Dim Sum Asylum(91)
“It was personal… is personal for Sato. He hates the Takahashi. That feud burned long before any of us were born, and he’s stoked its flames.” Her eyes grew sad, and she stepped back from the counter. “It became more personal when I took up with Takahashi. Akemi’s defection was hard enough to swallow, but… my loving your grandfather was too much for Sato.”
I opened a bag of treats, then tossed one at Bob to stop her mewling. “Why would Sato give a rat’s ass about what you and Takahashi got into?”
“Let me show you,” she murmured, loosing her kimono from her neck. “Then let me explain.”
Pulling back the layers, she exposed her shoulders, a porcelain canvas for the vivid orange-and-ebony mottled wings shimmering up through her skin. They glistened, a strong monarch pattern stretching in sweeping curves across her shoulder blades and down her spine. They caught the light, the depths of her captured wings shifting colors when she moved. Three winks of red dotted on her right shoulder, a trio of subdermal stars nesting together above the top ridge of her right wing. She stood there for a few seconds, then pulled her kimono back into place, smoothing her hair when she was done.
“You’re half fae.” I tried splitting the numbers, calculating what I knew of my bloodline, which seemed made up mostly of killers, criminals, and bootleggers on my mother’s side. “And related to him. Those are his wings. His stars—”
I’d nearly killed my own great-grandfather. Pinned him to the ground like he was nothing more than a museum specimen and then threatened to shoot him. The burden of their crimes slammed down into my spine, and I had to lean back against the counter to keep upright. I had too many questions about everything, but most of all, why did it always have to circle back to death?
“I pulled more human than you did, but our wings… you have markings as well. Just… your mother’s instead. It’s part of the reason your grandfather is so enamored with you. The Tombo.” This time she reached for me instead of the cat, putting her warm hand on my arm, and I laughed softly, acknowledging the old man’s thing for dragonflies. “Sato was training me to take over for him. To kill as he did. And I’d started that path, but your grandfather and I… I was Kodama. At least we were considered Kodama.”
“You fell in love with Takahashi. Someone from a clan you’d sworn to kill.” Rubbing at my face, I tried to get my brain to stop processing every random thought hitting it. “Crap. This is….”
“I was very young when I went to Takahashi, nearly eighteen, but I’d already lived… I’d already killed. I counted myself as a woman, and if I’d been anyone else in our clan, I’d have been married years before. Sato had plans for me. Plans that didn’t include your grandfather. And besides, I wasn’t really a part of the clan. Certainly not enough to marry the Takahashi heir to connect the families. Only Akemi could do that, because she’s the Kodama’s true daughter.” Adjusting her obi, Yukiko continued, “Still, Sato’s always wanted revenge for me choosing Takahashi over him. For choosing anyone but him.
“When he contacted me to tell me he was dying and wanted to make amends, I believed him. Instead he repaid my trust by drugging me, binding me, and throwing me into that shed.” Her skin shifted, lightening from a deep brown to bronze. “He stole the lives of my staff and tried to kill my lover—and my grandson—because in his mind, I’d taken away his life, his dreams. Akemi forbade him to act against the Takahashi clan on pain of death.”
“And now that he’s dying, it doesn’t matter what Akemi dictates. He really was going to finish what he started.” I tried to sort something out of the million and one things I had on my tongue. “Shit. Sato’s nuts. That would have broken everything back apart. It still might.”
“You lack Takahashi’s eloquence, but I am sure you can work on it. Kodama and Takahashi agreed Sato was acting on his own accord. That puts the Kodama in a bad spot but one they can recover from. There will be restitution, but that’s something for them to resolve. Right now, I am only concerned about you.” She patted my arm. “I came here to ask something of you. I wanted to ask if you would allow me to be a part of your life. Without involving the family. Just you and I. I want to get to know you. To talk to you. Maybe to give you guidance in dealing with the man we share in our lives.”
“I can’t get close to him. Not with everything he does,” I cautioned her. She’d been a phantom up until a few days ago, and shifting my life to make room for her… there was room. I’d make room, but I had to be clear on a few things. “I’m a cop. If ever I catch him doing something illegal, he’s going to wish I’d just kill him already. That’s not going to change.”
“No, I know that. But he is… going to change,” she replied. “He knows he will not bring you to his side if the family remains as it is. He will need to change that, but he will get resistance, perhaps even violently so, but he is determined to do right by our family. The Takahashi can be more than what they are, and he feels you are the one to do that.”
“I can’t promise anything other than… I’d like it if you were a part of my life,” I conceded, smiling gently at her when she kissed me on the cheek. “I… miss having family. Okay, family that’s not trying to kill me.”