A Winter of Ghosts (12 page)

Yuki-Onna smiled that dreadfulsmile again. "Oh, I think not," she said. And she lifted Rob off ofthe floor as if he were a child's plaything, pulled him close, and opened herjaws. Those shark teeth darted toward his throat. .

"Dad!" Kara shouted.

The door had split in two. Theyhad been trying to hold it back, knowing that it would be only seconds beforethe storm drove the splintered halves aside and Yuki-Onna swept in. Now Karasaw the demon — vampire, witch, whatever the hell the ice queen truly was- and she acted.

Thrusting her fingers into thecrack in the door, she pulled inward.

"What are you doing?" Sakura shouted.

"Her father! It's.." Miho started, but she could not find the words.

Ren helped Kara, pushing hisfingers into the gap and hauling the door open. Sakura and Miho got out of theway, now that they saw the horror unfolding just outside the door. Kara's handswere numb, with no feeling in her fingers. She could barely move them and onlyknew they were doing what she wanted because she could see them. Her nose wasclogged with ice. Tears had frozen on her cheeks.

Yuki-Onna sank her teeth intoher father's throat and Kara screamed.

Blood squirted, but only a fewdrops. The Winter Witch's tongue darted out and licked it up and then she beganto suck. Several crimson spots appeared on that pure white kimono, and thenfaded into the cloth as though absorbed from within.

Kara lunged at the demon. Yuki-Onnadid move. Kara passed right through the witch's body as if it were part of thestorm itself, mist and snow puffing out and then reforming. Kara hit the floor,her mind still working, still raging to rescue her father, but her body wouldnot work. She began to tremble and then to shake.

Is this a seizure?
shehad time to wonder, and then her head began to slam against the floor. Only thesnow that had piled up around them saved her from caving her own skull in.

As it subsided, she sawYuki-Onna drop her father's still body to the snowy floor. Trickles of bloodran from the dozen small punctures on his throat.
Breathe
, she thought,staring at his chest.
Breathe, Daddy
!

She saw his chest rise and falland would have screamed in relief and gratitude, except that Yuki-Onna wasthere now, bending over her, the black pits that were the witch's eyes staringdown at her, blind and unseeing.

"What are you?" theWoman in White said, her voice like the crack of brittle ice about to give wayunderfoot.

Kubo had said the wards wouldblind the demon, but Yuki-Onna saw her. The witch didn't know what to make ofKara, but she saw her. Or did she?

Yuki-Onna frowned. Thehideousness hidden inside of her beauty subsided, the teeth hidden behinddemure, if bloody, lips. The Woman in White glanced around.

"Where are you?" sheasked.

Hope flickered in Kara's heart.

But then Yuki-Onna turned towardthe shattered door, and even at this angle, Kara saw the evil of her smilereturn. Sakura and Miho stood there with Ren, and they had nowhere to run.

"You broke your promise,beautiful one," the witch whispered.

Ren did not even try to flee.

"Hide him!" Kara said,her voice quavering. Her whole body twitched as she began to rise.

Miho gave a cry of anguish asshe stepped in front of Ren. "How?"

Kara staggered to her feet. AsYuki-Onna glided toward her friends, she edged around the witch, keeping pace. Yuki-Onnareached a hand out toward Ren, but Kara stepped in the way.

The demon froze, a troubledexpression on her face. Yuki-Onna frowned and moved her head to one side, hersmile returning.

"Surround him," Sakurawhispered, grabbing Kara's hand.

The warmth of the contact withher friend sent pain shooting through her. Her skin was so cold, now, that anymovement, any warmth, hurt her.

"Don't do this — "Ren began.

"Quiet!" Miho snapped."Crouch down."

The three girls surrounded himas best they could. Teeth chattering, they blocked Yuki-Onna's view.
No, nother view
, Kara thought.
Demons see the essence of someone, right? So we'rehiding him behind whatever nothing she sees when she looks at us.

If only they'd had Hachiro'sward.

Hachiro
. Thoughts tumbledinto place inside Kara's head, making a terrible kind of sense. If killingsatiated the witch's hunger, then she wouldn't be hungry right now. Even thoughshe would want to fulfill the curse of Kyuketsuki, Yuki-Onna might not kill herright away. She might take her to wherever Hachiro was now. If Kara could keepRen safe, he might be able to lead them all up to the mountain and save them.

Numb hands shaking, fingerslittle more than useless stumps, she pulled away from her friends and reachedup to remove her ward. She could give it to Ren. Save him, and then he couldsave both her and Hachiro in return. Insane, but the only option she could see.

"Kara, no!" Sakurashouted.

Sakura batted at her hand. Karaglanced at her, saw tiny icicles hanging from the jagged cut of her hair, sawSakura reaching up to untie the thong from her own neck.

Sakura took off Kubo's ward,eyes alight with fear and purpose. She turned, reaching out for Ren with bothhands to put the thong around his neck. Miho and Ren were shouting at her,telling her to stop, to put it back on, but Kara barely heard their voices.

She felt the winter's breath onthe back of her neck, and heard the perverse pleasure in Yuki-Onna's voice.

"One of the cursed, righthere in front of me. Delicious," the Winter Witch said.

"No!" Ren shouted,trying to get the ward back around Sakura's neck.

Yuki-Onna contorted her fingersand the snow and wind lifted Sakura from the ground and twisted her around sothat she faced the witch.

"Leave her alone!" Kara screamed.

She and Miho and Ren attacked,but they might as well have been tearing at the wind, their frozen handsuseless, passing through Yuki-Onna as though the witch were a ghost made ofsnow, made of storm.

"My sister will be gratefulwhen I steal your life, cursed girl," Yuki-Onna said, studying Sakura'sface with her black eyes. "But my vengeance comes before hers. Tonight Itake the pretty one, but I shall come for you and yours soon enough."

And with a gust of wind shehurled Sakura across the cafeteria. Sakura flailed like a broken doll, struckthe wall, then fell onto a side table before rolling onto the floor andbeginning to bleed into the snow.

Miho screamed.

Yuki-Onna grabbed Ren and hecried out, frost forming on his face and hair. Kara caught his wrist, trying topull him back, but as the icy wind carried him into the air she was lifted aswell. The storm embraced her. If she had thought she was cold before, that hadbeen nothing in comparison to the pain that screamed through her now, slowingher blood and dulling her thoughts.

Her hand could not grip. Herfingers would not close.

Kara fell, slumping to the snowyfloor. As her consciousness began to retreat, she saw the cafeteria windowsshatter and the storm flowed out into the darkness, carrying Ren with it.

The shadows coalesced at thecorners of her eyes, and then swallowed her, and her mind went dark.

E
ven in her dreams, Kara couldn'tget warm. Her unconscious mind was filled with the sound of shattering glassand the high, keening wail of the wind. It sounded so much like a scream ofanguish.

From time to time her eyes wouldflutter blearily open and she would see the hospital room around her — thewhite curtain, the metal piping on the guardrail of the bed, the darksilhouette of someone passing by in the brightly lit corridor — and thenshe would surrender to the cold dreams again. Voices reached her, evenunconscious, but the words were impossible to decipher. She recognized them asJapanese, but her brain was too tired to translate.

Sometime during the night shewoke more fully, aware of a terrible weight on her, and she looked down to seethe heavy blanket over her. She still felt cold, but her skin was clammy and itpanicked her a little to be constricted like that. Still, she moved the partsof her body slowly, testing out her feet and ankles, her hands and wrists, herneck and even her spine. She ached all over and there were apparently stitchesin her arm where flying glass had cut her, but otherwise she seemed all right,certainly well enough to move.

As she sat up, turning theblanket down, a slender figure blocked much of the light from the hallway.

"Oh," the nurse saidin a small voice. She hurried into the room, which was lit with a gloomy yellowthat Kara understood was some kind of hospital nightlight. In the semi-dark,Kara could barely make out a stream of blue in the woman's shoulder-lengthhair, and still half-asleep she let out a small laugh.

"You are awake andlaughing?" the nurse said. "The doctor will be very happy."

Kara couldn't say anything. Ifshe did, she feared she would blurt out the source of her amusement, which wasthe streak of blue in the attractive young woman's hair. It had made her thinkof Nurse Joy on all of the old Pokemon episodes she and her friends had watchedwhen they were little. Or was it Officer Jenny with the blue hair? Not that itmattered.

"I'm cold," she toldthe nurse.

Immediately the woman nodded andtried to pull the blanket back up, but Kara shook her head.

"Not that, please? I'm coldinside more than out. Is there any way I could have some tea?"

The nurse looked doubtful. Sheglanced at the clock and only now did Kara see that it was almost two o'clockin the morning.

"Maybe something from thenurses' station?" Kara asked. "Anything hot, really."

The blue-streaked nurse pickedup her chart from the end of the bed and cocked it so that she could read it inthe light coming in from the hall. Apparently satisfied, she set it back down.

"I will see if there isanything that the doctor would not object to."

Kara gave a nod of her head, atiny bow, and the nurse retreated from the room. Only after she left did Kararemember the hundred questions she should have asked upon waking. Where wereher father and her friends? Were they all okay? How many people had died at theschool? She needed to see someone, talk to someone who could tell her what hadhappened.

But with the nurse gone, she layon her side and brought her knees up beneath her, trying to warm herself. Bitsand pieces of memory began to surface. The image seared across her mind was ofthose shark teeth plunged into her father's throat, but others warred for spacein her mind. Yuki-Onna's bottomless black eclipse eyes. Sakura hitting thewall, then slamming down on top of a cafeteria table. Ren being sucked out theshattered caf windows.

Kara shuddered, alone in thedark. She had to know they were all right. If she'd had some kind of telepathicpowers she could have reached out for them, found them with her thoughts andher worries.

Be all right, Dad. Be allright, Sakura
, she thought. And then,
Hachiro, are you out there?

But of course she received noanswer. She was no telepath, just an ordinary girl dragged through a hell ofextraordinary circumstances. Still she kept reaching out for them with herthoughts, and it occurred to her that she was praying.

By the time the nurse returned,she had slipped back into dreams.

. . Wake up. .

Something jostled her. Kara cameawake slowly, her eyes not quite open but still aware of activity in the roomaround her. Daylight filtered through her slitted eyelids and she heardfamiliar voices.

". . would want to bewoken," Miho was saying. "The doctor said she'd be okay."

"But he did not say weshould wake her," Miss Aritomo replied. "We have all been through aterrible ordeal. We are fortunate to be alive. You and I might be just fine,but the doctor said that Kara needs her rest."

"Aritomo-sensei, pleaselisten," Miho said, her patience obviously wearing thin. "Kara is oneof my best friends. I know her. Decisions are going to be made this morningthat concern her, and she would not want to sleep through them. She would wanta voice."

A flicker of a smile touchedKara's lips as she finally shed the groggy remnants of sleep. Both Yuuka andMiho were so concerned about her, she could not help but appreciate theirconcern. But Miho's pleas had her worried.

Miss Aritomo was notsurrendering. "Miho, Kara's father has made his wishes clear. She needssleep."

Kara tried to speak but hervoice came out in a rasp. As she cleared her throat, they both turned to lookat her, first in surprise and then delight.

"You're awake!" Mihosaid hopefully.

Miss Aritomo shot her afrustrated look, obviously blaming Miho for waking Kara, but then herexpression changed. Yuuka shifted from art teacher to her father's girlfriend,just happy to see Kara awake and apparently well.

"I think I've slept enough,"Kara said, sitting up and reaching for a pitcher of water on the tray table besidethe bed. She fumbled a moment before realizing that the fingers of her righthand were bandaged.

"I'll get that," Mihosaid, hurrying around the bed to pour her a glass of water.

They both studied her curiously,even eagerly, as she drank. When she had put the glass down and cleared herthroat again, she threw back the covers and looked down at her body.

"I'm all in one piece,right?" she asked.

Miss Aritomo nodded. "Youhave — " and she said a word Kara didn't know.

"What's that?" Karainterrupted.

Miho and Miss Aritomo looked atone another.

"When your skin or theflesh is frozen and dies?" Miho ventured.

Kara shivered, a wave of nauseapassing through her. "Frostbite?" she said in English. Then sherepeated the word Miss Aritomo had used for it in Japanese. "Frostbite. Ihave frostbite?"

"Just in your right hand,"Miho said quickly. "And the doctor says it isn't bad. They got the bloodmoving again. You're going to be all right."

A darkness closed around Kara'sheart as she flexed the fingers of her right hand and remembered holding on toRen's wrist, trying to keep Yuki-Onna from taking him away. She could still seethe fear in his eyes as the witch flew out into the snowy night, carrying himalong in the embrace of the storm.

"But Ren's gone," Karasaid.

"Yes," Miss Aritomoagreed. "Ren's gone."

"And without him we can'tfind Hachiro, or break the curse, and. . poor Ren."

"You don't know any of thatfor certain," Miho said.

Kara frowned. "Don't I?" She shook her head and then, remembering the melee in the dormitory, looked upat Miss Aritomo. "What about everyone else? Is my father all right? AndSakura? Are they all right?"

Ever since she had woken in themiddle of the night, a grim suspicion had weighed upon her but she had barelyrecognized its presence. The tone in Miss Aritomo's and Miho's voices duringtheir conversation had been full of dreadful acceptance, the tone of people whohad already suffered tragedy and simply did not want any more of it. All ofthis occurred to her only now, as they both hesitated to answer the question.

"Tell me," Kara said,crossing her hands over her chest and laying her head back on the pillow."Don't do this to me, Miho. Yuuka. Don't do this. Just tell me. Is myfather dead?"

The shock and alarm in MissAritomo's eyes made Kara sigh in relief even before the woman spoke.

"No, no, Kara. Your fatheris here as well. His room is at the other end of this corridor. The doctorintended to move you into his room today, once you were awake and feeling alittle better."

"And he's all right?"

Yuuka brushed a lock of hairaway from her delicate, pretty face. "He had frostbite as well. Worse thanyours. The doctors had to remove two of his toes and the little finger of hisleft hand. He has several broken ribs. Otherwise he is going to be all right. He'sbeen asking for you, but the doctor won't let him get out of bed. He's on painmedication and his ribs are much too tender."

Kara nodded slowly, taking thatin. Awful, but her father would survive. They would be all right.

"What about Sakura?"

Miss Aritomo glanced at Miho,who wore a thin smile, her face partially veiled by her long hair. Miho tookoff her glasses and opened her mouth to speak, and then her smile shattered. Herlower lip quivered and she began to cry.

"Oh, no," Kara said."Miho, come on. Don't. ." She looked at Miss Aritomo. "What'swrong with Sakura?"

Miss Aritomo put her arm aroundMiho for a moment, then broke away and came to sit on the edge of Kara's bed. Shetook Kara's undamaged hand in her own.

"Sakura is stillunconscious," the art teacher said. Her smile was kind, but Kara barelyregistered it. "Miho tells us that Sakura was thrown into a wall. Her headmust have hit the wall. There is damage to her skull and she had a number ofinternal injuries. The doctors have not. . they are not willing to makepredictions about Sakura's condition for at least another twenty-four hours,unless she wakes up before then."

Kara held Miss Aritomo's hand,but she threw her legs over the side of the bed and forced herself to stand.

"Wait, Kara. You cannot — "the teacher said, holding her arm.

"Yuuka," Kara said,more sharply than she'd intended. "I need to see her. I want to see myfather, talk to him. And then. . Sakura."

Just the thought that her friendmight never wake up sapped the strength from her, but Kara refused to sit backdown.

"I'll take you," Mihosaid.

"We should summon a nurse,"Miss Aritomo warned.

"I'm fine," Kara toldher.

She pulled on the hospital robeand followed Miho out into the hall. Her feet were bare and the tiles were verycold underfoot. The loose hospital clothes flapped around her, but she ignoredit all. Miss Aritomo followed, only pausing to explain their destination asthey passed the nurses' station. A grumbling nurse pursued them but seemed moreinterested in keeping an eye on Kara than on forcing her back to bed.

"It is this way," MissAritomo said, guiding them along a corridor that branched off to the left.

When they reached Kara's father'sroom, Miss Aritomo stood back to let her pass, and Kara preceded her throughthe door with Miho following close behind. There were two beds in the room, oneof them empty and awaiting Kara's arrival, except that the old monk, Kubo, satperched on the edge of the bed with the air of a little boy waiting patientlyuntil he could depart.

Kara glanced in surprise at themonk and then turned to her father, barely noticing the presence of the thirdman in the room, Mr. Yamato, who stood near the window, looking out at the grayskies — perhaps watching for any sign of snow.

"Honey, what are you doingwalking around?" her father asked, frowning. He glanced at Miss Aritomo.

"Don't blame Yuuka,"Kara said quickly. "She tried to get me to rest. But you know me betterthan that, Dad. I'm all right. And time is running out. It's. . it mayalready have run out."

Her voice cracked and sheclenched her jaws together a moment, refusing to cry.

"Last night was Hachiro'sthird night on Takigami Mountain. And she's got Ren again. Sakura is pretty badoff, I'm told. We've got to put a stop to this."

Kubo perked up, eyebrows archingas though he had something to say, but he glanced at Mr. Yamato and then atKara's father, awaiting some signal of approval that did not seem to beforthcoming. The old monk cocked his head to one side and continued his patientvigil.

"Kara. ." herfather began again.

She stared at him a moment,taking in the bandaged left hand, knowing when the bandages were removed hewould have one less finger. She couldn't see his feet, and perhaps that was forthe best.

He tried to sit up, and she wentto him.

"No, Dad. Your ribs,"she said, touching him gently on the shoulder, keeping him down.

"With respect, Harper-san,"Mr. Yamato said, "Kara is right. It might be better if she rested, but youare under strict instructions. Your ribs will not heal properly if you do notobey them."

Kara saw the frustration in herfather's eyes and she understood it. He was furious at being so powerless. Butshe also saw his eyelids droop with exhaustion and wondered how tired thepainkillers might be making him.

"Are you all right?" she asked, unable to erase the little girl she'd once been from her voice.

"I will be," herfather replied, gaze fixed upon her eyes. "As long as you are."

"I'm not," Kara saidquickly, turning to Mr. Yamato and Kubo. She gestured to Miho. "None of usare until this curse is over. It's killed so many people already. How many diedlast night?"

"Kara — " MissAritomo chided her.

"Four," Mr. Yamatoreplied grimly. "Seventeen were injured, some of them badly. Your friendWakana fell on the stairs. She broke her arm and suffered a concussion."

"I did not know that,"Miho said.

Miss Aritomo gave her asympathetic look. "You've been with Kara and Sakura all night."

Kara took a deep breath, glancedaround the room, and then looked at the old monk. "Ren was supposed tolead us to Yuki-Onna. Now she has him again. Is there any other way to findthem? To find her?"

Kubo steepled his hands in frontof him, almost as if he were praying. "If we go to Takigami Mountain, Imay be able to find her. Such power as hers leaves echoes in its wake."

"But what will we do then,Unsui?" Mr. Yamato asked. "Yuki-Onna will never let us take the boys."

"If I can find her, andthem, someone will have to lure her away to another part of the mountain. Iwill have wards for both boys. It will be difficult for her reclaim them if shecannot see them."