Neon Spark (Dark Magic Enforcer Book 5) (6 page)

She got it, still had it.

"And this is all down to Rikka," I said after Mitsu had finished getting us up-to-date on Japanese Hidden life. "When she killed my parents she did it because of a deal she made with Rikka. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but this must be it. He paid her, simple as that."

"I am so sorry about your boss, Spark. That is terrible thing he did, and I never thought he was bad man." Mitsu took some convincing that it had been Rikka and Kimiko working together. She had known him a long time, although they hadn't been in touch for many years. She thought for a moment. "I think it go beyond money. When she came back here, which was right about time your parents die, maybe few years after, she had more than just money."

"What else did she have?" I couldn't see what else would have made a difference to how she had managed to progress and build her empire.

Mitsu looked at us nervously, all of us entranced by the history lesson and the insights into a culture we had no hope of understanding. "She had books. Secret books, special books. Books of magic." She took a breath and continued. "Just a year or two ago she received large number of new ones. Dangerous things, very powerful. People were scared and they talked."

"Goddamn that man!" I knew exactly what books Kimiko had been given recently. I'd discovered a hoard of exceedingly dangerous tomes full of magic spells and knowledge that should have never been written down, information that should only ever be passed verbally from teacher to student.

It was a job for Rikka that resulted in me finding them, so, naturally, he'd taken them. I assumed he'd destroyed them or locked the collection away somewhere very safe, maybe given them to the Council. I hadn't asked and to be honest it didn't cross my mind after his death. I was too sad and too damn angry to think about much else apart from revenge. I'd tried my best not to think about how Rikka had been directing my actions my whole life.

What else would surface now he was gone? "So this was the deal he made with her. He gave her money and he gave her access to our world, to learn magic. Hell, you never said she could use magic."

Mitsu looked at my face, at the others, and said quietly, "Forgive me, I thought you all knew this thing. Kimiko Cocchi is not only Boss, she is most powerful witch Japan has ever known. For a hundred years she has ruled the Hidden. Nobody dare try stop crazy lady as she can do such terrible things. She has access to secrets no other Hidden know and her magic very strong. This woman has absorbed everything we take so many years to learn and master. Kimiko has library full of magic and she cannot be beaten."

My tea had gone cold. I was, to put it mildly, a bit annoyed that Kimiko was some kind of uber-vampire-witch hybrid. Seems like it wasn't going to be so easy to kill her.

I'd damn well try, though.

A Moment

Dancer, seemingly already over the worst of the break and unable to keep his eyes off Mitsu, offered to take us all out to lunch.

Mitsu was as surprised as I was by the rapid healing, and Dancer looked guilty, like he'd done something without really thinking about the consequences. Grandma and Kate said they had other plans, I declined out of courtesy and because I needed time alone to think, and a very relieved Dancer practically ripped his new skin off his face he was smiling so wide when Mitsu lowered her gaze and said demurely that she would love to go for lunch.

She warned him about being sure not to walk much, and that maybe they should eat in one of the many restaurants in the hotel. Dancer agreed, hobbling about and moaning with the pain I knew damn well was an act.

Ten minutes later they were gone. Grandma took her shopping to her own room, leaving Kate and I alone.

"You need to be careful, Faz, she sounds so dangerous." Kate looked concerned, she also looked tired.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. This place is way too weird, though. What a morning."

"It's the jet lag and the fact you were in prison a few days ago. Think what you've been through since you got out. All that fighting, all the magic. The giant. Rikka. It's a wonder you're able to stand."

She was right. I was fighting it all, forcing myself to keep going, but I was dog-tired and my body was exhausted. I couldn't sleep, though, was past the point of being weary. My soul ached. My heart felt like it was smashed to pieces.

Rikka's deception was too big for me to even think about coherently. I pushed it away, so it festered and gnawed at my insides. I simply didn't know how to handle it, how to cope with the fact he'd done what he did. A man I loved and he turned out to be so cruel, callous and cold. He'd made me, I was a thing he'd steered in one direction for his own purpose.

He knew the death of my family would spark a deep anger and a quest for violence inside of me. Rikka saw the potential in me and he helped it grow and mature so he'd have what, a simpering goon? That's all I'd been to him, a goon to do his bidding. And for half a century he'd had a backup plan in case he needed to put me in my place. If I got too powerful and out-of-control he could pull the plug on me, play his games and carry on like nothing had happened.

It was too much of a betrayal to believe, that all this time I'd been duped. I couldn't process it. I needed a rest, a long one, time away from it all. All of that would have to wait, though, as I had one last thing to do and it didn't look like it would be easy. Mere days ago I'd died at the hands of a giant after using more magic than I was capable of controlling and it did nothing to help me.

That wasn't it, however, not why I felt so lost and ill-at-ease with my own mind and body. It was everything. I wanted peace, I wanted it to all be over. No more hurt, no more killing, no more death or betrayal. No more magic.

I'd had enough of it all.

"Faz? Faz!" Kate shook me and I came out of my funk. I don't know how long she'd been talking but I was lost to my thoughts, the world and her fading away as I brooded. Hell, a few minutes ago I'd had bloody tusks. I wanted it all to go away—this magic brought me nothing but pain.

I smiled at the love of my life, knowing I was just on a downer. Who was I kidding? Look what magic had brought me. It gave me Kate, and Grandma, even Dancer. It gave me Intus, it gave me so many weird and wonderful things.

I was an addict and I'd never give it up. It defined me, and whatever happened in my life I would always return to its painful, cruel, utterly blissful embrace.

"I'm okay, just feeling sorry for myself. Look, everyone else is off out, how about we try the jacuzzi?" I nodded toward the oversized bathroom with the gaudy gold taps and the inviting tub.

Kate smiled. "I'll lock the door. We don't want Grandma barging in on us."

We spent an amazing hour enjoying each other's company. Just us, the water, and the love.

It was the last peace I would have in Japan.

To the Council

Grandma came to the suite not long after we were dressed and respectable, as though she had some kind of sex radar and knew when the coast was clear—which she probably did. She gave us both a wink and I swear she would have nudged us if I hadn't got straight down to business.

"Okay, you need to go see the Council to tell them about the zombies. You can get the address from Mitsu."

"I don't like those people," moaned Grandma.

"Don't be so racist," I said, surprised.

"You idiot boy. I meant people on the Council, not Japanese. Faz, I have lived for centuries in countries you have never even heard of, I've got nothing against any race. Well, apart from the French. Nobody likes the French."

"Fair enough. How come you've never talked about the places you've lived? You never tell me anything much about your past." Grandma has always been rather tight-lipped about her life, just giving tantalizing hints and then changing the subject. For me she is just a lovely, adorable, old lady witch, but a hundred years out of thousands means there's a long back story I know nothing about.

"I'll tell you when you're grown up."

"I am grown up," I protested.

"Not to me you aren't. Nobody grown up wears shoes like that." Grandma scowled at my winklepickers. I kept quiet; it was an argument I couldn't win.

"So will you go see the Council? Just tell them about the zombies. We can't have them locked up like that, it's inhumane."

"Fine," said Grandma, "but don't expect me to like it."

"I don't."

I think she was feeling a little out of sorts as well. She was being more argumentative than normal but it was understandable. "I'll deal with her, don't worry." I gave Grandma a big hug and felt her relax in my arms.

She was tense, and even her morning shopping expedition hadn't helped much. My Grandma had one thing on her mind the same as I did, and there would be no rest for either of us until Kimiko was dead. I also knew she was itching to get out into the city and wreak havoc of her own special kind, only her promise to let me deal with it stopping her from making the local Hidden wish they'd never set eyes on the gray-haired menace from across the ocean.

"Okay, let's get serious for a moment." We all sat down and I said what I had to. "I want you both to go home. Today if possible. It's too dangerous here and I can't have you getting caught up in whatever happens. I've got a bad feeling about this, if I'm being truthful. It's not safe."

"No way, Faz," said Kate.

"Fat chance," said Grandma. "What if you need us?"

"I'm not kidding. This is going to be messy and I can't be worrying about you two all the time while I'm out there trying to get this woman. You heard what Mitsu said, she's a bloody gangster and a witch, not to mention being an ancient vampire with a damn library full of magical books. Who knows what she's capable of? I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to either of you, so I want you to go home so I can focus on getting this thing done."

They both shook their heads, the two women I loved most in the world as stubborn as each other. As stubborn as me, I guess.

"Fine," I sighed. "Then stay in the hotel. Inform the Council then come back here and just wait. I'll be out late tonight, maybe all night, but please just stay here. Promise?"

"We promise," said Kate.

I turned to Grandma and, reluctantly, she nodded.

I didn't believe either of them.

With kisses all around and all of us promising to be careful, and with Kate saying she'd look after Dancer when he returned to make sure he rested while his leg healed, I did a final check in the mirror, pleased to see my face looked less gnawed on than it had earlier, and I headed out into the big bad world again.

Time to crack some heads. No, time to smash them, maybe more than once.

A Strange Garden

I've seen a lot of beautiful things in my time, been to many places, caught fleeting glimpses of the faery realm, terrifying netherworlds, and places where angels dwell, but I'd never seen anything as beautiful as the small garden I stood in, dumbfounded.

You know when something just seems right, like you look at it and it gives you a feeling? As if nothing could be changed to make it better, more perfect than it already is. Be it a work of art or a flower, a view from a hill, or the delight of witnessing a faery ear revealed as golden locks are brushed aside by tiny, perfect fingers. Well, I had that feeling.

I was an intruder on perfection, the only imperfect thing in the garden. I sullied it with my presence, debased it by my intrusion, my very existence.

The garden was an utter delight and I think I must have stood there for an hour, hardly moving, just admiring the idyllic environment. Soaking up a sense of peace, knowing that with such beauty and the timeless sense of wonder it evoked that all was not lost.

I gained something from that hour, an enduring stoicism that will remain until the day I die. This was a religious experience, a hint of the Buddha nature, the nirvana many holy men have spent a lifetime striving to experience. It brought me hope and it brought me peace of a kind, an understanding that whatever bad things happen there is always a balance. With good comes bad, with ugliness comes true beauty. Yin and yang, right and wrong, in the end all of it merely the treadmill of life.

Humbled, that's what I was. Put in my place and forced to realize that all my worries, all the stress, all the manic dashing about and trying to deal with whatever ridiculous situation arose—and they always do—it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Just a little blip on my personal radar, but less than nothing to the way the world turned or to the billions of lives that would carry on regardless of whether or not a dark magic enforcer with a grudge happened to get a satisfactory conclusion to his own personal problems.

Then a rock spoke to me.

"I say, would you mind awfully not staring at me like that, old bean? Rather off putting, don't you know."

To say I jumped is like saying trolls are hard. I stared at the rock, a beautiful thing, perfect in every way. It was just right somehow. The whole garden was little more than perfectly raked gravel, moss around the base of carefully located rocks, and a few miniature trees. It was harmonious; it worked. Each rock sat exactly where it was supposed to, each clump of moss a delight. Combined, they looked like miniature islands in a sea of gravel. Food for the soul and I was full.

Happy.

"Did you just speak?" I asked the rock, feeling a bit of a muppet if I'm honest.

"Don't see anyone else talking to you. You were staring. It was making me feel uncomfortable. I understand, it is very nice here, and I am a rather impressive specimen even if I do say so myself, but, well, it's rude to stare. Hey, you weren't about to sit on me, were you?" the rock asked in a panic.

"No, absolutely not! Um, how are you talking? And why have you got a posh British accent? You're Japanese." I wasn't sure that rocks had a nationality, but it's what you expect, right?