Chapter 12.
Aya walked up to me, and glared
down at me. I looked calmly back at him. It is so DAMN hard to look menacing
when you're staring into your opponent's chest. Zane tried to grab Aya's arm
and Aya jerked it free, then jerking it up to backhand fist him in the face.
Zane was nearly thrown to the ground and I knew that had to have hurt Aya's
hand. I grabbed his arm then. He turned his anger back to me, and I looked him
in the eyes.
"Do not touch what is
mine," I said slowly and carefully. I heard Kannon translate and Aya
challenged me with his return stare. I tried to put everything I meant into my
eyes. That I would kill him if he touched Zane again. That I was trying to help
him. And that I wasn't going to take him along.
Aya jerked his arm from my
grasp, eyes still cold. I was at a crossroads. I either had to put Aya in his
place now, or leave him to fend for himself. Decisions, decisions. If he
acknowledged my dominance, I could protect him. If he refused to, he was
vampire food. Unless he could really cash the checks he was writing. I decided
to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'd still be there to save his butt once
something started chomping on him. And we'd have the big question answered.
"Okay, Aya, you can
come," I told him, "but your friends stay here."
Kannon translated that, and Aya
looked back to whom I was referring too. Youji was still squirming with Cherry,
not wanting to actually hit her, and so, getting nowhere. Nathaniel had Goggles
in a headlock, Goggles punching him in the ribs.
Aya snapped at them, and
everyone paused. Zane crawled on his hands and knees to my feet and I knelt to
look at his face. The slash had missed his left eye, following the nose, almost
straight down. It was already starting to heal and close.
"I'm sorry," he
murmured to me. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him on a clean spot of
his forehead.
"It's not your fault,"
I told him. "It appears Aya is a dominant, and we are going to find out. I
don't blame you for not being able to stop him."
Zane almost kind of mewed and
rubbed his face against the palm of my hand, smearing it with blood. I stood
back up, bringing Zane back to his feet with me.
"Aya is coming with
me," I told the others. "But the others will stay here."
Kannon translated that and Youji
yelled angrily.
"Shut up!" I clapped
my hands over my ears. "Nathaniel, Cherry, take them back upstairs. Keep
them there."
Nathaniel nodded, and with a
quick movement, slung Goggles over his shoulder. Goggles kicked and thrashed,
yelling in Japanese, but Nathaniel just hauled him along like he weighed
nothing at all. Youji was staring at us, eyes wide in shock as he was drug
backwards by incredibly strong, slender arms around his waist. He got over the
shock and snarled at Aya, eyes blazing betrayal.
"Cherry, clean up Zane's
face, please," I called after her.
"Sure." Cherry nodded
and Zane walked after them like a scolded puppy. I looked to Aya.
"Let's go."
He nodded and opened the
backdoor of the car. I watched the others walk back into the hotel and hoped
they made it up to the rooms without getting the cops called on them for
holding hostages.
"So, where are we
headed?" I asked as Kannon drove us through the streets.
"To a place I've seen that
pard at sometimes," he explained. "It's kind of like a bar and a
restaurant. Your average citizen doesn't go there. But first, we gotta get a
present."
Of course. Just once, I'd like
to go to a shape shifter hangout that was a high-class restaurant. And a
present. I'd forgotten about that part. Shape shifters tended to be a demanding
lot. Thank God one of us had his head in the right place.
Aya spoke up and Kannon answered
him. Aya nodded and sat back. I watched him in the rearview mirror. He looked
sullen, distracted. Jason occupied himself by watching out the window.
"Aya, what is the your
teammate's name?" I asked.
Kannon translated and Aya raised
his eyebrows. "Which one?"
"The one with the
goggles."
"Ken."
That was a rather American
sounding name. It surprised me. Of course I started to think about a certain
doll called Barbie, but I think anyone would have.
"Why?"
I looked back to Aya. "I
didn't know his name."
Aya was silent the rest of the
way. Kannon took us to a small shop that looked like a hole in a wall really.
The small concrete steps led down a few steps below street level. Inside the
shop it was dim and musty, lit by candles and a couple weak lightbulbs. There
was a tiny man just slightly shorter than me standing in the store. He had
straggly white hair and was wearing some old fashioned Japanese outfit. You
know, the ones with the poofy sleeves. I had a 'Gremlins' flashback and prayed
I didn't find a Mogwai anywhere. But then again, Jason would probably eat it.
"What are we getting?"
I asked Kannon after he spoke to the man. The shopkeeper smiled, and he was
missing a few teeth. Kannon smiled at me as the ancient shopkeeper hobbled
behind his counter.
"Have faith." He
lifted his hand by his face as if telling me to just shut up. So Aya, Jason and
I stood around, looking around the shop, looking like tourists. Well, at least
Jason and I did. Aya looked like he needed to use the bathroom. Badly.
Assorted knick-knacks and curios
filled tables and shelves. I picked up a fan and it fell open in my hand,
revealing its white background and flying crane with cherry blossoms. I was
examining what looked like a jade dragon with a ball in its mouth as the
shopkeeper stepped back out with a sort of tray in his hands. He handed it to
Kannon and money exchanged hands. Aya was out the door before we got near it.
"So, what did you
get?" I asked in curiosity.
"Just a token." Kannon
smiled. "It'll do."
The tray was about forearm
length by forearm length, and it had a bit of weight to it. It was completely
encased in thin wood, and it was driving me crazy. Too small for a Mogwai. I
got to hold it in my lap as Kannon drove, and I desperately wanted to open it.
I'm not normally this bad. It was the fact I was in Japan and it might be
something I'd never seen before. Yeah. That's what it was.
We pulled up to a bar in the
seedier part of town. There was a guy taking a leak in the alleyway, watering
the wall. Inviting.
We climbed out of the car, and I
noticed there was a sticky substance that had started to leak from the box onto
my pants leg. I froze the moment I noticed it, and looked at the box, feeling
my breath quicken.
"Kannon," I called.
"Hai?"
"The box is leaking on me,
and if there is a human body part in here, I'm going to be very upset."
Kannon almost giggled.
"It's not a human body part."
That much was a relief. But the
answer left a lot of possibilities. Joy.
A dingy sign that badly needed
to be replaced, or repainted, hung over the bar door in Japanese letters. The
outside was stone and brick, and trash littered where the walls met the
sidewalk.
I looked to Aya, who was studying
the sign. "Aya, don't attack anyone unless they attack us first."
He nodded wordlessly, and Kannon
opened the door. The inside was dim, cigarette smoke in the air. I coughed, and
the patrons looked at us. I felt the power in the air, shape shifters. A
Japanese bartender looked at us boredly. Kannon spoke, drawing attention back
to him, and the bartender answered.
"He hasn't seen them
today." Kannon looked back to me. A woman's voice came from the pool
table, and Kannon spoke to her quietly, taking a small step back towards us.
She put the pool cue she had
been holding down, and walked towards us. She wore ripped blue jeans with the
whole right leg missing. The waist of the blue jeans started just below hip
level, showing the straps of her underwear, and made the fact she was wearing a
G-string painfully obvious. She wore a short shirt over it, baring a bit of
tight stomach, like my penguin shirt. It was obvious she was not wearing a bra,
and apparently it was cold in the bar for her. A navel ring shone in the light.
She was a few inches taller than me, built slender like Asian women were. I bet
I could have easily snapped those Barbie doll legs with a well-placed kick. Her
hair was long and straight, dyed dark green. Her face was round and delicate. Wisps
of green hair hung into that doll-like face, making her seem innocent and coy.
The power that radiated from her
was anything but. It was nearly smothering, like trying to breathe through a
warm cloth being placed over your face.
"This is Honyaku Tennyo."
Kannon introduced us quietly, practically hiding under my arm. "She's the
In."
"Werewolves?" I
whispered to him.
"Tora," he whispered
back.
Weretigers. I'd met one before.
Her name had been Christine, and I hadn't wanted to piss her off.
"In, that's the
leader?" I whispered quickly.
"The female one," was
the reply.
"What does she want?"
Kannon looked up at me with wide
luminous eyes that clearly said he was afraid and didn't have an answer. This
one was on me. I could work with this. Just a little girl talk. Sure hope she
didn't want to share fashion tips.
I stepped forward and she looked
me up and down. Then she eyed the guys behind me. I didn't like the look. She
looked hungry.
"I'm Anita Blake," I
told her. "I'm the lupa for the Thronnos Roke Clan."
Kannon translated from behind
me, and I watched Tennyo's eyes lift to look me in the face as it had suddenly
become worthy of note. Her power began to recede, calming in the face of
ritual. I could suddenly breathe easier.
"What makes us worthy of your
presence?" Tennyo asked in a clear and strong voice. I knew sarcasm when I
heard it.
"I've come seeking the
foreign pard." I saw Tennyo's chest inflate rapidly several times in
succession, and knew that she was sniffing. The mysterious box was still in my
hands. I looked to Kannon.
"This was for the pard,
right?" I whispered to him.
"It's for whoever,"
Kannon whispered. "Whoever will accept it in exchange for our blood."
I looked back to Tennyo.
"The lupa of the Thronnos Roke Clan offers tribute."
I held the box out towards her.
Her eyes strayed to the box, and she seemed to hesitate. I felt the power level
in the room from the shape shifters almost tense up. Everyone was holding their
breath, waiting for Tennyo to make up her mind.
Two slender hands reached out
and took the box from my hands and the power level dropped, like every throat
in the room had just let out a collective exhale. Tennyo smiled slightly at me
as if she hadn't been expecting a present and began to open the box. I held my
breath to see what it was. She lifted the top and whatever it was in the box
was dark and almost jelly looking. She dropped the top of the box to the floor,
dipped a finger into the mass, and then stuck it into her mouth. I almost
flinched.
"What is it?" I whispered
to Kannon. Tennyo smiled around her finger and pulled it out, licking the pads
of her other fingers as well.
"It's a honeycomb."
I blinked. Honey? It was just
honey? The other occupants of the bar moved forward, about seven of them, and
Tennyo handed the box to the first one that reached her. It was a short, but
very wide man that took the box for the Pride to share.
Tennyo continued licking her
fingers and looking at us as the Pride members plunged fingers into the box,
pulling out chunks of raw honeycomb and shoving them into mouths.
"What are we doing?"
Aya hissed behind me.
"Shut up," I hissed
back. His eyes narrowed, but I wasn't very worried about him right now. There
were worse things in the room than assassins.
"Sufficient for them,"
Tennyo finally said, coyly, "but not for the In."
I took a big breath. Someone was
getting a little too big for their G- string. Pride members were starting to
slink closer, honey smeared on lips and fingers.
"What would please the
In?" I asked. I wasn't in the mood to guess. Tennyo smiled beautifully.
She stepped closer to us till
she was nearly touching me. I saw her arm reaching out to go behind me and I
turned to see where it was going. Aya watched her hand approach and I grabbed
her wrist. Dark eyes turned to me and her power flared, smashing into me almost
like a physical blow.
"Mine," I hissed
through my teeth, trying to breathe as my lungs wanted to constrict. She smiled
and lifted her hand to where we could both see my hand on her wrist. I let go
and she shifted her eyes to Jason. I stepped into her line of vision and met
her dark eyes with mine. We were at a standoff. If I did anything to her, the
Pride would kill us.
"You have nothing to offer
worthy of the In of the Green River Pride?" she asked, and her eyes
flashed luminescent in the light. I narrowed my eyes at her. I heard someone
move quickly and looked back to see Jason skitter to the side as a Tora moved
between us and the door. There went the option to leave. Looks like we might
have to fight our way out if I can't think of something quick.
"Again, tell me what you
want. But you cannot have my people."
"Then you have nothing to
offer." She smirked at me, and the Tora moved closer. My hand slid for the
Browning, and a low guttural growl trickled through the room. No human throat
could have made that sound. Someone was on the verge of turning furry. This was
going to be bad.
