Beautiful Death (28 page)
He brought his wrist to his mouth and bit into rope that tasted like dirt and used motor oil. Determined, he pulled, bit, groaned and ground his teeth into the tight knots, slowly loosening what should have been unbreakable. He was so focused on his task he didn’t notice right away the rotted feet that appeared on the perimeter of his vision.
Tristan looked up and let out a surprised yelp, falling back against the building. He gasped when he saw them, four jikininki in all, rotted down to bone with patches of leathered skin. One of the beasts gave a gurgled laugh and the four moved in close, trapping him against the side of the building. Tristan spit out nasty flavor of rope from his mouth and ducked down to look between the legs of one of the jikininki to see the others. Malik was undressing Ash. He had her jumpsuit over shoulders, off her arms and down enough to show everyone that cared to look that she wasn’t wearing a bra under the leather.
“Hey!” he screamed, feeling desperate. “Don’t fucking touch her!”
“No need to worry, you will have your turn too,” the vampire answered in Russian. “Just be good and sit still for now.”
Tristan didn’t understand a word, but he didn’t need to. Enraged, he swung bound hands right into the crotch of the jikininki he was watching the vamps through. The jikininki knew the hit was coming, but it didn’t matter and he didn’t move. Tristan’s punch hit home and he nearly gaged as the flesh exploded in a spray of stinking black ooze. The jikininki, having felt nothing, laughed a shrill sound and countered with a bone bare foot shot that took Tristan right in the ribs. The blow managed to lift the big American from his place on his knees and send him flying to his back. His head smacked into a supporting wall pillar making his vision go out for a moment. He couldn’t breathe. Stitches popped and he knew the fucking monster broke a rib or two.
“I had warned you to behave yourself, Uruwashi,” Malik sung out.
Sick and overcome with pain all Tristan could do right then was curl into a ball on the grass and gasp for air. When he managed to lift his head from his chest to look up through the forest of skeletal legs, he saw Malik pull the reminder of Ash’s jumpsuit down past her hips. He lifted each of her legs, gently, as he relieved her finally of the outfit so that she stood before him, unmoving, unseeing, completely naked. Vulnerable.
“Do-don’t...,” Tristan whispered, knowing they could hear him from so far. “Ash, please, wake up.”
“It’s amazing to me that someone of your lineage could be so utterly clueless. Don’t you understand anything?” Malik didn’t take his eyes from Ash as he ran his hands over her curves, up the line of her naked body. “As her Master, she’s mine. She’s under my control and nothing you do will stop this.”
“So you’ll just rape her?” he managed to say a little louder as the pain subsided. “Sick fucking bastard.” It still hurt like hell to talk but if he did long enough maybe he could keep the vampire from his deed. But, the jikininki had other things in mind as their Master sent him an unspoken message to restrain the Uruwashi. All four reached for him at once, grabbing and pulling at his skin, hair, limbs, like they were trying to tear him apart. He gasped, thrashing in their ridiculously strong hold. He couldn’t believe how strong they were as they tried to turn him into a human wishbone.
“Fuck me,” he grumbled even as one of the jikininki managed to hook his mouth with a dead tasting finger.
“I told you to be patient,” Malik’s singsong reply echoed across the courtyard. “After I’ve had Asta, you’re next.”
“Asshole!” Tristan screamed, at a loss. It was meant for Malik, about to rape someone he cared for; for the jikininki tearing at his body; for every vampire in existence. Everyone but Ash.
Oh god, there was nothing he could do for her and that killed the last bit of hope he held for a future. He should just give up already and die. It was inevitable, wasn’t it? His death. Even if he beat Malik now, there would be others later. How long could he go on like this?
Malik laughed, leading Ash towards the hot spring. She followed obediently, a dog on a leash, her movements stiff and mechanical. “Oh yes, yes. That is the truth of it now, isn’t it? You will die. Whether by my hand or another of my kind, you will die. Your death has been foretold and nothing will change that fact.” He stopped and looked to Tristan, giving his pets a mental notice to stand down for the moment. “Would you like to know what Lilith has spoken?” He grinned big. “It was verrrry fascinating.”
In a panic, as last desperate attempt to free himself, Tristan flung his limbs outward. A jikininki toppled, falling away and he kicked straight up, unsure if he’d hit anything. He smiled when his foot made contact with a boney shoulder. There was a shriek and a snap with a loudness that told him he had broken a bone.
“Now, now pets,” Malik said, “I told you to keep him still, but allow him to enjoy the show.”
The one with the broken shoulder lurched away on three limbs to disappear into the building, whimpering like a kicked puppy. The other three jerked Tristan to his feet and fixed him tightly in their skeletal grips. On instinct he fought against their hold. The one at his rear growled a nasty sound and laced fingers into his hair, its bony fingers scrapping against his scalp. He cringed, pulling against the firm grasp. The jikininki mumbled something unintelligible and yanked on Tristan’s hair, pulling his head backwards to a sharp angle so that he could hardly breathe.
His rotting captors had his limbs and head securely in their hold, there was nowhere for him to go. Nothing more he could do now but watch as Malik bent over Ash and kissed her deeply, wrapping his arms around her back. Ash’s mouth opened, but she didn’t otherwise move.
Motionless, arms hanging at her side, eyes staring straight ahead. She was a marionette with no strings to control her actions, only a strong mental connection that bound scion to Master. Malik’s hands moved down her back until they found her ass. He grabbed two handfuls and lifted her feet off the ground. Malik’s hold slipped to Ash’s thighs and parted her legs. He lifted her higher, putting her most intimate areas in line with his own.
“No!” Tristan yelled, pulling with all his might against the jikininki, the fear made him forget everything except trying to help Ash. He was delirious with panic. There wasn’t a god dammed thing he could do.
Malik released Ash’s mouth and out poured a stream of red. He’d bitten her in that deep kiss. He buried his face into her neck and had just positioned himself to enter her when a strange crackling caused everyone to stop mid motion and listen.
Understanding immediately what the sound was, Malik hissed through his fangs and dropped Ash to ground. Tristan tried to jerk from his captor’s hold again to go to her as she crumbled on the grass like a forgotten doll. This time the jikininki holding his hair let go. All three were looking around, searching for the source of the intrusion. That’s when Tristan saw it. The hot spring was no longer venting a nice thick haze of mist. Instead, the entire surface was covered in a layer of solid ice. A frigid wind hit everyone seconds before a light snow started to fall. Tristan shivered, looking up to the night sky.
What in the snowy hell...?
Looking angry as hell, Malik marched to the middle of the lawn and did a circle as he searched. He knew she was there, the little imp. Just who did she think she was, interfering? “Enough with the hiding! Have you come to play too?”
A LAUGH Tristan had heard before, the sound of tiny bells, echoed across the landscape. He looked around, frantic, hoping against hope. Of all the people to wish were there right then… A blast of icy air blew through, forcing his eyes shut for a moment. When he opened them again a figure appeared as if by magic on the tall fence rail behind the frozen hot spring. A long sigh, almost a laugh fell from him. Seriously, of all the people to ever wish to come to his rescue, well, he never thought it’d be her. He never thought he’d be so happy in his entire life to see such a dangerous, fucking insane creature.
“Yukihime!” he exclaimed in his relief and then tensed as another thought hit him. “Wait. Who’s side are you on?”
She only grinned, a knowing smile. Malik however, he knew the answer and sassily cocked his hip to the side, looking up at her. “My dear, dear,
dear
Snow Princess. My, you seem to have me at a big of a disadvantage here, my love. If I had known you wanted to join in, I would have sent you a proper invitation. So, come down here and play little girl!”
Yuki crossed her arms over her tiny chest and looked down her nose at the naked vampire. “
Kekkou
desu
.”
Dammit, of all the times for her to be using Japanese… Fuck that, if he planned it right, Tristan was going to use the distraction to his advantage. After all, everyone was watching the tiny vampire. No one, not even his three captors, holding him loosely in their bony grips, were paying a bit of attention to him.
To the left, the silent bodyguard had stepped out onto the lawn, Ash’s katana unsheathed and pointed at Yuki. Bear Paws and his hooded buddy were standing at the far right hand door, watching, waiting for their Master’s orders. Malik was still standing at the spring, hip cocked and looking downright murderous. Ash, still out of it. No one was paying a bit of attention to the vampire killer. Tristan smirked to himself, ready to act.
“If you didn’t come to play, my tiny dear, then why are you here? Thinking of interrupting my fun?”
“Oh, I think not, dear Malik. You know I have
never
harbored motives.”
Malik fell into deep laughter. It was almost enough to paralyze Tristan, overcome with lust.
A very pleased, very large Scotsman suddenly appeared on the fence rail next to Yuki, showing just how tiny she really was. Thankfully, Desmond had fully dressed this evening in a pair of slacks, shirt and shoes—which was more to say than his barefooted Master. But Desmond wasn’t alone. He brought a little companion with him: a girl.
Tristan gave a start at the pair’s sudden appearance, captivated by the girl. She couldn’t have been more than nine and looked like a delicate china doll with her thick brown curls, brilliant blue eyes and porcelain skin free of any flaws. If it weren’t for the dark hair and vivid eyes, he’d have said vampire. But that didn’t seem right, she just didn’t feel vampire. He couldn’t say why exactly, maybe he’d been around Ash long enough to start to understand the small changes he felt, but the girl… something in him said she was not vampire. Not human either.
“Dear Lilith seems to like me better,” Yuki sang, looking smug.
That’s the pythia?
Tristan bristled.
A child?
A deep growl rumbled out of Malik. He dropped his hands to his side and fisted them to hide the tremble.
“Dear Nastasia, ah what a
treat
it was to see her again. Shame she wasn’t stronger. Sorry love, but your other girls are all dead now, a respite they sorely needed. But not to worry, Nastasia made it out alive. No, I couldn’t be the one to kill her…” Yuki’s eyes fell on Ash, lying catatonic on the ground, before finding Malik again. Yuki put on a fake pout, even rubbed at the underside of her eye with a tiny fist. “Zannen da.”
Malik roared with rage and advanced on Yuki. This was it! Tristan flung an elbow back and hit the jikininki to his right in the face. Its grip loosened on his hands and he yanked them away. He spun and there was a look close to shock across the next one’s face. He smirked and punched it in the space where its nose should have been with bound hands. A loud snap sounded under his blow and the monster grumbled, falling to the ground in a mass of bones.
The other two jikininki finally remembered they were supposed to be watching the human and grabbed for him. In an attempt to miss their quick hands, Tristan let his legs fall out from under him. A hand grabbed at the last tendrils of hair passing through their grip and held. He pulled against the pain, giving the jikininki a few strands of black hair. Tristan hit the ground, immediately regretting it as his middle exploded with pain. Maybe he should have taken that vile from Malik. He gasped back a cry of pain and swung his legs out, sideswiping the two standing jikininki. They both let out their own version of a surprised noise, with no vocal cords to really express it properly, falling over and Tristan came face to face with one of them. He smirked as he pulled his arms up and brought his elbows down onto what was left of its rotted face. Bones broke and crunched under his elbows, making the jikininki hiss. Tristan twisted his elbows into the broken face, crushing bones until the monster stopped moving and Tristan was covered in decomposed brain slush.
The other jikininki, having its hip snapped from the fall, started pulling on his legs, crawling up the front of his body. Tristan rolled to his back and jerked his knee up into its chin, hoping to pop its head off. It took the blow with only a little shake of the head as if to clear its vision—even with only one eye—and continued to climb. He swung his fists in a sweeping motion across the front of his body towards its head and missed. It growled and jumped forward, setting its teeth into his left forearm as he was making the swing back. He screamed and kicked out against it with both legs. It didn’t budge.
Tristan groaned and kicked out again, harder with both legs. Its teeth released with a sudden sharp cry and the stinking monster went flying. Coughing, feeling as if something sharp inside his torso was trying to dig its way out of his flesh, Tristan wobbled to his feet only to tumbled back to his knees. He couldn’t stand on his own. Neither could that relentless jikininki with its broken hip. They’d only just looked at each other when the jikininki dove. Tristan heaved in a deep breath and let it out in an angry war cry. They met, Tristan’s bundled fists to its head, its bony fingers at his throat. Tristan’s blow stunned it for two precious seconds, it was all he needed to throw himself on top of the monster, positioning his knee catch it in the neck when they landed. They hit the ground with him riding it, his knee pressed hard against exposed bones. The bony hands dropped away from Tristan’s neck and he smiled when he heard the sharp crack. He reached down, slipped a thumb into the empty eye socket, his other fingers wrapping about whatever bit of bones they could find and tugged on the head until it separated from the body.
“Fucking son of a rotting whore!” he screamed, tossing the head away. He ended up in a coughing fit against the stabbing pain in his side, doubled over on his knees.
He had forgotten about the last jikininki until it jumped onto his back. “Oh, fuck you! Die!”
He flung them backwards with his full weight. They hit the ground and several loud pops sounded from the body under Tristan’s. Cold, thin fingers found his neck from behind, but the poor angle gave it a loose grip. He wiggled out its hold and he was suddenly on his feet, only just. The satisfaction of his impending victory helped him ignore the pain building with each breath in his chest.
A grim, wicked smile filed his face as he looked down on the jikininki. It screeched a disgusting noise and reached for him. Tristan stomped down across its neck with a bare foot. The beast writhed and kicked under him like a seizure patient. He twisted his foot back and forth, pressing all of his weight into it. The jikininki clawed at his leg, like it was going to stop him, until finally the weak bones gave way. It stopped clawing when the head broke free from the body.
Tristan stopped, staring down at what he’d done. He gave a quick, short laugh, kicking the head and nearly missed. He lost his balance and fell to the ground, gasping for air. His arm and leg hurt like hell where that fucking jikininki bit him. But it was nothing compared to the pain in his stomach. Blood was coming now in a steady, sticky stream from the aggravated wound, leaking down into his pants.
His vision blurred, more from lack of oxygen than exhaustion and he rolled to his side in an attempt to ease the awful jabbing pain in his ribs. He shut his eyes and pressed his cheek to the cool, cool grass. Finally took in that deep breath he had wanted. When he opened his eyes again, he gave a start. How could he have forgotten about the others?
Desmond and the pythia fled when the shit started to fly. To his left, the big bodyguard fledgling that had been holding their weapons was standing exactly where he’d last seen him. The vampire had Ash’s sword drawn and was headed in Yuki’s direction. Yet something was very wrong with him. After the space of three long seconds of near drunken confusion, Tristan’s muddled brain put it together. The bodyguard was coated in a thin layer of clear, sparkling ice, frozen mid-step.
To his right, Bear Paws and his hooded sidekick, were lying on the ground just outside of the side door. Both of their heads had been lopped off. Shimmering icicles as long as his arm jutted from their chests like clear diamond stakes. When you didn’t have wood, ice would do in a bind. Who knew? Undoubtedly Yuki’s handy work… Snow Princess indeed.
In the middle of it all, next to a very pleased Yuki, stood a very nude Ash, blinking wide eyes at him. She was free of Malik’s control, yet rendered immobile by something entirely unexpected. She’d seen everything, witnessed the American, the last of the Uruwashi still in human form, killing three Master vampire’s jikininki. She would never admit it, but the display frightened the primitive side of her. The vampire in her.
Insisting that he not be forgotten, Malik cleared this throat in a most theatrical way. The Master was on his knees in front of Yuki, watching Tristan with anger to those clear purple eyes. He was so seething hot it was a wonder he didn’t melt the ice encasing his entire lower body, chest down, hands trapped at his sides by his ice coffin.
Tristan shot Yuki a nasty look.
Jesus fucking Christ, woman. If he was so easy to subdue then why not kill him yourself...before all this shit? Before he killed my parents.
Yuki giggled, bringing a hand to her mouth as if in modesty. “That was quite impressive, Ryōshi-san. And you are still human. Impressive indeed.”
“Tristan?” Ash whispered. “Are you all right?”
He lifted his head and gave her a wide-eyed look of shock. After a moment’s hesitation, he burst into laughter. He didn’t know why that simple question was just so damn funny. Something in his chest clenched and he doubled over, laughter turning into coughing. Ash was suddenly at his side, like she’d been there all along. Tristan rolled over to his back and smiled up at her. She grabbed his bound wrists and pulled them to her mouth. In one clean, quick motion she drove a fang into the knot and the ropes fell free. He sighed, rubbing his aching wrists. She slid an arm under his neck, holding his head off of the ground.
She was so warm.
She looked away. “I—I did things under his control. Things I promised myself to never do again.” She looked at Tristan, eyes filled with sorrow. “I fed. I… took their lives, human lives.”
He reached up, wincing as his body protested and cupped her cheek, very aware that she was still completely naked. And completely stunning. “Ash…”
“No,” she said. “It is okay.”
His chest ached and wanted to kiss her so badly in that moment, to take away the pain in her eyes. Saving him from the impulse, he was racked with ragged coughing again. Ash gently maneuvered him into her lap as he tried to calm down the fit and breathe. She pulled him into a half sitting position, resting his head against the softness of her bare breasts. She hugged him tight across his chest like she was afraid to let him go.
“How damned sweet,” Malik quipped. He was trying to make light of the situation, but even Tristan could feel his anger. There was also fear in those pale eyes. He was trapped and had used up too much energy and not replenished enough after making his jikininki to free himself of such simple confines. He couldn’t even use any of his higher powers over Earth. He was rendered vanilla. “I’m bored. Let’s do something fun.”
Tristan furrowed his brow at the vampire, disgusted, angry, tired. “I’ve had enough of this motherfucker already,” he mumbled.
Yuki laughed, drawing his attention. She grinned, making eyes. He followed the line of her sight to the frozen bodyguard with Ash’s sword and then back to her. She nodded, still grinning fiendishly.
Right
. Tristan heaved a sigh and started to stand, groaning with the effort. Ash slipped her shoulder under his arm and helped him to his feet.
Steady on his feet he looked down to Ash, tucked neatly into the crook of his arm. “Hey, I’m really glad you’re okay,” he whispered. Again he had to fight to urge to not ravish her. She was in all of her stunning naked glory right there. And yet, so far away.