He’d told her he loved her.
The mattress dipped as he moved, rolling on his side to face her. Gently, he rolled Annie onto her back, cleaning her tenderly. The expression in his eyes was different than she’d seen before. When he finished, he pulled the covers up, protecting them from the chill in the air.
When he settled, she wrapped her body around his, feeling the light of dawn break over the horizon. It would be morning soon, and with light came safety.
“I didn’t say it.”
He was dropping into sleep. His eyelids fluttered as she spoke. His eyelashes were surprisingly thick. They were inky black and tightly curled. Funny, she’d never noticed that before.
“Hmm?”
“You told me you love me, but I didn’t say it.”
He smiled, and those amazing dimples that were usually hidden by his scowl appeared. “You don’t have to say it, Annie. I thought I should be honest with you. With myself.” He pulled her a bit tighter to his body, tucking her head under his chin.
It took a certain sort of courage to put yourself out there like he’d done. He’d made the declaration, not expecting one in return. She ran the flat of her hand over his chest, feeling hard muscle under smooth skin. “I do, you know. Love you.”
“Is that true, Annie?”
“Yeah, yeah, it is. It’s been true for a really long time. I was with Lisa that night… I don’t know, out of a sense of guilt, I guess. My feelings for you were strong, and I was trying to become closer to her. I thought if she and I were close, I could leave what I felt for you behind.”
He sighed and stroked her hair. It was still slightly damp.
“What did it do to you, Annie? You changed. If I’d stuck around to help…” He broke off, regret tingeing his voice.
No more regret, she decided. They couldn’t change the past. But they could change the future. But only if she was courageous as he’d been.
“I don’t remember it all, Aiden. It threw me across the dock. We’d just come in from Oakland.” She remembered that Lisa’s arms were filled with shopping bags. To Annie’s discomfort, Lisa’d gone shopping for lingerie and naughty toys for her and Aiden’s upcoming anniversary. Looking back, she realized that Lisa had felt threatened by Annie’s partnership with Aiden Chen. She’d been proving a point to her husband’s partner.
“She was on the inside of the dock. I was on the water side. It just… rose up. It picked me up and threw me. I hit a wall.” Her skull had been slightly fractured from the blow, her arm broken. She’d lain there, stunned and hurt, listening to Lisa’s horrified screams. When she pulled herself upright, the thing had already ripped open Lisa’s throat, and was feeding…
“I tried to run, to get away, but it caught me. We were on a dock. It… it forced my head backward into the water. I’d start to pass out, and then it would pull me up, force me to breathe.” Blood had stained that horrible face. Dank, wet hair straggled down. Its clothing was shredded and torn and filthy with Lisa’s blood. And other things.
“I don’t remember, but they tell me it raped me. That’s why… surgery…”
His breath left his chest. “Annie…”
“Don’t. Don’t feel guilty, Aiden. You didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. I don’t remember it and I doubt I ever will. It is what it is.”
Still, she heard his heart slam in his chest. Deliberately, he breathed deeply, clearly an effort to control his raw, violent emotions.
“You’re ridiculously wise, Annie Tanaka.”
“I guess that’s better than being ridiculously stupid.”
“No, that would be me.”
“No. No, you aren’t.”
He shifted, resting his head on her breast, and she enjoyed the weight, and she twined her fingers into his curls.
“Did you really mean it?” he asked.
“Yes, I love you, Aiden. I don’t know what it means though.”
“It means when this is over, we’ve got something to work on. A future.”
“A future.” She stared up at the ceiling, seeing the slow spread of water stains, an unspoken promise that eventually, even Wharf would fall. “It’s been a long time since I thought about my future.”
Chapter Seven
When she woke up, he was gone.
The blue silk robe lay neatly over a chair. His smell lingered on her pillows. For a moment, she felt anger, and then let it go. This was new to both of them. He undoubtedly needed space.
He’d drawn the blinds, blocking the light from the room. Annie pulled herself from bed, showered, and shuffled into the small kitchen to make tea. He’d left a note by the teapot, telling her he’d gone to hustle a fight.
Two days and two nights, if the thing stayed on schedule.
She hadn’t figured out a strategy to neutralize the killer. She was currently without her department sidearm, she’d surrendered it before going undercover. Weapons were stripped before entering a fight cage. She could carry her own when Aiden fought though.
Annie carried her tea to an old trunk, opening the carved lid carefully. The pungent fragrance of old wood rushed up, flooding the room. Her swords and staff were stored in a weapons rack on the wall. She didn’t want those. She couldn’t hide them in a crowd.
She shuffled through the contents, finding her old kung fu silks, brilliant red and light as air. She sorted through possessions of her grandfather’s. She lifted out his tiny bonsai pruning kit and smiled, setting it aside with a few other treasures.
Guo Lee didn’t approve of hidden weapons. Actually, the only weapons he approved of were the staff and sword, but nonetheless, she had a pair of sturdy nunchaku and a pair of butterfly swords. He’d agreed to teach her the butterfly swords because they were traditionally a defensive weapon, unsharpened from hilt to mid-way up the blade. This set had been designed to fit the length of Annie’s forearm. Not an ideal weapon for taking on the creature they would be facing, but good in an emergency. She squatted, considering her weapons cache, and then methodically stowed her treasures away once again.
Annie rose and stood in front of her weapons rack, looking for a long time before making her selection. She chose a shorter length, innocuous looking staff. Not so long that it would impair her movement, but with enough length to hold a monster at bay. There was another sword as well. This one hung on the wall. The katana was ancient, the weapon of a Japanese Samurai. It had been hand-made by a master artisan and in her family for many generations. The Japanese katana was a lethal weapon, and not at all suited for her style of fighting. It remained on the wall.
She glanced over at the window. The sun was setting, gliding toward the horizon. She’d slept late into the day.
Time to go out and find her missing lover.
“I know you’re there. Step out where I can see you.”
She put every bit of authority that she could muster behind her voice, not betraying the tiniest bit of fear. Of course, the thing could smell her and that would tell a different story. But she could control her fear, just like she could control her voice. There was no shame in being afraid. There was shame in fleeing. So she stood her ground.
“Come out now.”
She’d gotten just a block over and down before sensing the presence in the shadows. It was fully dark now, plenty of places to hide. The shadow moved slightly. Automatically, Annie moved back, luring the thing into the light.
As the shadow grew closer, it became smaller, finally solidifying into the shape of a man, the man who’d stood outside her fight, anger blazing in his eyes.
Not particularly tall, compact and lithe. He moved with the grace of a cat. She started at the ground, taking in simple lace-up tennis shoes, black cotton pants and a white button down shirt. A triangle of golden brown skin showed at the unbuttoned neck. Humble clothing. A strong, angular face with high, prominent cheekbones, an arched nose over a small, perfectly sculpted mouth. Black, chin length hair fell back from his face in a center part. A face of timeless, unearthly beauty.
“Oh my God… oh my God…” Her breath froze and her heart stopped, just briefly. Annie dropped abruptly to her knees, head bowed. “Sifu Lee? Guo Lee?” She wouldn’t have believed it except for a small, triangular scar on his collarbone.
“Get up, Annie, you’re embarrassing me.”
She stole another look at his face. How had she not known him the other night? He hadn’t wanted her to know him. He hadn’t wanted her to see him.
“Sifu Lee…”
“What did you call me when you were a girl?”
“Papa,” she whispered. “I wanted to call you Grandfather, but you said I should only call my Grandfather Tanaka by that name.”
“So what do you call me now?”
She remained on her knees, her body’s processes slowly returning. “Papa Lee.” She brought one foot up, then the other, rising without her usual grace. She stole another look. He hadn’t aged a day. His golden brown skin had the look of varnished wood. In repose, he looked still, unapproachable, his eyes hooded like those of a lazy cat. But now he smiled, great dimples creasing his cheeks, all the way to his eyes.
“Come on over and sit here.”
She lowered herself to the cinderblock retaining wall that he gestured to. Her hands trembled, her knees bounced from nerves. Gradually, the shock of his appearance began to wear down, and calm spread through her soul. The calm that always accompanied his presence.
From where they sat, they looked over a good deal of Wharf. The place he’d created nearly a century ago.
“It’s still ugly, but beautiful in its way.” He slipped a cigarette between his lips. From the time she was a child, she remembered him and his cigarettes. Most people didn’t smoke these days. She wondered where he bought them.
“Most ugly things have beauty as well,” she said.
“That’s very true.” His voice was low and husky, the accented English a pleasure to listen to. His mother language was Mandarin, but he spoke many languages.
“I came to check on my students. I followed some noise, only to find my little girl in a cage, fighting for money.”
“That’s why you were so angry.”
He nodded, inhaling deeply. “But then I remember my Annie’s got a job to do, she’s a cop. And I hear there’s something bad after the Nano fighters. I knew you’re just doing your job. You and that half-blood fighter.”
“That’s Aiden Chen. He grew up here part time. His mom lived outside.”
“I see. Is he a good man?”
“He’s one of the best. He used to be my partner.”
“That’s good. Annie Tanaka deserves the best man to love her.”
She bowed her head, her cheeks going warm. “He left the force when his wife was killed.”
“By one of those monster things?”
“I think there’s only one, Papa. But yes. It hurt me as well.”
He shook his head. “Lots of those things, Annie. They’re in China as well. They want blood and flesh. Bad things, Annie, but I taught you what you need to know. You’ll catch it.”
“You think so?”
He chuckled and stubbed out the cigarette. “I know so. You had me and your Grandpa Tanaka to teach you right.”
“Grandpa mostly taught me to train Bonsai.”
“Good skill. Not many people left that know how to do it. And that big katana on your wall isn’t for pruning little trees, Annie. And I know old Kazu Tanaka didn’t die without passing on his skills.”
“You’re my sifu, Papa. I couldn’t have a sifu and a sensei.”
“No, Annie, but while I was your papa-teacher, he was your grandfather. He was honor bound to teach you.”
“You knew? Did you mind?”
Guo Lee shook his head slowly. “No. We talked, back when I first started teaching you. He knew you had a gift, Annie.”
She smiled and looked down at the now steady hands clasped between her knees. He’d always grounded her. “Did he mind that you taught me?”
He stood up and began walking. She rose and followed, and to her surprise, they ended up on her roof. On a bench lay her grandfather’s katana. Guo picked it up with reverence, unsheathing the long sword. “I don’t know how to use one of these. Perhaps my student will show me?”
“I have a bokken…” She kept her wooden practice swords up here on the roof.
“No, the katana. Please demonstrate with your grandfather’s sword.”
For a moment, she was at a loss. She wasn’t dressed properly. Finally, pragmatism settled in. She took the long sword in hand and began the kata. He sat quietly, watching her move through the formal sword forms.
She finished, bowing deeply before returning the sword to scabbard.
“He taught you karate as well?” She nodded. Guo bit his lip, walking to the edge of the building, looking at the rows of bonsai there. “That was very beautiful, Annie. In its way, very lethal.” He stood there for a long time, watching darkness fall over the city. He was possibly the most powerful man she’d ever encountered. Lethal, and from the looks of him, perhaps even magical. He wore cheap cloth sneakers and smoked old-fashioned cigarettes and taught little orphaned girls kung fu.
He looked over at her, his face inscrutable. “You make sure you don’t kill him, all right?”
Fear gripped her gut. “How? How do I defeat it without killing it?”
He stood, looking critically at his student. “I don’t know, Annie. But you just remember he was human… still is. It is very sick. It’s very tragic.” He turned to face her. “You use everything you know. What I taught you, what your grandfather taught you. What you have learned on your own.”
She nodded.
“There are big things happening in our world, Annie. Things are going to change very fast. This place…” he gestured over the expanse of Wharf, “it’s like the Walled City of Kowloon. It’s had its time. It’ll be gone soon.”
The thought made her ill, but she saw the truth of it. It wasn’t governed by city or state. It was a dangerous no-man’s land to outsiders, a haven to the residents. Of course it would eventually be slated for destruction. “How sad that will be.”
He nodded in agreement. “But good, too. Things can be better. Change doesn’t always mean bad.”
“What do you know, Papa Guo?”
“Nothing. I don’t know anything. I just see the turn of the wheel.”
“You’ve lived a very long time, haven’t you? Seen the wheel turn many cycles.”
He crossed the roof to where she sat perched on a low stool. Guo squatted next to her, lighting another cigarette. The fragrance of the smoke drifted across the roof, carried by a light breeze. “Too long, Annie.”
“You’re Hsien? Immortal?”
“No man is immortal, Annie. No man or woman. Our immortality is only through those who remember us.”
A chill ran over her skin. Surely Guo Lee was dead by now? Was this her imagination? She looked up at the sound of a sword leaving its sheath. Guo took the katana, and slowly began the Japanese kata she’d performed. His form was perfect, breathtaking. He turned the formal routine into a liquid, blurring dance of speed and elegance.
The cigarette still hung from his lips.
Without a hitch, the kata blurred into a kung fu set, sinuous and flexible, yet the elements of Japanese form were still there. Just… different. She watched in silent appreciation as he worked his way into forms that were ancient and forgotten to all but Guo Lee. She barely drew breath as he finished, bowing low, handing the sword over.
“What did you see, Annie?”
“It’s all the same.”
He nodded. “Different schools, different theories, but in the end, it’s all the same. It’s all ice cream, just different flavors. We choose our tools to defeat our enemy.”
She accepted the sword, sliding it carefully back into the sheath. She didn’t even bother to ask how he’d gotten into her apartment to take the thing from her wall.
“I have a new granddaughter
. In Oregon. I’m going there tonight to meet her. Afterward, I’ll be back.”
“Congratulations, Papa. I’m sure she’s beautiful.”
“Her name is Rose. Of course she’s beautiful. I threw fortune sticks for her. She has a big future.”
So he was a soothsayer! Annie smiled at the thought and turned to confront him.
He was gone.
She looked around for a sign, any sign, that she hadn’t just spent an hour on her roof, talking to herself. She looked at the sword in her hands. If she had imagined the whole thing, at least the time had been productive.
She started toward the ladder before catching sight of something lying on the gravel of the roof. A cigarette butt, smoke still rising in a wisp. Annie laughed out loud, feeling more like herself than she’d felt in years.
Chapter Eight
He’d not only hustled a fight; he’d arranged one for that very night.
Annie kept to the shadows two stories above, seething in anger at his stupidity. How dare he come out without her? He was meat on the hoof, as far as this thing was concerned. And it was two nights early!
She hovered over the edge, watching first the crowd and then the fighters.
There was no one she recognized in the crowd, save the blonde woman who allegedly wanted a piece of her. She rolled her eyes at the thought.
The woman stood at the perimeter of a sturdy cage, her hand roaming the muscled ass of a brutish looking man that Annie had never before seen. His cruel mouth and hard blue eyes set her teeth on edge, and she mentally noted him. He was clearly a fighter, and as a fighter, he’d be a Nano. And a possible suspect. The look he gave Aiden was hungry and full of lust, but not the sort of lust a person would want to inspire in a man.
The rest of the crowd looked like gamblers. A pair of rough looking men stood at the perimeter. No doubt they were the brokers, the men who arranged the fight and recorded bets. Their attention was divided equally between the fighters and the crowd.
Inside the cage blood had spilled, she wasn’t sure whose, but both men bore injuries.
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