Chapter 18.
There comes a time in every
woman's life where she must pause and ask herself 'Is this strange?' If strange
was wearing a kimono while pointing a gun at a weremonkey you've just shot
while werefoxes tried to bend steel bars with their bare hands to free a
wereleopard is strange, then yes, this would be one of those times.
That settled, back to business.
The monkeys were agitated, hovering just out of reach as the werefoxes and one
werewolf grabbed the bars at one end of the cage, and set to work pulling.
Shape shifters are like Superman when it comes to strength. Well, just about.
They can bench press a small car, if that counts.
I switched my gaze from the
monkey beneath my foot to the others as I heard the whine of metal protesting
the pressure being exerted on it. He was mumbling things to me, but thankfully
I didn't understand any of it. I doubted it was compliments on my outfit. I
pressed my foot harder against his chest, but didn't lean any closer. Doing so
would just be asking for him to grab my gun. He quieted and I risked adjusting
my grip on the Browning. It's a big gun, and does get heavy after a while.
The metal screeched and screamed
to my right, but I didn't move my gaze. That was a serious mistake some people
made. And often, it was their last.
"Anita, we got it,"
Jason's voice called. "Zane's out."
I eased off the monkey quickly,
backing up and away from him, keeping the Browning pointed at him. He pushed up
on his hands to sit up, watching me. I spared a glance to look at Zane, seeing
him standing on unsteady legs, licking his lips.
"You okay, Zane?" I
asked. I got a rumble in response.
"Good. Where's the
others?"
Kannon translated, and the
monkeys looked back behind them.
"They're leading the way.
And they better move nice and slow," I said. Kannon translated, and the
monkeys started to turn and walk further back down the valley. The one I'd shot
got back to his feet and joined the others, trying to hide amongst them, probably
hoping I didn't shoot him a second time.
A couple took their time backing
up, and Zane jumped forward, fangs bared as he screamed at them, and they
quickly joined the rest. What's a little animosity between torturer and victim?
I relaxed my hold on the gun as I walked forward, holding it in my right hand
only, clenching and unclenching my hands before running a hand over the smooth
fur of Zane's head. He leaned into the touch, and a brief throaty purr started
up.
Iga spoke quietly and I glanced
to Kannon as he translated to murmurs of what sounded like agreement from the
others.
"He acknowledges you're a
dominant, Anita. And apparently, so has this crowd."
"Good. As soon as all of
them acknowledge it, we can all get along." My voice was calm; inside I
was calm. Inside I was also pissed. Calm and pissed is fine. I will be calmly
pissed. I will kick ass with a smile. This must be what enlightenment is like.
The monkeys soon mingled with
the next group. This one turned out to be around the blonde assassin. About
five females and two males composed the worshipping group. I stopped where I
was, freezing in place. I heard a small intake of breath behind me from one of
the werefoxes.
It was one of those things you
wanted to look away from. Because common decency tells you to. But I couldn't
look away from it this time. Everyone was staring at me. Waiting to see what I
would do.
"Jason," I breathed.
"Get her off of him."
Youji was wrapped in the
embraces of all the monkeys, all having at least half of their bodies showing
through their rumpled kimonos or whatever you call man's clothing. A female was
rapidly moving on top of him, her kimono folding down about her waist, her
breasts jiggling with her movements. Youji was moaning what seemed to be weak
protests, and his voice sounded exhausted. Monkey and assassin porn was not
something I had come to Japan to see.
Jason moved forward quickly and
the females hissed at him, before Zane bound into the orgy, bringing shrieks
from female throats and snarls from the couple males ones as he clawed at the
ones that took too long to escape. Jason grabbed the female on top of Youji
just as Zane had joined him, and he yanked her off the naked assassin by the
upper arms, shoving her aside. She stumbled and fell to the sandy dirt, turning
a glare on Jason.
Jason stood over the blonde
assassin, who was trying to curl up on the fancy carpet spread out that the
orgy had been sitting on. I pointed the Browning at the woman who had been on
Youji, and she refocused her gaze on me. Jason pulled off the yellow vest thing
he wore and knelt down next to Youji, covering him with it, and trying to pull
him up to get it onto him.
"Back off," I snarled
at the female as she got to her feet, breasts flopping about, and I wondered if
she felt any embarrassment at all. Probably not.
"Kannon, tell them to put
their clothes on."
Kannon obeyed, and a few of the
females pulled their kimonos up. The others just glared at me, making no
attempts at modesty.
Jason managed to get Youji up,
and his arms into the sleeve holes of the vest thing, now buttoning up the
front so the man wasn't exposed. Youji didn't seem to want to look at anyone,
just holding onto Jason's shoulders and hiding his face behind a curtain of
wavy, blonde hair. He was trembling, fingers curling into the flesh under his
hands as his head leaned forward to hover over Jason's left shoulder, as if
Jason were acting as some sort of anchor, a focus for him to pull himself back
together.
Damn them. This was just what I
was afraid of.
"Jason, check him for
scratches and bites."
Most lycanthropes are only
contagious in animal form, but hey, foxes bred here, so maybe the other rules
were different too. For Youji to turn into a monkey on the nights of the full
moon because I couldn't protect him...
"They can't spread it in
human form," Kannon reassured me.
"And he's got human teeth
marks on his neck and shoulders," Jason told me, wrapping an arm around
Youji's waist to help him stay standing up.
One less thing off my mind. But
someone was going to pay for this. And I don't take plastic.
"Take us to the
others!" I snapped at the crowd. Kannon echoed me, but the crowd didn't
move. All right, they wanted to play it tough, I was in the mood to play. I
sighted in on the female that been on Youji and shot her in the left shoulder.
She screamed, flailing backwards and would have fallen if the monkeys behind
her hadn't caught her. One male that was holding her shoulders leaned forward
to bury his face in the wound, and she screamed at him, trying to shove him
away. He tried to hang on, and she thrashed against him, trying to turn about
to shove at his chest with her hands. She finally shoved her fingers into his
eyes and he screamed, backing away from her in a rush, stumbling into the
monkeys behind him and falling on his butt, holding his face. The female looked
back to me and licked the fluids off her fingers, making it painfully clear
she'd punctured his eyeballs.
The wound in her shoulder was
already healing as she glared back at me through her eyelashes, her hair
falling forward about her face in wisps. Small, pink tongue lapping across her
fingers like licking up honey.
"The others!" I
repeated before I got sick. Now the crowd began to move, slowly, trickling away
till the crowd thinned, the female I'd shot kept staring at me as she backed
off with the rest of them. Zane paced in front of me, mostly healed up now, and
one pissed kitty.
We followed the crowd until we
came upon the next hurdle. It turned out to be Cherry. Several monkeys were still
blocking my full view of her. I knew it wasn't due to them not knowing what I
wanted them to do. I still had my gun pointed at them. They were just testing
me every inch of the way.
I was low on patience.
"Zane."
Zane didn't need to ask. He
screamed, and a few more backed off. Zane scooted forward, making a warning
swipe with a paw, and yet more backed off. I could hear the muffled sounds of
Cherry crying, and lost all patience.
I sighted in on a male blocking
my view and gut shot him, before turning to shoot a female in front of me in
the chest. Both dropped, a wail breaking from one, and Zane screamed again.
Kaji was suddenly to my left, having grabbed a dropped spear from back when we
had saved Zane, and stalking forward with the spear, stabbing at those that
were too close. Kuroda joined her, swinging a slender chain weighted at one
end, swinging it at heads threateningly.
A whoop went up then and I
immediately knew I wanted more bullets.
The monkeys in the front of the
group surged forward, and I shot the one nearest me, a half-clothed male,
hitting him in the chest and knocking him off his feet, tripping a few of the
others moving forward behind him. Kaji speared a female coming after her
between the breasts, and the weight of Kuroda's chain began to impact on flesh.
Strong fingers suddenly closed
on my left arm, hard enough to make the bones grind together, making my teeth
clench. I shoved the barrel of the Browning against the chest of the man who'd
grabbed me, and pulled the trigger. I felt splatters on my skin like drizzling
rain as the man fell backwards, landing hard on his side in the dirt, curling
up.
Zane screamed, tearing at the
face of a female as she screamed back, high pitched and angry. He reared up on
his hind legs, like a kitten batting at a dangling toy as his claws carved
deep, crimson furrows across the face and upper chest of the female. One of her
hands grabbed for his throat as her other slammed into the side of his head
repeatedly.
Jason was snarling at a short,
stout male, hands apart and his fingers curled as if they were the deadly armed,
werewolf paws already. He was acting as a shield for Youji, who was behind him,
backing away from the fight. Youji was unarmed, barely clothed, and I hardly
blamed him. Jason was just a sweet guy like that, when he wasn't trying to get
into your pants or vice versa.
Kannon was on the ground,
wrestling with another male in the dirt, rolling over and over as other monkeys
about them kicked at the rolling duo, striking the monkey as much as they were
hitting Kannon.
I felt the rushing of air and
looked up in time to see a blur of motion headed my way. All air was knocked
from my lungs as I was suddenly hit from the side in a flying tackle, landing
on my left side with my left arm pinned under me, my attacker kneeling over me.
I rolled somewhat onto my back and had a split second to recognize the face of
the female I'd shot. The one who had gouged out the eyes of the male. Her small
teeth were bared in a snarl, her delicate face twisted into a mask of hate as
her fingers closed about my throat.
I choked, feeling
her thumbs press down on my windpipe, and shoved the barrel of the Browning
under her chin, knowing she could very well puncture my windpipe any given
moment with those slender, yet hard and claw-like fingers. No time to wrestle
with her. I pulled the trigger, and the back of her head burst open like a
ripe, rotten fruit falling to the ground, flying threads of blood and other,
heavier things coloring the air behind her. She collapsed on top of me, a limp,
heavy weight to pin me further. I rolled fully onto my back, knocking her off
me and to the side as I raised the gun and pointed it at the monkeys, ready for
the next threat.
I was trying to mentally count
how many bullets I had used when I realized someone was chanting. Iga stood
behind me, his hands clasped together, fingertips touching with palms apart,
his beads between his fingers. His head was bowed, but his eyes open and
looking forward at the brawl.
His chanting seemed painfully loud
for a few moments, and I looked back to see that the fight had stopped. All of
the monkeys seemed frozen. After looking at a few faces, I realized they were
staring at the female sprawled out next to me. I got to my feet as Iga chanted,
brushing dirt off my dress and smearing my hands with the blood now soaking
into the cloth. I'd have to make sure I paid for the dry cleaning if this dress
even made it out of this intact.
The woman was laying on her back
by my feet, arms askew, jet hair spilled almost artfully out around her head.
The small, dark spot under her chin leaked shining trails in the firelight, the
dirt around her neck darkened as the hungry ground drank greedily. Her dark
eyes stared blankly up towards the night sky. She looked like a broken doll,
tossed aside by some careless child. I didn't feel remorse. I didn't feel
horrified. I just felt sad.
The monkeys were staring at the
dead woman, Iga, and me in turn. As if deciding who were they more intimidated
by. I sure hoped it was me, to be outdone by a chanting monk or a corpse was
something I wouldn't live down.
The members of the home team
waited, weapons at the ready, catching their breaths. None of the other monkeys
had been injured beyond repair. They stood there and bled as they kept watching
us. Killing a couple shape shifters was always a great way to get their
attention. I just hated going that route. My beef was with the Monkey King, and
this woman had paid the price. Of course, she'd have probably killed me if I'd
let her.
I stepped forward and the
monkeys backed off, as if I had an invisible forcefield that extended several
feet from me and had shoved them away from me. Iga followed behind me, still
chanting, a steady rumbling noise. I could see Cherry clearly now.
Her wrists had been tied to
wooden posts on either side of her with chains, and though she still had a
shirt on, it only served to cover her back, having been ripped open down the
front. She had no pants on, kneeling in the dirt. Her pale head hung low, her
frame shaking as it was racked by sobs.
"Kaji!" I called,
getting her attention from watching the monkeys. Rape victims were not a rare
occurrence lately that I've run across, and Cherry would not want another male
near her. Just as I'm sure Youji would prefer not to be touched by a female at
the moment.
"Cherry?" I squatted
down on one knee before her, reaching out to touch the pale hair on that
hanging head as she sobbed. She lifted her head and looked at me with tears
running down her cheeks, and pulled away from me.
"Anita-san?" Kaji came
up beside me.
"Can you undo these?"
I pointed at the chains. It was enough for her to understand. The chains had
simply been wrapped and knotted around the posts, which Kaji managed to open
easily. I pulled Cherry to me and she wrapped her arms around my waist, shaking
and still sobbing into my shoulder.
"I can't take
anymore," she whimpered into my neck.
"You don't have to," I
promised her. I hate it when people cry. Tears get to me. Real tears, that is.
It gets to the point where I'll promise them anything, anything they could want
just to please, please stop hurting so badly.
I turned my glare on the
monkeys, getting bland stares back. If they had hurt Nathaniel, so help me God.
Nathaniel was everyone's prey. He had no ability to take care of himself. And
he'd already been gutted and raped several times because of it. He's had to
heal so many times, there had to be a point where he just couldn't heal
anymore.
The Monkey King was going to
have to pay for what he'd done. For hurting my people, for letting me kill one
of his. Where's Buddha when you need him?
