Wolves and the River of Stone (11 page)

“I figured I’d take you out for fish food.”

“You figured
what?”
she said with a scowl on her face.

“I was kidding,” I said with a chuckle. “Sushi. Do you like sushi?”

“Actually yes, I do,” she said as her expression softened. “I find it difficult to follow you at times, Damian, as I am somewhat new to your humor.”

“Sarcasm,” I nodded. “Well, between me, and Foster, and Zola, you should pick it up pretty quick.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed. My cousin also has a talent for being difficult.”

I laughed as we merged onto Highway 270 south. Traffic was light, but I turned my signal on anyway. Olive was only a few exits away, up the ramp to an ostentatious overpass. I was pretty sure it was a memorial to someone, but I couldn’t remember who as we drove past the flowered landscaping and decorative concrete.

“This is an odd expanse of road,” Nixie said. “Are those stone flower pots?”

I glanced at the huge concrete pots filled with flowers. “I think so.” Each was decorated with a broken heart.

“It is ... attractive for such bleak stonework.”

“I suppose it is,” I said as we turned onto Olive and passed a series of strip malls and a movie theater. We drove the last few minutes in silence, and I was happy to find it remained a comfortable silence. I turned into one of the strip malls and, though it didn’t look any different from the others at first glance, it did hold an excellent sushi bar.

Nixie’s eyes wandered around the mall with a disdainful look on her face.

“Well, it’s not a fresh shipwreck, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it.”

Her lips curled up in a smile. “There is some truth in your sarcasm.” She pulled her fingers through the incredibly pale hair draped across her lap and said, “I’m sure it will be fine, Damian.”

I nodded and looked at the front of the restaurant. “Tachibana. I ate my first spider roll here.”

Nixie looked at me in horror. “I thought this was seafood?!”

I laughed. “It’s just their name for soft shell crab.”

She looked back at the restaurant with a bit of a frown playing across her lips. “That’s a silly term. And disgusting.”

I shrugged and leaned across Nixie to the glove box. She smelled like clean seawater and soap and I fought back the embarrassing urge to sniff her. “I got you a present.” She started to reach for the box and I snatched it away. “After dinner.”

She pouted and my heart flip flopped. I’m pretty sure she noticed, because a huge grin lit her face.

“Yes, well, let me get the door for you,” I said.

She waited until I opened her door and took my arm when I offered it. It felt natural walking beside her, and I hoped she felt the same.

Tachibana greeted us with the smells of sake, kelp, and sashimi. Paper lanterns decorated the ceiling above a sushi chef prepping rolls like a mad butcher in the dim light behind the bar to the left. A young, friendly Japanese hostess took us to a corner booth. It was away from the sushi bar, on the opposite side of the restaurant, but had a much more private feel to it, with shoji screens surrounding the sides of the booth. The wide, deep benches formed a U around the table. Nixie and I both adjusted the small square cushions as we sat down.

When the server left to get us drinks, Nixie scooted around to sit closer to me. I was a bit surprised, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.

“So, what’s in the box?” she asked as she stared down at the little package sitting to my left.

“It’s a surprise, and I’m not giving you a hint. You’ll just have to wait.”

She pouted again and narrowed her eyes. I could only describe it as smoldering.

Before I could put a filter on the brain-to-mouth connection, I blurted out, “You’re very beautiful.” I wanted to smack my head on the table as soon as I’d said it. I saw Nixie’s eyes widen before I started staring at the shoji screen across the booth.

“Thank you.” She smiled, squeezed my hand once, and then put both her hands beneath the table. “What’s good here?” she said as she pushed her menu away and leaned over to look at mine.

I choked back a sigh as my moment of idiocy rolled past without further comment. “I love their Diamond Beef. It’s not sushi, but do you want to try it? We can split that and a couple rolls.”

She nodded and said, “Let’s get a spider roll and some tekka don. I love tuna.” Her eyes wandered over the menu until she said, “Oh, they have Sapporo!”

“You like Japanese beer?”

She nodded. “Yes, we recovered several cases from shipwrecks.”

“Does all of your new and interesting food come from shipwrecks?”

“Not fudge,” she said with a small smile.

We both ordered beer when the server came back.

A large shadow loomed over our table as soon as the server left. I expected to look up and find another server, or perhaps a manager making sure the guests were happy, but instead I saw Nixie look up and say, “Hohnihohkaiyohos!”

I looked up to find Hugh standing at our table shaking his head. “Please, call me Hugh. Damian, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were on a date with the water witch.”

Before I could answer or even figure out how I should feel about Hugh’s comment, Nixie said, “I’ll call you Hugh if you call me Nixie. I don’t like being called a water witch.”

Hugh raised an eyebrow in what I believe was surprise. “Very well, Nixie.” He nodded his head and continued, “I want you to know, I meant no disrespect by the name.”

Nixie smiled. “I didn’t think you did.”

Hugh rubbed his chin and glanced between us. “You seem ... different, Nixie. You never smiled when you saved my son.”

Nixie looked away and nodded.

Hugh inclined his head. “I apologize. I am intruding. There is only one more thing,” he said with a smile. As Nixie looked back up at Hugh, he turned and beckoned to a young man sitting at a table on the other side of the restaurant. He had Hugh’s dark skin and black hair and was wearing a brown leather bomber jacket despite the warm weather. He walked between the tables with a distinct slouch.

When he got close enough, he nodded to me and Nixie, smiled, and said, “What’d you need Dad?”

Nixie’s eyes widened and her hand scrambled onto my knee. I grunted and gritted my teeth in an effort not to yelp from the suddenly excruciating pressure on my leg.

“You okay?” I said as quietly as I could.

She nodded quickly and stared at the young man.

“Stand up straight.” Hugh pulled back on the young man’s shoulders and smiled when the boy rolled his eyes and straightened up. “This is Honiahaka, my son.”

I held out my hand awkwardly, since Nixie still had a death grip on my leg, and shook Honiahaka’s hand. “It’s good to meet you. I’m Damian, and this is Nixie.”

“Call me Haka, and it’s good to meet you too.”

“Honiahaka, you met Nixie once before.”

Haka glanced at his father and then back at Nixie. “No, I’d remember her.” He looked embarrassed after he had a moment to think about what he’d said. I could relate.

Hugh laughed. “You were very young when she saved you. Not far from here, in the fury of the river floods.”

Haka jerked his head and stared at his father. “What? I thought you made that up. It was just a story to teach a lesson or entertain, like the water witches you used to tell us about.” Haka turned away from Hugh and stared at Nixie.

“May I tell him, Nixie?”

She nodded twice, in quick succession.

Hugh put his hand on his son’s shoulder and said, “Nixie is a water witch. She is the water witch that saved you. Her action has inclined me to believe all her kind are not evil.”

Haka fidgeted and then stared at Nixie. He said, “Thank you,” and nodded to Nixie again.

The older wolf smiled and put his arm around Haka. His son looked mortified. Hugh laughed. “We will leave you in peace. I only wanted to give you my greetings and let Honiahaka meet you both.”

I traded grips with Hugh and Haka while Nixie just nodded from the back of the booth.

Hugh said, “Be well,” as they turned and left.

Nixie watched them leave and sighed as they walked outside. Her shoulders relaxed once we were alone again and the crushing pressure on my leg dissipated.

As the wolves left, the server came back and set down two bowls of miso soup and two Sapporos. Nixie dragged her soup closer with two fingers, picked up the bowl, and breathed in the steam.

“This smells delicious.”

I tasted a spoonful and nodded. It had a subtle kelp flavor with green onions, salt, and tofu. “I really like their soup.”

Nixie smiled as she slurped down a spoonful.

“Nix,” I waited for her to look up before I asked, “How old is Honiahaka?”

She tapped her index finger on the edge of her spoon. “He would have to be close to sixty now.”

I leaned out of the booth to get a glimpse of Hugh and Haka talking out in the parking lot near a trailer with a pair of kayaks. “Sixty? He looks twenty! I guess he’s aging gracefully.”

Nixie laughed so hard she snorted, and it made me laugh in turn. I worked hard not to stare when she leaned forward, showing me more cleavage as she laughed. I’d consider my effort not to stare a moderate success.

“Have you found anything new you like?” I asked.

“Like what?”

“You know, human things, since you’ve been mingling with us lesser beings.”

She shrugged and stirred the remnants of her soup a bit. “I like movies.”

“Really? Movies? What about TV?”

“Is there a difference?” Nixie said.

I laughed. “A bit. Have you actually been to a movie theater?”

She shook her head. “I’ve only seen movies on the television. Foster told me about movie theaters, they sound much like the amphitheaters we once watched plays in.”

“Yeah, except they have air conditioning, snack bars, and speakers now.” I drained my soup and adjusted my seat cushion. “I’ll have to take you to the movies sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

The server came back again and laid down a plate of Diamond Beef, tekka don, and a sliced up tube of kelp. The tube of kelp was actually the spider roll, with a flurry of soft shell crab legs sticking out of either end.

Nixie leaned over the tekka don, took a deep breath, and smiled. “This was an excellent idea.” After eyeing the sizable chunk of wasabi on the plate, I decided not to take a deep breath. I mixed a little into a dish of soy sauce and dipped a piece of the reddish tuna while Nixie ate hers straight up. It was fresh, smooth, and tasted nothing like a fish smells.

“I think I like it more with the scales on it, but this is still really good.” Her chopsticks shot out and grabbed another piece of tuna.

I was left to tend to the Diamond Beef, which was alright with me. It was a delicious sirloin cut into strips and served in teriyaki mushroom sauce. I held a piece out for Nixie between my chopsticks, and despite the frown on her face, she reluctantly leaned over and tasted it. The fact she ate off my chopsticks made me smile, and about then I realized I was hopeless.

She chewed it for a minute and her face changed from a frown, to indifference, and then she swallowed it. “That’s not bad. It’s not fish, but it’s not bad. I think it would be better raw.”

I pushed the beef around my plate and said, “You let me know how that works out.”

She laughed and picked up a center piece of the spider roll. I guess even a water witch can be unnerved by too many legs at the dinner table. We ate in silence for a few minutes, and again I found myself enthralled by the comfortable silence. Nixie glanced at me over her beer and smiled as she finished the tekka don. I ate one end of the spider roll and then pointed at the other.

“That one’s yours, Nix.”

“I don’t really–”

“Nope, you’re not getting out of it.” I jabbed at the box to my left and said, “If you want the box, you eat the legs.”

She scowled at me, but reached out with her chopsticks anyway. Nixie almost growled as she stared down the explosion of crab legs sticking out of the spider roll. She sighed and then stuffed the whole section in her mouth at once. Her cheeks puffed out while she chewed the mass of fried crab, rice, cucumber, and kelp. I couldn’t help but laugh at the crunching sounds filling our booth.

Nixie swallowed, took a drink of beer, and stared at me. “Give me the box.” I slid the small square box over to her, which she immediately picked up and shook.

“Oh, you’re one of them, huh?”

“One of whom?”

“Whom?” I chuckled. “One of those people who always guess what their presents are?”

“Sometimes,” she said as she smirked and untied the blue ribbon around the box. Nixie’s eyes widened as she pulled the top off and removed the thin layer of cotton. “Oh, Damian,” she said as she pulled the bracelet out of the box and rubbed the tips of her index and middle fingers on the discs. “Where did you find Wasser-Münzen?” The dim light of the paper lanterns made the blue obsidian look even darker than I’d seen it before.

“Actually, a friend of mine found the discs in Germany. Ashley, one of my customers—I don’t think you’ve met her. I just thought you’d like something in blue obsidian.” I scratched the back of my head and smiled. “What is Wasser-Münzen?”