Chapter 16.

          I telephoned Edward's answering service, leaving the phone number, and Kannon tried to distract me from my troubles by telling me about his people. Jason was treated to lunch by the sisters, and he didn't seem to mind at all. In the mess, our luggage was brought in.

          Mother was the matriarch of this group of Kitsune. Forest kitsune, they called themselves. Apparently there were different types. Forest kitsune apparently had power over wood, and Kannon explained that he was the one that made the wooden counter and cabinet explode to distract Schuldig from me. That was a handy little ability.

          Apparently, the females ruled kitsune society. An entire 'earth', or fox den, revolved around the dominant female. Only the dominant female bred. The child Sanaya was carrying would be human. But one quirk was that the child would be marked by golden eyes, beauty, and/or some extra ability. If your child turned out to have golden eyes, you could bet there was an unknown kitsune in your lineage. Interesting.

          Seishi was a dominant male, but his main duty was to entice a dominant female to join their earth and keep it alive when Mother passed on. Dominant males were gifted with great beauty to help carry out their duty. So, generally they were just eye candy and breeding material. What a life.

          A dominant female that birthed another dominant female would drive her from the earth when she was old enough to seek a mate. These young, wandering, dominant females had apparently caused great mischief in history, according to legends. Extra dominant males were driven out as well, to meet up with females and start new earths. Sounded like some special on the Discovery channel.

          In the other shape shifter societies, might made right. You take out their leader, and the others beat the shit out of each other till the next king badass is declared.

          Kannon also told me he and his older brother were named after some guardian angels according to Buddhist belief. Souls that had attained heaven, but decided to stay behind to help the rest of the people get to heaven. How noble.

          The phone rang then and Kannon had me answer, saying how they rarely got calls, and it was probably Edward. It was.

          "We're in a temple in the mountains."

          "Which direction from town?"

          "South of Tokyo."

          "Don't tell me anymore. I'll find you. You're with shape shifters, right?"

          "Yep."

          "Good, they'll smell trouble coming. Sit tight."

          Oh darn. There goes my plans for Disneyland.

          "How are you getting here?"

          "Don't worry about it."

          "Are you bringing me a new toy?" I asked, grinning. Edward usually gave me all sorts of neat new toys whenever we met. Everything from tiny guns to my sawed off shotgun.

          He chuckled. "Maaay-be."

          "Edward, how do you know Crawford?"

          The line went silent for a few minutes. "Knew him once."

          "You worked with him before? Or you worked against him?"

          "Something like that."

          "Which one?"

          "Both."

          "So, are you coming to kill him? Or reminisce?"

          "Maybe both."

          "Am I going to owe you another favor for getting him killed?" I'd killed one of Edward's buddies before. It was a matter of him or me. Harley hadn't been all there. Edward had offered me the option of him killing me in return or owing him a favor. I'd taken the favor.

          "No."

          "Good."

          "Stay alive, Anita. I'll see you in the morning."

          I got dailtone. No goodbyes. Come to think of it, Edward and Sanesuke, along with Detective Sergeant Storr, all had that annoying way to end a phone call. Storr was the head of the Office of the Regional Preternatural Investigations Team for the St. Louis area. I worked for that group often. We called it RPIT, pronounced "rip-it". He'd saved my ass after many a hard-to-explain kill. He was a good cop in a sea of bad cops. And he never said goodbye. Maybe he was afraid of it. Being the people we are, working the jobs we do, one goodbye could very well be the last goodbye. But if you didn't say it, you wouldn't jinx it. Or maybe he was just terse. To tell the truth, I can't imagine Edward being so sentimental, but you never know. You just never know.

          I didn't like the idea of just sitting there, waiting for Edward to come, and not knowing what was happening to Cherry, Zane, Nathaniel, Asher, and the assassins. I just prayed the Saru didn't play vampire games. They might be able to heal physically, but mentally...

          It was still daylight, so Asher couldn't help the others. Come nightfall, he might be able to do something. He was a master vampire, after all.

          "Anita, you should eat and rest," Kannon advised me. I grudgingly agreed as my stomach rumbled. I had a modest meal of soup, which I managed to eat easily with a spoon, and rice with vegetables, which I cheated and used the spoon on.

          The sisters had taught Jason how to use chopsticks and he worked diligently at mastering them, taunting me by snagging food off my plate with them from time to time.

          Afterwards, we were shown to a room with futons. I'd never slept on a futon before. The little cylinder pillows were uncomfortable to me, and thankfully, they offered us a couple flat pillows that we were used to.

          I laid there and tried to sleep, but worry kept me awake. Jason had a futon on the other side of the room, and lay silently. I doubted he was sleeping either.

          "Anita?"

          Bingo. "What is it, Jason?"

          "Are the others going to be okay?"

          I sighed and rolled over. "I hope so, Jason."

          "What if they aren't?"

          I stared at the wooden wall as I thought of them, tortured and beaten. "If they aren't, I'll kill whoever did it to them."

          Jason was silent then, apparently satisfied. Shape shifters understood killing. Sometimes it seemed like the only thing they understood. A dominant usually had to kill to make his claim as a dominant and hold it.

          That thought took me to Aya. I wondered what he was doing right now. Glaring at someone, I bet. I came to realize he could be dominant, but a bad one. He was too self-centered. Either he'd fall under a good one, or he'd walk alone. Would he offer himself to protect his people? Would he kill for them? These thoughts followed me until I couldn't think any longer.


          I was walking through a mist-filled graveyard. I wore a long white gown that seemed to have come from the Victorian era. It trailed on the ground after me.

          "Anita."

          I turned at the whispered call and saw Jean Claude sitting on a headstone, beautiful as ever. He sat in quiet repose, one hand down on the headstone, dressed in his usual black, filigreed with gold and white stitching. His black hair flowed down to his shoulders, eyes looking black in the moonlight.

          "What do you want, Jean Claude?" I asked crossly. Every time we meet he puts me in these funky clothes, ribs crushed by these damned corsets and my boobs practically spilling out. He does it on purpose because he knows I can't kill him. I know he does.

          "You are worried, ma petit," he said quietly. "I can feel it." He pressed one hand to his chest. "I feel it in my heart."

          "Don't call me that," I snapped irritably.

          "As you wish." He bowed his head. "I want to help you, Anita. But you must tell me what is wrong."

          "It's nothing you can help me with, Jean Claude."

          "Shall I call the Master of Tokyo?"

          "No, you shall not."

          "You never allow me to help you, Anita," he said sadly. "You are the Executioner, and vampires tremble as you pass, but you cannot do everything on your own."

          "I've let you help me before, don't give me that shit."

          "Oui." He nodded. "Is it such a hard thing?"

          "I don't need your help right now, Jean Claude. I'm supposed to be resting. Get out of my dream."

          "Oui. But you will tell me if you do?"

          I sighed. "I'll tell you."

          "Merci, Anita."

          "Now get lost."

          "Have you really turned so bitter towards me, Anita?"

          I looked at him, at his beauty, and I still wanted to undress him, to feel his skin under my hands and run my fingers through his hair. It was just plain old lust. Any woman would feel the same in my position.

          "I just need time away from you two."

          "I have waited for you, Anita. Waited, and I will continue to do so." Damn that French accent!

          "Well, don't." I turned away from him. "I can't base my relationship to you off of sex."

          "But it's a good relationship."

          I could just imagine the humor in his eyes, the smile playing on his lips. I had to smile slightly, where he couldn't see it.

          "I can't hang around you or Richard without wanting sex, and I need to think about other things right now. I can't date you both indefinitely."

          "I promised I would not kill Monsieur Zeeman if you married him."

          I turned to look at him. "And would you really keep that promise? Would you really stay out of our lives?"

          He rose off the headstone, all liquid grace, like shifting shadows. "If that is what you want, Anita."

          He stepped towards me and I watched him come like the rabbit does the mac truck. I reached out and touched his hair as it hung over his shoulder, unable to help myself, and he curled his fingers around mine. He pressed his cheek to the back my hand.

          "But I don't know if that's what I want." I lowered my eyes.

          "He is as much a monster as I am," Jean Claude said, stroking his cheek across my hand again. I jerked my hand free and stepped back from him.

          "I can't think about this right now, Jean Claude. I'm busy. I have other engagements. I need you to leave now."

          "As you wish, Anita." He leaned forward and kissed my hair. "I will be...here."

          I nodded and stepped further away from him, where he couldn't touch me. "Goodbye, Jean Claude."

          "Until I see you again, ma petit."

          The dream was over before I could snap at him for calling me that again.


          I awoke to voices, low and murmured. I lifted my head, blinking, and realized there was a warmth by my side. Jason had somehow migrated from his futon, across the room, and to the side of my futon. He was wrapped in his blanket like a blonde burrito and it was his shoulder that was touching my arm. I shifted away from him so as not to disturb him, and sat up. There were voices from out in the main room. Voices other than the voices of the Forest Mist family. The other kitsune were here.

          I got to my feet and combed my hair into order with my fingers before sliding the door open. I followed the voices down the hall to the main room. I slid that door open and several pairs of eyes lifted to look at me.

          Mother, Seishi, Kannon, and three other kitsune were sitting there. One white-haired male, a bald male, and a brunette female. All had golden eyes. The other thing was that stood out was that Mother had fox ears. Little, fuzzy fox ears peeked out through her hair. I remembered that dominants could shift only parts of their bodies if they wished. I guess Mother was showing off.

          "Are you well rested, Anita-san?" Mother asked.

          "Yes." I nodded.

          "These are my brethren." She indicated the assembled werefoxes as I sat down a cushion near them.

          "Kuroda-san." The white-haired male.

          "Iga-san." The bald one.

          "Kaji-san." The brunette.

          I nodded and sorta bowed to them and they returned in kind, though with much better bows.

          "They will lead you to the Saru and help you rescue your friends," Kannon translated for Mother.

          "And I am coming too," Kannon added for himself.

          "Thank you." I bowed again.

          "Iga-san is a monk." Mother indicated the bald kitsune, who bowed again. "He will be of great assistance to you when dealing with the Monkey King."

          I bowed back to him, and he gave me the tiniest knowing smile.

          "Now we must dress." Kannon smiled and got to his feet.

          "Dress?"

          "We are going to have to play our part, ne?"

          I didn't like the sound of that. Shape shifters seem to have this love of playing dress up. Or...more properly described, undress up. If it were anything like American ideas of dressing the part, I'd end up in revealing leather.

          Sanaya and Satomi helped Kaji and I dress. Kaji was willowy, all pale slenderness. She dressed in blues and reds, baggy blue pants under a red vest thing that closed over her chest and hung down around her legs to her knees. It left her arms bare, and a blue sash wrapped her waist. A white strip of cloth encircled her forehead and the ends trailed down to her shoulders.

          I got red and black. I seem to end up in those colors often. I got a sleeveless kimono top in black with gold, white and red stitching. A red sash wrapped my waist. Red cloth spilled slightly from under the hems of the neck and the armholes of the kimono top. It left my arms bare. My knives were in plain view on my forearms. The rigging of my holsters was hidden under the kimono top, but I could easily reach my guns through the armholes just above the sash if I did a crossdraw. From the sash down, the black material hung down between my legs in front and back to just past my knees. My legs ended up bare, all the way up to the tops of the thighs.

          The sisters tied up my hair, pulling it back into a ponytail and then flipping it up to stand up at the back my head and securing it with what looked like gold chopsticks that had jade beads dangling off the top end. The sisters also showed me they were sharp and could be used for stabbing or throwing. I felt very James Bond, or maybe some kind of ninja movie.

          They painted my face with pale make up, making me look ghost white, and then applied light eye shadow and blood red lipstick. When I saw myself in the mirror, I actually had to reach out toward my reflection to believe it was me. That was a geisha looking back at me. But a very stern one in the red and black. My bared arms and legs made me look sultry as well. I looked beautiful but dangerous...like Malibu Rambo. I tried to figure out how to hide the machete, but we just decided to hang it off my hip like a small sword and push it around back to hang near my butt. Why hide it? I was going for intimidating, not sneaky.

          Even Kaji looked surprised and approving. I was just pleased I wasn't near naked. The last time I'd dressed up for a shape shifter party, I'd been wearing nothing but black leather straps. Shudder. I could work with this. They put me into black boot things that came just over halfway up my calves, with thick rubber soles. They were tight and formfitting, but seemed to be made of a thick, almost nylon, cloth, not leather. The big toe was split away from the rest of the toes. I liked the feel of them, even if I looked like I had frog feet. I could not wear those sandal things Kaji was and not fear for tripping and falling.

          Jason had been put into dark yellow, baggy pants and a bright blue...thing that had a high collar to curve around his neck and close in the front. It looked like a shirt without sleeves, but then it hung down around his legs. Jason was busy strutting and showing himself off. His eyes widened to see me.

          "You look like death."

          I smiled. "Perfect."