Authors: Violet Walker
I
was still sitting against my bedroom wall when the hunters came for me. I was surprised, actually, by how long it had taken them. I didn’t know how long I’d sat there but I knew it must have been hours. Terry must have not have given them my address. I felt a surge of pride and affection, tempered with guilt.
I’d thought about packing a bag and leaving, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. And what if the hunters ended up targeting my family when they couldn’t find me to question? No, I decided. The best thing I could do was let them come for me, and then hold out long enough for Daiki and his grandfather to run for it.
The hunters broke through the lock on my front door and came barreling inside. There were three of them; tall men with shotguns and masks over their faces. They found me in my bedroom.
“Grab her,” one of them shouted.
I didn’t put up a fight as they shoved a burlap sack over my head and lifted me by my elbows, dragging me out the door. I wondered vaguely why they were taking me away – they hadn’t taken Terry, after all – but the way their fingers dug bruises into my biceps distracted me from any coherent thought.
They took me downstairs and threw me into a van parked in the alley. They worked together with remarkable efficiency as they slid zip ties over my ankles and wrists and slammed the door closed. I felt the van shake as they climbed into the front of it. I tried to keep track of the turns they took as they drove, but I quickly lost focus as the reality of what was about to happen to me came crashing down. They were going to kill me, I thought. I was about to die.
I pictured Daiki’s face. I thought about the way his eyes glowed gold in the throes of passion, the way he’d sign off his text messages with a smiley face, and the way his eyes had lit up when I’d asked him to stay after our first night together. For some reason, my mind flashed to a new image – of him sitting in his grandfather’s restaurant with his head in his hands, and Ichiru looking sternly at him. Then the image was gone and I was left to wonder why my mind had conjured it.
I could have loved him, I realized as the van ran over another bump. It would have been so easy to fall in love with Daiki Hamada.
The hunters pulled over and the streets were quiet. I could hear the sound of my heart pounding in my chest. I felt, rather than heard, the van doors open.
“Bring the bait,” one of them said.
My heart stopped. Bait? They weren’t planning to torture me?
They carried me for a while. I heard their footsteps echoing. Then they tossed me down on the hard ground and pulled the burlap sack off of my head.
We were in an abandoned warehouse. I was sitting in the center of a room with high concrete walls and chains hanging from the ceiling. In one corner was a complicated-looking harpoon contraption, like the kind Daddy and his friends took fishing when they were drunk, and in another corner was a cage. A massive, steel-barred, black cage. The harpoon was pointed squarely at the entrance, with a long line of wire stretching between the door and the trigger.
“Oh, you’ve done it now Skye Louis,” I muttered to myself.
One of the hunters, the shorter one, leaned against the harpoon. “Relax sweetheart,” he said. I realized he was from Texas, like me. “We’ll be outta your hair in a little while.”
It’s a trap, I thought. It’s a trap, it’s a trap, it’s a trap!
I felt a sudden jolt of electricity, the way I felt whenever Daiki touched me, and fear and anger washed over me. They felt foreign, as if someone had high jacked my brain and was broadcasting their own emotions through me. I could also feel the ghost of wind against my cheek. I glanced around, but there were no open doors.
One of the hunters had set his shotgun down on a table next to the door. I stared at it. Daddy had taught me to shoot before he’d taught me to ride a bike. All I needed was to get my hands on it. But the hunters were all staring at me, like wild cats circling a lame bull, and I knew that even with my legs unbound I’d never reach it in time.
“How did you know he was here?” I asked. “He was so careful,”
One of the men snorted. “Nothing careful about people showing up in the hospital with burn marks shaped like handprints,” he said. “You’re lucky, sweetheart – he would’ve burned you alive. They’re all just animals at the end of the day,”
“I know animals,” I said. “He’s not an animal. And the people he hurt? Muggers. Rapists. Murderers. Men like you,”
“Maybe that’s what he told you.”
“That’s what I saw!” I shouted. “I’ve seen him protecting people, protecting me. He’s not an animal – you are!”
The hunters didn’t respond. Suddenly, there was a massive crash as the doors burst open. The harpoon fired but there was nothing there. The doorway was empty.
The hunters reached for their weapons – the one without a shotgun pulled a knife from the holster on his hip – but before they could fire any shots the doorway blazed with a wall of flames. Two figures flew through it on wings that stretched over four feet wide. They raised their arms and rained fire down on the hunters.
The men screamed and shot into the air as they tried desperately to hit their targets. I recognized Daiki turning and twisting in mid-air, launching balls of fire at the hunters as Ichiru circled closer to me. His usually kind face blazed with fury. He landed next to me and paused, like he thought I was going to flinch away. Instead, I offered him my bound wrists.
“It’s a trap!” I told him.
“We know,” he replied, kneeling down and lighting his finger like a candle. He held my wrists still and melted the ties enough that I could pull free. “You told Daiki through the link.”
“I did?” I asked incredulously as he melted off the ties around my ankles.
He nodded. “The link is very useful,” he said.
I realized that the image I’d seen of Daiki and Ichiru at the restaurant was real. Somehow, I’d reached out to him. And just now, as I’d chanted it’s a trap over and over in my head, Daiki had gotten the message. My mind was still reeling as Ichiru helped me to my feet. He was shorter than me by about a head, but he his wing span made me feel like a tiny child.
“Run now, Skye,” he said. “Daiki and I will give you time.”
He shoved me towards the door before I could protest. A sharp cry of pain cut through the air. Ichiru and I both turned to see Daiki fall from the ceiling, landing hard on his back. One of the hunters had finally hit him. Ichiru threw his head back and let out an inhuman screech so high and loud that I had to cover my ears. Without another word he turned and flew at the hunters like a rocket, seizing the closest one and flying up to the ceiling, and then dropping him to the floor with a sickening thud.
The second hunter fired at Ichiru as he circled around. The third, the one with the knife in his hand, stalked towards Daiki.
I was running before I even realized what I was doing, sprinting towards the third hunter and tackling him from behind. All those years of watching football with my friend Annabeth Casey had finally paid off. We fell together in a heap and I rolled away before he could grab me. Daiki was clutching his arm and shouting for me to run. Regaining my footing, I stood between Daiki, laying prone and helpless on the ground, and the hunter who wanted to kill him.
“Come on, sweetheart,” the hunter said, standing tall and brandishing his knife. “All we want is the shifters.”
Over his shoulder, I could see Ichiru picking up the second hunter and dragging him, screaming, up to the ceiling.
“You want him?” I asked the hunter, tossing my hair out of my eyes and staring him down. “Come and get him.”
The hunter lunged forward and I felt the electricity again. I felt my arm come up to block his attack while my other hand jabbed forward, hitting him hard beneath the solar plexus. He winced and came at me again, but my fingers curled into fists and thrust into his neck. I tried to stop myself, tried to pull away, but I couldn’t. My hands were moving without my consent.
I turned to stare at Daiki. His eyes were glowing gold and burning into mine.
The link, I thought. Before I could react, I heard a scream behind me and turned in time to see Ichiru seize the last hunter. His dark wings, not quite as luscious and strong as his grandson’s, beat wildly as he dragged the hunter high into the air. When he’d almost reached the ceiling, Ichiru let him go. I turned away before I could see the hunter land, but the hard squelch of his body hitting the concrete floor made me cover my mouth and heave.
“Skye,” Daiki said, still clutching his arm in pain as he pushed himself to his feet. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
I laughed, almost hysterically. “I’m fine,” I said. “You’re the one who got shot.”
Ichiru landed next to me and said something in rapid Japanese. He took Daiki’s injured arm and rubbed it, muttering. I watched in awe as Daiki’s bullet wound slowly faded away.
“What?” I said, staring at the patch of flesh where the bullet wound should have been. There was nothing there. “How –”
Ichiru nodded towards me and said something else. Daiki answered, then he took my hand and led me towards the doors, which were still smoldering from the dragons’ attack.
“Oji-san will take care of this,” Daiki said. “I have to get you home.”
“He healed you!” I said.
Daiki shrugged, glancing back at his grandfather. “Some shifters can do that,”
“Can you?”
He shook his head as, behind us, Ichiru began burning the bodies of the hunters who’d taken me.
D
aiki drove me to my apartment in the hunters’ van. He left me there with strict instructions to take it easy, and promised to return when he and his grandfather were done ‘taking care of things’. I wondered how many times him and his grandfather had needed to take care of the bodies of hunters who’d tried to kill them.
I should have been upset. I should have been horrified that Ichiru had killed those men, and was probably disposing of the evidence while I sat in my kitchen with a glass of water in my trembling fingers. I just felt relief. In a way, I was glad. Those hunters had killed Terry, and although they’d claimed that they didn’t plan to hurt me I’d known on some level that I wouldn’t make it out of that warehouse alive. Daiki and Ichiru had done the world a favor. Now, they couldn’t hurt anyone else.
That didn’t stop me from grimacing every time I thought of the sound their bodies had made when they’d hit the ground. Or feeling a sudden shiver run down my spine at how easy it had been for Daiki to take control of my body. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that one bit.
The sun hadn’t even set yet. There was a low, golden hue to the sky outside my window, and I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. No wonder I was so shaky and tired. I could just imagine what Mama would say if she knew I’d neglected to feed myself: “Now you listen here, Skye Louis, no man wants a girl who’s all skin and bones. It’s bad for childrearin’. Now you pull your head outta those sketchbooks and put something in your belly like a good girl.”
I quickly made myself a sandwich and chewed on it without tasting it. I thought about calling Mama and Daddy, just to hear their voices, but I didn’t know if I had the strength to hide my problems from them. Everything that had happened that day came rushing at me like a tidal wave. The police coming to my door, Terry dying, getting kidnapped by hunters, watching them get slaughtered by an elderly dragon, seeing Daiki hurt. I couldn’t believe it had only been one day. It felt like a lifetime.
Someone knocked on my door. I sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening that it wasn’t more police. I pushed myself off of the kitchen counter and trudged reluctantly to the door.
“Who is it?” I called.
“It’s me.”
Daiki. I opened the door and ushered him inside. “How did it go?” I asked.
“Alright,” he said. He smelt a little of smoke and ash. There was no trace of the bullet wound on his arm. “There’s nothing left of that warehouse, though.”
I led him into the kitchen and offered him a glass of water. “How’s Ichiru?” I asked.
Daiki sipped slowly and frowned. “Alright,” he said. “I think. It’s not the first time he’s… well,” He paused and looked at me carefully. “Sometimes it’s kill or be killed, you know? Those three weren’t the first. I think it does affect him on some level. I just can’t say for sure,”
“Have you ever killed anyone?”
He shook his head. “Not yet,” he said. He tore his eyes away from me and stared into his glass. “You must think we’re monsters,”
“You never hurt anybody who didn’t try to hurt you first,” I said.
He still wouldn’t look at me. I set my glass down, took his glass away, and held his hands in both of mine. The sharp spark of electricity filled me with a familiar warmth as I tilted my head to catch his eye. I smiled when he finally looked at me, but he didn’t return it.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For leading them to Terry,” he replied softly. “Leading them to you. I never – ever – thought hunters would target humans. I should never have gotten so careless… I’ve never seen Oji-san so angry,”
I pressed my forehead against his and he didn’t pull away. “It’ll be alright.”
“He wants to leave,” Daiki said. “I told him about what I’ve been doing at night and how you figured out what we are. About the link. He was furious.”
“He said the link was useful,” I said.
“It is,” Daiki replied. “That’s the one thing Oji-san isn’t blowing his top over. No shifter would ever regret a link. But still, he wants us to run away before more hunters come.”
I kept my voice neutral as I replied: “And what do you want?”
“You,” Daiki said. I’d never realized how much pleasure a single word could bring. “I just want you. I know we haven’t known each other long, but –”
“I feel it too,” I told him. “It’s the link, isn’t it?” He nodded and I paused. I didn’t want to ruin the mood, but I had to bring ask: “Before, at the warehouse – you were controlling me, weren’t you?” He nodded again and I took a deep breath. “I’m not okay with that.”
“I’m not okay with it either,” Daiki said quickly, pulling away so that I could see the sincerity in his eyes. “It felt so wrong. I didn’t even – it was the lesser of two evils, and I swear if I could have thought of a different way –”
“I believe you,” I said.
He still looked unsure. “Are we okay?” he asked. “After this morning?”
I squeezed his hands and held his gaze. “Yes,” I said. “We’re okay.”
“Because you could still be in danger –”
“I’ll manage.”
“And Oji-san really does want to leave –”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“And you have every right to be upset about Terry, and the link, and what I did –”
“Daiki,” I said, squeezing his hands again. “We’re okay.”
His eyes flickered between mine, as if he were trying to catch a lie, then he let out a sigh of relief. “Good,” he said. “That’s good,”
“So the link only works when we’re in danger?” I asked.
Daiki frowned. “I’m not sure. Oji-san used to tell me stories about shifters who had empathetic links with humans, but it’s really rare and personal – most don’t talk about it, so the stories don’t get passed on.”
“So we’re special, then?” I asked.
His lips quirked at the corners and a light shone from his eyes. “I think we are,” he said.
I seized the front of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. Daiki gasped and grabbed at my waist, grinding our hips together and licking and sucking at my lips until I could only whimper desperately. He pulled away, and it gave me the chance to brush my lips against his neck and bite down hard enough to drag a cry from his throat.
“Bedroom,” I muttered.
He didn’t answer, but he picked me up and carried me there. I kept kissing and nibbling at his neck as I felt the blazing heat from his body melt into me.