Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
AKIRA
Maybe I’m just a dramatic dickhead, but I kept my eyes lowered as the SCU van sped us through the streets.
This city used to be my playground. Days spent in the dirt of it, the noise, the fast pace, hunting across every inch of it.
I didn’t wanna do anything. There were too many memories skipping around in the forests of my head, and I didn’t need any forgotten ones coming to the party. Yeah, there were some fun ones, but they were always followed by the baddies.
Let me bury my head in the sand. Let me make the empowering choice to say that shit belonged over there, while the new me belonged in the here and now. Slaying a blobby chicken didn’t mean a new, violent dawn for me. Fuck that. I wanted my quiet life, anger and terror be damned.
I’m gonna lose him…
Drunken butterflies tore up my belly. I felt full of dread, forcing my right foot to constantly tap, tap, tap on the van floor.
Hold it together.
Easier said than done.
I flashed back to a good memory anyway. A cold winter’s morning at The Teacup on Grays Inn Road, a café run by two married day vampires, Lucy and Polly, who’d be coming to the wedding.
It sat below my flat and served an elite ‘Full English’ brekkie.
Perfect for bracing winter days. A place full of laughter and the stories the late Mrs. Wallace used to tell.
Man, I loved my talks with her on the bench outside. She loved my baking, a real superfan. I missed the vamps, who were once my neighbors. They still lived there, and the café was still going strong.
An elite breakfast cut through any gloom.
I miss my flat.
Pfft. That stray little voice could fuck off.
City boy Akira = DEAD!
Country boy Akira = THE ONLY FUCKING WAY!
The flat I loved. My friends I loved, even though I’d been neglecting them as well as my family.
The city itself? Hard pass.
Eventually, we reached the outskirts of Camden, plunging into an underground carpark beneath two non-descript buildings. At first, we were enveloped by pure darkness, then a veil of golden light shimmered to life around the first bend.
The van slowed to pass through the anti-magic barriers, a series of soft electrical shocks shooting up my arms.
G took my hand. “Okay?”
I gave him a squeeze. “Yeah. You good?”
A small nod, his attention focused on the windscreen.
The van passed through three more veils before taking a steep slope into a darker section of the carpark. A few anemic lights spotlit the parking spaces, leaving the rest of the area cloaked in shadows.
“We’re here,” the driver announced.
Yeah, no shit.
The agents did their thing—opening the doors, then shepherding us through a doorway down a long concrete corridor with the same weak lighting above our heads.
My skin prickled with goosebumps, the air chilly down here. I should send my babies ahead to scope the place out, but my head felt, well, too full.
London again.
The heart of all the storms.
G stayed close to me as we passed loads of closed metal doors, making like six right turns before we reached a set of double doors with a red light blinking above them.
“Fancy spilling the beans on where we are?” I asked an agent.
She smiled, placing her palm on the white panel left of the doors.
The light turned green, and the doors opened inward.
Immediately, familiar voices hit me. Sarah, Riku, Uncle Ryoka.
“Whoa!” I cried, dashing forward, a spring in my step.
There they were, my family, including Zach.
He beamed at me, and I beamed right back, charging at him for a massive bro bear hug.
Man, did I crush him hard, his presence a massive comfort. I felt his gun holster press against me. He never left the house without it nowadays.
“It’s Aki!” Riku declared, scurrying over to wrap his arms around my legs.
I chuckled, pulling back from Zach, meeting his single silver eye, a blue eyepatch covering the loss of his left one.
His small, elven mark remained under his right eye. Even though he’d lost his elf and wolf nature to save his life, the color of his eye and the mark were reminders of the elvish blood he used to have.
Should I tell him I saw a fake version of his mum? We talked about almost everything, our bond solid. But I didn’t wanna upset him. She’d almost killed him, used me to take both his elf and wolf nature to curse the moon. After that, he’d had to live a new life as a human.
Zach smiled, using sign language to say hi and a, “Long time no see.”
Oof. Hit me right in the feels.
We shared the same skin-tone and the same slender build, though he was a little taller than me. He always rocked torn jeans and some cool T-shirt. Tonight’s was a dark, bottle-green with three golden leaves on it. To me, it looked awesome.
I signed a greeting back at him, having become fluent in it to communicate with my deaf brother. Mentioned how much I loved his new hairdo.
His wavy, raven-black hair once came down to his lower back. Now it was shorter, cut into a stylish design similar to a Korean Perm. It really suited him. And those soft, honey-blond highlights made it pop.
Riku cleared his throat, requiring attention.
I scooped him up.
By the tenshi, this little fella was getting taller by the month. Already six, his sleek, jet-black hair was like our dad’s, but his eyes the sparkling blue of his mum’s.
“How you doing, Lil Bro?” I asked.
He flung his arms around my neck, tilting his head as he inspected me. “Hungry. You look tired, Big Bro.”
“Thanks.”
“Take a nap.” He beeped my nose.
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Want to see my new toys?” he asked.
“I’d love to.”
He smiled, turning to face his mum. “Soon, Mum says. Important business here first.” He sighed. “Can I go back to the floor, please?”
I laughed again. “Sure thing.” I put him down, but then he went to Zach for the same elevated treatment.
Once done, the little fella gave us both a thumbs up, followed by a flicker of sadness in his eyes. Unless I misread the subtle hint. I mean, I wasn’t having the best day, so maybe it was just me. All the same, I knew I saw something.
Riku went over to the big table in the middle of the room, a plethora of coloring books and crayons laid out for him. He got to work, quickly losing himself in some project.
“How are you feeling?” Zach signed to me.
“Happy to see you here,” I signed in return.
“Likewise, matey,” he said.
He was my dude, as well as little Riku.
Yeah, whenever you deign to see him. And what about the little fella? When does he get a look in?
I cracked my knuckles, ignoring my inner scolding of truth.
The facts burned hot and unwelcome sometimes.
G and Zach bumped fists, my fiancé also versed in sign language because he was so fucking awesome.
I went over to Sarah and Uncle Ryoka next.
He shook my hand first, pulling me into a hug.
“Konnichiwa, Akira-san,” he said, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey. It’s good to see you.”
Clean-shaven and bald now, he still rocked his favorite white tracksuit, making it work, looking sharp.
He divided his time between the UK and Japan, the legendary swordsmith the world knew as Ryoka Takeda now retired.
He was living his best life with his cat Shelly, the black cat currently sleeping on a purple cat bed in the corner.
Bless her.
“I’m glad to see you safe,” I added.
“As am I.” He touched my face affectionately.
Sarah stood with her hands folded behind her, dressed in a crimson suit, her blonde hair tied into a ponytail. She appeared regal, with perfect posture and a lot of warmth about her.
We hugged. I’d learned to respect her a lot over the years, coming a long way from keeping her at arm’s length while my dad was alive.
She greeted G next, pleasantries exchanged while my temples began to ache. There was only so much distraction I could muster before reality bit me on the booty again.
“I’m sorry for having to bring you here,” Sarah said. “These are dangerous times.” With a glance at Riku, she called for his nanny.
The older woman, Donna, arrived to take him away with the promise of cake.
He didn’t need telling twice.
“What’s going on?” I asked when they were gone.
“I’m so sorry you were attacked,” she responded.
“I’m… I’m fine.”
Her expression was unreadable. It got that way when her serious, High Alpha side came through. “Would you like something to eat and drink?”
Oh, bollocks! My pistachio cupcakes! They were ruined, left out to go manky.
Well, this day just got shittier.
I shook my head.
No one else wanted anything.
“Then please sit.” She gestured at the table. “I’ll explain everything.”
My chest was a tangle of knots with added barbs. I took a seat at Riku’s coloring station and picked up a crayon, turning it over in my bionic hand, the metal arm fully exposed by my short-sleeved T-shirt.
I didn’t care who saw it anymore. After five years, I was proud of it. The biggest war wound, a symbol of my survival.
“I’ll get straight to the point.” Sarah steepled her fingers. “As you know, there has been a surge in mazoku activity recently. Their creations have launched small-scale attacks across the world. And there have also been reports of the same attacks in Elvenrie.”
I hadn’t seen an elf in years, the borders of their realm sealed for the most part.
Elvenrie had been a dying realm, but apparently Cherry Moon was helping to stabilize things over there.
Forever bless the tenshi for their gifts, man. There were still ongoing talks between the elves and the werewolves, the road to peace long, but possible. And at least no side had attacked the other after the cursed moon saga.
There’d be no point. That shit was over. All about the positive progress now.
“What do you think this means?” G chimed in.
Sarah leaned back in her chair. “It was only this morning that the SCU captured a mazoku-born creature outside of Wolf Heart.” A pause, her eyes squarely fixated on me. “It spoke your name, Akira.”
A shiver ran through me, as if some prick danced on my grave.
She cleared her throat. “I quote, ‘Akira Murakami. The one who takes will be expelled. He did this to us. He shamed us, he broke us. But times are changing. The rot will be burned out and The Nine will rise. The Nine will dine on the ripened moon. Fruits and blossoms and the pretty moon for all! Create. Create. Create. The dance begins.’” A second throat clearing followed.
“It didn’t manage to say anything else before its body exploded. ”
I applied some serious tension to the crayon between fingers.
“That quote about the cherries again,” G said.
My eyes throbbed, my pulse quickening with irritation. “Was it a blob with chicken legs?”
“Yes. The same creature you described from earlier.”
“Lovely.”
G put his hand on my thigh.
Sarah said more. “I’m sorry to confirm you are a target, Akira.”
G gave me a gentle squeeze, then said, “Why him? He’s one man, they’re many.”
I covered his hand with mine.
There wasn’t any clear answer to that, and G made an excellent point.
Fucking mazoku.
“All I know is you must be put under protection here,” Sarah added. “You will be safe here.”
And just like that, more shit smeared across the day.
My shoulders sagged. “In London?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What about…” Man, my throat felt like a sandbox. “What about my wedding?”
The sad expression cutting through her stoic exterior made my guts ache.
The crayon snapped between my fingers, every inch of me throbbing with anger, coupled with a shitload of frustration.
“We’re not getting married,” I growled.
The room was silent. G gripped harder on my thigh.
“Let’s see how this turns out,” the High Alpha said, turning her attention to my man. “We have made arrangements for your parents to be put under protection. I’m waiting to receive word of their arrival at the safehouse near their home, then you can speak with them.”
G straightened, his hand leaving my thigh. “My parents?”
It hit me, then. Why my family were gathered here. Not for some lovely reunion, but for our own safety. Because if they could get to any one of them, then they’d have a route to me.
I picked up another crayon.
Dizziness, a horrible whirlwind of it, got the room spinning, all the bodies blurring around me.
“I… I… Fuck…”
The crayon slipped through my fingers.
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
Listing to the side, I tumbled off the chair, blacking out before my head could hit the ground.