Owl and the Japanese Circus (46 page)

I’d worry about that though when we had something more. Like an actual key or concrete pattern to go on. At this point we were pulling at straws, even if it was a hell of a lot more than I’d found in the last twenty-four hours. We either solved it or would spend the next few months dodging Marie and Mr. Kurosawa’s attempts to kill us. Considering how well that had gone so far . . .

I nodded and opened the scroll file on my laptop. “Send me the symbols as you find them and I’ll start pulling them out of the scroll. We’ll know in a few hours if we’re actually making headway or playing our own special version of tic-tac-toe.”

Nadya started to pack up her own laptop.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Back to my room, where, unlike you, I have a bottle of champagne. Call me when you restock your fridge.” She stopped to grab my empty Corona bottles, including the one in my hand. “And I think I should take these, just so you’re not tempted to weaponize them again.”

“Nadya?” I said as she was reaching for the door.

She turned and raised an eyebrow.

“Thanks.”

She nodded and gave me a wry smile. “Anytime. It’s really
self-preservation. If it wasn’t for me, you’d have made many more stupid decisions by now and would probably be living off my couch.”

I went back to my laptop and the new set of symbols.

“Owl?”

I looked back up at Nadya.

“Whatever you decide to do with Rynn, make up your mind soon, or at least hear him out. I don’t care if he’s an incubus—you’re being cruel,” she said, and closed the door behind her.

I sighed. She was right. I was still pissed, but I was assuming the worst, and I was starting to feel guilty about it. Rynn hadn’t done anything except be my friend.

Every time I ran into someone from the archaeology grad school circuit, without fail they assumed the worst, even after they called me to save their asses. Like Benji. Granted, the university archaeology heads hadn’t helped with the rumors they’d spread about my dismissal, and I do in fact take things they would rather I didn’t from their dig sites. But I’d never hurt anyone. And until the last week at the temple in Bali, I’d never damaged anything either, and that had been the guards’ and naga’s fault. Even Benji, whose career and life I’d gone out of my way to save, had had no problem going back on our deal just because it was me and I was Owl, the bad thief. I knew what it felt like to have people judge you by a name. I turned my cell phone over and opened Rynn’s message.

Train wreck
was all he’d written.

I typed in
Whore
and pressed Send. Then I went back to the scroll and started highlighting the two new symbols Nadya had found.

I don’t know if it was the right or wrong call, but I owed it to Rynn to hear him out.

I logged out of World Quest. It’s not like the Byzantine Thief was going anywhere. I’d hit a stalemate with the Oubliette wall now that Carpe had stolen my missile scroll. Might as well puzzle through the other, real scroll. “Let’s see just what you’re hiding in there,” I said and got back to work.

An hour later Nadya and I had five more symbols to add to the heart and sword: a cross with a loop, a sun (or moon, depending on how you looked at it), a river, what I was convinced was a tree of life, and a skull, which Nadya kept calling a doubloon. Apparently “skull” was too ominous for her. I pointed out this entire job was ominous, but there you have it. We settled on “doubloon.”

In the first line of the scroll, I’d found the heart, sword, and doubloon, overlaid with individual words in the script, like an ancient version of 3-D, but in no specific pattern or order. In the following scroll lines, I’d managed to find all the other symbols as well. The sword and heart were the most common; I’d found ten of each, with the sun, cross, and river following a distant second, at four, three, and five respectively. There was only one tree of life and one doubloon. The tree of life I’d found in the beginning of the second line, and the doubloon was on the last word of the last line. Though what that meant was beyond me.

If I wasn’t looking at the codex to activate the damn thing, it was time to retire. Reading it, however, was an entirely different matter. I tried isolating the words, then the letters the symbols were overlaid with. When that didn’t give me anything, I tried isolating the individual letters. Then I tried removing the words and letters from the script, to see if that made a difference. Last, I tried changing the order based on the symbols and still came up with nothing.

My phone rang. It was Nadya.

“I found all the symbols in the scroll and I still have no idea how to read it. Any luck on your end?” I said.

“No more than you. I’ve checked all the rings. There are only the seven symbols hidden in it. I’ve been isolating the words—”

“Let me guess: then the letters, then removing the words and letters, and rearranging the words and letters—”

“And still nothing. I’ve got one or two more ideas, but I need to
access the Moscow archives again. I want to see if any of these symbols are in there.”

“Just be careful. That’ll make twice in one week. Somehow I don’t think you want the Moscow archaeology department at your front door.”

She snorted. “They’re so understaffed I don’t think anyone bothers monitoring it anymore. All the old passwords still work. Couldn’t be bothered changing them.”

“All right, let me know how it goes. I’m at a dead end—I’m going to take a break.” There was a knock on my door, soft, but I caught it. “Call me as soon as you find anything,” I said. I closed my cell phone and checked to see who was there.

Rynn was leaning against the doorframe and looked right at me as I peered through the peephole. Damn it, he could probably see me. How the hell had I missed that he was supernatural? I swung the door open.

He raised an eyebrow. “Because swinging the door open is the smartest idea.”

I stepped back and let him in. “Somehow, I get the impression skin walkers can’t steal your skin.”

He nodded begrudgingly and scanned the room.

“What are you looking for?”

“Beer bottles,” he said.

“Nadya took them away already.”

That at least got a smile out of him, and he headed for my room. “I left my bag here. And we never got the chance to talk.”

All right, time to be a grown-up, Owl.

“I’m sorry about the beer bottle. It was uncalled for.”

He came back into the living room, his pack slung over his shoulder, and stopped an arm’s reach in front of me. “I’m not entirely surprised. You don’t think when you get scared or upset.”

I leaned against the desk table and rubbed my eyes. “Yeah, and it was stupid and uncalled for and I should have more control by now.”

He watched me for a moment, then said, “I was going to come by sooner, but after healing you, I had to recoup. The bar and the nightclub downstairs is the best place to do it. Nowhere near as good as Tokyo, but,” he shrugged, “decent enough in a pinch.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

He focused on a spot on the wall behind me. “Remember in Bali? I mentioned I’d gone through Kuta.”

Yup, that one had already come back to me. I’d given him a lecture on succubi. Who looked like the genius now?

“OK, but just going to Kuta doesn’t mean you’re an incubus,” I said.

“If I’d told you right there and then, you wouldn’t have been able to get out of the jeep fast enough. I understood what you’d been going through with the vampires, then Mr. Kurosawa and Oricho, so I decided to wait until you got to know me better.”

I wanted to deny it, but he was right. It was the same damn mistake I always make—running from what scares me.

“You’re bad with people. I’m selfish,” Rynn continued. “Was it wrong to hide it? Yes. But I never lied. As soon as you confronted me, I admitted what I was. That has to count for something.”

He had a point. He’d done exactly what I do all the time. And now he was standing in front of me asking for, or maybe giving me, a second chance.

I was starting to really regret that beer bottle.

Somewhere between talking to Nadya and Rynn coming to see me, I’d stopped being angry. I wanted to fix things. That scared the hell out of me, and not just because Rynn was an incubus. Not letting people in was my best defense, the only one I had complete control over. How’s that for pop psychology?

Rynn took my silence while I mulled over my thoughts as rejection. Without one more word, he was heading out my door. And I was the idiot letting him.

“Rynn, stop.” When he closed the door and turned back to face me, I said, “How does it work . . . exactly? I mean, feeding?”

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, then said, “I feed off attraction mostly, and ‘feed’ is a poor word choice, more like absorb. It works best if the attraction is directed at me, but attraction amongst others works as well. Humans release adrenaline and an onslaught of emotions and energy: I pick it up out of the air, like breathing in oxygen.”

He narrowed his eyes before dropping his pack and leaning in to smell my neck, just short of touching me. I held my breath.

“Kind of like now. It’s rising off your skin, attraction mixed with fear—but with you, I find those always go hand in hand. It’s a peculiar quality.” His eyes changed from gray to the bright blue I always noticed but never recalled until they were right in front of me. He lifted his hand and traced the outline of my face without touching my skin.

“Touch works even better, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, or don’t care, you can—”

“Kill someone?” I said as my heart raced.

He stood very still, his face a hairsbreadth away from mine. Damn it, I wasn’t going to step back. Rynn wasn’t going to hurt me. He hadn’t even touched me yet.

“I was going to say damage, but in extreme circumstances, yes, I suppose that’s possible too. If it makes you feel better, I’ve never met a succubi or incubi who would kill someone. I don’t think I could, I’ve never wanted to try. And to answer your other question, no. I’ve absorbed the energy you release naturally, I can’t help it, but I’ve never actively pulled it from you. To do that, I’d have to push your attraction to an unnatural state through suggestion, and I find it about as invasive and unpleasant as it sounds.”

I made myself let go of the breath I was holding. “What about the mind control? How did you block me from remembering that your eyes change color? And how did you heal me?” I said. Now that I was getting control of my fear, the questions were pouring out. It’s not every day a supernatural plays twenty questions.

But Rynn shook his head. “Oricho told you there were rules when
dealing with humans we have to abide by. I can’t tell you everything you want to know.” He raised his hand as I started to protest. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. There are consequences I have no intention of triggering.”

“But you can control my thoughts? No offense, but that scares the hell out of me, more than anything else.”

He shook his head again. “I can suggest things, like ignoring details or directing a choice, but that only goes so far. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, like walk over burning coals. The other night I had a hell of a time convincing you your arm wasn’t broken because it was and you’re very stubborn when you want to be. I can’t wipe or alter your memory.”

I nodded. No real mind control, just manipulation. No more than what a good con artist could do . . .

What was I doing here? An hour ago, two hours ago, there was no way I’d have lasted this long without backing into a corner. Maybe it was the amount of time I’d spent dealing with supernaturals over the past year, but I was almost OK with this. I started to ask another question, but Rynn broke our stalemate and touched my face, running his fingers along my cheek. A shiver went down my spine. “You’re not using suggestion on me now, are you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not for something like this. I’d never be able to enjoy getting you that way.” With his free arm he reached around my waist and stopped just short of pulling me in. “Owl, you need to make up your mind. Can you deal with what I am or not?”

I closed my eyes. I wanted this, but there was one more question I needed answered to put my mind at ease. “Why me?”

He lifted my chin with a finger and searched my face. “Why what?”

“I’m stubborn, I rarely listen, I have trust issues, you’ve seen my intimacy issues, and even though you’ll never hear me admit this again, I’m a thief . . . You could have just about any girl in Tokyo. So why me?”

Rynn glanced down with a thoughtful expression. “You’re very
broken, more so than most people, but you’ve never relinquished your potential. You blind yourself to it and pretend it isn’t there, but you refuse to let go. You wear your damage and heart on your sleeve, though you pretend not to. I think it’s very beautiful. The thieving I can overlook. Did I mention I like a challenge?”

He was so close I felt his breath on my skin. It was now or never. I leaned in and twined my fingers around the back of his neck. He tilted his head towards me, but this time I kissed him. One thing about incubi is they don’t need much encouragement. Before I knew what was happening, I was back on the desk where we’d left off before the skin walker had attacked me.