by Aja James
Yes, indeed, Ava could see as she slid the drawer open. She had just about every color of the rainbow in terms of writing gear, and some neon and glitter pens too. There were also two hard-back notebooks with quality paper, one lined, one graphed.
“You are a very thoughtful host,” she said to Sōsuke after thanking him.
“I try my best,” he replied. “Come, let me show you what we’ve been working on. I think you’ll be happily surprised at the progress we’ve made. And we’re eager to get your input too. I’m sure we’ll crack the code together.”
Ava mentally rolled up her sleeves and immersed herself in satisfying work.
*** *** *** ***
“Yes, I’m eating well, mom, you don’t have to worry,” Ava said while she slurped some more ramen noodles, sitting in bed with the phone on speaker beside her pillow.
She’d picked up half a dozen ramen bowls, glutinous rice balls, yogurts, juice boxes and assorted snacks from the corner store near her hotel on her way home from the University. Her mom would berate her if she could see all the junk food, but Ava liked to indulge in unhealthy things and Japanese snacks had always been her favorite, though they were healthier than most.
“Ava Alessandra Monroe,” her mother said through the phone, “I know you’re telling me a fib, I can tell from the tone of your voice.”
“But I’ve got all the major food groups covered, ma,” Ava insisted, “I don’t have time for fine dining every night.”
“Well it wouldn’t hurt you to cook once in a while, Ava, you know how. And you cook real well too.”
Ava mouthed the words just as her mother added, “But not as well as me.”
“I know, mom. I love your cooking. Dreaming of your homemade pão de queijo every night.” Ava could eat those Brazilian cheese rolls by the dozen in one sitting.
“If only you had a man to cook for,” her mother continued, getting on the same track she always got on, almost every time she spoke to her daughter. “All you need is practice and motivation and you’ll be a better cook than me in no time.”
“But you’ve been practicing on papa for thirty years already,” Ava said, “how am I supposed to catch up?”
“You aren’t going to if you don’t start, are you? And you already thirty-years-old and not getting any younger,” her mom argued. “When are you going to bring home a nice boy, Ava?”
Ava sighed and downed the rest of her ramen to stall some time.
She wanted to bring home a “nice boy” to meet her parents, she really did. She’d just never been lucky in love. Actually, she didn’t think she’d ever been in love at all. Not the kind that she saw on her parents’ faces when they looked at each other across the dinner table or when they greeted each other coming home from work. She just sort of fell into her past relationships, mostly because she didn’t want to take the trouble of falling out of them.
She liked living with a man. Liked the sex too, though her Rabbit Habit was always better. She enjoyed the snuggles the most, just having a man to touch and hold and kiss and warm her bed with.
Hmm. Maybe she should get a dog. The Rabbit Habit took care of the lusty urges and the dog took care of providing unconditional affection. Except she didn’t like the way dogs smelled, and their kisses were real slobbery. And they couldn’t walk or feed or pick up after themselves when she traveled for research and lectures. That’s probably why she hadn’t gotten a dog yet.
“Ava Monroe, are you hearing me?”
“Yes, ma,” Ava finally replied. “I’m doing my best to find a nice boy. Do you mind if he’s Japanese?”
“You know I think Japanese men are extremely attractive,” her mother said, slightly breathless.
Some grumbles could be heard in the background, and her mother yelled, “Not as handsome as you dear!”
More muffled grumbles, though sounding somewhat mollified.
Ava grinned. She loved her parents’ exchanges. The way they still got so possessive of each other. She knew they loved her more than the world, but she also knew they couldn’t live without each other.
On that thought, she asked, more subdued, “How’s papa doing? Is he holding up OK?”
Her mother also spoke more quietly. “He’s got this weakness in his bones, Ava. He doesn’t like to complain, you know how he is, but sometimes he can’t get up the stairs without wheezing and creaking. The other day he broke the coffee pot by dropping it on the floor. When I came into the room to see what happened, he was just standing there staring at his hand like he’s never seen it before. It was shaking bad, Ava.”
“Is he taking his medication?” Ava asked, a concerned frown wrinkling her brow.
“He hates it. He says he’s not sick. But I sneak it into his meatloaf and his lasagna. And sometimes the chili too.”
“You have to make sure he takes it, mom,” Ava insisted.
“I know, I know. But he always listens to you better, child. He’s a teddy bear with you and a grumpy grizzly with me.”
Said grizzly was grumbling again, Ava could hear.
“You know I love you Gavin Monroe,” her mother called out more loudly, “let me finish talking to our baby girl and I’ll be right there.”
To Ava she said, “We’re planning to go into the City today for a bridge game with friends, late lunch and shopping.”
Both her parents were retired, she a nurse at New York-Presbyterian and he a carpenter who finally saved enough to have his own business at age fifty. He was still working on some pet projects when he felt like it, but for the most part he let his younger partner and successor run the show. Neither of them had a college degree, nor any of the extended relatives of their generation, as far as Ava knew. So most of the time Ava was growing up, they didn’t quite know what to do with her quirky, geeky ways.
But she was never in doubt of their approval and love.
“You shouldn’t keep him waiting, mom, don’t worry about me.”
“But honey you haven’t told me about the nice Japanese man you met,” her mother said, tenacious as a pit bull.
How did she know…
As if her mother heard her thoughts, she said, “You said he, dear, as if you have someone specific in mind.”
Ava had made the statement with a generic brush, but now that her mom mentioned it, she immediately thought of the mysterious Ryu Takamura.
Her body temperature promptly kicked up a notch.
Visions of soulful black eyes, sculpted lips, long, strong neck, deep, defined chest and eight-pack abs flashed before her eyes. Oh the feel of him in her hands… the taste of him in her mouth…
Her silence must have been telling, for her mother wheedled, “He’s that fine, is he?”
Ava fanned her face and was glad she wasn’t doing a video call because of a slow speed internet connection.
“Yes,” she managed to croak, “He’s very fine.”
“What’s his name?”
“I only just met him and I’m not sure I’ll see him again.”
“But you like him.”
A lot. Despite his calling her a Bumble Bee.
“Yeess…” Ava hedged, drawing out the word.
“So find a way to see him again.”
“Mom, listen—”
“What’s his name?”
Arrggghhh! Her mother was worse than a pit bull, she was like…Ava couldn’t even come up with what was worse under the pressure of her mother’s rapid-fire badgering.
“What’s your favorite thing about him?”
Everything.
“He has the sexiest voice,” Ava didn’t mean to blurt out.
“Oohh,” her mother cooed appreciatively. “Call him up so you can record him and send me the file.”
“Mom!”
“Or better yet, Facetime him and record the video.”
“I don’t even have his number!”
“What’s his name?”
Holy Mary Mother of God!
“Ryu Takamura,” Ava said un
der extreme duress. “Happy now?”
“I’ll Google him and tell you what I find out. Talk to you later, sweetie pie!”
And with that, Ava was finally off the hook.
For now.
With a frustrated silent scream, she threw herself face down among the pillows.
Her mother had obviously missed her calling as a professional interrogator. Hanns Scharff had nothing on Ana Lucia Monroe.
*** *** *** ***
After a full two days of rest, Ryu felt somewhat himself again, refocused on his purpose, grounded in what he was.
But he still hadn’t fed.
It would have been the best reminder of the kind of creature he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it, not even in the deliverance of justice as was sanctioned by the Dark Laws.
It was dangerous to neglect his needs. He should be at full strength while undertaking not one but multiple missions. But he had no appetite despite the gnawing hunger that seemed to be eating through his muscles and bones from the inside out.
Ryu had always attributed his ability to abstain from consuming blood to his discipline as a Ninja. Most vampires could only survive a couple of weeks without it or go mad from starvation. He could last months, though his current drought was pushing his limits.
From his current position on the highest extension of Tokyo Tower, the city was a constantly moving sea of lights below, the vehicles like fluorescent ants traveling to and fro in a well-organized train. The altitude and crisp air cleared his head, though the memories he had purposely resurfaced in the village two days ago stayed in the back of his mind.
As he intended.
He was a bastard and the spawn of a prostitute. He was the Assassin, a killer without conscience, only cold, black purpose.
He could wear the finest clothes and drink the most expensive wine, but the refinement, the culture—they were all masks he wore to achieve his goals.
Inside where it counted, he was a worthless whore.
He might delude himself into believing that his service to the Dark Queen as one of her Chosen was a noble profession, that he fought for right, contributing to the greater good. But really, deep down, he knew he reveled in the hunt and the kill.
After all, he was exceptional at it.
“Takamura,” he answered immediately when his wrist-com buzzed.
“Did you get her files?” the Hunter asked without preliminaries.
“Sending to you now.” Ryu watched the bar of progress as the files he copied from Ava Monroe’s hard drive the day he brought her back to her hotel were transmitted from his laptop to the supercomputers at the Cove.
“Excellent,” Devlin said when they downloaded fully.
“Anything new on your end?” Ryu asked, knowing that Devlin always had interesting things to share.
“Things are pretty quiet around here without Inanna and Simone, though of course I don’t wish for the latter to rejoin the living.”
Simone had been the traitor within their ranks who tried to usurp Jade Cicada’s throne.
“And with the Pure Ones’ Consul gone, our good Queen has been… out of sorts,” Devlin imparted.
“She seems focused on the issue at hand,” Ryu said, knowing how strongly Jade felt about his mission. She always avoided collateral damage whenever possible, but this time, she’d given him the kill and destroy order to eliminate all evidence of Ava Monroe’s project.
“Oh yes, always,” Devlin agreed. “Never let it be said that we have a slacker for a Queen. But she seems… well, forlorn might be the word I’m searching for, when she thinks she doesn’t have an audience.”
Ryu felt a clutch of worry in his chest for the vampire queen. What had happened between her and the Pure Consul Seth Tremaine?
“You can see for yourself what I mean when you get back. Now let’s get on to business,” Devlin said, shifting gears.
“What have you found?”
Ryu was a genius with all things technology, but he was still nowhere near Devlin’s caliber.
“Our friend Medusa, remember her?”
Ryu bit back a sigh. Devlin was winding him up again, building the anticipation.
“Yes. You were going to take her to second base, peel off a few layers,” Ryu said, feeding his comrade’s ever-playful, never-serious approach to life.
A brief chuckle over the line. “She just couldn’t resist me.”
“Who could,” Ryu deadpanned.
“She owns a few other interesting pieces of real estate, it turns out, besides being the majority shareholder with controlling votes in GTI.”
Ryu remained silent, simply waiting.
“Several IVF clinics around the world, one private hospital, one robotics laboratory that is also on the cutting edge of 3-D imaging advancements and a tech startup called Zenn. I’m sure there’s more but this was the best I could do on short notice.”
Ryu frowned. He didn’t have all the dots connected, but having that much power in the hands of one individual never boded well.
“Oh, and she’s reputed to have a formidable amount of sway over the World Health Organization, has a surrogate at the United Nations and frequently provides counsel to the IMF.”
Who the hell was this mythical woman?
“All very anonymous and under the table, of course,” Devlin continued. “It’s as if this woman is a ghost. People know of her, and she obviously exerts a great deal of influence, but no one has ever met or spoken with her. There is no image of her to be found anywhere on the Net, no recording of her voice, no concrete, traceable proof that she physically exists beyond a name on paper.”
Ryu filed all this information away to consider at length. He knew one thing for certain: Ava Monroe was in over her head, to have unintentionally moved into the sphere of such an omnipotent being, like a small planet pulled unwittingly off orbit by the draw of a voracious black hole.
“As to the other thing,” Devlin said, forcing Ryu to concentrate on him again. “You might want to look into a Mamiana Inari Shrine in the Shiba-Mita-Azabu areas on the outskirts of Tokyo.” A pause. “Did I say that right?”
Ryu didn’t answer. All the blood had drained from his face.
“The porcelain vase Inanna had me look into with her father’s calligraphy on it can be traced to this obscure little Shinto shrine,” Devlin went on when Ryu kept silent.
“At one point it must have been kept at the shrine because I found other vases that looked just like that one originating from the same place. Maybe not made there, but used there perhaps for various purposes. Do you happen to know it?”
“Yes,” was the only word Ryu uttered.
“Couldn’t find much out of the ordinary about the place,” his comrade shared. “You’re sure to be much better versed than I about these things.”
Yes, Ryu was extremely well versed about the Shrine.
“But here’s a funny little story in case you didn’t know: folk tale has it that there was a stud of a commoner who lived there, who could take the shape of a tanuki raccoon and would sneak into Edo Castle straight into the Shogun’s harem and have his amorous, perverted ways with the women. Think explicit drawings from the fifteen hundreds that are documented in prohibited sex scrolls, if you get my drift. Not that they complained apparently, the women that is, because shape-shifting Romeo seemed to do it on a regular basis.”
Ryu blanched further.
“Hey, you still there, Senpai?”
“I’ll look into it,” Ryu finally replied, and abruptly cut communication.
Chapter Six
Three days later, Ava got lucky.
She spotted the object of her daydreams and nightly obsessions striding purposefully down the University walkway on Hongo campus, leaving a trail of sighing and giggling female students in his wake.
He was dressed in a similar fashion as when she first met him on the plane eons ago—a branded light blue button-down shirt with French cuffs and cufflinks that winked in the twilight as t
he sun was setting over the horizon, impeccably pressed dark gray slacks and shiny leather loafers. Hair coifed just so with soft waves on top, sharpening around his angular face and angling to a perfect V down the back of his neck.
He was wearing sunglasses despite the descending dark, but she could recognize him by his long, smooth strides from a mile away, the way his wide shoulders moved in sync with his narrow hips and tight ass.
Meow. He could strut her catwalk any time.
Ava remained on her bench beside the central lawn and took another bite of her sandwich.
She was on a short snack break since she had skipped lunch earlier and was planning to work deep into the night. The team was on to something and didn’t want to lose the momentum.
But having seen her fantasy in the flesh, her whole being was now fixated on something besides her research.
A first.
She didn’t think her brain would get back with the program for a good long while.
She didn’t know if she should get up and follow him though, and he was getting smaller and smaller as he walked farther away from her. What was she going to do? Chase after him across the lawn like a lovesick pup? Nip at his heels and wag her considerable tail for good measure? He’d probably forgotten all about her by now, moved on to the next panting admirer, of which he must have legions.
The egg sandwich tasted like sawdust in her mouth as jealousy churned in Ava’s belly.
Like she had any right to feel that way. She was consternated at her own reaction.
She’d never been jealous before, not even when she’d been in committed relationships. Nothing ever took precedence over her research, and maybe that was a large part of the reason all her relationships fell by the wayside. But she knew it had something to do with those men not being the right ones for her too.
She couldn’t imagine herself eager to get out of bed and start work in the morning if Ryu Takamura was wrapped around her body, for example, keeping her warm and cozy on those blustery New York winter days.
Well, the opportunity had passed.
Her fantasy fetish had disappeared from view.
