White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) (4 page)

“Holy fuck,” Tristan whispered.

“I might have lived like that for another year if he had permitted it.” She looked away, sorrow pushing out the fear. “I was saved from a slow slip into insanity and death but I had witnessed the decay of many others who angered Master. It was…” She took in a shuddering breath. “A terrible way to die.”

Tristan reached out and put a hand on Ash’s cheek, gently swiping his thumb along her cheekbone. She let out a shaky sigh and straightened. With a soft nod and her hands on his hips she said she was fine and he smiled, stepping back to free her.

Yukihime smiled big, showing off her long fangs before sitting down carefully in the chair behind her desk as if it were as ancient as she. “Should we discuss business now?”

“Excuse me?” Tristan snapped, whirling around.

Yuki giggled, waving her hand in the air in his direction. “You’re always so entertaining.”

Tristan sighed, looking at Ash. “You know, now that I’m here, all I want to do is leave.” He glanced at the bag holding Malik’s head. “It’s not like she’s going to listen to a thing we have to say. She does whatever she wants, damn the consequences.”

Ash nodded her agreement, rolling her eyes. But just because she agreed didn’t mean she was ready to walk away though. She had one very important thing to do while she was here and would not fail. She had to get her mother’s spell book back. It meant more to her than the fact that it was a priceless family heirloom, it could very well be the key to the door that separated Ash from Tristan physically. Thoughts of Greece suddenly flooded her and she jerked them back and locked them up tight before Yukihime could taste them. By the look on the other vampire’s face though, Ash wasn’t fast enough.

Smiling slyly at Ash, Yukihime said, “Oh, you hurt my feelings, Ryōshi-san.” Her attention shifted to Tristan. “And I was anticipating employing you again.”

Tristan’s mouth fell open. “Now I really know you’ve totally lost your shit—You actually expect us to work for you again? After France?”

“You did so well.”

“We nearly died, no thanks to you.”

No, some of that blame was on Ash. They both knew it but it was easier to just give it all to Yukihime. Ash would have to face her follies with Tristan soon enough.

There was that sly Yukihime smile again that made Tristan groan and Ash sigh. “What if I said the task wasn’t for me though?”

Tristan snorted. “The answer is the same for any friend of yours.”

“Ah!” Yukihime popped up from her seat and moved around towards the others. “It’s lucky for the leader of the local kitsune, then that we’re not friends.”

WHO?” Tristan demanding, having a pretty good idea already.

Yuki’s smile confirmed it before her actual answer. “Akane.”

Tristan shut his eyes and counted under his breath before opening his eyes again and fixing his attention on Yuki. Nope, not another bad dream.

“The answer’s still no, Yuki,” Tristan said sounding tired. “I’m not doing it again. I’m not putting my neck out there under false pretenses and lies.” Especially not for the skulk leader who attacked him under Lucien’s command. Granted, they left him alone of their own accord, once they heard he was Uruwashi, but it wasn’t something Tristan could forget. That Sebastian was the one who called them off was suspicious too.

“Mattaku!
Uso ja nai
—I never
lied
.”

“Yeah, you did. You flat out told us you didn’t know why Lucien went rogue.”

“Did I?” The vampire gave a sheepish shrug that wasn’t fooling anyone.

“And don’t think that I don’t know what you did to me. I know about—”

“I,” Ash said suddenly and everyone focused on her. “I would like to hear Akane out, actually.”

Tristan frowned, but nodded, trusting Ash. She was there when Akane and her fellow kitsune attacked. But, damn, he really wanted to rip into Yuki right then too, call all her shit out and lay it on the table for final inspection.

“Desmond!” Yuki screeched. “Bring our guest in!”

Ash and Tristan shifted on their feet as they waited for Desmond to bring in the kitsune woman. Yuki watched them with a stupid grin.

“What?” Tristan snapped at her. “Why are you looking at me like that? You thinkin’ about digging around in my head again?”

“Oh!” Yuki’s nearly clear eyes widened, lighting up. “So you know?” She stuck her lip out in an over exaggerated fake pout. “Asta-chan couldn’t stand to keep the secret,
ne
?”

The couple exchanged a look and Ash answered, “He knew on his own.”

“Hmm,” Yuki hummed, not looking so convinced.

“That’s all you have to say?
Hmm
? You took something that made me, me. I don’t care how horrible it was or what I did… I deservd to live with that guilt or any other emotion it might elicit. You had no fucking right.”

Ash took a step back, looking up at him surprised. His guess, she read the emotions between the words and knew that he was still angry with her too.

Yuki held her hands out dramatically. “Then come. I’ll give them back.”

Tristan flinched. “Wh—what?”

“I rather enjoyed rooting through your dark memories, but I will gladly give them back, if you want them so badly.”

He glanced at Ash who was carefully stoic before frowning at Yuki. “What’s the catch?”

Yuki burst into laughter. “
Mattaku
, am I that transparent?”

The door opened behind the others, but Tristan was too focused to turn and look. Ash didn’t have to look to know who it was and he trusted her to watch his back.

“The catch, Ryōshi-san, is that you must feed from me. I’m willing to open my vein this very moment, for you and only you.”

Tristan bristled, taking a step back. Beside him, Desmond looked just as disgusted, but maybe for different reasons.

“Uh…” He looked to Ash for guidance. She gave him nothing, her expression stoic. “Not happening. I—Jesus…” He felt sick just thinking about her blood in his mouth, seeping into his body, filling his stomach. Maybe it would be different if he was already awakened. “
No
.”

“Very well,” Yuki answered before waving Tristan off. “Ah, Akane-san, come in.”

The Scotsman gave Tristan a snarl when they met gazes, which Tristan replied with an automatic finger and dropped his mental wall long enough to growl back at the bulky vampire.
What’s your fucking problem?

Ash scowled at him for it but didn’t say anything. Neither did Desmond.

If Tristan hadn’t known that the fox-woman before them was supposed to be Akane, he wouldn’t have been able to tell himself. Her hair style was slightly different than it had been in France but that was all that’d changed—oh right, and she was dressed this time.

In her human form, she looked just like the other members of her skulk. As it turned out, the kitsune were more immaterial than corporeal. And once they joined a skulk under an older kitsune, they all took on their leader’s appearance. It was just their way. Akane’s skulk consisted of three others, all five-four in height, Japanese features, white-tipped bright auburn hair and fox ears where human ears should have been. Small, petite and soft.

And fucking vicious when cornered. Tristan had the scars to prove it.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Akane said in her high pitched Japanese accent and bowed. “It’s an honor to be taken into your service, Uruwashi-sama.”

From the bed, nearly hidden by the lengths of curtains, came Desmond’s sarcastic snort.

Tristan considered her a moment. That’s right, Akane had that tiny scar on her cheek. He’d seen it in her fox form too, back in France. “What do you want?”

Akane frowned at him, looking childlike with her youthful appearance. Guess he never really noticed before, but yeah, Akane didn’t look a day over twenty. Not bad for a being that was over five-hundred years old.

“I’m sorry… You don’t remember me.”

“No,” Tristan said, taking a step back so that Ash was next to him. He didn’t reach for his gun, but nearly had. “I remember you well enough. I remember you attacking us.”

Out of his peripheral, he could see Ash nodding. And he couldn’t be sure, because he didn’t want to take his full attention off the kitsune, but he thought Yuki was grinning at him in that fucking stupid way that said she was getting her way and liking it too much.

“Yes, we did. And I’ve apologized for that. It wasn’t our intention to harm an Uruwashi. We had no idea until the fae told us. How is he, your valet? I would like to speak with him again, it’s not often we find others who can speak to us in our language.”

Ash and Tristan exchanged a nervous look.

“Akane-san, what is it we can do for you?” Ash asked in a soft but commanding tone. Polite too, considering the honorific she didn’t have to attach to Akane’s name.

The kitsune smiled with a child’s innocence and folded her hands before her. “My skulk is having trouble with a troll.”

Tristan blinked at her a moment, processing that. Mamoru had told him about all of the shinwa, but he never expected to meet a troll. Not only were they recluse, but there weren’t all that many around. Apparently they had low birth rates. “A troll, seriously?”

Akane smiled. She was either really good at pretending she didn’t sense Tristan’s less than charitable mood, or she was genuinely that innocent. She did have a sweetness about her that Tristan couldn’t deny. If she hadn’t tried to kill him in the past, he might have actually fawned over her a little.

“Hai. We returned from Paris to find a troll had moved into our temple. You see, the temple is our home, our place of power. This troll, it comes out every evening shortly after dusk. At first it only disrupted the temple, overturning statues, cutting the bell free.” She sighed and shifted her weight. “Then its deviance escalated. It started killing the animals around the temple and dropping them at the entrance, a sort of blood offering. A desecration,” she hissed.

“A week ago it attacked Kohaku, injured her severely. She lost her tail and a leg. The beast ate them in front of us.”

A warning bell went off in Tristan’s head.
Severely
injured? Couldn’t the kitsune regenerate? They were, after all, less than corporeal, yet not entirely ethereal. Anyway, that’s what Mamoru had told him and it helped ease his mind from having hurt the skulk members back in that French hotel room. The one he thought he’d killed wasn’t dead.

Ash shot him a look. Even not being able to read her mind, he knew they were thinking the same thing.

Bullshit
.

Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge, kitsune healing. So what was her game in lying?

Akane frowned, looking to the floor and crossing her arms across her stomach. “Then, two nights ago, when it attacked again, it ate Sango. There is only injured Kohaku and I left now, since we lost Kyō in France.”

That got the couple exchanging glances again. Something was off. The kitsune were undying. Tristan was being set up and they all knew it. He glanced at Yuki to see what her expression was and was met with an empty stare.

Akane looked up suddenly, her expression twisted in sorrow. “Oh, please, do not think I mean to take this order from you as payment for Kyō’s death. On the contrary we will owe you for the job once it is completed.”

Tristan crossed his arms over his chest. Did he call bullshit on this now or wait and see what happened? He tried to give Ash the time to speak up but she didn’t and he sighed.

“You know, I only hunt vampires. I’m not like this all around shinwa assassin. Vampires. Only.” Besides, a troll? A real honest to giant troll with acidic blood and Hulk-like strength? No fucking thanks.

“Perhaps,” Ash said softly, coming closer to him to put her cold hands on his arm. “You can help drive him away? You would not have to kill him, just relocate him.”

Tristan frowned down at her. Was she trying to get him to agree? She knew Akane was lying as much as he did.

“Ash?” he questioned cautiously, keeping his mind locked up tight to protect himself from Yuki and Desmond’s unwanted intrusions.

She turned slowly, looking stiff but her eyes were sparkling with mischief. She was definitely up to something.

He sighed, knowing he would regret this. “Fine then. I’ll go.”

Yuki’s enthusiastic response confirmed his fears. The old bat was in on it. “
Subarashii
!”

“Let me make this clear,” Tristan said, stomping up to Yuki. “I’m working for Akane. Not Yukihime, princess pain in my ass. Got it?”

Yuki’s saber tooth fangs seemed enormous up close when she smiled. “
Wakatta
.”

“Right,” Tristan said, turning back to Akane, watching the whole exchange with horror and awe. The more time he spent with Yuki, the less respectful he was with her. Stupid? Maybe, but she annoyed the ever living hell out of him. And she knew it. She was utterly mad, but not walk on eggshells sort of mad. More like… mad professor. She was stronger, wiser and far more keen than most made her out to be. He wondered sometimes if her “malady” was all an act to hide the true horrors within. If they all knew her, the real her, they’d all be terrified. 

He motioned to Ash. “Let’s get going, before it’s late. Daylight restrictions n’ all.”

“Actually,” she said and Tristan stopped to turn and look at her. “I will remain here, with Yukihime.”

He raised a curious brow at her. “Really?”

“Yes,” she answered, her smile turning sly. Her bright blue eyes darkened with a barely contained emotion. “It will do us good to catch up, Yukihime and I.”

So that’s how it is?
Fine, he’d play decoy for Ash so long as it didn’t get him killed. “Well, you girls play nice, okay?”

“Wakatta,” she whispered, mimicking Yuki’s sassy affirmation from just moments before, and kissed him.

Off to the side somewhere Desmond was moving around and grunting in disgust at the show of affection. Akane and Yuki were openly staring, the same fascinated expression on their faces. Tristan only rolled his eyes, not giving a shit that he was being watched.

Ash’s attention shifted across the room, her eyes narrowing in a shrewd mien. “Take Desmond with you.”

“What?” Both Tristan and Desmond said as one and then looked at each other in revulsion.

Yuki chirped out a loud laugh, garnering everyone’s attention as she clapped. Of course, she commanded it so. “Subarashii!
Dōkan
desu
.”

Ash smirked.

Tristan sneered. Of course Yuki would agree.

“Ash?” he asked in a cautious tone.

“You trust me, yes?”

He frowned. “Well, yeah…”

“Then take Desmond with you. He is good with trolls. Simon too. That will leave just us girls.”

His frown deepened as he looked around the room to the others. He didn’t know what she was thinking and being stuck with those two was the last thing he wanted but Ash had something in mind and he was going to trust it. He nodded, face screwed up like he’d bitten into a lemon. He leaned in close and whispered, “You’ll owe me.”

Ash gifted him with a sly smile and a wink. “It’s settled then.”