White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) (22 page)

“Let it run.”

The fae looked suddenly nervous, eyes darting around and nodded. “Okay.” He climbed out with Tristan.

Tristan poked his head into the car and looked at Wren then Desmond. “You two play nice out here.”

Wren only gave him a wry smile, answered by Desmond’s snorted grunt.

Tristan let Lance into his apartment and immediately went for his bedroom. “There’s stuff in the fridge if you want anything,” he called out. It wasn’t like he was going to get a chance to finish off his new groceries now.

“Uh, thanks,” Lance answered and then a moment later added. “Nice place.”

Tristan laughed as he grabbed the bag he’d already half packed. He and Ash were planning to bug out anyway, just looked like it was going to happen a few days earlier than expected. Which meant a smaller bag than he had anticipated. Clothes, he could always buy, it was the few personal effects he’d brought with him that were important now and he started to transfer those from the big luggage bag to a small duffle. He made sure to pack his pocket watch into the bag. It was a small miracle that Xuejiao hadn’t ruined it with her seikonō.

“Yeah, right, the place’s a shoebox.”

He heard Lance’s soft chuckle and the clank of a bottle. “Oooh,” the fae practically moaned. “This tea smells fantastic. Did you make it?”

Fantastic? Tristan kicked a pile of dirty clothes into the corner by the bed. Then he stopped and decided to change into a clean set of clothes. “Uh, yeah, I did.”

Lance was making happy-yummy noises and Tristan could only imagine what the fae was doing. “Mm, do you want some too?”

“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind pouring me a some to go.”

The sound of Lance rummaging the kitchen filtered into the bedroom and Tristan sighed, not really believing this was his last time here. The stuff he took off Mamoru in Greece, including the kitsune pearl were neatly stored away under a change of clothes in the duffle. The katana he’d grown to think of as his, the one with the beat-up saya and worn ito, was already in the car with Wren. That left his back-up katana and just a few knives and Ash’s guns that went in too. She’d had Murasaki Kaeru with her already and was wearing her locket. Outside of that, there wasn’t much else worth anything.

Tristan stopped to look over the room, making sure he got everything he wanted. Lance had been quiet a long time and as Tristan decided he was satisfied with what he had, he called out, “Everything okay out there?”

There was no answered and he frowned, wondering if he just didn’t hear the fae leave. He got one foot out of the bedroom and stopped, rigid with fear.

Lance was sprawled out on the floor in front of the sofa face down. Tristan almost couldn’t tell since it blended right into his bright red hair, but he was bleeding from his head. The little girl in the icy blue kimono that stood over him didn’t look pleased at all.

“Uh… hey,” he said casually, panicking inside and wondering if he was fast enough to pull his gun and point it at the vampire before she tore his throat out. Or zapped him into oblivion.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest, glowering. “You’re not.”

“You’re not here to sell me Girl Scout cookies, are you?”

A dark smile overtook her frown. Tristan stiffened, eyes darting for the exit, but he was reluctant to leave Lance behind.

“You’re still planning on killing me.”

It didn’t sound like much of a question but Tristan nodded anyway. “Yep, sure am. Someone’s got to stop you.”

“Stop me?”

“Yeah, from killing innocent people. Don’t think I don’t know you’re the one dropping bodies all over the place, drowning and draining humans. And I’m the poor smuck saddled with the responsibility.”

She lifted her chin to look down her nose at him. “There’s something I need you to see,” the girl answered in a low, even tone.

“And if I refuse?”

Her arms slowly fell to her sides, the tips of her fingers sparked with electricity and dripped with snow. “I’d recommend against it.”

Of course, there was only answer for him to give. “Well, fuck me.”

JUNO-CHAN was too fat for her own good, setting off a tidal wave when she jumped up to greet Tristan. She gave a purry meow and stomped over, rocking the whole damn bed along the way. Despite the awkwardness of the footing and her immense size, she moved rather gracefully… like a cat. When she reached Tristan she flopped herself to her back and meowed again.

With a sigh, Tristan gave in and rubbed her belly. “You’re a real fat ass, you know that? What should I do with you anyway?”

Tristan sighed and looked up out the far wall lined in tall windows to the sun shining off the snow. Even if the house wasn’t one of those ultra-modern, magazine styled homes, super clean and tidy, the kind that were meant more to be admired rather in lived in, he still would have felt wrong about sleeping in the bed.

Last night when Xuejiao let herself into his apartment, she said she wanted to show him something. After some negotiating, they’d come to an agreement. She had something to show him that would happen regardless of his will or not. So he had two options, to come willingly and be treated fairly and with respect or come as a prisoner, tied up, perhaps unconscious and bleeding. Well, the answer wasn’t too hard for Tristan at that point, even if it meant giving up all his weapons and a piece of his pride. If it were any other vampire, sure he might have tried to fight his way from her, or killed her. But as it was, she was a kodaijin, an ancient and he was absolutely no match for her. If she wanted him, she would have him.

He was actually pretty surprised at how reasonable Xuejiao was. Wren had said she was practical but this, this was beyond what he’d imagined. So, hating that he had to, but finding no other viable option at that moment, he went with Xuejiao, leaving poor Lance passed out on the floor and Wren and Desmond in the SUV never knowing what happened to him.

Xuejiao made Tristan drive, some car she’d broken into after they’d left the apartment and walked a few blocks. They drove west for about an hour and then another hour north until they reached Noshiro. She guided him to a home on the coast, a huge sprawling contemporary that looked more appropriate on the California coastline than Japan.

The front door knob broke in her hand and she let them in, insisting on removing their shoes and using the guest slippers in the genkan. Tristan wasn’t sure what was happening but since she’d been so docile with him, he decided it was okay to do what she asked until it was something that compromised him. He hated being with her, not arguing over every little thing, not knowing if the others would even begin to know what happened to him, but until he found a way to flee, he was trapped. He had to trust that the tiny terror wouldn’t just snap.

Xuejiao glanced back to give him a veiled look. “I want to thank you again for your cooperation.”

He snorted, admiring the house with one eye while keeping the other on the vampire. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

She smiled. “I suppose not. But all the same, thank you for cooperating, I realize how hard it is for someone like you.”

He made a rude noise, thinking she didn’t know him in the least but was too tired to start shit. “Just hurry up and show me whatever it is that is so important and then we’ll be on our separate ways.” Until Tristan figured out a way to stop her. God, he was actually going to have to ask Yuki for help.

She harrumphed and walked through the huge home. It was dead quiet, but the kind of quiet that was peaceful rather than unsettling. The front rooms were meant for entertaining, a large sitting room and another with a big TV and a few family photos. They looked like a nice family, a husband, wife and young daughter.

The dining room was set up with dinnerware as if it always looked like that and they didn’t actually eat at the table. It did have twelve place settings. The sound of trickling water brought them through the Americanized kitchen with its shiny appliances and into a central foyer that was set up with tons of living greenery, skylights and actual birds chirping in the loft.

A cat trotted into the room and practically impaled herself on Tristan’s legs, looking for attention. Xuejiao stared at the cat a moment and then tisked, marching off. Tristan sighed and followed after with the cat trailing along behind.

The bedroom that Xuejiao led them to was huge and empty enough that they could hear the echo of their slippered feet. It was dark and cool, smelling a little bit of the snow and ocean, peaceful actually. The fat cat waddled past the others and jumped on the bed. It was then that Tristan realized they weren’t alone as a shape on the bed moved.

He spun to Xuejiao. “What’s this?” he hissed but was loud enough that the person on the bed shot up shouting in Japanese, “What the hell?”

The small vampire was on the man in an instant. A moment later, Tristan was too.

“Dammit, Xuejiao! I didn’t sign up to stand by and watch you kill someone!”

“Don’t be stupid.” The vampire swatted Tristan away. Well, maybe it was more than a mere swat because he flew five feet back and landed hard on his tailbone. He groaned out his pain, unable to get up just yet but for Xuejiao it cost nothing and the man they’d surprised was now lying limp in her hold.

“Xuejiao!”

The little girl looked back at him from where she’d perched herself over the unconscious, still breathing man and rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up already. Eyes open, mouth shut.”

Tristan planted a foot to get up and was wracked with pain. The thought that he’d broken his tailbone did occur to him, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from getting to Xuejiao. Just as he’d gathered the resolve to get his other foot under him, the vampire on the bed huffed and flung her hand out. A gust of wind aimed to hit just him knocked him off balance and to his back. It was strong enough that his head slammed into the tile floor and knocked him out cold.

He awoke with a fat cat purring away on his chest, kneading her claws on his pecs. “Fuck,” he grumbled and swept the cat off him. She complained with a hiss and ran out of the room. His entire lower back ached and he really hoped he hadn’t fractured his tailbone. Remembering Xuejiao, he forced himself to his feet. The pain was bad, but he’d had worse and would live.

The house was quiet and he wondered if she left him behind. Moving like he was walking on glass, he shuffled out of the room and ended up in the middle foyer area where the foliage and birds were. The cat was there, perched on a bench, watching the birds above. There was netting about nine feet up, effectively trapping the birds in their deceivingly open birdcage.

“Sorry, kitty, no bird for you.”

She meowed at his attention and started to purr again. He bent down to check her collar and saw that her name was “Juno-chan”, written right there in blocky roman letters. When he looked up from Juno-chan he noticed the blood. They were tiny footprints, stamped out in dark red that led to the opposite side of the house. Tristan doubled back to the kitchen and found a nice big knife. It didn’t have a guard like his combat knives and he hoped he didn’t shred up his hands.

Juno-chan watched him pass through the “birdcage”, tail twitching. The tile that had covered all the other rooms gave way suddenly to tatami. He was at a traditional tatami room complete with a shrine. The smell of incense was heavy in the air, leaving a lump of mucus in the back of Tristan’s throat he had to clear away.

Sitting in the middle of the space on Indian style, Xuejiao turned at the small noise and looked him up and down, expression empty, before turning her back on him again. She no doubt saw the big ass kitchen knife in his hand but didn’t care.

The blood trail Tristan had been following stopped at Xuejiao and spread out in a great big ring around her. She was the center of that red circle. Curiosity was a powerful and damnable thing and before Tristan could make the conscious decision to move closer or flee, he was walking towards Xuejiao.

“Did you kill him?” Tristan asked in a tone that was half cautious, half barely contained anger as he saw the man on the floor. He was face down and naked, hair matted but not bloody. Water most likely, Tristan realized. He wasn’t moving and, Tristan was pretty sure, not breathing either.

The vampire didn’t bother looking up at him as she shrugged. “You tell me.”

Tristan made a wide circle around the vampire until he had the man between him and Xuejiao, for whatever good it meant. Delusions were a powerful courage enhancer. He crouched and felt for a pulse in the man’s ankle and didn’t find any but his own as it increased.

“Why?”

Her brows rose. “
Why
?”

“Why did you kill him?” Tristan stood, the hand holding the knife shaking.

She considered him a moment, head tilting back and forth, feigning the little girl persona so masterfully. Maybe that was what was really holding him back from attacking her. It wasn’t knowing that she was capable of breaking him without ever laying a hand on him, but the fact that she was a child. It was a hamper in this case but how most humans were wired, not to hurt children—fuck, even Malik, the psychopath, didn’t hurt kids. He wondered how many others mistook her for the sweet child she appeared to be before becoming her victim.

Xuejiao huffed and stood. When she noticed that her clothes were covered in blood, she gave a little start and batted at herself, only smearing it deeper into the fine silk.

Sighing she looked up and met Tristan’s eyes. “You’re not ready to understand yet.”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean!” He was at his breaking point. He didn’t witness it, but the vampire just killed someone practically in front of him and he let it happen.

She gave him a dismissive look and started out of the room, adding fresh footprints to the ones that were already dried. Juno darted in then and Tristan flinched, rushing to scoop her up before the white cat turned herself red.

Xuejiao stopped at the door and turned back to look at him. “I’m going to rest now, it’s nearly dawn. Don’t try to find me or leave. I expect you to be here when I awaken this evening.”

“Excuse me?” he snarled. “What makes you thinking I’m just going to wait around for your crazy ass?”

The vampire narrowed her eyes at him. “Because you agreed to see what I wanted to show you.”

“And just how long is this showing going to take? I’m not a patient man, you know.”

She shrugged, looking away. “That’s up to you.”

He scowled and was about to really rip into her but she was talking again.

“I know there’s no point in threatening to tie you up, your shinigami would see to it that you’re freed anyway.” Her eyes moved to the side and Tristan actually made a strangled yipping noise, moving away from where her attention was.

“My…” He looked too, as if he could actually see the invisible soulless monster. There was no way she could see it. Sense it, maybe, but definitely not see, unless she was either A, in yomi—Boy, did he wish that—or B, they were in the body of a human and wanted to be seen as their imagined personage, which involved a pythia’s help.

Xuejiao slowly turned her head and seeing his utter shock, smiled. “You didn’t know? Well, in any case, I won’t secure you. I’m going to trust you stay put like I asked.”

He swallowed hard. As if the situation wasn’t fucked enough, to be told that he did in fact have a shinigami around him just plain freaked him the fuck out. What the fuck did a shinigami want with him? Jesus, Lilith could have at least warned him. “And then?”

“Then we move to the next place.”

“Where this thing you want me to see is?”

She pouted her lip out, head tilting to the side as she considered him and then straightened again. “Perhaps.” With that she left the room. A few moments later the front door slammed shut and Tristan let out his held breath, looking to the dead man on the floor.

After a moment of dumbfounded staring he made an angry noise. “Dammit!”

Juno dug her claws into him before leaping from his arms and hauling ass out of the room. He sighed to himself, rubbing where the skin had been broken. He didn’t know what to do with the dead body; he only knew that he couldn’t bear to be faced with his failure and shut the door between them. As he climbed wearily into bed, utterly exhausted in mind, he vowed he would do whatever it took to stop Xuejiao, even if it cost him his own life.