The Name of the Blade, Book Two: Darkness Hidden (15 page)

“I’m going to try,” I said.
I’ll die trying if I have to
.

A sizzling ring of blue-white lightning sprang up on the grass a step away from me and Shinobu. Hikaru danced back quickly, just avoiding getting his paws scorched. The long tendrils of lightning twined and pulsed, growing until the ring was big enough for a person to pass through. The grass within the lightning ring disappeared, leaving a dark hole. We stepped forward to stand on the edge.

“Geronimo?” Shinobu murmured.

I nodded. Rachel stepped off the edge and disappeared. Shinobu and I jumped into the darkness together.

“Good luck!” Hikaru shouted after us. “And remember – don’t die!”

My first instinct on walking through the kitchen door was to keep going straight out the front one, and then on until we found this mysterious bookshop and its owner. But common sense – and a strong need to pee – got in the way. A glance at the clock over the sink in the kitchen showed that it wasn’t eight o’clock in the morning yet. Would the being open his doors this early? Would he even be awake?

I ran to the loo and tidied myself up a bit, then found the katana’s harness in the living room where I’d left it last night. I fitted the sword into place and buckled up. When I came back, Shinobu was waiting for me in the kitchen, alone. I turned to him questioningly. My face must have given away my anxiety.

“Rachel is using the bathroom upstairs,” he assured me quickly, stepping forward to take me in his arms. “She seemed normal. Calm.”

I let out a long sigh, leaning my head against him and feeling myself relax, just a tiny bit. “Good. That’s … good.”

“What did the king tell you?” Shinobu asked very quietly. I knew he wasn’t asking for more details about the bookshop owner this time.

“Nothing useful,” I admitted. “She – she basically said we had to wait and see. God. If I—”

I heard light footsteps on the stairs and shut my mouth hurriedly as Shinobu and I broke apart. Rachel popped in a second later with a casual greeting. She’d washed her face, changed her T-shirt, and pulled her hair back into a neat French plait. She looked tidy, healthy, and totally herself. There was no reason for the sight of her to send that quick chill down my spine.

I don’t know what I’m becoming…
she had said.

I opened my mouth with no idea what I was going to say, but before I could speak, a tinny, annoying tune suddenly filled the air. “Wind Beneath My Wings”? It took me a blink to realize that it was my phone. At some point Jack must have reprogrammed my ringtone again. I fumbled it out of my pocket.
Euw, don’t let it be my dad…

“Hello?”

“Hey, She-Ra.” The voice was low and bruised-sounding, but there was no mistaking my best friend.

“Jack!” Shinobu and Rachel both hurried to my side as I went on. “How are you doing? Are you OK?”

There was a muffled cough. “Great. Perfect. Place is like…” She stopped, sounding as if she was trying to catch her breath. “You know, a spa. What are you up to?”

Rachel prodded my arm. “Let me talk to her.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “Sorry, Jack, just Rachel being bossy. We just got back from the spirit realm. We talked to the king.”

“Sounds like … fun,” she said raspily. “How did that work out? No – wait – turn video call on?”

I obeyed, beckoning Rachel and Shinobu to stand behind me so that when I turned the phone sideways and held it up, Jack could see all of us.

My phone showed Jack lying back in her hospital bed, hair standing up in uncombed tufts around her face. Her skin had a funny, chalky quality. It made her look almost grey, especially next to the livid purple rash on her face. There were deep shadows around her eyes and under her cheekbones, which stood out painfully sharply. It had been less than a day since I’d seen her last – how was it possible that she had lost so much weight?

“Hi, guys. How’s it going?”

I bit my lip, trying to get my reaction to Jack’s appearance under control.

“Fine. What’s going on there?” Rachel asked, surging into the silence I had left. “Are they treating you OK? Do you need anything?”

Jack shrugged a little, sending the neckline of her hospital gown slipping off one shoulder. I could see the ugly purplish marks spreading down over her chest. “Like I said. Fine—”

Her voice cut off as she started coughing again, turning her face away from the screen. For a second all we had was a blurred shot of a hospital pillow as the phone jerked in Jack’s hands. Harsh, dry coughing barked down the line, followed by ragged breaths.

Rachel turned away with a muttered swear word. She pulled the band from the end of her plait and yanked her hands through the wavy strands of her hair so hard that I was surprised she didn’t pull half of it out. My own fingers had gone bloodless as they clutched at the phone. The plastic case let out an ominous crack. Shinobu reached out and steadied my grip before I could drop it or crush it.

“Jack-san?” he asked gently. “Are you still there?”

“Wait… Wait. I’m … here.” Jack’s face came back into view. Her voice was even rougher and she was clearly fighting for air, but she acted like the coughing fit had never happened. “You … find out anything useful … from the Kitsune?”

“Yeah, we think so. We’re about to head out to do some investigating. We’ll figure it out soon,” Rachel promised, her voice unnaturally cheerful.

Jack’s sunken eyes seemed to brighten. “Really? Good work … team. Be careful … out there … though.”

“Don’t worry about us,” I said firmly, finally getting my voice back. “I’m a badass, remember?”

She snorted feebly. “Says … who?”

“Says the Nekomata. Except – oh, it can’t, because I lopped its head off and threw it in the Thames. Booyah.”

Jack let out a tiny laugh.
Success
. Then the laugh turned into a short, nasty cough and I felt worse than ever. After a couple of gasps, Jack nodded. “Yeah … all right. You can pull … the badass thing … off.”

“I will keep an eye on both of them,” Shinobu promised, solemnly.

“Yes. You just worry about taking care of yourself,” Rachel said. “Call us again if you need anything.”

“Will do. Catch you later … space cadets. Good … luck.”

The screen went dark.

We all stood, motionless, staring at the blank screen of the phone, for a long moment. Finally I lowered my hand and shoved the phone back into my pocket.

“She looks so…” Rachel said softly, moving behind the island to collapse down onto one of the kitchen stools.

“We did not lie to her,” Shinobu said. “The Kitsune King has given us a valuable piece of information, and we will follow it wherever it leads us.”

“But she’s all alone there, and she’s so sick.” Rachel stared blankly at the floor, then raised her eyes to mine hopefully. “I feel a lot better. Almost like normal. I could go back to the hospital and visit her.”

“No!” The protest shot out of my lips like a bullet. I saw Shinobu wince, and cleared my throat.
Shit
. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. We need you with us.”

Rachel’s eyes, which had gone wide when I shouted so suddenly, slowly narrowed. “You want to keep me away from Jack.”

“No, it’s not that.” I stopped. “Well, maybe a little bit. We agreed she was better off without us there, right?”

There was another humming pause as Rachel got off the kitchen stool and stood facing me from the other side of the breakfast bar. “What did the king tell you about me? I’m not stupid, Mio. I know you asked her, but you haven’t said a word. What did she say?”

I forced myself to meet her eyes, even though I wanted to squeeze mine shut.
You can’t be a coward as well as an idiot
.

“Well?”

I thought frantically, trying to present the king’s words in the best light. “She said … not many people survive a Nekomata bite. The ones that do sometimes develop strange abilities, like strength or speed, or even just really good vision.”

“And?”

I hesitated.

“For God’s sake!” She spoke through gritted teeth. I could see tiny yellow sparks swirling in her eyes. “For once in your life stop trying to spin everything and just tell the truth!”

“OK. I’m trying, OK?” I said slowly, lifting my hands in a calming gesture. “She said that some people – they – they mutate. And there’s no way to know if it’ll happen to you. If it does you might start to … lose control.”

“That’s it? That’s all she said? I don’t think so.” Her eyes went far away, drifting past me as if she was seeing something else, something in her own head. “She told you I could turn into a monster, didn’t she? It’s going to happen again. Just like before. Me and the Nekomata all alone, together, in the dark – only this time it’s inside me … and I can never ever get away…” She put her hands over her face.

My eyes swam with tears, turning her into a blur. I moved around the breakfast bar towards her, hand outstretched. “Rachel.”

Shinobu caught my shoulder and jerked me back as the katana let out a furious buzz of energy against my back. I staggered and clutched at the end of the countertop for balance. The tears trickled down my cheeks, clearing my vision.

One of Rachel’s hands still covered her eyes. Her other arm was fully extended, hand fisted in midair – on the air where my face had been one second before. Curving obsidian claws protruded grotesquely from the ends of her delicate fingers. The soft brown hair curling over her shoulders began to move as I stared, squirming around her head like a nest of worms.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” The words came out on a low, guttural snarl. Her hand slid away from her face to reveal blazing yellow eyes.

Shinobu was pulling at me, trying to drag me away from her, but I couldn’t go. I couldn’t leave her alone. Not again.

“Rachel—”

“This is all your fault!” she hissed. “You did this to me!”

“No, no, no—” I didn’t even know if I was denying Rachel’s words or just begging the world for this to stop, for time to turn back, for this all to be a bad dream.

Rachel surged up onto the breakfast bar, sending plates and tea mugs flying. Her hair – black and glossy now – was writhing around her head. Both hands bristled with claws. Veins of darkness arrowed out around her eyes, as if her blood was turning black inside her.

“You…” she growled low in her throat. “You have to
pay
…”

She sank down into a catlike crouch, horrifyingly alien – and sprang at us. Shinobu dived left. I spun to the right.

The black claws grazed my cheek, opening lines of fire on my skin. Rachel landed in that same cat-crouch on the ground. Her talons dug into the floor, gouging chips out of the ceramic tiles and leaving a smear of blood – my blood – there. Warm rivulets slithered down my cheek.

Shinobu darted between us, his hands held up in a futile gesture of peace. “Do not do this, Rachel-san. This is your home. This is your family. You are loved and safe here.”

“Liar!” she shrieked. The word hit a high, yowling tone. It was the Nekomata’s voice coming out of Rachel’s mouth. My whole body jerked in reaction.

“Get out of my way!” She lunged at Shinobu. There was a wild confusion of movements that I could barely follow – Rachel striking and slashing, Shinobu blocking and dodging and struggling to hold her back without hurting her. One of Rachel’s arms seemed to elongate in the air, bending in a way no human joint could. He ducked. She knocked him off balance and surged past.

The next instant she was at my throat. The sheer weight of her – too great for her height and frame – slammed me back into the breakfast bar. One of her hands dug painfully into my hair while the other clamped onto my neck. Her claws pricked at my skin. Not quite piercing the surface. Not yet. She smelled familiar and homely, like Jack but with a bit more soap. Yet her breath, ghosting over my face, was the Nekomata’s breath. Hot and sickly sweet with decay.

The yellow intensity of her gaze found mine. The hate and fury and triumph burning there was terrible. But the misery I was sure I could see lurking behind them was so much worse.
Oh, Rachel, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…

Slowly her yellow eyes lost their deadly focus on my face. A frown of confusion pinched at her brows. Her gaze slid down to where the narrow silver smile of my katana rested against her belly.

One twitch of my hand. The faintest pressure. That was all it would take for my blade to slice open her stomach.

The katana hummed eagerly in my hand. I couldn’t hear its voice in my head yet, not yet, but I could feel its desire, its yearning to strike out, to kill.

Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood. I didn’t relax when the yellow eyes finally lifted back to meet mine, even as their vivid cat colour leached away into a soft, natural brown. Her hair still snaked around her face, and the dark veins still showed on her skin.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “Sorry.”

“Me too,” I breathed, not daring to move.

Rachel nodded, setting tentacles of hair shivering, jellylike, over her shoulders. I felt the sharp points of her claws retract into blunt human fingernails and her grip ease. “Take care of Jack.”

“Wait—”

She let go of me, whirled round, and ran for the back door, limbs blurring with speed. The door flew open. She was through it before it had banged once, gone before I could even lower my sword.

“Rachel!” I stumbled forward, staring at the empty garden in disbelief. She couldn’t have disappeared so fast! “Rachel, come back! Please…”

Shinobu stopped me from plunging outside. “It is no use now.”

“What?” I turned on him furiously. “How can you say that? We have to go after her and bring her back!” The intensity of the sword’s energy was flooding my body with adrenaline, heightening all my feelings of guilt, of horror, of rage. I
would
go after her. I would
make
her see sense. I would force her to—

“How?” he asked, as if he was responding to my thoughts. “The only way to get her back into this house would be to fight her.” He gestured to the naked blade in my hand. “Whichever of you won, you would both lose.” His jaw clenched and I realized that he was struggling with his own feelings. He let out a short, ragged huff of breath. “Sometimes the only thing you can do is let go.”