First Born (12 page)

“What?” Lily grabbed the truck handle for leverage as she lifted her head.

“Don’t. Move,” Seth gasped.

She sunk back down.

“It’s that detective.”

Lily sat straight up. “Where?”

His death glare sent her back down in a slouch.
Detective Hottie is here?

“What?” Seth asked.

“Nothing. Mind your own...
mind,
please.”

“Geez, Lily. I knew you were crushin’ on that dumb cop.”

You’re dumb. He’s not dumb. He’s smokin’ ass hot.

“Shut up, Lily. I’m trying to focus on what’s going on.”

Lily stilled. “Put the windows down. Maybe I can hear.”

Seth cocked an eyebrow, but did as she said.

“Anything, Gates?” Lily definitely knew it was Detective Simms’s voice.

“No, Simms. Lucy got nothing. It was worth another shot since the hounds showed some interest yesterday.”

“Well, thanks for rechecking for me. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem,” said the dog handler.

Lily held her breath as she heard the two cars drive away.

“Let’s go. I’m taking you back to my apartment, but you have to pretend to be my dog,” Seth said throwing the truck in reverse.

“Whoa. I’m not going anywhere. This bought me some time. The dogs indicated I wasn’t there. They won’t check back for a while.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Seriously, Seth. Let me at least get my stuff together. I’ll stay one more night and see what’s going on. Any sign of trouble, I’ll get out.” Plus, she planned to break into her duplex tonight to get a few things. She really missed her Victoria’s Secret underwear.

“I don’t like this, Lily.”

“It’ll be okay.”

He drove around the corner and Lily walked down the street, red wig in place. She let herself in the back door of the garage.

Inside the house, she focused on what to do next. Seth had handed her an apartment key. The sight of the bloodhounds had made her heart stop. With no signs of divine intervention, she couldn’t waste any more time. It wasn’t Seth’s life. It was hers. She didn’t tell Seth, but she did not intend to stay with him. It was too dangerous. People around her were dying. And she didn’t want him to be next.

It was time she grew a set and took control of the situation. A phone call to Mr. Liu may give him too much time to think and possibly call in the authorities.
Surprises are always nice.

With that thought, she peeked into the corner of the boys’ four-car garage. The sound of operatic sopranos in an “Ahhhhhh!” filled her head as she lifted the tarp to reveal Frank’s scorching red Honda Fireblade. There was no little brother to get her into trouble.
Borrowing
Frank’s motorcycle was solely her responsibility.

A twinge of guilt hit her, but what could she do? She needed wheels. Nothing licentious about it. The keys were easy to find in Frank’s top desk drawer. He’d understand, wouldn’t he?

Lily packed the pink JanSport backpack with provisions and strapped it to her back. Her suspicion was that Seth’s subconscious chose pink to assure him that his sister was indeed still a girl.

She opened the garage door feeling nerves flutter in her stomach. It couldn’t be much different from the dirt bikes she and Seth rode as kids. She had dressed in sweatpants with a t-shirt under Frank’s black leather jacket. At the last minute, she ditched the flip-flops and slipped on a pair of Frank’s loafers that were by the back door. Two pairs of his socks from the laundry seemed to secure them.

With the helmet in place, she attempted to breathe with the visor down as the garage door closed behind her with a definitive thump. Determination drove out the images of her father scowling at her from above for getting on a donor cycle.

Leaning on her left foot, she swung her right leg over the seat to straddle the sport bike. Sitting back, she reviewed all the parts: throttle, front brake, rear brake, clutch, shift pedal.
No problem. I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
She turned the key, engaged the clutch and pushed the start button. The bike roared to life and so did her adrenaline causing her to wonder why she hadn’t gotten herself a motorcycle. The same euphoria crept over her that had struck her when hanging her Shih Tzu head over the side of Larry’s convertible.

With a twist of the throttle, she rocketed down the driveway doing a wheelie. It would have been impressive if it had been intentional and she hadn’t run over the neighbor’s burning bush. The good news was that she only grazed their mailbox and set the bike down on grass with no major damage, except to her ego.

Survival skills kicked in. She manipulated the throttle much more gingerly the second time and got out of there before anyone saw what had happened.

Playing with the controls, she figured out the basics and lurched on to the highway. After the first mile on Interstate 75 north, she understood the bike’s moniker, crotch rocket.
Everything
tingled.

She was as coordinated as a horse riding a unicycle at 70 mph. By the time she reached the exit for Mr. Liu’s, she had lost Frank’s left loafer, making shifting gears a challenge.

Once on Stilesboro Road, she breathed a sigh of relief as she passed cookie cutter subdivisions transitioning to more spacious individual lots the further north she rode. She cut the engine at the end of Mr. Liu’s long driveway before pushing the bike behind the gnarled trunk of a white pine tree. Uneasy, but determined, she decided to approach Mr. Liu as a dog to gauge his reaction. She stripped off her clothes, stashing them in her backpack. Sitting on the ground next to the bike, she managed to shift into Tashi.

That’s when they struck.

Pinpricks of white dappled her vision as her lungs struggled to expand. Paralyzed from the neck down and barely conscious, she was flat on her back with a German shepherd’s jaws clenching her throat. Crying pitifully earned her release. She wheezed for a while before her brain calmed and her body found its rhythm. She did a full body shake only to discover the other shepherd’s hackles raised and its snout up her Shih Tzu backside. Well she wanted surprise and she got it.

A whistle off in the distance caused the welcoming committee to let up. They loped down the driveway toward Mr. Liu and she followed them.

“What have you found?” he asked the shepherds gently.
My colon.
He stopped stroking their heads and noticed Lily fifteen feet away sitting in his driveway. Seth had failed to mention the dogs to her. The fanged sentries would make a quick escape impossible should she sense danger.

Except for the fact that Mr. Liu was Chinese, Lily felt like she was in a Western standoff. He stood with his feet apart hands at his hips. She stood with her paws apart a whole nine inches tall. This wasn’t like a Western at all. One command from Liu and she was a Chinese dumpling to the two guard dogs.

“Xiaoyi?” He called her “little one,” a term he had used since she was a small girl. She bolted down the driveway and leapt into his arms, licking his face and crying pitifully into his neck. He reminded her of her dad. Of course she could trust him. What was wrong with Seth?

He placed her on the ground then looked down gravely. He bowed. She attempted to return the bow, which put her in a “down” position. He giggled, catching Lily off-guard. She smiled with her tongue hanging out.

He became serious quickly. “Come Lily. I fear you are in great danger. There is much to discuss.”

Lily hesitated, cocked her head, and eyed him.
Maybe I shouldn’t be here.

“I assume the young man in the hospital with dog bites and deep gashes is your work?” He stood with his legs together, his head slightly down and his brows elevated, assessing her, but not judging.

“Wes,” she grumbled.

“I may be the only person who can help you. What choice do you have other than to trust me?”

She didn’t entirely agree with his reasoning, but she’d come this far, she’d see this adventure through to the end. She trotted toward him with her black and white tail swinging in the air and followed him toward the house. The horses in the fenced corral nickered at her as she barked and leapt against the railroad ties.

“Lily, control!” ordered Mr. Liu. She snapped back to his side. They turned the corner of his ranch house and headed for a separate building, a new addition built in the back of the main home. It matched the gray siding of the ranch house. The front was predominately composed of glass.

“Welcome to my studio,” he said, as he opened the sliding door. She walked in to find a padded floor like a yoga studio. However, a yoga studio wouldn’t have glass and metal cases containing various martial arts weapons lining the walls.

He took her behind a bamboo screen where he handed her what looked like blue-gray pajamas. “It’s a Shaolin uniform,” he said. “Better communication if you are a person,” he smiled.

She was pondering how to warn him about the peculiar sound she made when shifting, when he walked to the glass door and stepped outside, providing her privacy. The room was rather tranquil despite the lethal weapons surrounding her. After shifting, she donned the Shaolin gear and opened the glass door for him.

He walked to a teak cabinet in the corner. He pulled several documents, books, and a box from the shelf and brought them to the one small table in the room. Here the soft floor ended and bamboo floors continued. She sat down in the chair across from him.

“Only dog?” he asked.

“Wings too,” she whispered.

“Ah, flying Shih Tzu,” The corners of his mouth turned up. One look at her face halted his mirth. He cleared his throat and became somber. “We’ll talk about your shifting in a minute. First, I must tell you about your grandmother. She is fading.” If Lily had known her grandmother, it would have been devastating. As it was, she still felt like someone had punched a small hole in her chest.

“I am sorry for you and your brother that you did not know her. The urgency of your situation makes my directness necessary. Your grandmother sent you an invaluable package for me to keep in my care. She included a note stating that she trusted I would know when to give it to you.”

He grabbed the wooden box and tilted it to reveal a combination lock. Mr. Liu rolled in each digit on the lock until it clicked open.

“It is your mother’s date of birth.”

“I can remember that,” she said, leaning in closer. Inside the box was a blue velvet jewelry case.

After placing it on the table, he pushed it across to her. “It should keep things in balance.”

Her palms became clammy.

“I need you to open that, Liling.” His face was stern, yet sorrowful at the same time, making her want to cry.

Prying open the lid, she gasped as she gazed upon an exquisite locket on a thick gold chain. A beautiful bird was intricately engraved in the gold. The surface appeared to glow. She reached across to touch it.

Whooooooossh.

When she woke up, she was flat on her back.
This is becoming redundant.
Lily vowed to herself that the next time she was in this position it would be for something pleasurable. The back of her head throbbed where it had struck the floor. All she wanted to do was close her eyes to make the pain go away, but she made herself stay awake.

“Good Lily. Good,” Mr. Liu encouraged from above. His head appeared inflated like a balloon at the Macy’s Day Parade. As his face came into focus, she heard him exhale loudly. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.

I’ve walked into some Chinese terrorist’s lair. Which part of psychotic did I not pick up on?
Instead, she had admired the lethal weapons like they were a seashell collection.

He helped her sit up. Dazed, she stared at him.

“Xiaoyi, you have done well,” he said with tears in his eyes. Then he bowed to her as he never had before. She knew it was disrespectful not to return a lower bow, but her butt stayed glued to the floor, her whole body heavy.

A tingling sensation caused her to glance down at her chest. She was wearing the necklace. The feeling was similar to Vick’s vapor rub and the more she inhaled its essence, the better she could breathe.

“What just happened?”

“Thank Buddha, you passed the final exam,” he said perching a pair of reading glasses on his nose.

Panicked, she looked to him for an explanation. She hated not being prepared for a test. “Mr. Lui, what would have happened if I had failed?”

He shuddered, “Oh, no matter now. See, you and the crucible are in balance.”

“Crucible?” she asked.

“Very few can wear it. It’s sacred. There has not been balance in almost a century. At least that’s what the letter said.” He pulled her to her feet. After uprighting the table, he pulled out another chair for her. Her thigh muscles trembled as she sat down. He plucked a loose document off the floor and placed it in front of her.

“I’ll go get us some tea from the kitchen.” He walked down a short hall and ducked into a doorway on the left. There were now three functioning wooden chairs. The one she had originally been seated in was shredded into teak splinters, which were scattered about the room. A scorch mark the size of her body bruised the wood floor.

Still woozy from the blast, her eyes had difficulty focusing when she turned her attention to the Chinese characters on the paper with singed edges.
This must be Waipo’s letter.
Too bad Lily couldn’t read Chinese.

Mr. Liu returned to the room, paying no mind to the pulverized chair. “Have some dark rose tea that your grandmother sent. You’ll feel better.”

Screw the tea, I need a drink.
She studied him then with his black exercise pants and loose-fitting white t-shirt. The great Kung Fu guy serving her rose tea certainly gave her pause.

“It’s black tea from Hunan Province. Try it,” he said.

She did drink the tea. He was right.

“Most of what I know is from this letter. Your father seldom spoke of your mother’s family, but when he did, they were always interesting stories.” He pushed the letter aside and opened a worn leather book to a page with a bird on it. “Fenghuang.”