Warnings: Stalking without use of a phone and blood
Chapter 7.
I closed off the power, closing shields I'd let slip, drawing it back into myself. Nathaniel was touching my leg, higher than I liked. I shifted away from him and I felt him lift his hand away. I slowly peeled myself from them like stepping out of a mosaic. As if they'd collapse without me there, missing a keystone. But they didn't. They just looked at me with luminous eyes in the dim light of the club.
"Okay," I said finally, turning to face them. "My night's shot. I just want to sleep now."
Although meeting the Master of Tokyo wasn't as horrible as meeting other masters, it hadn't been fun. The other masters had wanted to touch us, taste us, terrify us. Most of those were dead. Sanesuke had one thing going for him. He hadn't tried to touch me. It almost felt strange to have a master treat me so...normally. He'd spoken to me as if I were a human being instead of someone's pet.
The others looked at me, torn between wanting to stay and wanting to go with me. I was going with or without them. I just wanted to curl up in a bed with a certain stuffed penguin I knew. Asher stepped toward me, triggering the others to follow him. We left the heat of the club behind us as Kannon led the way, leaping out in front of me defensively.
We stepped out into the night, which almost felt chilly after the heat of the club. Jason's nose wrinkled as he sniffed the air.
"Perfume," he muttered.
"What perfume?" I asked, thinking of the geisha.
"Like before, it's still here." Jason lifted his face, nose in the air like a dog. Err, wolf.
"Like before? When before?"
If that one smell had made enough of an impression for them to sniff it out among all the other scents, I figured it had to be important. Jason shook his head and grinned at me.
But the other lycanthropes were sniffing too. Great, now all I needed was several leashes and a pooper scooper. Good furries, you don't need to sniff everything on our little walk. Don't you dare mark that post, Zane!
I sighed and kept walking, pulling the entourage with me like they were connected to me with string. I glanced at my watch. It was near ten thirty. Jet lag. I'd only gotten that small nap on the plane in a little over twenty-four hours. It was daytime in the states, which is probably why I was tired. Most of my work was during darkness. I had to readjust my body clock.
We passed a small Photoshop when Zane leaned down to whisper to me from behind.
"We're being followed."
I tried not to react. "By who?"
"Can't see them, but it's that smell. It's following us."
"From where?"
"I can't pinpoint it."
Haunted by perfume. I could imagine the geisha's face, and I reached out, sending out small tendrils of power. I reached out with that sense I have. Magic, if that word works for you. It doesn't for me. I reached out with that power that let me raise the dead, mix with werewolves, and deal with vampires. I touched Asher, and felt his acknowledgement, then reached further, still walking. Nothing. Just us, and human beings, going about their nightly business on the streets. Kannon turned his face back over his shoulder. He gave me an inquisitive look, having felt me reach out. Pulling my power back into myself, I moved my eyes to look around, to the side, up, to the side, and back the other way. I saw his lips part in wordless comprehension. He turned back to face forward. Smart. Well, he was a fox after all.
I heard Zane's feet scuffle to a stop behind me, and I turned to look at him. Cherry, Jason, and Asher all stopped behind him, their eyes telling them they were as aware as I was. Zane snarled, a baring of teeth, and took off at a trot into a dark alleyway to our left.
"Zane!" I snapped. Not the brightest crayon in the box, but he was angry. I could feel his rise of power as he dashed into the alleyway. Shit. Pissed off werekitty in dark alleyway couldn't be good.
"Zane!" I hurried after him, my hand falling on the butt of the Browning. I was not about to step into a dark alleyway unprepared. I heard a scuffle ahead and Zane's deep rumbling growl in the moon-frosted shadows.
"Zane," I said with a quieter voice. Cherry glided up behind me, and I was sure the others were behind her. I heard the sound of something whipping through the air. There was a surprised yelp followed by an outraged snarl. I dashed forward. If Zane was attacking someone, I had to stop him.
"Zane!" I yelled in warning and then the light cast of the moon finally outlined him in the shadows. He was half kneeling, arms pressed to his body, and he was snapping his head from side to side as if trying to bite at something on his shoulders. Out came the Browning. Something was attacking Zane. Moonlight glinted in thin lines across the alleyway like a spider's web. Zane was right in the middle of it. Great, we had giant spiders living in the alleyways of Japan? Snagging unsuspecting passersby? And I thought Godzilla stomping Tokyo was farfetched.
"Zane, are you okay?" I asked, the Browning pointed wherever my eyes went. I heard him snarl in anger.
"Zane," Cherry breathed behind me.
"Zane?" Nathaniel whimpered from behind me.
"Wires," Zane said gruffly, as if embarrassed. "I'm wrapped in them."
"Wires?" My eyebrows lifted. Had Zane run into someone's laundry lines?
"That man," Zane's voice trickled from the shadows. "Flowers."
Flowers. I don't like him. He smells of blood. My eyes darted up, scanning the rooftops on either side of us. That's a general mistake most humans did. They didn't look up. It was a natural species deficiency. Helped keep the population numbers down.
"Youji?" I heard Cherry ask softly, sniffing. Youji? What the hell was that? Food? What was she doing thinking about that at a time like this? It was so unlike her.
Seeing nothing along the rooftops, I edged closer to Zane to see how to get him untangled.
"Let me go first, Anita." Jason pushed up by my side. I nodded, and he stepped toward the snared wereleopard. Cherry was watching the rooftops, looking back and forth. Jason stepped right up to Zane, and felt for the wires.
"You got yourself good and tied up there, Zane," I heard him say and I could tell by his tone he was smirking.
"Fuck you," Zane snarled.
"I'm so scared," Jason chuckled, tugging on the wires.
"Youji!" Cherry called in the alleyway, making me jump. I glared at her. I barely heard the sound of something whistling through the air and I twisted to the left, before feeling a sharp thump to my spine. Everyone reacted, heads darting up toward the building I was standing against. A slight shadow vanished from the edge of the building.
"Anita." Asher had one hand on my arm, the other going to my back. "Hold still."
I felt him tug, and pull something from me. I turned to look and saw him holding an arrow. My eyes widened. It hadn't hurt...but I was still standing. Asher's hand patted my back, pressing the machete against my spine. My machete. The arrow had struck the sheath of my machete. My God! Robin Hood was out to kill me! And we all thought he was so merry. Well, maybe that was just his men.
The Browning was sweeping the edge of the roof when I heard something jar metal. Kannon had jumped onto a metal dumpster in a crouch, looking up at the roof.
"Kannon, wait," I hissed. Great, he was going to get himself killed. Zane yowled, sounding almost like a deep, panther scream, darting my eyes to him. He had thrown his head back, bent legs shaking as I heard a scritching sound. Metal rubbing metal. Jason jerked on a wire, hissing as it cut into his fingers.
"Bastard! Bastard!" Zane began yelling, thrashing in the wires.
"Zane! Stop struggling!" I hissed angrily. The smell of blood had already tinged the air. I heard a scrabbling sound and saw Kannon was climbing the wall. Actually climbing a smooth, brick, vertical wall. Somehow he was sticking to it, fingers splayed like claws.
"Anita, get out of here," Asher breathed at my side. Zane yowled again and I heard Jason's curses. Nathaniel brushed past me to help them.
"I'm not leaving." I looked up at the roof again. "I can't."
"Anita," Asher said more urgently.
"Fuck off, Asher!" I snapped. He was taken aback, taking a couple steps back from me. Okay, you can tell 300+ years old vampires to fuck off, but not often.
"Kannon! Get down!"
Kannon turned to look down at me, and I heard that whistling again. I threw myself aside, falling to the ground with gun pointing up. I fired at the shadow as the arrow pierced the flapping edge of my jacket. The sound was incredibly loud.
I heard a yell from above, on the opposite side, and a figure leapt off of the adjacent building, jacket material billowing like bat's wings and the flash of metal in the moonlight. I turned my gun to that shape and saw Cherry suddenly appear in my line of fire.
"Cherry!" I had time to yell before that metal flashed and Cherry crumpled with a cry. I fired at the person with my arms up over my head and I heard the bullet ricochet off the far wall as the assassin darted to the side immediately after Cherry crumpled. The assassin darted smack into Asher. Pale fingers wrapped his throat, jerking the assailant off the ground. I rolled up quickly, hearing the leather rip. Nothing sounded closer to the sound of skin ripping than leather.
I got back to my feet, gun pointing up with Cherry crying on the ground in front of me. Kannon leapt up over the roof edge as Zane and Jason unleashed a string of profanities. Moonlight lit the man Asher held enough for me to see the long dark trenchcoat and short, reddish hair. The assassin grabbed at Asher's hand with his free hand, drawing back the hand holding an old fashioned katana. He lifted the katana up above his head and Asher just watched him calmly. The katana stabbed forward and down, driving down through Asher's upper right chest, just before Asher looked the man in the eyes. The assassin limped, snared by the vampiric gaze. Never look into a vampire's eyes. They'll roll you and make you do and feel what they want, regardless if your opinion. I was immune to that by virtue of what I was, and Jean Claude's marks of power on me. In a way, I was tapped into his power.
Asher's body had jerked to feel the blade enter, and now he looked at the upper half of the katana sticking out of his chest as if he didn't know how it got there. Still holding the assassin off the ground by one hand, he gripped the katana by the blade, and I watched him slowly pull it back out. Shit, that had to hurt like hell.
I dropped into a crouch by Cherry as she held her shoulder to her body. The katana had nearly cleaved her shoulder in half, and the only thing stopping her whole right arm and shoulder from falling off was her holding in place. Flesh and bone was busily reknitting as Cherry sobbed on the pain. Her knit shirt was cut raggedly, and the right strap of her bra was cut, bearing her torn breast. I quickly pulled my jacket off, throwing it around her shoulders to cover her. Not that she would be embarrassed. I was embarrassed. Having breasts flopping around during the middle of a fight was a disturbing thought, even if they weren't mine. I'd leave that to the comic book heroes.
Asher's upper lip pulled back, showing fang, and that was the only admittance of pain he offered. Inch by inch of crimson-stained blade followed his hand till it came free with a jerk. He threw it aside and it clanged as it rebound off the wall to skid across the ground.
I heard a panicked cry from the rooftop the red-haired assassin had leapt from and saw another person leap off the roof. How many of them were there?
I aimed the Browning at the figure leaping at Asher as the moon glinted off more metal. I fired, and the man cried out, thrown out of his leap and striking the ground ungracefully. The man in Asher's grasp flinched awake at the sound of the gunshot, his head tossing wildly. He quickly realized he no longer held his weapon, and averted his gaze to stay away from Asher's eyes. Smart. He caught on quickly. I watched him grab Asher's wrist with both of his hands and curl his legs up, hanging from Asher's hand completely. He kicked out with both feet at Asher's gut. Asher bowed under the blow, but his hold didn't release. The assassin choked loudly, slamming his knees against Asher in a wild attempt to escape the crushing fingers.
The man I had shot wasn't moving, lying on his side near the wall. Shit. So much for not killing in a foreign country. I scanned the roof edge for anymore that might leap off like a clown car spilling clowns.
Jason and Nathaniel had grabbed a hold of the wires even as it cut their hands, pulling down on whatever anchored them, and I watched the wires go slack, falling to the ground.
Another figure dropped into our midst, landing in a crouch between me and Zane. The Browning centered on his head as the moon lit up white crosses amid the black clothes of this newest attacker. Something flashed in the dark before I could tell what it was. I felt a sharp sting as something bit into my forearm in several places down its length. Wire. Wire had wrapped my left arm, cutting into the skin, a few loops held back by the knife in its sheathe on my forearm. I felt a sharp jerk and stumbled forward, feeling the wires tighten, and I hastily readjusted the aim of the Browning. Jason tackled the last figure from behind, wrapping strong arms around the assassin from behind and jerking him back, pinning his arms to his body.
"Shit!" I yelled to feel the wire bite at Jason's grab and felt blood start to run down my arm. The man was taller than Jason, making him an awkward victim to hold, and he appeared to know it. He smashed his head back into Jason's face and pushed up quickly, planting his feet on the ground. Jason snarled, nose bleeding, as he was nearly sent bending over backwards, still keeping his arms wrapped tightly. The man in his arms started to kick at the ground and choked on a cry, and I knew Jason was tightening his hold with the supernatural strength he possessed.
I heard something heavy strike the dumpster again and the moonlight lit up patches of white clothing and bared legs as a smaller figure dropped from the edge of the roof behind me. The person landed on the top of the dumpster, rolling off of it to land steadily on their feet on the street, and I saw the shape of something large in this person's hands turn to point at me. A crossbow. There was that whistling sound of a projectile slicing the air and I knew I wouldn't be able to move in time.
