Moon Child (23 page)

“Lycan… really? But they’ve been extinct for over twenty years.”

Ash shook her head. “I really cannot think of why, but only that I was so fixated on it at one point, but I don’t think that is likely now.”

“Because?”

Ash shot him a little glance. “I have tasted your blood. You don’t taste lycan.”

Good point.

“But it doesn’t take half elf or fae either, does it?”

Ash frowned. “No.”

Tristan sighed to himself. They really weren’t getting anywhere.

“I wonder,” Ash mused almost to herself.

“Yes?”

Ash looked at him, expression a little sour. “I fed from Mamoru again after we returned to the room. He gave me some of his knowledge. For some reason, Yukihime saw it fit to keep the heikō from me.”

“You know,” Tristan said with a huff, “I’d wondered about that. When Mamoru was telling me all that shit, I was thinking it was strange that you’d never mentioned the heikō before. I mean, the pythia are heikō n’ all.”

“Because I did not know of them. Or rightly, remember them. Perhaps the key to what you are is within?”

Tristan’s expression screwed up. “Well, I’m not a dragon, mermaid or a pixie.
Certainly
not an angel…”

Ash actually giggled, making Tristan smile. “No, I think not.” She took up a pacing to think. “Perhaps… dryad?” She turned to look at Tristan again, evaluating him. “No. You are not vicious enough and your blood does not taste right for that either. Blasted if only I could discern that other thing I tasted in your blood, it seems so familiar and yet, not.”

Tristan only frowned at that. Mamoru hadn’t touched much on the heikō outside of the pythia. And him being part pythia was impossible since they were completely immune to the vampire virus.

Without asking, Tristan realized the moment that Mamoru told him about the pythia’s immunity was the reason Malik killed Ash’s twin. She was full pythia and it was impossible to make her a vampire. But still, Malik being the tactile learner he was, had to try. He had to prove it to himself that a pythia could or couldn’t be turned. Eva and Ash paid the price of his morbid curiosity.

“I am still leaning towards elf/faerie despite what your bloods tastes like,” Ash said softly, “since we already know you are part vampire, in a sense.”

“Well, no… what if…” He sat up, looking bewildered at his own musings. “What if it’s really just that?”

Ash shook her head, not understanding and frustrated again that she couldn’t hear his mind to keep up with his thoughts.

“What if I’m really Uruwashi and vampire?”

“N—no. Vampire cannot procreate, sterile wombs and seed.”

There was that, but... “Well, no. What if my mother’s super special Uruwashi ability was being able to get pregnant by a vampire? You just said she’d been bitten and Mamoru, he didn’t tell me a whole hell of a lot but somehow we got on the topic and he mentioned it as an aside. Two Uruwashi women actually got pregnant by a vampire, carried to term and everything. One, the baby died during birth.”

Ash frowned at him. She hadn’t known there were Uruwashi like that. Mamoru was proving to be rather valuable. She would have to think of a nice way to ask for a taste of the man’s memories, all of them.

“And the other?”

Tristan looked away, trying to hide the horror he felt when Mamoru told him this earlier. “The mother died during birth. The baby lived but… the other Uruwashi, they killed it.” What he didn’t want to recount was the horrible way the mother died to the monster she birthed. Mamoru was actually there for the birth and went pale when he told Tristan about it.

Ash took a moment to let the words hang in respect to the tragedy of their very existence. “That is a very viable possibility then. One that makes the most sense… I suppose.”

Yeah, Tristan felt the same way. It made sense, but didn’t. Whatever he was, from what he’d understood from Mamoru, was unprecedented. So maybe he really wasn’t the spawn of an Uruwashi and vampire. If he was, Mamoru would have known, right? Boy, did he have a lot of questions for the man right about then.

“If my mother was transformed before getting pregnant, then maybe my father is a vampire. It would explain why Yuki’s trying to so hard to hide it. To me, that sounds like a very powerful combination.”

“Or a quick fix, knee-jerk reaction to repair a bloodline so watered down with human blood that it no longer has the strength to kill its enemies.”

Tristan sighed and looked up, wishing the clouds would clear away so that he could see the stars. “Maybe.”

“I think I would prefer you to be part elf,” Ash said sounding a little contemptuous.

“Because?”

She shrugged, trying to seem casual. “Honestly? I really do not know why. Only that…” She stopped to lick her lips. “Only that the idea of you being half vampire on top of Uruwashi… it frightens me, profoundly.”

Tristan frowned. What could he say to instill confidence in her again? He took her hand and gave it a soft squeeze. “I won’t hurt you, Ash. Ever.”

She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “I know.”

“Hey…” Tristan stood, pulling Ash to her feet with him and wrapped his arms around her. “Whatever I did that scared you, I won’t do it again, well, at least not on purpose, if that’s what you’re afraid of. And I won’t do it to you.”

This time her smile reached her sky blue eyes. “You have no idea what you are saying.” She was laughing at him, just a little.

“No, but I’m just… I just want to impart on you how important you are to me.”

Her smiled slipped. “I know. And I promise to not erase your memories again without consulting you first, no matter what.”

He nodded, expression deadly serious and leaned down to kiss her. She pushed up on tiptoe to meet him halfway and he mused that he could definitely get used to a more PDA-tolerant Ash.

“Tristan?” Mamoru called out from back towards the home, sounding preoccupied.

Tristan sighed and rested his forehead against Ash’s. “So, we’re good, right?”

“Tristan!”

He mentally cursed at Mamoru. “Yeah, one sec!”

Ash looked him in the eye, smiling wearily. “More than.”

“Tristan!” Mamoru yelled again, sounding more urgent.

“What, dammit?” God, always when things got good.

Ash stiffened in his arm and when Tristan turned to see why, he cursed under his breath at the man holding Mamoru captive. “Oh hell.”

17:
O
utside

WHERE is she?” Netty demanded. He held Mamoru to his chest like a shield. The angry Japanese man had a knife in his hand but the vampire didn’t need primitive tools to hurt anyone and Mamoru knew better than to fight when a vampire had ahold of his neck. “Did you kill her? Tell me what happened.”

The second question was directed to Tristan by way of cold stare and he stiffened. “No. She got away.”

“Tristan…,” Ash warned coming to stand at his side. Dammit, she missed her sword.

“No, I feel it,” he answered, gun trained on the vampire’s face. He shifted on his feet, feeling anxious from the energy swelling up his torso, coaxing him to more intimate thoughts that didn’t involve using that gun.

Ash’s attention jerked from the man holding Mamoru to Tristan.
Feel what
? she wanted to ask but didn’t want to show a weakness in front of the strange vampire. She had no idea what Tristan meant and that worried her. Had this potion changed her for the worse? Permanently?

“As—” the vampire’s voice broke, his expression twisted in stunned curiosity. “Asta?”

Ash’s shoulder bumped Tristan’s arm as she straightened.

“You, you’re Asta…” His voice was soft with wonder, his expression full of emotion. He was good at faking human wearing that richly warm aura. The hold he had on Mamoru loosened and the man carefully slipped away as Netty, eyes on Ash, slowly came forward.

Ash’s chin came up and she proudly answered, “I was born as Asta Moriakos.”

“Yes,” the short vampire said, rounding on the couple. Tristan’s arm stiffened as he followed the man with his gun, but the vampire made no notice, eyes fixed on Ash. “You are, you’re the null pythia turned vampire.”

Ash winced, trying to hide her chagrin. Her less traditional origins always seemed to be of great interest to others of her kind, trying to convince her just as much as themselves that she was special. Truth was, she was just another vampire, a sad, lonely soul warped left wanting by the life she was forced to live. “Ash, please,” she said with a tiny head tilt. She took a step away from Tristan and he tensed, unsure.

“Ash, yes, I heard you took a new name after you left your Master. Good, that’s good.” The small vampire stopped just out of arms reach and considered her. “I heard you killed him. Malik.” At her suddenly uncomfortable look, he smiled and added, “No need to worry. I’m not of the old mindset of killing those who dispose of their Masters… I never understood old vampire law. I’ve always thought that the best place to meet one’s end in is the arms of one we loved, even if the sentiment wasn’t returned.”

Ash smiled, lips stretching until her fangs showed. “I doubt my Master thought the same.”

Netty frowned. “No, I’d imagine not. He was ill of mind even before he died.”

Ash gave Tristan a look to let him know everything was well. Ever the paranoid though, Tristan refused to lower his gun despite his aching arm. Mamoru had joined the group, blocking Netty in from behind, a knife in his hands that he really didn’t need as the man’s power swirled about him at the ready.

“I cannot claim sole victory over the end of my mad Master.”

Netty’s dark gaze went to Tristan. “No, you can’t. You two work well together, for enemies.”

Tristan scoffed at that but didn’t figure their business wasn’t any of his.

“Apologies,” Ash said looking completely calm. “I take you for an ancient one, but I do not know your name.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, eyes roving over the two tense men watching his every move. “Netty will suffice.”

“Netty?” Ash asked as she thought about it again. Before when Mamoru had told her about the ancient vampire named Netty, she thought the name was strange, but now, face to face with the vampire a memory stirred. “Is that not what—” Ash jerked back, eyes widening. “By the Goddess, you…”

When the other vampire’s mouth opened to show an impressive set of fangs, his aura slowing washing away from his face and down his body to reveal a complexion of white and brighter white, did Ash know she was right.

“You are dead,” she hissed in a low whisper as if it were a secret.

The apathetic features that the oldest of their kind all wore didn’t shift despite the sadness in his voice. “I only wish that were true.” He leaned in to give Ash a proper vampire greeting by way of kiss and she stopped him with a slightly trembling hand in the air.

“Apologies, but my relationship with Tristan is built on human morality and vampire edict would violate that.”

The vampire looked pleased as his lips spread into a smile without showing those big fangs again. “Yes, of course.”

“Ash?” Tristan prompted, shifting on his feet again. The strain from holding the gun up for so long was starting to bother him. He’d hit the vampire if he had to, just not necessarily where he meant to.

“Mamoru, Tristan, I’d like you to meet my great, great, great Master, Innokentiy. Innokentiy, this is my love, Tristan and our friend, Mamoru.”

Our
, Tristan noted with tightening jaw.

“Uruwashi, yes, I know. We’ve met. I don’t mean to sound old, but isn’t your partnership with an Uruwashi a bit queer? I suppose we all are foolish in our youth.”

Ash shifted her weight to one foot, looking sassy in her annoyance. “The only thing I see foolish about loving this man is thinking it is wrong simply because of who he is supposed to be, not who he is.”

The older vampire harrumphed behind his smile. “Wise words. Perhaps there is more to you than meets the eye.” Ash opened her mouth to counter his claim at her being anything but what she was when he suddenly turned to the other men. Both Mamoru and Tristan stiffened, ready for a fight. “I must apologize,” Innokentiy was saying, looking back and forth between the men, “for my earlier outburst that resulted in our ill parting. It was hasty of me. Having a moment to think on it, I will only ask you once calmly...”

The others all jiggled on their feet as a distant rumble filled in the landscape. Mamoru recognized it for what it really was right away. Tristan only realized it after his blood warned him—Innokentiy was making the earth under their feet moan. Ash only knew what the noise was by familiarity, her senses all muddled up in that blasted pythia spell.  

“Are you working with the pythia?”

“No,” Ash answered for the group sounding insulted. She greatly respected the pythia, even relied on them for the grand order of things. Their job was to keep the balance, not skew it and play games with it when it fit their agendas and that there was one out there playing such a game now truly disgusted Ash. 

The older vampire turned his attention to her and the other two men sighed at the cessation of power. “I believe you. Now, that all of that is a non-issue, I’d like to enlist your help. Rather, I believe we can help each other.”

Tristan snorted before he could stop the gross noise. “Heard that one before, then you buried me up to my neck in the earth and left us to die.”

“I retuned for you but James had already intervened.”

“Who’s—”

Ash put a hand on Tristan’s arm, silencing him. Looking up at him, but speaking to Netty, she said, “He goes by Desmond now, Master.”

“Oh, I see.” Innokentiy frowned hard, brow furrowed. “I don’t like that man, Desmond.”

“No one really does,” Ash muttered with such sincerity that the two Uruwashi snickered. She frowned when she realized what she’d said but Innokentiy was so lost in thought he didn’t notice the exchange.

“Guess you didn’t find Genoveva either?” Tristan asked with a sneer.

Ash started. “Are you—”

Innokentiy darted towards her, making her flinched back. “No. I am not working with my poor misguided scion, only looking to end her finally.”

Mamoru’s mouth dropped open and it was Tristan who overacted for the group. “Holy fucking shit, you’re that fruitcake’s
Master
?”

The vampire only smiled at him and Mamoru muttered in Japanese under his breath something about it being a pity for Netty.

“Master,” Ash interjected softly, “if I may.”

“Please,” the other vampire said. “Innokentiy or Netty. I shed the title of Master long ago. I’m not fit to mentor anyone.”

Ash’s frown deepened. She seldom used nicknames and even more so for ones dubbed by insane vampires that made a career of stripping Ash’s faith from her.

“Innokentiy, if I may, why did you fake your death? You were still very young then, too young to find need of solitude.” Not to mention he played human so well when he was wearing an aura.

“A sad tale that starts and ends with Genoveva.” He held his hand out and Ash hesitated for only the barest of seconds before stepping into the man and taking it. His flesh was cold and Ash shivered at the alien texture of it, smooth and without a single hair. Almost as if made of marble, if marble were completely non-porous. “My, what’s happened to you?”

Ash flinched and then understanding what he was asking, sighed. “A long story.”

“We have some time,” he said motioning to the sky before returning his attention back to Ash and kissing her hand with icy lips.

She glanced over to Tristan, their exchanged looks full of words that didn’t need to be spoken, or telepathically absorbed. They hadn’t even realized they were at that point yet, where they understood each other by just a look and Mamoru smiled lovingly at the bond they shared, lamenting his own love life, or lack thereof.

With a little nod, Ash said, “We are going to Gytheio for the night. Will you join us? We can talk in the comfort of a room.”

Netty, sensing the other’s unease shifted his gaze to them. “You agree?”

Mamoru nodded, though only just. Tristan sighed, giving his own reluctant acknowledgement. He trusted Ash’s judgment and whatever Mamoru’s instincts were telling him. Though, he’d hoped that he and Ash could spend some time together alone before whatever else they had planned, but he realized that alone time with Ash was like finding a unicorn. Wherever they went he could never find that fucking unicorn.

Mamoru snickered and gave Tristan a hard pat on the back. Netty too, hearing the American’s tired thoughts, smirked. Ash frowned. She really hated not hearing what Tristan was thinking, hated it even more that this was some misguided pythia—an antediluvian even—that was messing with her, forcing her to face herself and accept fully what she was or balk and just die.

“Yes,” Innokentiy said as he turned them around to head back down the hill. “I’d imagine. Tell me, what happened? You… you feel human.”

“I suppose,” she muttered with a sour pout, “I nearly am.”

The two Uruwashi fell in behind the vampires with their heads tilted towards one another in soft conversation. Ash was explaining to Innokentiy how she came to be caught by his scion and had been spelled down. The older vampire spared a look back to Tristan, really seeing him for a change.

The fingers gripping Tristan’s gun tightened and he forced himself not to let his finger slip onto the trigger. He didn’t trust the guy a breath but understanding just how outmatched they were with Genoveva, they really could use the older vampire’s help.

By the time they found a place to park in Gytheio, Netty was all caught up on current events. The fact that Ash didn’t even offer her neck to the man to just glean all the info in a single swallow of blood was a relief to Tristan that he’d make a point of thanking her on later. It was against their nature, but she did it for him.

“I see,” Innokentiy was saying, shaking his head.

Mamoru, taking on the body language of a paid bodyguard, slipped out of the driver’s seat and into the cool night. A soft drop of water hit Tristan on the forehead that wasn’t from the ocean wind as he got out to join Mamoru and he sighed. At least they weren’t going to be soaked again. He was really getting tired of being wet.

“I’ll find us some rooms,” the Japanese man said stiffly and marched off towards the huge hotel that faced the ocean. The vampires both preferred little B&B’s, but in their current situation, blending into a larger crowd was important.

Tristan let go of his held breath and slumped against the car for a moment. The trip into town was less than ten minutes but being in the car with a vampire as utterly old and heady as Netty was almost too much for him to bear. He was going to have to find some sort of sexual outlet soon or he’d go crazy.

Ash gave Tristan a thin smile as she got out of the back and shut the door.

Netty, on the other side, was examining the car as if he was having some sort of telepathic conversation with it. “I don’t think I’ve been in modern transportation this much since the last World War.” Hearing the other’s question in their silence, he looked up and smiled. “I prefer to use my own two feet. Just as fast and simply freeing to have the wind in one’s hair.”

Tristan blanched a little. He knew they moved faster than humans, but didn’t realize it was
that
fast.

“Yes,” Ash said, startling Tristan from his thoughts. “It is freeing. I remember… Goddess, it was more than three centuries ago now, but I remember the night the truce between the vampire and lycan was called. Were you active then?” At Netty’s negative gesture, she smiled sadly. “It was a lovely, cool spring night. We called truce and then the lycan invited us to run with him.”