Dreamlands (33 page)

“But we will,” Fairinox said. “These people don’t care about you.

I’m going to be able to break that spell, and we’ll all go free.” I looked at him, wondering what he was going to do. It took me a couple of seconds, and then I realized. I didn’t know how or even if I was right, but I knew that Fairinox was going to use me as a sacrifice for his magic. He was so unclean; I was amazed that no one else here saw it.

I started screaming, a mindless wail, trying to attract anyone’s attention. I was able to get out a few yells before someone shoved something into my mouth, some sort of cloth, because they all knew that I would bite their hand or anything else. The rag was too big for me to spit it out. I struggled frantically against the people holding me, knowing I had to escape them and get help, get to McGann and the others.

Wolf was shouting his head off too, but the rest of the group started beating him to keep him quiet. A couple blows to the stomach were all that it should have taken, but even after that, they kept hitting him. Wolf was beaten to his knees by the ones who were holding him, and he landed beside me, semiconscious. Collins was laughing, and Fairinox was grinning at the two of us like a gourmet in a pastry shop.

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“Get him over here,” Fairinox told the ones who held me, and they dragged me over to a clear spot on the floor. He pulled out a knife.

I was exhausted by this time, but fear gave me another surge of strength as I tried fighting to get free.

“No use, boy,” Fairinox crowed.

He started chanting and leaned over me. I looked at the three men who were holding me. I saw that they were frightened. I tried pleading with them, my words muffled by the rag in my mouth. This wasn’t the answer to whatever they were frightened of. Killing me was just going to give Fairinox power and probably make my family so angry that they would kill everyone here, even people who had nothing to do with this. I stared at Fairinox, refusing to be slaughtered like cattle. I’d see my death coming to me. I thought of the regrets I had, that I hadn’t been able to lose my fear to do more with Samojirou, that I hadn’t told him that I liked him more than I should have, and that I had… fallen in love with him.

Fairinox’s voice rose, chanting the climax of his spell, when he just
stopped
.

There was a long second, and Fairinox’s head rolled forward and fell beside my own.

The men who were holding me down screamed and let go, scrambling to get away from me. As soon as they let go of me, I removed the rag from my mouth. I rolled over to see how Wolf was and froze at the sight of the monster that loomed out of the darkness above me.

I stared at him, frozen but not frightened. He was carrying a sword that he flicked the blood off of before sheathing it. His face was dead white, there were horns on his forehead, and his hair was tied back.

I knew him, though, and did the stupidest thing in the world. I launched myself into his arms, not caring that we were both surrounded by enemies. He hugged me back just as fiercely.

“Aboshi,
dai suki,
” I whispered. I repeated myself to make sure he heard. “I love you, Aboshi.”

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I saw that Collins was being guarded by someone, and it took me a second to realize that it was Inuyama Dousetsu. The rest of the men had fled when these two had shown up, screaming hysterically as they ran.

“You are unharmed?” Samojirou asked.

“Mostly,” I whispered to his chest. “The blood, it isn’t mine.” Thinking of blood reminded me of Wolf. “Wolf!” I gasped and slipped out of Samojirou’s arms. I checked on Wolf, kneeling at his side.

His eyes opened, and he tried to smile at me. “
Junge
?” That was about all he got out before he slipped into unconsciousness. I checked on the other man and couldn’t find a heartbeat, so I figured he was dead. I looked up at Samojirou and Inuyama. “Help Wolf, please,” I begged them.

Inuyama looked at Samojirou and nodded. Samojirou took over the task of guarding Collins, drawing his katana again. Inuyama picked up Wolf and got the strangest look on his face.

Samojirou laughed, but it sounded off. “He is―”

“My avatar,” Inuyama finished for him.

Samojirou and I were still for a long moment. It was weird, because Wolf wasn’t anything like Inuyama from what I could tell, but I had only met the man a few times. Wolf was nice and relaxed, while Inuyama was cold and angry.

“And what are you going to do with me?” Collins demanded. I bet he had been hoping he could have run like the rest of them had.

“Who is this?” Samojirou asked me as he bent over and picked up Fairinox’s head. It should have disgusted me, but it didn’t. I guess such things didn’t bother me anymore. I didn’t know if that was a bad thing or not. Or it could be that I was so far beyond numb that nothing bothered me anymore.

“Collins,” I said. “He’s a Trustee. The head belongs to someone called Fairinox, and he was bad, unclean.” 247

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Samojirou smiled, and I shivered. “I think that Collins will be accompanying us back to my lady’s estate,” he said. He looked at the head in his hand. “And I think that I killed this one too quickly for what he had planned for you.”

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MASON

I NOTICED that Collins and his pet hoodoo man had slipped away while I was talking to McGann. Those two were many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. “Fuck!” I half-screamed.

“Mason, you can’t be serious,” McGann repeated.

“Murphy for Collins is a trade that I can live with,” I said. “Even if it gets my ass terminated afterward. Murphy’s got family, and that’s more important than some tightass Trustee.”

“But Mason―” she started.

“They’ll all go, and hopefully the rest of the Trustees won’t decide that quarantine is a good idea and those fucking doors will open up again.”

“And which one of these people are the ones that you want?” one of Fuse’s kids asked. He was a tough-looking kid; the mean-looking one had left with Samojirou. I noticed that the dog was looking everyone over like they were a snack. I didn’t miss the intelligence in his eyes. That was scarier than the man who was standing by his side.

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“The ones that Tamazusa-sama wants booked,” I said. “So I’m gonna start looking for them and hope that this shit don’t get any worse.”

“My father, Yatsufusa, and I, Inusuka Shino, will help you,” Shino said. His English was almost as good as Tamazusa’s.

“Don’t you want to see if your mom’s okay?” I asked.

“You are going to be hunting in this chaos,” Shino said with a smile. “We will help you. I know that my brothers, as well as Tamazusa-sama’s Reavers, will keep our mother safe.”

“You don’t have to,” I said.

“They tried to hurt my mother, did they not?” Shino asked. “As well as my brother’s avatar. We will go with you.” McGann finally spoke up. “Mason, do it. I’m giving the order.”

“We’ll fucking argue about this later,” I insisted. “Don’t fuckin’

do this. I know what the fuck I’m doing.”

“Mason!”

I leaned over and gave her a hug. “Cover your ass. I don’t trust these idiots not to do something stupid.” I thought I shocked her with the hug, and she didn’t say anything as I walked away with Shino and his dad.

The place was filled with flickering lights, and it was starting to stink with the lack of air conditioning and the smell of blood, shit, and fear. Smells I knew too well from monster hunts and cleaning this place up before, when the same fucking thing had happened. We walked down the corridor, bumping into a couple of more of Fuse’s kids when we got to the stairway. One of them was a big bruiser, and the other one was a short guy.

The big one bowed to us. “Father, Shino,” he said. The little guy was giving me dirty looks.

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“Konbungo, Mason-san is looking for the two men who insulted our mother,” Inusuka said. “She is safe with our brother Daikaku and Tamazusa-sama.”

“And who will protect her from the lady?” the shorter one asked snidely.

I wasn’t surprised to see Konbungo hit the little one on the back of the head. I suspected the kid needed that done to him a lot, and I had just met him. “You do not insult our allies, Shinbee. If it was not for Tamazusa-sama’s help, our mother would have been lost here.”

“She―” Shinbee started.

“I don’t think that anyone could have stopped the hoodoo,” I said.

“Not that I had a fucking clue about what was going on.” Shinbee glared, pulling out his sword. “You were one of the ones who stole our mother!”

“Not my idea, kid,” I snapped. “Thought that the boss fucked up and grabbed the wrong girl. Didn’t realize he was just being a dumb fuck.”

“Enough!” Shino barked. “Konbungo?”

He shrugged. “There is no one on the floor above us, and we saw no one coming down.”

“So those two went down,” I said.

I didn’t like it. Keno was on the floor below us, as well as Wolf. I wasn’t worried about either Tamazusa or Fuse, because the Reavers with them would kick Collins’s and Fairinox’s asses without breaking into a sweat.

“Then we will go down,” Shino said.

He gestured for me to go first, and I did. I trusted him not to stab me in the back. Stupid, since I just met the man and I knew that he’d be pissed if he knew what I had seen of his mother. I’d be fucking pissed if it had been my mom.

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We walked down to D level, the stairway barely lit. I didn’t think that it would be this bad, but the emergency lights weren’t working. I opened the door slowly, checking so that I didn’t open it on Yatsufusa’s nose or something. The dog had been sticking to me like glue.

“It seems that our father likes you,” Konbungo rumbled.

“I think it’s because I’m an avatar,” I said. “At least your mom thinks so.”

That stopped all of them in their tracks. “You?” Shinbee growled.

“I didn’t ask for the job,” I said sharply. “Your mom and Samojirou-sama think that I am, though, and I ain’t going to argue with them about it. While I think that Samojirou-sama would sell me shit, telling me that it was sugar, your mom won’t. And your other three brothers think that she’s not bullshitting them, so I guess that I’m one of you, like Keno. I’m supposed to be Daikaku’s avatar.”

“What Samojirou-sama is doing to him―” Shinbee snarled.

I turned around and grabbed the breastplate of the armor he was wearing. “That guy treated Keno a lot better than we did here, so don’t give him any shit. I ain’t proud about what I did to the kid, but Samojirou’s treating him a shitload better than anyone has in a long time, even if he’s into that weird tranny shit with him. Kid looks good, and he’s happy. That’s a lot more than he got here.”

“Tell us more about how you treated him,” Shino said quietly.

I looked at him in the dark, and I was still able to tell he was pissed. They all were, and I didn’t fucking blame them. “Kid hacked into the wrong server as a lark. We caught him and brought him back here. That was about four years ago. It would have been a sucky life, even if the TCs and the techs weren’t treating him like shit. One of the scientists here, shit, I don’t know what he had been doing, but he was talkin’ with Tamazusa. She seems to be able to pop in here whenever she fuckin’ pleases. Good thing for your mom, pain in the ass for me.

But she nabs Keno one night after the asshole that’s talking with her decides that opening a gate to the Dreamlands was a fun thing to kill time on a Saturday night. Hákarl is what he got, and he let them eat his FELICITAS IVEY

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crew. He decides to play around with Keno, and that’s when Tamazusa shows up. She takes him back home, and that was three weeks ago for us and about four months for you. But Keno looks good and seems to be happy now, so don’t give me shit about him and Samojirou.” Yatsufusa nudged me to get us going again, and I walked out into the corridor. It was still too dark for me to see clearly, but I could hear all right. I didn’t like what I was hearing, muffled screams and shouts, screams that didn’t last too long, and that scared me, the way that they had been cut off. I waited a second, trying to figure out where they were coming from, because this place was a fucking maze. Yatsufusa snarled and bounded down the hallway to my left. I wasn’t stupid; I followed him, with the other three moving like the wind ahead of me, and I was feeling old and slow, trailing behind the pack.

I wasn’t surprised that halfway down the long main corridor, we all bumped into Samojirou, Wolf, Keno, Collins, and another one of Fuse’s kids, that really mean-looking guy. I thought I’d met them all now, but there was no way I’d be able to keep the names straight. I was panting, slightly out of breath and hating it. Samojirou looked at me like I was something bad, and I glared back. I was trying to figure out what he was carrying. I squinted at it, wishing that the light was a bit better, when I realized what it was. The fucker was carrying Fairinox’s head.

“Kairns-san, how delightful it is to see you,” Samojirou said snootily.

I ignored him. “You okay, kid?” I asked Keno.