Blood Ninja

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales

are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the

author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or

dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2009 by Nick Lake

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Book design by Krista Vossen

The text for this book is set in ITC Esprit.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lake, Nick.

Blood ninja / Nick Lake.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: After his father is murdered and a ninja saves his life, Taro discovers the

connection between ninjas and vampires and finds himself being dragged into a bitter

conflict between the rival lords ruling Japan.

ISBN 978-1-4169-8627-0 (hardcover)

[1. Ninja—Fiction. 2. Vampires—Fiction. 3. Identity—Fiction. 4. Japan—History—Fiction.]

I. Title.

PZ7.L15857Bl 2009

[Fic]—dc22

2009023598

ISBN 978-1-4169-9830-3 (eBook)

NEAR LORD ODA’S CASTLE, NAGOYA

1565

This was not a good place to be out at night, all alone
.

Unfortunately for the young girl currently walking through the tradesmen’s district, it was the middle of the night—and she was very much alone
.

She walked with the slightly mincing step of a noble, and carried a delicate folded-up fan. Jeweled rings encrusted her fingers. Her soft indoor
tabi
slippers were unsuited to running or fighting
.

The man in black was glad. Fighting he could handle. But when they ran—that was just annoying
.

He glanced down at his young prey, checking to make sure that he had identified the target correctly. Yes, there it was: the distinct form of the Oda
mon
on the girl’s kimono, petals within petals
.

This was Lord Oda’s girl
.

The girl seemed blithely oblivious to the fine gold thread on her clothes, and the effect it would likely have on the residents of such an area
.

This job is going to be easier than I imagined,
the man in black thought
.

He leaped, almost casually, to the next rooftop. He landed without a sound and ran, his lithe body crouching low to avoid detection. The next rooftop was too far to reach in one bound, but he simply somersaulted to the ground, rolled, then jumped nimbly to grab the overhanging eave. He let himself hang there for a split second, enjoying the feel of gravity pulling at his body, then flipped onto the tiles
.

A cat that had been sleeping there stood up in an exaggerated arch of irritation and was about to hiss when the ninja raised a blowpipe to his lips. The cat collapsed softly and rolled down the sloping roof. Before it could fall off the edge and hit the ground below, the ninja stretched languorously and pinned its corpse to the bark tile with a dagger
.

The ninja moved from rooftop to rooftop until he was in front of the girl. He waited for the right moment, his entire body perfectly still. When the girl passed below him, he jumped, absorbing the impact of the ground with a smooth bend of the legs that turned almost instantly into a vicious kick to the girl’s face
.

The girl staggered back, and the ninja grinned, pressing his advantage with a flurry of kicks before reaching for his short-sword
.

As the ninja’s hand moved to his belt, he lowered his eyes for a fraction of a second, and it was then that something smashed into his face, crushing his nose and sending a tsunami of pain and nausea through his body. Through blurred vision he saw the girl pull back her hand, and realized that the fan was not a fan at all—it was a heavy metal bar disguised as an everyday object, a classic ninja trick
.

But how—?

The girl struck again with the bar, and the ninja easily blocked, feeling a new surge of confidence as he finally managed to free his sword and swing it in an upward arc, calculated to shatter the jaw and cut the arteries in the neck and—

The girl somehow turned out of the sword’s path, bringing the fan-turned-club down on the ninja’s wrist. The man felt his wrist shatter and the sword drop to the ground just as a fistful of sharp jewels destroyed his left eye
.

Not rings. A knuckle-duster
.

His legs gave way, and he sank to the ground. But it wasn’t over. It was never over. He would heal, in time. Not his eye of course, but the rest …

Then the girl stood over him and drew a brutal wakizashi from her kimono, the short-sword’s blade so sharp it shimmered as if surrounded by heat. She whirled it around her fingers expertly
.

And then the ninja knew that it was over
.

“Tell Lord Tokugawa that if he continues to send me assassins, I will continue to send him corpses,” she said. “Let him set the world against me, and I will kill the world. Tell him that. And tell him if he wants me to spare his life, he had better send Taro next time, not some weakling of an ordinary ninja. That boy owes me a death.”

The ninja looked up at her, faint hope in his one working eye. “You’re allowing me to live?”

The girl paused. “Ah. My mistake.”