Katana (15 page)

He flinched, and I couldn’t tell if it was from my fingers or my words. “You’re absolutely right,” he said. He waited for me to finish rinsing the shampoo from his hair before he sat up. “Last night didn’t exactly go as planned. I wanted nothing more than to guide you through the awakening process with as little stress as possible. It seems I handled it all wrong, and for that I apologize.”

I felt my calm defense crack at the mention of the awakening. “No problem,” I told him, failing to steady my shaking hands as I dried his hair with a towel. The smell of sandalwood gradually left no trace of the grapefruit-scented shampoo I’d used. Even the towel picked up his warm, earthy smell. Fearing that the scent would soak into my skin, I dropped it on the floor. I walked around the chair so that I stood in front of Kim and put one hand on my hip. “Listen, I’m over it already.”

Kim raised an eyebrow.

Feeling courageous, I placed my other hand on my hip. “That’s right. I’m tired of being attacked. I’m tired of mysterious notes. It’s making me crazy. Last night I was so freaked out that I thought I saw someone sneaking around my house.”

Kim’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “This isn’t good for me. The best thing I can do is go back to living my life exactly the way it was before I ever met you.”

“You can’t.”

I tapped my foot impatiently against the granite floor. “Yes, I can.”

“No. You can’t.”

“And why not?”

“That could have been a Noppera-bō sneaking around your house.”

“A what?”

Kim didn’t answer, warning me that this was not going to be a revelation I would enjoy. Instead, he stared at his hands, lacing and unlacing his fingers until he let his breath out in a loud whoosh and met my gaze. “Rileigh, you were once a powerful samurai. If you transcend, you will be again. The Noppera-bō—which is Japanese for ‘faceless ghost’—would prey upon you for your power.”

“What is this, Scooby Doo? Are you telling me that
ghosts
are after me?”

Kim gave me an impatient look. “Of course not. The Noppera-bō are as real as you and me. It is only the name they call themselves because of their ability to avoid capture.”

“Oh.” I thought about this and smiled. “I don’t see the problem. If the Noppera-bō want my power, they can have it.”

Kim shook his head. “You don’t understand. Your power is tied to your spirit, and your spirit is housed in that body.” He pointed at me. “If they were to take your power, then they would have to remove your spirit. There is only one way to free a spirit from a body.”

Even as the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, I made a disgusted sound and pulled a bottle of hair gel from the cart. I wouldn’t fall for another of Kim’s lies, especially not one as outrageous as the Noppera-bō. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Rileigh, you are in danger.”

My mind replayed the image from last night of the shadow outside my window, and I failed to suppress a shudder. “How do I know it wasn’t you sneaking around my house?”

He frowned. “Why would I do that?”

I squirted gel into my open palm and rubbed my hands together. “That
is
the question, isn’t it? Maybe you could be honest for once and tell me what exactly it is that you want from me.”

“What I want?” With my hands in his hair, he twisted around so that he could face me. “I’ve only ever wanted one thing!” The desperation in his eyes pulled at me. The longer he held my gaze, the more the pressure built until I was forced to look away just so I could breathe.

The curtain swayed as someone walked by, so he cleared his throat and continued in a much softer tone. “Your safety.”

Startled by the fierceness in his eyes, I jerked back, bumping into the cart and knocking several bottles of shampoo onto the floor. I wanted to argue with him, but I could feel the truth of his words like a jagged rock in my throat. I wanted to ask why a guy who had just met me would care so much about my safety. But I didn’t say anything. Instead, I crouched down, softly trembling, as I picked up the plastic bottles.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, pulling the smock from his neck. “It appears that when we’re together, I can do nothing but upset you. I’ll go now, and we can talk later.”

“Wait,” I told him before he had a chance to stand up. “What if you have the wrong girl? What if I’m not this samurai?”

Kim leaned back against the chair. “There is no—” He stopped, smiled to himself, and tried again. “We won’t know for sure unless you transcend.”

Curiosity got the better of me, and I sat down in the chair next to him. “What does that mean?”

“If awakening is the act of your past life making connections with your present life, then transcending is the two lives fusing together in complete assimilation.” He held up his hands and linked his fingers together as an illustration.

Was he crazy? Becoming one with the spirit inside of me? That was the last thing I wanted. I only hoped that by learning more about the process, I could uncover the secret to undoing it. “And how does that happen? How does a person transcend?”

He took a deep breath before he answered. “It only occurs one way: you have to become reacquainted with an object that belonged to your past self.”

I sighed. “What does that mean?”

He leaned forward, and I met him halfway so he could whisper in my ear. His breath on my neck raised goose bumps down my back. “Simply put, you must touch it. The physical object acts as a bridge that connects your present self to your past self. By touching it, you can join the two together.”

I whispered back. “So you’re saying that if I really am who you think I am, I have to find something that belonged to me in my past life, in ancient Japan, in order to transcend?”

“Technically, yes,” he answered, leaning back again and smiling.

“What do you mean, ‘technically’?”

“Well,” he leaned forward again, “‘technically’ that’s exactly what a person would have to do to transcend. But if you are who we think you are, you don’t have to do all that.”

“Why?”

“Because I already have the katana that belonged to Senshi.”

I felt lightheaded. “But how? That would make it—”

“More than five hundred years old,” he finished for me. “Braden, Drew, Michelle, and I belong to a group made up of others like us, known only as ‘the Network.’ It has an entire division for monitoring antiques should the need to find a specific one come up. Like Senshi’s katana.”

“Senshi, huh?” I rolled the name across my tongue. “It just seems a bit unlikely. If we were together long ago in Japan, what are the odds that we would find ourselves within miles of each other in America?”

“In every life, you create soul ties with the people who surround you. The stronger the tie you have with a person, the more likely it is that you will follow them into the next life.” Kim dropped his eyes to his lap. “It’s no coincidence that we live so close to each other. Where Senshi goes, I will follow.” He met my eyes and I had the irresistible urge to reach for him. Instead, I balled my hands into fists and shoved them inside my apron. “We are forever linked.”

I swallowed the sour taste on the back of my tongue. “But you don’t know for sure that I’m Senshi.”

“Not until you transcend,” he answered.

I shook my head. “That’s not going to happen.” The fear of losing any part of me, no matter how small, was too big a risk to take.

He shrugged. “I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Unfortunately though, I am afraid no matter what you choose, your life will never be the way it was.”

I frowned. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for.

He continued. “The awakening process has already begun. Those feelings, thoughts, and talents are here to stay, and I can’t say they won’t increase. Not to mention, your life is in jeopardy. We have much to do to ensure your safety.”

My hopes of salvaging what was left of my normal life were shaking with my knees. “Like what?” I asked.

“Until we find the people who left that note for you, I must insist you start training with us at the dojo. Though you do not have all the skills of your former samurai self, you must hone the ones you have awakened. It is imperative you know how to defend yourself.”

“And if I say no?”

He stood up and shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to camp out on your front lawn so I can watch over you.”

I sighed because I believed him. When Whitley picked me up for our date, how could I explain to him what the brooding Asian guy was doing roasting marshmallows in my yard? I also had to consider which was worse—training a couple hours a week or having Kim continue to spy on me. “What time did you say this was?”

Kim’s smile was too smug for my liking. “We train every night at eight.”

“Fine,” I told him. “I’ll start tomorrow.”

“We train
every night
at eight.”

“I heard you the first time,
but I can’t make it tonight. I have a date.”

His smug expression melted away, leaving his face blank and unreadable. Even though I enjoyed taking him down a notch, his reaction made me wonder if there was more at stake than he was letting on. “Kim, what if I am Senshi? Then what?”

He shifted in the chair. “I don’t understand what you are asking.”

I licked my lips, considering the best way to handle such an awkward subject. “Were you two … close?”

He swallowed hard. “I do not expect the same from you.”

I took his failure to answer my question as proof that they had been more than friends. I nodded. “Good. That’s good. It’s just that I’m not crazy about the whole past life thing. Even if I was this Senshi girl, I don’t think I could possibly be the same person you knew. I’m me now. Rileigh—not Senshi—and I make my own choices. I won’t let the past make them for me.”

“I understand,” he said. He closed his eyes but continued to talk. “I would be a liar if I told you that I’d never hoped to find Senshi and be with her again.” His dark lashes lifted, revealing eyes that held no emotion, no longer showing the pain that was there only seconds ago. “But I do understand that different lives have different outcomes. If you want a life separate from mine, I won’t stop you. Senshi would know that, above all else, nothing matters more to me than her happiness, even if that happiness is shared with another.”

Without saying anything, I stood up and moved the shampoo bottles into straight lines in an attempt to give my shaking hands something to do. Maybe he wasn’t the arrogant jerk I initially presumed him to be. He was broken, and there was nothing I could do to help him.

The back of my arm tingled and I glanced over my shoulder to see Kim pulling back from a touch he never made.

“Rileigh, I will leave you now. Until tomorrow.” He stood up and put a twenty-dollar bill on the chair.

Why did this have to be so complicated? Now that I saw him for the guy he really was, the guy he could be if he wasn’t so damaged—there might have been something there that would have worked for us. Maybe in another life. I giggled at the irony of my own thought, which I quickly masked with a cough when Kim cocked an eyebrow. “Sorry, tickle in my throat.”

He nodded, unable to hide the skepticism in his eyes. “Right. See you tomorrow.”

He turned to leave, but I couldn’t let him go before I asked him a question that had plagued me since the day we met. “Kim?”

He looked over his shoulder.

“Why are you afraid to touch me?” I asked.

He rotated back toward the curtain. For a moment, I thought he would leave without answering my question. Instead, he pushed his shoulders back and reeled around to face me, closing the distance between us in two strides, leaving only enough room to breathe. “I’m afraid,” he whispered.

“Of what?” I whispered back. I was afraid myself, but I couldn’t think of why I should be.

“I’m afraid that if I touch you, even for a moment, I might not be able to let go.” Before I could react, he turned and strode out of the room.

21

K
im was still on my mind later that night when a knock
sounded at the front door. “Coming!” I shouted, hurrying to slip on my dangling earrings. After Kim left, work got crazy, and I was happy for the distraction from my thoughts and Quentin’s curious glances. Luckily when my shift ended, Quentin had been too busy with a client to notice my escape. I knew I was going to have a lot of explaining to do later.

But I didn’t want to think about all that. Despite my earlier lack of enthusiasm, I was now excited about going out. It would be a relief to do something so normal when my last couple of nights had been filled with sword fights, biker bars, and samurai. This was just what the doctor ordered. I did a quick appearance check in the mirror above my dresser. My makeup was still smoky and flawless from Quentin’s earlier application. I hurriedly ran a brush through my hair and tugged my black lace shirt down to ensure my midriff wasn’t exposed between the bottom hem and my denim skirt. “Good enough,” I whispered to my reflection. I concentrated on every step I took out of my room. It was my first time wearing the black five-inch knee-high boots I snatched from Debbie’s closet, and the last thing I wanted was to twist an ankle.