Wet: Undercurrent (5 page)

Hotsuma settled behind her with his back propped against the rim of the tub and situated her so she rested against him. He ignored the way the skin of her back caressed his returning arousal so they could talk. “I wasn’t always a water spirit.”

“Yeah. I remember that part. Something about a wife and concubines and kids that didn’t get your powers. Go from there.”

He rested his chin on the top of her head as he thought back on the events that had led to his imprisonment. “The power of the
ageman
provided my family wealth and good health. Every child was born strong and lived a long life. Every business prospered no matter how much of a risk. For generations, an
ageman
had always been born to my family. The man she married took our name and became the head of the house. My house was a matriarchal one because of that.”

“I’m betting that wasn’t normal in your time period.”

“No, but no other family could fault us because we were powerful. My mother was the last
ageman
woman born to the Mizuno family. She bore no daughters and her eldest son carried the power, something no one had ever heard of before me.” He hugged her, a comforting gesture for his own sake as the dark memories surfaced. “When none of my children showed the powers, the family became desperate. They had too long depended on the
ageman
powers to prosper and didn’t know how the family would survive without them.”

Lulu covered his hands with hers.

“As I said earlier, my concubines came from spiritually powerful families. Each was consulted to find a method to forcibly pass my powers on to another. There was no way to separate my powers from me. They had to be passed to a child or the power would die with me. The father of one concubine suggested binding my spirit to a symbol of the family.”

“What’s that mean? Binding you to the symbol of your family?”

“The kanji for my name, for Mizuno, means water field. They bound me to water.”

“Glad it wasn’t my family then. They would have had to bind me to a pearl. That’s what Lulu means in Swahili.” She gave a strained laugh and then cleared her throat. “Sorry. That was… never mind. Continue. Bound to your family’s symbol.”

“The promise of a marriage for his daughter to a son of the Mizuno family was the payment my concubine’s father wanted for ripping my spirit from my body and binding it to a chalice of water.”

“Not to harp on a weird detail, but how did you go from a chalice, which I’m assuming was only a few pints, to a pool that holds gallons?”

He smiled in spite of his growing dark mood. “I’m getting to that part.”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt. Go on.”

“The Mizuno family enshrined me and treated me like any other protective spirit of Japan. They offered me prayers I had no wish to answer and food I couldn’t eat. After several generations, the majority of the family forgot I was once a living man.”

“I’m sorry.” Lulu repeated her soft apology a few times and tightened her hold on his hands.

“The fault is not yours, Lulu. You are freeing me.”

“We’ll figure out how later. Now how did you go from a chalice to a pool? How did you get to the US, for that matter?”

“That would be the fault of a family feud. Twins were born to the Mizuno head during the height of the Meiji Restoration… uh… the late eighteen hundreds. The tradition of my family was to always have the first-born daughter marry a man who would be the head. The first-born daughter Kazuko was born after her twin brother Ichiro.”

“Enter family strife.”

“That’s putting it nicely. Ichiro wanted to do away with archaic family tradition so he could be the head of the family. Kazuko wasn’t about to relinquish her rightful place as the head wife. The family was divided -- those who wanted to continue tradition and those who didn’t want an outsider acting as a head of the family.

“Ichiro stole the chalice that held me and took it to the American West, thinking he would hold me ransom until they agreed to let him lead. The family had started negotiations with a businessman about expanding West, so Ichiro used that contact to hide. When Kazuko and her men caught up with him, a fight broke out.”

“Let me guess -- someone spilled you.”

He tapped her nose. “Yes. Down a well, of all things. Ichiro held me over the well as a bluff. When one of Kazuko’s men tried to retrieve the chalice, it fell. The water that was me mixed with the water of the well. There was no way to separate the two. Kazuko immediately bought the land where the well sat and everything surrounding it.”

“Fast forward a few decades, and your new home is a pool sitting in a secret room down a hallway that doesn’t exist.”

“Go back a few decades,” he gave her a squeeze for interrupting him, “and a priest is brought over from Japan to bind me and the water of the well so I cannot escape. The straw rope and paper talismans you saw in the pool room comprise the barrier created to act as my prison. Over the decades, my prison went from being a well with a tent over it to a pool sitting in a secret room down a hallway that doesn’t exist.”

“And the Mizuno family had to relocate to the US?”

He nodded. “And the Mizuno
head
family had to relocate to America. The majority of the family remained in Japan. The head family, of which Kazuko had control, took up residence in America. Ichiro never wanted to live in America so he returned to Japan. For the mess he had caused, he and those who followed him were cast out of the family.”

“Okay. So that explains how you’re a water spirit and how you got to the US. That even explains why Onsen is so prosperous. That doesn’t explain me. There’s nothing special about me.”

“Now that isn’t true.” He turned her head so she met his gaze. “I have found many special things about you. Your ability to balance on one leg while your ankle is draped over my shoulder, for instance.”

She grumbled, “I took gymnastics as a kid and kept myself limber over the years.”

“I appreciate that fact.” He kissed her lips. She opened for him and twisted her body so her breasts pressed against his chest. As much as Hotsuma wanted to accept the invitation she offered him, the recounting of his past had cooled his arousal. And Lulu still needed to regain her strength.

He pulled back from her mouth and raised her hands to his lips, kissing her open palms one at a time. “You need rest.”

She pouted but nodded with a resigned sigh.

“I shall see you in the morning.”

“Where?”

“Return to the hot spring. I can transport you to the pool room from there.”

“You can’t do it from here?”

“My power is not that strong. Maybe after you break a few more wards. Because of the side effects, I think it’s best if you only break four a day.” The way her eyes danced with anticipation made him laugh despite his mood. “If not for the side effects of breaking the spell holding me, I would think you were using me for sex.”

“Would that be so bad?”

“Not at all.” He reshaped the water so he was standing and then pulled Lulu to her feet. He had to hold her steady while she gained her balance. He didn’t release her completely until she stood outside the tub. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lulu.”

“You too, Hotsuma.”

He pulled the tub stopper and followed the water as it drained from the tub. Lulu stood watching the water until the tub was empty. Hotsuma didn’t fight the current, letting it take him wherever it was headed. As he thought, his spirit stopped where the water left the hotel headed for the sewer. He couldn’t leave the hotel, not yet.

Rather than dwell on that, he traveled around the hotel with no direction in mind. He found himself in Masato’s office, staring down at the man the way he had Lulu earlier from a fire extinguisher spigot. Unlike Lulu, Hotsuma didn’t plan to drip on Masato. His goal was to learn more about his estranged family.

Since moving to the pool room, he’d lost touch. No one came to pray to him any longer. They didn’t give him offerings either. The only time he saw them was when they brought their children and spouses to the pool room for a blessing. Those visits were fleeting and rare in their occurrence because a spouse was only blessed after the birth of a child. Once under the family protection, divorce was no longer an option. That was the price of being a true part of the Mizuno family.

Hotsuma didn’t miss the offerings but he did miss the prayers. That was how he had kept track of the family news outside of new additions. But spying worked just as well now that he could move around.

“I need you to send a priest,” Masato said to whoever was on the other end of the phone line.

That got Hotsuma’s attention.

“No. I want one from Japan. The priests here aren’t as strong. I think there’s something up with the barrier.” Masato made a disgusted noise. “Atsuji, stop bullshitting me and just do it.” He growled at whatever Atsuji must have said. “Fuck you and the proper way to ask. I’m the head of this damn family. You need to fucking act like it. Send me a priest
from Japan
. Now!” He nodded again. “Got it. Bye.”

A priest, huh? Hotsuma wasn’t worried. In two more days, Lulu would have set him free. Masato could perform all the ceremonies he wanted. Hotsuma wouldn’t be there to see them.

He traveled back to the pool room to rest. He didn’t have his full strength back. Soon. Very soon. Once the wards were broken, Hotsuma would have to figure out what to do with his life. He was a water spirit, after all. There wasn’t much he could do.

“You could go inhabit a wishing fountain and bring good luck to the people that toss in quarters. Only quarters and higher, though. People who toss in pennies are too cheap to have their wishes granted. Exceptions for little kids, of course.” Lulu grinned at Hotsuma. It was the first thing that came to mind when he asked her for suggestions for his life after gaining his freedom.

“Very funny,” he said in a dry voice.

“I thought so.” She started brushing her teeth and tried to ignore the sense of unease that settled over her. Things she had taken for granted -- brushing her teeth, washing her face and so on -- felt weird now that she knew Hotsuma inhabited the water. She knew he wasn’t in all water, but it still made her feel guilty.

He currently inhabited the water in the tub. He’d filled it up on his own and greeted her when she woke up that morning, nearly scaring her to death. But she was glad he was there.

The frenzy of the day before had worn off. No more side effects from the barrier lingered. That meant Lulu could look at Hotsuma and see if she was really attracted to him.

“I’m serious, Lulu.”

She spit out her toothpaste and rinsed her mouth. “So am I. You’re a water spirit, Hotsuma. There’s not much you can do.”

“That’s not what you said last night.”

The tingle that started in her clit from Hotsuma’s comment let her know the attraction wasn’t solely the blame of the barrier spell side effects. That was good… at least she hoped it was good. She and Hotsuma had the same issue. Once the spell was broken, what came next? Where did that leave their relationship? If that was even what they had.

Hotsuma had joked about her using him for sex, but he was the one using her to break him out of his prison. Did he see this thing as a relationship to be cultivated or a mutually beneficial business arrangement that would end once she’d finished her part?

“Putting that aside.” Lulu faced the tub and wished Hotsuma had formed the water into a body like he had last night. She felt more than a little silly talking to a tub full of water. “Maybe you can bargain with your family. Things have changed, right? You could stick around here and continue bringing the family luck so long as they promise not to lock you away again.”

“Your plan is sound, and I would agree if I hadn’t heard Masato requesting a priest be sent from Japan to strengthen the barrier spell.”

“What?”

“I went to Masato’s office last night. He has called for a priest.”

“But… I mean, okay, that looks bad. But did you try talking to him? He’s a businessman. I would like to think he can be reasoned with.”

“I would like to think the same, but I haven’t seen evidence of it.”

Lulu chewed her lip in thought. If a priest was headed their way, that meant they might not have two days. How bad would the side effects be if she broke all the wards at once? Or a better question -- how much would it hurt? The fourth ward had knocked her off her feet… as it were. What would eight do to her?

Then again, Hotsuma said it was the energy of the spell building up inside her. Maybe if they had sex after breaking each ward, or even did a little foreplay, that might keep her from being turned into a crispy critter.

She said, “We need to break all of the wards today then.”

“That’s too dangerous for you.”

“Not if we have sex while I’m doing it. You said sex dispels the energy, right?”

“Yes,” he said, though his voice sounded hesitant. “I don’t want you hurt, Lulu.”

“If it looks like it isn’t working the way I think it will, then we’ll stop. I can always finish it off tomorrow morning, bright and early. And once the barriers are broken, you don’t have to chance staying here. You can come back to Voda.”