Nalin was nervous. When she had talked to the man, he had been suspicious until he heard her mention Tekeshi, at which point he asked her where she was, and told her not to leave there. He had hung up so quickly she didn't have a chance to ask him what she was supposed to do. She was even worried that he was going to call the cops somehow, and she would be forced to go home.
Tekeshi had left her with, a rather large amount of money she really didn't want to know how he got. There was something about him, that scared her to no end. At the same time though, she trusted him. There was something in how he presented himself, that made her feel safe.
A large black SUV caught her attention as it pulled in. It wasn't a Chevy or Ford, the emblem looked like it was a Lexus, which was unusual. It was gigantic compared to any other Lexus she had ever seen. It must have belonged to some obscenely wealthy dude. It definitely didn't belong to anyone that lived on the reservation.
It pulled through the parking lot and pulled into a spot not far from her. She watched the people get out. They were all Japanese. The man that got out of the driver seat was the perfect image of the major CEO that was common in anime. The woman in the passenger seat was utterly stunning, she had to be some kind of a supermodel. The woman that got out of the back driver side, was attractive, but looked like she had lived a somewhat hard life. She couldn't see the last person until they came around.
It was a drop dead gorgeous girl about her age. She had a large raven on her shoulder that took off into the sky as she rounded the front of the vehicle. Her skin was so smooth and light, and her hair was as black as the raven that had left her shoulder. She was also carrying a freaking huge sword.
The man and the girl approached her. She started panicking internally, some Apache she was. Who were these people, and what did they want with her.
The man stopped a few feet from her, "Miss Nalin, I don't believe you gave your last name over the phone. I am Ao... pardon me, I forgot the name structure is different over here. I am Tsukune Aono, I am Tekeshi's father."
She had talked to him in Japan, but he was here? They didn't fly Concordes anymore, so there wasn't any way that he should have been able to arrive there in just a couple of hours. Just what were these people.
"Ortega, my name is Nalin Ortega. You were just in Japan, how did you get over the entire Pacific that fast," she finally managed to say.
"We have our ways. Now, just what connection do you have with my son," the man asked her.
"He, he uh. He stopped at the diner I was working at this morning. We were slow, so I sat and talked with him a little. A few minutes later he saved me from being raped by, the former sheriff's son. He, killed him, and then... he slaughtered all the men that the sheriff brought to kill all of us for being there. He then grabbed me, and when we got here, he, gave me your number, and told me to call you and tell you I needed help," she replied.
The girl that was with him seemed to deflate a little, "I was hoping that he might still be here. How long ago did he leave?"
"Right before I called, so maybe two and a half hours. He took us off road for a long time, to make sure we weren't followed or anything. It took us about three hours to get here, from where the diner is fifty miles northeast of here."
"Sounds about right. If anyone was looking for you, they would have assumed you were much further away than you actually were. How did he kill the, you said he killed a bunch of sheriff's deputies," Tsukune asked.
"They were not very good people. Tekeshi was muttering something about cartels, so I guess he knew more about them I did somehow. He, had a machine gun. I only got a glimpse of the bodies, but, they, weren't really bodies anymore. God, to think hundreds of years ago my people probably wouldn't have even thought about it. He, he just stood while they shot him though, they unloaded on him like it was a straight up war. He didn't even look like he noticed. The idiot that tried to rape me hit him over the head with a bat, and when that did nothing pulled a knife, and Tekeshi pulled this gigantic revolver out of nowhere, and shot him between the eyes. I've never seen anything like that before, I, I, I," she suddenly started hyperventilating as everything from earlier that day finally hit her.
The older woman ran up to her, "It's ok, just breathe. Just focus on your breath. In, then out. You are going to be fine. No one here is going to harm you, or let you be harmed."
"Is she ok, Tamiko? 'Suki, look in the fridge in the back of the car, and get her something to drink. Miss Ortega, look into my eyes, and just breathe," the supermodel said.
"Yes Ma'am," the girl said as she walked around and opened the back of the vehicle.
Nalin wasn't sure if she was going to be able to calm down, but as she looked into the woman's crimson colored eyes, she did start to feel more relaxed. She didn't understand why, but she did.
"'Suki, it may also be a good idea to leave Jakkasu in the car as well, odachi are not necessarily the most relaxing thing for people questioning you to be holding," the woman then said.
Nalin looked over at the girl as she grimaced, but then placed the sword in the back of the vehicle, "Yes Ma'am. Uh, why is the fridge filled with sake, there isn't anything a minor can drink in here?"
The man and the woman who had been staring in her eyes looked at each other before he spoke, "Moka, I told you that lending Akua a car with a fridge in it was asking for trouble. I'll go get her something."
As the man walked into the store the really beautiful woman turned back to her, "I'm Moka, I'm Tekeshi's mother. We haven't seen in him in six months, so we are worried about him. He was raised as a fighter, and as he may have mentioned, everyone saw him fighting when yokai were revealed to the world. He isn't that good at hiding who he is. Hiding what is, he is great at, just not who he is."
"He didn't say anything until we got here. He, apparently he can change his appearance to disguise himself, and he looked like three different people in the time I was with him," Nalin told the woman.
The girl walked over, "He couldn't before, is it part of what happened to him?"
Moka looked over, "It must be, shifting facial features isn't something that vampires are able to do, even with the fount of power. A lot of this sounds radically different to him. He really preferred to fight close up, he only carried a gun during the battle for practicality reasons. Him using them as a default, I don't understand."
Utsuki thought for a moment, "He said that Uncle Fang-fang had him carry one on his motorcycle because it is easier to explain shooting someone, over literally tearing limbs off with his bare hands. Maybe he is trying to make it harder to track him."
The older woman squirmed a little, "Uh, is the violence discussion really necessary right now? I am starting, to feel as uncomfortable as Miss Nalin here. Miss Nalin, you are yokai?"
Nalin looked at the woman, "Yes. I, I'm what is known as a skinwalker. If I could find another skinwalker, they could teach me how to shift my form into animals, and to look like other people. It wouldn't be perfect., but I would pass at a distance. I, don't know how to do it though. My parents are human, we are born randomly. I..."
"It's ok, you can talk about it, or not. We aren't going to press into anything that you don't want to talk about," the woman started rubbing her back.
"Please don't do that, I don't really like being touched that much, and you are making my bra strap pinch me," she asked.
"Sorry. It helps Utsuki when she is worked up over something. In fact, Moka, why don't we go help Tsukune, he has been gone a while," she turned to the other older woman and they walked off.
As they walked toward the door to enter the raven returned to land next to them. It seemed to look around, as if it wanted to make sure that nobody was looking at them. In the next second a girl that was an identical twin to Utsuki stood there.
"Deessedra," Tamiko started, only to get an irritated glare, "I'm sorry, I still don't understand why you want to change your name to Karasu."
"You didn't have a complete and total paradigm shift in your existence, Mom. I didn't see anything like the vehicle that the chick described on the phone. I was able to get about eight kilometers before I felt I might as well come back. Damn it, I was hoping we could actually find him," the girl said.
"I know Karasu, I think 'Suki is just as disappointed. Hopefully she might be able to get some more out of her. How is your headache," Moka hugged the girl.
"I miss being a demon. The lack of pain, was definitely great. This whole, nephilim thing is, nice and all, but pain sucks," she relaxed into the hug, "at least me and 'Sukes are still bound together. I was worried at first, but it feels good to have someone always there in the back of my head."
"Kami, I wish I could have been a demon when Utsuki was born. Those were the worst ten hours of my life," Tamiko held a hand on her lower body as she winced.
Moka nodded, "Oh trust me, It took getting gutted with a shotgun to finish up with the pain that Tekeshi caused when he was born. The worst part of being a shinso, is the fact that epidurals, are completely useless. I am not looking forward to actually having this next child. Hopefully I don't get big as a house again. I had to rely on the maids completely for clothes."
"I got my tubes tied, I am not going through that again. You cannot possibly understand how beautiful it was to have a second daughter, without actually getting knocked up. Oh, is Tsukune, just staring at a giant wall, of soda dispensers," Tamiko looked through the door.
"Oh my, that, is, incredible. Why can't we have that in Japan? I want a giant wall of soda," Moka's eyes went wide with amazement.
"Uh, but you don't drink soda," Karasu said questioningly.
"I can still want the giant wall of soda. I might not drink it, but it is so cool. Next summer vacation, family road trip here in America. It's decided, whether Tsukune knows it or not. They have a bakery in there, ok, we are going in," Moka was more excited about going into a desert gas station than a woman her age should have been.
Back by the car, the two girls hadn't said anything. The silence was extremely tense. Nalin hadn't met many other monsters, or whatever yokai meant, so she really didn't know what to say to the girl.
"Did he look like he was ok," she finally asked.
"He wasn't hurt, and he seemed to be in, I really don't know what he is usually like, so I don't know if he was in good spirits or not," Nalin responded.
"You probably wouldn't know it if he wasn't happy. He is really good at just putting on a smile, and doing his best to cheer everyone around him up," she said.
"Are you his sister, your eyes look a lot alike," the Apache girl looked over.
"No, I'm his girlfriend. I was mortally wounded, and he turned me to save my life. I was in a coma for a few months. He left before I woke up, so I didn't get to see him. I haven't even talked to him on the phone."
Nalin looked over and then down at her feet. She hadn't paid attention to him when he has said that he was taken, but now that she said something, it sank in. She had hoped that she might have had a chance with Tekeshi, but well, that was out.
"You have a crush on him, don't you," she heard Utsuki giggle next to her, "I'm not going to cut your head off for it. Besides the fact my sword is in the car now, it's hard to find any girl that doesn't develop a crush on him. He really is a wonderful guy."
"I probably just wanted him because he killed a guy for trying to pound me over a table in a diner. He did ask me something though, and I didn't answer because I was worried he was hunting me. He asked me if I had heard anything about cannibals, kidnappings, or anything else weird. I hadn't, but I was worried that my parents had hired him to kill me," she told Utsuki.
Utsuki looked at her, "You thought your parents hired him to kill you? Why would they want to do that? Mine, kind of abandon me, uh, weird story. We are better now, in fact my mother was the one pinching your bac... I wish I had your boobs. How big are they?"
"Huh, these bags. They are like DD, I would have to look at my bra to tell you for sure. Trust me, you are fine, me on the other hand, I hate working my entire shift. Hot showers, there is nothing better. Not to mention every time I look in the mirror topless, I just see these giant nipples taking up most of them. I have to have a padded bra because if I brush against anything it is just a straight shock. Trust me, big tits, not all that great," she cupped and bounced her boobs a couple of times as she spoke, attempting to drive home her point.
"I'm just a little jealous. I could grow them out if I wanted to. I did my butt, but Tekeshi said he liked it better how it was before. Oh, right, I am bad about getting distracted. Why would your parents want to kill you?"
Nalin took a deep breath, "Because skinwalkers are considered to be a great evil. We are kinda anathema to cultural values. We are more talked about in Navajo mythology, but they really don't like to talk about them. Look, if it tells you had bad it is, I was living in the back of the diner, what used to be the mechanic's room, for the last five months since me, and my parents, found out what I was. They were talking about killing me, and making it look like an accident. I jumped the rez as soon as I could. I didn't have any plan, I don't know how to do anything. Hell, I never even really could speak Apache all that well. Not that it means much that I can't speak my native language. Sorry, I guess I just needed to ramble."
"Rambling can help. Still, that is way worse than I had it. Yeah, Tekeshi is right, you need to come to Yokai. It's, changed a little, since Tekeshi was last there. There are even humans that he doesn't know attending. So yeah he is probably going to be happy about it when he returns. Still there is one thing you should know," Utsuki said as she stood up.
"Ok, what is that," Nalin asked, feeling a little better.
"If you even try to take Tekeshi from me, they will never find your body," the look on Utsuki's face froze Nalin's blood in her veins.
Moka stood behind the SUV where she couldn't be seen. She had planned to ask the girls what they might want, having fallen in love with the idea of the American travel plaza. What she had heard out of Utsuki at the end worried her. Utsuki had always been the most, well may be not always, the most kind and gentle girl. To hear her unabashedly threaten to murder someone was unlike her.
Truthfully, she sounded like she was a natural vampire. That was straight up how a vampire would have reacted if they thought there was a threat of losing something they saw as theirs. It was actually concerning her with the fact that the girl had taken over as the head of the Public Safety Commission at the school. She had made it clear that she wasn't going to be easy on anyone that saw the newly enrolled humans as targets, and she had quickly became a very dangerous swordswoman under the tutelage of Tekeshi's old sword teacher.
She turned and walked back into the building. She was most likely going to have to deal with this issue herself. Utsuki nearly idolized her, so it might not be too hard, but then again, she had always dealt with an Utsuki that wasn't a dormant shinso vampire, so she may not react the same as she used to.
It was a problem for another day. They had an entire wall of fudge, and she was trying to figure out how much she could buy without breaking the suspension on the SUV.