Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction ❯ Something Bad ❯ Something Bad ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
Something is stalking LA and its first victim is Detective Orcot. And D knows this killer all too well. Can he save Leon?
Anime/Manga: Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Occult / Horror / Action | Type: Songfic | Uploaded On: 01.14.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.9K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Completed
Something is stalking LA and its first victim is Detective Orcot. And D knows this killer all too well. Can he save Leon?
Anime/Manga: Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Occult / Horror / Action | Type: Songfic | Uploaded On: 01.14.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.9K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: Said it once, gonna say it again. We don’t own it. Matsuri Akino does. Honestly, haven’t we figured this part out by now? We just like to take her characters our and play with them awhile before putting them away damp and slightly rumpled. (Oooh, I like that one, Subu-chan. Who says your mind isn’t as dirty as mine? *giggles manically*)
A/N Many thanks to ‘Fans’ for your kind review. This one is for you. I hope you like it as much as you liked ‘No Good Deed!’ As always, reviews and comments (e-mail too-Akita and Subu-chan can be reached at aleiannshore@yahoo.com) welcome- but the threat still holds if you don’t play nice. Akita without her medication is a scary, scary thing.
Something Bad
“…The things one hears these days.
Dreadful things…”
“Only rumors, but still, enough to give pause
To anyone with paws…
Something bad is happening…”
“Under the surface, behind the scenes
Something bad…”
(Excerpted from “Something Bad.”
Wicked soundtrack; Decca Broadway Records)
There are always killers in LA. It’s a fact of life here, as much as the sand, the sun, and the occasional earthquake. But then, there are killers everywhere. Most of the time you don’t even know about the ones who don’t make the nightly news. But sometimes, they do. But even then, those are rarely the ones you have to worry about, safe in your living room, behind sophisticated security systems and locked doors.
No, the ones you have to worry about are the ones who never get mentioned; the ones who go about the business of ending life without being noticed or noted. It’s not so much a business to them, but it’s a way of life. A part of their nature, you might say. They go about it so quietly and subtly that you are never aware of them until it’s far too late. And then they move on to the next victim, leaving others to wonder at your stiffening corpse, and the silent, deadly killer who ended your life without leaving so much as a mark. At least no mark a human would understand.
But I know. I have seen their kind before, and know all too well what they can do. They might baffle others, but never me.
But as subtle as they are, they made a mistake in coming here. They tried to take something of mine. And I do not appreciate it.
D looked up as the bell over the door chimed softly. He did not expect Detective Orcot for another couple of hours and Chris, Ten-chan, Pon-chan, and T-chan were playing with Felipe. That left only a customer. He set down the tray he was making to take to Chris’s little group and padded silently toward the front of the store.
He began his speech before he had even reached the entry. “Welcome of Count D’s pet shop. We have a large-”
“D?” A feminine voice called from the foyer. D stopped and hurried his pace. He knew that voice. And by the tone of it, she came bearing news he would not like.
“Miss Jill? To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Jill looked harried and rather upset as she hurried in, brushing drops of rain from her hair. “No pleasure today, Count. Where’s Chris?”
“I believe he’s playing in the back with some of my pets. Whatever is the matter? You look positively pale.”
“Shit, you have no idea.” D was a little startled by the vulgarity as she slumped onto one of the low couches. For all of her sometimes partner’s foul language, Jill had always been much more refined.
“Please, detective, what is the matter?”
“Leon’s gone.”
“I’m sure if you look under a rock, he will turn up eventually.” D paused at the look she gave him. “I beg your pardon. Gone, how? Surely, you don’t mean…”
“Not dead, no. At least we don’t think so. But he went missing over four hours ago, and his car was found abandoned not far from here. There was fresh blood on the steering wheel and driver’s seat. Not much, but it was positively identified as his. We don’t know much more than that at this point, but I was sent to make sure nothing had happened to Chris. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him because he’s related to Leon.”
D did not allow his alarm to show. He had always known when Leon was in danger, and this time he had not felt it. And, that in itself was as alarming as the news that he was missing. “Of course. I understand. I will go get Chris at once.”
Jill stopped him. “Let’s not scare the kid just yet. As long as you’re sure he’s safe.”
D shook himself. “I was just about to take him a snack when I heard you come in. I will make sure he is safe. Do you wish to accompany me?”
Jill shook her head. “No. He’d know something was wrong if he saw me here without his brother. Best if I don’t.”
D nodded. “I will return shortly, Miss Jill.”
D hurried to retrieve the tray he had abandoned, determining that he would make sure that Ten-chan and T-chan were on guard. Those two were more than a match for most anyone who would try to do Chris harm.
Chris, Pon-chan and Felipe were busy playing in the water, some game that seemed to involve much laughter and splashing of water and the occasional scream from Pon-chan as she got soaked. D set his tray on a nearby table and found the two he was looking for lounging on the rocks at the edge of the water.
“T-chan, Ten-chan.”
Ten-chan was braiding Tetsu’s long hair and looked up with a grin. “Yo, Count.”
T-chan turned to face him, blind to the fact that he was messing up Ten-chan’s careful work. “What is it?”
“I may have to go out for a while. I want the two of you to guard Chris carefully.”
Ten-chan looked up alertly. “What’s up?”
D summed it up briefly as he waved back at Chris, who had spotted him and paddled toward shore, Pon-chan at his side.
“You mean someone finally got rid of that thorn in my side? Hurray for them.”
D scowled at T-chan, who cared not at all for Chris’s older brother. “I mean to find out. You will guard Chris.”
T-chan flinched under the mild disapproval in his voice. “You don’t have to worry. Nothing will get to him. They’d have to get through everyone in here to touch the kid.”
D nodded, satisfied. He knew Tetsu spoke the truth. Chris was well-liked by all the inhabitants of the pet shop, and they would happily guard him from harm.
“Chris,” D greeted the waterlogged child with a smile. “I brought you a snack to tide you over until dinner time. I have to go out for a bit, so keep an eye on things for me, will you?”
Chris puffed up with pride at the thought that D was entrusting the welfare of the shop to him. *You can count on me, Count D.* He replied in his wordless way.
“Thank you, Chris. I will lock up when I go. Do not open the door for anyone. If they have a delivery, please tell them to come back tomorrow. I hope to be back in time for dinner, but if I am not, T-chan will see to it that you have dinner.”
Chris nodded. *I won’t let you down.*
D ruffled his hair fondly. “I know you won’t. None of you will. I will be back shortly.”
Chris waved as he left and D was pleased to see that Ten-chan had slipped out to inform the others to be on their guard. He returned to where Jill was waiting. “He is safe, Miss Jill. No harm will come to him among my creatures.”
Jill relaxed a bit. “I know that. Those little guys are loyal to that kid.”
“Indeed.” D offered Jill a cup of tea and she accepted with a grateful smile.
“Thanks, Count. Things have been a bit of a mess since earlier.”
“I would imagine so. So you do not have any idea what happened to our dear Detective Orcot?”
Jill shook her head as she sipped at the tea. “Just what I told you earlier. He was on a stakeout just outside the warehouse district. Narcotics got a hot tip that some very clever drug runners from Cuba were flying in and dropping their cargo on ships before they came into port here, and the ship’s crew off-loaded them with the rest of the cargo. They needed some spare hands and Leon pulled the stakeout duty. He missed a regular check in and when he missed a second one, we sent someone to check it out. His car was gone.” Jill paused for another sip and rubbed her temples with a weary hand. “The chief was sure Leon did something stupid. I was a little worried that they might have spotted him, so I asked for the GPS data on his car.
“The position it gave was in an area just outside of Chinatown. I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right so I went myself to check it out. I found the car parked in an alley, hidden behind a couple of Dumpsters. The driver’s side door was hanging open and there was blood on the seat and the steering wheel.” Jill set her teacup down. “I know Leon, Count, and he won’t go down without a fight. They must have surprised him somehow, but I don’t understand why he didn’t at least try to get a call out. The radio was undamaged and his cell phone was on the floor of the driver’s side.” Jill shook her head.
“Listen to me, telling you all this. I just came by to make sure you and Chris were safe. Leon would never let me hear the end of it if something happened to you before he could bring you in.” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. Her vibrant eyes were dark with worry as she rose from the couch. “You and Chris stay here and keep your heads down until we know something else. I’ll give you a call when we know something.”
“Of course.”
D made sure Jill heard him lock the door behind her. He made sure she was on her way before swiftly stripping off his elaborate silks and replacing them with an all black shirt and pants. Q-chan scolded him as he changed, but D listened to the familiar tirade with only minimal attention. It was very odd that he had sensed no danger. He had developed an unusual sort of danger sense when it came to Leon Orcot, his rather stubborn detective. There was an odd tie between them, one that D dared not too examine too closely. Leon was only human; after all, a member of the race who had destroyed countless lives carelessly.
“Enough,” D finally said sternly, hushing Q-chan’s irate protests. “I am going to find out what happened. Now are you going to help me, or shall I leave you here in the shop with Chris?”
Q-chan squeaked irritably, but settled on D’s shoulder as he slipped out of the shop, making sure that the door was securely locked. No sense inviting fools with more guts than brains in to unwittingly feed his pets. He was one of the few who did not have to worry unduly about break-ins. He followed Jill swiftly out of Chinatown. Her pleasant sandalwood perfume made her easy to trace. She had left her car near the alley she had mentioned and walked to his shop. D arrived at the scene as Jill got in her car and shook her head sourly before driving off. Leon’s car was still in the alley, now taped off with yellow police tape. There were two officers near the car, standing guard until the forensic crew took custody of the car. D was able to slip past them with very little effort. They were bored and tired, and certain that no one would be stupid enough to mess with a car they were guarding.
D managed not to sniff at their obvious self-importance and concentrated on keeping their attention turned elsewhere while he opened the passenger door and slipped into the car as gracefully as one of his cats. The inside of the car carried a thousand clues the poor nose-blind humans would never be able to understand. Leon’s warm, musky scent filled the air, familiar and in an odd way, comforting. There was no tang of death to the scent, only traces of his varied emotions. Boredom, mostly, followed by a sudden spike of anger, carried by the tang of adrenalin and testosterone. There was fear here too, only a bit, but heady and strong.
D mentally sorted through the scents, pushing aside the rich smell of the blood still tacky on the seat. There was something here, something that should not be. This car had carried many humans and all their myriad scents. But there was something here, lingering on the still air, that had no cause to be in the car. Just a tiny trace of something that had no place in the here and now; something that should not exist at all. Something bad. No. Something-
Very, very bad.
D felt the skin around his eyes tighten with anger. “Do you remember this smell too, Q-chan?” He asked softly, anger making his voice cold. “Do you sense those that should not be?”
Q-chan creeled softly, anger loud in the protest. D nodded sharply. “They have taken what they have no right to. They have take what is mine and it will not be tolerated.” He ignored the look that flashed across Q-chan’s small, furry face, even though he knew he was all but admitting the bond between himself and the human. Q-chan would not forget, and D knew he would not hear the end of it. But for now, he did not care. Something that had no place in this world had taken something under his claim and indeed, often under his protection.
That could not be forgiven.
D slipped out of the car as easily as he had slipped in, unnoticed by the two bored police officers. He melted into the shadows at the end of the alley, fury making him hurry. Too much time had passed and the trail outside of the closed environment of the car had gone cold. He needed someone with a better nose than his, someone who also remembered what had no place here.
“Come, Q-chan. We need to go back to the shop. I need Ten-chan for this.”
Q-chan did not protest, only offering a faint squeak of agreement.
D hurriedly returned to the shop to find Tetsu making something for Chris to eat. “Thank you, T-chan.” D told him softly as he watched Chris and Pon-chan coloring on the low table. “Please, keep Chris safe tonight.”
Tetsu looked up from his cooking, worry on his face. “Count? What is it?”
D stroked his hair. “I need to go out again. I need to take Ten-chan with me, so please be on your guard. Make sure Chris is safe. No, make sure all of you are safe.”
“What’s the matter?” T-chan watched him as he opened a chest hidden behind some hangings.
“Something left unfinished has come back, as our dear Mr. Orcot would say, ‘to bite me in the butt.’ ” D told him as he opened a small box and searched through the contents. He secreted two items in his sleeves before returning the box to its hiding place. “It is time I cleaned up yet another little mess.”
Tetsu looked confused, but Ten-chan popped up, his lean, vulpine face hard and angry. “I don’t get why you have to deal with his messes. It’s not your problem.”
D offered him a humorless smile. “This time, it has made itself my problem. As it has before, Ten-chan.”
Ten-chan understood and nodded. “Count me in, Count. I like the human.”
Tetsu snorted. “I like humans too,” he interjected. “When properly prepared. Personally, I think he’d be good in a curry.”
D smiled a little at the familiar plaint. “Indeed. Come, Q-chan, Ten-chan.” He bade Chris good night as calmly as he could and paused inside the entry, drawing a tiny stoppered vial from an elaborate box there. “Ten-chan, do you remember this scent?” He opened the seal and let the nine-tail get a whiff of the contents. He remembered the first time he had come upon this scent. Apparently, Ten-chan did too.
Ten-chan bristled, lips curling up to bare his fangs. “Oh, yes… I remember that scent well. Very, very well... Is that the prey?”
D nodded as he re-stoppered the bottle and replaced it. “Yes. I found this scent in Detective Orcot’s car this evening.”
Ten-chan flashed him a vulpine smile full of rage. “Let’s hunt, Count D.”
D nodded and made sure the door was secure behind him, hoping silently that those they hunted had not hunted down this place in turn. “Be safe, all of you.”
Ten-chan flashed his bitter smile again. “They will be, Count. We won’t fail this time.”
D hoped he was right as he followed the nine-tailed fox into the twilight. He had failed once to stop this and he could not afford to let it happen again. The cost was far too high.
Ten-chan ghosted through the fading twilight, oblivious to the rain that misted the air. He had the scent now, and he would not lose it. He would never forget this scent, this perverted bit of anger given form and let loose. But the one who had done such a thing had underestimated the evil thus unleashed. Not only did it kill its intended prey, but anything that crossed its path. And those it did not kill outright, it did worse to. It bred, and made more of itself. He was aware he was growling low in his throat, but he didn’t care.
He glanced back at D, who was keeping pace easily. D was full of anger, a rage Ten-chan understood only too well. That fury kept him strong, and able to keep pace with Ten-chan’s swift flight. “They took Leon, huh?”
D nodded, scanning the night around them.
“Do you think…?”
D cut him off with a sharp slash of one hand. “Do not even think it, Ten-chan!”
Ten-chan shook his head and turned down a street to follow the trail. “You have to be prepared for that eventuality, D. You may have to face your worst nightmare, like I did. There is always that chance, even if he is a human. Perhaps, especially because he is human.”
D shook himself, causing a shimmer of rainwater to fall from his black hair. “I know,” He said softly. “If it comes to that…”
Ten-chan shook his head. “No. I’d rather have you hate me than hate yourself.” He grinned humorlessly at D. “I have enough self-hatred for both of us. You don’t need to waste any on yourself.”
He saw some of the fury leave D’s face, replaced by sorrow. “Ten-chan-”
“Don’t! Don’t feel sorry for me; don’t worry about what might have happened. Think about what will happen if we don’t finish it this time. It has to be the last time.”
The resolve and anger settled back into place like armor. “Yes. There can be no next time.”
Ten-chan allowed him a grin. “Tetsu’s gonna be sorry he missed this. You know how he loves a good brawl.”
D’s lips curled into a wry smile. “I am glad he is not here. He might take a notion to bite something he’ll regret.”
Ten-chan snorted dry laughter as he paused before making another turn. He had to be very sure of the scent trail in this murk. “He might at that. He wouldn’t regret it though.”
“I’d make him regret it.”
“That’s better.” Ten-chan paused, sampling the dank air. “We’re close. The scent is thicker here.”
D nodded, mentally preparing himself for what they might find. Ten-chan had led them to an area that was mostly abandoned warehouses and defunct businesses. D nodded to himself. This was a good a place as any to finish this. For good this time.
Ten-chan paced softly through the silent streets, growling softly. Out of all those in the pet shop, he was the only one who had faced this enemy before. It had nearly killed him once before. It had not succeeded in that, only in ripping his living heart out. He would not see D go through that. If worst came to worst, he would do what had to be done. Far better that D hated him than himself for something he could not change.
All at once, he stopped. The scent of old hatred was thick enough to choke here. He traced it to a warehouse with broken windows grinning down at them like rows of gaping and missing teeth. “In there. The prey is in there.”
“It’s a trap.”
“You think I don’t know that, D? But I never fall for the same trick twice.”
Ten-chan sprang suddenly to a long-broken street lamp and motioned to the decaying office building beside the warehouse. D nodded understanding and followed his graceful leaps to the top of the office building. “We go in from the roof.” Ten-chan whispered as he pointed to the skylight. But his eyes darted to a broken and twisted fire escape that jutted precariously between the two buildings and from there to the shattered remains of window about two thirds of the way up the building.
D nodded understanding and they whispered plans for going in through the skylight they could see from their perch. After a long moment, Ten-chan spotted a shadow dart down the wall and into the warehouse. “Right-o. That’s done it,” he told D with a sideways grin. “Now we give them a little time to prepare the welcoming committee and go in.”
D’s mismatched eyes darted down the fire escape and to the broken window. The nine-tailed fox grinned wryly at him. One thing he had learned was never to do the expected. The enemy would be waiting at the front or under the skylight and they would come in unnoticed through the window. Ten-chan waited patiently until he was certain he had given those inside time to prepare for his expected entrance via the roof. Nodding silently to D, he sprang down onto a ledge and from there to the fire escape. The metal gave a little under his weight, but held, wedged as it was between the two buildings. D followed him down and together, they crossed to the warehouse. There was a metal walkway under the chosen window and Ten-chan scouted it quickly before allowing D to enter the window.
“He’s here. I can smell him, but just barely.”
“Alive?” D whispered.
“For the moment.” Ten-chan responded. “But his scent is thick with their mark. If he’s not dead…”
D nodded grimly. “I know. There is no time for second-guessing or hesitation.”
Ten-chan returned the solemn nod and padded silently down the metal staircase. Q-chan remained on D’s shoulder, wings folded tight and fur slicked down. Ten-chan could understand the sentiment. The stench of hatred filled the air and made his breath catch in his throat. This was definitely the nest.
“Are you going to linger on the stairs all night or come down and say hello?”
Ten-chan froze; paralyzed by the sound of a voice he never thought he would hear again. It couldn’t be…
“Hello, my love. It’s been a very long time, hasn’t it?”
Ten-chan felt D’s restraining hand on his shoulder. “Hello, Nari-san. It has been a very long time indeed. I did not think you survived our last encounter.” D spoke calmly, but Ten-chan could feel the tension in his fingers.
“It was a very near thing, Count. My beloved’s teeth are very sharp.”
Ten-chan ached, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. D leaned down, his breath caressing Ten-chan’s cheek. “Remember, the thing that wears her face is not the creature you loved.”
“That’s not very nice, Count D.” Nari-san’s voice was mocking. “Come out now and say hello, won’t you?”
There were rustlings and the click of claws on the metal walkway behind them. Ten-chan was growling softly, angry that he had been so foolishly distracted as to let them be surrounded. D did not deign to look back. “Indeed. We must not be rude.”
His hand still tight on Ten-chan’s shoulder, D started down the stairs. It was an unnecessary precaution. Once he had gotten over the shock, there was no way Ten-chan was going to let himself be distracted again. The real Nari-san was long dead, and only a shell for what spoke with her voice.
She waited at the foot of the stairs, her white silk hair swirling around her. Ten-chan’s heart ached at the sight of her, as lovely now as when they had met. But she was gone now and this creature of hatred lived in her place. “Nari-san.”
“So formal, my beloved? Were we not mates?” Her lovely smile was hollow.
“You are not she. You are what killed her.” Ten-chan snarled, feeling the stench around them grow thicker as more and more enemies crowded around them. There were faces among them; faces of once friends, now foes.
D saw them too and tightened his hand on Ten-chan’s shoulder. This was the cost of failure. Beloved friends taken and transformed into living weapons of hatred. “You took something that did not belong to you. We came to get it back.”
“Something?” Nari-san laughed mockingly. “You cannot fool us, D. We can smell your desperation from here. How far you have fallen.”
D stiffened. “How far I have fallen? You are the fallen one here. The end result of a failed experiment by one whose hatred outweighed his sense.”
“What a way to speak of your father, D.” Nari-san said. Her ice-silver eyes were full of mockery. “So we took something that did not belong to us? Pray tell, what?”
D’s face was tight and full of anger. Ten-chan stepped forward with a snarl. “Give him back.”
“Such déjà vu! ‘Give her back!’ Do you remember those words, my love?”
“No. The creature you pretend to be is dead, as is the one who loved her.”
Anger flashed across that pretty face. “Very well, then. Enough games.” She gestured and the crowd parted to reveal Leon Orcot laid out on the floor, pale and unmoving. Only the slow rise and fall of his chest betrayed that he still lived. Nari-san strolled towards him and crouched at his side. She stroked Leon’s cheek. “A pretty specimen of humanity, D, but still a human. Have you forgotten?”
“Never.” D’s voice was tightly controlled, but the flash of his odd-colored eyes gave away his anger. “I have neither forgotten that he is human nor what the humans have done. But for the moment, I have need of him.”
“Lie to yourself if you like, D, but not to me. I am a creature born of emotions. The darker ones, perhaps, but they are two sides of the same coin.” Nari-san shook her head. “You care for this human, Count D.”
“And if I do?”
“You betray what your father created us for.”
“My father created something twisted and perverted to kill humanity. But what he unleashed killed indiscriminately.” D said coldly. “You stand there as proof of that. Nari-san is no more, murdered by that which uses her body. And you cannot deny that you have killed those who are not human. I found their lifeless shells.”
“A mistake. We do not kill needlessly now.”
“No, you only kill the true owners of the bodies you wear.”
“Such bitterness. You came to destroy us, yes? You betray what you are.”
“Is it a betrayal to kill that which is already dead? You walk and talk as hollow mockeries of the creatures that were. Even Father admitted to his mistake in creating you.”
“Enough of these pointless accusations. You mean to be done with us. How? You carry no weapons.”
“No.”
“Then you are defenseless against us. Even if you can somehow miraculously pull off killing all of us, our seed slumbers in the chest of this human. If it opens before you can defeat us and remove it, he will be one of us and you will be forced to destroy him too.”
Ten-chan stalked forward, bristling. “Hey, doll! We have a dance to finish, you and I.” He growled. “If I have to rip apart every creature in this room first, I will still finish what we started.”
Nari-san nodded and stepped away from Leon’s prone body. “Yes, my love, we do indeed have a death-dance to finish. Only one of us can walk away.” She stepped forward and the others fell back to leave a large clear space around them.
Ten-chan caught D’s eyes. I hope you have a plan, he thought wordlessly. I’ll buy you all the time I can to do what you have to do.
D understood the wordless plea and offered Ten-chan the tiniest nod. Ten-chan stepped forward and bowed to his opponent. “Let’s finish this.” He dropped into a fighting stance with the ease of long practice. Nari-san mirrored him; her easy grace a match for his.
Their first advances were just that, little darts and leaps to see what openings there were. Ten-chan let Nari-san edge him back until he was nearly on the edge of the circle, as far away from Leon’s still form as he could get. Then he dove to one side and lashed out, sending Nari-san flying. She rolled and came up on her feet. “Clever,” she admitted. “You have become better since last we fought.”
Ten-chan offered a bloodthirsty grin. “You have no idea. One last dance, my beloved Ari; one final dance to finish what we started so long ago.”
Her grin was a match for his. “Let us dance, my love.”
D watched as the two foxes clashed. Ten-chan was deliberately making it as spectacular as possible. The diversion was working. More and more eyes turned to the battle as blood spattered the warehouse floor. D moved at little as possible to keep from drawing attention to himself. He had lied when he had said he was unarmed. He slowly drew out a small cloth sack from one sleeve and a tiny vial from the other. A gift from Father, he thought wryly as he soaked the small sack with the oil from the vial. He offered the sack to Q-chan, shivering on his shoulder. “You know what to do?” He breathed.
Q-chan offered a tiny affirmative squeak and secured claws in the oily cloth. “As high as you can reach, and then open it.” D instructed under his breath, his voice drowned by the sounds of the battle between Ten-chan and Nari-san. “Stay high until the dust disperses. Hopefully, it will not take long to affect them.”
Q-chan caressed his cheek with a wingtip and labored silently into the air. D did not dare to watch for fear of drawing attention to the burdened Q-chan. He turned his gaze to the pale form lying nearby. The tainted smell was getting stronger from him. D gritted his teeth. He was not sure he could remove the seed without killing Leon. But if he did not Leon was just as dead, even as he rose and walked and talked. There would be a stranger living behind his blue eyes. He could not allow that to happen. It would kill him to do what had to be done, but Ten-chan’s wounds were as fresh now as ever and D would not allow him to heap more self-loathing on himself. He would finish it himself if worse came to worse.
D eased a step or two toward Leon. It went unremarked, as all eyes were on the progressively more bloody fight. For creatures born of hated and rage, the high emotions of the two locked in battle were irresistible. D allowed himself a glance upward and saw that Q-chan had vanished among the girders that supported the roof. Soon then. He eased another few paces towards Leon when a pained yelp drew his eyes back to the fight. Ten-chan backed away from his opponent warily, favoring a wounded leg. Both he and Nari-san were liberally spattered with blood. D held his breath as Ten-chan dove and rolled just in time to avoid an attack from behind. One of the observers had decided to get in on the action.
Nari-san snarled and sprang at the offender. “This battle is mine. No one-but no one-will interfere until it is decided! Am I understood?”
The cowed creature nodded and shrank back when she released him.
Ten-chan laughed mockingly. “Trouble in the ranks, doll-face?”
Nari-san turned back with a furious snarl and leapt at Ten-chan. He went down on his back and planted his feet in her abdomen, letting her momentum carry her over his head. She landed hard as he scrambled back to his feet. “Ah-ah,” he scolded derisively. “Anger has no place in a death-dance! If you were really my Ari, you would know that! She taught it to me, after all!”
Nari-san howled rage and flung herself after Ten-chan, who dodged her attacks with taunts and scornful laughter. D recognized the tactic. Like the fox who tormented the hounds from just beyond their reach to drive them into a sort of madness, Ten-chan was using mocking words to drive Nari-san half-crazy and lead her into making mistakes. Possibly-fatal ones.
D edged another step sideways and felt his foot nudge something. He knelt beside Leon, feeling the fever heat from the seed of darkness growing in his chest. Leon still slept, but pain had twisted his features and his breath came in rasping gasps. D had very little time left before the man known as Leon Orcot would cease to exist, his body a vessel for one of the creatures. D glanced up at the darkness above them. There was no time left!
Then his eyes caught the glitter of falling dust. It was nearly invisible in the dimly-lit warehouse, but he could see is settling on the circle of creatures and the two combatants in the center. None of them noticed, intent on the battle. Nari-san was screaming with frustrated anger as Ten-chan kept just out of her reach, mocking her with snide comments and laughter. He danced in long enough to deliver a punishing kick and withdrew before she could close with him. “C’mon, Ari-who-isn’t! You can do better than that!”
“Damn you!” Nari-san howled. She sprang at Ten-chan, but he danced aside, raking her side with his claws, brutally efficient.
“Ten-chan! Get DOWN!” D shouted as the nine-tail flung himself at his opponent with a snarl. He didn’t wait to see if Ten-chan obeyed, raising his hands and calling, letting the power of all those who had died at the hands of these creatures wash over him. He felt brief touches of approval and joy before the air incandesced blindingly.
D squinted as streamers of purifying flame touched every creature in the warehouse. Screams joined the roar of the flames as the bright ribbons of fire pulled something dark and noisome from the bodies they had inhabited. The purifying fire burned away the darkness and the bodies collapsed like the string-cut puppets that they were. They were dead many years ago, forced to walk and talk by the corruption that had killed them all.
D felt the tears spilling down his cheeks as the flames flickered out. He knew they were long dead, but to see them like this was heartbreaking. Blinking the dancing afterimages out of his eyes, D looked for Ten-chan. He found him in the center of the circle, cradling Nari-san’s limp body.
Ten-chan’s voice was steady as he spoke, though his whole body shook with the tears he would not shed. “She was here, D. I felt her touch when you called the flames. She remembered me, and for an instant she was with me again.” At last his voice broke as he whispered, “Ari…” He hunched over the lifeless form in his arms, mourning again for someone he’d now lost twice.
D looked down at Leon and shuddered. The flames had not touched him; had not burned the seed of corruption from his chest. It was still there and very near to opening. Leon’s head tossed from side to side and his fists were clenched at his sides against the agony of the growing darkness inside him.
D could feel that tainted seed where it nestled under Leon’s laboring heart. If he could not find a way to excise it, Leon would die. D straddled Leon’s legs and pressed both palms on his chest, directly over his heart. It would take all that he had left to do this; to save this one human life.
Q-chan arrowed down out of the darkness and fluttered wildly around his head, squeaking frantic protests which D ignored.
“I have to do this.” He muttered, feeling the fever-heat on his palms where they rested on the detective’s chest. “If I don’t finish it now, this will never be ended.”
Q-chan made one final inarticulate protest and hung unmoving in the air.
Ten-chan limped up. He was still bleeding from his various wounds and looked more exhausted than D could ever remember seeing him, even after the first battle with these perversions of his father’s. His flashing green eyes were dulled with weariness and full of sorrow, but he settled lightly to the concrete at Leon’s head.
“I’ll help. I don’t have much left, but I’ll lend it to you for this.” He said calmly.
D was thunderstruck by the offer.
Ten-chan gifted him with a disdainful look. “Look, D, I actually like humans for the most part. They’re fun, if none too bright. Your pet’s no worse than some and better than most. I don’t mind helping you save him, K?”
“Thank you, Ten-chan.” D hid the tremble in his voice.
“One of us has already lost too much tonight, Count. Let’s not make it two.”
D summoned all the power he had available to him. He could feel Ten-chan’s power wrap around his, a red-gold thread among the green. He honed it into a blade and plunged it into Leon’s chest. Leon arched up from the cold concrete, mouth open in a soundless scream of mortal agony. D felt the black seed of corruption shriveling away from the assault, but it was still not enough. He had used too much in the battle tonight and Ten-chan had nothing more to give. They were failing.
A wash of silver-gilt power came from nowhere and supported D’s frantic efforts, scouring away the last taint of corruption. D knew that power and the ice-silver eyes that he felt grinning mischievously at him behind it. “Nari-san-”
Ten-chan’s voice was choked as he echoed, “Ari-”
D felt the gentle warmth of the fox-spirit’s loving regard. *Thank you, both of you. We are free now from that which held us, the hatred and darkness. All those who fell here thank you. Thank you, D. Thank you, my beloved.*
Nari-san’s presence vanished and with it the silver wash of power that had buoyed them. D and Ten-chan felt the loss keenly as exhaustion caught up with them. Deaf to Q-chan’s vehement shrills, D collapsed across Leon’s chest. His fever was gone and his heartbeat steady beneath D’s ear. D allowed himself to bask in relief as he lay there, sprawled across Leon’s warm chest. He might never do this again, and he wouldn’t move even if he could have. For just one tiny moment, all was right in the world.
Leon stirred sleepily beneath him and strong arms wrapped around D, crushing him to Leon’s chest. Ten-chan chuckled, some of the life coming back to his eyes. “Aw, isn’t that cute!”
D struggled but could not free himself from the detective’s embrace. “All very funny, Ten-chan, but I can’t move.”
Ten-chan guffawed, rocking back on his heels with laughter. “But you’re just such a cute couple!”
“Ten-chan!”
It was another long moment before Ten-chan could stop laughing long enough to help D disentangle himself from Leon’s sleepy embrace. D scowled at the chuckling nine-tailed fox as he smoothed his mussed hair. “Enough, Ten-chan.” He rose to his feet and surveyed the warehouse. Bodies, some human, but mostly not, still littered the floor. Ten-chan has neatly laid Nari-san out on the concrete. D sighed and summoned the last spark of his power. Nari-san’s body, along with those of the other creatures the corruption had taken, vanished into motes of silver and green. D stared at the human bodies, dead without a mark on them, and shook his head wearily. Let the police try to figure that one out. He was in no mood to deal with them.
“No offense, count, but what are we going to do with your hug-toy there?” Ten-chan asked. “The police will be wondering what happened to him.”
D sighed. “We will take him to a hospital, and leave him there. He was struck from behind by one of the smugglers and stabbed. At least that is what they will think.”
“Stabbed?”
D touched Leon’s chest where the seed of corruption had been. The flesh parted as if the honed blade of power had been a knife of cold steel. D nodded to Ten-chan and together, they lifted Leon’s unconscious (and now bleeding) body and left him on the steps of the nearest hospital. Ten-chan’s shout, a perfect mimicry of Leon in distress, insured that someone came running and he and D faded into the night as nurses swarmed over the unconscious man.
They walked slowly back to the pet shop, both of them weary beyond words. D touched Ten-chan’s shoulder in sympathy. “I am sorry you had to face this again.”
Ten-chan replied with a sharp headshake. “I’m not. It had to be done, and now I can stop killing myself over Ari. She remembered and in the end, I felt the echoes of the joy she must have felt upon being set free. It’s finally over.”
D nodded as the pet shop came into sight. “Yes. It is over for now.”
“For now?”
“My father will not give up in his desire to eliminate all humanity for the atrocities they have committed. I fear we will have to deal with one of his messes yet again at some point.”
“Not until we’ve had a few hour of sleep, I hope.”
D chuckled. “Indeed. Sleep first, saving the world, later.”
A/N So, what did you think? I figured if D’s dad’s Bio-weapon could be nothing more than a glob of plankton, who’s to say he might not have created something equally nasty from a parasite or a virus. He’s Crazy, remember?
So tell us what you thought. More stories to be posted soon.
A/N Many thanks to ‘Fans’ for your kind review. This one is for you. I hope you like it as much as you liked ‘No Good Deed!’ As always, reviews and comments (e-mail too-Akita and Subu-chan can be reached at aleiannshore@yahoo.com) welcome- but the threat still holds if you don’t play nice. Akita without her medication is a scary, scary thing.
Something Bad
“…The things one hears these days.
Dreadful things…”
“Only rumors, but still, enough to give pause
To anyone with paws…
Something bad is happening…”
“Under the surface, behind the scenes
Something bad…”
(Excerpted from “Something Bad.”
Wicked soundtrack; Decca Broadway Records)
There are always killers in LA. It’s a fact of life here, as much as the sand, the sun, and the occasional earthquake. But then, there are killers everywhere. Most of the time you don’t even know about the ones who don’t make the nightly news. But sometimes, they do. But even then, those are rarely the ones you have to worry about, safe in your living room, behind sophisticated security systems and locked doors.
No, the ones you have to worry about are the ones who never get mentioned; the ones who go about the business of ending life without being noticed or noted. It’s not so much a business to them, but it’s a way of life. A part of their nature, you might say. They go about it so quietly and subtly that you are never aware of them until it’s far too late. And then they move on to the next victim, leaving others to wonder at your stiffening corpse, and the silent, deadly killer who ended your life without leaving so much as a mark. At least no mark a human would understand.
But I know. I have seen their kind before, and know all too well what they can do. They might baffle others, but never me.
But as subtle as they are, they made a mistake in coming here. They tried to take something of mine. And I do not appreciate it.
D looked up as the bell over the door chimed softly. He did not expect Detective Orcot for another couple of hours and Chris, Ten-chan, Pon-chan, and T-chan were playing with Felipe. That left only a customer. He set down the tray he was making to take to Chris’s little group and padded silently toward the front of the store.
He began his speech before he had even reached the entry. “Welcome of Count D’s pet shop. We have a large-”
“D?” A feminine voice called from the foyer. D stopped and hurried his pace. He knew that voice. And by the tone of it, she came bearing news he would not like.
“Miss Jill? To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Jill looked harried and rather upset as she hurried in, brushing drops of rain from her hair. “No pleasure today, Count. Where’s Chris?”
“I believe he’s playing in the back with some of my pets. Whatever is the matter? You look positively pale.”
“Shit, you have no idea.” D was a little startled by the vulgarity as she slumped onto one of the low couches. For all of her sometimes partner’s foul language, Jill had always been much more refined.
“Please, detective, what is the matter?”
“Leon’s gone.”
“I’m sure if you look under a rock, he will turn up eventually.” D paused at the look she gave him. “I beg your pardon. Gone, how? Surely, you don’t mean…”
“Not dead, no. At least we don’t think so. But he went missing over four hours ago, and his car was found abandoned not far from here. There was fresh blood on the steering wheel and driver’s seat. Not much, but it was positively identified as his. We don’t know much more than that at this point, but I was sent to make sure nothing had happened to Chris. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him because he’s related to Leon.”
D did not allow his alarm to show. He had always known when Leon was in danger, and this time he had not felt it. And, that in itself was as alarming as the news that he was missing. “Of course. I understand. I will go get Chris at once.”
Jill stopped him. “Let’s not scare the kid just yet. As long as you’re sure he’s safe.”
D shook himself. “I was just about to take him a snack when I heard you come in. I will make sure he is safe. Do you wish to accompany me?”
Jill shook her head. “No. He’d know something was wrong if he saw me here without his brother. Best if I don’t.”
D nodded. “I will return shortly, Miss Jill.”
D hurried to retrieve the tray he had abandoned, determining that he would make sure that Ten-chan and T-chan were on guard. Those two were more than a match for most anyone who would try to do Chris harm.
Chris, Pon-chan and Felipe were busy playing in the water, some game that seemed to involve much laughter and splashing of water and the occasional scream from Pon-chan as she got soaked. D set his tray on a nearby table and found the two he was looking for lounging on the rocks at the edge of the water.
“T-chan, Ten-chan.”
Ten-chan was braiding Tetsu’s long hair and looked up with a grin. “Yo, Count.”
T-chan turned to face him, blind to the fact that he was messing up Ten-chan’s careful work. “What is it?”
“I may have to go out for a while. I want the two of you to guard Chris carefully.”
Ten-chan looked up alertly. “What’s up?”
D summed it up briefly as he waved back at Chris, who had spotted him and paddled toward shore, Pon-chan at his side.
“You mean someone finally got rid of that thorn in my side? Hurray for them.”
D scowled at T-chan, who cared not at all for Chris’s older brother. “I mean to find out. You will guard Chris.”
T-chan flinched under the mild disapproval in his voice. “You don’t have to worry. Nothing will get to him. They’d have to get through everyone in here to touch the kid.”
D nodded, satisfied. He knew Tetsu spoke the truth. Chris was well-liked by all the inhabitants of the pet shop, and they would happily guard him from harm.
“Chris,” D greeted the waterlogged child with a smile. “I brought you a snack to tide you over until dinner time. I have to go out for a bit, so keep an eye on things for me, will you?”
Chris puffed up with pride at the thought that D was entrusting the welfare of the shop to him. *You can count on me, Count D.* He replied in his wordless way.
“Thank you, Chris. I will lock up when I go. Do not open the door for anyone. If they have a delivery, please tell them to come back tomorrow. I hope to be back in time for dinner, but if I am not, T-chan will see to it that you have dinner.”
Chris nodded. *I won’t let you down.*
D ruffled his hair fondly. “I know you won’t. None of you will. I will be back shortly.”
Chris waved as he left and D was pleased to see that Ten-chan had slipped out to inform the others to be on their guard. He returned to where Jill was waiting. “He is safe, Miss Jill. No harm will come to him among my creatures.”
Jill relaxed a bit. “I know that. Those little guys are loyal to that kid.”
“Indeed.” D offered Jill a cup of tea and she accepted with a grateful smile.
“Thanks, Count. Things have been a bit of a mess since earlier.”
“I would imagine so. So you do not have any idea what happened to our dear Detective Orcot?”
Jill shook her head as she sipped at the tea. “Just what I told you earlier. He was on a stakeout just outside the warehouse district. Narcotics got a hot tip that some very clever drug runners from Cuba were flying in and dropping their cargo on ships before they came into port here, and the ship’s crew off-loaded them with the rest of the cargo. They needed some spare hands and Leon pulled the stakeout duty. He missed a regular check in and when he missed a second one, we sent someone to check it out. His car was gone.” Jill paused for another sip and rubbed her temples with a weary hand. “The chief was sure Leon did something stupid. I was a little worried that they might have spotted him, so I asked for the GPS data on his car.
“The position it gave was in an area just outside of Chinatown. I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right so I went myself to check it out. I found the car parked in an alley, hidden behind a couple of Dumpsters. The driver’s side door was hanging open and there was blood on the seat and the steering wheel.” Jill set her teacup down. “I know Leon, Count, and he won’t go down without a fight. They must have surprised him somehow, but I don’t understand why he didn’t at least try to get a call out. The radio was undamaged and his cell phone was on the floor of the driver’s side.” Jill shook her head.
“Listen to me, telling you all this. I just came by to make sure you and Chris were safe. Leon would never let me hear the end of it if something happened to you before he could bring you in.” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. Her vibrant eyes were dark with worry as she rose from the couch. “You and Chris stay here and keep your heads down until we know something else. I’ll give you a call when we know something.”
“Of course.”
D made sure Jill heard him lock the door behind her. He made sure she was on her way before swiftly stripping off his elaborate silks and replacing them with an all black shirt and pants. Q-chan scolded him as he changed, but D listened to the familiar tirade with only minimal attention. It was very odd that he had sensed no danger. He had developed an unusual sort of danger sense when it came to Leon Orcot, his rather stubborn detective. There was an odd tie between them, one that D dared not too examine too closely. Leon was only human; after all, a member of the race who had destroyed countless lives carelessly.
“Enough,” D finally said sternly, hushing Q-chan’s irate protests. “I am going to find out what happened. Now are you going to help me, or shall I leave you here in the shop with Chris?”
Q-chan squeaked irritably, but settled on D’s shoulder as he slipped out of the shop, making sure that the door was securely locked. No sense inviting fools with more guts than brains in to unwittingly feed his pets. He was one of the few who did not have to worry unduly about break-ins. He followed Jill swiftly out of Chinatown. Her pleasant sandalwood perfume made her easy to trace. She had left her car near the alley she had mentioned and walked to his shop. D arrived at the scene as Jill got in her car and shook her head sourly before driving off. Leon’s car was still in the alley, now taped off with yellow police tape. There were two officers near the car, standing guard until the forensic crew took custody of the car. D was able to slip past them with very little effort. They were bored and tired, and certain that no one would be stupid enough to mess with a car they were guarding.
D managed not to sniff at their obvious self-importance and concentrated on keeping their attention turned elsewhere while he opened the passenger door and slipped into the car as gracefully as one of his cats. The inside of the car carried a thousand clues the poor nose-blind humans would never be able to understand. Leon’s warm, musky scent filled the air, familiar and in an odd way, comforting. There was no tang of death to the scent, only traces of his varied emotions. Boredom, mostly, followed by a sudden spike of anger, carried by the tang of adrenalin and testosterone. There was fear here too, only a bit, but heady and strong.
D mentally sorted through the scents, pushing aside the rich smell of the blood still tacky on the seat. There was something here, something that should not be. This car had carried many humans and all their myriad scents. But there was something here, lingering on the still air, that had no cause to be in the car. Just a tiny trace of something that had no place in the here and now; something that should not exist at all. Something bad. No. Something-
Very, very bad.
D felt the skin around his eyes tighten with anger. “Do you remember this smell too, Q-chan?” He asked softly, anger making his voice cold. “Do you sense those that should not be?”
Q-chan creeled softly, anger loud in the protest. D nodded sharply. “They have taken what they have no right to. They have take what is mine and it will not be tolerated.” He ignored the look that flashed across Q-chan’s small, furry face, even though he knew he was all but admitting the bond between himself and the human. Q-chan would not forget, and D knew he would not hear the end of it. But for now, he did not care. Something that had no place in this world had taken something under his claim and indeed, often under his protection.
That could not be forgiven.
D slipped out of the car as easily as he had slipped in, unnoticed by the two bored police officers. He melted into the shadows at the end of the alley, fury making him hurry. Too much time had passed and the trail outside of the closed environment of the car had gone cold. He needed someone with a better nose than his, someone who also remembered what had no place here.
“Come, Q-chan. We need to go back to the shop. I need Ten-chan for this.”
Q-chan did not protest, only offering a faint squeak of agreement.
D hurriedly returned to the shop to find Tetsu making something for Chris to eat. “Thank you, T-chan.” D told him softly as he watched Chris and Pon-chan coloring on the low table. “Please, keep Chris safe tonight.”
Tetsu looked up from his cooking, worry on his face. “Count? What is it?”
D stroked his hair. “I need to go out again. I need to take Ten-chan with me, so please be on your guard. Make sure Chris is safe. No, make sure all of you are safe.”
“What’s the matter?” T-chan watched him as he opened a chest hidden behind some hangings.
“Something left unfinished has come back, as our dear Mr. Orcot would say, ‘to bite me in the butt.’ ” D told him as he opened a small box and searched through the contents. He secreted two items in his sleeves before returning the box to its hiding place. “It is time I cleaned up yet another little mess.”
Tetsu looked confused, but Ten-chan popped up, his lean, vulpine face hard and angry. “I don’t get why you have to deal with his messes. It’s not your problem.”
D offered him a humorless smile. “This time, it has made itself my problem. As it has before, Ten-chan.”
Ten-chan understood and nodded. “Count me in, Count. I like the human.”
Tetsu snorted. “I like humans too,” he interjected. “When properly prepared. Personally, I think he’d be good in a curry.”
D smiled a little at the familiar plaint. “Indeed. Come, Q-chan, Ten-chan.” He bade Chris good night as calmly as he could and paused inside the entry, drawing a tiny stoppered vial from an elaborate box there. “Ten-chan, do you remember this scent?” He opened the seal and let the nine-tail get a whiff of the contents. He remembered the first time he had come upon this scent. Apparently, Ten-chan did too.
Ten-chan bristled, lips curling up to bare his fangs. “Oh, yes… I remember that scent well. Very, very well... Is that the prey?”
D nodded as he re-stoppered the bottle and replaced it. “Yes. I found this scent in Detective Orcot’s car this evening.”
Ten-chan flashed him a vulpine smile full of rage. “Let’s hunt, Count D.”
D nodded and made sure the door was secure behind him, hoping silently that those they hunted had not hunted down this place in turn. “Be safe, all of you.”
Ten-chan flashed his bitter smile again. “They will be, Count. We won’t fail this time.”
D hoped he was right as he followed the nine-tailed fox into the twilight. He had failed once to stop this and he could not afford to let it happen again. The cost was far too high.
Ten-chan ghosted through the fading twilight, oblivious to the rain that misted the air. He had the scent now, and he would not lose it. He would never forget this scent, this perverted bit of anger given form and let loose. But the one who had done such a thing had underestimated the evil thus unleashed. Not only did it kill its intended prey, but anything that crossed its path. And those it did not kill outright, it did worse to. It bred, and made more of itself. He was aware he was growling low in his throat, but he didn’t care.
He glanced back at D, who was keeping pace easily. D was full of anger, a rage Ten-chan understood only too well. That fury kept him strong, and able to keep pace with Ten-chan’s swift flight. “They took Leon, huh?”
D nodded, scanning the night around them.
“Do you think…?”
D cut him off with a sharp slash of one hand. “Do not even think it, Ten-chan!”
Ten-chan shook his head and turned down a street to follow the trail. “You have to be prepared for that eventuality, D. You may have to face your worst nightmare, like I did. There is always that chance, even if he is a human. Perhaps, especially because he is human.”
D shook himself, causing a shimmer of rainwater to fall from his black hair. “I know,” He said softly. “If it comes to that…”
Ten-chan shook his head. “No. I’d rather have you hate me than hate yourself.” He grinned humorlessly at D. “I have enough self-hatred for both of us. You don’t need to waste any on yourself.”
He saw some of the fury leave D’s face, replaced by sorrow. “Ten-chan-”
“Don’t! Don’t feel sorry for me; don’t worry about what might have happened. Think about what will happen if we don’t finish it this time. It has to be the last time.”
The resolve and anger settled back into place like armor. “Yes. There can be no next time.”
Ten-chan allowed him a grin. “Tetsu’s gonna be sorry he missed this. You know how he loves a good brawl.”
D’s lips curled into a wry smile. “I am glad he is not here. He might take a notion to bite something he’ll regret.”
Ten-chan snorted dry laughter as he paused before making another turn. He had to be very sure of the scent trail in this murk. “He might at that. He wouldn’t regret it though.”
“I’d make him regret it.”
“That’s better.” Ten-chan paused, sampling the dank air. “We’re close. The scent is thicker here.”
D nodded, mentally preparing himself for what they might find. Ten-chan had led them to an area that was mostly abandoned warehouses and defunct businesses. D nodded to himself. This was a good a place as any to finish this. For good this time.
Ten-chan paced softly through the silent streets, growling softly. Out of all those in the pet shop, he was the only one who had faced this enemy before. It had nearly killed him once before. It had not succeeded in that, only in ripping his living heart out. He would not see D go through that. If worst came to worst, he would do what had to be done. Far better that D hated him than himself for something he could not change.
All at once, he stopped. The scent of old hatred was thick enough to choke here. He traced it to a warehouse with broken windows grinning down at them like rows of gaping and missing teeth. “In there. The prey is in there.”
“It’s a trap.”
“You think I don’t know that, D? But I never fall for the same trick twice.”
Ten-chan sprang suddenly to a long-broken street lamp and motioned to the decaying office building beside the warehouse. D nodded understanding and followed his graceful leaps to the top of the office building. “We go in from the roof.” Ten-chan whispered as he pointed to the skylight. But his eyes darted to a broken and twisted fire escape that jutted precariously between the two buildings and from there to the shattered remains of window about two thirds of the way up the building.
D nodded understanding and they whispered plans for going in through the skylight they could see from their perch. After a long moment, Ten-chan spotted a shadow dart down the wall and into the warehouse. “Right-o. That’s done it,” he told D with a sideways grin. “Now we give them a little time to prepare the welcoming committee and go in.”
D’s mismatched eyes darted down the fire escape and to the broken window. The nine-tailed fox grinned wryly at him. One thing he had learned was never to do the expected. The enemy would be waiting at the front or under the skylight and they would come in unnoticed through the window. Ten-chan waited patiently until he was certain he had given those inside time to prepare for his expected entrance via the roof. Nodding silently to D, he sprang down onto a ledge and from there to the fire escape. The metal gave a little under his weight, but held, wedged as it was between the two buildings. D followed him down and together, they crossed to the warehouse. There was a metal walkway under the chosen window and Ten-chan scouted it quickly before allowing D to enter the window.
“He’s here. I can smell him, but just barely.”
“Alive?” D whispered.
“For the moment.” Ten-chan responded. “But his scent is thick with their mark. If he’s not dead…”
D nodded grimly. “I know. There is no time for second-guessing or hesitation.”
Ten-chan returned the solemn nod and padded silently down the metal staircase. Q-chan remained on D’s shoulder, wings folded tight and fur slicked down. Ten-chan could understand the sentiment. The stench of hatred filled the air and made his breath catch in his throat. This was definitely the nest.
“Are you going to linger on the stairs all night or come down and say hello?”
Ten-chan froze; paralyzed by the sound of a voice he never thought he would hear again. It couldn’t be…
“Hello, my love. It’s been a very long time, hasn’t it?”
Ten-chan felt D’s restraining hand on his shoulder. “Hello, Nari-san. It has been a very long time indeed. I did not think you survived our last encounter.” D spoke calmly, but Ten-chan could feel the tension in his fingers.
“It was a very near thing, Count. My beloved’s teeth are very sharp.”
Ten-chan ached, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. D leaned down, his breath caressing Ten-chan’s cheek. “Remember, the thing that wears her face is not the creature you loved.”
“That’s not very nice, Count D.” Nari-san’s voice was mocking. “Come out now and say hello, won’t you?”
There were rustlings and the click of claws on the metal walkway behind them. Ten-chan was growling softly, angry that he had been so foolishly distracted as to let them be surrounded. D did not deign to look back. “Indeed. We must not be rude.”
His hand still tight on Ten-chan’s shoulder, D started down the stairs. It was an unnecessary precaution. Once he had gotten over the shock, there was no way Ten-chan was going to let himself be distracted again. The real Nari-san was long dead, and only a shell for what spoke with her voice.
She waited at the foot of the stairs, her white silk hair swirling around her. Ten-chan’s heart ached at the sight of her, as lovely now as when they had met. But she was gone now and this creature of hatred lived in her place. “Nari-san.”
“So formal, my beloved? Were we not mates?” Her lovely smile was hollow.
“You are not she. You are what killed her.” Ten-chan snarled, feeling the stench around them grow thicker as more and more enemies crowded around them. There were faces among them; faces of once friends, now foes.
D saw them too and tightened his hand on Ten-chan’s shoulder. This was the cost of failure. Beloved friends taken and transformed into living weapons of hatred. “You took something that did not belong to you. We came to get it back.”
“Something?” Nari-san laughed mockingly. “You cannot fool us, D. We can smell your desperation from here. How far you have fallen.”
D stiffened. “How far I have fallen? You are the fallen one here. The end result of a failed experiment by one whose hatred outweighed his sense.”
“What a way to speak of your father, D.” Nari-san said. Her ice-silver eyes were full of mockery. “So we took something that did not belong to us? Pray tell, what?”
D’s face was tight and full of anger. Ten-chan stepped forward with a snarl. “Give him back.”
“Such déjà vu! ‘Give her back!’ Do you remember those words, my love?”
“No. The creature you pretend to be is dead, as is the one who loved her.”
Anger flashed across that pretty face. “Very well, then. Enough games.” She gestured and the crowd parted to reveal Leon Orcot laid out on the floor, pale and unmoving. Only the slow rise and fall of his chest betrayed that he still lived. Nari-san strolled towards him and crouched at his side. She stroked Leon’s cheek. “A pretty specimen of humanity, D, but still a human. Have you forgotten?”
“Never.” D’s voice was tightly controlled, but the flash of his odd-colored eyes gave away his anger. “I have neither forgotten that he is human nor what the humans have done. But for the moment, I have need of him.”
“Lie to yourself if you like, D, but not to me. I am a creature born of emotions. The darker ones, perhaps, but they are two sides of the same coin.” Nari-san shook her head. “You care for this human, Count D.”
“And if I do?”
“You betray what your father created us for.”
“My father created something twisted and perverted to kill humanity. But what he unleashed killed indiscriminately.” D said coldly. “You stand there as proof of that. Nari-san is no more, murdered by that which uses her body. And you cannot deny that you have killed those who are not human. I found their lifeless shells.”
“A mistake. We do not kill needlessly now.”
“No, you only kill the true owners of the bodies you wear.”
“Such bitterness. You came to destroy us, yes? You betray what you are.”
“Is it a betrayal to kill that which is already dead? You walk and talk as hollow mockeries of the creatures that were. Even Father admitted to his mistake in creating you.”
“Enough of these pointless accusations. You mean to be done with us. How? You carry no weapons.”
“No.”
“Then you are defenseless against us. Even if you can somehow miraculously pull off killing all of us, our seed slumbers in the chest of this human. If it opens before you can defeat us and remove it, he will be one of us and you will be forced to destroy him too.”
Ten-chan stalked forward, bristling. “Hey, doll! We have a dance to finish, you and I.” He growled. “If I have to rip apart every creature in this room first, I will still finish what we started.”
Nari-san nodded and stepped away from Leon’s prone body. “Yes, my love, we do indeed have a death-dance to finish. Only one of us can walk away.” She stepped forward and the others fell back to leave a large clear space around them.
Ten-chan caught D’s eyes. I hope you have a plan, he thought wordlessly. I’ll buy you all the time I can to do what you have to do.
D understood the wordless plea and offered Ten-chan the tiniest nod. Ten-chan stepped forward and bowed to his opponent. “Let’s finish this.” He dropped into a fighting stance with the ease of long practice. Nari-san mirrored him; her easy grace a match for his.
Their first advances were just that, little darts and leaps to see what openings there were. Ten-chan let Nari-san edge him back until he was nearly on the edge of the circle, as far away from Leon’s still form as he could get. Then he dove to one side and lashed out, sending Nari-san flying. She rolled and came up on her feet. “Clever,” she admitted. “You have become better since last we fought.”
Ten-chan offered a bloodthirsty grin. “You have no idea. One last dance, my beloved Ari; one final dance to finish what we started so long ago.”
Her grin was a match for his. “Let us dance, my love.”
D watched as the two foxes clashed. Ten-chan was deliberately making it as spectacular as possible. The diversion was working. More and more eyes turned to the battle as blood spattered the warehouse floor. D moved at little as possible to keep from drawing attention to himself. He had lied when he had said he was unarmed. He slowly drew out a small cloth sack from one sleeve and a tiny vial from the other. A gift from Father, he thought wryly as he soaked the small sack with the oil from the vial. He offered the sack to Q-chan, shivering on his shoulder. “You know what to do?” He breathed.
Q-chan offered a tiny affirmative squeak and secured claws in the oily cloth. “As high as you can reach, and then open it.” D instructed under his breath, his voice drowned by the sounds of the battle between Ten-chan and Nari-san. “Stay high until the dust disperses. Hopefully, it will not take long to affect them.”
Q-chan caressed his cheek with a wingtip and labored silently into the air. D did not dare to watch for fear of drawing attention to the burdened Q-chan. He turned his gaze to the pale form lying nearby. The tainted smell was getting stronger from him. D gritted his teeth. He was not sure he could remove the seed without killing Leon. But if he did not Leon was just as dead, even as he rose and walked and talked. There would be a stranger living behind his blue eyes. He could not allow that to happen. It would kill him to do what had to be done, but Ten-chan’s wounds were as fresh now as ever and D would not allow him to heap more self-loathing on himself. He would finish it himself if worse came to worse.
D eased a step or two toward Leon. It went unremarked, as all eyes were on the progressively more bloody fight. For creatures born of hated and rage, the high emotions of the two locked in battle were irresistible. D allowed himself a glance upward and saw that Q-chan had vanished among the girders that supported the roof. Soon then. He eased another few paces towards Leon when a pained yelp drew his eyes back to the fight. Ten-chan backed away from his opponent warily, favoring a wounded leg. Both he and Nari-san were liberally spattered with blood. D held his breath as Ten-chan dove and rolled just in time to avoid an attack from behind. One of the observers had decided to get in on the action.
Nari-san snarled and sprang at the offender. “This battle is mine. No one-but no one-will interfere until it is decided! Am I understood?”
The cowed creature nodded and shrank back when she released him.
Ten-chan laughed mockingly. “Trouble in the ranks, doll-face?”
Nari-san turned back with a furious snarl and leapt at Ten-chan. He went down on his back and planted his feet in her abdomen, letting her momentum carry her over his head. She landed hard as he scrambled back to his feet. “Ah-ah,” he scolded derisively. “Anger has no place in a death-dance! If you were really my Ari, you would know that! She taught it to me, after all!”
Nari-san howled rage and flung herself after Ten-chan, who dodged her attacks with taunts and scornful laughter. D recognized the tactic. Like the fox who tormented the hounds from just beyond their reach to drive them into a sort of madness, Ten-chan was using mocking words to drive Nari-san half-crazy and lead her into making mistakes. Possibly-fatal ones.
D edged another step sideways and felt his foot nudge something. He knelt beside Leon, feeling the fever heat from the seed of darkness growing in his chest. Leon still slept, but pain had twisted his features and his breath came in rasping gasps. D had very little time left before the man known as Leon Orcot would cease to exist, his body a vessel for one of the creatures. D glanced up at the darkness above them. There was no time left!
Then his eyes caught the glitter of falling dust. It was nearly invisible in the dimly-lit warehouse, but he could see is settling on the circle of creatures and the two combatants in the center. None of them noticed, intent on the battle. Nari-san was screaming with frustrated anger as Ten-chan kept just out of her reach, mocking her with snide comments and laughter. He danced in long enough to deliver a punishing kick and withdrew before she could close with him. “C’mon, Ari-who-isn’t! You can do better than that!”
“Damn you!” Nari-san howled. She sprang at Ten-chan, but he danced aside, raking her side with his claws, brutally efficient.
“Ten-chan! Get DOWN!” D shouted as the nine-tail flung himself at his opponent with a snarl. He didn’t wait to see if Ten-chan obeyed, raising his hands and calling, letting the power of all those who had died at the hands of these creatures wash over him. He felt brief touches of approval and joy before the air incandesced blindingly.
D squinted as streamers of purifying flame touched every creature in the warehouse. Screams joined the roar of the flames as the bright ribbons of fire pulled something dark and noisome from the bodies they had inhabited. The purifying fire burned away the darkness and the bodies collapsed like the string-cut puppets that they were. They were dead many years ago, forced to walk and talk by the corruption that had killed them all.
D felt the tears spilling down his cheeks as the flames flickered out. He knew they were long dead, but to see them like this was heartbreaking. Blinking the dancing afterimages out of his eyes, D looked for Ten-chan. He found him in the center of the circle, cradling Nari-san’s limp body.
Ten-chan’s voice was steady as he spoke, though his whole body shook with the tears he would not shed. “She was here, D. I felt her touch when you called the flames. She remembered me, and for an instant she was with me again.” At last his voice broke as he whispered, “Ari…” He hunched over the lifeless form in his arms, mourning again for someone he’d now lost twice.
D looked down at Leon and shuddered. The flames had not touched him; had not burned the seed of corruption from his chest. It was still there and very near to opening. Leon’s head tossed from side to side and his fists were clenched at his sides against the agony of the growing darkness inside him.
D could feel that tainted seed where it nestled under Leon’s laboring heart. If he could not find a way to excise it, Leon would die. D straddled Leon’s legs and pressed both palms on his chest, directly over his heart. It would take all that he had left to do this; to save this one human life.
Q-chan arrowed down out of the darkness and fluttered wildly around his head, squeaking frantic protests which D ignored.
“I have to do this.” He muttered, feeling the fever-heat on his palms where they rested on the detective’s chest. “If I don’t finish it now, this will never be ended.”
Q-chan made one final inarticulate protest and hung unmoving in the air.
Ten-chan limped up. He was still bleeding from his various wounds and looked more exhausted than D could ever remember seeing him, even after the first battle with these perversions of his father’s. His flashing green eyes were dulled with weariness and full of sorrow, but he settled lightly to the concrete at Leon’s head.
“I’ll help. I don’t have much left, but I’ll lend it to you for this.” He said calmly.
D was thunderstruck by the offer.
Ten-chan gifted him with a disdainful look. “Look, D, I actually like humans for the most part. They’re fun, if none too bright. Your pet’s no worse than some and better than most. I don’t mind helping you save him, K?”
“Thank you, Ten-chan.” D hid the tremble in his voice.
“One of us has already lost too much tonight, Count. Let’s not make it two.”
D summoned all the power he had available to him. He could feel Ten-chan’s power wrap around his, a red-gold thread among the green. He honed it into a blade and plunged it into Leon’s chest. Leon arched up from the cold concrete, mouth open in a soundless scream of mortal agony. D felt the black seed of corruption shriveling away from the assault, but it was still not enough. He had used too much in the battle tonight and Ten-chan had nothing more to give. They were failing.
A wash of silver-gilt power came from nowhere and supported D’s frantic efforts, scouring away the last taint of corruption. D knew that power and the ice-silver eyes that he felt grinning mischievously at him behind it. “Nari-san-”
Ten-chan’s voice was choked as he echoed, “Ari-”
D felt the gentle warmth of the fox-spirit’s loving regard. *Thank you, both of you. We are free now from that which held us, the hatred and darkness. All those who fell here thank you. Thank you, D. Thank you, my beloved.*
Nari-san’s presence vanished and with it the silver wash of power that had buoyed them. D and Ten-chan felt the loss keenly as exhaustion caught up with them. Deaf to Q-chan’s vehement shrills, D collapsed across Leon’s chest. His fever was gone and his heartbeat steady beneath D’s ear. D allowed himself to bask in relief as he lay there, sprawled across Leon’s warm chest. He might never do this again, and he wouldn’t move even if he could have. For just one tiny moment, all was right in the world.
Leon stirred sleepily beneath him and strong arms wrapped around D, crushing him to Leon’s chest. Ten-chan chuckled, some of the life coming back to his eyes. “Aw, isn’t that cute!”
D struggled but could not free himself from the detective’s embrace. “All very funny, Ten-chan, but I can’t move.”
Ten-chan guffawed, rocking back on his heels with laughter. “But you’re just such a cute couple!”
“Ten-chan!”
It was another long moment before Ten-chan could stop laughing long enough to help D disentangle himself from Leon’s sleepy embrace. D scowled at the chuckling nine-tailed fox as he smoothed his mussed hair. “Enough, Ten-chan.” He rose to his feet and surveyed the warehouse. Bodies, some human, but mostly not, still littered the floor. Ten-chan has neatly laid Nari-san out on the concrete. D sighed and summoned the last spark of his power. Nari-san’s body, along with those of the other creatures the corruption had taken, vanished into motes of silver and green. D stared at the human bodies, dead without a mark on them, and shook his head wearily. Let the police try to figure that one out. He was in no mood to deal with them.
“No offense, count, but what are we going to do with your hug-toy there?” Ten-chan asked. “The police will be wondering what happened to him.”
D sighed. “We will take him to a hospital, and leave him there. He was struck from behind by one of the smugglers and stabbed. At least that is what they will think.”
“Stabbed?”
D touched Leon’s chest where the seed of corruption had been. The flesh parted as if the honed blade of power had been a knife of cold steel. D nodded to Ten-chan and together, they lifted Leon’s unconscious (and now bleeding) body and left him on the steps of the nearest hospital. Ten-chan’s shout, a perfect mimicry of Leon in distress, insured that someone came running and he and D faded into the night as nurses swarmed over the unconscious man.
They walked slowly back to the pet shop, both of them weary beyond words. D touched Ten-chan’s shoulder in sympathy. “I am sorry you had to face this again.”
Ten-chan replied with a sharp headshake. “I’m not. It had to be done, and now I can stop killing myself over Ari. She remembered and in the end, I felt the echoes of the joy she must have felt upon being set free. It’s finally over.”
D nodded as the pet shop came into sight. “Yes. It is over for now.”
“For now?”
“My father will not give up in his desire to eliminate all humanity for the atrocities they have committed. I fear we will have to deal with one of his messes yet again at some point.”
“Not until we’ve had a few hour of sleep, I hope.”
D chuckled. “Indeed. Sleep first, saving the world, later.”
A/N So, what did you think? I figured if D’s dad’s Bio-weapon could be nothing more than a glob of plankton, who’s to say he might not have created something equally nasty from a parasite or a virus. He’s Crazy, remember?
So tell us what you thought. More stories to be posted soon.