Pieces

by Shannon Pemrick

  “So you like them?” Raikidan asked.

  I smiled. “Yes, thank you. But where did you get it?”

  He avoided my gaze. “I did it myself.”

  So it was him. When he gave me the forget-me-nots, I suspected he might have grabbed them from my greenhouse, but could never find any evidence in my large patch. Now I knew. No way he could get these kinds of flowers in this healthy of a variety in the middle of the night. “You little thief. Those flowers in my greenhouse aren’t just for anyone to pick.”

  He frowned. “Sorry. After last night I thought you could use something to make you smile.”

  I chuckled. “Relax, I’m teasing you. I appreciate the thought and effort.”

  “I remembered you telling Valene you liked honeysuckle a lot so I made sure to put some in the vase. They are your favorite flower and best possible choice, right?”

  I grinned slyly at him and then turned to put the vase back down. “One of the best choices at least.”

  Raikidan sighed with slight aggravation and I giggled. Once I was sure the vase was safe, I lay down next to him, making sure I left a decent amount of space between us, and made myself comfortable. “You’re not going to leave my bed, are you?”

  He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Nah, I’m good.”

  I chuckled. “When will you ever listen to me?”

  He looked up toward his forehead as if he were thinking, and then looked back at me. “Probably never.”

  I scoffed. “Figures. Do you find enjoyment in tormenting me?”

  He chuckled. “I don’t torment you. Annoy, yes. Torment, not so much.”

  “Right, so that would be a yes.”

  He laughed. “Only because you make it so easy.”

  I crossed my arms with a huff, and Raikidan chuckled. “What?”

  “You’re cute when you do that.” A flush rushed into my cheeks and I looked away. Raikidan rolled on his side, closing the distance between the two of us. “Eira…” I pushed him back by his chest. “Eira, it’s not a bad thing.”

  “He’s lying to you.”

  “Don’t say things like that.”

  “Why not? It’s true.”

  “He’s doesn’t mean it.”

  “I don’t want to hear things like that…”

  My breath caught when Raikidan grabbed me by the shoulders and straddled me. He looked me in the eye and my chest tightened. “Just because you don’t want to hear it doesn’t make it untrue. I’m trying to compliment you.”

  “Raikidan, get off me.” I struggled, but he didn’t move. “Raikidan, seriously, get off me.”

  He still didn’t move. My body tightened up, and I struggled more. “Seriously, Raikidan!”

  Raikidan’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t move. Breathing became harder. I needed to get him off. Wiggling and struggling against his grip, I managed to get my leg free and kick him off. He fell off the bed with a thud, but I didn’t care.

  I pulled myself up into a sitting position and hugged my legs close to my body while I buried my face into my knees, counting down from one hundred. I couldn’t believe I had been in that position—how similar it felt to that first time.

  “Eira? Eira, I’m sorry!”

  I ignored him. I couldn’t acknowledge him when so much was swirling around inside me and he was the cause. In that moment, I had experienced fear again—experienced pain from the past. In that split second, I had been reminded why I was always alone.

  The street was quiet and only a few lights illuminated the dark street. I sat on the rooftop and watched the house across the road, aware of the single heartbeat inside picked up on my communicator. That heartbeat was my target.

  After recovering from the situation Raikidan had put me in this morning, I had gone out and bought a new mirror to replace the one I had broken in the bathroom. My mood hadn’t been good while I was out, and it soured more as I installed the new mirror, as I had been forced to remember why I had broken the reflective glass in the first place.

  When Genesis had come to me with an assassination assignment, I jumped on it. I knew it wouldn’t make my mood better, but it would distract me, even for a little while. The first target had been easy, and when I called in to tell Genesis of my completion of the assignment, she had offered up another one. I didn’t see the harm in accepting it, as I was already out in the field, and here I was. I suspected this would also be an easy job.

  My target was male, unlike the last one, and a skilled weapons creator. Muramasa was the name he went by. No one was ever sure if it was his real name or not, but that didn’t matter much to me. I had seen his work many times and had never been disappointed by what he could create.

  I didn’t like the idea of killing such a talented man, but the Council had tried to sway him to our side, including resorting to bribery. However, he proved far too loyal to Zarda, and ultimately needed to be eliminated from the equation. He was too much of a threat to be allowed to live.

  The man may have had money, but he lived modestly, having a small house in Quadrant Three, with no top-of-the-line security, and living under an alias, keeping him low on the radar. Had it not been for our moles, we may have never found him.

  Noting the coast clear and the heartbeat still in the same location in the house, I slipped into the shadows and made my way to the other side of the street. Muramasa may not have had security systems or guards, but he was a weapons maker, so he would be undoubtedly capable of defending himself. This forced me to be extra careful as I made it to the side of his house and looked for a way in.

  Finding a cracked open window, I slid it open more and slipped into the building. The house was still and all the lights had been turned off. My target was upstairs, and if my scanner was correct, he would be asleep, making my job easy. Taking my time, I made my way through the house without a sound. I was aware of the weapons strewn about, as if a possible break-in never even crossed this man’s mind, and I was also aware it was the only mess to be found in any room. His cleaning habits were by far the strangest I’d seen.

  Making my way upstairs, I was aware of every sound I made as I followed my heartbeat sensor. It led me to a large bedroom, but I became suspicious when it told me my target was lying in the bed. The way the bed was bunched up and how little it moved from someone breathing—Trap! I spun around and narrowly missed the knife slashing at me.

  My assailant was a tall, burly man with pale skin and almond-shaped crimson eyes. He carried a dao sword in one hand and a combat knife in the other. This man meant business. My assailant also happened to be my intended target. I should have known this couldn’t go as easily as hoped.

  “Did you not think I was expecting this?” Muramasa hissed. “Did you not think I couldn’t see you hiding in the shadows waiting to take me by surprise?”

  “Kill him.”

  He slashed at me again, but I was quick and drew my favorite dagger and deflected the blow. Using my quick wit, I transformed it into a single sai and used it to disarm his hand with the combat knife when he came at me again.

  The weapons maker grinned with amusement before swinging his dao sword. “Impressive weapon you have there. I’ll enjoy learning all about it once I pry it from your corpse.”

  “Rip out his tongue first.”

  I snickered. Muramasa had refined swordsman skill, but I was better. “Afraid I can’t allow that to happen.”

  Splitting my sai into two and then transforming one into a kukuri, I went on the offensive. The weapons maker defended himself well—too well. It wasn’t until I had swung at him several time with my kukuri did I realize he was toying with me.

  Muramasa smirked. “You can’t beat me that way. Let me show you how it’s done.”

  He turned the tables quickly and threw out an onslaught that was hard for me to
defend against. I couldn’t even get in enough time to try to switch the shape of my weapons. This wasn’t going well at all.

  I attempted to use objects around me to slow his assault down, but nothing fazed him. His blade struck my arm and I gritted my teeth as pain rushed through it. This isn’t good… I couldn’t believe I was being beaten so badly. At this rate he’d actually kill me.

  “Desire to kill. Crave blood.”

  The weapons maker swung his dao sword and missed. He also over-extended his swing, throwing himself off balance. There! I wasn’t going to miss this perfect opportunity. Swinging my kukuri down, I chopped into his arm and the man screamed in pain. He dropped his dao sword and held on to his arm with his uninjured hand. Without missing a beat, I thrust my sai at his chest, but he ducked instead of side stepping, and my weapon plunged into his throat—blood splattering everywhere.

  The malevolent voice in my head laughed gleefully. “Beautiful.”

  Muramasa choked, his eyes rolling to the back of his head before he slumped over. I withdrew my blade from the corpse, taking several breaths as my heart pounded in my ears. That had been too close a call. He may be a weapons maker, but I hadn’t expected him to be a weapons master as well. Maybe I had lost my edge—too out of practice for these types of situations.

  “Your desire to kill is too weak.”

  Wiping his blood on my pants, I returned the weapon to its natural shape and sheathed it. I took a long calming breath and then examined my wound. It wasn’t bad, but I’d have to make sure I took care of it when I returned home.

  I then went about looking at all his wares to see if there was anything worth taking while I called Genesis.

  “Oh good, I was beginning to worry,” she said when she picked up.

  “He knew I was coming,” I informed “But after a quick scuffle I disposed of him. Nothing major.”

  I knew it wasn’t good to lie to her, but I didn’t think it important for her to know I actually almost screwed up this assignment.

  “Good. I have another assignment, since you’re out.”

  I picked up an interesting-looking knife. “Well this guy has some nice stuff I could grab instead…”

  “Council already has someone coming by to make it look like a burglary gone wrong,” Genesis said.

  “Nice, so the choice was already made for me, and the assignment offer was out of formality, then.”

  “Eira.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I’ll take it. Plenty of nighttime hours left anyway, so I might as well. Someone will have to retrieve a bloody weapon though. My target managed to draw a little blood.”

  “I’ll make sure whomever they send will remove any traces of your activity. In the meantime I’ll have Aurora relay information on your next target.”

  She cut the line and I sighed as I put the knife down and left the house to reduce any risk of being caught by a neighbor.

  I dragged my feet as I made it to my room. I was sticky with sweat and blood and smelled even worse, but I didn’t want to shower. I just wanted to sleep. I could handle two or three assassination missions, but five was far more than I could handle in one night.

  I flopped down on my bed with a groan. Sleep was now the only thing on my mind. Not a shower. Not a change of clothes. Sleep. I sighed contentedly as I snuggled my face into my pillows.

  “You lied to me.”

  I blinked. I thought I was the only one in my room. Then again, I hadn’t bothered to look around. Slowly I sat up and turned around. Raikidan sat on the windowsill with his arms crossed. He didn’t look happy in the least.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You lied to me.” My brow furrowed. I had no idea what he was talking about. “I tried talked to the others. They weren’t willing to talk about it, but their reluctance helped me piece everything together.”

  I stood up. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re not making any sense.”

  “How old are you really?”

  My brow rose. “How old am I? I told you, twenty-seven.”

  Raikidan advanced, his shoulders tight and grabbed my wrist. “You’re lying! Tell me the truth.”

  I tried to struggle away. “What is your problem?”

  “Who are you? I was getting so confused. “I’m only going to ask you one more time. What is your real age?”

  I ripped my arm free and shoved him. “I told you! I’m twenty-seven.”

  “Liar! I know you’re lying. The inconsistencies of time, of all the events that have happened in your life don’t match up! You said you were in your tank for seventeen years. You said your son took ten years to come out of his tank, and that was after you were out of yours. You had enough time in the military to gain the rank of commander. You had time to run and learn the ways of the shaman.

  “That doesn’t all happen in twenty-seven years. Your friends helped me put it all together. I had been suspicious before, but they were reluctant to talk about anything that told of a time frame. They mentioned getting the truth from you and wouldn’t tell me what they meant. They told me I needed to see you about that.”

  I glared at him. I didn’t like where this was going. “Leave.”

  “No. Tell me what is going on. How old are you?”

  “I said leave.”

  “You will tell me.”

  “You really want to know that badly? Fine!” I threw my hands out. “I’m eighty-four. Happy?”

  “I’m being serious here, Eira. How old are you really?”

  “I am being serious. You wanted the truth, so here it is.”

  His brow furrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me this before, when we first met?”

  I placed my hands on my hips. “I don’t know, Raikidan. Maybe because I didn’t know you? Maybe because I didn’t trust you? Maybe because you wouldn’t have believed me?”

  “I would have believed you.”

  “Oh, would you really? I’m human. Do I look eighty-four? Do I look that old?” He didn’t reply. “Didn’t think so. You would have thought I was lying if I had told you the truth.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me later when you knew I would?”

  “Because it was too late, that’s why! I was too deep into the lie. How was I supposed to tell you? ‘Hey, Raikidan, nice day today. Oh, by the way, I lied to you about my age. I’m actually eighty-four years old. I figured I’d clear that up between us.’ Yeah, that would go over great during morning breakfast.”

  Raikidan remained quiet, clearly soaking in the truth of my words.

  “Not that it matters.” I turned away. “In the end it never matters. Now get out of my room.”

  “Tell me your real name.”

  “My name is Eira.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Have you not heard others call me by that name?”

  “I have, but those closest to you call you by another name. You’ve told others to call you by this name. Laz isn’t a short version for your shaman name. Your friends didn’t know you were a shaman until you came back, but they called you by that name regardless. Now, what is your real name?”

  “Get out of my room.”

  “What is your real name?”

  “I said get out!”

  “Not until you tell me the truth.”

  “My name is Eira, and that is all there is to it. Now get out of my room.”

  “Is your name Lazmira? Is it that name on that box? Is it?”

  I rounded on him. “I told you to get the hell out of my room! Now go and don’t come back in. I’m done dealing with you. I don’t want you around me, so do us both a favor and leave. I don’t care if you leave for good or not. I don’t want to see your damn face anymore. Now get out!”

  Raikidan glared at me but didn’t argue. He s
pun on his heels and slammed the door behind him as he stormed out. I threw myself onto my bed and sighed. I wasn’t going to be able to sleep now. I was too angry.

  I hate him. I hoped he would leave for good. I hoped I wouldn’t have to see him ever again.

  Chapter 9

  (Ryoko)

  My boots clomped on the basement stairs as I ran up. My plan was good—perfect even. Or it would be if I had control over everything. Sadly, I didn’t, and there were two players who didn’t like playing by my set of rules. Still, I was determined to have them play right, even if my methods had to go into the crazy and weird zone.

  I opened the door, and as luck would have it, Raikidan was passing by. By the sound of it, Laz was also in the living room. Perfect. I knew the two were having a spat, and they weren’t talking at the moment, but that didn’t change how they felt about each other. The argument would blow over and things would go back to normal. And I was going to push it along—and farther. So wherever Raikidan was going, was going to have to wait.

  I grabbed him by the wrist. “Come with me.”

  “But why?” he asked.

  “Just ‘cause.”

  “Where are they going?” Rylan asked.

  “I have no idea,” Laz replied.

  I grinned. She may be mad at him, but I was sure I caught a hint of annoyance in her voice. She didn’t like that I was taking Raikidan away. Good.

  “Ryoko, what are you up to?” Raikidan asked as I dragged him through the basement.

  I didn’t say anything. Instead, I pulled him into the garage, where I had moved around some vehicles so there was a good open space. I let him go and turned around to face him. “This should be enough room right?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I want to see your dragon shape. This should be enough room right?”

  He shook his head and turned back toward the stairs. “We’ve been over this, Ryoko.”

  I grabbed him by the wrist again and yanked him back. “Oh, no you don’t.” Pushing him onto a car hood, I pinned him there with my body. “You’re going to show me this dragon form of yours.”