Moon Child (17 page)
“Tristan—” She winced hard enough that the nails on her good hand cut into her palm when she squeezed too hard.
Recognizing the reaction and understanding exactly what it was, Tristan sighed. “Don’t think just because the sun is about to put you under, this is a free pass. You’re going to tell me why when you’re up again.”
“Promise.”
His lips pressed tightly together and then he sighed again. “Good night.” He kissed her on the cheek and then pressed his lips to her ear to whisper, “I love you.”
She sucked in a gasp to say something but her compromised state and the pull of the coming sun cut her off and she crumpled into dead weight in Tristan’s arms. He blinked once, twice and the gasped, shoving her off him but not really meaning to. Her heart wasn’t beating anymore, it was like she was dead.
“Technically,” Mamoru said softly over the sound of wet slicing. “They are.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Tristan asked as he got up, backing away from Ash. He felt terrible shoving her off like that and then leaving her in that awkward lump, but he was having a really hard time working it out in his head that he was really in love with a dead woman.
The smile Mamoru gave him over the dead animal creeped him out more than holding Ash’s limp body. “You ever watch Star Wars growing up?”
Tristan took a step back, disgusted. “You’re going to stink like a dead jikininki if you wear that.”
“Sure,” Mamoru answered with a nod. “But I won’t freeze to death.”
Now that Mamoru mentioned it, Tristan was cold too. And soggy. “Will you, uh, will you move Ash for me?”
The other man only lifted a brow at him and nodded. Without a word he went over, scooped her up and trudged through the water to place her next to Desmond. There was a chance of them waking up slightly disoriented from their conditions and if they were to lash out, they wouldn’t kill each other, not right away anyway. Mamoru didn’t see any reason to tell Tristan this aloud though, the American was having a harder time dealing with everything than he let on.
“Thanks,” Tristan muttered and crossed his arms about him as a little shiver shook him.
“Sure.” Mamoru stomped through the water towards him, wrapping the fresh cut tiger fur around him. He came right up to Tristan and sat. Not that there was much dry land left, Genoveva’s temper tantrum had sunk all but a seven foot patch, barely enough to lay on comfortably without drowning. “You shouldn’t be so mad at her, you know.”
“Excuse me?” Tristan snapped and crouched so that he was more at eye level.
“She’s not holding things back to be malicious, she’s just… scared. Terrified even.”
Tristan sat down with a grunt. “Don’t you think it’s weird for a vampire to be scared of anything?”
Mamoru shook his head. Boy, he looked warm hunkered down in that blanket, even if it smelled like death. “They have more to lose than humans, or any other shinwa or heikō for that matter.”
“They can live forever. What’s for them to lose?”
Mamoru sighed and took the fur off, shoving it towards Tristan. He looked at it with disgust as the smell of rot and musk filled his sinuses. “I’ll be fine now that I’m back up to temperature. Just use it.”
Tristan frowned but took the stinking scalped fur.
“All seven shinwa, the heikō, us Uruwashi… humans, we are all more alike than you realize.”
“How so?” Tristan asked skeptically trying to get comfortable under the fur and calm his gag.
“We all form bonds. With plants, animals, a favorite toy, and most of all, each other. And we all fear their loss. For the humans, they live such a short life that they have learned to cherish those in their lives before parting from them. The same goes for the elves and fae, even the kitsune and troll. The lycan, when they were still in existence, they bonded and loved with a ferocity that rivaled any being on the planet. Even the shinigami have their own form of love.
“But the vampire, yes, they bond and love and cherish too, even deeply for some. For most, it takes them lifetime after lifetime to fully grasp the reality of life and death. They take so much life, but it’s to fuel their deaths. And those they wish to live always die. They don’t take the finality of death seriously enough until it’s too late and they are forced to watch those dear to them die.
“Over and over again and again they lose the things they most cherish in this world until they become numb to it. But they really aren’t. They feel the breakage of each bond more keenly than anything alive. For that, they truly are damned.
“You see, they have the most to lose because more bonds are broken for them in any one lifetime than most. And then, at the end, when the debt of life has piled up and they can’t stand it anymore and they want to die just to find peace, they can’t. Like Netty. That man is so old that he can’t even kill himself. If that’s not the definition of tragic, then I don’t know what is.”
Tristan let out a shaky breath. “I never looked at it like that.”
“No, of course not.” Mamoru pulled his knees up to rest his cheek on them. “Most don’t, especially the vampires themselves. They’re all afraid and don’t want to see it. It would make them weak and fragile. Really, inside, they’re just as human as you and I.”
“You maybe. I’m not even part human.”
“You keep saying that. Why do you think that?” Mamoru asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously on him.
Tristan stared at him a moment, puffing up his cheeks in thought of saying what he was thinking and then thought better of it, letting out a sigh. “No, it’s nothing.”
“What is it, friend?”
Oh sure, pile on the flattery. Tristan heaved a sigh. “Ash tasted my blood in France, before I killed Lucien. She said that whatever I am, she tasted no human in my blood. I’m not even half human, Mamoru. And the worse part, she doesn’t even know what that other flavor is. I’m half Uruwashi, half monster.” He looked up slowly and met the other man’s eyes. “I was never even human.”
The Japanese man studied him for a long time, thoughts veiled behind curious eyes. Finally he sighed, lowering his head with a sad smile. “All Uruwashi feel the way you do more than once in our lives. Especially after we’ve been bitten, but it’s just the nature of things, my friend.” He looked up again, a spark of hope and understanding in his expression. “But just because our DNA isn’t human, doesn’t make us monsters. We’re just a different species of man.”
“Not sure that makes me feel better, man,” Tristan mumbled.
“I’m just—there are many races of beings on this planet. Out of all the thousands not a single one of them lives without killing in some way. It’s the nature of things, the strong eat the weak.”
“Dude—”
Mamoru put up a hand. “You can’t begrudge what it is in your nature to be. It will only make you miserable. And what’s the point of life if you live it in agony… ne?”
Tristan looked to Ash. She was miserable for centuries and still went on. She lived with doubt and fear, hate and need. She felt so strongly all of her emotions and yet, she went on. In hope of finding happiness.
“Exactly right,” Mamoru said in a reverent tone. “Misery pushes us harder to finding our happiness. It’s just a matter of how much misery one can take to find that happiness. One has to decide if it’s worth it, all the darkness and death just for a chance to live.”
Tristan frowned. He understood exactly what Mamoru was saying. And then felt ashamed, feeling so sorry for himself after he’d seen firsthand what Ash had been through and realized his own hardships were nothing in comparison. He was stronger than this. He was a fighter and would live on. If that meant living as a monster… well, he wasn’t one-hundred percent ready to accept that, but knew he had to learn to.
Mamoru nodded at Tristan, but was watching him in a way that made him uncomfortable. Mamoru laid down on his side with his back to Tristan, curling his arms under his head for a pillow.
“Hey, Mamoru?” Tristan said casually as he tried to find a comfortable spot that on the ground that didn’t have a rock poking him in the back. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what it was you two were talking about?” He’d only awoken to hear a small part of it.
The man’s back was terribly unexpressive, his voice equally such. “I don’t think it’s really my place. You should ask Ash. It was her theory anyway.”
The last was spoken with something quavering in the man’s voice. He knew something, or thought he knew something that scared him. Tristan was too tired to push right then on what it was. They would have plenty of time after Genoveva was dead to exchanged theories and views.
“You should rest,” Mamoru muttered, sounding like he was nodding off. “We’ve got a busy night ahead of us.”
Tristan snorted a rude laugh. “Yeah, I haven’t heard that one before.”
Mamoru smiled though the other man couldn’t see it. “
Oyasumi
.”
“Yeah, night.”
Lying on the hard earth, wet, cold and starting to feel nauseous under the stink of jikininki rot, Tristan knew there was no sleeping. He was too busy in his own head, like always. He thought that as time went on and he learned more about himself and the world he lived in that he’d find peace and understanding. Instead he found more things to confuse him, to be scared of, worried over and mad at.
There was no peace to be had for an Uruwashi he was realizing. It was times like these he had to push all things not the most urgent to the back burner. Confronting Ash about her lies, questioning Agamemnon about his father, learning all there was to be known about the Uruwashi and all shinwa, these were all very, very important to him. But they had to wait. They were only secondary to the most important thing for everyone, his job, to find and kill Genoveva.
The trouble was, he was almost willing to let Genoveva slide in to second, letting the talk he needed to have with Ash take precedence. He was afraid of what that talk would mean for them and the very idea that he’d let something so menial, in the grand scheme of things anyway, mean harm to the others.
Mamoru let out a puff of semi-annoyed air. “Tristan?”
“Yeah?” he sighed tiredly.
Mamoru rolled over to look at him, eyes heavily lidded and tired. “Sorry to do this to you but…
sleep
.”
Realizing immediately as the pull of unconsciousness quickly overtook him what Mamoru had done, he groaned. “You son of a—” He was out before he could finished cursing the man. Mamoru smiled and then rolled back over to join his friend in much needed rest.
CHIKUSHŌ!” Mamoru screamed and his voice didn’t echo off the walls like it should have. He gasped and dove. “Tristan!”
He got a mouthful of salty water and winced at the heady taste. The water here was saltier than elsewhere in the world. The same water that was now drowning them. Mamoru’s entire head dipped as he tried to catch Tristan. The American was soundly asleep, thanks to Mamoru, so it was up to him to save Tristan. His quicker reflexes had him to the bottom, grabbing Tristan and back to the surface again before Tristan’s body even had time to register that he was underwater and unable to breathe.
“Kuso!” Mamoru cursed when he broke the surface. “Tristan,” he grumbled in between spitting out water and struggling to keep Tristan’s larger, dead weight upright. “Wake up.”
The man didn’t even stir. Realizing he wasn’t concentrating hard enough he shut his eyes, let their heads fall under and only once he was sure he was able to put the right compulsion into his voice did he blurt out, “
Oki
nasai
, Tristan.” The water muffled the sound but it could have been a whisper of words and the compulsion to do what Mamoru willed would have still hit Tristan. Speaking aloud, regardless of the language, just backed up the mental push.
Tristan’s eyes shot up and he opened his mouth in shock, breathing in a little bit of water before he realized where he was. In a rush of panic he choked, freezing for a moment. The hand in his hair, jerking him up distracted him from the panic and burn in his lungs. He broke the surface and spit up the water he half breathed in, coughing and sputtering, trying to stay above the line of water.
“Are you okay?” Mamoru asked sounding utterly exhausted.
“What the—” Tristan had to stop and clear his throat. It was all scratchy now from breathing water. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Trying to drown me?” There were more ill words for the Japanese man on Tristan’s tongue but fear had ceased its movement as he really saw his surroundings.
The small island they’d fallen asleep on was completely submerged under water by nearly six feet—just enough that Tristan couldn’t stand and breathe. There was a large hazy spot a few feet over where the remains of the charred jikininki tiger floated. And the vampires, they were still asleep, both floating face down at the far end of the cave.
Tristan panicked, accidently dunking himself and choking on the gasp he took as he went under before he remembered that vampires didn’t need to breathe. Still, Tristan was scared for them—well, Ash anyway. Fuck Desmond.
“What’s happening?”
Mamoru spit out a mouthful of water before answering, “I’m not sure. But the chamber is filling up with water.”
“How are we only just noticing if it’s this full already?”
The other man flushed slightly despite the paleness in his lips that said he was cold. “I was trying to let you sleep. The others won’t be awake until sunset and it seemed like you could use the rest… but you’ve been fighting me in your sleep. I couldn’t keep you above the water anymore.”
“Fighting?” Tristan asked, body tingling with something that had nothing to do with the cold. In fact, he was more than cold as he realized his lips were trembling ever so slightly.
“You have some strong, albeit, wild instincts.”
Tristan frowned, too unsure to even ask. “How long?” he asked with a nod towards the others, unable to bring himself to look.
“Soon.”
Tristan nodded, as much as he could anyway without dunking himself. And while he’d only been at it a few minutes, he knew they’d need to think of something fast because he wouldn’t be able to tread water for long. And he was cold.
“You’re right,” Mamoru said suddenly. “I… I don’t want to worry you but I think we might have a problem.”
Tristan snorted a rough laugh. “Worse than being trapped in a cave that’s filling up with water?”
Mamoru stabbed his lip with a fang and Tristan wondered if all vampires had the habit. He’d seen Ash do it enough times to think so anyway. “Ash is starting to wake and I’m not liking what I’m sensing from her.”
“What do you mean?” The words nearly found themselves stuck in Tristan’s throat at the fear carefully hidden under Mamoru’s Japanese accent.
“I don’t think she can use her seikonō, Tristan. I think whatever spell that she was hit with is still with her. Look at her… she still looks human.”
“Fuck,” he hissed and Mamoru nodded. “How do we break it?”
Mamoru’s brows rose high and the soft chattering of Tristan’s teeth was almost enough to deafen him from the man’s softly murmured, “We have the one who made it remove it.” He would keep the fear that the spell was permanent to himself for a little longer. Panic about it later.
“But Ash doesn’t know who…”
Mamoru only nodded and Tristan fell into a fit of turrets, head dipping under the water as he lost his focus on staying up. When he’d finished cursing he asked, “Okay. So then, how do we get out of here?”
The other man’s jaw stiffened. “You’re not going to like it…”
“Bloody right he’s no’!”
Tristan gasped, jerking around to look at the vampires. Desmond was fully awake, but Ash was still floating face down. A ball of worry lit in Tristan’s belly at the thought that if the spell put on her made her human, maybe she really was…
Desmond’s burst of laughter brought Tristan back to his senses and he scowled, realizing how insane that was. The vampire swiped a hand over his hair, pushing it out of his eyes and tisked, shaking his head as he reached for Ash. “Bloody bairn…” He took Ash by the shoulders and lifted her, righting her in the water. Tristan didn’t like the way the man was holding her, pressed against his front, arm possessively around her shoulder, making her chest touch his. The man shot Tristan the barest of smiles before turning his attention back to Ash, her head hanging back at a harsh angle.
Desmond gave her a little shake. “Oi, lassie.”
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked when the vampire frowned deeply and Mamoru started to swim over.
“She’s not waking, is she?” Mamoru asked.
“No,” Desmond said in a cautious tone. “She doesn’t feel right.”
Mamoru stopped just out of reach of the vampires.
Tristan came up beside him. The little swim from fifteen feet away made him realize how much his body ached. The cold was setting in deep into his bones and making him sluggish. “What’s wrong with her?” he all but shouted.
“I think it’s the spell. It can’t be helped. The water is too cold for Tristan, we need to get him out of here.”
“I’m fine,” he said, aggressively pushing past Mamoru even as his teeth chattered. His fingers didn’t seem to want to work as he reached out. Desmond opened his mouth to argue when Tristan tried to take Ash from him but stopped and rolled his eyes, handing her over. Tristan gasped, taking them both under. He hadn’t realized how hard it would be to keep them both afloat and as he sputtered on the surface, he finally grasped the situation.
“Aye,” the Scot said as he took Ash back. “Had tae go and be all
mine
, dinnae think it through.”
Tristan spit out a mouthful of water, aiming for a certain vampire. “Go die again, Desmond, god.”
“Can we just focus on getting out of here?” Mamoru said, sounding on edge. “Desmond, how do you feel?”
“Right as bloody rain, mate. Thanks fur asking.”
The Japanese man scowled. Desmond knew exactly why he’d asked and was just being his usual pain in the ass self.
Desmond sighed. “Aye, it can be done. But might need a wee taste, yew ken, top off me tank, right?”
Mamoru grimaced but nodded his agreement.
“What are you two saying?”
Mamoru’s lips pursed in vexation. Tristan wasn’t going to like this… “Desmond can get us out, but…”
Tristan shot Desmond a look and the vampire grinned fangs at him, way too pleased with himself. “Just say it already.”
“Well, Desmond is a Master of considerable strength despite not leading his own following of scions…”
Christ, the foreplay was really starting to make Tristan tense. Or that could have been his mind confusing the numbness from the forty degree water.
“Desmond can fix a bubble of air around our head and help us swim out.”
Tristan jerked. “Do what? That sounds…”
“Crazy, I know. But it’s the only way.”
“No,” Tristan said, shaking his head, his wet hair snaking along the back of his neck feeling almost warm. “No, I don’t like this.”
“I can do it,” Desmond muttered.
“No, that’s just… it’s insane. It’s dark and we don’t know where we’re going, what if we run out of air before we reach the top?”
“Desmond can tell the water to do whatever he wants, he can gather bubbles of air from over a wide range and pool them to refresh our air, isn’t that right?”
“Said I could bloody do it,” he answered sounding irritated.
“Then why don’t you force the water in here to lower so we can sit on earth again and wait for Ash to wake?”
“She’s almost awake now, but it’s no bloody good, mate. She can’t pull on seikonō right now, not until this spell is broken. That earth isn’t moving under any of our commands.”
Tristan frowned. He wasn’t afraid of many things, but the possibility of getting lost in the dark, cold depths of an unknown cave and drowning did it for him. The fact that he was slowly succumbing to hypothermia hadn’t even occurred to him. At least he’d be unconscious when he drowned, that was a surprising relief to him.
Desmond made a rude noise at him and grabbed for him. Tristan gasped, half the sound lost when he bobbed under. He meant to jerk away but with no leverage, there wasn’t far to go very fast.
“Dinnae be such a wet blanket, mate. Com’ere.”
Tristan’s frown turned into a look of surprise as his feet found purchase on a bit of rock jutting out the side of the cave wall, lifting him high enough that the water was only to his chest now. The air on his wet exposed skin felt a little hot. That worried the subconscious part of his brain. “Er… thanks.”
Desmond only gave him a sour look and then pushed Ash into his arms. “Right then, back in a tick, going tae have a wee look ‘round.”
Before the others could complain Desmond was gone in a rush of bubbles.
“Is he really going to come back?” Tristan asked, staring at the spot Desmond had disappeared from with wonder, his brain having a hard time translating what his eyes were taking in.
Mamoru sighed and swam over to find a place to stand too. “You know him better than I do.”
“Actually, I don’t. We’ve only ever bullshitted each other outside of a little tussle we had before Ash and I left Japan.” Far as Tristan was concerned they didn’t even have to go back to that place. He was more than willing to leave everything there behind if it meant he could rid himself of Yuki, Desmond and all of their little group.
“You fought… with Desmond? A real fight?”
Tristan smiled darkly. “I won.” Never mind that it was obvious Desmond wasn’t even trying, didn’t even whip out any seikonō. Tristan walked away smelling enough like the Scot that Audric of the House of Wind could smell Desmond all over Tristan and thought they were sleeping together. Still, it felt good to tag that big ape.
Mamoru frowned at him like he wasn’t sure he believed him and then made a little noise when Ash moved in Tristan’s arms. There was a collective held breath and then her eyes fluttered open.
She blinked up at Tristan and then slipped farther into his hold. “Tired,” she whispered, still trying to blink the sleep from her eyes. “So tried… and cold.” She stiffened then, looking around and seeing the room. “What is happening?”
Tristan sighed. It was Mamoru who gave her the gist of it. “The room is flooding. Desmond’s scouting the way out.”
“I see,” she said with a serious frown. “I cannot… I still feel human.”
The Japanese man nodded, inching his way closer to the couple. He may have been more than human, a strong awakened Uruwashi, but even he had limits and was starting to feel the cold. Just not as badly as Tristan was, apparently. “I… I’ve never heard of a spell like this before, I don’t know if Agamemnon can help.”
Ash frowned and turned her head to look up at Tristan again, brow knitted in worry. He looked cold. “How are you?”
“Fine,” he said through chattering teeth. He never really liked the cold, but had never really been cold. Not like this. Just breathing now set a deep ache in his body. He’d been in the water too long and was starting to shut down. Ash was close enough that she could feel just how cold he was and knew he couldn’t last long like this.
“We need to get out of here,” Mamoru said hurriedly.
Ash nodded, her eyes fixed on Tristan’s blue lips. Being part non-human helped him last this long in the cold water, but he was going down and fast. He was just too stubborn to admit it. He had thirty minutes tops before he lost consciousness and then after that, the chance of survival… A little sob slipped past Ash’s lips and she shifted in Tristan’s arms to put her feet down and held him around the waist.