Plagued: Book 1 (44 page)

“Okay, okay. Well, for one thing. We're
always
friendly with beautiful girls.” He gave me a broad wink. “And you are very beautiful.”

I shook my head, trying to dismiss the compliment.

He wagged one finger at me. “Don't be modest. You're kind of adorable, you know. And what do you mean, human? You're not human.” He gave a snort as though dismissing my humanity as a silly sort of affectation.

I pulled my hand away. “How am I not human?”

“What? You think you're normal?” He reached out one hand to point back towards the world beyond the torii
gate. “Like
them?
”

I nodded. “Of course. What else could I be? What else is
there?”

He laughed even harder. “Sure, right.
Human
. You are really funny, Lexie. What a joker.”

Julian and Hiro were approaching. I could see their tall, slim figures moving towards us.

Taka jumped up and down waving both arms at his brother and making the ground shake.

Rocking back and forth as the earth rippled and I tried to keep my balance, I didn't feel funny. Not at all. “Taka, how am I different?”

Julian began to walk more quickly.

“Taka, please.” I pulled him around to look at me. “
How
am I different?”

The earth spirit gave me a puzzled frown, as though he wasn't sure if I were kidding anymore or not. He opened his mouth to speak just a moment too late. Julian practically ran to my side. It might have been my imagination or a trick of the ghost lights, I thought he looked almost frightened.

"Alexandra!" He grabbed both my hands. "Are you all right?"

For once I felt his concern – and
timing
– was totally unnecessary. I pulled away. "Of course I'm all right. Why wouldn't I be?"

His eyes searched mine. "You really have no idea, do you? About any of this."

Hiro stepped between us, forcing Julian to move back.
"Lexie and I are friends now. She is in no danger from the gods
of this shrine. Indeed, I feel we have an obligation to protect rare young spirits such as hers from being extinguished. I should be very angry with anyone who tried to put out the pure flame that is Lexie Carpenter. Don't you agree, Lake?”

Hiro's last words had a bite to them. A Julian sort of sharp, double-edge, though I wasn't sure I understood why.

One of the crow guys soared down silently from above to hand something to Hiro with a deep bow.

“Here." He handed over a little bag embroidered in purple. "Take this
o-mamori
charm.”

Taka jumped up and tried to grab it. The earth heaved as he landed.“Hey
anikee!
That should be from me,
I'm
an earth spirit!" The younger
kami
made to grab it away. Hiro artfully shifted his body to block his brother's reach.

"Taka is partially right. The charm is endowed with earth energy to help keep you, shall we say, grounded to this world?"

I felt a little overwhelmed, he and Taka were so kind. It wasn't like I was important or anything, still they had gone out of their way to provide me with not one but two magical energy boosts. “Wow, thanks. That's really awesome. Just...um, why are you being so nice to me? I'm nobody. I asked Taka and he just laughed.”

Julian gave a sharp hiss of breath, as though I had done something wrong or dangerous.

Hiro, however, seemed calm and relaxed. He gave me a little bow. “You are in my home. I can at least show you a little hospitality after all you have been through since arriving in Japan.”

“Julian told me Japanese spirits didn't like other magic,
er,
magical things...”

Unexpectedly, Hiro reached out to brush my bangs to one side in a gentle gesture. “You are nothing like the others from that club of fear or their demon slaves. Supernaturals such as ourselves should reach out to one another. My brother has been trying to teach me that lesson. To be less reclusive.”

We
supernaturals? I swallowed, dry mouthed. There it was again. Maybe my non-human state was because I lost my soul. That was why I wasn't strictly like the people around us anymore. Taka
must
have meant it like that. And Hiro as well. Lexi Carpenter was just a girl from Santa Monica who had stumbled into this paranormal world through her own vanity. A stupid, idiotic and very human teenage girl who's mother left her like so much garbage without a backward glance. There couldn't be more to me. Could there?

Taka crossed his arms in front of him and pouted. “You should've let me
give her the charm.”

Hiro whacked him affectionately on the side of the head just like any big brother. “Come, Taka, we have to act on the information Lake has provided.” He gave the slightest bow in Julian's direction.

Julian returned it, a little reluctantly I thought. His back stiff.

Instead of bowing, I waved. We were friends now, Hiro said. He smiled his mysterious smile and Taka, jumping up and down – making the ground rock and roll – waved enthusiastically back.

"We will meet again, Lexie," said Hiro before turning away.

“I hope so.” And I meant it. He was gorgeous. Oh-my-gosh gorgeous and kind. And so was Taka, which reminded me. I pulled out my phone. "Oh, wait! Taka, wait. Give me your cell number!"

Running back, his sandals tossing up the loose gravel, the younger
kami
grabbed my phone and punched in a number. "Awesome," he flashed me a peace sign and gave a smirky sort of grin to his brother. "Lexie and I are going to be text pals."

Julian looked on, wide-eyed. I couldn't help feeling a little pleased that for once, I had done something to surprise the powerful Julian Lake.

Chapter 26

Eat, Drink, and Be Murdered

Hereford was as good as his word. You needed sunglasses to keep the glare of the gorgeous
glitterati
lining up to get in the door of The Harbor from burning a hole in your retinas. The flashing cameras of paparazzi – imported and domestic – lit up the night like missile strikes.

“How many members do you think will come?”

Julian and I stood in the long shadow of the warehouse opposite the brewery/restaurant. Tonight I was wearing a pale lavender Betsey Johnson dress with spaghetti straps, beaded all over and little slash pockets just below the hips. Actually the dress belonged to one of the Club members. Stephanie. She'd lent it to me for a party and I didn't get a chance to return it. Well, the dress was mine now. I suddenly realized the Prada shoes I was wearing the night of my ill-fated birthday party weren't mine either; they belonged to Vanessa. Some people would sell their soul for a pair of designer shoes. It was not meant to be taken literally! Tonight, my shoes were my own. Barely-there silver sandals with three-inch, metal stiletto heels I bought thinking of Savan. A few months ago I wouldn't have been able to even
stand
in them. Vanessa's coaching and deportment lessons had paid off. Now I walked confidently, if painfully, the short, beaded hem of my dress swishing and swaying with every step.

I'd thought about what Taka and Hiro said about me not being human and decided it really must be due to losing my soul. Much as I wanted to believe I was special, I couldn't see it. If I was so special, Mom wouldn't have left. Nor would I have spent most of my childhood on the outside looking in. My definition of special meant “popular” and that had not been me until very recently. Plus the whole attractive part? I knew I was a little cute. Not beautiful or anything. Just cute. I decided losing my soul must make me attractive in a slutty supernatural way. Like, “
Damn
, that girl will go
all the way”
slutty. Lack of soul in the paranormal world probably equated to micro minis, push-up bras and tight, deep V-neck shirts on high school girls. Otherwise, how to explain it?

“Anybody who is anybody is going to show up for this. Club members will come for sure.” He nodded confidently, his eyes on the cars pulling up for valet parking across the street. “All we really need is one. I am hoping it will be Savan. He is an attention whore, your boy. Vanessa is much more cautious and therefore more dangerous. I have crossed paths with her before, in London. She was Captain there, during the time...when I lost...” He hesitated. “Well, that means she is insured of a soul in the next cell. That may not necessarily be you. As I said, there are usually several games going on and it has been two years. We cannot be positive her reward as Captain in London has not already been filled by now. She might have been forced to participate in the lottery like the rest of them.”

“Julian, I still don't understand how they, the Club members, can be these awful, evil people. They were so nice. Everything I looked for in a friend.” And boyfriend, I added silently to myself.

“Precisely. They are like chameleons. Or con artists. Think of them more like that. Masters of fraud and deceit. They became exactly who you needed them to be.”

“How did they know?”

He kept scanning the crowd. “Your emails at first. They are adept at reading emotional and psychological nuance. You gave them everything they needed to charm you.”

“But I was trying to be more grown up, you know, more sophisticated. It wasn't me, I was faking it.”

“Yes it was, Alexandra. Look at you,” his gaze travelled up and down the length of me. “The truth shines through everything you say and do. They were kind, polite, respectful, intelligent, with a sense of humor and always ready to laugh at themselves because they knew very quickly those were the qualities you valued in yourself and others.”

I blushed at the compliment, uncomfortable under his appraising stare. Uncomfortable, too, remembering the way I treated my father over the past few months. “Respectful” was not the word for my dismissal of him from my life.

“Are you doing that as well? Being the person I want you to be?”

Julian gave me a look of incredulity. “Don't talk rubbish.”

After that, we split up. He remained by the entrance and I volunteered to make my way through the large restaurant. Once I found a Club member, I was to get them to come outside, so he could pounce.

We'd been here before, Savan, Vanessa, Anders, and I. Dinner in late March on an unusually warm weekend night, lounging at a table by the water. We watched the boats cruise by on their way to and from Tokyo Bay. I knew what the place usually looked like and it was nothing like this. The gossip columnist took the simple lines of the restaurant's large interior space and transformed it into a sumptuous, theatrical tapestry of deep red velvet curtains and opulent floral displays overflowing with color. A buffet and another wet bar were set up out on the waterside deck surrounded by tables and chairs. The tempting arrangement of food sat dwarfed by a life-size ice sculpture of a snarling panther. Obviously an
homage
to the Albert Einstein's lead singer. His last name, Pantera, meant panther. Cruisers, party boats and little launches sailed past far closer than was safe, crowded with curiosity seekers and more paparazzi, cameras popping. Hereford held court in the VIP section, roping off one end of the spacious main dining room. Four large men in tuxedos stood guard. For some unknown reason, Tokyo nightlife was full of burly foreigners guarding the entrance to lounges and dance clubs. They certainly were more intimidating than their smaller Japanese counterparts.

At the VIP tables I recognized the lead singer and bassist from the Albert Einsteins, just as Julian promised. Stopping to stare, actually unable
not
to stop and stare. I couldn't believe I was standing just a few yards from Albert Pantera. Tall, handsome, dark hair waving over his shoulders. His You Tube videos did
not
do him justice. That
mouth!
Oh my. He would have been too pretty if not for the broken nose. A prize from a rugby game in high school, according to his bio, that skewed his features just enough to make him rugged instead of girly. Catching me staring, he winked and I went weak at the knees. If only Brianna and Isobel were here. Why hadn't I thought to bring my camera? All three of us had major crushes on him. I hadn't even emailed them in weeks. What a lousy friend I was. Wait, cell phone. Whipping it out of my tiny evening bag, I snapped a series of pictures. Standing next to the singer, Bobby's face was as joyful as all the plastic surgery would allow. Basking in the reflected glow of real fame. Somehow pitiful that. The guards let a gushing couture-clad group wearing much too much makeup – both the men and the women – through the ropes and I lost sight of the singer.

Remembering my mission, I reluctantly tore myself away from the VIP zone. A couple of weeks ago I would have been sitting there with them while my supposed friends sipped their cocktails and licked their lips over my soul.

“Move on, Lexie,” I chided myself. That was then, this is now.

Some of the Awesome Posse showed up. No surprise there. This was precisely their sort of thing and, as I'd observed before, foreigners almost never got carded in Tokyo. On my nights out with the Club, I often saw girls who couldn't have been out of middle school crowding popular clubs.

Standing a little apart from the group was the most awesome member of the Awesome Posse, Amber Lynne McCarthy herself. She was wearing a tiny, strapless red dress, held on by a wish, a prayer and some double-sided sticky tape. Boy-toy Tony was not in evidence. Perhaps she was looking for an upgrade. She saw me as well. Her eyes widened and she turned pointedly away. Tossing back the drink in her hand, she waved the bartender over for another.

My phone buzzed and I was not entirely surprised to get a flurry of texts from the younger
kami
, Taka. We'd been talking off and on ever since my visit to Meiji Shrine. Or rather, he texted me about a hundred different things squeezed in at once and I tried to keep up. Despite asking him repeatedly, the
kami
refused to elaborate on his comment about me not being strictly human.

He wanted to come to the party:
smiley face, smiley face
.

“Julian and I are working!” I texted.

The un-smiley face came back in triplicate.

Around midnight, Julian got his wish. Savan strolled past the DJ booth and up to the bar. I spotted him immediately. Maybe
felt
him was closer to the sensation that slithered snakelike across my nervous system. My senses seemed sharper since my birthday: sight, smell, hearing, plus something else, something I could not explain logically. I just
knew
he had arrived. He glanced across the room, sizing up the crowd and our eyes met. A look of shock passed briefly over his features before he could compose himself. Pull that smiling mask firmly back in place. I started to make my way along the crowded bar over to him when Amber Lynne stepped in front of me, blocking my path, an oversized martini glass in one hand and cigarette dangling in the other.

“You think you're so great, don't you Tod?” The words were slurred. This must have been her third or fourth drink. “Going to be the new queen of the school,” she gestured with the glass and some of the liquid sloshed out. “Everybody's
darling
.” She pushed me with the hand holding the cigarette, stabbing with her forefinger and dropping ash on the beautiful Betsey Johnson.

I felt a power I never knew was in me. Maybe it was Julian's concoction powering me up. Whatever, it radiated out like a shock wave from an explosion and Amber Lynne was standing at ground zero. Her face changed as the wave of energy hit her. The glass fell from her fingers shattering on the hard, wooden floor. She put that hand in front of her as though to ward off a blow, backing away. I grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her closer.

“Listen to me you stupid, selfish, egotistical idiot. Evil is out there looking for you, Amber Lynne McCarthy. If you're not careful, it will find you and eat you alive.” Leaving her standing, face flushed, I stalked over to my ex-boyfriend and stood in front him, my hands on my hips.

“Alexandra, darling girl! You are safe. I have been so worried.”

I slapped him, hard. “You bastard, you left me! Everything you told me was a lie!”

He grabbed my wrist as I moved to slap him again. For the briefest moment, I saw something very dangerous flicker across his face before the expression passed and he composed himself to look at me contritely, his big brown eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

“Just drop the innocent boyfriend act. Julian told me all about you.” I tried to twist my arm out of his grasp, but he held it firmly.

“Julian? Julian who?”

“Julian Lake.” It was only after I said it that I remembered his presence was supposed to be a secret.
Damn
.

“Of course, of course, Julian Lake. Yes, we know. That's why we have been staying away from you.”

He was working hard to cover the slip. I was pretty sure he had no idea what Julian I was talking about at first.

“Lake. That madman isn't after you, he came for Vanessa. Really. She was in London a couple of years ago and became friends with that girl connected to Julian. Carol or Karen or something. He couldn't accept her wasting away from illness, the anemia. No one's fault. People have to blame somebody, right? Now he is fixated on Vanessa and anyone she befriends. Tracked her here to Tokyo and his naughty list includes me, Anders, Lilly, whoever. We're guilty by association.” Savan spoke in a low, sonorous voice. The voice I remembered whispering “I love you” in my ear, the voice that talked to me, beguiling away the hours over the past few months. Late night conversations of hushed feelings and shared secrets, the little intimacies tying me to him with silken threads.

“We haven't seen him for some months. Must have gone off his medication or something. The boy has a Romeo and Juliet complex. Alexandra, he is a dangerous stalker who has made Vanessa's life miserable. All our lives. We got away from you as soon as we saw him. For your own safety, of course.  As long as he doesn't think you are part of the group...” His voice trailed off.

“Well, he found me. What now?”

“You need to come with me, I hoped that by removing myself and the others, it would keep you safe. Obviously that has not worked.” He pulled me close, wrapping me tightly in his arms. “Come. I can protect you, care for you. You must leave this in my hands now. No one can care for you better than I. God, you still smell so delicious, even after.”

“After what?”

He didn't answer; only holding me closer. “You still have one secret left to take. One that could be all mine.”

His voice was so sincere. The touch of his hands on my skin sent a thrill along every nerve. Being with him opened up feelings, longings, I had kept firmly hidden away since that awful morning of my awakening. Savan had meant so much to me, it was,
is
, still a physical longing. How could I bear to part from him forever? That handsome, familiar face smiled into mine. Bending forward, he cupped my chin, kissing my forehead, my cheeks. “Alexandra, dearest, my love, come away with me.”