Dreamlands (34 page)

“I’m fine,” Keno said. He wasn’t; he was covered in blood and looked like shit. “Wolf’s hurt, though.” That would explain why the mean guy was carrying him. But I didn’t know anything else because the four of them were jabbering away at one another in Japanese. Shino and Konbungo looked really pissed off.

“What happened?” I asked Keno.

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“Get me out of here,” Collins demanded before Keno could say anything. “It’s your job to―”

He was about to say something else when Shinbee drew his sword.

“You say anything else, and I will kill you,” he said.

That thankfully shut Collins up for a minute.

“They… they kept hitting Wolf,” Keno said. “He… Fairinox wanted to sacrifice me.”

Samojirou handed Fairinox’s head to Konbungo, who took it and stared at the fucking thing like he didn’t know what to do with it.

Fairinox had the stupidest look on his face. Samojirou hugged Keno, stroking his back gently. The kid shuddered but let him. I was just surprised that he wasn’t screaming his head off because the man looked like something out of his worst nightmare.

Shinbee sneered, and Shino looked at Collins, a thoughtful frown on his face. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“I am Eric Collins IV.” Collins sneered. “I am a Trustee of this organization.”

I looked at him and decided that the asshole could dig his own grave. I didn’t think that any of these people would be impressed with the man.

Shino just smiled coolly and nodded. “And so you are one of the ones who are responsible for the insult that was done to our mother?”

“Your mother?” Collins repeated stupidly.

Yatsufusa snarled, Shino nodded, and I was aware of the rest of them staring at the man. All except Keno, who was crying in Samojirou’s arms. I wasn’t going to say anything about him doing it.

Keno looked like he was at the end of his rope.

“I’d think really carefully about what you say next, since they’re related to the nice chick that Murphy dragged back here,” I told Collins, not that I cared what happened to him. Wolf was barely awake, and I wondered what had happened down here in the dark. I didn’t think that FELICITAS IVEY

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Keno or anyone else here beat him up, but that just left the eggheads who were trapped down here. I couldn’t see them doing anything like this, but I had been caught in some riots in prison, and I knew the things that people did in situations like this. They turned into dumb and vicious animals.

“That thing that Murphy brought back is their mother?” Collins demanded.

Shinbee smacked him, and I shrugged. Collins looked shocked that someone had hit him. I wasn’t going to be the one who told him it was going to be worse for him. I wasn’t happy about the bargain I had made earlier, but I’d stick to it. Collins wasn’t worth Murphy’s grandkids being sad. Tamazusa had only wanted Fairinox, but since he was already dead, she might have thought I wasn’t living up to my end of the bargain and kill Murphy.

“You’re just pissed that you didn’t get near her,” I said. I know that it was stupid, but I didn’t have anything to lose. “That aside from a couple of moments of embarrassment, she’s okay. You didn’t fuck her over like you did Keno.”

“And what did he do to our brother?” Shino asked.

I looked at Collins. The shit was sweating bullets now. I thought he realized that he was in deep shit now. “He ordered Murphy to question Keno, an excuse for the man to beat the shit out of him.” Keno was the only thing that stopped Samojirou from killing Collins right there. His snarl was echoed by all the other weirdoes from the Dreamlands, and Collins almost shit his pants at the sound. I know that he pissed them from the smell.

“We will deal with him later,” Shino said. “Right now, we have spent too much time in the real world.”

“And what about Murphy?” I asked.

“He is with my lady and your mother,” Samojirou said.

“Tamazusa-sama was willing to let him go,” I said.

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They all glared. I wondered if they would just kick my ass and leave, when Wolf groaned. “Shit, give him to me.”

“He is injured.”

“Really,” I said sarcastically, “I thought he was just taking an afternoon nap.”

Konbungo snorted, and after a tense moment, Wolf was shifted into my arms. He weighed a ton, and he was cold and shocky. The rest of them closed ranks and started prodding Collins towards the stairs.

“Murphy?” I repeated.

They all started jabbering in Japanese again, and I wondered if we were all going to end up dead. I needed to get Wolf some help, but I didn’t think that was going to happen until these jokers left. I knew I should feel something about Collins, but I couldn’t. I was numb and more worried about Wolf than that asshole. Collins was a dead man, and I knew it even if he didn’t. I was glad Wolf was out of it, because he would try and save the man although it would kill him. Collins wasn’t worth it. I was starting to wonder if Murphy was.

I guess that some sort of agreement had been made between them, because they shut up and started pushing Collins towards the stairs.

Samojirou and Keno stayed behind. I just looked at them while Collins was taken to his death.

“Keno,” Samojirou said gently, “I have something to ask you.” SAMOJIROU

I SHOULDN’T have been surprised at the condition I found Keno in, since I knew these people were barbaric, but I was. Someone here had finally seen the power in him; some filthy scum had tried to kill him for it. I killed the man before he could complete his spell.

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Keno had been beaten and was covered in blood but seemed otherwise unhurt. I thought my heart would stop when he whispered that he loved me. He didn’t seem to see the monster I had become.

“Keno, do you want to stay here?” I asked.

Those who had been a threat to him were gone. Fairinox was dead, and Collins would be soon. I didn’t know about that idiot Murphy, and I didn’t care.

Keno looked up at me, his face tearstained. He had been crying in my arms since I had killed Fairinox. He had again been driven to the edge of his endurance by these people. I wanted to take him back with me, wanted to care for him and see that he grew into the man he should become. But if he wanted to stay in the real world, I would let him. I would lose him again to let him be happy.

I was aware of Mason and the semiconscious Wolf staring at us, at me.

“Keno,” Wolf whispered. “Don’t. We can make things better.” Keno turned and looked at him, confusion and indecision showing from his body.

“Kid, we’ll try and keep the sharks off you,” Mason said, though he sounded reluctant. “Maybe get you out more. Get you a room with me or Wolf. Get you out of this place.”

“You can’t promise me that,” Keno said. His eyes flickered over Wolf. “He’s hurt. You need to get him some help.”

“That ain’t going to happen unless Tamazusa and the rest of them go,” Mason said.

I said nothing, not wanting to blunder and say the wrong thing.

Keno deserved to be among the living in the real world. To walk with the freedoms these two promised him.

Wolf began speaking. “We never―”

“Do you know―” Keno started and stopped. “You can’t. You can’t promise me anything. I know that even if you don’t.” 257

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“Keno,” Wolf rasped.

“You think that I’m going to forget that people here were willing to sacrifice me, to kill me because of Fairinox and Collins? The same people who beat you because you were trying to protect me?” Keno asked. “Do you think that I can forget that I lived in fear for the last four years?”

“They ain’t human, Keno.” Mason said. I knew he was talking about Tamazusa and myself.

“They’ve been kinder to me than anyone else in the last four years,” Keno said sadly. “So what if they’re
oni
? They’re more human than a lot of people here.”

“You can’t mean that,” Wolf said. “Look at him.” He started coughing a bit. I knew he had broken ribs; I was amazed that the man could argue about the abuse Keno had suffered here when he had witnessed it and had a taste of it himself.

Keno glanced up. He smiled at me, and I held my breath, wondering what he was going to say.

KENO

I GLANCED up at Samojirou. My head ached, and I felt stupid that I had broken down the way I had. I had cried in his arms like I was a
shoujo
heroine.

“Look at him,” Wolf mumbled.

I did. I saw the horns and the claws. I saw him covered in blood, like me, not because he had been hurt, but because he had killed people.

For me. Samojirou had killed people who had done nothing to him; they had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would wash off their blood and feel no guilt about what he had done here FELICITAS IVEY

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tonight. But I also saw that he was looking at me with worried eyes, afraid of what I was going to say.

“Samojirou-sama has always been kind to me,” I said, wincing at the tone of my voice and the words I had used. I sounded cold and stupid. “He… he… after what Heiseg had done to me, he could have hurt me too. He could have made me into a doll to play with, one with no mind or feelings, because I was that broken by what Heiseg did.

Samojirou-sama gave me a home and a life, something I hadn’t had for years. Something that you two can’t give me.”

“Keno,” Wolf whispered. “We can take care of you. Things have changed. We can watch out for you.”

“Can you let me go home?” I asked, raw and needy sounding.

“Walk free? Not worry about getting hit because of someone’s bad mood? Let me be free?”

Samojirou was silent beside me, not even touching me. I thought he was afraid to. I knew he wanted it so much. I also knew it wasn’t because of who I had been, but who I was that made him want me, love me. I wanted to throw myself into his arms again and beg him to never let me go. I felt stupid and girly, but I wanted that. Maybe being Sakura for him was giving me these strange thoughts, or it could have been that I didn’t care anymore. Samojirou was willing to let me touch him, something I had craved for a long time. Someone to touch who wasn’t going to hurt me.

“You know that you can’t go home, Keno,” Mason said quietly.

“I can’t go home because I’m dead,” I said.

“Keno,” Wolf wheezed. He wasn’t arguing because he was having a hard enough time breathing.

“How long before I just disappear out of wherever you have me?” I asked.

“You can’t be serious, kid,” Mason protested.

But there was a look in his eye that told me he didn’t think I was being paranoid. They’d come home from a mission, and I’d be gone.

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They’d never find me, and I was willing to believe that if they asked anyone about me, the person’s response would be that they never had heard of me.

“Keno, please,
Junge
,” Wolf pleaded.

Mason sighed. “Wolf, shit, it’s better than―”

“With those monsters,” Wolf spat out, gaining some strength from somewhere. “They aren’t human! Look at that thing beside him!”

“He’s got family there,” Mason said, shifting Wolf so he could hold him more comfortably.

Wolf shook his head. “They’re monsters.”

“More monstrous than two men who would take a child from his room and kill him in the eyes of the world because of the innocent mistake that he made?” I snarled.

Samojirou and Tamazusa weren’t monsters, the people
here
were.

They were worse monsters than the ones that they hunted to “protect” humanity.

Wolf shook his head while Mason looked old and tired, guilty about what he had done. “We didn’t know,” Wolf whispered.

“What did you think would happen to me?” I half-screamed.

“That I would be told to go along my way and not to talk about what happened? That since I was in everyone’s power here, that they wouldn’t abuse me?”

“He will be cared for,” Samojirou whispered. “No matter who he chooses to be with. Loved. Can you promise him that here?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Wolf growled.

“Keno,” Mason said. “Shit. I didn’t know. We thought, shit, we thought it was someone older. Someone who could take care of himself.

Then when I saw how scared you were, I couldn’t shoot a kid.” FELICITAS IVEY

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Wolf didn’t say anything; he was just staring, but I didn’t think he saw me. I didn’t want to know what it was he saw, because it was something he had to deal with.

“You would have killed him?” Samojirou demanded, his voice colder than death.

“We were supposed to,” Wolf whispered. “I couldn’t, not after the reason that I had left home.”

“Take me home, Aboshi,” I whispered, shaking and exhausted.

“Your parents?” Wolf asked.

“Home to the Dreamlands,” I said softly. “I know that there is nothing in the real world for me.”

Samojirou was blinking at me as if he didn’t believe I would be willing to go with him. Wolf was shaking his head, but he wasn’t able to say anything or at least anything that I was able to understand. He was muttering in German and a few other languages. I stepped up and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Good-bye. I wish, but… but I….” I tasted his tears along with the blood. I wished that I could tell him as I was leaving that I’d had a crush on him at one time, that I could almost call him my first love. I felt selfish leaving him, but one look at Samojirou told me I was making the right decision. I could almost physically see the love the he had for me.

“Take care, kid,” Mason said. He tried to hug me awkwardly with one arm. I hugged him back. “I’ll take care of Wolf for you.” I believed he knew about my crush on Wolf, even if the other man hadn’t figured it out. “I don’t trust Samojirou as far as I can toss the guy,” Mason continued, “but he’ll be good to you. Your brothers are just strange, but I think that they might be good guys. Fuse is a good girl; give her a hug from me. Tamazusa will take care of you; she’s a nice lady underneath all her hard-assedness.”

“Mason―”

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“I thought that wherever you went after the first intrusion was better than this place, and I was right. He loves you, and I think that’s all that matters right now.”