Eternal Samurai (24 page)

A bull grabbed for the automatic. Bana fired a burst into his torso. The body jerked and flopped to the ground, and tangled under Tatsu’s feet.

Just as Tatsu disentangled himself, a berserk bull grabbed his shoulders from behind. Fangs pierced the tender flesh above his dog collar. Tatsu jerked free, turned and drove the
wakizashi
into the creature’s heart. He freed it, spun, his swords cutting left then right, opening the torsos of two more vampires.

With a shrill cry, the fem landed on the Irishman’s back, wrapped her skinny arms around his chest and sank her fangs into his neck. Bana thrust his gun over his shoulder into the slavering face. The Berretta stuttered once, sending blood, skull and bits of brain into the air. Bana bellowed with pain as the firearm’s report ruptured his eardrum.

An enraged
kyūketsuki
butted his head into Tatsu’s midsection. Tatsu sliced the
katana
across the back of the vampire’s neck, severing the spinal column. The convulsing body knocked Tatsu to the ground, pinning him, and trapping the
wakizashi
between them. He lost his grip on the
katana,
heard it spin across the wet pavement. Gasping for air, Tatsu struggled to push off the heavy corpse with one hand while the other groped for the trapped sword.

Booted feet landed either side of Tatsu’s head with a hard thump. He stared up jean-covered legs into the crotch of a Japanese vampire straddling him. “You’re mine, pretty boy,” the
kyūketsuki
cried in triumph as his
katana
whistled.

Helpless, Tatsu watched the bright steel of his own death slash down toward him.

A bright flash was followed by a sharp crack. A long blade shattered that death-dealing weapon in two. The intercepting sword twisted outward, sending the broken steel spinning through the air.

The vampire’s eyes bulged in terror when a hand clamped around his throat from behind. His screech was cut off as he left the ground, legs and arms flailing in terror.

With ease, Arisada lifted the vampire by the neck. He bit once and drank. After a few seconds, he tossed the corpse aside.

“You seem to get yourself in the worst messes.” Arisada’s lips spread in a ghastly, blood-smeared smile. He pulled the corpse off Tatsu, and leaned down, offering to help the surprised boy to his feet.

“
Daijoubu
?”

“I’m fine.” Tatsu brushed away the proffered hand and scrambled up. He retrieved his
wakizashi.
“Why are you he—”

“Saito Arisada, you scum! The Daimyō will hear of your betrayal tonight.” One of the two remaining creatures shouted his threat as he fled the scene.

Before Arisada had time to react, Tatsu was already running after the two. But not fast enough. With a cry, he vaulted, a huge, high leap, back arched, the
wakizashi
held in both hands above his head. As he dropped, he brought the weapon down.

The air screamed with the speed of his cut. The steel sliced the closest vampire’s head in half and kept going down into the torso. The dead creature crashed to the ground, dragging Tatsu to his knees. With a desperate twist, he fought to free the trapped blade. It refused to come free.

The last
kyūketsuki
had almost reached the vehicle when the coppery-rich scent of blood hit him. Compelled by bloodlust, he spun back and fell on Tatsu still struggling to extract his sword. He drove his fangs against the exposed back of the human’s neck.

Tatsu ducked sideways, felt those deadly incisors skitter over the dog collar. The move cost him his hold on the trapped weapon. Tatsu dug out his
tanto
and aimed it toward the vampire’s body.

With a screech of rage, the monster clamped his hand around the blade haft, gave it a brutal twist toward the human’s belly. Tatsu heard the brittle snap of his wrist bones followed by the cold slide of the knife between his ribs. In raw desperation, he slammed his other fist into his attacker’s face, breaking the vampire’s nose. But that knife continued its relentless path into his vitals.

Screaming his rage, Arisada reached the struggling pair. He sliced his
nodachi
once across the
kyūketsuki
’s exposed neck. The jaw released its deadly hold, and the head dropped from Tatsu’s neck.

Blood fountained over Tatsu’s face. “
Fakku
,” he sputtered with disgust as he pushed the spasming body away from him. He shook his head to clear his eyes, and without thought, pulled the knife from his ribs.

“Is that all the thanks I get for twice saving your life, Tatsusan?” Arisada grimaced as he flicked the blood from his
nodachi
. He leaned closer to Tatsu and used the end of his
obi
to wipe the remaining blood from Tatsu’s face. “Crazy boy, one day you will get yourself killed,” Arisada murmured.

The enormity of Arisada’s actions hit Tatsu with the force of a sledgehammer. The flame-haired vampire had killed his own kind to save a human being. Wonder colored Tatsu’s voice. “You have just killed a couple of vampires. And you call me
baka?”

“I do what I must for the sake of both our kind,” Arisada’s voice revealed none of his sorrow from such killing.

With a grunt, Tatsu stumbled over to his last kill and jerked the
wakizashi
free. Then he looked down at the blood pouring over his hip and down his leg. “
Kuso
,” he murmured. He started to press against his bleeding ribs, and groaned at the intense pain shooting up his arm. “Shit, I think my wrist is broken.” He turned toward his partner. “Bana?”

Bana stood, legs-splayed, chest heaving, amid bodies littering the ground like so many fallen leaves. His sweat-covered face reflected confusion and battle lust. Through red-filmed eyes, he spotted Arisada. The Irishman growled something about “fekkin bloodsucker,” lifted his gun and aimed. The Beretta’s slide locked open with a hollow click, its magazine spent. He stared dumbfounded at the empty firearm. Tatsu reached him just as he raised the weapon again for one more futile shot.

“Murtagh, the fight’s over, man. It’s over.” Tatsu pressed on Bana’s forearm, asked him to lower his gun. “Come on partner, we’ve got to report in. Understand?”

Bana stared around with blood-filled eyes that turned hazel as sanity slowly returned. His fangs retracted. He looked almost human. He stared at Tatsu with a wrenching sadness.

“Got to go, boyo. Things ain’t so good fer me now.” With a garbled curse, he spun around and bolted into the fog.

Tatsu moved to follow but Arisada’s steel grip on his shoulder stopped him. “Let him go.” The vampire ordered.

“But he’s my partner,” Tatsu struggled to free himself.

“No longer. He is
kyūketsuki
.”

“
Iie
, no! Must stop him,” Tatsu mumbled unable to make out the vampire’s expression. Psychedelic spots danced before his eyes. He could not breathe. A hot wet ran over his hip. His legs trembled with a sudden, undeniable weakness. When he tried to sheath his swords, they aimlessly waved above his shoulders as if they had minds of their own.

Arisada took the weapons from his trembling hands. The comforting weight of the blades settled into the harness. Then the warm strength of Arisada’s arm around his waist, holding him.

Tatsu sagged against the vampire, and let Arisada guide him on rubbery legs to a building. He slid down the wall, landed on his butt on the cold pavement.

“Do not move,
koibito.
You are bleeding heavily.”

“Leave me alone,” Tatsu groaned. Waves of nausea roiled through him. He peered up at the blurry figure crouched in front. Arisada’s voice was distant, as if muted by the fog.

The vampire ignored the plea. He opened Tatsu’s jacket and probed his wound. His hunger flared in response to the sweet, copper smell. His fangs appeared so fast they almost tore his lips. Worse, was the nearly blinding lust to possess this boy, to bare that tender ass and bury his cock in it. Arisada felt disgust at his reaction.

“Your jacket kept the knife from going deeper. You’ll live.” The vampire’s voice turned cold, but the backs of his fingers brushed warmth down Tatsu’s cheek.

“Wait, don’t …,
Kudesai.
Please. Don’t go, must talk.…” Tatsu leaned into the haunting warmth from those fingers. Shouts approached; the words distorted and full of alarm. Another brief caress over his face. Then nothing but the chilly night air. He opened his mouth to call out but the world swam away.

“You can talk to him now.” Tatsu heard a muffled voice followed by the sound of a curtain drawn aside. His mouth was as dry as a desert sandstorm. He opened his eyes, vision gradually sharpening until shapes and light became distinct. He recognized the Colony’s infirmary. His stomach, encased in a tight bandage, hurt like hell. His wrist throbbed with a dull, insistent ache underneath a cast. The room spun for a crazy moment as he pushed himself upright in the bed.

Wyckes, brows knitted in a doctorly frown, hovered over him. The Major and Cooperhayes stood at the foot of his bed. Fornax, arms folded, lounged against the far wall. His inscrutable stare fixed on Tatsu.

“Bana?” Tatsu croaked, swallowed and asked again.

“Take it easy, Cobb. You have a hole in your side and a fractured wrist. Lost a lot of blood. Nothing serious. Be grateful for your Leper constitution. A normal human would be dead. You’ll only be sidelined for a week.” Wyckes handed Tatsu a glass and a couple of pills. Tatsu gulped the water; shook his head at the pills.

“Mr. Cobb, I’d like your report on the events of forty-eight hours ago,” the Major ordered.

Kuso,
he’d been unconscious for two days. Tatsu averted his face and fiddled with the cast around his wrist as he sought for a convincing explanation. In the clipped words required of a military debriefing, he reported the events of that horrific night. Steeling his expression against the lie, he claimed Bana’s erratic shooting killed most of the pack. Perhaps some of them ran off, he was fuzzy on that part. He omitted that part about how a vampire, Saito Arisada, had saved his life. Relief washed through him when the Major nodded his acceptance of the story.

“What will happen to Bana?” Tatsu could not accept his partner was no longer human.

“Bana is fortunate. Tendai’s border is only a kilometer from where he turned,” Fornax stepped closer to Tatsu’s bed, looked down at the pale boy.

Tatsu winced at the word
turned
. “How can you say he is fortunate? He’s a vampire for fuck’s sake, a bloodsucker like you.” Tatsu glared at Fornax.

“Mr. Cobb, stand down. Fornax is here to help Mr. Murtagh, if possible. But have no doubt there is no cure, no coming back from the change.” The sorrow in the Major’s voice confirmed the worst: Bana was now the enemy.

“We don’t know why the virus activates in Lepers. The change occurs without warning; the physical transformation is often within a few hours. It is the reason people fear V-negs almost as much as bloodsuckers.” Wyckes’ face reflected a mix of sorrow and frustration. He’d been researching a cure for the Leper disease for years. So far, found nothing. And another of their own was lost.

“Major, how can we help him?” There was no way Tatsu was going to lose another person he cared about. “He is … was my partner. We just cannot leave him out there.” He threw off the covers and climbed naked out of the bed. Stood on wobbly legs and struggled to pull on his shirt with one arm. Wyckes clucked once at the boy’s stubborn efforts then insisted on dressing him.

“Either he will adapt or he will die. The newly turned are usually nothing more than ravenous animals. There is no predicting how long this adjustment phase lasts. At least Bana retained enough of his human sense to recognize you. It sounds like at some point he tried to protect you during the fight,” the vampire said.

“
Hai
, he did.” Bana had certainly acted human, a least for a few minutes, when he fired at the pack. “So now we go fetch him,
neh
?”

“
Fukanō
, impossible Cobb-san. You know this.” Fornax visibly curbed his anger. “There is nothing we can do. By now, Bana has fed several times and is no doubt inside Tendai. Ukita Sadomori always knows when new
kyūketsuki
arrive. He might ignore Bana for a while. But if he discovers he was a hunter, the Daimyō will torture him into revealing all he knows about the Colony. Then he will send Bana against us. Would any of us trust Murtagh if he returns?”

The finality of Fornax’s words sent cold shivers down Tatsu’s spine. But the Major trusts you and you’re a bloodsucker, Tatsu wanted to argue. He held his tongue not knowing why Fornax worked for the Leper Colony. Whatever the reason, it had to be profound. Fornax had been
kyūketsuki
for four-hundred years.

Tatsu thought of Arisada clinging to his honor and his faith even as his human side was ripped from him. Arisada walked between the two worlds, loving a human—yeah him, Tatsu Cobb, the very confused human—yet owing allegiance to the monster Ukita Sadomori.

Fornax touched Tatsu on the shoulder in an uncharacteristic gesture of comfort. Tatsu flinched away. The vampire stepped back. “I will speak with him. Perhaps he will respond to me although I am not his
Seisakusha.
”

“What does you not being his
Seisakusha
have to do with it?”

A look of reluctance crossed Fornix’s face. “There is a blood bond between every vampire and their creator, their
Seisakusha.
Some like to think it is mystical. In truth, it is merely DNA recognizing itself in another. The bond often results in a dominant/submissive relationship. Sometimes it can become something more.”

“Did that happen to you?” Tatsu asked.

“Not really. My real name is Fukashima Hideo. I was a
hasebe
, a potter, living in a village near Nagasaki during the time of Tokugawa shogunate.”

“You don’t look Japanese.” Tatsu was surprised by the vampire’s origin.

“I take after my father, a Portuguese sailor from a trading ship that came to Nipon in 1598. I never knew him. I was barely in my twenties, when the army conscripted me into the Shogun’s army as
ashigaru
. The life expectancy of a foot soldier was very short. I was mortally wounded at the Battle of Nagashino. Battles always draw
kyūketsuki
who feed off the wounded. I was bitten and left for dead. My mother found me and hid me from the army. She cared for me. When I emerged from the coma, I was an animal. Her blood was my first meal. A week later, my
Seisakusha
found me, and at great risk, protected me. I gave him my loyalty and my love.”