Collide, page 13
I was just about to ask her what, exactly, she saw when there was a knock on her bedroom door. I opened it to find Akira standing on the other side balancing a rather large silver tray that was loaded down with a tea pot, a glass of water, some tea cups, honey, and a small assortment of cakes and cookies. I stood back as he made his way in, then moved over to Maria’s desk and cleared out the mess of books so that he would have a place to set the tray down other than her bed. Maria eyeballed the tray of goodies, then looked at me as her eyebrows crawled up to her hair line. I shrugged.
“You know your mom, takes every opportunity to host some sort of party,” I said as I grabbed the glass of water and made the introductions since I couldn’t remember if Maria had “officially” met Akira or not.
The next hour passed in idle chatter as we attacked and eventually demolished the pile of goodies Maria’s mom had sent up. Maria asked us about our project and was fascinated by it and the individual mythological beings we had decided to focus on. She grumbled about how she never got to be involved in cool projects like that, to which I retorted that if she had applied herself, she would have gotten into AP English and been able to take part in a cool project like us. She stuck her tongue out at me and I threw another pillow at her as I glanced at Akira out of the corner of my eye. I wondered if he’d watched her mouth the way he had mine the two times I had pulled the same move on him. But his eyes were on me, which served to fluster me more when I got caught sneaking a peek, so I took it out on Maria by beating her over the head with yet another pillow.
“Uncle, uncle, uncle!” Maria cried and flailed her arms around.
I sat back with a grin that quickly faded when I realized that this was the most relaxed fun I’d had with Maria since she had vanished. It was like having my old, pre-disappearance friend back, and the realization made my eyes well up with tears that I didn’t want anyone to see and question me about. I drew myself up and clamped down on my emotions while I forced another smile.
“Very well,” I said. “I shall have mercy upon you this day, but prepare thyself for a rematch!”
“Yes, Lady Jane,” Maria snarked with a grin. It had long been an old joke between us for her to call me Lady Jane after I discovered that my mother had named me after Lady Jane Grey, and I took it upon myself to try and talk royal every once in a while because it amused me and annoyed Mom, and Maria liked to run with it whenever she could.
I was still fighting off the urge to break down and sob like a baby, so I decided that I’d take the tray back downstairs to the kitchen, which would give me a chance to get myself back under some semblance of control before I started blubbering as badly as Maria had been earlier. As this would only serve to alarm her and embarrass me, I figured retreating would be the better part of valor instead of trying to stick it out and hope it’d go away.
I passed Mrs. Dupree in the living room on my way to the kitchen, and I thanked her warmly for the goodies and the tea. She gave me a regal nod of her head in acknowledgement with a warm smile, and I helped the maid wash the delicate utensils despite her protest. I assured her that it was the least I could do since they had provided the treats, and it gave me enough time to ensure that I was once again in control of my emotions by the time we were done and I returned to Maria’s room.
I had almost reached the landing when I heard a strange, choking type of cry, and I nearly tripped over the last stair as I vaulted up and threw myself into Maria’s room. Akira had one hand loosely wrapped around Maria’s neck and two fingers of his free hand pressed against the center of her forehead. His eyes were closed and his face had a faint, glowing sheen to it that vanished when I blinked. What really grabbed my attention was Maria’s hands as she clawed feebly at his arm with tears rolling down her cheeks. Her eyes were wide and frightened.
“What the hell are you doing?” I half hissed, half yelled as I desperately tried to keep my voice down so that it didn’t alarm Mrs. Dupree. I hurled myself at Akira. The hold he had around Maria’s neck loosened further as he registered my voice, and I grabbed him by his shoulders and jerked him away from my friend.
“No!” he cried as his fingers left her forehead and he fell backwards onto his butt. My attention immediately turned to Maria who had thrown herself into my arms and buried her head against my chest. Her entire body shook with sobs.
“Go away,” I snarled at him over my shoulder as I wrapped my arms around Maria’s form.
“Jane,” he said as he climbed to his feet, his face angry and disappointed all at once. I didn’t even take time to dwell on the fact that he had used my first name instead of my surname because every single muscle in my face tightened as I glared at him.
“GET. OUT!” I snarled. My voice was no less effective as a growl as it would have been had I shouted the words at him at the top of my lungs. His eyes darted from me to Maria and back before he gave a curt nod, turned on his heel, and left. I waited until I could no longer hear his footsteps on the stairs before I turned my attention back to my terrified friend.
“Maria, what happened?” I asked and shook Maria’s shoulder in an effort to try and get her to loosen up her hold a little. She hiccupped, took a few breaths, hiccupped again, then pulled away and laid back down on her bed with her back to me.
“Nothing happened,” she said dully as she stared at the wall.
“Don’t you dare give me that,” I growled, not in the mood for another one of her random mood swings. I reached out and yanked her shoulder so that she had to face me. “You looked like you were in pain and terrified! Did he attack you? Was he choking you? What happened???”
“NOTHING!” she yelled at me. “He didn’t strangle me, he didn’t hurt me, things just felt funny and my head got woozy, that’s all! He just took me by surprise, you don’t have to get all Amazon Woman on me!”
“Amazon?! Maria . .”
“Go away,” she said and faced the wall again. “I’m tired and I don’t want to talk anymore. Thank you for visiting, and I’m sorry that I’ve worried you.”
I drew back; hurt, confused, and angry, but confusion and hurt had started to win out over anger. I fought with even more tears as I turned my back on my best friend. I recognized that tone of voice, and I knew from years of experience that I wouldn’t get any more out of Maria regarding anything. I had taken a step towards the door when her voice issued again. I stopped but refused to turn around.
“Be careful around him, Jane,” she said, her voice a strange, scratchy monotone. “He’s not what he appears to be.”
I didn’t acknowledge or deny her warning even though it went hand in hand with my own suspicions regarding Akira, and walked out of her room and down the stairs. I felt a little guilty. Even though she was better, she was still recovering from being sick, and all of this couldn’t have been good for her. I was able to bid a semi cheerful good-bye to Mrs. Dupree, who made me promise to visit again sometime soon when Maria had fully recovered, and then exited the house.
My jaw muscles twitched when I saw Akira leaning against the passenger side door of my car, but I knew I couldn’t just climb in and drive off and leave him here, even though I really wanted to. There were times when I was just too damn nice, and unfortunately, this was one of them. Neither one of us said a word as I unlocked the doors and we got in. I carefully reversed out of the drive way even though I desperately wanted to give into impulse and lay down some rubber, but I erred on the side of logic and didn’t give in.
“Jane,” Akira began, and I shot him a glare so hot I was surprised I didn’t melt the window by his head. From the look on his face, he was surprised, too.
“Don’t,” I grated out between clenched teeth. “Don’t say a word until I no longer feel the desire to wrap my car around a tree, passenger side first. Just sit still, shut up, and let me calm down.”
His eyes glanced to my hands, which were wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel that the bones and tendons stood out against skin made white by tension, and he nodded once and turned his attention out of the window. I concentrated on driving, on the mechanics behind it as I took the twists and turns carefully and refused to slam my foot on the gas peddle despite my desire to do so. I took a detour onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed towards Asheville instead of back towards Mr. Baker’s. The drive to the mountain city was one of the prettiest stretches of the Parkway, and I knew that the scenery would help to sooth my temper. The rage drained off little by little as I took in the beautiful splendor of the mountains ablaze with the reds, oranges and golds of fall. An occasional green showed small areas of pines and mountain laurel, and slowly my hands relaxed on the steering wheel so that I was no longer white knuckling it. Only then did I feel that I was calm enough to speak and be spoken to without wanting to maim something.
Chapter Eight
“What,” I said, my voice flat and hard, “were you doing to my friend?”
“I’m guessing you’ve calmed down now?” he asked.
I took a deep breath and managed to get a handle on my temper before I grated out, “I’m talking to you and not ripping your head off, aren’t I?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “You’re still kind of snarling.”
“Akira,” I growled warningly as my fingers began to tighten on the steering wheel again.
“Ok, ok,” he said and rubbed his face with his hands. He suddenly looked far more tired than I had ever seen him before.
“Are you familiar with energy work at all?”
“Energy work?”
“Things like Reiki healing, chakra balancing and cleansing, to name a few.”
I had to think for a moment, and then said, “The healing system that was developed by a guy named Usui in Japan? Something about chi and using it to focus on trouble spots, clear blocked energy, etc, right? And charkas are the seven points of power shaped like fans or wheels or something where our own life energy is sent circulating throughout our bodies, right?”
“More or less,” he said. He winced a little at my less than graceful understanding of just what he was talking about. “I’m a Reiki Master, and one of my skills is that I’m able to track and locate an individual based on their energy signatures. It works especially well if they’ve come into contact with another person.”
Intrigued despite myself, I asked, “How does that work?”
“It’s a little like picking up the end of a glowing thread and following it through a maze to the other end. If the connection is strong enough, I can actually see where the person I’m looking for is located. I may even get really lucky and it’ll be a place that they’re planning on staying for a while.”
“You can do this with anyone?” I asked. My head started to throb slightly as I tried to imagine what he was talking about and failed miserably.
“Pretty much, yeah. There’s a few exceptions, and it’s never to be used for a frivolous reason.”
“What would be a frivolous reason?”
His eyes slid in my direction and then he focused out the windshield again. “Trying to figure out if you’ve been with anyone romantically recently would be considered frivolous.”
My heart leapt and I focused on settling it back in place without giving away my reaction to his words. Why would he want to know that, and why the hell did I get those stupid little flutters in my stomach at the thought that he would be interested in knowing if I had dated anyone recently? I focused again on my questions and pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind.
“Wait, so it’s like mind reading?”
“What?” he looked startled. “No, not at all! I can’t read thoughts.”
“Then how would you be able to figure out what it is you’re looking for?” I asked, trying not to allude to the whole “romantic connection” thing.
“Energy is energy and sometimes it’ll dissipate if the connection isn’t renewed on a regular basis. For example, if you were dating someone and were in physical contact with them every day through hugging or even just holding hands, that would refresh the connection. Other times it’ll hang around for years if the emotions behind what caused the link are strong enough. An example would be a haunted murder site where people report seeing the ghosts of the murdered people reenacting their death. The more terrifying and horrific their death is, the better chance that there’s going to be a strong energetic link with the location. When their body is dead, the residual energy remains as a ‘ghost’. As far as people go, I’d probably be able to locate your mother easily, as that is a strong blood bond and creates it’s own energy marker, but more casual relationships, such as between you and a random customer in Mr. Baker’s, is a much weaker bond, and that will fade within a matter of hours.”
I rubbed my forehead and tried to massage away the growing ache between my brows. “So you were trying to follow this energy tendril to your brother?”
“I wanted to establish if Maria had been in contact with my brother first, and once I was able to confirm that then I began to follow the energy signature back to its source. I was almost there when you interrupted.”
“So it WAS your brother who attacked her,” I said and he nodded. My stomach gave a slow churn when I thought about how I had prevented him from locating the man he had been looking for for so long, but I shoved the sentiment into the corner of my mind. I had every right to be distrustful of him. It had looked and sounded like he had caused Maria a great deal of pain, and there was no way I’d just stand around while my friend was hurting if I could do something about it.
“Is doing that supposed to hurt the person you’re using to track someone?”
“No.”
“Then why did it look like you were hurting her?” I demanded, unable to keep the accusation from my voice.
“I can only figure that it’s because my brother was throwing up a block in her mind when he sensed that I was trying to track him. He’s very talented in creating and destroying energy blocks, more so than I am, and as I pushed further along the line, the block would become larger and started to cause Maria physical pain, which I guess my brother thought would get me to stop pushing.”
“But it didn’t,” I said flatly. “And you wouldn’t have if I hadn’t interfered.”
“No, it didn’t, and no, I wouldn’t have stopped because I knew that I could heal whatever damage the block was doing. My brother isn’t as well versed in the healing arts as I am, though his ability with tracking has increased incredibly.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “You’re an ass.”
“Maybe, but I will stop at nothing to find him and put a stop to what he’s doing.”
Akira’s voice was low and his face darkened with suppressed anger. Two angry people in one small car made for an uncomfortable few minutes, but my curiosity could never stay down for long and I soon found myself asking more questions and hoping to diffuse some of his own temper. I really didn’t want to make friends with a large tree because we started fighting.
“If you were able to confirm your brother had been in contact with Maria and had even found a link you could follow, does that mean that they were in contact for a long while?” I asked. I had been thinking about the length of time Maria had been gone. My voice was tight in my throat, but at least I was trying.
“No,” he said curtly, but then seemed to physically unbend a little as his face softened and his shoulders relaxed. “No, it’s something a little more than that. In the past he’s held onto his victims for a few hours, the only reason that they’re gone for so long is because he takes them to remote places and then leaves them with just enough of themselves left to find their way back to whatever place it is that they’ve spent the most time.”
“Ok, so if that’s the case, then why is the link to Maria still so strong that he was able to throw up blocks in your way that would physically cause her pain?”
He was silent for so long that I didn’t think he was going to answer, but he sighed and leaned his head against the passenger side window. He suddenly looked much older than his almost twenty-one years.
“Because he has a part of Maria’s soul inside of him and he’s using that to manipulate and weaken her.”
Whatever I had expected, it certainly hadn’t been THAT. I yanked my eyes off the road and gaped at him, unaware that my car had started to drift into the other lane.
“ROAD, ROAD!” Akira yelled, and I jerked my attention back in time to steer my car back into the proper lane. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked whoever was listening for the fact that there hadn’t been any other cars around us.
“The HELL?!” I asked and my voice screeched on the last word. “What do you mean, he has a part of her soul?”
Akira shifted in his seat, and started to chew on his thumbnail, something I had never seen him do before. He then muttered a few words that I didn’t quite catch.
“Excuse me? Care to repeat that loud enough for the hearing impaired over here?”
He shot me a dark look for my sarcasm, but repeated, “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me,” I challenged. “After all, I believed your bit about working for some agency and being on a hunt for your missing brother, even if I do feel like there’s more to it than what you told me.”
“Are you an open minded human?” he asked, and I frowned. What a weird way to put that . . .
“I like to think I am,” I replied. I decided that, for the moment, I didn’t need to delve into his strange choice of words.
“In my country, there’s a type of spirit that is known as a Gaki,” he began. I opened my mouth to ask what this had to do with Maria and his brother, but a quick glare made me shut it again. “They’re known as hungry ghosts and are believed to be the dead spirits of greedy people, though it’s hard to really know for certain just what they are. Their legend states that they desire to consume many different things, though typically it’s just food and water. Still, there are those that begin to desire more than that, and will start consuming things that are a little more vital to living humans, such as blood or, in even more extreme cases, souls.”
