Ultimate Warriors (7 page)

     
"All
right," she demanded as soon as they’d gotten in the car and Savage
laid
the papers from her file on the seat between them,
"how did you do that?"

     
Savage
started the car. "I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue in yours," he
said coolly.

     
She
blushed furiously. "That’s not what I meant!"

     
"She
didn’t see us. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?"

     
"I
just don’t understand how she could’ve failed to see us,
that’s
all! We were in plain sight."

     
"You
weren’t. I was between you and her. I was very still. I blended with the
background."

     
Nariko
gave him a look. It was true that he was wearing dark clothing, but she wasn’t
buying it. On the other hand, she couldn’t think of an explanation that
actually made any sense and puzzled over it most of the way back to her place
until her focus shifted to the file.

     
When
they’d parked in front of her apartment, they
both got
out and headed for the door without a word, but Nariko, at least, felt a
strange sense of unreality settle over her.

     
In one
sense, she felt surprisingly comfortable around Dr. Savage, considering the
fact that she hardly knew him. She did hardly know him, however, which was why
it made reality seem just a little skewed that Dr. Savage presumed his welcome
in her home like a long time acquaintance.

     
And then
there was
that kiss
and grope thing. She didn’t know
how he’d felt about it, but her knees still felt like they were filled with
jelly instead of bone and cartilage. She supposed he thought that had been a
good way to get her quiet fast and keep her that way until the threat had
passed, but had he done it purely out of necessity? Or had it made him feel all
hot and bothered like it had her?

     
If it
had, she had to admit he hid it very well.

     
Once
she’d unlocked the door to the apartment, he headed for her couch, dropped the
file on the coffee table, opened it and began studying the pages inside. More
than a little disconcerted, Nariko watched him for a few moments and finally
followed him, settling next to him on the couch and picking up each page and
studying it as he discarded it.

     
Most of
it was pretty boring, even to her. There were notes, however, about behavioral
problems beginning around puberty. Mentally, Nariko shrugged. She supposed the
problems outlined did correspond to the beginning of her nightmares. On the
other hand, it seemed to her that pretty much everyone went through a change in
behavior when they hit that period of raging hormonal unbalance that
corresponded to the transition from child to adult.

     
Savage
cursed under his breath, drawing Nariko’s attention. She leaned closer, reading
over his shoulder. Her heart seemed to jolt to a halt in her chest when she saw
it mentioned her mother. Grabbing the edge of the paper, she gave it a tug.
After a moment, Savage released it.

     
Her
mother had been sent to an asylum for the insane!

     
Nariko
read it through twice and looked up at Dr. Savage with a mixture of chaotic
emotions. "She thought … she believed she’d been impregnated by a
demon?"

     
Chapter
Five

     
There
was something about the look on Dr. Savage’s face that penetrated Nariko’s
turmoil, although she couldn’t quite pin it down. He didn’t look particularly
surprised. It was almost as if he’d been expecting the information he’d found.
In fact, there seemed almost an underlying sense of purposefulness or maybe
even excitement about him.

     
"She
named him."

     
Nariko
blinked. He’d said it as if her mother had identified an assailant by name,
someone real--someone he’d heard of.

     
"You
know that name."

     
He
shrugged, looking away from her as he got up and began to pace the floor.
Nariko watched him, trying to figure out what might be going through his mind,
but she couldn’t seem to get her own mind around the fact that her mother had
been insane enough they’d locked her away.

     
Some
forms of insanity were hereditary.

     
Was that
it? Was she crazy like her mother had been? How bizarre was it that her mother
thought she’d gotten knocked up by a demon and now she was having dreams about
a demon that seemed pretty damned determined to fuck her stupid if he got his
hands on her?

     
She
could’ve almost felt better about being abandoned--knowing she actually hadn’t
been thrown away--except that her mother had been a nut case and now she had to
worry that she might have inherited something awful.

     
"You
think I’m crazy?"

     
Dr.
Savage stopped pacing and glanced at her absently. "What?"

     
Nariko
licked her lips. "My mother obviously was, and now I’m having dreams about
demons, too. But how could something like that
be
inherited? I didn’t know her. I’ve never seen the records. How could I have
dreams about being chased by a demon when I didn’t know anything about my
mother’s psychosis?"

     
He shook
his head. "I don’t think you’re crazy. I’m not convinced she was
either--at least not at first, anyway. Being locked away with the insane is
enough to drive a sane person over the edge."

     
Nariko
felt her jaw go slack. Was he saying he believed her mother actually had been
impregnated by a demon?

     
This was
worse than the blind leading the blind! The insane leading the nut case!

     
"We
need to try to talk to your mother," he said suddenly.

     
A
mixture of excitement and revulsion filled Nariko instantly. It had never
occurred to her that she might even get the chance to meet her mother--but in a
mental institute? Visions of a drooling, wild haired woman in a straight jacket
filled her mind. She felt sick.

     
"I
… uh … I’m not sure I’m up to this one."

     
He
studied her a long moment. "You don’t have to go."

     
The only
thing she could think of that would be worse than seeing the vision she’d
pictured, was Dr. Savage seeing the vision she’d pictured in her mind. "I
don’t see what good you think it would do to talk to her," Nariko snapped
angrily. "If she’s still there after all this time, what mind could she
possibly have? I mean, they medicate them, right? Between her insanity and the
drugs, she wouldn’t be able to answer questions even if they let you in to see
her."

     
His lips
thinned. "I have to try. She might be the only one with the answers we
need."

* * * *

     
Depression
settled over Nariko like a thick black cloud as they left the sanitarium where
her mother had spent the last years of her life.

     
Her
mother was dead! As vacillating as her feelings were about seeing her mother,
and in such a state, she had felt a terrible sense of loss the moment she was
told that her mother had died, that she’d lost the chance to get to know her
even a little.

     
Despite
everything, she’d been hopeful when they’d left her apartment to drive to the
asylum. She’d allowed herself to believe that Savage was right. Her mother
wasn’t really and truly insane … certainly not to the extent that she’d
envisioned.

     
After a
few moments, she shook her dark thoughts off. It was absurd, really, to grieve
over a woman she’d never even known.

     
She
glanced at Dr. Savage as they reached the car. "Was that weird, or
what?"

     
He
stopped, turning to look at the building they’d just left speculatively.

     
Nariko
didn’t particularly like the look in his eyes.

     
"If
I didn’t know better, I’d think someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make
sure you, nor anyone else, ever found out anything about yourself."

     
"I
thought I was just being paranoid … I mean, I can’t actually prove that I’m her
next of kin."

     
Shrugging
slightly, he got into the car. "Maybe," he said when Nariko had
settled beside him.
"And maybe not."

     
Nariko
frowned. "You think all of my problems are somehow connected to my
father?"

     
Savage
glanced at her sharply. "It would explain a lot of things," he said
after a moment.

     
Nariko
waited for him to continue. He didn’t. "What things?"

     
"The
possibilities are too endless to speculate on without more information."

     
Nariko
fell silent as he started the car and negotiated his way off the grounds of the
sanitarium. Instead of asking him to elaborate, since she knew he wouldn’t, she
considered what he’d said, speculating on what he’d left unsaid.

     
She
supposed it was possible that things had happened to her that she just didn’t
remember and that that might be the underlying problem that was causing the
dreams. The ‘demon’ thing was just absurd, but maybe her mother had only meant
he’d seemed demonic? Or maybe he had been crazy and thought he was one?

     
But she
hadn’t even been a year old when they’d put her mother away and put her in the
orphanage. Even supposing there was something to the ‘father was nuts’ theory,
how could he have made any sort of impression on her while she was so young?
And why would it come back to haunt her now?

     
And,
more importantly, how could the dreams be so vivid that they affected her
physically?

     
She
discovered when she emerged from her abstraction that they’d arrived at her
apartment once more. This time Savage made no attempt to get out of the car,
however.

     
"You’re
going in after the records, aren’t you?"

     
"Yes."

     
"I’m
really starting to get uneasy about all this."

     
"All what?"

     
She
turned to study his profile. "I just didn’t expect you to get so deeply
involved in my situation as to risk … the things you’re risking."

     
To her
surprise, he smiled, albeit somewhat grimly. "As much as I’d like you to
think I’m going way beyond the call, the truth is the risks are minimal … and,
in your case, even if they weren’t, I’d still consider it worth doing."

     
Nariko
frowned, trying to decide if there was an underlying meaning in what he’d said.
"I think I could understand it a little better if I’d been your patient
for years … or if there was something … uh … personal between us, but I’m
practically a stranger."

     
He slid
a glance her way. He was frowning faintly. "I seem like a stranger to
you?"

     
It was
Nariko’s turn to frown. "Actually, it’s really odd--because you
should--but you don’t."

     
To her
surprise, he chuckled. "Good. It would have been a real blow to my ego if
you’d said yes. Mostly, I figure once I’ve had my tongue in a woman’s mouth,
we’ve moved beyond considering ourselves strangers."

     
Nariko
blushed to the roots of her hair. "But that was a … distraction, wasn’t
it?"

     
"It
sure as hell distracted me."

     
She
hadn’t thought it was possible to blush any harder but she managed it.
"That’s not what I meant."

     
To her
surprise, he reached across the seat, grasped her hand and dragged her toward
him. She fell against his chest, looking up at him with a mixture of surprise
and burgeoning anticipation. He was aroused. She could feel it beneath her
bottom. The knowledge made
a peculiar
warmth spread
through her limbs.

     
"What
did you mean?" he asked, a faint smile playing about his lips. There was
an intensity
in his gaze that Nari found both unnerving and
electrifying.