Ash flinched at not only the accusation in her tone, but hearing her birth name spoken in such a way. “What? I—”
Lilith’s head turned slightly, indicating she was ‘looking’ at Yukihime. “But I suppose you’ve run into some resistance. Asta, you were meant to bite Tristan the night you met.” She tilted her head, her next words now obviously pointed to the Snow Princess. “You stopped her. Why?”
Ash jerked around to look at her old friend and surrogate Master.
“I—I…” Yuki stammered, looking to Ash and then back to the pythia with a huff. “I didn’t.”
“You did. Father says you did. You made her forget that night. Made her forget the heikō, the Uruwashi… so much. Why?”
Ash could barely contain herself in her confusion and anger and fear. Tristan’s calm was slipping too, he felt like he was reeling.
Yuki swallowed hard and when she spoke again, her voice quavered. “I was told to.”
“Liar.”
The vampire’s face turned red. “I won’t remain here and be called things I am not!” Yuki found her feet and took off, storming from the cave in a huff.
Part of Ash knew she should follow Yuki and force her to tell her what she knew. Knowing now what she did, Yuki didn’t have to be complacent for Ash to glean information from her. Innokentiy’s extensive knowledge saw to that.
She stood, torn between options and shut her eyes tightly lamenting her choices. “How do I stop Mother from taking Tristan?” She was afraid she already knew the answer but was terrified of what it meant for them.
Tristan knew the answer too without feeling Lilith whisper it in his head.
“You can’t.”
“But Tristan can,” she said in a whisper, lowering her head.
“Yes.”
“How?”
There was movement before her and Ash opened her eyes. She gasped and jerked back, mouth open in shocked horror. Lilith was standing before her, stripped of the heavy white cape she’d been wearing so that she was completely nude. The pythia looked every bit the child Asta remembered her as from her life. Lilith was that same little girl to her. Only now she had no eyes and tied white cloth over her face to spare others the horror of looking upon her ruined façade. But more than that, her sparse child body bore a shape that should have been impossible for a girl of only six.
“Lilith, you… you’re.”
“With child.”
Ash went to her and with an astonished sigh, fell to her knees before her niece. She was reaching out before she knew what she was doing and only just stopped herself from touching the child’s round belly, not more than a few months gone but showing terribly on her tiny body. She glanced up into Lilith’s face and when she did, the pythia gave an almost unperceivable nod.
Ash’s hands were shaking when she laid her cold flesh upon Lilith’s warmth. This was the first touch they’d shared in over three hundred years. “Who?”
“No one.”
“Lilith,” Ash admonished, nearly growling.
“Truly. No man has presented seed to my physical body.”
“A divine gift?” Ash whispered. There were tales of such things all through history. It used to be pythia folk lore that the first of them, the First Pythia was born of a woman having never known a man and in her innocence and virtuosity, the gods sought to gift her with a child. Of course it was all tale, but then she remembered telling Tristan once that all tales stemmed from truth.
“The child in my body doesn’t live.”
Horrified, Ash snatched her hand back. “Wh—what?” She was sure the baby moved just now, when she touched Lilith. Even Tristan recoiled, having felt through Ash’s hand the “life” inside the pythia.
“I am just a vessel, a container for the coming darkness.”
A tear broke free and painted Ash’s cheek red as she understood more fully what the dark prophecy might mean. “By the Goddess, don’t tell me…”
“I will give birth to the living body of Mother. She comes to take back this world, to own her sins and see their prosperity.”
Cheeks stained with tears and lips shaking, Ash said, “And only Tristan can stop her. Only Tristan can—”
Ash may have stopped speaking the words but the thoughts hit him and he exploded, wanted to get away from them but he was trapped and now sobbing. They both knew what he had to do to stop the coming and he just, he couldn’t. There was no reason innocent life should die. He shouldn’t have to kill an innocent girl and her unborn child. He couldn’t kill Ash’s niece.
“Yes,” the pythia answered, still standing there nude. “Once the child is born, there will be nothing to stop Mother, not even Tristan. But I’m not the only one who carries such a curse.”
“What?”
Tristan’s horror mirrored Ash’s.
“There are other shinwa, and heikō, the world over carrying divine children.”
“No,” Ash whispered, not wanting to believe it.
“When the time comes, she will choose the strongest to be her vessel and then there will be no stopping her.”
Ash collapsed, sobbing. “This can’t… you cannot ask him to kill all those innocent people. It will destroy him.” She bit her lip. “I cannot ask him to kill you.”
“Yes, it might destroy him. But the world will be closer to balance again thanks to his bravery. True balance cannot be had anymore, but to stop Mother… that is all that matters now.”
Ash shook her head, the tears freely flowing. She couldn’t believe this was what fate had in mind for him, for anyone. It was too cruel. The Goddess, she was not cruel, so why was this happening?
“How long?” Ash whispered.
“Not long now.” Lilith ran her hands over her belly. “The coming summer, perhaps falls. I do grow rather tired of this shape…”
Ash was choked up, silent and aching. “Will you… You cannot think to end your own life, Lilith.”
The girl harrumphed. “I should think not. I like living.”
Ash felt a surge of something electric and Tristan stirred, coming out his ball of confusion. “Perhaps…” Ash licked her lips in a nervous gesture. “Perhaps there is a spell that can be crafted to…” Ash floundered her hands, at a loss for words but Lilith seemed to understand and smiled.
“Perhaps.” Lilith held her hand out. “But do not hold onto hope for it.”
Ash nodded, a little sob burst from her lips as she took Lilith’s warm hand.
“Come,” Lilith’s soft voice said and Ash gasped, realizing it was the girl’s real voice. “Sun comes and we’ve much to talk on still. Come dream with me.”
Yes, she felt the sting of daybreak minutes ago but fought it in her desperation to know what Lilith had to say. Sleep sounded like a blessing now. In a daze, Ash let herself be led to Lilith’s bed and lay down next to her niece, wondering if she could really let Tristan kill her last living blood.
“You never should have told me any of this,” Ash said, sounding defeated. And she was, Tristan ached for her, feeling her turmoil but unable to offer her comfort. They both needed each other’s comfort now. Just to hold each other and whisper words that in the end meant little more than the emotions behind them.
Lilith reminded Tristan she was there too, shifting against his mind. He appreciated her comradery, for what it was, but what he really needed was the arms of someone who loved him.
“But I do love you.”
The pythia’s words rang in his thoughts.
“Bu—but—” he stuttered, unable to form the thought, to ask the question.
“You’re right,” Lilith said aloud to Ash in her real voice again, hoarse from not using it in so long. “Not everything I said was ordered so. I was only told to tell you of Mother. The rest…”
Ash gave a little start that quickly washed away in the wake of her exhaustion. “So why did you?”
“Because I take care of my family. No matter what… and Father, he never was a father to me. I remain a tool all
these years and I wish to be more than such.”
Ash was at a loss for words.
“Asta.”
She straightened, unsure of her niece’s tone.
“I must tell you, Tristan has been taken.”
Ash tried to jerk away, to run from the cave and out into the light of dawn, all to save her love.
“No,” Lilith hissed and the word was enough to bring Ash around. “He is well.”
Tristan snorted his dissent and hoped Lilith heard all his thoughts on the matter.
“He is with Wren.”
Ash started so hard she nearly had to take a step to keep balance. “Toshiro really is alive?” she whispered. She hadn’t believed Yukihime, not fully. But from Lilith…
Tristan saw it then, Desmond’s anger and the despair she felt when she thought the young man was dead. Desmond, the big ape, he’d told everyone that his only scion was dead and they believed it in the face of such raw rage.
“He’s very alive, and suitably well,” Lilith said frankly.
Tristan wasn’t sure what the definition of suitably well was, having seen the man with his own eyes. The vampire did seem well enough and not unhappy despite his obvious chagrin over his disfigurement.
“Well,” Ash finally said on a long breath out. “I suppose I’ve nothing to worry about then. Tristan is in capable and trustworthy hands.”
Tristan wanted to let out an outrageous laugh in his disbelief. The vampire had tricked him, hit him, kissed him, threatened him and smashed him in the face with a stick after abducting him and he was in good hands?
“Oh,” Lilith said tartly, “they’re fast friends already.”
Tristan tried to direct his response, something snarky and rude towards the pythia and was rewarded with a shift in her presence away from him. He felt Ash a little more clearly now and was grateful for the peace it gave him, the familiarity.
Tristan felt Lilith’s attention on him as if she spoke directly to him and not Ash. “Wren needs his help, rather desperately.”
Ash frowned as Lilith reached out and started to undo the buttons of Ash’s blouse so that she might sleep out of it. Ash let her do it. “Should I… be concerned?”
“Probably.”
The truth may have been hard to hear but Ash appreciated it. Surprisingly, so did Tristan. “Should I join up with him…?” The look on the pythia’s face, while small, made Ash scowl and cross her arms so that she looked pouty. “Will I have the chance?”
Lilith only smiled.
13: Intelligent Design
MORNIN’,” Tristan mumbled around a mouthful of food, sprawled out at the kotatsu like he owned the place. While he was out searching for food, he discovered he was in Yurihonjō, a little seaside city about half an hour south of the airport and three times that to his apartment in Semboku. He’d never been here before, but like everywhere else he went, he stood out. It was lucky for him that he didn’t give a shit what other people thought.
Wren stopped just inside the room and looked at Tristan in disgust. Tristan was wearing Wren’s clothes, the shirt anyway. It was a snug fit, even in the boxy oversized, style it was on Wren’s smaller frame.
“You brought the stink of food into my home.”
“A man’s got to eat.” Actually, he almost couldn’t eat. He was still so worked up from his sleepy time visit with Lilith that he had a hard time focusing. His head hurt, his arm throbbed and he felt the sort of nausea that had nothing to do with low blood sugar or stomach flu.
Abomination.
Focusing on his newest disaster and pushing the biggest disaster of all time aside was the only way he could keep moving forward right now. It was too much, Mother and Father, sin and balance. How could he possibly make sense of it now… ever? He needed to narrow his focus for now. Maybe it was the wrong answer, but it was all he could do to keep himself sane. After he did this thing for Wren, then he could meet up with Ash and together wallow in the misery that’d become their lives.
Wren considered him a moment through narrowed eyes before he lowered himself to the floor across from Tristan with a weary sigh. “How did you get out?”
Tristan smiled, trying to look confident. “I got my tricks.”
Truth? He had no fucking clue. The door was propped wide open and the cuffs were off when he woke with a painful start after being literally shoved out of Ash’s consciousness shortly after dawn. He figured it was Lilith giving him a hand, an apology for the forcefulness of his departure. He just hoped he made the right decision in staying rather than fleeing. After all, both Lilith and Ash seemed comfortable enough with Tristan in Wren’s care, however indelicate.
“And why did you stay?”
Tristan shrugged, taking another bite, his gaze flicking for a second to the knife he’d found while wandering around. “Figured I could put up with you tagging along if it means you’ll tell me who this vampire is that’s been killing innocent people. You shouldn’t ask so many questions of someone who’s doing you a favor, ya know? I could still just up and go.” Except something in the way Lilith spoke to Ash. He was meant to stay and help Wren. Fate had said so.
Wren furrowed his brow at the other man. Tristan was doing a better job at blocking his mind tonight but Wren wasn’t a simpleton. He knew something had changed.
“You intend to help me end Xuejiao?”
Tristan considered Wren a moment, slowly chewing his food. “Tell me something first, Wren…”
“Yes?”
“Should I kill you when I’m done?”
With a dark look from his one visible eye, Wren kept hard eye contact with him as he plopped Tristan’s gun down on the table between them. “Yes,” the vampire answered boldly and then sighed, looking away. “But not for the reason you think.”
“For what reason then?”
“For merely existing.”
Oh man, one of the melodramatic types. That was going to get old reeeeal fast. “So you’re telling me you don’t kill humans?”
He shook his head but still managed to keep the ruined half of his face hidden beneath his hair. “I didn’t say that.”
Tristan glanced at the gun.
“I’m a vampire. It would be ridiculous for anyone to believe a vampire hasn’t killed… But I chose not to when it can be avoided.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Do you kill your meals or not?”
The room was tense as the two men stared at one another, one trying to delve into the thoughts of the other, the other wishing he had the ability to try.
“No. I am not a wanton or purposeful killer. Yes, I own the lives of many humans, but almost all of them were justified or accidental in my youth. I do not kill if it’s not entirely necessary and I’ve not killed a truly innocent person, as I said before, in over one-hundred years.” He cocked his head to the side. “Does that ease your mind?”
“Enough,” Tristan grumbled, relaxing a little. He was starting to think he might have to stab the guy. “I guess.”
Wren smiled coldly. “So then, I ask you again, do you intend to help me stop Xuejiao?”
“One more thing.”
The vampire sighed in annoyance. “Yes?”
Tristan couldn’t help but smile, the gesture reminding him of Ash’s impatience. “Why were you squatting at the temple if you’ve got this place?”
Wren smiled suddenly, a cunning sort of smile. “I went to the temple one night simply to pray and meditate, nothing more. But then the kitsune came out and started posturing, threatening me to leave or else, that I had no business there… well, I suppose you can say it was a point of pride then that I prove them wrong.”
“Petty bastard.”
Wren nodded, still smiling that shrewd little smile. “I know it was childish, but I couldn’t help myself. No one tells me what I can and cannot do.”
Tristan harrumphed. Yeah, he understood that. “Okay, and the boots?”
“Oh, yes. Well, they are not real fox fur, just something I bought to rile
them up a little. A threat.”
“Jesus, you’re a cruel son of a bitch.”
Wren smiled. “No, just petty, like you said.” He shrugged then, trying to look innocent but the smile ruined it. “I died young and I’m still immature almost two-hundred years later.”
Tristan frowned. “How old were you?”
Wren looked up, startled for a moment before the darkness settled into his gaze again. “I’d only just had my eighteenth birthday the week before I ran into Mas—Desmond.”
Jesus, so young. Too young. Dying must have really messed him up.
Wren coughed a little. “At any rate, my pettiness ended up with me befriending the skulk leader, Akane. And when I told her my concern over the vampire drowning deaths, she said she knew the perfect person to help stop the real culprit.”
“And how am I perfect?”
“Perhaps perfect was not the right word. Your merit falls short due to your current status but you are still an Uruwashi. The kitsune worship everything about the Uruwashi so I can see why she thought so highly of you, unbitten or not.”
“You know, for me being the rude one here, you have a way of being a dick without being as obvious about it. You sure you’re not British?”
Wren smiled, showing all his teeth and dainty fangs.
“Well, I don’t see any reason not to help you find this serial killer. I mean, obviously, she has to be stopped, but I don’t like working with others. So don’t think you can pull any of your petty bullshit on me and get away with it.”
Wren’s lips puckered as he tried to hold back a smile. “Of course. And the cost of your assistance?”
“No, I don’t work like that.” Then again, it never occurred to him to charge for his services. The thought of billing Yuki made him smile.
“I insist,” Wren said, eyes pleading with Tristan. “I prefer to work on the principal of equivalent exchange, much like the pythia. Everyone is equal in all matters, no hard feelings. Balance.”
Tristan sighed. He wasn’t in the mood to argue. “Fine, we’ll just call it an I.O.U. then. Does that work?”
White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) Page 13
