“Is it safe to assume you wish to, shall we say, take decisive action when you locate the people you seek?”
“Yes.”
“Is it also safe to assume that you will have your people to help you resolve the issue when the time comes?”
Li nodded.
“Then you’ll remove a mutual annoyance with minimum involvement and exposure on my part. That’s what’s in it for me.”
Li looked at the youthful woman as he considered her words. The old man had made it clear he wanted no further involvement with Li’s mission. That information, coupled with the anonymous meeting place and Kishi’s words, told him she was running her own game, independent of her grandfather. He could use the situation if he needed more from the old man.
“How do you propose we…combine our efforts?”
Kishi nodded toward Juba, who was pressed against the wall, where he had been since Li pushed into the room. “That one will be your contact. The eyes will report to him, and he will relay the information to you.”
“That is acceptable. All I need is a verified location of where their base is. Tell your people not to approach them under any circumstances. They are more dangerous than they appear, and I do not want them alerted.”
“Agreed. Juba, keep this room and run the operation from here. You are to remain here until they find these people.” She turned her gaze back to Li. “Work out how to stay in contact with this one. We need not meet again.”
Kishi stood and stalked from the room with Asaka on her heels after he took the elevator key from the visibly stunned Juba.
“Do not fail in this,” he whispered as he took the key. “Your daughter is counting on you.”
Asaka started to speak once he joined her in the hall, but Kishi held up a hand to silence him.
Once they were in the elevator and dropping toward the first floor, she let out the breath she had been holding. “When this is done and those who harmed us are dead, kill that one slowly.” She took a deep breath. “I wish him to beg for death for many days before it allows him to know its cold embrace.”
Asaka looked down at her with a mischievous glint in his eye and his lips quirked on one side. “As you wish.”
Kishi glared at him for his taunt, then a slight smile played on her lips. “Sometimes it is good to be the princess.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
TQB Base, Tokyo, Japan
“Kenjii,” Akio called from the door to the younger vampire’s room.
“Hai,” Kenjii answered as the door slid open. “Come in. I was just watching a show Abel recommended.”
Akio glanced at the screen and hesitated for a split second when he saw the scene paused on the screen. A teenage boy with unkempt hair stood on a post with both arms raised above his head and one foot in the air.
“How is the show?”
“It’s fine, but it seems childish to me. Abel went on about it being a great coming of age movie where good fights evil. I think I prefer romantic comedies more. I watched one earlier today where the female was telling the male how she could fake pleasure. When he doubted her, she showed him in a crowded diner. Now, that was funny.” Kenjii laughed.
Akio nodded, recalling hearing Eve and Yuko discuss the movie several years back. He had planned to watch it, but an issue came up with a Forsaken in England, and he had never gotten around to it.
“You have gotten better with the shuang gou, Eve has set up a training program at the Palace for you. I used it myself a few days ago and thought we could go there so you could try it.”
“That’s fine with me. I’ve been here in the base for the past week. A trip outside would be fun.”
“Have you fed today? There will be humans around, and I don’t want it to be an issue for you.”
Kenjii’s face darkened. He thinks I can’t control myself. That’s why he has kept me here, only allowed out with him and then only to places where there are no humans. After the night we went to Chiba and I feasted on those criminals, he has not trusted me. “Hai, I fed earlier.” If you could call sucking stale blood from a plastic bag feeding.
Akio watched him as he answered, still having trouble picking up his thoughts when his mind went to whatever black place it had been in when he found him. When they were out alone or in their rooms, he could read him, but when the Miko personality manifested, his thoughts were a jumbled distrustful mess.
“It’s a beautiful night, so let’s walk. It’s only about ten kilometers, and I think the night air will do you good. I’m sorry I have been so busy this week. Abel and I are trying to locate more of the Clan’s slave farms. We have a few leads, but nothing sure yet.”
“I understand, and that’s why I have stayed to myself so much. Plus, I am still sorting my memories. Heinz and Isamu are lucky you killed them. If not, I would make sure each took a long time to die for what they stole from me.”
Akio nodded. “They deserved more, but Justice was served. I didn’t kill Heinz, though.”
Kenjii’s head jerked. “You told me he was dead. Is that correct?”
“He is assuredly dead. Not by my hand, but by the hand of another he had wronged. Horst killed him.”
“Horst? I know you told me he was working with you, but how? He’s strong, but nowhere near the level Heinz was.”
Akio smiled as he remembered how Horst had used his years of anger and hurt to find his inner strength that day. “Horst is stronger than even he knows. He’s not a Were to be taken lightly now. He’s an Alpha and a strong one, the strongest I have seen who was not…upgraded by Bethany Anne.”
Kenjii nodded, not understanding but knowing he had no reason to doubt his friend. “Why don’t you tell me more about these ‘upgrades’ as you call them? You started to before, but I was not ready to process the information then. I have come to terms with who I am now somewhat, and I think it is time I learn what it is to be part of this team.”
“You have decided you want to take part in the fight?”
“You know I still owe those tigers. They chased me like I was prey across most of China,” Kenjii growled.
“Hai, but that was not what I meant. We must stop the Clan, that is a given, but there are others like us who also prey on humans. Are you willing to fight another vampire to protect humans?”
Why would you want to protect humans? the inner voice that plagued him when he was conflicted chided. Because the man I love more than anything in the world wishes it, he answered. The voice was silent, having no words that could shake that conviction.
“Tell me more as we walk. I would like to see the stars above my head and have delightful company to share the night with.”
Akio motioned toward the open door, having heard both sides of the last thoughts clearly in Kenjii’s mind. It was as if two minds occupied the same body. His heart hurt for his friend, and he hoped the resolve he heard last was enough to keep the darkness that was Miko at bay.
“You want me to believe some kind of alien experiment created us? What about the legends? My grandmother told me old stories of banpaia and kyuuketsuki all my life. I recognized what you were the night we met from those tales.” Kenjii shrugged.
“All lies. When I was a child, there were no such tales. They didn’t start until the first explorers from Europe came here. They brought the tales with them. The legends were not commonplace until almost two hundred years after I was turned.”
Kenjii shook his head in wonder. “Where did the legends come from then? This Michael Heinz spoke of?”
“Hai, Michael was the first to encounter the alien TOM, over a thousand years ago. He was human, and the process to change him was flawed. That is why you need blood to survive. The blood contains energy that tiny machines called nanocytes need to survive. The nanocytes are what gives us our abilities.”
They walked along the dimly lit street in silence, occasionally encountering other pedestrians and twice a vehicle. The night was warm and the sky was clear, but only the brightest stars shone t
hrough because of the light put out by the homes and streetlights in the area.
After they had walked another kilometer, Kenjii spoke. “What about the Weres? Are they also a product of this TOM, as you called him?”
“No, TOM is from a race called the Kurtherians. His group, or clan, I suppose, and four others were at war with seven other clans. Each clan went out to the stars and found other races they could turn into weapons to fight their battles. TOM is from the good Kurtherians who were trying to stop the bad ones from succeeding. Another group from the Seven, as they are called, created the Weres.”
“Let me be sure I understand. We,” he pointed to Akio and himself, “were created as weapons for an alien war over a thousand years ago. A hostile group created the Weres for the same thing?”
“Hai, as they explained it to me.”
“What about Michael? It is said he can walk in the sun. Is that true?”
“Hai.”
“How is it he could do that, but according to legend, few others could?”
“It resulted from his botched change. His brothers, the first humans he turned, did not all suffer from it. As the bad nanocytes were passed down to each new generation, the flaw was more pronounced. It spread as their children and grandchildren created more of us. The upgrades fix that and the need to feed on blood.”
Kenjii’s eyes widened in shock. “You can walk in the sun?”
Akio nodded.
“You don’t drink blood?”
“I don’t have to have blood to power my nanocytes. I still can, and have done so when circumstances warranted it, but no, I don’t have to.”
Kenjii shook his head in wonder. “If I wanted these…upgrades, would your Queen be able to give them to me? Not that I am willing to do so now. I have realized I was nothing more than a lab rat for Heinz. He made me stronger and gave me the ability to heal faster, but the changes were not pleasant or easy. There were times I almost died, and others that I wished I could.”
“Hai. It can be done, but don’t feel pressured to decide. If you have any questions, I will answer what I can. If you want specifics about the process, Eve knows more than I do. I can assure you it’s painless.” He smiled as he waved a hand over his body. “I went to sleep, and when I awoke, I was much more than I had been for several centuries.”
Kenjii took Akio’s hand in his. “Thank you for not trying to rush me into all this. I know I want to help you in your fight, but some things I have done since they turned me will require much to balance my karma—if ever it can be balanced.”
“You didn’t harm the innocent in Chiba. I would say that is an excellent start on redemption,” Akio offered, and he gently squeezed the hand he held.
Kenjii was thoughtful for a moment, his mind going back to his flight from the lab in China. “That was the second time I killed to protect an innocent,” he mused. “The first was when I was making my way across China and discovered two men who were planning to attack a woman. I killed both and let her pass with no knowledge that she would have become their latest victim.”
Akio smiled fondly at him. “You were always an honorable person, Kenjii. No matter what Heinz, Isamu, or Ogawa did to you or caused you to do, know that you control who you are. No one else.”
“Someday, I hope I am worthy of the love and trust you give me. Until that time, I promise to strive to be what you see when you look at me,” Kenjii vowed as he wrapped his arms around the person who was the reason he wanted to be a better man.
Kenjii stopped when they arrived in front of the Palace, pulling Akio up short when he didn’t release the hand he had held as they walked. “Gods, that building is amazing,” he whispered as he took in the peaked roof and flowing lines of architecture style straight out of ancient Japanese history.
“Hai. It is partially based on my memories of the house I was raised in,” Akio volunteered as he admired the sweeping roofline and heavy beams.
“Your family lived in a palace? Are you royalty?” Kenjii asked, his eyes wide in wonder.
Akio nodded. “My father was a Ryoshu king. Had I not been turned, I would have followed him.”
“How is it you never told me that?”
“By the time we met, it was ancient history. I was a Ryoshu prince for just over two decades. I had been a Forsaken for several centuries. It was a life I had not thought about until recently. Isamu and his delusions of being a king on the very island where I met the vampire who turned me brought the memories back.” Akio chuckled. “You would have enjoyed the shock on his face when I told him—just before I carved him into a quivering and screaming mass of flesh.”
“I would have faced the sun gladly to have seen that.”
Akio shook his head. “No, he was not worth that. Be comforted that your name was the last word he heard before he lost his head.”
Kenjii smiled, his face lighting up. “My prince.”
“Please don’t start that.”
“What?” Kenjii asked, his voice laced with innocence. “You just told me you are a prince, and I assured you that you will always be mine. So, my prince is an accurate and fitting title.”
“Do you have any idea how much grief I will catch from Abel? I don’t even want to think about how Eve would react.”
Kenjii laughed. “I hadn’t thought about that, but now that you mention it,” he grinned up at him through his long black eyelashes, “what’s my silence worth to you?”
Akio shook his head again. “I see Abel is not only influencing the movies you watch. That sounds like something he would say.”
“Abel has taught me many things,” Kenjii stated cryptically. The moment was broken when he waggled his eyebrows.
“Ancestors help me,” Akio deadpanned before he burst out laughing—the first real laugh he had experienced in hundreds of years.
Neither of them noticed the beggar wrapped in a tattered blanket who watched them from the shadows across the street as they entered the ornate doors that led inside.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sakutaro Apartments, Ome, Japan
“Asaka,” he growled sleepily as he snatched the ringing phone from the couch where he had fallen asleep.
“This is Juba. One of my men advised that the man Sakutaro-san is interested in and another who matches the description Li gave just entered that arcade.” The voice on the other end rushed through the information.
“Slow down! Now, who is this?” Asaka questioned, his mind still fuzzy.
“It’s Juba. One of the men I have looking for those people has located both of them.”
“Where? When?” Asaka wiped the sleep from his eyes and focused on a clock on a table next to the couch.
“About thirty minutes ago at that arcade building,” Juba patiently answered.
Asaka nodded as what Juba told him sank in. His mouth twisted into a grin. “I’ll let Kishi know. Have you contacted Li?”
“I tried. He didn’t answer, but I’ll keep trying until I reach him.”
“Do that. Is your man still watching them?”
“They haven’t left the building. I have men on all sides. We will know when they leave.”
“Very good. Juba, don’t mess this up. I need not remind you what will happen if you do.”
“No need to threaten me, Asaka. You’ve already made it clear.”
“That was not a threat, it was a promise. Do not fail,” Asaka hissed as he cut the connection.
“What was that about?” Kishi inquired as she exited her office.
“Juba claims he has spotted the men we seek.”
“Good. Has he contacted that gaijin Li yet?”
“Said he tried, but Li isn’t answering. I told him to keep calling until he answered.”
Kishi nodded as she mulled this over. “Does he know where Li is staying?”
“He hasn’t said. Want me to call him back?”
“No. He will either figure it out and do what he must to finish the job, or his replacement can,” Kishi col
dly stated. “If he can’t handle a simple job like this, his death won’t be a substantial loss.”
“As you wish.” Asaka’s smile never reached his eyes.
“I wish this over. Muto’s stupidity and Sero’s defection made us appear weak. We need to finish this to show we are not to be trifled with,” Kishi snarled. "Let's go. It's late, and I don't need Grandfather asking too many questions.”
"I’ll have the car brought around.”
Lotus Towers Apartments, Shinjuku City, Tokyo, Japan
“Li, answer that damned phone,” Shao called as the phone the sniveling Yakuza soldier had given him started ringing again.
“He stepped out,” Wu called from the kitchen of the apartment they had found.
Well, to be honest, Wu had found it on his delivery route. He noticed the elderly woman ordered from the burger house he worked at several times each week. He had found out from others in the building that she never left her apartment. Two neighbors he delivered to on the same floor claimed never to have seen her, and they had lived there for over a year.
When Wu told Li about her after work one night, he’d decided the apartment was closer to where they needed to be. The next day when Wu made the lunch delivery, he pushed his way inside. Her protest died in her throat as the claws that tipped his fingers silenced her permanently.
The others met him a short time later for the keys. By the time he arrived that evening, the apartment was clean, and there was no sign of the woman.
Shao scowled as the phone rang again. “Yes?” he answered as he picked it up.
“The people you seek are inside the Palace. It’s an arcade…”
“I know what it is,” Shao snapped. “Are you sure it was them?”
“Yes. The man who saw them has a picture of one, and the second matched the description you gave me of the other.”
“Stay on them. We will be in touch.” Shao disconnected the call.
“What was it?” Wu called as he carried a steaming pot of noodles and sauce to the table.
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