Shinobi (A Katana Novel) (6 page)

We emerged in the hallway in time to see Kim shut the door to Sumi’s parents’ room with a soft click. “Well?” he asked.

I gripped my arms, trying to suppress the tremors coursing through me. “Sumi’s gone.”

His hand fell from the doorknob. “Gone? Her parents are in their room sound asleep.”

The feeling of unease coiling around my chest suddenly squeezed so hard I staggered back.

“Rileigh?” Q reached for me.

I held up my hand to stop him. “I’m okay.” But I wasn’t so sure about Sumi’s parents. I looked at Kim. “They’re really sleeping?”

He frowned. “Well, they’re in bed. And they’re not moving.”

“Care if I check?”

Kim motioned me forward. I walked past him and pushed the door open. The pressure inside my chest intensified. I had an awful hunch, one I just had to follow. I fumbled my hand along the wall for the light switch and flicked it on.

“Are you crazy?” Q ran to my side. “You’re going to wake them up!”

I stared at the two bodies on the bed. “No.” My throat went dry as I took in the scene before me. Reflexively, my hand fell to the handle of the katana at my hip. “Look.”

Kim stepped inside the room. A low hiss escaped his mouth as he surveyed the bed before him. In the dark, it was easy to understand how he could have thought Sumi’s parents were asleep. They lay side-by-side underneath the covers, their heads nestled deep into their pillows. It was the stain of deep crimson pooling between their bodies that let me know they would never wake again.

Kim approached the bed and lifted the tattered edge of the blanket so he could examine their bodies. “Sumi. She stabbed them in their sleep.” He swiped his finger across the bloody sheet before letting it fall once again. He rubbed the blood with his thumb. “Cold,” he muttered. “But there’s not enough discoloration in the skin for it to have been more than a couple of hours.”

Now that I knew the danger, the uneasy waves rolling through my body subsided, replaced instead with a sense of dread. “So about the time you met me on the roof of my condo?”

He wiped his blood-smeared fingers with a corner of his T-shirt and nodded. “That’s a good assumption.”

“Son of hibachi,” I muttered. “She’s got a pretty good jump on us.”

“Yes.” Q stepped inside the room with us. “But at least one of our questions has been answered.”

Puzzled, I turned to face him. “And what question is that.”

“Her memory.” Q motioned to the dead couple on the bed. “I think it’s safe to assume Sumi the kunoichi is back and she has a plan.”

8

D
r. Wendell hung up his cell phone and sank onto the couch in my condo. The grim lines on his face grew deeper by the minute. Not that we looked any better. After Kim had updated Michelle, Braden, and Drew, no one had spoken more than a couple of words since leaving Sumi’s house. And now we sat limp, scattered around the living room like a bunch of deflated balloons.

Dr. Wendell pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay. I’ve called in a clean-up crew. They should arrive at Sumi’s house within the hour and erase any traces of you being there.”

“What about the bodies?” Michelle asked.

“I spoke to the Network about it, and we’ve decided to leave them for the police to find.”

“What?” Drew’s head snapped up. “Since when do we let outsiders become involved in Network affairs?”

“Usually we don’t,” Dr. Wendell agreed. “But this is a time-sensitive situation. We can assume Sumi has her memory and that makes her extremely dangerous. Especially since we have no idea where she’s hiding or what her next move will be. This is one of those rare times when a little media exposure might be a good thing.”

I had to admit having the public aware a psycho was on the loose might make finding her a little easier.

“When is the truck due to arrive?” Kim asked.

Dr. Wendell sighed and folded his hands on his lap. “It’s been dispatched from New York so we probably have at least”—he glanced at his watch—“another eight hours.”

“Great,” Drew muttered from where he sat on the floor. “You can kill a lot of people in eight hours.”

Michelle shivered, and Braden put an arm around her and squeezed her close. “How do you know she’s going to try to kill us, anyway? Maybe she’s going to lie low or—
better yet—leave town.”

“Doubtful.” Kim pushed off the wall and walked to the middle of the room. “If she wanted to lie low, she wouldn’t have killed her parents. Obviously she felt they were an obstacle in whatever plan she’s about to implement—a plan she knew there’d be no going back from.”

“He’s right.” I climbed to my feet and joined him. “This is the girl who vowed to kill Whitley in every reincarnated life because he killed Kim in the last one. She’s obsessed with revenge and even more obsessed with Kim. Her targets are either going to be Kim—in an attempt to alter his mind again; me—because she thinks I stole Kim from her; or Quentin—because he was able to defeat her in our last fight.”

Quentin’s jaw clenched but he said nothing.

“She’s had a head start,” I continued. “There’s a good chance she is already nearby.”

No one spoke for several minutes as tension settled across the room like a heavy wool blanket, hot and smothering.

Finally Michelle said, “We need a plan.”

“Right.” Dr. Wendell stood. “Like I said, the truck is going to be here in eight hours. We need to find Sumi by then—before she finds us. Our main objective will be to capture her and transport her back to New York. In the meantime—”

“We need more weapons,” Kim cut in.

Dr. Wendell tilted his head, considering. “It certainly couldn’t hurt.”

“And we need to stick together,” Kim continued.

Michelle bit her lip. “That’s going to be a problem for
me. If I’m not home before my dad wakes up, I’m going to get grounded. He needs to think I’ve been asleep in my bed. I have to be there for breakfast. After that, I can meet up with you guys again.”

Kim frowned. “This is a dangerous time. No one should be alone.”

“She won’t be.” Braden slid an arm around Michelle’s shoulder and squeezed her against him. “I’ll go with her.”

“But won’t her dad kill you if he finds you?” I asked.

“Yes.” Braden nodded. “But he won’t find me. I have mad stealth skills.”

Michelle smiled and dropped her head against his shoulder.

“All right.” Kim nodded. “Braden will go with Michelle until she can meet us back here.” He looked at me. “I wonder if you should go too. Michelle’s dad wouldn’t have a problem with you there.”

“No way.” I shook my head. “If Sumi comes after me first, there’s no way I’m leading her to Michelle’s house. I’m not going to risk anyone’s safety on my account.”

“I think that’s wise,” Dr. Wendell agreed. “And with Debbie in a hotel, she’ll be safe should Sumi decide to attack here. I’m going to have to leave soon to meet up with your mom before she gets suspicious. But don’t worry, I’ll tell her I received a call from the hospital and have to leave. I should be gone no longer than twenty minutes.”

I forced myself to nod, even though it bothered me how easily Dr. Wendell lied to my mother. Every time I’d brought up his true feelings about Debbie, he’d managed to change the subject. Even now I couldn’t be sure if he really cared for her or only pretended to in order to keep tabs on me.

“All right.” Kim clapped his hands together. “I guess that means the rest of us should head to the dojo to collect weapons. If Sumi’s coming after me first, it’s possible she’s already there.”

Dr. Wendell frowned. “I don’t know, Kim. Yes, there’s a chance that Sumi could be there waiting for you, but there’s also a pretty good chance she could be coming here. We need to locate her as quickly as possible. I think the best way to do that is to make sure there are people here if she shows up.”

“He’s right,” I added before Kim could protest. “If she shows up at the condo and there’s no one here, that’s a wasted opportunity. We can’t afford that. Once she catches on that we’re trying to find
her,
she could run and we might lose our chance altogether.”

He scowled at me. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting we split up—but we do it smart by partnering so no one is alone if we’re ambushed. I think you and Drew should run to the dojo for weapons, and Q and I will stay here and watch the condo.”

Kim scowled. “I don’t like it.”

“I know. But you have to admit that together, Quentin and I make a pretty good team.”

Q winked at me.

“It’s a good plan,” Dr. Wendell said.

Kim folded his arms across his chest. “Once upon a time, I thought of myself as the leader of this group. I guess I was only deluding myself. It’s pretty obvious who’s in charge.” He sighed and shook his head. “If we go with Rileigh’s plan, I’m adding a stipulation. This is the twenty-first century. There’s no reason we shouldn’t stay connected. Starting the moment everyone walks out this door, we are to text each other every fifteen minutes until the moment we meet back here. Failure to do so will imply you are under attack and the rest of us should come to your aid. Is this understood?”

Everyone murmured their agreement.

“Good. And one more thing.” Kim pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and held it up. “If one of us does get attacked, we need to be able to locate each other quickly. I want everyone to turn on your phone’s GPS.”

Everyone pulled out their cell phones except for me—mine was in my bedroom—and turned on their GPS.

“Let’s move out,” Kim ordered.

Braden and Michelle were the first out the door, followed by Dr. Wendell, who promised to be back no later than a half hour.

Drew stood in the open doorway with his hand resting on the knob. “Ready, brother?”

Kim nodded. “Just a moment. I need something.”

Before I could ask him what he’d forgotten, he crossed the floor in several long strides. He slid a hand into my hair and tilted my head up to his. “Be safe,” he said, his words so soft they bordered on a prayer.

I placed my hand over his and leaned into his touch. Pain formed in the back of my throat, and I had trouble swallowing. Had it really only been several hours since I’d sat on my rooftop longing to have Kim in my life once again? And now that he was, I was terrified I’d lose him all over again.

I turned my head and placed a kiss against his hand. “One of these days, Gimhae Kim, I won’t have to kiss you goodbye anymore.”

He tilted his head so his forehead rested against mine and all I could see were his eyes, dark pools I wanted to throw myself into and drown in. “I, too, look forward to that day. But just remember, there is nothing Sumi can do to break us apart.”

I knew he meant his words to be comforting, but I couldn’t help cringing the moment they left his mouth. If fate loved a challenge, there was nothing more enticing than breaking a promise made in love.

9

Japan, 1491

C
hiyo sat huddled against the back of a tent within the bandits’ camp. She’d lost count of the hours she’d spent alone inside the dark tent. She didn’t dare try to escape. A man with a katana stood guard outside the door. Every so often he would stick his head through the flap and Chiyo would flinch. The man would laugh and disappear again, allowing her to breathe.

She wondered how long it would take Yoshido to receive news of her capture. Surely he’d come for her the moment he heard. He’d ride fast and hard through the night until he’d killed the entire camp. And then he’d carry her safely back to his village atop his horse.

Chiyo’s chest heaved, and she stifled her sobs against her shoulder. She’d be brave for him. Courage was expected of a samurai’s wife. And when he arrived, he would find her waiting
for him, fearless. And he’d be so impressed, he’d fall madly in love with her. And they’d be so happy, this entire nightmare would be forgotten.

Hot tears spilled over Chiyo’s cheeks as the gnawing ache inside her grew. It was a lovely thought—one she had to cling to in order to survive.
Just a few more hours,
she told herself.
I must be strong a few hours more—until my samurai comes for me.

Voices approached from outside, and Chiyo jerked upright. She quickly wiped the tears from her cheek. She would be strong. For Yoshido.

The flap to the tent was pushed aside, and three men entered. Two of them Chiyo recognized as the men who’d killed her servant and best friend before abducting her. The third man wore a gray silk robe and his hair was neatly tied on the back of his head. He had a scar that ran at a diagonal across his face, starting at his left eyebrow, crossing his nose, and ending at his chin. He glanced at her disinterestedly. “This is the girl?”

The man with the katana nodded. “Yes, Ryuu. Chiyo Sa-
saki. As you requested.”

Ryuu frowned. “And how many men did we lose retrieving her?”

The two men exchanged nervous glances before the man with the katana answered. “Four.”

Ryuu spit on the ground, inches from where Chiyo huddled. “Do you hear that, girl?” He sneered at her. “You cost me four men. Now I will have to double the price of your ransom. Do you think you are worth it?”

Chiyo tried to scoot away, but her back met with the tent wall, leaving her no escape.

Ryuu’s eyes flew wide and he lunged for her, grabbing a fistful of her robes and yanking her to her feet. “Answer me! Do you think you are worth it?”

Chiyo’s heart pounded furiously against her chest. She opened her mouth, but her words tangled in her throat. Only a whimper escaped.

Behind him, the two men chuckled. Ryuu, however, stared at her with unblinking eyes. “I understand. You think you are too good to answer me because I am a lowly bandit, is that it?”

“No!” Chiyo shook her head. Despite her earlier vow to remain strong, tears once again sprang from her eyes.

Ryuu jerked his head back. “If it is not because I am a bandit—perhaps it is my scar you do not care for?”

She gasped and shook her head harder. “No!”

“Oh, but I think it is.” Still holding her with one hand, he used his other to withdraw a dagger from his obi. He caressed her cheek with the edge. “You see, most people look at scars in disgust. But not me. I find each gash, each tear, beautiful. Pain is art, and I am the artist.”

Chiyo’s pulse thrashed inside her ears. Where was her samurai? When would he come to save her from this madman?

Ryuu clamped his hand around her neck and pulled her roughly against him. “I can make you beautiful in a way you have never imagined.”

“No, please, no!” Chiyo’s whimpers turned to sobs. If the bandit disfigured her, would her samurai still want her or turn away in disgust?

But the bandit didn’t listen. He pressed the blade against her cheek and pain like fire erupted beneath her skin. Chiyo screamed and tried to break free, but the bandit only tightened his grip.

Blood, hot and sticky, ran down her face and then fell to the ground in fat drops. She screamed until her voice broke and all that remained were ragged gasps. Burst of white light spotted her vision, and Chiyo was sure she would pass out from the pain—she prayed for it.

But awake she remained. Enduring every agonizing moment until she was sure every inch of her face had been carved. Only then did Ryuu pull away the dagger.

“There.” He threw her to the ground and she buried her face in her hands. Her bloodied flesh burned fire hot beneath her fingers. “Now,” Ryuu said, “you truly are a thing of beauty.”

Already the blinding pain had ebbed to a numb throb. Maybe she really was going to pass out.
Please,
Chiyo thought. Because she couldn’t endure anymore. “Just kill me,” she whimpered through her closed fingers. There was no way her samurai would want her now. And with all of her loved ones dead, what else did she have? “Just be done with it,” she whispered.

Ryuu laughed. “And lose my ransom? Not a chance. When I offer your life in exchange for money, they will get just that—your life. So alive you must remain.” His footsteps drew near. “Look at me, girl. I wish to see the beauty of my art.”

That was the last thing Chiyo wanted to do. But she also knew if she didn’t obey, Ryuu would make her suffer—and she couldn’t bear anymore. She pulled her shaking fingers from her face and dropped them onto the grass. She blinked several times to clear her eyes of the blood before she dared to look up.

Ryuu gasped and took a step back. “How—I do not understand.”

The archer’s mouth dropped, and the man with the katana clutched his own throat.

Chiyo frowned. She’d done nothing more than look at them—so what would make them so afraid? Perhaps her face was worse than she could have imagined. Terror squeezed her chest as she brought her hands to her face to explore the damage for herself. But instead of finding torn flesh, she was met with only smooth skin.

She blinked several times, certain she’d felt wrong. She ran her hands across her cheeks over and over again, searching for a cut, a scratch, or even a nick. But there was nothing to be found.

The man with the katana pointed a shaking finger at
her. “She is a s-s-sorceress!” he stammered.

“No.” A slow grin unfolded on Ryuu’s lips. “She is a healer. And she is all mine. Finally, I have found a canvas worthy of my art.”

Horror dug sharpened claws into Chiyo’s chest. Surely she’d heard him wrong. “B-but my ransom! If you do not sell me, you will not get your money.”

Ryuu knelt down and cupped a hand against Chiyo’s face. She flinched when their skin touched. “My dear,” he said, “one does not sell their prize possession.”

Acid burned up her throat. “But my future husband is a samurai. He will come looking for me!”

“Hmm.” Ryuu frowned and placed his hand against his chin. “You are right. He will come looking for you. Unless … ” His eyes lit up. “Unless he thinks you are dead!”

Dead
? A whimper escaped her throat. Was Ryuu right? Would Yoshido give up the search if he thought her to be dead?

Before she could move, Ryuu reached out and plucked the kanzashi from her head—the same kanzashi Miku had placed in her hair what felt like a lifetime ago. “Here.” Ryuu tossed her hairpin to the man with the katana. “Take a girl from a nearby village and burn her body. Make sure this hairpin is found on it. We want the samurai to have no doubts that his lovely bride-to-be is dead.”

The man nodded. Together with the archer, the two of them left the tent.

“No!” Chiyo begged. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life with a monster. “Sell me,
please!
They will pay anything you want. I am sure of it.”

Ignoring her begging, Ryuu wiped the blood off his dagger with the edge of his robe until it gleamed. When he finished, he turned to her with a grin. “Now, where were we?”