by Casey Wyatt
“I suspected.” He reached toward me.
“No! I thought we were partners. That you loved me. If this is the way Alkhari love their mates, it sucks!” I slammed out of the chamber then raced down the stairs and through the grand hallway, not stopping until I was outside in the formal gardens. I lost myself in the hedgerow maze, not caring if I didn’t find my way out.
The twists and turns led me deeper into the center. The towering bushes blotted the sun, the dark shadows perfectly matching my black mood. There was no one I could trust anymore. No one but me, myself, and I. Eventually my anger simmered to a slow boil and I stopped walking.
Once, when I was about eight years old, Reginald and I entered the maze. He had dared me. Said that I couldn’t find the exit before him. We agreed to run inside as fast as we could. Whoever made it to the other side first would win.
I ran ahead, assuming that we would both be playing by the same rules. Reg, even then, had taken the easy way. He cheated. He waited until he saw me disappear, then doubled back and left the maze. He had stowed a bike nearby and rode around the perimeter to the other side.
Our acrimonious relationship had begun that day. It had taken me two hours to reach the other side. I arrived covered in scratches and bug bites, my skin sunburned. When I saw him sitting in a folding chair, licking an ice cream cone with the bike parked behind him, I lost it. I hauled off and punched him. His mother didn’t take too kindly to the black eye I’d given him and insisted that my parents punish me. They, of course, weren’t there so the duty fell to Sebastian.
He hauled me into the library and sat me down. “Explain your actions, young lady,” he said with a mixture of anger and amusement.
“He cheated,” I said.
“So you think because he thought outside of the box that he deserved to be punched?”
I pondered his statement. The concept of thinking outside the box was foreign to me. “Is that like coloring outside the lines?”
He chuckled. “A little like that.”
“He lied and cheated. He planned to win,” I argued, not willing to back down.
“You’re right. He did wrong by you. But there is a lesson to be learned here. Never assume that your adversary is playing by the same rules as you.”
Sebastian smiled and sent me to the kitchen for a Popsicle. Before I left, he added, “I’m proud of you for not backing down from your convictions.”
At the time, I didn’t understand what he meant. I was happy to be off the hook for hitting my bratty cousin. Reg was sent home and not allowed to come back until he apologized. It took him two months.
Funny. I hadn’t thought about that day in years. And I’d avoided the maze ever since. I squinted at the sun. It was no longer overhead and well past noon. I had bigger things to worry about besides my sordid family history. There was a nasty demon that needed stopping, and my grandfather’s advice had shown me the way.
Chapter 16
Love is never having to say you are sorry.
It didn’t take me two hours to escape the maze. It took twenty minutes of making consecutive left turns. I didn’t bother returning to the mansion. Instead, I went to the garage and told the valet to bring the Porsche out front. I nearly gave the guy a heart attack since I appeared in person rather than asking one of the house staff to ring them first.
Thankfully, it wasn’t the same employee who had fantasized about my boobs. That would have been weird for me. Not him, since he had no idea that I could read objects. It seemed like a million years ago since my life had changed so drastically, rather than a few short months.
As I adjusted the seat and mirrors to fit me, I tossed my cell phone onto the passenger seat. I couldn’t make myself shut it off completely, but I didn’t have to answer it either. I pushed in the clutch and slipped the car into gear, enjoying the thrill of the ride. I’d forgotten how much fun expensive toys were.
I circled around the rear of the estate, avoiding the main gate. Interest in the Ashworth heir hadn’t diminished since the announcement. If anything, the photographers had gotten even more determined to spy on me. I know Luca enjoyed toying with them. Occasionally he chased them off using legal threats. Or he’d use misdirection, leading them to believe I’d traveled elsewhere, but like cockroaches, they resurfaced.
I drove through the service entry without incident and sped toward the one place where I might find answers. Tien had given me the clue in our last conversation when he mentioned contacting the local temple.
Something percolated in the back of my mind while I headed for the city center. The fortune cookie. All the victims had had one. Why? During my earlier research, when the murders first started, I’d read that American fortune cookies were smaller versions of Japanese cookies used in temples and shrines. The omikuji, random fortune, was placed in the shrine cookie. Unlike American cookies where only good tidings were used, the omikuji could also predict a bad fortune.
Tien and Allen had been lifelong friends and I believed that Allen did not target Tien. That meant that Lillian was either being controlled by someone else or she was acting on her own free will. I don’t know which disturbed me more, but I needed to figure it out.
And I needed to know why she wanted her jar so badly. Luca had told me that some spirits were bound to an object. Assuming that was true for Lillian and her brother, then maybe if they had possession of the jar then they wouldn’t be beholden to anyone else.
My theory all along was that the red papers were death beacons alerting the Jiang Shi to kill the next victim. And now I understood why the victims had been targeted. Every one of them had somehow wronged Allen, at least in his mind anyway. Tien and I were the only outliers.
And I had a theory as to why. But first I needed to confirm it. I circled the streets until I found the shrine. I parked the car in a nearby pay lot, tipping the attendant an extra Benjamin if the car was left unscathed.
The monks answered the door on the first ring. Two youths, initiates I guessed, ushered me to an inner courtyard. I had visions of meeting a wizened old Kung Fu master. Instead I found a twenty-something man smiling at me. He wore traditional orange robes, neat stylish glasses, and sported a shaved head. He gave me a polite bow, which I returned deeper to show my respect for him. His eyes lit up in appreciation.
“Welcome, Ms. Ashworth. My name is Bo. We have been expecting you.”
“You were?” I said, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice.
“We are well acquainted with matters in the Hereafter and have been monitoring the situation closely.” He motioned for me to follow him inside the temple. The space was hushed and solemn. Several monks knelt in prayer.
“You could have contacted me,” I said softly, not wanting to disturb the Zen.
“It is not our way to interfere.”
I shook my head and bit back the angry retort at the tip of my tongue. If we had known sooner maybe we could have saved those men. Could have saved Mikey and Tien.
He ushered me into a sparse office. “Please sit.”
“Earlier you said you knew what I wanted.”
“Yes. I cannot help you locate the Jiang Shi.”
Lucky for me, that wasn’t what I wanted. “Did you know Tien Shaw?”
“He was a friend and a generous donor. We will miss him.” Sadness swept across his face, before being replaced by a placid smile, an expression I was rapidly growing tired of. I didn’t have all day to pull answers out of the man.
“Tien told me that he had a plan to stop the Jiang Shi. He mentioned the jar. Why is it important?”
“When the essence of the spirit is tethered to an object, in order to expel the demon from this realm, it will need to be purified.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “You have a ceremony for that?”
He nodded, hi
s bald pate shining. “Bring us the vessel and we will perform the ceremony. We will begin the preparations today.”
I stood and thanked him. Before I left, I asked, “Will it work on two spirits?”
“The number doesn’t matter.”
Poor Tien. When he’d tried to help Allen, Lillian and her brother must have caught wind of it and killed him. That explained why he didn’t fit the fortune cookie pattern. When I returned to the lot, the attendant smiled and eagerly demonstrated how he’d kept an eye on my car. After giving him an extra-large tip, I unlocked the door.
“I don’t appreciate being ignored, cariad,” Luca said from the passenger seat.
Shit. He stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched and his hands balled in his lap. Earlier I had felt my phone vibrate several times in my pocket. In my mind, it would have been rude to answer it while meeting with the head monk.
“Does the concept of ‘alone time’ mean anything to you?” I shoved the keys into the ignition.
“I understand that you are upset with me, but there is more at stake here than your feelings.”
That was the wrong thing to say to me in that moment. I revved the engine, slammed the car into gear, and sped out of the lot. Since we were on city streets, I restrained my anger and drove carefully. Man. I wanted to hit something. How dare he lecture me after keeping yet another secret from me?
“I’m sorry,” he said, surprising me.
“What?” I swerved to avoid an erratic taxi.
Luca gripped the dashboard. “Stop somewhere. Please.”
I took us to the city park. The late-afternoon sun hung bright on the horizon. Daylight would last for another few hours. The air was filled with children’s laughter and parents chatting on nearby benches. We sat well away from all of them.
Luca turned to face me. “Radiance, I don’t think my heart can take you disappearing like that.” Genuine worry darkened his face.
“Luca, I can’t be with you every second of the day.”
“I realize that. It’s just . . . to leave in anger. What if something happened to you and—?” He locked his jaw and blinked hard.
Then it struck me. His concern wasn’t only about us. Something had happened in his past. Enough to make him insecure. Luca always seemed so impervious to everything that sometimes I forgot that he had feelings.
I sucked in a calming breath, reached over and clasped his hand. “I can’t take any more surprises. It was really hard to learn that I was part of a supernatural breeding program. No better than a dog in a puppy mill.”
He nodded with understanding, then tilted my chin up so I could see his eyes. “I didn’t know you were part of the program. I knew it existed but we’d been told it had been stopped a long time ago. At least a century.”
I believed him. Simple as that. The same force that connected us together, that made me desire him above all others, also gave me an intimate insight into him. I suspected that he could tell the same thing about me.
My anger evaporated. I leaned forward and kissed him tenderly, an apology for scaring him. He seemed to understand and returned the kiss.
“Will you tell me what happened to you?” I touched his cheek, my fingers tracing his jaw line.
“I learned at an early age to never leave in anger. My parents had a fiery relationship. At one time, their mating hit a rough patch. They argued frequently. Spectacular bouts, quickly followed by incredible sessions of passion.” His lips curved into a small smile. “I like to tease my siblings, that they were all make-up sex babies.”
The Alkhari must have had different views on parental lovemaking. I know it always weirded me out, thinking about mine doing the horizontal tango. Luca was clearly unruffled by it.
“After Teagan was born, their relationship settled and there was peace at home. Until it came time for me to serve the Hereafter. My mother wanted me to refuse. As an active duty Advocate, my father was mortified at the suggestion. They fought. My mother stormed away in anger. For two days, we didn’t know where she was. During that time, my father was called to serve. He never came back.” Luca swallowed hard. When he spoke again, his voice quavered. “I will never forget the moment my mother returned to learn my father had fallen. Her agony is seared into my brain.”
“I am so sorry.” I rested my head on his shoulder. We stayed there for a long while, holding each other.
On the ride home, I filled Luca in about the purification ceremony. He’d been busy, too, while I was gone.
“I met with the curator of the Asian museum exhibit. After I pledged money from the Ashworth Foundation, she was more than willing to let me see the records on the collection.”
“So that was the family business?” I downshifted and slowed down by the main gate while it swung open. The perennial paparazzi snapped photos of the car. But with the tinted windows, they wouldn’t get any usable shots.
“Part of it. I also surveyed the wreckage. I had hoped there would be enough there for you to examine with your power, but the cases are in a million pieces.”
“And the records?” I stopped the car in front of the house, leaving the keys for the valet.
“The entire collection was donated by Allen Chen. Nothing new there.” He opened the front door for me.
“We need to catch a break soon. I don’t trust Lillian.” I trudged up the stairs, happy to see my room.
“She met Reginald about a month ago while he was working at the Ashworth Foundation.”
“How’d you do that?” I unzipped my boots and tossed them on the floor.
“I asked him.”
My knee-jerk reaction—Reg was lying. But I had no evidence to support that. This Jiang Shi was powerful and deceptive. She’d probably been the one feeding on the victims while her brother did the dirty work.
“Did the estate’s protections get upgraded?” We both knew she should have never gotten onto the estate in the first place. Sebastian always ran a tight ship and he took security to the highest, most paranoid level. If he were alive, he’d be furious right now.
“Yes. And I’m not convinced she didn’t have inside help,” he said.
My stomach gurgled. I coughed loudly hoping Luca wouldn’t notice.
Luca eyed me. “When was the last time you ate?”
One pizza with the works later, I leaned back in my chair and patted my belly. “I can’t eat another bite.”
Luca pushed the box and the remaining few slices to the other end of the table and laid out a stack of books and paper.
I groaned. “I need to digest for at least five minutes before I can think again.”
“All you have to do is listen. No extra brain power required.”
“Have I told you today that I love you?” Sated and well-fed, I listened to Luca detail the contents of the collection.
When he reached the end, he looked at me expectantly. “Did you notice anything about the list?”
“The jar is missing.” I stood and stretched, a yawn roaring out of my mouth.
“Give yourself a gold star.” Luca pulled me into his lap and nuzzled my neck.
“I saw that jar in Tien’s office. Someone has to have it.”
“Mmmm,” Luca said.
His tender ministrations to my throat melted away rational thoughts.
With my remaining brain cells, I said, “Hard to believe Allen’s anger could give her so much power.”
“You’re right.” His hands slid under my shirt, skimmed my ribcage, then landed on my peaked nipples. When his mouth found mine, I stopped thinking about Allen Chen and the Jiang Shi.
I tossed and turned, a vague dreamscape haunting me. Over and over, I searched for the jar, for Lillian, and Allen Chen until the need to act drove me to wake up. Gray darkness obscured the room, the sun maybe an hour a
way from rising. I stared at the ceiling and thought about revenge and Allen’s motivation. It was easy to condemn him out of hand. But, how far would I go to right a wrong? If I had access to power that would allow me to hurt people to get what I wanted, would I use it? I came up with a resounding no. Not when I thought about it in those terms.
But what if I believed that I was right? That the power gave me the authority and the imperative to help my loved ones. The answer wasn’t so simple when couched in those terms.
Rather than lay awake, spinning useless thoughts in my head, I eased out of bed and moved as silently as I could into my bathroom. Business taken care of, I dressed to go outside. A walk would clear my head.
As I turned the doorknob, Luca rolled over onto his side, snug under the sheets and, thankfully, away from the spot I’d vacated. He’d wake up for sure, if he’d moved the other way, reached for me, and discovered I wasn’t there. His peaceful face and mussed hair, made me think about crawling back into bed. But I couldn’t wake him. He needed to rest, and I needed to think.
The lawn was covered in a thick layer of glistening dew, sopping my sneakers and the hem of my jeans. A low glow from the eastern sky signaled the sun’s imminent arrival. I wandered the vast estate for a while, letting my feet take me wherever they wanted. Rather than try and solve the problem of Allen Chen’s whereabouts and what the Jiang Shi would do next, I let my mind stew over mundane topics like what I’d be getting Grace for her fifth birthday in two weeks or whether I felt like redecorating the mansion.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, the man-made sound disturbing the morning’s gentle quiet. “Hey, Sis.”
“I haven’t heard from you in a while,” Selene said, her voice thick with sleep.
“Is everything okay?” I tried to calm the nerves fluttering in my stomach. “You never call me this early.” Ever. The only time was when Grace was born. Selene was more of a night owl and decidedly not a morning person.
