White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) (14 page)

“Lilith, you… you’re.”

“With child.”

Ash went to her and with an astonished sigh, fell to her knees before her niece. She was reaching out before she knew what she was doing and only just stopped herself from touching the child’s round belly, not more than a few months gone but showing terribly on her tiny body. She glanced up into Lilith’s face and when she did, the pythia gave an almost unperceivable nod. 

Ash’s hands were shaking when she laid her cold flesh upon Lilith’s warmth. This was the first touch they’d shared in over three hundred years. “Who?”

“No one.”

“Lilith,” Ash admonished, nearly growling.

“Truly. No man has presented seed to my physical body.”

“A divine gift?” Ash whispered. There were tales of such things all through history. It used to be pythia folk lore that the first of them, the First Pythia was born of a woman having never known a man and in her innocence and virtuosity, the gods sought to gift her with a child. Of course it was all tale, but then she remembered telling Tristan once that all tales stemmed from truth.

“The child in my body doesn’t live.”

Horrified, Ash snatched her hand back. “Wh—what?” She was sure the baby moved just now, when she touched Lilith. Even Tristan recoiled, having felt through Ash’s hand the “life” inside the pythia.

“I am just a vessel, a container for the coming darkness.”

A tear broke free and painted Ash’s cheek red as she understood more fully what the dark prophecy might mean. “By the Goddess, don’t tell me…”

“I will give birth to the living body of Mother. She comes to take back this world, to own her sins and see their prosperity.”

Cheeks stained with tears and lips shaking, Ash said, “And only Tristan can stop her. Only Tristan can—”

Ash may have stopped speaking the words but the thoughts hit him and he exploded, wanted to get away from them but he was trapped and now sobbing. They both knew what he had to do to stop the coming and he just, he couldn’t. There was no reason innocent life should die. He shouldn’t have to kill an innocent girl and her unborn child. He couldn’t kill Ash’s niece.

“Yes,” the pythia answered, still standing there nude. “Once the child is born, there will be nothing to stop Mother, not even Tristan. But I’m not the only one who carries such a curse.”

“
What
?”

Tristan’s horror mirrored Ash’s.

“There are other shinwa,
and
heikō, the world over carrying divine children.”

“No,” Ash whispered, not wanting to believe it.

“When the time comes, she will choose the strongest to be her vessel and then there will be no stopping her.”

Ash collapsed, sobbing. “This can’t… you cannot ask him to kill all those innocent people. It will destroy him.” She bit her lip. “I cannot ask him to kill
you
.”

“Yes, it might destroy him. But the world will be closer to balance again thanks to his bravery. True balance cannot be had anymore, but to stop Mother… that is all that matters now.”

Ash shook her head, the tears freely flowing. She couldn’t believe this was what fate had in mind for him, for anyone. It was too cruel. The Goddess, she was not cruel, so why was this happening?

“How long?” Ash whispered.

“Not long now.” Lilith ran her hands over her belly. “The coming summer, perhaps falls. I do grow rather tired of this shape…”

Ash was choked up, silent and aching. “Will you… You cannot think to end your own life, Lilith.”

The girl harrumphed. “I should think not. I like living.”

Ash felt a surge of something electric and Tristan stirred, coming out his ball of confusion. “Perhaps…” Ash licked her lips in a nervous gesture. “Perhaps there is a spell that can be crafted to…” Ash floundered her hands, at a loss for words but Lilith seemed to understand and smiled.

“Perhaps.” Lilith held her hand out. “But do not hold onto hope for it.”

Ash nodded, a little sob burst from her lips as she took Lilith’s warm hand.

“Come,” Lilith’s soft voice said and Ash gasped, realizing it was the girl’s real voice. “Sun comes and we’ve much to talk on still. Come dream with me.”

Yes, she felt the sting of daybreak minutes ago but fought it in her desperation to know what Lilith had to say. Sleep sounded like a blessing now. In a daze, Ash let herself be led to Lilith’s bed and lay down next to her niece, wondering if she could really let Tristan kill her last
living
blood.

“You never should have told me any of this,” Ash said, sounding defeated. And she was, Tristan ached for her, feeling her turmoil but unable to offer her comfort. They both needed each other’s comfort now. Just to hold each other and whisper words that in the end meant little more than the emotions behind them.

Lilith reminded Tristan she was there too, shifting against his mind. He appreciated her comradery, for what it was, but what he really needed was the arms of someone who loved him.

“But I do love you.”

The pythia’s words rang in his thoughts.

“Bu—but—” he stuttered, unable to form the thought, to ask the question.

“You’re right,” Lilith said aloud to Ash in her real voice again, hoarse from not using it in so long. “Not everything I said was ordered so. I was only told to tell you of Mother. The rest…”

Ash gave a little start that quickly washed away in the wake of her exhaustion. “So why did you?”

“Because I take care of my family. No matter what… and Father, he never was a father to me. I remain a tool all these years and I wish to be more than such.”

Ash was at a loss for words.

“Asta.”

She straightened, unsure of her niece’s tone.

“I must tell you, Tristan has been taken.”

Ash tried to jerk away, to run from the cave and out into the light of dawn, all to save her love.

“No,” Lilith hissed and the word was enough to bring Ash around. “He is well.”

Tristan snorted his dissent and hoped Lilith heard all his thoughts on the matter.

“He is with Wren.”

Ash started so hard she nearly had to take a step to keep balance. “Toshiro really is alive?” she whispered. She hadn’t believed Yukihime, not fully. But from Lilith…

Tristan saw it then, Desmond’s anger and the despair she felt when she thought the young man was dead. Desmond, the big ape, he’d told everyone that his only scion was dead and they believed it in the face of such raw rage.

“He’s very alive, and suitably well,” Lilith said frankly.

Tristan wasn’t sure what the definition of suitably well was, having seen the man with his own eyes. The vampire did seem well enough and not unhappy despite his obvious chagrin over his disfigurement.

“Well,” Ash finally said on a long breath out. “I suppose I’ve nothing to worry about then. Tristan is in capable and trustworthy hands.”

Tristan wanted to let out an outrageous laugh in his disbelief. The vampire had tricked him, hit him, kissed him, threatened him and smashed him in the face with a stick after abducting him and he was in good hands?

“Oh,” Lilith said tartly, “they’re fast friends already.”

Tristan tried to direct his response, something snarky and rude towards the pythia and was rewarded with a shift in her presence away from him. He felt Ash a little more clearly now and was grateful for the peace it gave him, the familiarity.

Tristan felt Lilith’s attention on him as if she spoke directly to him and not Ash. “Wren needs his help, rather desperately.”

Ash frowned as Lilith reached out and started to undo the buttons of Ash’s blouse so that she might sleep out of it. Ash let her do it. “Should I… be concerned?”

“Probably.”

The truth may have been hard to hear but Ash appreciated it. Surprisingly, so did Tristan. “Should I join up with him…?” The look on the pythia’s face, while small, made Ash scowl and cross her arms so that she looked pouty. “Will I have the chance?”

Lilith only smiled.

MORNIN’,” Tristan mumbled around a mouthful of food, sprawled out at the kotatsu like he owned the place. While he was out searching for food, he discovered he was in Yurihonjō, a little seaside city about half an hour south of the airport and three times that to his apartment in Semboku. He’d never been here before, but like everywhere else he went, he stood out. It was lucky for him that he didn’t give a shit what other people thought.

Wren stopped just inside the room and looked at Tristan in disgust. Tristan was wearing Wren’s clothes, the shirt anyway. It was a snug fit, even in the boxy oversized, style it was on Wren’s smaller frame.

“You brought the stink of food into my home.”

“A man’s got to eat.” Actually, he almost couldn’t eat. He was still so worked up from his sleepy time visit with Lilith that he had a hard time focusing. His head hurt, his arm throbbed and he felt the sort of nausea that had nothing to do with low blood sugar or stomach flu.

Abomination
.

Focusing on his newest disaster and pushing the biggest disaster of all time aside was the only way he could keep moving forward right now. It was too much, Mother and Father, sin and balance. How could he possibly make sense of it now…
ever
? He needed to narrow his focus for now. Maybe it was the wrong answer, but it was all he could do to keep himself sane. After he did this thing for Wren, then he could meet up with Ash and together wallow in the misery that’d become their lives.

Wren considered him a moment through narrowed eyes before he lowered himself to the floor across from Tristan with a weary sigh. “How did you get out?”

Tristan smiled, trying to look confident. “I got my tricks.”

Truth? He had no fucking clue. The door was propped wide open and the cuffs were off when he woke with a painful start after being literally shoved out of Ash’s consciousness shortly after dawn. He figured it was Lilith giving him a hand, an apology for the forcefulness of his departure. He just hoped he made the right decision in staying rather than fleeing. After all, both Lilith and Ash seemed comfortable enough with Tristan in Wren’s care, however indelicate.

“And why did you stay?”

Tristan shrugged, taking another bite, his gaze flicking for a second to the knife he’d found while wandering around. “Figured I could put up with you tagging along if it means you’ll tell me who this vampire is that’s been killing innocent people. You shouldn’t ask so many questions of someone who’s doing you a favor, ya know? I could still just up and go.” Except something in the way Lilith spoke to Ash. He was
meant
to stay and help Wren. Fate had said so.

Wren furrowed his brow at the other man. Tristan was doing a better job at blocking his mind tonight but Wren wasn’t a simpleton. He knew something had changed.

“You intend to help me end Xuejiao?”

Tristan considered Wren a moment, slowly chewing his food. “Tell me something first, Wren…”

“Yes?”

“Should I kill you when I’m done?”

With a dark look from his one visible eye, Wren kept hard eye contact with him as he plopped Tristan’s gun down on the table between them. “Yes,” the vampire answered boldly and then sighed, looking away. “But not for the reason you think.”

“For what reason then?”

“For merely existing.”

Oh man, one of the melodramatic types. That was going to get old reeeeal fast. “So you’re telling me you don’t kill humans?”

He shook his head but still managed to keep the ruined half of his face hidden beneath his hair. “I didn’t say that.”

Tristan glanced at the gun.

“I’m a vampire. It would be ridiculous for anyone to believe a vampire hasn’t killed… But I chose not to when it can be avoided.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Do you kill your meals or not?”

The room was tense as the two men stared at one another, one trying to delve into the thoughts of the other, the other wishing he had the ability to try.

“No. I am not a wanton or purposeful killer. Yes, I own the lives of many humans, but almost all of them were justified or accidental in my youth. I do not kill if it’s not entirely necessary and I’ve not killed a truly innocent person, as I said before, in over one-hundred years.” He cocked his head to the side. “Does that ease your mind?”

“Enough,” Tristan grumbled, relaxing a little. He was starting to think he might have to stab the guy. “I guess.”

Wren smiled coldly. “So then, I ask you again, do you intend to help me stop Xuejiao?”

“One more thing.”

The vampire sighed in annoyance. “Yes?”

Tristan couldn’t help but smile, the gesture reminding him of Ash’s impatience. “Why were you squatting at the temple if you’ve got this place?”

Wren smiled suddenly, a cunning sort of smile. “I went to the temple one night simply to pray and meditate, nothing more. But then the kitsune came out and started posturing, threatening me to leave or else, that I had no business there… well, I suppose you can say it was a point of pride then that I prove them wrong.”

“Petty bastard.”

Wren nodded, still smiling that shrewd little smile. “I know it was childish, but I couldn’t help myself. No one tells me what I can and cannot do.”

Tristan harrumphed. Yeah, he understood that. “Okay, and the boots?”

“Oh, yes. Well, they are not real fox fur, just something I bought to rile them up a little. A threat.”

“Jesus, you’re a cruel son of a bitch.”

Wren smiled. “No, just petty, like you said.” He shrugged then, trying to look innocent but the smile ruined it. “I died young and I’m still immature almost two-hundred years later.”

Tristan frowned. “How old were you?”

Wren looked up, startled for a moment before the darkness settled into his gaze again. “I’d only just had my eighteenth birthday the week before I ran into Mas—Desmond.”

Jesus, so young. Too young. Dying must have really messed him up.

Wren coughed a little. “At any rate, my pettiness ended up with me befriending the skulk leader, Akane. And when I told her my concern over the vampire drowning deaths, she said she knew the perfect person to help stop the real culprit.”

“And how am I perfect?”

“Perhaps perfect was not the right word. Your merit falls short due to your current status but you are still an Uruwashi. The kitsune worship everything about the Uruwashi so I can see why she thought so highly of you, unbitten or not.”

“You know, for
me
being the rude one here, you have a way of being a dick without being as obvious about it. You sure you’re not British?”

Wren smiled, showing all his teeth and dainty fangs.

“Well, I don’t see any reason not to help you find this serial killer. I mean, obviously, she has to be stopped, but I don’t like working with others. So don’t think you can pull any of your petty bullshit on me and get away with it.”

Wren’s lips puckered as he tried to hold back a smile. “Of course. And the cost of your assistance?”

“No, I don’t work like that.” Then again, it never occurred to him to charge for his services. The thought of billing Yuki made him smile.

“I insist,” Wren said, eyes pleading with Tristan. “I prefer to work on the principal of equivalent exchange, much like the pythia. Everyone is equal in all matters, no hard feelings.
Balance
.”

Tristan sighed. He wasn’t in the mood to argue. “Fine, we’ll just call it an I.O.U. then. Does that work?”

A small smile quirked Wren’s lips. “I owe you?”

“Yeah,” Tristan said, busying himself with the last of his meal, feeling their agreement was the finale of this conversation. “But anything involving
any
bodily fluid doesn’t count as payment, got it?”

Wren thought for a moment and then bowed his head. “
Ii
daro
,” he answered, assenting to Tristan’s conditions with a silly smile he didn’t try to hide. He straightened and smoothed the front of his shirt with his free hand.

“Great, shall we then? Don’t have all night, you know.” Not that the vampire hadn’t had months to murder freely. He should have taken this more seriously when Desmond had shown up in Greece.

“Very well,” Wren answered dryly and stood, not bothering to ask Tristan to clean up his mess. The vampire disappeared into the other room for a moment and came back with Tristan’s sword as well as his own.

“I’m trusting you as an honest man, Tristan, not to betray me. So just know, I take broken contracts very seriously. Am I understood?”

Tristan glared at the man through half-lidded cynical eyes for a moment. “Unmistakably… Same goes for me.”

“Wakarmashita. I believe we have an accord.” The vampire suddenly smiled all teeth. “We might be friends yet.”

Tristan harrumphed at him and stood to take his stuff from the vampire. As he slipped the holster on he said casually, “So, tell me about this vampire who’s framing you. Xue…?”

“Xuejiao. She’s a
kodaijin
.”

Tristan flinched. “A true ancient… shit.” While Yuki was old, she wasn’t considered an ancient. That distinction was reserved for those on the other side of the current era. Tristan met his first kodaijin in Greece, Ash’s ancestor. And while Innokentiy, or Netty as he liked to be called, seemed to be a fairly likeable guy, it was clear the vampire was strong and knew how to do some frightening things, like mask his presence entirely. In fact, Tristan had yet to confirm exactly all that Ash had been taught by her Great, Great Grand-Master, even while he was rooting around in her mind. And when the time came, he fully expected Ash to teach him those same things. Too bad it didn’t help him right this moment.

He frowned suddenly, wondering if that time would even get the chance to come. Would he die before Ash gave him the fatal kiss to end his life and become a true Uruwashi? If the mother of all shinwa—of sin was after him, what sort of future, outside of dead, was there?

Thinking he understood Tristan’s despondency, Wren nodded. “That’s not the most troublesome of it… She’s, how do I say this…?” Wren stopped, gaze turned upward as he thought. He muttered in Japanese under his breath and then, one good eye fixing on Tristan, he held up two fingers and said, “
Ni
seikonō.”

Tristan stopped fussing with his weapons and stared at Wren. “What do you mean
two
seikonō?”

Wren shuffled lightly on his feet, looking uncomfortable for the first time since the two met and tried more overtly to hide his face behind his silky hair. “Exactly that. She has two seikonō abilities.”

“That—that’s impossible.”

Wren nodded, frowning. “I’d thought so too. Until I met her.” Wren sighed and turned to retake his seat at the low table. Realizing it was going to be a long conversation, Tristan joined him, a little more conscious of where his hands in relation to his weapons were now that the threat was apparent.

“I first met her after my death—I never knew her as a mortal. I was—I had trouble with my existence… I have always been damaged but dying was too much for me. I lashed out and said some things I shouldn’t have. Master… After having put up with my… well, my impertinence for so long, he finally broke too. He did this to me as punishment.” Wren reached up to touch the hidden side of his face and stopped short, fingers caressing air.

“Xuejiao appeared in my life shortly thereafter and picked up my ruined self. I needed her just as much as she needed me. However, it wasn’t until I’d spent nearly a year with her that I realized she had deceived me.”

“So Desmond wasn’t the bad vampire you thought him to be?”

“Oh no. He is a disgusting monster. But I… I still loved—
love
him, despite the pain of—” Wren shook his head, not wanting to finish his sentence. “But Xuejiao, she is terribly practical in everything she does. She wasn’t the vampire I thought her to be and I found myself physically ill just being in her presence, seeing the things she was capable of. It was when I tried to leave that I discovered that not only was she Mizu no Ie, but she could also wield wind. A Master to
both
. She stopped me with an ice and air display that still shakes me to the core every time I remember it.”

“That’s not possible.” Not once did Mamoru say that the vampire could wield two seikonō. It was fact that they couldn’t… right?

“There’s many things your kind doesn’t know. That’s by design.”

That humbled Tristan, his mind going back to his ride in Ash’s consciousness. By design, the children of Izanami and Izanagi were never meant to understand their origin. Would Ash even remember by the time they rejoined?

“No one else knows of Xuejiao. Not Master, not the
all-knowing
Yukihime… I am the only one. Even if the others did believe me, I don’t know that even two Yukihime’s could defeat Xuejiao.”

Tristan bristled, jumping to his feet. But it was his hands going for the comfort of the gun that made the vampire flinch. “Then how the fuck do you expect
me
to kill her?”