White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4)

by Christina Moore

  The vampire was a vain race, only choosing the most beautiful of humans to carry on the vampiric legacy. Being scarred wasn’t usually beautiful. That left only two options to Wren’s existence, either some vampire took pity on him as a scarred human and appreciated the apparent beauty that was, despite the blemish. Or, more likely, Wren was mutilated after he died. Punishment for betraying his Master would have been the most logical reason. So who was Wren’s Master and were they the one setting him up?

  “Yes,” the vampire answered Tristan’s question simply. “I do know who it is.”

  Tristan sighed. “So you’re hiding out here, trying to stay undead and poor little you just can’t get a break when Oogui decides to attach herself to you. That about the rub of it?”

  Wren gave a little nod, the corner of his mouth curling into a sly smile. “More or less.”

  “Great. So maybe you want to tell me who’s the real one doing the killing?”

  “Do you intend to kill the one who murders indiscriminately?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “No offense, because you seem so very confident, but you aren’t up for the challenge. Akane was wrong, you’re not the right person for this job.”

  Tristan snorted. “Look, pal. I don’t know you and you don’t know me. What we do know is that you are the hunted and I’m the hunter. Okay? Would I have come out here if I couldn’t handle one little vampire?”

  Sure, he sounded like an arrogant prick, but he needed this guy to be a little afraid of him. But, from the way Wren talked, he knew that as an unbitten Uruwashi, Tristan was merely human in every way. His skin might as well have been tissue paper, his limbs pretzel sticks. There was no denying that he was weaker, at a disadvantage, but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve that would make his enemy underestimate him.

  Without any warning, the vampire darted for him. He was over a hundred, if his word was to be believed, but he was also a vanilla. Slow as a snail compared to his Master counterparts. Tristan emptied his clip before Wren ever reached him. By the vampire’s grunt of pain, a few hit their mark too. Sure enough, when Tristan was slammed to the ground, he could smell the blood.

  Something in his middle clenched and he had to force himself to believe that it wasn’t hunger. Wren’s tackle had too much momentum and the couple was tossed over again but not before Tristan got a face full of blood. In Tristan’s confused frenzy to keep it out of his eyes and mouth he missed his chance to dominate the vampire and was shoved to his back again. One eye had too much blood to open, but the other cracked open just enough to see a mouth full of pretty white teeth and two small fangs coming at him.

  “Fuck!” Tristan hissed and threw up a fist. He managed to punch the guy right in the gunshot wound on his neck, opening it again. When a fresh stream of blood sputtered into Tristan’s face, he nearly took it in the mouth and flung his face to the side, giving Wren the perfect angle to bite him.

  “Tristan!” came a distant cry. The howl of a tiny fox echoed the fae’s plea and Tristan tensed.

  “Your friends are having trouble with the troll,” Wren whispered. His face was splattered in fresh blood. The wounds would heal fairly quickly, but because of his young age and lack of seikonō, the actual blood would take a very long time for it to dissolve into nothing. Up this close, Tristan’s nose and stomach were convinced it smelled delicious.

  “They’re not my friends.”

  “No, I’d think not. It’d be an unfortunate thing to befriend someone like Desmond… James the Good.” The vampire snorted a crude laugh. “Good, indeed.”

  Something in Wren’s voice made Tristan open his eyes. Blood stung them, clouded everything in a haze of red, but he needed to look the vampire in the eye. “Do you—do you know him?”

  “Of course I do.” Wren sighed, eyes drifting away from Tristan’s to focus on nothing. “Desmond is my Master.”

  8: Nothing’s Changed

  ASH moved silently around the room as she put away the last of their tea. Having tea with the person she was angriest with was not on her to-do list for the night. But the break seemed to calm Yukihime and bring her back to herself again. Almost just, anyway.

  The point was, Yukihime wasn’t toying with Ash, too much, and might actually be receptive to civilized discussion. Ash just had to choose the right words.

  “How is my niece?” That was purposeful enough, right? Remind the old vampire who she was keeping captive.

  “Yare yare, you think I keep her? Like Malik had before, forced? Do you not know me at all, my dear Asta-chan?”

  A string of complaints came from Malik’s head.

  Ash frowned. “You mean she chooses to stay?”

  “Of course.”

  “It’s wrong of you to taste her mind.”

  Yukihime looked perturbed when she lifted her chin and said, “She offers me her very soul willingly. If you had only listened to me in France instead of going off on your superior tangent, then you would have known.”

  Ash gasped, not believing. “That is—”

  “The truth. And if you had come to see her sooner then perhaps you would be in her good graces as well.”

  “She… she is angry with me?”

  Yukihime harrumphed and put her back to Ash. “How would I know, I’m just the crazy old vampire who carries around the head of her dead lover.”

  Ash lowered her face into her hand with a sigh. “You are the crazy old vampire who carries around the head of her dead lover, but you are also my friend.” Didn’t mean she wasn’t very angry with her right then. In truth, Ash didn’t want to be here, talking to Yukihime but she was glad she was. Something was different with the ancient vampire today and Ash felt almost an equal to the woman for the first time.

  Yukihime turned enough to look back over her shoulder. “Really?”

  “Why else do you think I have put up with you all this time?”

  Yukihime turned around to fully face Ash. “No one’s called me friend in…” Her gaze grew distant as she tried to remember. “Well, I really don’t remember now… Desmond hates me. I know he does, I can see it in they he looks at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention—I’ve tasted it in his blood. And the fae…” Yukihime sighed.

  Well, it was true, almost all scion hated their Master, it was a part of being a vampire. “Maybe,” Ash said, taking a step towards her. “If you did not meddle with people’s lives, maybe you would have more friends.” Especially now, with so much change on the horizon, it seemed wise to befriend those more powerful. Ash thought of Innokentiy and wondered if there was a way to find him again. He was successfully “dead” for nearly a millennia though, so her chances were slim.

  Yukihime jerked her attention to Ash, her eyes full of intensity. “Only those who matter to me the most, Asta-chan.”

  Ash stopped just out of reach from the other woman and crossed her arms under her chest, tilting her head to the side in consideration. “Even the child of our enemy?”

  “Especially him.”

  “Why? What is it he is meant to do?”

  Yukihime frowned. “Not so much do as become.” She took a step forward. “With your help of course.”

  “Which is what?” Ash asked, frustration making its way into her tone. “A year ago Lilith came to me and told me the impossible. That I was to meet a man and that I was meant to save him. Not only save him, but change him to his very core, make him into the very monster our kind spent centuries trying to eradicate. And for what? The annihilation of the vampire race? Just how are two people supposed to pull that off? And why? I have never thought the world would be better without the vampire. If anything, the humans need the sin of our kind. We cull the evil of humanity.”

  Yukihime’s brows rose high. “You think the world deserves sin?”

  “There is balance, however unjust and I will not be the one to destroy that.” Ash huffed. “This whole thing is just… frustrating.”

  Yukihime watched her for a moment and then sh
rugged, her whole demeanor relaxing. “Knowing what you do, you can’t tell me you don’t foresee something big happening.” Ash opened her mouth to argue, but Yukihime spoke over her. “And while, yes the death of the vampire or the human race is certainly big, I don’t think that’s the fate of life on this planet. Actually, from what I understand of it…”

  “What?” Ash prompted when the old vampire looked like she wasn’t going to say anymore. “Yukihime, please.”

  Yukihime sighed and turned away to go plop on her oversized bed. Ash tentatively sat down on the edge, close enough to be part of the conversation, but far enough to be out of reach.

  “I think it’s just the opposite. I think Tristan is meant to save the human and legendary races—human, shinwa and heikō. I think his purpose is to save us all. He is this balance you speak of because there is no balance right now. The scales are tipped but the imbalance has yet to fully be realized.”

  Mamoru had thought so too. Ash wasn’t so sure when she tasted the thought from the man, but now, hearing Yukihime say it… “How can I ever believe anything you say to me, Shishō?”

  Yukihime smiled. “You shouldn’t. But trust my intentions.” She rolled over so that she could put a hand on Ash’s bare knee. “You always had a choice. You still do.”

  Ash looked at the small hand and sighed, pushing her off. “Stop that.”

  “What can I say to make you understand I mean well?”

  Ash huffed as the other woman moved around on the bed to place herself behind Ash. She didn’t even pull away when Yukihime put her hands on her shoulders and whispered, “Lilith remembers you well, Asta-chan. She loves you and wishes to see you again. But like all Moriakos, she is resiliently stubborn. She just needs time to mend her hurt feelings.”

  Ash laughed, shaking her head but wouldn’t look back at the vampire leaning against her. “It is not like you to placate. Not without some other nefarious reason.”

  “I think you misunderstand me, child.”

  Ash’s lips pressed into a thin line as she gave Yukihime a look over her shoulder. “Nefarious is your religion, Shishō. And you are a zealot to the extreme.”

  Yukihime laughed and hugged her tightly. “Come to bed with me.”

  Ash immediately started to shake her head as she shrugged out of Yukihime’s hold. “No. I cannot—will not, not again.” That Ash survived that first and only time was a testament to her mental strength. It was a test she was not willing to endure again.

  “Oh dear.” Yukihime’s small hands wandered up Ash’s torso. “We had such fun.”

  “No,” Ash said firmly, pushing the hands aside. “You had fun.” Perhaps a human might think of it as torture. To the vampire it all was perfectly normal.

  The ancient vampire sighed and threw herself back on the bed with a big pout. “Fine.” Then her face lit up. “We can wait for the boys to return. I know you haven’t given lovely Ryōshi-san his official baptism and what better way than—”

  “No!” Ash’d heard enough and burst to her feet. “No, no, no, NO.”

  The other vampire laughed hard enough and with enough motonō that Ash doubled over, moaning out her pleasure. She hated it when Yukihime did that.

  “What happened with you?”

  “What?” Ash asked in a breathy whisper as the last of the pleasure fizzled out.

  “Between you and Tristan? Things are not going well.”

  Ash scowled. “Are you truly asking because you do not already understand our situation or are you looking to pry for information you already know and just wish me to put it to words?”

  “You were at a crossroads, Asta-chan, back there in France. To stay or leave. To either give up on him or finally give him everything. You decided to stay and yet, you are still holding back. Why is that?”

  “Again, you need to ask?” Yukihime knew perfectly well why she would be more inclined to hold back than not. The vampire had tasted Ash’s memories, thoroughly shifted through them all and knew her feelings. Too much past, too much remembered anguish, they all served to prove that impulsive hadn’t boded well for Ash.

  The older vampire sighed. “I understand your life is not what you wanted it to be. But is anyone’s?”

  “Well, no—”

  “You’re being just terrible to Tristan. He loves you deeply. I’ve never seen that sort of love for any of our kind by anyone. You have a chance to be truly happy and yet, you still hold him an arm’s length away. He’s strong, but the human in him makes him fragile too. If you’re not careful, you will lose him forever. And it will not be just you who suffers.”

  Ash crossed her arms over her middle and hung her head. “I know, all right? I know. But I—it’s just so hard. What if I lose him anyway? No, you know what? No. This is not a conversation I want to have with you.”

  Yukihime made a dismissive gesture with her hands, lips puckered. “He’s not shallow or petty. Ma, well perhaps a little petty, but he seems to enjoy focusing that on my Desmond.”

  Ash had to smile. It was turning into a hobby between those two, hating each other. It was almost endearing.

  “Asta-chan,” Yukihime took her hands into her own. “I may be a child, but trust me on this. I’ve lived long enough that I’ve seen more than a few interesting things in my life. Even learned some valuable lessons. Just tell him. Let him have you, all of you. He will accept you as you are.”

  Ash smiled for the first time since entering the house and Yukihime made a small noise of surprise, hearing Ash’s words before she spoke. “That is precisely why I am here.” If she could get her book, then there’d be little Ash had to hold back physically from Tristan anymore—at least until she was ready to take that one last step.

  Yukihime got a sly look on her face as she sat up. “Sō ka?” She looked past Ash, her eyes filling with mischief. “And you think a simple spell will be all it takes to fix things between you?”

  “No, but it is a very good start.”

  The older vampire thought for a moment and then got a calculating look in her eyes. “Join me for a walk. I have something to show you.”

  9: Lie Lie Lie

  UM, come again?” Tristan asked with a scowl.

  Wren’s solemn expression was enough to convince Tristan what he’d heard was true, but it was still hard to process. “Desmond didn’t tell you?”

  “No he—I didn’t even know you were here. Look, Akane came to me and asked me to remove the troll. She never said anything about you.” But, as Tristan figured out the moment the vampire appeared, he’d been played again. Maybe he should just kill Yukihime. One last vampire kill to solve all his problems before starting over in the US.

  “Naruhodo.”

  Tristan frowned up at the vampire still pinning him to the cold ground. “You see what?”

  Wren met Tristan’s eyes with his own mismatched gaze and lifted his eyebrow. “I told you, the kitsune were not to be trusted, not even their noble leader, Akane.”

  Well, he already knew that. “Wha—”

  “Uruwashi!”

  Both men looked up when a naked kitsune woman ran into the clearing.

  “This is no time for sex!”

  Tristan flushed, realizing what it looked like with Wren straddling him like this. “Get off me, man.”

  Wren gave him a half smirk. And just when Tristan thought he was about to be let go, Wren leaned down and kissed him squarely on lips. Tristan was too shocked to react, even when a slip of tongue tasted his bottom lip. The tang of vampire found his taste buds, and he jerked away from Wren’s mouth.

  “Be careful with Kyō,” the other man whispered close to Tristan’s face, all but pressing his lips to Tristan’s cheek. “She’s the worst tempered and biggest liar of them all.”

  “Get the fuck off!”

  Wren chuckled, stealing another little kiss before Tristan shoved him off.

  “What’s taking so long, Uruwashi?” the kitsune growled.

  Tristan got to his feet, scrubbing at his
face with the back of his hand, sneering at Wren just to keep from staring at the naked woman. She may be a shinwa, a fox even, but she had one hell of a sexy little body in human form.

  “What?” he grumped and lowered his hand to wipe the blood off on his pants. “Am I not moving fast enough for you?” Sure, he didn’t trust all Wren had said, but there was a glimmer of rightness in there. Instinct told Tristan not trust anyone and right now he thought the kitsune were further from the truth than Wren.

  “No! Why haven’t you killed him yet? What did he try to tell you? That he belongs here? That he’s not the bad guy?”

  Tristan exchanged a look Wren. “Something like that.”

  “He killed the humans, him and that troll. Whatever he told you is all lies. How can you believe him?”

  “I don’t,” he answered with a nasty smirk. “But how do I know you haven’t lied too, hmm? Why should I trust you?”

  Her yellow eyes widened and she stepped back. “I never!”

  “Never, what? Lied? Why am I really here, trickster?”

  Her round face scrunched up into anger. She pointed to Wren. “What lie has he forced on you with vampire powers?”

  “You’re Kyō, aren’t you?”

  The kitsune frowned. She was terribly adorable pouting, he wondered if she knew.

  “You’re the one I cut in half in France.”

  She gasped and stepped back. “Kisama,” she hissed the curse.

  “Aw, now that’s not nice.”

  Kyō curled her lips back and hissed a noise that should have come from her animal form. Her body collapsed onto itself and she was a tiny fox again.

  Tristan lifted his gun and aimed to take her right between the eyes, knowing full well that it was only a temporary condition, her death. Before he could get a single shot off, the front of his brain tightened, searing down his sinuses and blacking out his vision. He screamed as a white hot pain exploded in his head like foam insulation, filling in every little space available.