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“That’s not true,” I snarled. “He’s been
chasing you and trying to keep you from hurting other people the
same way he was hurt. If he were truly protecting you, he would
have been with you the entire time, not behind trying to catch up
in order to stop you.”

“Your loyalty to my little brother is
admirable,” it said, “but misplaced. After all, he’s not here now,
is he?”

My lips twisted and I flexed my arms in an
attempt to ease some of the strain, and to my surprise Maria’s hold
gave a little. It wasn’t enough for me to break free, but it was
more than I had been able to move since she had put me in this
position. The
Gaki’s
face contorted slightly and his eyes
shifted from me for a moment and Maria’s grip resumed its Superman
type strength. Something at the back of my brain was trying to get
my attention by jumping around and shaking pom-poms. There was
something significant about its diverted attention and Maria’s hold
on me, but I just couldn’t put two and two together yet.

“He’s not here because you’ve obviously done
something to him,” I said as a cold shiver skated down my spine at
the thought of Akira being hurt. I deliberately kept my eyes away
from Dellar’s body. “There’s no way he would have just left us here
to fend for ourselves against you.”

“You can tell yourself that as much as you
want,” the
Gaki
said, its voice smooth and persuasive, “but
you know in your heart that the chances of him wanting to help a
human like you are slim.”

“What do you mean by that? Maria’s human,
too!”

“She was,” the
Gaki
said and placed
its hand on its chin in a thoughtful pose, the corners of its lips
upturned in a light smirk. I wanted to punch it off of its face.
“But she’s not anymore, now is she? And this thing,” he nudged his
foot against Dellar’s still body and drew my eyes to it again
despite myself and my stomach lurched at the way it just flopped,
“isn’t human at all. Let me tell you a little something here about
the paranormal world that you have found yourself dropped into, and
about those of us that live in it. We only look out for ourselves,
and we only do anything to help ourselves. Everyone has a hidden
agenda and any time we interact with humans it’s usually to further
that agenda.”

I alternated between anger at how this thing
was putting its own thoughts and ideologies on someone who wasn’t
here to defend himself, and stark terror that what it was telling
me was true. It’s eyes bored into me, and I again felt Maria’s hold
give a little before it snapped its attention back to her and the
hold tightened. I drew in a surprised breath when it finally hit
me, and would have kicked myself had I been able for being a blind
moron. It had to split its attention between talking with me, and
controlling Maria. Whenever its attention was focused fully on me,
its hold on Maria seemed to slip a little and I was able to move my
arms. My mind raced to come up with a solution, and when one came
to me, I didn’t want to follow through with it.

The
Gaki
stared at me and licked its
lips as if it were already savoring the taste of my soul upon its
tongue. I shuddered and recoiled automatically. The saying “between
a rock and a hard place” had never really clicked with me before,
but as Maria pressed against me and immobilized my arms, Dellar out
for the count, Akira nowhere to be seen, I realized that I was in
worse trouble than I had originally thought.

“That’s not true! I have no doubt that those
in the paranormal world can be just as selfish and self serving as
humans, but I know that Akira is doing what he’s doing to help save
us from a monster like you.”

“So quick to defend the
Tengu
who
isn’t here,” the Gaki scoffed. “And so quick to label me a monster
instead of the vampire there. After all, it’s ultimately his fault
that you and your friend are in the situation that you find
yourselves in now. If he hadn’t interfered your friend’s soul would
have been safely merged with me as I claimed possession of her body
and you would have had your friend back. Instead she’s been cursed
to her current state of half-life and half under my control. Things
would be so much easier for the both of you if you just gave up. I
would end Maria’s suffering and your own in just a few, short
minutes. She will have peace and you will become part of someone
extremely powerful.”

Its voice was persuasive, almost seductive,
and I actually relaxed slightly the tones wove their way around my
mind. As I relaxed, so did Maria’s hold, and if I haven’t been
watching the
Gaki’s
face so closely I would have missed the
moment that its attention focused solely on me. It was for only a
brief moment, but I used that small window to jerk my right hand
from Maria’s grasp. She immediately tightened her hold when the
Gaki
saw what I had done, but it was too late. I whipped my
hand to the back of my head, yanked my hair stick free and slammed
it backwards with all the strength I could muster as I screamed at
what I was doing to my best friend.

You know that feeling you get when you stab
your fork into a thick, juicy piece of steak? There’s a brief
moment of resistance and then the fork slides home with a dull
thud, the sensation of which travels all the way up your hand to
your saliva glands and as you drool your brain immediately starts
to yell, “this is going to taste gooooood”. That’s what it felt
like when I stabbed the sharpened end of my hair stick into Maria’s
body somewhere. Only, instead of the drooling reflex my stomach
lurched and I choked on bile.

Maria let out a horrible, high-pitched
screech and lurched off of me to the left. I immediately rolled to
the right and lunged into a crouch as I turned to face her. She lay
on her side and her left hand clutched where my hair stick
protruded out of her shoulder, the beads swinging cheerfully every
time she moved. The
Gaki
had fallen back slightly and
gripped its head. When Maria turned her eyes to me, they were her
own warm brown, though they were slightly glazed from pain and
shock. The connection between the two had finally snapped.

“Maria,” I said and tears filled my eyes at
the sight of the pain I had inflicted upon her, but her attention
left me and turned first to the
Gaki
and then dropped down
to Dellar’s body. She froze for a brief moment, and a raged filled,
ululating wail that gave voice to pure loss erupted from her. I had
never heard her make that sound before, and the hair on the back of
my neck rose in sharp attention.

I stared in horror, unable to look away, as
she yanked the hair stick from her shoulder with a small spurt of
dark red blood and launched herself at the
Gaki
. She slammed
full body into it and knocked it off its feet, the hair stick
raised high above her head for a brief moment before she brought it
down squarely into the
Gaki’s
chest with a sickening thud
followed by a terrible cracking noise. The
Gaki
shoved Maria
off and got to its feet. It reached down and grabbed her by the
front of her shirt and jerked her to it. She still had the broken
end of the stick clutched in her hand and the dangling beads
clacked as they swung crazily. She jabbed it at the
Gaki
,
but it simply ignored her attempts as it clamped its mouth onto
hers.

I didn’t understanding what I was seeing
until Maria’s struggles began to slow, and then ceased all
together. It kept its mouth glued to hers for a few more seconds,
then pulled back, swallowed and released her. I watched, horrified,
as her lifeless body dropped onto the ground in a graceless heap,
one of her arms outstretched over Dellar’s waist. The
Gaki
stared down at her, no emotion on its face at all, and licked its
lips. It was then that it hit me that I had just seen the
Gaki
steal the rest of Maria’s soul, and I had done nothing
to prevent it.

I climbed to my feet with a sob, and its
attention immediately snapped to me. We stared at each other; a
moment that stretched as thin as a single nerve filament, and then
the
Gaki
smiled as if to say, “Now that that’s over with”
and took a single step in my direction. I turned and bolted towards
the old farm house, Akira’s warning about its state of disrepair
ringing in my ears but desperate to reach the one place that might
offer me a fighting chance against the being that now stalked
me.

Chapter Seventeen

The open doorway loomed in front of me, a
darker patch against the purple shadows of night, and I practically
threw myself through it into the even darker interior of the old
house. My eyes had adjusted to the deepening gloom outside, and it
made picking out obstacles a little easier than if I had barreled
inside after being out in full daylight. I looked around. A few
hulking shapes appeared to be furniture, and there was just enough
moonlight to see a lot of trash laying about and what looked like
an old mattress on the ground off to the side of the main foyer
where I stood. In front of me a grand staircase split into two
different paths to the second story.

“I do hope that you’re planning on trying to
hide,” the
Gaki
called from behind me, and I leapt forward
in fright at how close it sounded. I moved to the rear of the house
as it continued, “It’s so much fun to track down prey.”

I repressed a snarl of frustration when I
realized that, unlike the windows at the front of the house, the
rear ones still had panes of glass in them and one desperate tug
told me that the wood had warped and I wouldn’t be able to slide
them open. My heart hammered against my chest and I looked wildly
around for somewhere to hide, but other than the furniture standing
out in the open, there was nothing aside from a few rooms with no
doors, and their black interiors promised no sanctuary.

I fled up the stairs, trying to stay as close
to the wall as possible in an effort to minimize the noise, but
there were still creaks and groans that gave away where I
headed.

When I reached the top of the stairs I paused
and stared around in dismay. I had hoped that the upper story would
have more light than below, but there was nothing but gloomy shades
of black and, remembering what Akira said about the state of the
floor, I found myself unable to move from my spot. I gnawed on my
thumb as my eyes darted to and fro in an effort to pierce the
blackness and find a safe route. I had some vague thought that if I
reached one of the far windows, I’d be able to climb down and run
for my car while the
Gaki
crashed through the floor. If I
could reach my car, I could drive away and call for help once I was
back in an area that had cell phone reception, though deep down I
knew that anyone I called wouldn’t really be able to do much, but
it gave me a goal.

“Did you know,” the
Gaki’s
voice came
from the foot of the stairs, “that when you move around you leave a
psychic imprint? It’s like energy that takes the form of footsteps,
and I, my dear, just happen to be one of those who can actually see
that energy when I concentrate. So really, while hiding and hunting
is amusing, it’s also rather pointless. Come on down and let’s end
this chase.”

I worried my lower lip between my teeth and
cautiously stepped forward. I slowly put all of my weight on the
one foot before I took another careful step. It was agonizingly
slow going, especially when every instinct I had was screaming at
me to run and get away, but using this method allowed me to test
the boards before I put my weight down, and several times kept me
from dropping through a sudden, gaping hole where the floor had
already given way.

I had reached the middle of the room when a
creak behind me made me jump and spin around. My heart stopped when
I saw the form of the
Gaki
standing at the top of the
stairs. My eyes had finally adjusted enough that I could see him
glance my way before he returned his gaze to the ground, looking
for my psychic footprints in order to follow them across the
treacherous footing. I took a step back, refusing to take my eyes
off the approaching danger, and barely managed to retain my footing
when the board I was trying to step on gave a horrible crack and
dropped out from behind me. I screeched and flailed my arms before
I regained my balance. The
Gaki
laughed.

“Better to stay where you are and let me come
to you,” it said, its voice taking on that low, seductive purr that
I loathed even as warmth pooled through my muscles. “It’s
treacherous around you. It won’t be long now.”

Desperate, I tried to step to the side, but
the flooring gave an ominous groan in both directions and I froze,
visions of my body plunging through the floor to wind up a broken,
bloody mess on the ground below flashed through my mind. I looked
around, but in the darkness it was almost impossible to tell if I
would be able to leap to safe footing or not even though
self-preservation demanded that I try. I sucked in a breath as the
Gaki
drew closer, and shifted my weight. I planned to turn
and jump straight ahead in an effort to reach the far wall where
there was a pair of open doors that lead out to the upper balcony
and where the floor would hopefully be stronger, all the while I
tried not to think about the long drop and sudden stop that waited
for me if I got it wrong.

The
Gaki
came closer, my muscles
tensed, and the floor in front of me exploded upwards in a shower
of chunks and splinters. I screamed and crouched down in an effort
to protect my face and eyes from the flying debris. Pieces of wood
bounced off my back, got caught in my hair and I sneezed as my nose
filled with dust. There was the sound of a body slam followed by a
harsh grunt and a thud. I lowered my hands and cautiously rose from
my crouch as the sounds of fighting erupted from the other end of
the room. It took a moment, but my eyes finally focused on the two
figures and I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped from me if I had
tried. The
Gaki
struggled against a much taller opponent
with large appendages that sprouted from his back that could only
be wings.