to flirting with Cherry, seeming perfectly innocent. Maybe he pricked himself on a thorn?
The horrors of flowers.
"Zane, help me pick out an arrangement," I changed the subject. He nodded and turned to the flowers. The brunette spoke when Kannon explained I wanted an arrangement.
"Any specific flowers you want in it?"
"No roses," was my only requirement. "Try bright flowers that smell good."
The brunette nodded and went to work, dark chocolate color hair falling forward around his forehead and pulling out flat, wide, green leaves to provide a background. Kannon shifted from foot to foot, watching.
"I like those." Nathaniel pointed out dark violet irises. The brunette gleefully added them.
"And those ones." Jason pointed to some small, cornflower blue flowers that bloomed in the shapes of stars. They joined the assortment. In the end, the assortment wasn't necessarily bright, but it was lovely. Dark green leaves framed dark violets and blues, accented by some red flowers with one flat, plastic looking petal and a long, yellow stamen. White, circular, lantern-shaped flowers growing on delicate stems like bluebells dangled around the edge of the arrangement. Yellow, bird-like flowers perched throughout. It looked exotic, reminding me of a jungle.
"Oooo, I like it," Cherry said in admiration, her fingers playing with the top hem of the blonde's apron. He grinned ruefully and whispered something in her ear.
"It's nice." I nodded and smiled at the young flower artist. He blushed and ducked his head. It was refreshing to see a young man who was so honest and innocent. After being around Jean Claude, Jason, and Nathaniel. That was what drew me to Richard. Smart, honest, and just so human. The perfect boyscout. That only snag was that he wasn't human. Or I'd have married him by now. I nearly had. Until I had seen him eat Marcus. That had been too much for me. The final proof of how not human he was.
Why was I being so picky? Well, sure, I could imagine coming home to Richard everyday after a long night of raising zombies, and he had eaten a few people. I'm sure we'd have interesting stories to share. Yeah, and the Toothfairy was my accountant.
Nathaniel took the arrangement in his arms, admiring the colors and Kannon helped me pay for it. I glanced once more at the redhead, who gave me the same measuring look, dark red locks brushing his cheeks. The rest of his hair was relatively short, just those two long locks on each side of his face.
"Cherry." I looked away. Cherry looked at me from just a few inches from the blonde's face. She whispered something in Japanese to him and he grinned. Trust Cherry to have learned just a few phrases out of the ordinary.
"Let's go," I called, offered a nod back over my shoulder at the golden-haired boy behind the register. The boy and the brunette called goodbyes after Kannon and we answered them properly. I looked back at them, honest smiles on the two younger faces, a seductive smile from the blonde after Cherry that reminded me of Jean Claude. And that blank look from the last. I walked out.
"So, Cherry," Zane rumbled. "Seeking a human lover?"
"None of your business, Zane," Cherry grumbled back.
"Can you be careful enough?" Zane pressed. "Not scratch him once?"
"I said shut up, Zane!" Cherry yelled.
"Zane, Cherry, that's enough," I snapped. "Don't make a scene in the middle of Tokyo."
Kannon smirked, the other two just grinning.
"Asher is going to wake soon," I warned. He didn't sleep till full dark like most vampires.
"Asher?" Kannon raised an eyebrow.
We hurried back to the hotel, running up to Jason's room. No telling what Asher might do if he woke up alone in a strange location.
"Who is this Asher?" Kannon asked as Jason unlocked his door.
Kannon blinked at the golden-haired man standing with his back to us in a coffin in the center of the room. He had obviously just woken. Asher turned his head, wearing a loose, white shirt that pooled like Nathaniel's at his forearms and waist. He had turned his head over his right shoulder, his tempered gold hair concealing the right side of his face, revealing only the perfect left half. His glowing, light blue eyes, so pale they were almost white, ran over us in turn, resting on me before stopping on Kannon.
He slowly stepped out of the coffin, his back still toward us, black trousers whispering against his skin as he slowly turned to face us. Vamps. They always have to make a flashy entrance.
"I see we have a guest," he said, walking toward us. His hair still fell forward, covering the marred side of his face. I could feel Kannon's power rise, crawling across my skin.
"Asher, this is Kannon, he's a guide sent by the Master of Tokyo," I explained.
"Is that so?" Asher gave a small grin without flashing fang. Only the older vampires had mastered that technique. Often that's how you can tell the difference. But first you have to figure out who's a vamp. Kannon had unconsciously bared his teeth, taking one small step back. Even werefoxes could tell a master vamp when they felt one.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Asher said pleasantly. "Welcome to our fold, Kannon."
Kannon's power didn't subside; he obviously wasn't convinced.
"Let's head back to my room," I suggested to break the tension. "Kannon can tell us more about Japan."
"Yes, let's." Nathaniel nodded.
"And I get no succor?" Asher asked. He hadn't fed in a little over twenty-four hours. Of course he'd be hungry.
"I'll rejoin you." Jason looked to us and stepped forward, tugging at the neck of his sweater.
"Jason." I never liked the idea that he was a meal on legs for the vampires. But that's why I'd ended up bringing the group I had. None of them objected to being sucked on.
"Hey." Jason grinned back at me. "It's one of the reasons I'm along."
I bit my lip as Asher turned to him. I quickly herded everyone out of the room and back to mine.
