Chapter 40: The Note

Shannon walked out to the car and, once she was sure the barghest couldn’t hear her, slumped against the ripped-up driver’s side of her ruined Mercedes and ducked inside to grab her phone. Then she just slid her back down against the car until her butt hit the ground and let out the breath she’d been holding.

That…had been intense. Whatever this barghest thing was, it was scary as hell, and she had no freakin’ clue how she was going to deal with it. No wonder Masaaki and Theo wanted her to leave it to die. After fourteen hours playing the airheaded host trying to ease him out of whatever ill-informed cultural assumptions he had made about her, he seemed even more likely to decapitate her and screw her headless corpse now than he had been fourteen hours ago.

She was dealing with a self-avowed rapist. She was pretty sure of it, considering all the crude comments he’d made. That really wasn’t helping her calm her chi. In fact, ever since she’d realized that, she’d been getting ever-closer to a panic attack. She could feel it building, like her lungs just couldn’t get enough air.

Letting out a shuddering breath, she lowered the back of her head to the side of her car, just trying to collect herself. That’s what she always tried to do when she started having these attacks. Go logical. Start piecing it together, picking it apart, figuring out what made those fears tick.

She was working on several layers of fear, she was pretty sure. There was the obvious—that she was alone with a seven hundred pound man-eating monster with hands the size of freakin’ dinner plates and she was afraid he was going to wring her neck. He’d said so enough times… Then there was the fear of him being naked—she’d solved that one with a blanket, until he started crawling around and uncovered himself, ramping up all her other fears like pepper spray in open wounds. Then was the fear of him breaking free of whatever drug she’d given him and deciding to plant his seed—well, yeah, that was actually a pretty good one, Captain. She was pretty sure he’d do exactly that if he could, no questions, no qualms, no mercy.

She took another slow breath, trying to work herself through that one. She supposed she could leave him here and go hide somewhere until she could get back into contact with Masaaki and Theo, but she knew that would be consigning an unknown number of delivery-boys, mailmen, and total strangers to death once he broke free of whatever drug she’d given him. And if they came back and walked in on the barghest before she could tell them what she’d done, she was well and truly screwed.

But there was something deeper about the man, something that tugged at her very heart, made it skip in terror…

The chest rattle and the ivory tattoos seemed to register something within her that was almost instinctive. Like her body recognized it and automatically tried to send her into motion. She guessed it was the same way a hiker might feel if they suddenly have a grizzly bear wander out onto the path in front of them.

But there was something about him, something that had been triggered up in the attic, when he’d started to talk about soul-twins and juices. She didn’t even want to look him in the eye, now. Something deep—something really deep—welled up in her gut every time she had met those bleached blue eyes ever since. Now, even utterly drugged out of his mind, he still made her innards twist in soul-deep terror.

Breathe, she told herself, when she realized she was hyperventilating again. So she had a wacko claiming to be her soulmate trying to eat her. So she had enthralled him, after Masaaki had warned her that to enthrall anyone would mean he would cut off her head. So he’d kissed her and startled that deep and writhing fear suddenly to the surface, and now she didn’t even want to be in the same room with him not because he was a serial rapist, but because she felt connected to him…

Oh man, Shannon, pull yourself together. What he said back there was horseshit. Odin never gave you to him. To think the gods give a flying fuck about you or your pathetic little life is just crazy. Crazy and egocentric. That’s what that barghest dude is channeling—his ego. He’s not some folk hero personally serving Odin—that’s bananas. He’s just a crazy, schizophrenic…

…what, exactly? Shannon glanced up at the Mercedes’s dented frame. It was a little harder to blow off Björn’s vile threats and crude take on history as the ravings of a lunatic when he could crush her car in half with his head.

Okay, think, Shannon told herself. Let’s say it’s true. He’s some killer beast from another land, and I was given to him as a prize for…something. How do I deal with that?

The obvious answer was to club him over the head and dump him off a bridge with those metal bowling balls locked around his wrists. Somehow, though, she had a feeling he might survive that, and if he did, it would make things very, very difficult to navigate later.

The next obvious answer was to stab him a few more times with that venom and make sure it stuck. But again, she had a feeling that when he finally got out of that, it would be very bad for her.

A third option was to let Masaaki kill him. That’s what everyone had wanted to do in the first place—kill the beast. But that just seemed…cruel.

Uninvited, she got Masaaki’s gruff mental lecture about the softness of women, and how a daimyō needed to be manly and tough while reciting poetry and painting wall-hangings and trying not to die of starvation as her last meal faded from her veins.

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If there was anyone who would know what to do, it was Masaaki. She needed him here, before she got desperate enough to use the barghest to ease the growing pain in her body. When she looked at her hand, she could barely see the golden glow of Masaaki’s blood. She knew what this meant—if they didn’t come back by morning, she was once again going to be trapped inside when the sun rose. Which meant she’d have to sleep with the barghest in the house. She checked the time. Three minutes ‘til two o’clock in the morning. She only had an hour or two before the light-level became unbearable.

She grabbed her cell phone and activated the screen.

Twelve missed calls.

“Shit!” Shannon cried, scrolling down the list. Theo. Over and over again. “Damn, damn.” She dialed voicemail and listened to the recording.

Masaaki’s voice started mid-sentence, sounding frustrated. “…tell her I’m stuck in Kenai and Theo hasn’t come back yet.”

The next ones were worse. “…daimyō, you stupid whore!” And, “…time I’ve asked you to let me talk to her. Do you enjoy the sound of your own voice?” And, “…know where you live, because I’d lop off your lying head!” And, “…Kenai, on the beach, you bitch. I need help. Tell her Theo left me here.”

The final one was barely intelligible. “…can’t. Get Shannon to call me. Losing. Control. Please.”

The last message was dated five hours ago.

“Oh shit.” Shannon stared down at the phone in her hand, then up at the house.

There was a note attached to the door, one she hadn’t seen the first time because she’d been running from a barghest. Frowning, she went and pulled it free of the splintered wood.

Hey Shannon,

Really sorry about this, but just got a call from a friend. Got some trouble in Kenai, gotta go knock some heads together. Vampire lord stuff. Masaaki won’t let me leave him here. We should only be gone about ten hours or so. Watch some movies or something while we’re gone, and Jesus Christ don’t follow us.

-Theo

P.S. And keep your mitts off my hot-dogs.

Shannon dialed Theo’s number. It rang and rang and rang and—

“Shannon!” Masaaki’s voice was a gasp. “Shannon…why didn’t…you answer?” he was panting, his voice sounding caught between a sob of relief and a the whispered tones of a dying man.

“Why didn’t I answer?” Shannon demanded. “Why didn’t you answer?”

“You never…called. Help me, Shannon. Need help. Theo gone. Don’t know where. His tracks disappear. In woods. Gone.” As he spoke, Shannon heard what sounded like the tread of feet snapping twigs in the forest. He also sounded like he’d been running and was having trouble breathing.

“I called like a billion times, Masaaki,” Shannon snapped. “My parents’ names were Valesa and Frank, you asshole. I was using their telephone.”

She was unprepared for the samurai’s scream of rage that followed. “You never told me that! I needed your help, I’m here all alone, he left me, you meat-eating wretch!” Then he was gasping, panting, obviously hyperventilating.

Shannon frowned. “Masaaki, where are you?”

“Don’t…know,” he whimpered. “Woods. Please help me, Shannon.”

“What do you see around you?” Shannon demanded.

“I see trees!” he screamed.

“Okay, jeez, calm down,” Shannon said, even though her blood pressure was beginning to skyrocket. “How did you get there? How long have you been walking?”

“Walked from beach. Followed Theo’s tracks. Disappeared. Don’t know where he went.” He was gasping again, and she heard a low whine. “He left me, Shannon. He left me behind.”

“Are you crying? Jesus, Masaaki.”

“Help me find Theo!” Masaaki screamed again.

“Okay, okay!” Shannon cried. “How did you get to the beach? You’re in Kenai?”

“Kenai,” Masaaki agreed. “Theo left me in…parking lot.”

“Okay, so there’s a parking lot. Any other things that stand out that you can remember?”

“A river,” Masaaki whined. “And big sand dunes. And cliffs. Help me, Shannon. Please.”

“Okay, we’re coming,” Shannon said. “I’ve gotta buy a new car, and then—”

“You don’t have time to buy a new car!” he shrieked.

“Dude, stop screaming in my ear!” she snapped back. “The barghest broke my last car, and you broke the one before that.”

There was a long pause. Then, “Barghest?”

Whoops. She hadn’t meant to let that one slip. Masaaki had seemed so perfectly content to wallow in his own misery, she hadn’t really thought it was really that important. “Uh, yeah, barghest. I went back and bought him and dragged him home, okay? You were right, he tried to eat me, big deal. Said something about some funky dreams, then tried to eat me again. So I stabbed him, okay? I enthralled his stupid ass. You got a problem with that?”

“Shannon, I can’t find Theo.” Like he totally didn’t care. The dickhead!

“Yeah, okay, you told me that, Masaaki. I’m in freakin’ Eagle River. That’s like four hours away. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Come here and help me find him, you stupid—” He cut out for a second, then he said, “What does that beep mean?”

Oh crap. “Uh, low battery, probably,” Shannon said. “Damn! Masaaki, you’ve gotta tell me how to get to you.”

“I walked along the beach, then when I couldn’t find him in the woods, I went—” He cut out again. “—Sun is coming up, Shannon. Theo left me.”

“Which way?” Shannon cried. “Right or left?!”

“Right,” Masaaki said. “I can’t find him, Shan—” his words ended abruptly, then began with, “—my mind. Please help me. I need Theo.”

“Okay,” Shannon said. “I’m coming. I don’t know if I can come today, but—”

“Not today?! Get in a fucking car—steal one if you have to—and get here before I—” The line went dead, complete with a convenient little flashing Call Ended.

“Crap.” She lowered her forehead to the doorframe and closed her eyes. Then she made a fist and slammed it into the wall, splintering it. “Crap!” The pain beneath her heart was so intense that her whole body was shaking, and putting her hand through a wall actually felt good in comparison. Her senses felt like they were shutting down, except for her vision. She could see the barghest’s blood, even black like it was, crystal-clear as he moved through the entertainment room downstairs.

A moment later, Björn came trundling out of the basement, breathtaking with his near-white hair clean and draping across his tattooed face. He paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at her with his face a thunderhead. “How about now?” he blurted, his features suddenly smoothing into a smile.

Shannon swallowed and looked down the stairs at him. She didn’t know which was creepier—knowing that the barghest wanted to kill her, or knowing that Masaaki was stuck in Kenai alone. With swords.

“Crap,” Shannon said. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes to get the image of his blood out of her head.

They weren’t coming back in time. Theo had run off with her pet samurai and left her to starve. She collapsed, trembling, against the wall. “Ohhh,” she whimpered. “This is so not good.”