Blood Legacy Origin of Species (13 page)

Abigail and Victor stood out on the sidewalk in front of the hotel and both looked upward at the same moment. Marilyn was exiting the front of the hotel, shadowed by the concierge attempting to attend to her every need. She slowed her pace abruptly, causing the concierge to nearly collide with her, and she, too, looked upward.

Susan was already seated in the limousine. She had felt mildly apprehensive about seeing Marilyn, even though she had given her the full four hours, but when she saw the three Old Ones look upward to the 40th floor, her apprehension spiked for a completely different reason.

“Is that what I think it is?” Abigail murmured.

“I am afraid so,” Victor said.

The girl stood on the edge of the balcony, enjoying the cool breeze that caressed her burning skin. She knew nothing about anything and cared for the same. She could hear and feel the hundreds of insignificant little creatures that scurried about the building below her, picking out their conversations yet understanding nothing of what they said. She could hear their hearts beat, their lungs expand with each breath, the ligature of their joints pop and snap as they moved. They meant nothing to her, trivial in a microscopic way.

The beings on the street below, however, now those were interesting to her. At least three in number, they drew her attention and she tracked them with startling visual acuity. She smiled. She sensed them and they sensed her. She stepped off the ledge.

Victor watched as the figure plummeted toward them, picking up speed with every floor. It seemed a controlled descent, no flailing arms or wind-milling legs, but rather a tight, feet-first aerial movement, like someone leaping lightly off a porch, but in this case doing so for forty floors.

And, like someone leaping off the porch, the figure landed on its feet, crouching lightly at the landing, right before the impact blew a thirty foot crater in the middle of the street and dust and debris obstructed everything. The sound of the impact was enormous, as was the shattering of glass that accompanied the resultant shock wave.

Several cars wrecked in a screech of tires and the crunch of metal. A small fire started in one of the smashed storefronts. Pedestrians began screaming and fleeing in all directions. The dust began to settle, and slowly, inexorably, the figure rose from its crouched position.

Victor gazed at his daughter, feeling both fear and resignation. He noted that her eyes were once again a deep maroon. She moved with the same predatory grace that she had in the woods, tilting her head and sniffing the air in an almost feral movement. Her gaze held the same mixture of reckless amusement and careless savagery. She moved closer, then slightly sideways, as if stalking her prey as she examined Victor at length. She turned her attention to Marilyn and examined her with the same exhaustive intensity.

“I may not be interpreting the body language correctly,” Marilyn said under her breath, “but I think she wants to eat us, or possibly rape us.”

“Or perhaps some unfortunate combination of the two,” Victor murmured back. It seemed ridiculous that with all the commotion they were whispering to one another, but neither wanted to startle the creature in front of them.

The girl’s attention shifted to the third of the group and her eyes narrowed. This one was of great interest to her, but she could not pinpoint why. The older woman returned her gaze with an equal degree of interest and intensity, and unlike her companions, there was no fear in her eyes. The girl stepped toward the matriarch, and Abigail tilted her head, intrigued to see where this was going. To her great disappointment, it seemed it would go nowhere as something distracted the girl from behind and she turned around. The girl stopped, utterly still, and stared down the street through the dust and debris.

A figure was moving toward her, lithely stepping through the destruction, maneuvering effortlessly through the smoke and fire. It was an incredibly handsome Asian man, his chiseled features impassive, his gait measured and controlled. His broad shoulders and powerful chest bespoke his considerable physical prowess, and the grace of his movement bespoke of ancient technical skills.

Kusunoki stared at Ryan and he slowed his approach. Victor had warned him of Ryan’s condition but he was having a hard time grasping that the creature in front of him was his beloved student. He could see the heat emanating off her in waves, could see the fire burning in her maroon colored eyes, could feel the tensile strength coiled within her like some great serpent ready to strike.

Victor had made a broad sweep around Ryan and now joined Kusunoki. “Thank you for coming, old friend,” he said.

Kusunoki glanced over to return the greeting, but that was a mistake. A huge object landed directly in front of him and then took a serendipitous bounce, traveling over and just clearing his head, then crashing into the buildings behind him.

Kusunoki looked back at the girl in the street, who appeared to be laughing.

“Did she just throw a car at me?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Victor said with resignation, “she did.”

Kusunoki extended his senses. As Victor had indicated, he felt no recognition from Ryan. The creature before him was indeed a savage, but one that was highly intelligent and extremely skilled, a veritable killing machine. It was Kusunoki himself who had trained Ryan centuries earlier, teaching her to control her formidable power and giving her the fighting skills to match her preternatural abilities. He knew how deadly she was under normal circumstances, but this thing…

This thing was unconquerable.

The girl’s attention was now entirely on the Asian man with a single-minded focus that was alarming. It was as if everyone else on the street had ceased to exist. Kusunoki was very aware of this focus and determined that he would use it.

“If I run,” he said, “she will follow me, just like a predator will follow its prey.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Victor said, “if she catches you, I’m certain she will treat you just like prey.”

Kusunoki began moving slowly to his left because Ryan had begun to casually circle him in a classic flanking maneuver. It was as if he were dealing with a piranha that operated according to the precepts of Sun Tzu. “That may be,” he said, “so my only hope is to avoid her until this phase passes.” Kusunoki tensed, preparing to bolt because he sensed that Ryan was doing the same.

“The length of the phases seems random,” Victor warned, “so I can’t tell you how long you will need to outrun her.”

Kusunoki smiled grimly. “It’s not as if I’m going to stop.”

Ryan sprang and, in a flash, the samurai was gone. In a second flash, she was gone.

Victor stared up the street in the direction they had taken flight. He hoped this phase was no longer than the last because even under normal circumstances, Ryan was by far the fastest of their Kind.

But Kusunoki was not going to rely entirely on speed. He was going to resort to trickery, subterfuge, and whatever advantage he could find in an urban environment. His first act was to kick over a fire hydrant, which sheared at the base and exploded into a fountain of water that caught Ryan squarely in the chest and shot her up into the air. She landed with a graceful tumble and was on her feet in an instant, but it had bought Kusunoki a few crucial seconds. He scaled a fire escape ladder, then snapped it off at the top, shoving the heavy metal contraption down onto Ryan. She caught it and tossed it to the side like it was a toy, then began to pull herself upward with force powerful enough it allowed her to go from level to level on arm strength alone.

Again, it bought Kusunoki a little time and space as he began running across the rooftops. He jumped from building to building in leaps so improbably long he seemed to be flying. Ryan was right beyond him and rapidly closing the gap between them. He searched ahead and found what he was looking for, and he leaped onto a power line, sliding across the wire as sparks flew everywhere. He landed on the open deck, and grasped the brick chimney, which fortunately came off in one large piece. He turned, timing his release perfectly, and threw the massive structure at Ryan right as her feet left the adjacent rooftop in a great leap forward.

As powerful as the creature was, Kusunoki surmised that she couldn’t violate the laws of physics. And once airborne, she had no leverage to apply that great strength. Ryan caught the chimney easily, but its size was too large for her to twist around, and its mass was so great relative to hers it redirected her flight almost backwards. That momentum shift would have crushed any normal being but it merely slammed her into the building, then dropped her four stories onto a metro bus.

Kusunoki stared down into the indentation in the metal of the roof of the transport, unsurprised to see the figure get to its feet. Ryan looked up directly into his eyes and he could swear that she was laughing. The bus turned right and disappeared.

Kusunoki did not fool himself into thinking he was safe. He began running again and saw a multilevel parking structure in front of him. This might be advantageous ground for him because of the many twists, turns, and obstructions that would slow her down. He made one more great leap and landed on the top level of the parking lot. He could sense that she was again approaching, but he could not get more than a general idea of her direction.

A car drove past him and the occupants gaped as he started down the concrete ramp. He would be safer inside than out in the open. The level that he was on now was about half-full and there were no pedestrians around at the moment. He had a sudden sense of danger, but it was imprecise and he could not diagnose the threat or direction.

The wall next to him exploded in a spray of concrete chunks, rebar steel, and dust. The car that came hurtling through the wall caught him solidly at the waist and carried him a hundred feet before it pinned him against another wall. Ryan came through the opening after the car, having successfully negated any advantage of twist, turn, or obstruction. Kusunoki was able to free himself from his pinned position, but Ryan moved to block his exit and he realized she had easily corralled him.

Kusunoki knew that he was trapped and now had little choice but to fight. He took a deep breath to calm and center himself, then gracefully moved into a martial arts position of attack.

The girl paused. Something about the movement was familiar and it gave her pleasure. Slowly, with no mental memory but pure muscle memory, she moved into the counter-position for the attack, utterly stilling herself. Kusunoki knew that what he was doing was sheer suicide, but he was out of options. In an explosion of movement, he leaped forward and began his assault.

Ryan met each blow effortlessly with perfect technique. Kusunoki was surprised that he got in even five strikes before he was swept off his feet and thrown hard to the pavement. In a flash, Ryan was atop him, straddling his waist. She did not seek to pin his arms, however, merely sat on top of him, arms crossed, as if she were the winner of the great game they were playing.

The handsome Asian stared up at his pupil. The maroon eyes were frightening, yet beautiful. Her skin was flushed with the heat that poured out of her, which made her high cheek bones even more defined than normal. Her manner was entirely casual, and she presented the face of a terrifying, charismatic, irresistible monster.

The girl examined the man she had pinned to the ground, and her eyes traveled to his bare skin. His shirt was torn from his body, bunched about his waist, and she sat atop his bare torso. The pectoral muscles of his chest were extraordinary and she could not help but run her fingers over them. Her eyes and fingers traveled lower, following the diagonal line of the serratus anterior down to the oblique muscle, then tracing the square outlines of the ridged abdominal muscles. She brushed her fingertips over the opposite oblique, then back up to the serratus, then down the center of his abdominals to just above his groin where she sat perched.

It took all of Kusunoki’s willpower to remain still. The girl’s touch was like fire, utterly primitive and erotic, a casual exploration that made him grit his teeth with desire. She was like an animal, no morals, no reservations, no hesitation, only instinct.

And it was in fact instinct that took over as she bent down and sliced into his neck. Kusunoki moaned at the assault, both because of the unmatched pleasure it brought him and because he knew it would kill him. She drew his blood quickly and there was no bonding or mental connection; it was a purely brutal, physical act. His vision began to darken as she drained him, and it was nearly black when she stopped.

Kusunoki opened his eyes. The creature was sitting atop him, perplexed. His vision swam as he sought to focus on her. She seemed thoughtful, as if perhaps she wished to experiment with him prior to dispatching him from the mortal realm. This theory was given credence as she lifted her forearm to her face and lightly gashed her own wrist. She held the wound inches from his lips, allowing the blood to drip down into his mouth.

The effect was instant and Kusunoki felt strength flow through his system. More importantly was the effect it had on Ryan because Kusunoki, master of all things mental, was able to create an instant psychic connection with her.

Ryan flew backward as if struck, the return of her memory crushingly painful. She curled into a ball, trying to shut out the avalanche of images that buried her. It was like white light burning a hole through her brain tissue, and she writhed about in an attempt to escape the inescapable.