Chapter 11.

I watched Youji's hands tremble and looked to Jason. Jason raised his eyebrows.

"What's his problem?" I asked Kannon.

"I don't know." Kannon watched Youji. Zane moved closer to Youji, sliding up behind his chair.

"Mourning?" he rumbled, leaning down close to Youji's head. Youji's head jerked up and he glared at Zane. I watched their eyes lock, reminding me of Jason and Zane's showdown on the plane. I reached out and grabbed Zane by the ear, jerking his head away from the stare down.

"Enough, Zane, that's enough," I said menacingly. Zane looked at me, still bent over from my hold on his ear.

"I am Nimir-ra," I told him. "And you will obey me."

"You are Nimir-ra," he rumbled after me. I released his ear. He stood up calmly, smiling. The door to Asher's room opened, and Aya stepped out, rubbing his eyes. He was wearing his socks, black pants and a black, sleeveless shirt. He stopped when he saw me. I saw his eyes flicker over the penguin shirt and I nearly flushed in embarrassment. Oh yes, I had to change, ASAP.

He spoke, and Youji answered.

"He asks if you will help them." Kannon had gotten up off the couch.

I considered Aya carefully. He had attacked Cherry, Asher, Zane, and me. But I was apparently the only one who had a small problem with that still. So now I was the bad guy.

"After he had been told to kill me?" I asked bitchily. Kannon translated and Aya bowed his head. He muttered with a deep, rich voice back to Kannon.

"They failed," Kannon said simply, "and getting the kid back is more important to them. They aren't going to try to kill you anymore."

Getting the kid back. That was the most important thing here. No one had really been hurt. Must get my priorities straight.

"Regardless of whether you asked or not, I'd get the kid back. They took him because of me," I said to Aya, "if you want to help out, that's your prerogative, but you'd be best leaving it to me. You aren't ready to deal with these guys. And don't think I've forgiven you yet."

Aya looked at me with his lavender eyes, and I watched them get colder as Kannon translated. "He's my teammate. Whether you help me or not, I will get him back," he challenged.

"You'll be killed." I turned away from him, walking back to the table. "And I'm dead serious."

Youji slunk off to take advantage of the vacated spot in the bed, and to probably escape the carnage if we started to fight. Aya stared at me as if measuring me. I felt my hand want to grab for the Browning hanging at my side under the windbreaker. Luckily, he saved me from that decision by taking the chair Youji had vacated.

He began to explain without further ado. Weiß, they called their team, and they were dedicated to taking out drug lords, criminals, and other nasties of the human world. He admitted they had taken the hit because it relayed I was responsible for many murders and had slipped though the cracks of the American justice system. Well, not to say he wasn't correct, but it wasn't a matter of slipping through cracks. Most of them had been in self-defense and perfectly legal. The rest, well...they couldn't prove it. Maybe the case file hadn't been all that wrong.

Schwarz acted as bodyguards for a certain crimelord name Takatori. Takatori. Sounded like a Japanese dish to me. Probably something you ate with the fingers and dipped in sauce.

Schwarz consisted of four members and all have some kind of ability beyond normal. I'd met Schuldig. I was right, he was a telepath. Zombie, I found out, was named Farfarello, and they said he didn't feel pain. I found that interesting. How could anyone not feel pain? Unless they were paralyzed. That explain the giggling when he was slammed into the wall.

The leader of the group was an American named Crawford, and he was a precognative. I knew a few clairvoyants, but never one that saw the future. Now THERE was a handy little skill. And the winning numbers are...

The last member, Nagi, was described as a child, with powers of telekinesis. Powerful. Dangerous. I could imagine why Schwarz was so good. They played with a stacked deck. Well, so did I.

"Okay, now that I know who the human enemy is. Aya, you need to understand the non-human enemies," I told him. He seemed very skeptical as we told him about shape shifters and vampires.

"Fairytales," he insisted. Jason choked on his chocolate milk from across the table.

"Fairytales," I repeated slowly. I took my windbreaker off and put my arms on the table where he could see them. Scars crisscrossed my arms, some caused by me, but not most of them. There was a mound of white scar tissue near the bend of my left arm. And a cross-shaped burn mark, a little crooked now due to being clawed by a shape-shifted witch. Scars dribbled down from it like water. Of the two, the left one was the worst.

I saw his eyebrow lift, looking at the scars. Other than that, his facial expression didn't change.

"Vampires and shape shifters did these," I explained to him. I tugged down on the collar of the shirt to show him the scars on my collarbone. His eyes lifted to look.

"And what did that?"

"A vampire that got a little too messy with its food," I explained. He blinked lilac-colored eyes and looked away again. I had more scars, hidden by my clothes. But I wasn't going to show him those.

"You think that will stop me?" he asked softly.

"No," I admitted. "But you have to believe they are real to deal with them. They play for keeps, Aya. One wrong move, and you're dead. Or you're a snack first."

"I always play for keeps." Aya got to his feet. "Can we order some coffee?"

That was one request I was only too happy to oblige. We waited for the coffee in relative silence, and only after getting a few sips of the brew we both took black, did anyone speak again.

"How do we save Omi?" Aya finally put his cup down.

"It depends on what the Master of Tokyo wants." I shrugged. "I think it might be incentive to get me to find his cats. Or maybe he doesn't want anything at all. Maybe the kid is already dead."

Aya closed his eyes and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "If he is dead, there will be retribution," he said slowly.

"Hold your horses there, Red," I said quickly. "You can't kill him. You don't know what he can do. He'll either kill you, or turn you into lunch. And you still end up dead."

He opened his eyes and looked at me over his fingers. "Then help me."

I noticed he said 'me'. Not 'us'. He didn't plan to take the others with him. It was smart in a leader type way, but suicidal to think he had the idea of going alone. Men.

I looked to Kannon. "Call Sanesuke. I wanna talk to him."

Kannon hesitated one moment before going to the phone. Aya picked up his coffee and sipped it again.

A few moments later, Kannon handed me the phone. I figured Sanesuke would be up. Somewhere safe from the light.

"Blake-san, how nice to speak to you again."

"Cut the bullshit, Sanesuke," I said tiredly. "Is the kid alive?"

I heard him chuckle breathily. "Yes, he's alive."

I took a deep breath. "I want him back, Sanesuke. Tell me what I have to do."

"Get me my leopards, Blake-san," he said as politely as ever.

"Let me speak to the kid," I bargained. "I wanna know he's all right."

"You speak Japanese?" Sanesuke chuckled again.

"His friend does. Let the kid talk to him and I'll go find your leopards today."

"Excellent, Blake-san," Sanesuke said pleasantly. I heard the phone go quiet. I waited with a tense breath till I heard breathing again.

"Sanesuke?" I asked.

"Da-re?" I heard a soft voice ask. I handed the phone to Aya.

Aya started to speak in Japanese and I heard the child's plaintive voice even a few steps away. Aya spoke quietly and calmly, even though his hand gripped the phone like he might crush it. I would have felt the same if it had been one of mine.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I felt so helpless. I couldn't talk to the kid. I could only hope Aya was doing well. And I'm not that great at trusting other people. I heard Aya mention my name and his eyes glanced to me. Jason sat in his chair quietly, watching Aya solemnly. Zane sat on the back of the couch, listening.

"Omi?" Aya suddenly gripped the phone with both hands. "Omi!"

I blinked. What had happened? Aya's eyes grew hard and he started growling into the phone, speaking harshly. I heard the low baritone answer and tried to grab the phone before Aya said something that might cost the kid. Aya tried to move out of my reach, stretching the cord.

"Aya! Give me the phone, now!" I grabbed for it, and we ended up in a tug of war while Aya was still busy threatening Sanesuke and I tried to peel his fingers off the receiver.

I finally jerked the phone from him and clapped it to my ear so quickly I nearly hit myself in the face with it. Dammit! And this is why you don't invite assassins into your apartment.

"Sanesuke?" I asked worriedly. Sanesuke chuckled.

"Your friend has quite a temper." He seemed quite amused. I glared at Aya and he glared back. Zane hovered near him, waiting for an excuse to eat him most likely.

"I'd like to meet him," Sanesuke continued. "Bring him with you."

"I'll bring the leopards, that was the deal," I protested. I could guess why Sanesuke wanted to meet Aya. And I could guess Aya wouldn't like it.

"Bring him for the child," Sanesuke countered as smooth as silk.

"I'm not trading him, Sanesuke. We had a deal."

"Correct, I leave you and yours alone," he answered, "but he is not yours, is he?"

I looked at Aya. He was still glaring at me and the phone with angry eyes.

"As of now, they are," I promised.

Sanesuke made that breathy chuckle again. Gawd. He'd make great phone sex. Or a fantastic stalker.

"Prove it," he said, and I got dailtone. Shit.

I hung up the phone, glaring at Aya.

"Well, I hope you're happy," I snapped. "You just bought yourself a one way ticket to hell."

He didn't answer. He spun on his heel and walked straight back into Asher's room. I wanted to know what had been said between him and the kid. Kannon watched him go and looked back to me with wide eyes.

"Translate." I crossed my arms.

"Which part? The 'I'll have your head' part, or the 'you're already dead, you just don't know it yet' part?"

Shit!

"Zane." I looked to the tall man. "I can't take him with me."

Zane smiled, knowing what I meant. Jason's eyebrows perked up like upside down 'v's.

I heard yelling coming from Asher's room and other voices rise in argument. Enough to wake the dead. I could suddenly see Asher getting up, scaring them to death and going back to sleep.

I walked over to the door and opened it. Aya and Youji were glaring each other down, standing beside the bed. Goggles had sat up, one hand holding up the blanket, leaned over to yell as well. They all looked at me, silent, not changing position, just a turning of the head.

"Keep it down." I put a finger in front of my lips in the international sign for shut up. Youji threw his hands up into the air and stalked into the adjoining bathroom. Goggles was staring at me, kind of with that look you might have on your face if you met up with a wolf in the woods while naked.

Aya gave me an unhappy yet cold look. Distraught, while a little angry at the same time. Kinda like PMS. I turned around and closed the door. Zane cocked an eyebrow at me from the couch with a grin.

"Don't let them leave," I told him.

"Your wish is my command." He cackled.

"And don't eat them," I added quickly. Zane gave me a long-suffering look.

"Kannon, Jason, you're coming with me," I told the two and they nodded. I looked to Cherry and Nathaniel, who had taken Kannon's place on the couch.

"You two stay and help Zane," I told them. "And you might want to move Asher or them to Jason's bedroom or Nathaniel's room. I don't want them to open the coffin."

Cherry nodded.

"But first, I'm going to change." I sighed. "I'll be back."

Yeah, me and the Terminator.

I returned in a pair of blue jeans and a simple blue blouse. Over that was the black windbreaker to hide my gun. Along with my knives and my machete. We were seeking shape shifters that might have committed brutal murders. Me, go unarmed? If I could, I would hide a bazooka somewhere. They needed to come out with a small totable version you could hide in your jacket.

I'd taken off the bandage on my cheek. I only had a red line that was healing left. It might be gone in two days. It scared me how fast I healed lately. Not as fast as a vampire or a shape shifter, but not like a human.

I went back to Jason's room and saw Zane and Nathaniel holding the door to Asher's bedroom, loud slams coming from the other side.

"It starts." Zane chuckled at me.

I motioned at Kannon and Jason to follow me and we hurried down to the parking lot. We had to find the car again, and Kannon got in the driver's seat. We were just pulling out toward the front of the hotel when I saw a familiar redhead dashing out the front door after us. He jumped in front of the car and Kannon slammed on the breaks.

"Shit!" I snarled. Youji and Goggles came dashing out after him, Cherry and Nathaniel following. All were fully dressed again.

Aya slammed his hands down on the hood, glaring at me through the windshield. I clenched my teeth together to prevent telling Kannon to just run him over. Road rage, and I hadn't even left the parking lot.

Zane stumbled out of the main hotel door, his face a mask of blood. Cherry grabbed onto Youji's arms, and Nathaniel tackled Goggles, grabbing his arms and trying to twist them up behind his back. We were making a scene. I opened the door and got out.

"I can't take you with me, Aya," I told him. "Leave this to me."

Kannon leaned out the window and translated. Zane came up, and I saw his face had been opened from forehead to lips. I bet that had scared the hotel staff. It scared me.

I wasn't sure where Aya had his sword, but I bet it was hidden in his jacket. Youji was snapping at Cherry, and Goggles was elbowing Nathaniel to the face repeatedly. It's never, ever, easy for me. But then again, if it was, I probably wouldn't trust it.