Page 48

More or less remedied when we offer them a cut of the weapons stockpile we were sent to locate and retrieve. They’re even nice enough to smuggle the arsenal to the coast and load it on a ship headed for wherever the fuck Ananke wants them.

Easy enough to forget about staying at a monastery near Sireet Ulaan Mountain.

It’s the first time I find a hint of quiet inside. Well, in the few hours the two of us aren’t engaged in hours-long bouts of tantric, body-bending sex.

Circe’s legs behind her head…

Lifting her off the ground as I arch into a reverse push-up…

Locked in a pretzel of limbs, joined at the waist, barely moving as a ten-minute, multifaceted orgasm electrifies my fucking soul.

Returning to civilization definitely puts a damper on the ascendant experience, but I feel…vibrant. Shit, I mean, we barely even bicker for more than five or ten minutes at a time anymore.

Tokyo feels charged when we land.

Ananke’s contact meets us at the airport, taking us on a roundabout tour of the city before delivering us to the Yakuzakobun, a captain, and an old acquaintance of Circe’s. He’s our only point of access to one of theoyabun.

“I am intrigued by you, Ero-san.”

“How so?” I tilt my head casually as we wait outside the meeting room of the picturesque estate home of Haru’s senior. Haru’s a full head shorter than me, no more than five-two. Maybe a hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet. And I guarantee he could probably whoop my ass with that blade at his side.

“You sit like a teenager, slouching and lazy. Yet you stand like a warrior. You move like a cat.”

“And you sit like you’re still in class, about to be dressed down by the teacher.”

“Proper, you mean?”

“And pompous to boot. Reminds me of someone I know.” I glance toward where some of the attendants took Circe to change into something more traditional for our negotiations.

“That is no coincidence. We studied under the same sword master.”

Which means Haru might remember more about Circe than even she can.

Not that I have a clue what she can remember. We still avoid our pasts as much as possible in conversations. Might be augmented by the fact that every time we check in with Ananke we seem to lose half a day. Wake up disoriented.

“Was she always so stubborn?”

“Forged from steel. No man I ever met could tameObake. Not even our master.” He grins as he nods in her direction.

“Obake?”

“A demon who changes form. Your companion earned this name after training here many years ago.” Haru’s eyes never stay still, scanning the room, the door, me. He’s keen. Sharp.

More than that, he seems to lookthrougheverything…

“She’s mentioned something to that effect.” Very little, actually, but still. “But any man who thinks she is tamable is a fool.”

“Then you are not one, I take it. She would only ever accept an equal. Which means you are formidable indeed.”

Despite his soft voice and calm demeanor, there’s a sparkle to his eyes. A thread of humor to everything he says, like a double meaning laced under every word. And a piercing quality to his gaze as he meets mine.

“Oh, I am most certainly a fool. But I am also formidable, yes.”

“A smart-ass, as well,” he snickers. “Do not confuse foolishness for a shadowed soul. Coal and soot obscure even the most rare diamonds. They must be cut and cleaned to find what lies at the core.”

A shiver claws down my back.

How can he see me so clearly? Am I so clouded in my judgment, even of myself, that a stranger can single out my greatest flaw?