Ultimate Warriors

by Jaide Fox

  Dr. Savage strode to the desk. "Well?"

  "She can’t see you today."

  Nariko could see he was fighting a round with his temper. After a moment, he stopped grinding his teeth and forced a grim smile. "Perhaps you can help me then?"

  The woman looked up at him, her expression surprised--as if she couldn’t believe he had the gall to ask her to help him.

  "I need the records of one of the patients I’m treating."

  "Name?"

  "Nariko Suzaku."

  The receptionist’s gaze flickered toward Nariko. "I’m not sure we still have medical records on her. She was released almost seven years ago."

  Dr. Savage gave her a look. "I need to see all of her records--from the time she was brought to the orphanage."

  The woman studied him in tightlipped silence for several moments and finally got up and left the office once more, muttering, as she left, "You might have asked that while I was up before."

  Dr. Savage turned and exchanged a look with Nariko, and she bit back a smile. "You didn’t mention that this was such a warm place."

  Nariko chuckled but shrugged. "It’s the only one I was ever in. I thought they were all like this."

  Dr. Savage frowned, but he didn’t comment.

  He got tired of leaning over the counter that separated the receptionist’s desk from the waiting area and began to pace again. This time only fifteen minutes passed before the woman returned--empty handed. She sat down at her desk once more and resumed pecking at her keyboard. When Dr. Savage leaned over the counter again, she threw him a smug smile. "Ms. Townsend says they can’t be released without a court order."

  Dr. Savage fought another round with his temper. "Why?"

  The woman shrugged. "They’re sealed."

  "Why?"

  She gave him a withering look. "I don’t know. That’s what I was told."

  "Did you tell Ms. Townsend that I was Nariko’s physician?"

  "You didn’t tell me you were," the receptionist said coldly.

  Dr. Savage lost his temper. "I hate like hell to drag you away from whatever you’re doing to do your job, but do you think you could ask again?"

  The receptionist glared at him. "I’ll have to have some identification."

  Dr. Savage dragged his wallet out and tossed his ID on the woman’s desk.

  She studied it skeptically. "This says you’re a sleep therapist."

  He ground his teeth. "Exactly. Doctor Shayne Savage, specialty, sleep therapy."

  The receptionist stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her that time. She was back within ten minutes, tossing Dr. Shayne’s ID on the counter. "Ms. Townsend says you’ll need a court order."

  Dr. Savage palmed his ID and stood away from the counter. After a moment, he turned and motioned to Nariko. When they’d left the building, she glanced at him. "What now?"

  He didn’t answer at once. Instead, he escorted her to his car and held the door until she got in. When he’d climbed behind the steering wheel, he sat staring out the windshield for several minutes, as if he was studying the building.

  "Do you think it would be worth it to get a court order?" she finally asked.

  "I think there’s something damned strange going on here," he responded tightly.

  Nariko waited a few moments, but when he said no more, she prodded him again. "What are we going to do now?"

  "Break in."

  * * * *

  "Excuse me?" Nariko asked.

  Dr. Savage’s face was grim when he glanced at her. "I need the information in those files if I’m going to help you. And I have no intention of allowing anyone to stop me."

  Nariko blinked at him several times, deciding she must have heard him wrong. "But--so you’re going to try to get a court order?"

  He studied her thoughtfully for several moments. "That could take a year or more. I don’t think you can wait that long. Do you?"

  A year. Nariko didn’t think she could stand what she’d been going through another week. What would happen if that evil thing caught her and finally managed to do whatever he’d been trying to do? That was what she feared--especially after she’d woken with the bite mark. "But--breaking in? What if you were caught? You’d be in all sorts of trouble. I can’t let you do it. I appreciate it more than I can say, but I’d be responsible if it went badly and you were arrested … or anything."

  He looked amused. "I wasn’t asking your permission. You asked me what I was going to do … but you don’t have to take the risk. I can handle it. In fact, it’ll be better if I go in alone."

  She stared at him for several moments while her shock and surprise turned to irritation. "So--what you’re saying is that I would get us caught? If you’re going to do it, you need me. I lived here practically my whole life. I know it like the back of my hand. It would be better if you just let me do it. That way, if I get caught, you won’t be in any trouble and I won’t have anything to feel guilty about."

  "Do you know anything about breaking and entering?"

  She gave him a look. "Probably as much as you do."

  "We’ll do it together," he said firmly.

  * * * *

  Nariko gave Dr. Savage an "I told you so" look when the light finally went out in Ms. Townsend’s office. Unfortunately, it was dark and he missed it.

  She’d told him the old bat always went back after dinner to do her paperwork and never left her office--which adjoined her apartment--before ten in the evenings. They’d been waiting for a good hour and now they would have to wait longer still.

  Hopefully, the old battle ax was deaf, because she’d always slept like a watch dog and Nariko doubted if that had changed any. One sound and she’d come boiling out of her apartment snarling and slavering at the mouth.

  It had only taken Nariko one such nasty encounter to decide that she wasn’t doing anything else that might get her into trouble.

  When another hour had passed and virtually every light in the orphanage had been switched off or dimmed, they finally left the shrubs and moved stealthily toward the building.

  They’d fed the watch dogs meat laden with something to make them sleep. She sincerely hoped they could get in and out before the damned dogs woke up. One thing she didn’t need to top her evening was a Rottweiler chewing up her ass.

  When they’d reached the kitchen door, which, in Nariko’s time was often left unlocked because the mechanism was so old it was hard to turn, they discovered a bright, shiny new one had been installed.

  Nariko stared at it in dismay, but Dr. Savage merely pulled something from his pants pocket and began working on it. In a few minutes, he had the door open. She looked at him with a mixture of surprise, doubt, and … respect. "How did you do that?" she whispered.

  "An old trick I learned in my misspent youth."

  When they were inside, they closed the door quietly and locked it behind them. The orphanage only had a couple of security guards that patrolled the interior of the building, but they didn’t want to take the chance that the unlocked door would be discovered and alert them to an intruder.

  Waiting until their eyes adjusted, they set off through the kitchen to the corridor. After peering both ways, they left the kitchen and moved quickly down to the stairs at the end, staying close to the wall as they ascended. The stairs creaked anyway. Every time one let out a noise, both of them paused, holding their breath.

  One of the security guards passed the stairwell as they reached the second floor. They waited, listening as his steps came closer and closer and then began to diminish once more as he passed the stairwell and disappeared down the hallway. "Midnight rounds," Nariko whispered when he’d passed beyond hearing. "He’s supposed to come every half hour, but he probably won’t be back before one."

  Savage glanced at her. "Probably?"

  "When I was here, their rounds took forty-five minutes … because he’d usually stop for a smoke or a cup of coffee. I don’t know if it’s the same guys … or even the same schedule … bu
t it is midnight and he just passed."

  Savage studied her a moment. "If we should happen to run up on the guards, just do as I say."

  Nariko stared at him wide-eyed a moment, wondering what she’d gotten herself in to, but finally nodded.

  Opening the stairwell, he glanced in both directions. When he saw it was clear, he motioned for Nariko to show him the way and they moved quickly but quietly to the door to the main office. Again, Savage picked the lock. Moving across the office, Nariko headed toward the records room and went in. Savage pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and flicked the light over the filing cabinets.

  Ten minutes later, they’d located Nariko’s file. To Nariko’s horror, Savage pulled the contents out, replaced the papers with part of several other files and stuffed the contents of her file into his shirt.

  "You’re taking it?" she said on a breath of sound.

  He put his fingers to his lips, shut the drawer and turned off the flashlight.

  Nariko had already grabbed the doorknob when they heard the office door slam open and heels clicking briskly across the floor. She turned to Savage wide-eyed with horror. Grabbing her arm, he hauled her to the back of the tiny room, pushed her up against the wall and pressed up against her. "Not a sound," he whispered, his lips against her ear.

  A shiver skated through her as the heat of his breath touched her ear.

  Nariko heard the doorknob creak as it was turned. "Sh--"

  Savage grabbed her upper arms, pressing her tightly against the wall with his body, covered her lips with his and thrust his tongue into her mouth. The jolt that went through her was fifty percent pure physical reaction to Savage’s rough caress and fifty percent sheer terror when the light abruptly came on.

  He was totally mad! She should have known he was crazy when he suggested they break into a state run facility to steal her records.

  Why had she allowed him to talk her in to this?

  She stiffened when the light came on, expecting any moment to hear Mrs. Townsend’s screech. Instead, after a few moments, the light was turned off again and she heard the retreat of the heels across the office floor.

  It wasn’t until total silence reigned once more that Nariko realized Savage was in no great hurry to pull away from her and break the kiss. Her lips throbbed from the pressure of his mouth, sending inappropriate signals to places that had no business getting calls in this sort of situation. Finally, however, he lifted his lips from hers and stepped back.

  Nariko was too stunned to fully appreciate the kiss they’d just shared. In fact, she couldn’t remember doing anything but standing there with her mouth hanging open as he plundered it. Vaguely, she could taste him on her tongue--sweet with a bite, like sugared mint. She looked up at him in the dimness, gasping for air, not quite believing what just happened. "She didn’t see us. How could she not have seen us?"

  A faint smile curled his lips. "They’ll hear us if you aren’t quiet."

  Nariko’s jaw dropped when she realized what he was suggesting--thought he was suggesting, that she wanted to him to use his ‘trick’ again. Glaring at him, she led the way from the office and down the stairs. She didn’t know whether she was more relieved or disappointed when they emerged from the building without further incident.

  "All right," she demanded as soon as they’d gotten in the car and Savage laid the papers from her file on the seat between them, "how did you do that?"

  Savage started the car. "I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue in yours," he said coolly.

  She blushed furiously. "That’s not what I meant!"

  "She didn’t see us. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?"

  "I just don’t understand how she could’ve failed to see us, that’s all! We were in plain sight."

  "You weren’t. I was between you and her. I was very still. I blended with the background."

  Nariko gave him a look. It was true that he was wearing dark clothing, but she wasn’t buying it. On the other hand, she couldn’t think of an explanation that actually made any sense and puzzled over it most of the way back to her place until her focus shifted to the file.

  When they’d parked in front of her apartment, they both got out and headed for the door without a word, but Nariko, at least, felt a strange sense of unreality settle over her.

  In one sense, she felt surprisingly comfortable around Dr. Savage, considering the fact that she hardly knew him. She did hardly know him, however, which was why it made reality seem just a little skewed that Dr. Savage presumed his welcome in her home like a long time acquaintance.

  And then there was that kiss and grope thing. She didn’t know how he’d felt about it, but her knees still felt like they were filled with jelly instead of bone and cartilage. She supposed he thought that had been a good way to get her quiet fast and keep her that way until the threat had passed, but had he done it purely out of necessity? Or had it made him feel all hot and bothered like it had her?

  If it had, she had to admit he hid it very well.

  Once she’d unlocked the door to the apartment, he headed for her couch, dropped the file on the coffee table, opened it and began studying the pages inside. More than a little disconcerted, Nariko watched him for a few moments and finally followed him, settling next to him on the couch and picking up each page and studying it as he discarded it.

  Most of it was pretty boring, even to her. There were notes, however, about behavioral problems beginning around puberty. Mentally, Nariko shrugged. She supposed the problems outlined did correspond to the beginning of her nightmares. On the other hand, it seemed to her that pretty much everyone went through a change in behavior when they hit that period of raging hormonal unbalance that corresponded to the transition from child to adult.

  Savage cursed under his breath, drawing Nariko’s attention. She leaned closer, reading over his shoulder. Her heart seemed to jolt to a halt in her chest when she saw it mentioned her mother. Grabbing the edge of the paper, she gave it a tug. After a moment, Savage released it.

  Her mother had been sent to an asylum for the insane!

  Nariko read it through twice and looked up at Dr. Savage with a mixture of chaotic emotions. "She thought … she believed she’d been impregnated by a demon?"

  Chapter Five

  There was something about the look on Dr. Savage’s face that penetrated Nariko’s turmoil, although she couldn’t quite pin it down. He didn’t look particularly surprised. It was almost as if he’d been expecting the information he’d found. In fact, there seemed almost an underlying sense of purposefulness or maybe even excitement about him.

  "She named him."

  Nariko blinked. He’d said it as if her mother had identified an assailant by name, someone real--someone he’d heard of.

  "You know that name."

  He shrugged, looking away from her as he got up and began to pace the floor. Nariko watched him, trying to figure out what might be going through his mind, but she couldn’t seem to get her own mind around the fact that her mother had been insane enough they’d locked her away.

  Some forms of insanity were hereditary.

  Was that it? Was she crazy like her mother had been? How bizarre was it that her mother thought she’d gotten knocked up by a demon and now she was having dreams about a demon that seemed pretty damned determined to fuck her stupid if he got his hands on her?

  She could’ve almost felt better about being abandoned--knowing she actually hadn’t been thrown away--except that her mother had been a nut case and now she had to worry that she might have inherited something awful.

  "You think I’m crazy?"

  Dr. Savage stopped pacing and glanced at her absently. "What?"

  Nariko licked her lips. "My mother obviously was, and now I’m having dreams about demons, too. But how could something like that be inherited? I didn’t know her. I’ve never seen the records. How could I have dreams about being chased by a demon when I didn’t know anything about my mother’s psychosis?"


  He shook his head. "I don’t think you’re crazy. I’m not convinced she was either--at least not at first, anyway. Being locked away with the insane is enough to drive a sane person over the edge."

  Nariko felt her jaw go slack. Was he saying he believed her mother actually had been impregnated by a demon?

  This was worse than the blind leading the blind! The insane leading the nut case!

  "We need to try to talk to your mother," he said suddenly.

  A mixture of excitement and revulsion filled Nariko instantly. It had never occurred to her that she might even get the chance to meet her mother--but in a mental institute? Visions of a drooling, wild haired woman in a straight jacket filled her mind. She felt sick.

  "I … uh … I’m not sure I’m up to this one."

  He studied her a long moment. "You don’t have to go."

  The only thing she could think of that would be worse than seeing the vision she’d pictured, was Dr. Savage seeing the vision she’d pictured in her mind. "I don’t see what good you think it would do to talk to her," Nariko snapped angrily. "If she’s still there after all this time, what mind could she possibly have? I mean, they medicate them, right? Between her insanity and the drugs, she wouldn’t be able to answer questions even if they let you in to see her."

  His lips thinned. "I have to try. She might be the only one with the answers we need."

  * * * *

  Depression settled over Nariko like a thick black cloud as they left the sanitarium where her mother had spent the last years of her life.

  Her mother was dead! As vacillating as her feelings were about seeing her mother, and in such a state, she had felt a terrible sense of loss the moment she was told that her mother had died, that she’d lost the chance to get to know her even a little.

  Despite everything, she’d been hopeful when they’d left her apartment to drive to the asylum. She’d allowed herself to believe that Savage was right. Her mother wasn’t really and truly insane … certainly not to the extent that she’d envisioned.