Blood Ties Read online

  “Qi, what the hell are you talking about?”

  She stared into his eyes. “A war is coming. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you have a right to know.” She took a deep breath. “Since I met you, I knew there was something different about you … that you were meant for a greater purpose.”

  “Aw, hell, Qi, I’m just a dime-a-dozen cowboy who knows how to play cards.”

  “No, you’re not, Jake. Even my grandfather can see it. And the Lady knew about you before she arrived.”

  “Knew about me? What are you talking about?”

  “God, I wish I could tell you more!” She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. “Just hold me, Jake,” she whispered in his ear. “Forget what I’ve told you and just hold me tonight like there’s no tomorrow.”

  Jake felt tears soaking into his shirt, so he did as she asked, at least mostly. He put what she’d said out of his mind and wrapped his arms around her. He held her and realized that she’d brought him to her room for a very different purpose that what he’d originally thought. Oddly enough, he felt very comfortable with that. Qi was something special. They had a connection that nothing could break, but it wasn’t about anything physical. It was deeper, like they were old friends who had known each other a thousand years.

  “I’ll hold you as long as you let me.” He said.

  She rolled onto her side and he curled up behind her, his arms wrapped protectively around her. She finally fell asleep just as the candles burned out, so Jake got undressed, got back into bed, and fell asleep with thoughts of destiny and war pulling at his thoughts.

  Chapter Twenty-one – Moonlight Ruckus

  “They never did let me live down that night … what with running around like that and all.”

  ~ Jake Lasater

  A shaft of moonlight in his face woke Jake out of a dreamless sleep. He rolled over onto his side and stared at Qi’s hair as it flowed across the pillow between them. He didn’t know what to think about her notions of destiny and war. It sounded ridiculous to him, and the last thing he wanted to do was get involved in another conflict.

  The faint sound of warning bells in some distant part of the city washed over the night. He assumed the fire brigade had been called to their duties. San Francisco took fires very seriously since the last one wiped out a big piece of the city, including the original air terminal.

  The moonlight streaming in through the window above the headboard made Qi’s hair look like an obsidian river cascading over gentle falls, and it made Jake smile. They were kindred spirits, and they both cherished the friendship they shared. They’d first been drawn to each other like moths to each other’s flame. She was something special, to be sure, but they both knew deep down that they could never be together.

  Jake counted himself lucky to have found Cole and Skeeter—they were like a family now—the way it was for Qi and her grandfather. Jake rolled on his back and stared up at the moon, placing his hands lightly on his chest. What Cole had said about Lady Dănești troubled him. Cole had been right about one thing, though, Jake’s reaction to the Lady just walking through the door like that was out of character. And with that thought Jake realized whatever he’d felt was real, as real as what he felt for Qi, just a very different sort of emotion. Jake’s thoughts turned to the mysterious noble woman. He already felt committed to the job, and, despite Qi’s assurances, it made him uncomfortable.

  A creak from above broke Jake’s train of thought. He froze. Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing, pretending to be asleep. Then he shifted his head into a shadow cast by the window frame and opened his left eye just a crack. It was enough to allow him to see in the darkness. He waited for the sound, but all he only heard Qi’s breathing. Something told him to wait a little longer, and his patience paid off. At the upper corner of the window he spotted a shadow, a black movement on a black sky, and he realized that someone looked down on both of them. He’d hooked his gun belt over the bedpost above him, but he waited. The shadow slid back, and Jake rolled over slowly, snuggling up behind Qi as he put an arm around her.

  He felt her wake up, and she put her arm over his, hugging tight.

  “Don’t say anything,” he whispered as quietly as he could. “There’s someone outside the window, hanging from the roof.”

  He felt her tense, and she nodded once. “Roll over,” she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. “When I say ‘go’, get your pistols and watch my back.” Jake did as instructed and heard Qi whispering something in a language he didn’t understand. He suddenly felt his skin tingle, and as a subtle green flash illuminated the room. “GO!” she hissed, and he heard her slam something on her nightstand. She rolled out of bed in a flash, and Jake rolled away a split-second later.

  Claxons wailed all over the building and he heard a release of steam followed by the sound of steel rolling slowly. He spotted a metal grate sliding across the window from inside the wall. On the other side of the room Qi’s entire body glowed with a shimmering green outline. She had opened a panel in the wall and reached for one of the Chinese weapons held within.

  Jake’s hand darted toward the Officer’s Colt just as a figure swung into view outside. With barely enough room between the wall and the sliding grate, a shadowy figure crashed through the window. Broken glass flew everywhere as the intruder’s foot lashed out, smashing into Jake’s chest and sending him crashing into the wall. The Officer’s Colt flew out of his hand and bounced off the bedroom door. Jake heard the electric whine of a chaingun spinning up and saw the figure in black aiming the weapon at Qi as she turned to face the intruder.

  “No!” Jake screamed and lunged just as the barrel of the chaingun lit up and a barrage of bullets rained down into Qi’s naked form. He watched in horror as the burst hammered her body back against the wall. Jake stepped onto the bed and grabbed the barrel of the chaingun with his flesh hand, lifting it towards the ceiling. The glow around Qi disappeared as a line of fire dotted its way up the wall and through the roof. Jake clenched his metal fist just as the man in black turned his face towards him. Jake poured all of his anguish at Qi’s loss into the punch he hammered into the man’s face. The intruder’s head snapped to the side with a wet, sickly crunch as Jake’s fist sank up to the wrist in what had been a shrouded face. Jake stood there panting as the assassin’s body—legs and arms quivering—slumped off the bed and dropped onto the floor in a heap. He heard a body drop onto the roof above and then slide over the edge to slam into the ground three stories below.

  Jake heard another chaingun spin up, this time from the rooftop. He leapt as a hailstorm of bullets tore through the roof and ripped the bed to shreds. Hitting the floor on his back, he realized he still held the first assailant’s chaingun. In a flash he changed his grip, placed the butt of the gun on the floor, and aimed toward where he figured the man on the roof stood. He pulled the trigger, heard the motor spin up, and watched the ceiling explode into a cloud of woodchips and splinters. A scream from above split the night then cut off as a body hit the roof and tumbled off the edge. Jake released the trigger and marveled at the destruction he’d caused. He heard gunfire, both pistols and chainguns firing on the second and third floors. A battle raged below, punctuated by occasional screams.

  Moonlight flickered through the holes in the ceiling, and Jake saw a figure moving slowly and silently across the roof. Jake aimed and pulled the trigger again. The chaingun spun up, and the figure above leapt, but Jake’s reflexes were perfect. He followed the trajectory and watched as another cloud of debris burst from the ceiling. Someone yelped and then a body thumped onto the roof. He heard it slide a few feet and then stop.

  Not sensing any more movement, Jake stood and dashed across the room. He kept the barrel pointed at the ceiling as he moved. He felt something wet drip onto his face and ran a hand over his cheek. Looking at his palm, the man’s blood looked black in the darkness. Jake ignored it and crouched over the motionless form of Qi, fearing the worst. He could only see throu
gh the darkness with his left eye, but he saw that she wasn’t shot.

  Impossible! he thought.

  Not a single bullet had pierced her skin. A deep bruise had formed across her chest, and she breathed shallowly, but she was alive. He yanked the bullet-riddled comforter off the bed and covered her with it. He could only hope that she wasn’t hurt too badly. More gunfire thundered from outside the bedroom as well as the clash of metal on metal as men screamed in rage and agony.

  Jake leapt over the bed and strapped his gun belt around his naked hips. Clutching the chaingun in the same way Szilágyi’s men had, he stepped up next to the bedroom door and opened it a crack with is left hand, making sure to close his left eye. Before he could peek through the crack, a black foot kicked the door open.

  A sword flashed down onto Jake’s metal wrist. Sparks flew, but Jake only felt a tingle as he stepped into the doorway. His finger pulled the trigger on the chaingun. Its motor spun up but it was the heaving kick Jake planted in the sword wielder’s chest which sent the man crashing through the wall beyond. Two more men in black stood outside. They watched their comrade sail past them and disappear into the water closet beyond.

  The chaingun roared at them, filling the hallway with orange light and the rapid staccato of bullets that tore through both assassins. They dropped where they stood and Jake released the trigger. The chaingun’s motor whined to a stop, and he realized that water sprayed from a ruptured pipe inside the water closet. His metal feet splashed through water pouring under the door as he thudded across the low carpet lining the hall.

  From somewhere below, the ground floor by the sound of it, he heard the Thumper bark once, some screams, and then another shot from the energy rifle. Cole was in the thick of it somewhere below. Jake slung the chaingun over his back, yanked both Colts, and pulled the hammers back with a comforting double click. The door at the end of the hallway was Chung’s, and Jake could see that it too had been kicked open. A body lay in the doorway. Fearing the worst, Jake dashed down the hall, his feet hammering across the floor. “Chung!” he hissed from just outside. “You in there?”

  “Come in, Jake,” he heard the old man say calmly. “It’s all right.”

  Jake peeked around the corner into complete darkness, for Chung slept in a room without windows. Jake opened his left eye and spotted Chung in a corner pulling on his golden shirt. The old man was all corded muscle and sinew, without an ounce of fat on him, and scars covered his body. Chung had already pulled on his gold pants and had a belt around his waist that held several pouches, small leather sheathes for throwing stars and what appeared to be two, collapsed hand-fans made of dark metal.

  Jake spotted two more corpses on the floor and one on the bed. The one on the bed had a chaingun, and his throat had been completely torn out. When Jake glanced at the one at Chung’s feet, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. The dead man’s head tipped all the way back nearly touching his shoulder blades. Then he realized that the man’s neck had been severed almost all the way through. The one on the bed had a curved Chinese sword sticking through the middle of his chest.

  Apparently, Chung moves pretty well for an old man, Jake thought.

  Chung settled the shirt over his shoulders and glanced at Jake, standing silhouetted in the doorway. He pressed a control panel on his nightstand and the claxons sounding from all over the building stopped. Jake couldn’t believe how calm the man was.

  Chung’s eyes drifted down Jake’s body and then up again, a smirk growing on his face. Chung could barely contain his laughter.

  Jake looked down at his naked manhood and then lifted his eyes to Chung. “I was in a hurry,” he said awkwardly. “Chung, Qi’s been hurt. She’s breathing but I don’t know how bad it is.”

  Chung’s face went serious in a flash. “Da-Xia!” he shouted.

  A hidden door to Jake’s left opened and the small woman stepped out. She wore black silk pajamas similar to what the assassins wore and her long, white hair wrapped around her neck in a tight braid. The hilt of a straight, lightweight, Chinese sword peeked up above her shoulder and she held a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun as comfortably as she’d held a teapot earlier that evening. Chung said something to Da-Xia in Chinese.

  She nodded once and darted out of the room past Jake. He realized that her posture, her movements, weren’t those of some frail old woman. She was a warrior.

  “Come, Jake. Da-Xia will see to Qi and keep her safe. We must see what’s going on in the rest of the building.”

  Jake nodded.

  The fighting had gotten much quieter below, and there were only a few, isolated fights still taking place on the lower level. Jake and Chung dashed out of the room. Chung yanked the curved sword out of the body on the bed as he went by. A slick coating of blood covered Chung’s golden hand. They turned a corner carefully and looked down the long hallway. At the far end was the dining room. Cole’s door stood open and a black-clad body lay in the doorway. The back of his head had been blown out. Jake and Chung made their way to the closed door next to Cole’s.

  “Skeeter!” Jake shouted. “You okay?” He took a quick peek into Cole’s room but didn’t see his partner. The Thumper had sounded from downstairs, so Cole had had to be taking care of business on the main level.

  “I’m in here!” Skeeter shouted from inside her room. Jake grabbed the doorknob and twisted but it didn’t budge.

  “I’ll have you out in a sec,” Jake said, preparing to kick it in.

  “No! Don’t! I’ve got it rigged!”

  Jake stopped mid-kick and waited. He heard soft footfalls and then some scratching on the other side of the door just as two men in red pajamas came running up the stairs at the end of the hall. Jake’s pistols were trained on them as their heads came around the corner.

  “Wait, Jake,” Chung blurted. “They are mine.”

  Jake turned back and listened to Skeeter fiddling with whatever she’d rigged on the inside of the door. The two in red stepped up to Chung quickly, and they exchanged a few rapid words in Chinese.

  “Jake?” Chung said slowly.

  “Yeah, Chung?”

  “Look down,” Chung said, a smile shaping.

  Jake did and realized Skeeter was about to get an eyeful. He quickly holstered his officer’s revolver and twisted the gun belt around to cover his more unseemly bits.

  A key turned in the lock, and the door opened slowly. The girl’s eyes went wide as she saw Jake in his birthday suit.

  “Jake!” she shouted, sounding appalled as she slammed the door closed. “What the hell?” she added from behind the door.

  “I was in a hurry, damn it!” Jake muttered through the door. “Look, Skeeter, you got them stun bombs, right?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Then come on out here!” She opened the door and stepped into the hallway, holding a stun grenade in each hand. She did her best not to stare at Jake’s mid-section. She held out the stun bombs, but Jake shook his head. “Hang on to those. If someone comes at you, use ’em, you hear me?” She nodded, still doing her best not to stare. Jake turned to Chung. “Can you have these boys take Skeeter to Qi and keep them all safe?”

  “Done.” Chung spoke again in Chinese and the two men in red nodded curtly. One got in front of Skeeter and one behind, and they ushered her down the hall and out of sight beyond the corner. “Let us go see what else is amiss in my home,” Chung added.

  They dashed down the hallway and made their way down the spiral staircase. There were three bodies in black and two in red at the bottom of the stairs, each showing wounds from edged weapons. Only one of them breathed, shallowly, and he wore black. Chung thrust his blade through the middle of the man’s chest. A wide-eyed gurgle came from the man and then he lay still.

  “You boys are in a bad spot!” Cole shouted from below. At first Jake thought Cole was yelling at him and Chung, but then his partner followed the observation with wicked laughter. Jake smiled. Cole had someone pinned down. He’d heard that la
ughter before. Sometimes Cole enjoyed a good gunfight almost as much as Jake did.

  As Jake made it to the second floor landing, he saw Cole leaning over the railing with the Thumper in his hands. Cole was bare chested and barefoot, but at least he’d been able to get his pants on.

  The Thumper went off, sounding like a strike of lightning. A bright flash of energy blasted from the end of the weapon and splashed into the back of the building at the feet of one of Qi’s diggers. Jake watched three black-clad men shoot out from behind the digger like they had rockets up their asses, and the digger slowly tipped over and crashed onto its side. Holding the butt of the Thumper on the ground with one hand, Cole drew his pistol and let off three slow, well-aimed shots. The prone men, only stunned by the Thumper, were now corpses.

  “Was that level three, Cole?” Jake said, smiling.

  “Sorry, Jake, but them boys pissed me off,” Cole hollered from the railing. He grinned like a madman.

  “No need to apologize to me. But you may have to explain a thing or two to Qi.”

  “Is she okay?” Cole asked, his face turning serious.

  “She was breathing when I left her, but she got hurt pretty bad. Da-Xia, Skeeter, and couple of Chung’s men are with her now. Was that the last of them?” Jake nodded to the three corpses below.

  “Hell, I don’t know,” Cole said. He leaned the Thumper up against the railing and reloaded his pistol. His eyes kept darting to Jake—and Jake’s gun belt—as a wider and wider grin crept over his face. He was polite enough not to say anything, but Jake knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “I was in a hurry,” Jake offered slowly as he adjusted his gun belt to make sure that everything in need of covering stayed that way.

  “We should see to Lady Dănești,” Chung said. He made his way back to the spiral staircase and headed down silently. Cole leaned over the railing and covered them from above as Jake hopped over the railing and landed with a massive, metallic thud on the wooden planks below.