Chapter 5 #2
“Grass is greener over a septic tank. No matter how good someone has it, that person always thinks someone else has it better or easier. And instead of being grateful for what they do have, they want what they perceive someone else has that they lack or that it’s something that person they hate doesn’t deserve.
My father was a fool for envying mankind, and the worst part is that he knows it, but will never admit it.
If he did, he could return to the fold. But that will never happen. ”
“If that’s true, I almost feel sorry for him.”
Luke snorted hard. “Don’t. Sympathy for the Devil is a Rolling Stones’ song. At the end of the day, my father will never repent or admit he was wrong. You know the old saying, better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
“Is that how you feel about it?”
“I reign nowhere and never have. Don’t want to. I’m just a spoiled kid who isn’t happy he got tossed out on his ass without warning. Ambition wasn’t in my vocabulary until a year ago when I found myself naked and freezing on a Savannah sidewalk.”
She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth. “Is that really what happened?”
He nodded slowly.
Sorcha winced in empathetic pain. “That must have been awful.”
“Yeah. I had clothes on when I was tossed. I don’t know if it was my dad or Sorath who thought it’d be funny to remove them when they dumped me in the human world. Either way, I’m still not amused by it.”
“Sorath?”
“One of the fallen angels who chose the wrong side.” He sighed. “Had Imp not been with me when I was banished, I don’t know what I’d have done.”
Leave it to Helly. “She got you clothes?”
He shook his head. “I can conjure those and I was quickly in a parka before the old lady in front of me could scream and call the police…then again, given the lecherous smile on her face, I don’t really think that was her intention with her phone.
Pretty sure there are photos of me naked online somewhere. ”
She laughed even though there was a part of her that wondered if she’d be able to find those photos.
“I heard that.” Luke winked at her.
Heat filled her cheeks at his teasing tone.
Clearing her throat, she gestured at his work. “Anyway, what is all this on your board?” It looked like he’d been busy on their case after she’d left him last night.
There was a preliminary police report. Police pictures from the crime scene and a list of possible perps off to the side.
“Yeah,” he said, dropping his deep voice a full octave. “I bet you want to see my full board, baby.”
She growled at his suggestive tone, even though he was good looking enough to get away with what would be offensive from anyone else. Reyes was right. He was definitely a handful. “Would you stop! I’m here to work.”
“A’ight.” He picked up a remote and turned the board on.
Which made her curious about one thing. “Why do you have physical pictures taped to it? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having a smart board?”
“Lazy. I haven’t put the files into the system yet, and there are things I’m not sure about. Don’t want to go to the trouble of adding photos and info until I know I need to. It tends to clutter my thinking.”
That made sense. “Gotcha.” She walked closer and saw a list that was written on what appeared to be old parchment. “What’s this?”
“Quick list I made of soul-eaters.”
It was quite long. She pulled it down so that she could read it.
Revenants, Wendigo, Vampires, Draugr, Lamia, Ammit the Devourer, Wanyudo, Soucouyant, Bakeneko, Nekomata, Daimons, Valravn, Bubak, Ankou, Cat-sith, Kasha, Raven Mocker, Shinigami, Slaugh, Boo hag and witches.
The last one made her curious. “Bit prejudiced to put witches on here. They don’t kill and eat children, you know? One of my best friends is a witch.”
“Trish isn’t the only kind of witch out there.
Like Trish, there are those who use it as a religion, and I mean them no disrespect.
Then there are the Witchbreeds who are born with powers.
Those are where the old legends and stories come from.
They are completely different from religious witches or Wiccans.
Honestly, we should come up with another term for the Breeds because they do blacken the names of those who are honest and decent. ”
A knock sounded on his door.
“Come in, Yuichi.”
The door opened to show a young man around thirty. Sorcha was five seven and he was maybe an inch taller with jet black hair and sweet brown eyes.
Luke inclined his head to him. “Sorcha meet Detective Nagata Yuichi.”
“You go by your last name?”
Yuichi smiled. “I’m Japanese and Luke is honoring me by saying my name as we do. Family name first.”
Oh. “Sorry. I knew that. I just wasn’t thinking. Not enough caffeine yet.” She took a sip of her coffee that was perfect.
“All good.” He gave Luke an arch stare. “Got your text that you wanted to see me. What did you need, big guy?”
“Talk to me about Wanyudo, Bakeneko, Nekomata, Kasha and Shinigami.”
He gave him a stern frown. “I’m sure you know they’re yokai.”
“Yeah. And?”
Yuichi shrugged. “They’re different kinds of yokai? Not sure what you’re asking me.”
Luke jerked his chin toward the paper in her hands. “We’re looking at soul-eaters. Since those yokai are more your wheelhouse than mine, I wanted to ask you about them. Would any of them be interested in murdering a college student and taking her soul?”
Yuichi screwed up his face as he considered that.
“The Wanyudo are nasty bastards. Not only do they steal souls, they eat children and torture their parents with it. When they appear, it’s always a male face in the center of a burning wheel.
Legends say that if you see them you’ll die and they take your soul.
Or if you have a child, they’ll kill the child instead and take the kid’s soul. ”
Sorcha felt sick to her stomach. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Not my favorite yokai. They’re so bad, my mom didn’t even use them to threaten me with when I was a kid. She was too afraid of them to mention their name.”
“What about the others?” Luke asked.
“Bakeneko, Nekomata, and Kasha are roughly the same. They’re all kaibyō…
cat yokai. Bakeneko and Nekomata are often confused with each other and they overlap.
They have a lot of shared abilities. Biggest difference is a Bakeneko has one tail and a Nekomata has two.
There are some tales that they have taken souls, but they usually prey on those who deserve a bad end.
It’s said that they take the souls to make sure evil doesn’t return to this life through reincarnation or any other means.
Kasha are also Bakeneko, but they usually eat a corpse, not a soul.
There might be something written about souls with them, but I’d have to research it.
Like I said, they normally eat corpses.”
Luke nodded. “Thanks. That helps. I can mark them off the list.” He took the paper from Sorcha’s hand and used his finger to strike through the names as he’d already done with the vampires. Another impressive power. “Any other soul-eaters in Japan?”
Yuichi considered it for a few seconds. “You mentioned the Shinigami, but they don’t take souls.
While they’re attracted to places of violent death, they go there to possess someone…
usually someone evil so that they can cause more evil.
” He smirked at Sorcha. “They are definitely something my mom used to scare me with as a kid and it’s why she hates my job.
She’s terrified I might come in contact with one and cause it to stalk and kill me because I’m evil for not calling my mother more often. ”
She could relate. “My mom loved the boogeyman. That and the invisible venomous snakes under my bed she swore would bite me if I left it after bedtime. ’Course that ended after I peed in my bed because I was too afraid to go to the bathroom. Wish I’d done that sooner.”
They laughed.
She looked at Luke. “What did your mom scare you with?”
He shrugged. “That she’d tear my throat out and eat my heart if I disobeyed her.”
Not what she was expecting to hear. “No, she didn’t!”
“Hellhound. They do that to misbehaving pups. If you can’t listen, you don’t deserve to live. Why would I doubt her? Not to mention, she could always say she’d let the devil have me…and in my childhood that really meant something.”
“Well…” Yuichi cleared his throat. “I’ll never complain about my mom threatening me with yokai again. I’d much rather have those fears than yours.” He looked back at Luke. “Anything else I can help with?”
“That’s it. Thanks for narrowing the list.”
“Anytime. If I think of something else, I’ll let you know.” Yuichi left them alone.
Sorcha took the list back from Luke and looked at what was left. Revenants, Wendigo, Draugr, Daimons, Lamia, Ammit the Devourer, Souruita, Valravn, Bubak, Ankou, Cat-sith, Raven Mocker, Slaugh, Boo Hag and witches.
She took another drink of her coffee. “Why did you need to consult Yuichi? Didn’t you know the difference between the yokai?”
“I’m not omniscient. And while I have a general knowledge of many paranormal creatures, I don’t know intricate details about the ones I never interact with.
Like you know Germans live in Germany. You might even know some of the language, but chances are you don’t know what their favorite communal brand of beer is or what time they usually sit down for dinner.
What kind of Easter traditions they celebrate, etcetera. ”
“Point taken. But being who you are, I would have thought you’d have interacted with most of the paranormal creatures.”
“First, not my thing. Again, I was a lazy, useless layabout. In Hell, ambition will get you horribly tortured. So the only ambition I had was to stay in my room as much as possible and remain on my father’s lesser bad side.”
“You mean good side?”
“He doesn’t have a good side. Or even a blind side. You step into his presence and you’re risking a lot.”
Okay, then…
She returned her attention to his list. “Are vampires really a thing?”
He arched a brow at her question. “You lived in New Orleans and you don’t know?”
“Never saw one…other than cosplayers and those who identified as vampires.”
“Then be grateful. Daimons and vampires love to steal souls. Though it’s more a Daimon thing than a vampire one, and the body was dumped in daylight.
Back in the day, that would have precluded Daimons, too…
now, maybe not. A lot of them have converted so that they can walk in daylight again.
But it definitely takes vampires off the list. They hate daytime almost as much as I do.
” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and texted someone.
“Law enforcement?” she asked.
He shook his head, then rocked his head side to side as if reconsidering the no. “I guess he could be considered law enforcement, just not for humans.”
“Like us, then?”
“No. Dark-Hunter.”