Senshi (A Katana Novel) (21 page)

His mouth gaped in surprise.

I whispered, “We could be home in our jammies.” With our hands still locked on each other’s wrists, I used my free hand to push hard against his chest. He stumbled back, and I used his lack of balance as the moment to yank down on his arm. As he fell forward, I ducked down and balanced on one foot while kicking the other until my heel collided with his head.

He crumpled to the ground without a sound.

“Well done,” Kim said.

I stood and cracked my knuckles. The fight wasn’t over yet. The remaining ninja watched me warily from the ground, her blood-coated hands still cupped around her nose. I kneeled beside her. “I want this to stop.”

The girl dropped her hands and smiled, her teeth stained pink from the blood streaming from her nose. “I’m sure you do. But do you think
she
will stop? Even if you kill me. Even if you kill us all. She will find more. She won’t stop until you’re dead.” The ninja shook the blood from her hands.

I stood and brushed my hands on my jeans. “I thought you might say that. That’s why you’re going to give the kunoichi a message for me.”

“Kunoichi?” I could hear the surprise in Kim’s voice. I should have known he wouldn’t have a clue about anything going on—so wrapped up in his new life with Sumi. “Rileigh, what’s going on?”

I shook my head. It didn’t matter if he knew or not. It didn’t change things. I fought alone now. Well, unless you counted Whitley, but that was too weird to think about.

I gathered the remaining energy swirling inside of me and pushed it into a ball inside my core—so tight my body shook. My fingers trembled from the force of harnessing so much energy into a space so small. I’d never done this particular trick before, but I needed to prove a point. It was going to work or it wasn’t.

“The only message I’m going to deliver is your head.” Her eyes narrowed with hate.

“Yeaaaah, no. I’m keeping my head and you’re going to tell the kunoichi that her Jedi mind tricks didn’t work. Not only did I unlock my powers, but they’ve grown.”

The girl laughed. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it?” Viper fast, I grabbed her throat and squeezed down with enough pressure that I could feel her pulse struggle against my hand.

She gasped.

My ki exploded, swirling my hair above my head like an invisible tornado. I pushed it into her screaming mouth and down her throat until I found my target. If I closed my eyes I could feel them—her lungs and the air within.

“What are you doing?” Kim asked from beside me. Funny, I hadn’t noticed him move. There was something in his voice. Fear maybe? I didn’t have time to think about it. I couldn’t break my concentration or my hold on her would be lost. Instead, I concentrated on drawing the oxygen from her body.

She gasped and clawed at her throat. I let go of her neck; I could keep my hold on her without touching her. It felt like invisible lines of silk connecting the spaces between us. I pulled on the invisible lines and she fell to her knees, a hissing croak escaping through her flapping lips.

I stared at her. “You will not breathe until I let you. Got that?”

She nodded, her eyes impossibly wide and lined with swollen veins, threatening to burst. She clenched a hand into a fist and beat it against the concrete, over and over until her skin split and blood coated her knuckles.

And yet, all I could do was watch, transfixed. I wanted her to suffer. Suffer for the pain she’d caused me in this life. And suffer for the pain ninja had caused me in the last life. I wanted her to hurt. I wanted her to stare into the eyes of death and see that he had no pity and played no favorites.

“You’re killing her.” Kim’s voice was a whisper in my ear. Matter-of-fact, without a hint of condemnation. I wondered if he harbored as much hate for the ninja as I did.

But as much as I would have loved to rid the world of one more ninja parasite, I needed her. I crouched beside her, cocking my head as I watched her struggle. “And you’ll deliver my message? You’ll let the kunoichi know that I’m through playing games?”

She nodded her head so fast it looked like she was convulsing—maybe she was.

“Good.” I let go of my hold on her.

She released a ragged gasp. Her chest shuddered and her back arched as she sucked in gulps of air. “The kunoichi’s not going to like this,” she said when she was finally able to speak.

“I really don’t care.”

“You should.” The girl glared at me a moment longer, as if deciding something. Finally, she gave a curt nod and rose unsteadily to her feet. “I hope you have a plan. She’s not going to stop until you and the boy are dead.”

I lifted my chin. “You let me worry about that.”

She nodded, spun on her feet, and trotted away, disappearing into the shadows of the parking garage.

I glanced at her abandoned partner, motionless beside Carson’s unconscious body. Ninja ethics. I snorted. A samurai would never leave a fallen comrade behind.

I stepped toward Carson only to come nose to chest with
Kim. I stumbled back before I collided into him. “What the—?”
I had my ki, he had his annoying super-fast movement.

He crossed his arms. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

I walked around him. “Nope.” What good would it do? It was better that I kept him out of my problems, and out of my life.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.” He grabbed my shoulder, my muscles tightening under his fingers.

“I neither want nor need your help.” I fought the urge to shake his hand off.

He let go of my shoulder and I continued walking to Carson.

“I’m leaving.”

I paused. “Yeah, I kinda figured. You’ve been away from Sumi for what? A whole hour? You better run along before she gets herself killed by bandits.” I flinched inwardly as soon as the words left my lips. It was a nasty thing to say, but that’s what heartache does. It doesn’t play nice, it doesn’t care about feelings, it pulls the worst from you and lays it on the table.

“No,” Kim said. “I’m leaving the country.”

That stopped me. “What?” Turning slowly, I saw his eyes locked on the new suitcase by his side.

“I’m going back to Japan.”

Something inside of me cracked and I couldn’t breathe. Pain unlike any I’d experienced before ripped through my gut. “For how long?”

He shook his head. “Rileigh, I’m … I’m not coming back.”

I didn’t think I’d ever feel agony worse than the moment I’d thrust my own dagger into my gut to end my life. I was wrong.

And still he wouldn’t look at me. His eyes remained locked on the damned suitcase. “Sumi wants a fresh start away from … ” But even though he left his sentence unfinished, I knew exactly whom Sumi wanted to get away from.

“Me.” My voice wavered. I balled my fingers into fists to keep them from trembling. But my effort was for nothing. The tremors traveled from my arms into my chest and down into my legs until my entire body shook.

“Yes.” His voice choked with what sounded like regret. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

I didn’t remember walking toward him, but there I was, within touching distance, my empty hand reaching for … I had no idea. Realizing what I was about to do, I dropped my hand to my side. “Why?” I asked. “I still don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

“I know!” He looked at me then, his eyes wide and full of pain. “I don’t understand it entirely, myself. I just know it’s the right thing to do. I feel it. I owe it to her.”

I wanted to shake him, no, hit him. Anything to get him to realize that he was making the biggest mistake of his life. “You don’t owe her anything! Her death was not your fault.”

He shook his head and stepped forward, but instead of stopping in front of me, he sidestepped so that he stood next to me, our shoulders touching, but each of us looking a different direction. “I miss you so much. God. It’s killing me.”

Surprised, I looked at him. His eyes were closed, but even so, he looked every bit as miserable as I felt.

His fingers entwined with mine and the jagged pieces of my broken heart climbed inside my throat and threatened to choke me. But I couldn’t let go. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t let go.

“I’m worried,” he continued. “I know danger premonitions are your thing, but I can’t shake the feeling that something really bad is coming for you. That’s why I told Sumi I didn’t want to leave yet. That I couldn’t leave until we caught whoever was after you.”

“And what did she say?”

He sighed. “Honestly? I don’t remember. All of our arguments seem to blur together nowadays. Something about you being able to take care of yourself.” He shook his head. “I love you, Rileigh. I’ll never love anyone else the way I love you.”

I stared at our entwined fingers, the gesture, like everything else, was a lie. Anger rose from the shambles of my heart like a phoenix, igniting my entire body with its heat. “Sometimes, Kim, I hate you.”

He nodded. “I know.” He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulled me close, and kissed me.

42

I
glanced at Carson who blinked at me lazily from the passenger seat of his truck as I drove home. Poor thing. He didn’t deserve to be brought into my mess. And speaking of mess, I brought my fingers to my lips, daring to see if they were really on fire. They hadn’t stopped burning since Kim’s kiss.

Carson groaned and I dropped my hand back to the wheel. “How are you feeling?”

“My head is pounding.” He blinked at me. “What happened?”

“Don’t you remember? You got into a fight.”

“I did?” His brow furrowed in confusion. “Was it with that Asian guy? I remembered he was bothering you. But I don’t remember what happened next … ”

“You don’t?” I faked surprise. “You kicked his ass. But you were a little unsteady after the fight so you let me drive.” I mentally patted myself on the back for a lie well constructed. Boys were fragile creatures and, after forcing Carson to suffer through the world’s worst date, the least I could do was stroke his ego a bit.

He frowned. “I kicked his ass?”

“Totally laid him out. You really don’t remember?”

“No, wait. I kinda remember.” I could almost see his ego inflating inside of him as his chest puffed outward. Guys were so easy. He flipped down the visor and inspected his face, tilting his chin this way and that. “I just don’t understand why my head hurts so bad.”

I shrugged, keeping my eyes trained on the road in case they betrayed the BS I fed Carson. “I don’t know. The fight was over so fast. I think maybe he hit you in the head before you knocked him out. You don’t have a bump, do you?”

He ran a hand down his skull. “No.”

I reached over and patted his knee. “See? You’ll be fine.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything else. In fact, he didn’t say another word until we reached my condo’s parking garage. “Do you think you’ll be okay to drive home? I could follow you in my car if you like.”

He shook his head. “That’s okay. I’m feeling a lot better now.”

“Okay.” I gave him a weak smile. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. His only mistake was asking out the wrong girl. I reached for the door handle, but before I was able to swing my legs out, Carson placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Rileigh?”

I looked at him, noticing the way he refused to meet my gaze. I shut the truck door and settled back into the seat. “What’s up?”

“Look, I think you’re really great, you know?”

Oh jeez, here it was. Not that I could blame him. I felt bad that he’d gotten so mixed up in my world. It was my fault, of course. I shouldn’t have gone out with him in the first place. I wondered how I should play it. Not too cool or he’ll think I don’t care—and he deserved better. I needed to be just the right amount of upset so he’d know I was devastated, but not enough to turn into a stalking psycho.

Okay. Rileigh gets broken up with. Scene one, take one. Aaaaaand
ACTION!

Carson placed a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think this is going to work out.”

“Oh.” I crumpled my face and did my best to look like I was on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry.” His hand slid from my shoulder. “Between the broken nose, the coffee scalding, and now this … It’s just—dating you is proving to be hazardous to my health.”

Fair enough. I pretended to sniffle. “You don’t have to explain. I get it.”

He nodded. “Can we still be friends?”

I offered him a weak smile and dabbed at imaginary tears. “Okay. I’d like that.”

He smiled back. “Good. For what it’s worth, I think you’re a really sweet girl. I’ll see you around, okay?”

I nodded, pretending to be too grief-stricken to answer him. I wondered how sweet he’d think I was if he’d seen me nearly choke the life out of the ninja.

I slid out of the truck and closed the door behind me. That had to be some kind of record—two guys telling me goodbye in the same night.

I touched my still-warm lips again, and this time the tears that fell down my face were very real.

43

I
stood outside the door to my condo, crushing the last of my tears with my palm. Lately, Kim was nothing but a black hole of pain that I kept getting sucked into. Well, it looked like I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. He’d soon be out of my life for good.

I wish that made me feel better instead of completely shattered.

I gave myself a moment to smooth back my hair and let my blazing cheeks cool before opening the door. Just as I expected, Dr. Wendell was on the couch while Debbie sat at the kitchen bar with her back to me, gabbing on her phone. God, did that guy ever stay at his own place anymore?

He clicked the remote and the television turned off. “I would ask you how your date went, but I see I don’t need to.”

Right
. Because, with a glance, he could read all of my problems like an open book. I glared at him and lowered my voice so I wouldn’t draw Debbie’s attention. “I saw Kim.” It wasn’t that I wanted to share bits of my personal life with him, but I wasn’t about to let him think I was crying over a bad date.
As if
.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything I held up a hand to stop him. Then I gestured to my mom and motioned him to follow me. After we were both inside my room, I whirled on him. “I thought we had an understanding.”

He frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at.”

“I’m not stupid.” I almost laughed and, at the same time, hot tears welled in my eyes. The emotional overload of every feeling battling within me was too much. My knees buckled and I grabbed onto the side of my dresser for support. “You told me you have to keep tabs on me. And you also keep tabs on Kim. You
knew
he was going to leave. And you didn’t tell me. I thought we were cool.”

“We were—we are cool!” But his face betrayed his guilt.

I shook my head.

He sighed. “You’re right. I know he wants to leave. But I’ve been working very hard to convince him not to. I didn’t want to tell you until I was absolutely sure Kim’s decision was made. You’ve been under so much stress as it is.”

My fingers curled against the wood. “Well, guess what? His decision is made.”

His face softened and he held a hand out to me. “Rileigh, I’m … I’m just so sorry.”

“Me too.” I ignored his outstretched hand. “I’m sorry that I trusted you. I’m sorry I thought we were finally starting to work together.”

“What?” He dropped his hand to his side. “We
are
working together. It’s my job to protect you. What would be the point of telling you something unless I was certain it was true? I care about you and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

This time I did laugh. “Well, it’s too late for that.” I stormed past him and motioned him out of my room with a sweep of my hand.

“Rileigh.” The tone of his voice told me he thought I was being unreasonable.

I tapped my foot impatiently. “Sorry. I don’t talk to people who suck.” After he’d gone, I slammed the door shut and, after the day I had, wasn’t the least bit surprised to see my closet door open and Whitley stick his head out.

“Son of hibachi,” I muttered. Now I would have to add burning all of my clothes to my list of things to do.

“What?” He exited the closet with a smile. “I don’t even get a hello?”

I held up a finger. “Wait right here.”

He shrugged.

I shut the door behind me and marched back into the living room and pointed at Dr. Wendell. “You. Come with me. Now.”

Wide-eyed, he rose from the couch and followed me to my door. Before I opened it, I turned to him. “You said part of your job was to protect me, right?”

He nodded, his brow knit in lines of confusion.

“Just to prove how bad you suck at your job, look at this.”

I swung open the door and Whitley waved from his perch at the end of my bed.

Dr. Wendell’s mouth dropped and he took a step back. “Wait. What is—who is that?”

“That”—I gestured to the boy on my bed—“is Whitley, aka Zeami, aka the psycho who tried to kill me, steal my powers, and burnt down my house.”

Whitley smiled. “Guilty as charged.”

I folded my arms and glared at Dr. Wendell. “If you’re supposedly
protecting
me, how could you let my past-life murderer walk right into my bedroom and hide out in my closet?”

Dr. Wendell shook his head, his skin a shade paler than it had been moments ago. “But I—I didn’t—how—” He looked at Whitley. “How did you get in here?”

Whitley rolled his eyes. “Through the door. Duh.”

Dr. Wendell pushed me behind him, bringing his shaking fists in front of his face. “It doesn’t matter. If you want to kill Rileigh, you’re going to have to get past me.”

Whitley’s eyebrows arched and he smiled. “That’s adorable. It’s kind of like having a Chihuahua as a guard dog.” He looked at me. “Leash your dog, Rileigh, before he gets hurt.”

“Chill.” I pushed Dr. Wendell to the side. I didn’t doubt for a second that Whitley would hurt him or worse.

Dr. Wendell dropped his hands. “But I—” He looked back and forth between me and Whitley. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to.” Whitley stalked toward us, his movements slow and graceful, like a tiger on the prowl. When he stopped in front of us I couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Wendell was shaking. So much for that black belt.

Whitley held his hand out to me. “We don’t have time for this. Are you ready to go? I got a lead on the kanzashi. The
real
kanzashi.”

“Wait. What?” I folded my arms. “What about the kanzashi we stole from the St. Louis Art Museum?”

“The
what
you stole
where
?” Dr. Wendell’s voice was filled with panic.

Whitley shrugged. “That was the wrong one. I could tell as soon as I destroyed it.”

“How?” I asked.

He brought his hand up to his neck and ran his finger along the faded pink mark. “I can feel her power growing. It means the kanzashi, the
real
kanzashi, is still out there and she’s closing in on it. I really don’t feel like dying anytime soon and we’re running out of time. So if you wouldn’t mind?” He gestured to the door.

“No.” Dr. Wendell stepped in front of me. “Absolutely not. I can’t allow that.”

So, my options were a night at home with my super annoying handler who wanted to control my life, or my psychotic past-life nemesis. Wow. Look at me all popular with the guys.

I sighed and pushed past Dr. Wendell. I was tired. Tonight I’d been attacked by ninjas, dumped, and discovered that my soul mate intended on moving half a world away just to get away from me. If finding the right kanzashi was the key to stopping the kunoichi, then I was all for it. Besides, if she were to regain her power after receiving my
message …
yeah, kinda didn’t want to think about that. “Let’s go.”

Dr. Wendell grabbed onto my shoulder. “Rileigh, you can’t be serious. This guy is psychotic. He tried to kill you!”

“Ritually sacrifice,” Whitley corrected. “Big difference.”

I glared at him. “You’re not helping.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of my thing. I don’t care.” He smiled. “I’ll wait for you downstairs. Meet me there when you’re done”—he wiggled his fingers at Dr. Wendell—“with whatever this is.” He turned to leave but paused, casting me a long glance over his shoulder. “Bring your katana.”

I made a face. “Please. You think that’s smart? Walking around St. Louis with a sword at my side.”

The smile melted from his face. “Do you think if we encounter any ninja tonight that they won’t be armed? Besides, I left you a present. It’s on your bed.”

I glanced to the spot he’d been laying and discovered a long white box tied with red ribbon. It was the kind of package that might hold long-stemmed roses. I narrowed my eyes. “Whitley, so help me if you’ve sent me another snake I’ll deliver you to the kunoichi myself, despite whatever consequence that might have on our little inyodo.”

He laughed and kept walking. “See you outside.”

I approached the box, but Dr. Wendell sidestepped me and blocked my path. “You can’t be serious. Tell me that you’re not serious.”

“Fine.” I shrugged and moved around him. “I’m not serious.”

His shoulders drooped and he sighed with relief. “Really?”

“No.” I picked up the box and shook it, waiting for a rattle or a hiss, anything to alert me that a venomous reptile waited inside. Nothing moved. And since I had no premonitions of danger, I guessed it was safe to assume that whatever was inside didn’t have fangs.

Dr. Wendell shook his head, looking more flustered by the minute. “Well, you can’t go. As your handler, I forbid it.”

I laughed and pulled the blood-red ribbon from the box, discarding it on my bed where it crumpled into a pool of silk. “
Please
.”

He was silent for a moment. “Okay. You’ve left me no choice. I’m going to call Kim.”

I shrugged. “Fine by me.” It wasn’t like he’d been especially helpful lately. And now that he was leaving for Japan, I highly doubted he cared what I did. I pulled the cardboard lid off the box and peeled back the tissue paper. I didn’t understand what I was looking at. From what I could tell, it was a long piece of leather with two padded nylon straps. “What on earth … ” I mumbled. It wasn’t until I pulled the contraption from the box that I noticed the slit on top just wide enough for a sword. I laughed at the genius of it.

Dr. Wendell was not nearly as amused. “Rileigh, be reasonable! This could be a setup. This guy cannot be trusted!”

I set the sheath down and looked at him. “I’m not stupid. Of course I don’t trust Whitley. And I don’t trust you or the Network you work for. The one person I thought I could trust ended up breaking my heart. I’m a samurai, not an idiot. So that means I’m a fighter, not a wait around to die-er.” I scrunched my nose at the awkwardness of my own made-up word. “Anyway, this kunoichi has hurt me and my best friend. She’s made my life miserable and she won’t stop until I’m dead. So I’m going to take care of it. Tonight. Now, if you don’t mind, I have lives to save.”

He opened his mouth as if to argue with me, but closed it before any words came out. Finally, he said, “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. Your life has been in danger. And the Network has done little to help. And for that I apologize. You have every right to be angry. If you have a lead on the person behind the ninja attacks, then I absolutely agree that you should go … but I’m going too.”

I blinked at him. “You can’t be serious.”

He tilted his chin up. “Oh, I’m completely serious. Your safety is my responsibility.”

I narrowed my eyes. “My safety is my
own
responsibility. Don’t forget that.”

He dared to take a step closer to me. “That doesn’t change the fact that I care about you. And I don’t want to see you get hurt. And I mean that solely as your friend, Rileigh. Not as a representative for the Network.”

I didn’t know what to make of that. Too many emotions juggled inside of me. Maybe Dr. Wendell was telling the truth. He had been spending a lot of time at the house and he seemed to genuinely care about my mom. And when we were having one of my better days, I didn’t
exactly
hate him. But he was also a member of the Network and that meant his motives weren’t always clear. But unfortunately, I couldn’t sit around and argue with him all day.

I pointed to his neck. “You have a little something right there.”

He angled his head back to look. “What? What is—”

Before he could finish, I hit his neck with the side of my hand in the same way Kim hit Carson earlier tonight. Dr. Wendell’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell forward. I caught him under the arms and laid him gently on the ground.

“Huh.” I placed my hands on my hips and surveyed my handiwork. “That’s a nifty little trick.” Part of me felt bad for using a pressure point to knock Dr. Wendell out. But the other part of me knew he’d been serious when he said he wanted to go with me and, even though he was a major pain in the ass, I’d feel bad if he got himself killed by a ninja.

Ugh. I think I was starting to … kind of … almost … maybe just a little … like him. That was annoying.

But I didn’t have time for the Happy Fun Time Feeling Show. I had a kanzashi to find. I snatched Whitley’s gift, my sword, and an oversized shirt and walked to the bathroom. Inside, I peeled off my tank top. I swung the sheath around so it rested against my spine. From there, I fastened the nylon straps around my shoulders. Afterword, I slipped a different, bigger shirt on and studied my reflection in the mirror. The sheath was invisible. Next, I slid my katana into the spine sheath and fluffed my hair over the handle. Aside from the occasional weird bulge when I twisted at the waist, the average person wouldn’t be able to tell I was armed.

I stared at my reflection. “Is that a katana strapped to your spine or are you just happy to see me?” A samurai was nothing without her sense of humor.