Mia drove faster than she should’ve into the city. As she pulled up to the East Jade Restaurant, she saw a figure walking on the sidewalk away from her. Ryo. She came up alongside him, matching his speed. “Hey, Ryo! Got anything planned for the evening?”
“Mia? I didn’t think you were coming into town tonight. I would’ve waited for you.”
“It was kind of a surprise for me, too. Do you want to go for a ride? I need to visit a classmate at the hospital.”
Ryo could tell it was more than that. She could’ve taken Jack with her or Anubis just as easily. There was something bothering her—more than usual. Ryo threw his gym bag on the backseat and jumped in. “Let’s go.”
As they headed for the hospital, Mia began to tell him her fears. “Something evil is in the city. It has to do with those comatose women they’ve been finding. There’s going to be a battle…battles.”
“Man! Can’t we ever get a break? What is with the forces of evil? Every time we take out one bad guy, another shows up to take his place. Do these guys belong to a union or something? Japan, the world even, didn’t seem to be threatened all the time by demons and gods who had the power to destroy everything until Talpa showed up.”
“You’re right. We didn’t seem to have so many of these problems before Talpa. Astarte has a theory that when he spread his darkness over the city, it polluted the earth’s magic somehow, weakening whatever held the evil things at bay and making it easier for them to access the dark magics.”
“Great! Another thing we have to thank Talpa for. There go our social lives.”
Mia thought about how hard it was for the others to find steady jobs and dates, how they kept getting in trouble at school and with their parents for cutting classes, how they had to hide their identities from the government and the authorities. How much had they lost because of their jobs as Sentinels and Ronins? Uli… “Do you miss it?”
“Miss what?”
“Having a normal life.”
“Sometimes. Sometimes I wonder what I’d be doing if I hadn’t been given the Armor of Inferno. But then I wouldn’t have met you and the guys. Being a Ronin… It’s not just what I do. It’s who I am. We were chosen because it’s our destiny. The world needs us. If we end up fighting the bad guys for the rest of our lives, then we’ll do it—and we’ll do it right.”
Mia kept her eyes on the road. For the rest of our lives. Was that what they had to look forward to? A whole life of war and destruction and death? Could she accept that? No. There had to be more to it than that or what was the point.
“Mia. We can still have social lives. They won’t be exactly normal, but who wants to be normal? Look at Astarte and Gilgamesh, Kento and Zoe. They fight with as much heart as anyone and they still find time to be together afterwards. If you want it bad enough, you can find what you need to keep you sane and happy. Your heart’s what makes you good at what you do, Mia. Don’t lose that.”
“Only to you, Ryo. Only to you.” Mia grabbed his hand, letting herself feel that connection that always made her stronger. “Let’s go see that woman.”
When they got to the hospital, they found that Clair’s room was guarded by a policeman. They positioned themselves around the corner. No one else was around. Ryo and Mia looked at each other. Ryo nodded. Mia quietly called her armor. “Dark Fog Rise.” A grey mist rose up around her then rolled around the corner towards the officer at the door. The mist swirled around him, but he didn’t even seem to notice it. Ryo and Mia noiselessly crept towards the room and walked right in. The policeman continued to stare ahead, never seeing the two young people who had just slipped by him.
It wasn’t often Mia got to use her power to cast illusions. In the past she’d most often dispelled them with the power of truth. But her armor had the ability to conceal as well as reveal.
Clair lay on the bed, her eyes blankly staring at the ceiling. Mia touched her arm. She jerked back. The power of darkness! It was what she’d sensed before. She had no doubt that if she examined the other women she’d get the same feeling. Mia bent down to look at her more closely. Clair’s breathing was shallow, her eyes dead. Mia could barely sense any life energy at all. It was as if someone had drained most of it from her. There was something on her neck. Mia gently took Clair’s chin and turned her head to one side. Puncture marks—two little holes next to each other, slightly bruising the skin.
Ryo looked down at the marks. “Now what? Vampires?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. With all the strange stuff we’ve seen, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. But a vampire? I’m not so sure. Something dark and evil. But there’s other energy at work, too…familiar… Elven.”
“Elven? The Sidhe?”
“Not the ones we’ve met. But like them, yes. We need to talk to the others—especially Rowen. He’s dating that Sidhe woman, Aria. Maybe she could help us figure this out.”
Ryo looked uncomfortable. “Um… That’s going to be a little hard to do. They’re gone.”
“Gone!”
“Rowen left me a note last night. They ran off together. I was going to talk to you about it this morning but we kept missing each other.”
“Do you have any idea where they were going?”
“He didn’t say. They wanted to spend some time alone together. I think he’s going to ask her to marry him.”
“But he only met her six weeks ago and they’ve only been dating for four! Great, just great! She might’ve been able to help us.”
“Even if she were here, I’m not so sure about that. There’s something about Aria I don’t like. She acted nice enough when we first met her, but lately she’s been…I don’t know. Possessive. She doesn’t want us around when they’re together. And she always seems to be keeping him away from us. It’s like she owns him or something. The sad part is that Rowen doesn’t even notice. When she’s around, he follows her like a dog. When she’s not around, he just mopes.”
Mia hadn’t liked her from the beginning. Maybe it had something to do with the way the guys had practically drooled all over her. But there had been something else, too. There was something insensitive, almost insincere sometimes in her voice, her eyes. But how do you tell a friend that his girlfriend might be using him? Mia had asked Rowen to be careful. Astarte had also talked to him privately more than once, warning him about the fairy woman. He got involved with Aria anyway. Was this another problem that was going to come back to haunt them? (*author’s note: You’d better believe it!) “We’d better get out of here before someone else comes along.”
Ryo checked the hallway. No one there but the lone guard. They quietly slipped out of the room and down the hall. The policeman never even looked in their direction. As the two of them headed for Mia’s truck in the parking lot, she felt a prickling on the back of her neck. It was out there. But why did it feel like its malevolence was aimed specifically at her and Ryo?