CHAPTER SEVEN
When Tsubame came out of the bathroom and tried to knife Sano, it couldn't have come at a worse time.
In a blur of motion, Yahiko jumped across the corner of Sano's bed and grabbed Tsubame's arm as her knife came down, arresting the blow.
"See," drawled Sanosuke "I told you she was feral."
"Knock it off, Sano!" yelled Yahiko, concentrating on keeping Tsubame's arm from lowering any more. She seemed transfixed by Sanosuke, who leaned back on his arms and chewed on a toothpick, watching them both with amusement.
"I'm not scared of you anymore." Tsubame growled at the older vampire, who simply grinned back at her insultingly.
Yahiko tightened his grip, not liking the determined hatred in Tsubame's eyes, or the way they were focused on Sanosuke like he was something she'd like to string up, draw, quarter, and put in a freezer for later.
"No one's scared of anyone here." Yahiko told her in a low, calming voice. "No one's going to hurt anyone, right Sano?" he threw the last question over his shoulder to his guardian.
"Sure, whatever you say." Sano conceded lazily.
Yahiko had just spent the greater part of the last ten minutes trying to convince Sano that Tsubame wasn't a deranged wild animal, and that she was coherent enough to help them identify and capture the human killer.
Sano had shown up right when Yahiko returned from Sav-On. The phone call he'd made was to Captain Sagara, who told him he'd sent Sanosuke to 'help' find the girl, and that he'd call Sano and have him meet Yahiko at the motel on the outskirts of Fresno. Yahiko figured Sano had been lingering in Fresno at one of the illegal gambling dens, waiting for Yahiko to do all the work finding Tsubame and then joining him later so he could hog the credit. What he hadn't known was that Sano had been sent by Sagara to kill Tsubame if she was too out-of-control.
He'd found out that little bombshell when Sano walked through the door carrying a wooden stake. He'd managed to argue Sano into putting the stake back in his car and come back inside to meet Tsubame when she'd opened the bathroom door and attacked.
"Please, Tsubame. Just put the knife down and go get dressed." Yahiko kept his voice soothing, and his grip strong.
She wrenched her gaze off Sano and looked at him searchingly. He could feel her arm muscles relax under his fingers as she nodded slowly. He released her and she stepped back, letting her knife hand fall to her side. Then without a word, she turned and stepped back into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her.
As Yahiko watched her go, he couldn't help but notice how short the towel was, and how shapely her legs were below it. Glancing over he saw Sano noticing him watching her, and immediately scowled.
"So, you still think she isn't feral?"
"Oh shut up," growled Yahiko.
OOO
When Tsubame exited the bathroom again she was wearing the dress Yahiko bought her. It was one of those 'one size fits all' type dresses with a gathered waist that lay loose against her hips, and a sleeveless buttoned up bodice with a 'V' neck. Because Tsubame was so small, the 'V' was a trifle deeper than she'd have liked when she was human, but it covered all the necessary parts, so she was resigned to it.
The colors weren't bad on her either. The light cotton print had a maroon background with a subtle asymmetrical pattern of black, brown, and amber swirls across it. The amber and browns matched her eye color almost perfectly, and she wondered if Yahiko had done that on purpose.
Along with the dress he'd left flip-flops, but they were too big. She grabbed up her hiking boots, then decided against putting them on. It was almost dawn, and she'd have to sleep soon. She doubted that Motel 6 would appreciate her sleeping in dirty hiking boots in their nice clean bed.
There was one item of clothing, however, that she would not do without. Pulling her belt out of her khaki shorts' belt loops, she buckled it on under the dress, and clipped the scabbard with its knife to it. The knife was non-negotiable.
When she came out of the bathroom, Yahiko was glaring at Sanosuke.
"Get your own room."
The taller vampire stretched out on the far bed and rested the back of his head on the hands he'd crossed on the pillow. "Why would I do that when you've got a perfectly good room right here?"
"Then go get a cot, and pay the extra charge."
"You go get one."
Yahiko's eyes narrowed. "Like I'd leave you alone in here with Tsubame!"
Tsubame's insides clenched, and she felt herself sinking into a defensive stance. If Sanosuke tried to lay one finger on her…
She saw Yahiko's head swivel over as he registered her presence. "Oh, Hi Tsubame. Rooster-head here was just leaving."
"Am not. Sagara said to stick close to you so I'm staying. Get over it, kid."
Tsubame had heard the phrase, 'made their blood boil' before, but she'd never seen an example of it. She imagined she saw steam rising from Yahiko's head as everything about him clenched.
Instinctively, she tried to diffuse the situation. "He can have my bed. I'll sleep on the floor."
Yahiko glanced at her in surprise, then turned a suspicious glare back at Sano. "No way. You're sleeping with me."
Now it was Tsubame's turn to clench up. He couldn't possibly mean…
"Um, I mean we'll just share the bed. Nothing else. I'll be between you and Sano that way, since I know you hate him and all."
Tsubame glanced back and forth between Yahiko and Sanosuke. Yahiko's face showed embarrassment and determination, while Sanosuke's held a sort of smirking watchfulness that unnerved her. Suddenly it didn't seem like such a bad idea to have Yahiko, who she knew was a skilled fighter, as a buffer zone between her and the older vampire.
"Alright," she said quietly, and walked over to the far side of the bed Yahiko was sitting on. She slipped quietly under the covers, her back to him. It was at least half an hour until dawn, but she didn't mind going to sleep early. The tension of being with other people and constantly trying to sift through their emotions was getting to her. Animals didn't try to deceive you, they just wanted to eat you or escape from you. Life was simpler in the wild.
For the next thirty minutes she lay still and felt Yahiko, who'd lain down on top of the covers, and Sano on the far bed glaring at each other. Then the edges of the thick drapes at the window lightened, her eyelids got heavy, and she was asleep for another dawn.
She woke the next evening to find that Yahiko had turned over in the night, and his arm was thrown over her side. His body was curled protectively against hers, and she could feel his forehead against the back of her head. She only had a minute before he woke as well, so she slipped out from under his arm and stood by the window, waiting.
He blinked sleepily, yawned, looked up, and saw her. "Hi Tsubame."
"Man, I'm hungry." Sano's voice came from the other side of the room. Looking over, Tsubame saw him dig into the pocket of his jeans and pull out some car keys, which he tossed over to Yahiko, who sat up and caught them reflexively. "Go get me some blood."
The keys went sailing back across the space between the two beds, and would have hit Sano in the nose if he hadn't raised a hand and caught them.
"Get it yourself." Yahiko flung back at him.
"Half of it's yours. It's been a month you know, you're due." Sano remained on the bed, his back against the headboard.
"Let me guess, tainted O Negative."
"Someone's got to dispose of the blood drive rejects, it might as well be us. I figure we're doing the Red Cross a service," said Sano smugly.
Yahiko made a disgusted noise and slid off the bed. "I still say, get it yourself."
"Whatever." Sanosuke stood up, crossed the room and exited through the door as Yahiko picked up the remote control and turned on the TV.
It was a local news program, and Tsubame sat at the edge of the bed and watched. There was a slight chance of showers tomorrow. The Miss Northern California pageant was only a week away and the contestants representing the local counties were being interviewed. A particularly stunning blonde with curly hair and blue eyes, wearing a sash across her form fitting dress, was smiling into the camera with a high voltage grin.
Tsubame rested her chin in her hands and stared, entranced. Reluctantly, she glanced down at her own small bosom, then back at the buxom golden haired woman on the screen. Even as an immortal vampire, she still felt inadequate next to that.
"You're much prettier than she is."
Tsubame raised her head and saw that Yahiko was staring at the screen as well. He continued to stare at it steadfastly as he continued. "I mean, those are obviously fake, and she probably had plastic surgery on her face too. She looks like a stupid Barbie doll."
He stole a glance at her and paused as Tsubame stared back wonderingly. Had Yahiko just made fun of a beauty queen to make her feel better?
Just then Sanosuke came back inside carrying two plastic bags full of red liquid. Yahiko busied himself digging in his backpack, and the moment passed.
"Hey brat, here you go." A bag sailed across Tsubame's line of sight and into Yahiko's hands.
Desire, longing, unquenched hunger flared in her chest.
"Want some?" Sanosuke's insolent question was her only warning, and then the other bag landed in her lap.
Tsubame reacted instantaneously, brushing it off onto the floor and throwing herself back along the length of the bed to crouch against the headboard. "Get it away from me," she bit out frantically.
Yahiko walked to the edge of the bed, leaned down, picked up the blood bag and threw it back at Sano. "I told you before, she doesn't drink human blood." He stated angrily.
"Guess I forgot. Her loss." Sano shrugged and ripped a hole in the bag with his fangs. Raising the bag above his head, he leaned back against the door and began to drink noisily.
Shuddering at the smell and sound, Tsubame rolled off the bed and ran to the bathroom. Slamming the door shut behind her, she sank to the floor and covered her ears with her hands. She sat there shaking until the smell of blood, and the temptation to go and grab the bag away from Sano or Yahiko, was gone.
When she came out, the TV was still on, and Sano and Yahiko were both transfixed by the story. On the screen, a well-groomed announcer was saying, "The body, which was recovered yesterday, was that of 14 year old Samantha Reynolds. Samantha disappeared two weeks ago from her home in Clovis, and her body was discovered in Sequoia National Park by hikers. Samantha's body is the first to be discovered in the Sequoias. The previous eight female bodies, all drained of blood, were found in the Sierra Nevadas. Police are not commenting, but experts say that other bodies may be found in the Sequoias as well."
Sanosuke leaned forward and shut off the TV. For the first time he looked at Tsubame with something other than contempt. "Well, I guess that clears you, since two weeks ago Yahiko was chasing you around the hills."
"Told you she was innocent." Yahiko said smugly.
Tsubame looked at the black screen. Before Sano had shut it off, they'd shown a picture of the girl, a red head with a pretty face and big blue eyes. That poor girl, only fourteen years old and her life was over already. Ducking her head, she came to a decision.
"I think I know where he came from," she said softly.
"Huh?" Sanosuke sat up straight, and Yahiko stared at her.
"The red jeep he drove. I followed him back to it one time. When he drove away from the trailhead I saw a bit of paper on the ground by where he'd parked. It was one of those receipts from a gas station in San Jose. I don't know if it was from his car or one of the others." What she didn't tell them about was the agonized deliberation, balancing the possible good murdering the man could do versus her selfish desire for blood. In the end, she'd let him go, believing that her hunger was coloring her judgment.
"That's great!" Yahiko burst out.
Sano smacked him on the head lightly.
"You say that now, but you haven't seen the size of San Jose. There could be hundreds of red jeeps there. It's not much of a clue." The words were derisive, but Tsubame saw something in the tall vampire's eyes that she hadn't expected. She saw a bit of hope.
OOO
Sanosuke left Tsubame and Yahiko in their new motel room in San Jose. Since it was also a Motel 6, the room setup and décor was almost an exact copy of the one in Fresno. Once he'd dumped his stuff on a bed, Sano went outside to call Sagara on his cell phone, glad to be away from the mountains where the service was spotty.
"It's me," he said when the captain answered.
"Report." ordered Sagara calmly.
"I found Yahiko and the girl. She's feral alright, tried to attack me on sight."
There was a silence, and then Sagara spoke. "Will she be of any use in finding the human?"
Sanosuke stuck the sole of his cowboy boot against the motel wall and leaned against it, thinking. If he said no, Sagara would order him to kill her and be done with it.
If he said no, they'd lose the only vampire who'd ever seen the killer's face.
If he said no, he'd have to fight off Yahiko, who had the unsettling tendency to try to bite him on the head whenever they'd fought before because he knew Sano was particular about his hair.
Sanosuke sighed. "Yeah. She's useful for now. She found a receipt from a San Jose gas station. We're at a motel a block down from it."
"Good. There's something you should know, Sanosuke. One of Winston's suppliers knows someone in the LAPD. Rumor has it that the bodies they've recovered were frozen at some point. They haven't released that information to the press yet."
"People popsicles?" Sanosuke laughed softly and mirthlessly. "That's pretty sick."
"Hm." Sagara agreed.
"Hey, what's up with our 'pals up North' here.? You want me to update them?" Paying your respects to the vampire whose territory you were visiting was more than a courtesy, it was expected.
"No. Katsura's messenger, Izuka, asked that we keep this favor to them confidential. Walking into Katsura's territory and bringing it up may be exactly what they want us to do, an excuse to attack us for not honoring our agreement to help in secret."
"How are things back home?" Sanosuke asked.
It hurt to be away from Sagara, to know that if something happened, he wouldn't be there to protect the vampire who'd saved him. The captain looked him up years after Sagara became a vampire. He'd found Sano battered and bloodied from a street fight, one that he'd fought with Kanryuu's thugs. They'd had guns, and Sagara turned Sano in order to save him.
Sanosuke didn't want to think too hard about the kind of punk he would have become without Sagara to reawaken the dream in him. After the Meiji officials betrayed the Sekihoutai, Sano survived and kept his sanity by fighting, giving his hatred an outlet.
Sagara changed all that. Together, they'd protected the poor and the weak in the darkness of the night, until they'd been driven out of Japan. And if sometimes the price of that protection was a little blood, the peasants, hypnotized into forgetting, were none the worse for it.
Over the years, the Meiji government, which ruled during their human lives, gave way to a military oligarchy which controlled the emperor. After World War II the government changed again, and all vampire groups in Japan, not just those calling themselves the Meiji group, had been driven into the shadows of the criminal underworld. Then the group calling itself the 'new Tokugawa' arose and drove both the Meiji vampires, and Sagara's group, named the Sekihoutai in honor of his fallen comrades, out of Japan. When Sagara asked Sanosuke to go with him, he'd jumped at the chance. He hadn't been able to save Sagara from human death when he'd been a child and the Meiji government betrayed the leader of the human Sekihoutai army, but he'd made it his business since then to protect Sagara. That's why he hated this job. It took him away from his real duty.
"Things are quiet."
"You're keeping the leadership team around you, aren't you?" Sano hated the way he sounded, like a mother asking her kid if he remembered to bring a warm coat.
There was a trace of amusement in Sagara's voice as he answered. "Yes, the team is here with me. Good hunting, Sano." he said, then hung up.
"Good hunting. Yeah right." Sano closed the phone and went back into the motel room.
OOO
They spent a week observing the gas station down the street. Tsubame sat for hours in a chair by the motel window, just watching without moving a muscle. It weirded Sano out. When she needed food, she'd get up abruptly and ask Yahiko to sit and watch for the red jeep, then leave without another word, returning with the smell of animal blood around her mouth. Sano hoped she was smart enough to not leave dual fang marks on the necks of the stray mutts she drank from. Too many marks like that on animals was a dead giveaway.
"He's here." Tsubame's voice was quiet, but certain.
Yahiko and Sano stopped arguing over which TV program to watch and crowded around her at the window.
Down the street, a candy apple red jeep with a roll bar pulled up to the gas station, and a guy with blondish brown hair got out, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. He wore khaki pants and a brown leather bomber-style jacket.
Sano glanced down at the top of Tsubame's head. She was staring calmly through the window, her hands neatly folded in her lap.
"How can you be sure it's him?" Sano asked doubtfully. "You said you didn't see the license plate."
"It's him," she answered calmly. "I remember his smell."
"His smell?" Yahiko cocked his head at her. "But you're inside and he's outside. How can you…?" He trailed off as Tsubame raised a hand from her lap and pointed to the edge of the window where the window frame met up with the motel's outer wall.
Sano looked as well and saw that the window was cracked open about an inch where the grey rust-spotted screen was showing between the frame and the glass.
"Through there." Tsubame said, and glanced at Yahiko curiously. "Can't you smell it too?"
Yahiko shook his head. "You can scent him from this far away? That's so cool."
Sano sighed inwardly. "That's what ferals do, brat." He told him. "They're more animal than vampire."
"Take that back!" Yahiko rounded on the taller vampire furiously.
Smirking, Sano let his expression add fuel to Yahiko's fire, daring him to attack.
"He's leaving." Tsubame placed her hand on Yahiko's sleeve absently as she stared out the window, no longer phased by Sano and Yahiko's ongoing squabbles.
"Crap!' Sano exclaimed and burst out the door, pulling his keys from his pocket.
"Wait for me!"
Glancing behind him, Sano saw Yahiko close on his heels, pulling Tsubame along by the hand.
Clicking the 'unlock' button on his keychain, he slipped quickly behind the wheel as the two younger vampires got in the back.
"Take your own car, brat," he growled, mainly from habit.
"Yours is faster." Yahiko said simply. Tsubame, as usual, said nothing at all. She really gave him the creeps.
Shrugging it off, Sano gunned the motor of his black sports car and pulled out of the parking space. "We'd better not be going far. My trunk's not big enough for all three of us."
The jeep headed away from the center of town and out towards the foothills. They drove in silence, Sano keeping two or three cars between them with ease until the truck cut in front of them at a yellow light and decided to stop.
"Kuso!"
Feeling Tsubame's curious stare, Sano hit the steering wheel and glowered. Cars were whizzing by in a steady stream to his left, going the opposite direction on the two-lane road, and to his right were parked cars. They were boxed in.
"It's a Japanese cussword." Yahiko explained. "Rooster head uses them when he's really annoyed."
"Oh."
"If you two are finished with the vocabulary lesson, then shut up so I can figure out how we're going to find him again." Sano tried to glare a hole through the back of the truck in front of him. Then he started as the night air touched his neck.
Craning around, he saw that Tsubame had opened a window and was inhaling, her eyes closed and her eyebrows meeting as her brow furrowed in concentration.
"He's turned left," she whispered.
"He did not turn left at the signal. I would have seen him."
The human prey drove slowly, actually going the speed limit all the time, and he'd always used his turn signals. Before the truck cut off Sano's line of sight, he'd seen the jeep at the crosswalk with no signal light blinking.
"Not this one, the next one."
"Whoa. How do you do that?" came Yahiko's awed question.
Sano watched as Tsubame pulled her nose away from the open window and sank back in her seat to answer. "I couldn't, usually, but he's in an open car. His scent is in the air."
Not liking the approving grin Yahiko was giving the petite girl, Sano swung back around to face front. Yahiko was a pain, but he didn't want him getting too attached to Tsubame since they'd just have to kill her once they were done using her skills.
He stole another glance at the two in the back seat. To look at them, you'd almost think they were high school kids without licenses being driven to the movies by a parent. Yahiko's shrimpy stature would always ensure that he looked young, and that ridiculous over-large dress he'd bought the girl made her look like a little kid playing dress up in her mother's clothes.
Then the signal changed and he drove on, taking the left turn Tsubame pointed out to him, and gunning the engine to catch up to his prey. Sure enough, there he was, making a right uphill towards the foothills.
They passed through rows of old style bungalows with manicured lawns. Gradually the bungalows gave way to larger homes, old style Victorians and pseudo Tudors. At the base of a hill right before a golf course was an old Catholic church complete with a red tiled roof and a bell tower. Sano felt a superstitious shudder go through him.
He almost missed it when the jeep took a sharp right into the church parking lot. No, it wasn't the parking lot, it was a lane leading up the hill between the church and the golf course.
Sano let the white sedan he'd been keeping between himself and the red jeep drive by, and followed it past the opening of the lane, but executed a quick u-turn and drove back, parking across the street from it.
Quickly, he turned off the ignition and killed the headlights. Turning in his seat, he squinted up the steep driveway and saw the light haired jeep driver pulling a card out of a tall stone box shaped like the sort of pillar that hid mailboxes. Most mailboxes didn't have keypads and lights on them that flashed green and opened automated wrought iron fences halfway up their driveways. This one did.
The jeep drove through and the gate closed smartly behind it. It disappeared and reappeared under tree boughs from tall oaks that clustered on either side of the steep lane. Sano raised his eyes and saw rooftop over the trees, and not just one rooftop, but three pitched roofs, interconnected with no less than four chimneys. The jeep belonged to a mansion, and where there were mansions there were security systems and maybe even guard dogs.
Sano sighed. "We're going to need backup for this one."
