All the Gates of Hell (14 page)

"She told you about that? Well, it's true. I'm a hippie activist forty years too late." She smiled then. "Better late than never. Can I get you something? I think the cookies are a bit dry."

"I'll take a Chablis, if you have any," Jin said. "Frank doesn't drink..." She turned to Frank. "Water? Would that be ok?"

Taking his cue from Jin, Frank nodded. "Water. Yes. That would be fine."

"A teetotaler? Well, well... Be right back then. Talk about me some more if you'd like."

Jin put her head in her hands. "It's starting," she said.

Frank frowned. "What is?"

"Mother is a bit...passionate. We usually end up arguing."

"I like your mother," Frank said. "She's interesting."

"That's a good word for it."

Margaret appeared with the drinks, then hurried away. Jin sucked down her wine in one long gulp and followed her mother to the kitchen.

"Frank's a sweet guy, but a little naive," Jin said when they were out of earshot. "I'd consider it a personal favor if you went easy on him."

Jin's mother seemed to consider this as she adjusted the burner under a covered pot. "Is he gay? I mean, I don't mind and all, but it's not doing much for my plan to be a grandmother in this lifetime."

Jin blinked. "What makes you think he's gay?"

Margaret Hannigan turned away from the stove and faced her daughter. "I could be wrong. I'll admit he has a sort of puppy-dog devoted look on his face whenever he looks at you, but there's not much else so far as I can tell in the personal chemistry department. Surely you noticed?"

Jin hadn't noticed, but then she wasn't looking. "Frank is...special."

"What do you mean, special? Is it serious with you two? Have you slept with him?"

"Mother!"

Margaret shrugged. "I'll take that as a 'no.' Figures."

Jin put her hands on her hips. "Mom, with all due respect, you're a fine one to lecture me on men."

Her mother just sighed. "Touche, Lotus Blossom. I just worry about you, that's all."

"I know, but you don't need to. I'm fine."

Jin's mother looked her up and down again. "You're not getting much sleep; that's obvious. Is work going ok?"

"It's just a bout of insomnia. It'll pass. Work is fine."

"You don't have to, you know. Work, I mean. You could stay here. I'm not underfoot most of the time anyway."

"That's not the point. If I weren't working, what would I do?"

"Anything you want. Travel. Meditate. Go to law school, if that's what you want."

Jin almost smiled. "I like working at the Legal Aid Office, Mom. Perhaps that's not very ambitious, but what I'm doing it important."

In Margaret Hannigan's world view that was the one irrefutable argument, and Jin used it with that full knowledge.

"And the judges award the stubborn daughter another full point," Margaret said, and then she sighed. "What you could have done in a courtroom... Look, Jin, I can't be too upset that you've rejected a path that I abandoned myself, but for a while now I've had the feeling you've just been waiting for something to happen. Life doesn't work that way."

"I know, Mom. Lately I've been thinking about what I want to do long term and, you'll just have to trust me on this, it's not going to be a problem. Grandchildren, on the other hand -- "

"Just floating a trial balloon," Jin's mother said, smiling. "You're still young, so no rush. You better get back to your guest. The table's already set."

The doorbell rang before Jin had turned around.

"Get that, will you? It should be Jonathan."

Jin dutifully went to open the door.

"You must be Jin," said the newcomer. "I'm Jonathan Mitsumo."

Jin just stared for a moment. It wasn't just that the man was handsome, though he was. His features were Asian but it was obvious he was of mixed ancestry, as she herself was. He was tall and slim and looked maybe forty, just slightly younger than Jin's mother, and had wavy black hair only slightly peppered with gray. That wasn't what got Jin's immediate attention. It was his eyes. They were very dark, and glittered like small stones. They were also very, very familiar. Jonathan Mitsumo smiled at her, and Jin knew.

Jin knew that it didn't matter what he looked like now, or what he called himself, or how it had come to be. She only knew that the man calling himself Jonathan Mitsumo and currently her mother's lover was one and the same with the shadow man she had first met in a little girl's version of hell.

Shiro
.

Jin didn't change into a demon, or run screaming, or lash out, or any of the things she thought she might do. What she actually did was quite different.

Jin smiled. "Won't you come in?"

(())

Chapter 11

Jonathan smiled at her, but he didn't offer his hand and was careful to keep some distance between them. Jin noted his caution for what it was.

"Nice to meet you," Jin said as she escorted him inside. This is my friend, Frank Celeste."

Shiro did offer his hand as Frank stood to meet the newcomer. "Pleasure," Frank said.

"Likewise."

Jin glanced from one to another but there seemed to be no more to the greeting than polite interest on both their parts.

"Mom says dinner is almost ready. Have a seat," Jin said, but Jonathan smiled.

"Thanks, but I better go apologize to your mother for being late. You know how she is."

She watched him go through the door, and in the instant the door closed Frank was at her side. "Jin -- " he started to whisper, but Jin stopped him.

"I know," she said, keeping her own voice low.

Frank shook his head, looking crestfallen. "I sensed him, but not until he was very close. He's taken corporeal form. I didn't know he could do that, and for one like me, a spirit is easier to find than a man. I have failed you. If he had attacked..."

"If he'd attacked I'd have gone medieval demon on his sorry ass. My demon form scares him. I've seen it."

"Since demons are the normal persecutors of beings in hell it stands to reason he'd have a healthy fear of them, from the time before his bargain with Emma-O."

"Maybe," Jin said, "but I don't think that's the whole story. Do you know what he's up to now?"

Frank frowned. "Jin, I honestly do not. He's been making a habit of appearing wherever you have work to do as Guan Yin, but I don't know how that applies to this. I mean, developing a relationship with your mother? It doesn't make sense."

"It makes perfect sense if the goal is to get to me," Jin said, "but I'd bet you anything you'd care to wager that it's not a whim. Apparently he was seeing my mom even before Teacher told me who I was. If it was really the plan of Guan Yin That Was to keep me away from him, then it never had a chance. This 'Jonathan' person -- Shiro -- knew who I was before I did!"

It was simply beyond belief that Shiro would assume corporeal form in Medias and then in turn find Jin's mother entirely by accident. It wasn't, Jin reminded herself grimly, that small a hell. No, if Jin was his real target -- and both the Guan Yin That Was and Teacher apparently believed so -- then it stood to reason that Jin's mother was simply a means to that end. But what was his purpose?

As always, too many questions and not nearly enough answers. Jin glanced at the door, but the kitchen was silent. Jin strongly suspected that Jonathan and her mother were making out like schoolkids, but the kitchen timers her mother had set would ring them out of it soon enough.

"Frank, now that we know were Shiro is, he's going to need watching. Go find Ling and tell her what we've found out. I want you both to come back and watch the house. More specifically, watch
him
."

Frank shook his head. "I will not leave you alone with that creature, Jin."

"Look, if he intended me physical harm by any direct means he's had more than one chance already."

"He wasn't corporeal before now. He could have a gun," Frank pointed out.

"Which wouldn't be much good against my demon form, and that's what I'll be wearing if he even hints he's going to get cowboy on me. Look, just do as I say, for now. I'll make up some excuse for you."

"Deception comes easily to you in your current state," Frank said. "If you don't mind me saying so."

"Go!" Jin ushered him out the door. He shrugged, then walked into a circle of light that suddenly appeared and then he vanished, as did the light. Jin glanced up and down the street, but there was no one around. She had no sooner sat back down on the couch when her mother appeared at the door.

"Dinner's ready...say, where's Frank?"

"He got a call on his cell phone. Urgent family business, I'm afraid. He sends his regrets."

"I didn't hear a phone ring," said Jonathan from behind Jin's mother.

"His cell's set to vibrate," Jin said without missing a beat. "Don't you hate it when someone else's cell phone is always going off?"

"I know I do," Margaret said, and then she sighed. "Are you sure this wasn't some lame attempt to get out of the parental grilling I've been so looking forward to?"

"No," Jin said, "That part was just a bonus."

Margaret laughed. "All right, but I will insist on a raincheck. Shall we?"

They went into the old-fashioned dining room where Margaret, apparently with Jonathan's help, had laid out the feast, and it was no less than that. Roasted turkey, ham, dressing, three kinds of vegetables. For a moment all Jin could do was stare.

"Wow, Mom, you'd think it was Thanksgiving or something."

Margaret just shrugged. "In a way it is. How often are my two favorite people in the world under the same roof?"

Jin smiled, as did Jonathan, who winked at her. Jin kept smiling, but it was more like grinding her teeth than an actual smile. "Mom tells me you're a psychologist?" Jin asked. "Where do you work?"

"I'm in private practice in Sumter," he said, naming a smallish town about twenty miles north of Medias. "I'm listed. Come by and see me if you'd like."

Jin accepted a dish from Jonathan, but their hands never touched. "Professionally?"

He smiled. "That would probably be a conflict of interest. And unnecessary. I'm sure you're no more nutty than your mom."

"No, though I had my hopes," Margaret said. "Jin, pass the carrots if you're through staring at them in disgust."

"Gladly," said Jin, who had never been able to develop a taste for carrots, despite her mother's best efforts. "I've been thinking about what you said earlier."

Margaret raised an eyebrow. "About carrots?"

"About moving back home. At least for a while." Jin was speaking to her mother, but it was the man calling himself Jonathan who had all her attention. She looked for any sort of reaction from him: fear, pleasure, worry, surprise, but he was unreadable.

Her mother was grinning like a possum. "Really? You're serious?"

Jin nodded. "It's silly to live apart when we live this close together. There are better things I could spend the rent money on, you know?"

"I know," Margaret said. "Now. What are you up to?"

Jin blinked. "Up to? Nothing."

"Honestly Jin, I'd love it past your ability to understand if you were to move home, but I never expected you to do it. Are you having trouble at work? Do you really need the money?"

Jin just sighed. "The answer is no and again, no. I'm fine. My moving out served its purpose. As you said, you're gone most of the time. We're both adults. So long as you're good with that, I don't see a problem."

Margaret raised an eyebrow, but she didn't argue the point further, for which Jin was very grateful. After all, she couldn't tell her mom the real reason, could she? What would she say anyway? That her mother's boyfriend was some sort of shape-changing shadow creature escaped from his own hell and here in hers to... what, exactly?

That part was puzzling Jin greatly. One thing she did know beyond doubt -- there was no way she was leaving her mother alone with Shiro, Jonathan, or whatever he was calling himself, if she could help it. Jin didn't want to move home, but at that moment she didn't see a good alternative. Nor did she quite know what to make of the warm smile that had finally blossomed on Jonathan's face. It looked entirely too much like the one her own mother was wearing now.

"It's for the best," Jonathan said brightly. "Perhaps it's not my place to say, but you know how your mother worries about you."

"And vice versa," Jin said grimly, idly wondering if Shiro was a poker player. He'd be a natural. "I won't let anything happen to my mother if there's anything I can do to prevent it."

Margaret actually looked touched. "How sweet. But I'm a grownup. Just as you are, Lotus Blossom."

Jonathan frowned. "'Lotus Blossom.'?"

"It's been my nickname since I was seven," Jin said. "Don't ask me why."

Her mother shrugged. "Because you are. My Lotus Blossom, that is."

"She's gone zen again," Jonathan said, which was something of a shock to Jin, who was thinking the exact same thing. Not that her mother really understood zen or was even a serious student of it, but that she tended to go through periods when she expressed herself in zen terms. It was just part of the glorious spiritual mish-mosh that was Kathleen Margaret Hannigan's world. Jin and Jonathan exchanged glances and it was as if, for a moment, they were old friends sharing a secret. Jin looked away, confused, almost blushing. Jonathan just kept smiling.

"Your room's just the way you left it, you know," Margaret said, apparently taking no notice. "Like a shrine to my Lotus Blossom. You can move right back in."

Jin shook her head. "That's exactly what I can't do; shrines aren't for the living. I'll need to rearrange things a bit."

"Suit yourself," her mother said. "Now eat. Your tandoori chicken is getting cold."

Jonathan looked thoughtful. "You say Jin's room is exactly the way she left it?"

Margaret looked stern. "You will not analyze me on this, Jonathan Mitsumo. Whatever else I may be or how good or poor a job I've done, I'm still a mother. I won't apologize for acting like one."

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Perish the thought. It's just that Jin's room might give me some insight into Jin as a person... or at least the girl she used to be. I need to get to know you both if I'm going to be involved in your lives."