Kahoku’s network was vast. The Hawai‘ian blood was stronger than any mountain and would stand the testament of time. These poor bastards had chosen this unlucky night to guard their master, their eyes shielded from the evil they protected.
But my eyes were wide open.
The ancient fighting style ofKapu Ku?ialua, orLua, was sacred to my people. While more modern martial arts had come to the Islands over the last century, there are those who still live by our traditions.
My father was one of the select few, an?olohe, who was chosen to become such a revered warrior. From the time I could walk, he drilled me in the ways of our ancestors. The most important lesson he taught me was that aLuawarrior never walked alone.
At his core, my father was a peaceful man. He believed in the law of the ‘aina, our land, and balance in all things. After he disappeared following my mother’s funeral, I twisted his teachings, used them not to defend but to avenge. I killed and maimed, caused harm to those who dared endanger my island. I was cruel, and above all, I was deadly.
After my mother’s death and my father’s disappearance, I wasbeyondangry. I saw it now: how blind I’d been to Kahoku’s charismatic ways, how he’d twisted my beliefs to heighten my anger. If it hadn’t been for Lu leaving me and making me walk away from the life I’d been living, I might still be blind to it.
Man after man fell at my hand, and all the while I whistled. Tonight, Iwas as deadly as the Night Marchers, the procession of ghostly warriors who continued their duties even through the afterlife.
I wiped the blood that was running into my eyes as I came upon his study. Even at this hour, this was where he would be. Not only was it where he would feel the most powerful, it was where he kept his collection of weapons. Many of which he’d purchased from Tangaloa. The traditional Japanese house wasn’t massive, not like Bacon’s monstrosity. Its outer walls were mostly made of glass, allowing an unending view of the horizon from any room.
The lattice and washi paper of the shoji door exploded in front of me. I took cover behind a large potted umbrella tree just as another spray of buckshot tore through wood and paper. Glancing around the surprisingly wide trunk, I watched Kahoku emerge from the wreckage of what had once been his door.
He’s older than one might expect, mid-fifties with a gray short-boxed beard and sharp eyes so dark they were nearly black. Wearing only a long sarong, Kahoku stepped forward, carrying an open double-barreled shotgun as he worked toreload it. In all my years working with him, I have never known him to use a gun before. Collect them, yes, but not use.
Apparently there were many things I was learning of late about my old mentor.
“I know it’s you,hiwa lani.”
I didn’t allow the old nickname to affect me. Clearly, I was no longer his “favorite one” if he could send the Bloody Scorpions to murder me in my sleep, along with my pregnantwahineand my little niece.
Standing, I pulled a dagger from the sheath around my calf. I hated shoes, hated shirts even more. In battle, I wore no more clothing than my ancestors had. There have been few exceptions, the most recent being when I battled a sex trafficker in Russia. That frozen hellscape was colder than a nun’s cunt, and I was forced to wear boots, pants,anda jacket or risk frostbite. I’d rather jump into a volcano than enter that ice-covered wasteland again.
I let him reload, because even armed, I wanted him to know he never was a match for me. As I lifted my arm, I felt a tightness in the muscle. Glancing down, I saw my own blood mixing with the blood of the men I’d killed tonight. Adrenaline masked the pain but for a small twinge, and it certainly was not enough to stop me.
Kahoku snapped the rifle back into place. “Are we really going to do this?”
“You’ve gone soft, Kahoku,” I responded, not bothering to mask my anger. “Did you really think I would let you live?”
His crinkled eyes narrow. “That cut you now wear means more to you than your own flesh and blood.”
My hand adjusted on my blade as I watched him roll his weight onto his back leg in preparation of firing. “I amKanaka Maoli,” born of this land. “No piece of leather will ever change that.” I heard footsteps approaching from behind me but didn’ttake my eyes off my target. “As for my own flesh and blood? There is no one I won’t kill who threatens mywahineand my son.”
Kahoku’s hand flexed over the handle. “And what ifyouare the biggest threat of all to them,hiwa lani?”
If he expected me to say that I would take myself out of the equation or I would die before I allowed that to happen, he didn’t know me as well as he thought he did. My lifewasdangerous. But I was building an army to protect Lu and our boy, men and women who would sacrifice everything to ensure their safety. Loyalty. Brotherhood. Family. We might be Hawai‘ian, but we were also Royal Bastards.
And I would rather be a devil standing between my family and the world than an angel too timid to get his hands bloody to protect them.
I flung my blade while he stupidly waited for my reply. It landed in his shoulder, cutting through bone and tendons and causing him to lose his grip on the shotgun. Crying out, he grabbed for his shoulder as he went down to one knee in pain. “Doesn’t matter to you,” I finally answered him as I approached. “You’ll be too dead to care.”
The floor of Tommy’s boat was slick with blood. The twins, Tangaloa, Tommy, and I did not bother to clean up Kahoku’s home on Kaua?i. We took the bodies and left behind destruction. I wanted Kahoku’s people who weren’t there tonight to see the evidence of what happened, what would happen again if they tried to avenge their boss.
The total came to nineteen with Kahoku and the redheaded man Kayl captured earlier in the day. The dead were stripped them of their worldly possessions and tossed them into the woodchipper. It was industrial grade and capable of chopping up a full body without the bones jamming the blades. We stole it from the construction crew who renovated my barn and then secured it to Tommy’s boat to make our own brand of human chum, rather than wasting money on fish guts.
Due to the late hour and how far sound carried on the sea, we had to be careful of the pesky Coast Guard. If our numbers were less, I would feed the living ones through bit by bit, too, but we needed to be quick. Nineteen bodies would take too long.
But I was nothing if not adaptable. Kahoku had a home gym that we raided prior to our departure. The twins were already cutting the necessary ropes we would need. By the time the eleventh body was spread across the ocean top, we’d already attracted a number of carnivorous sea creatures.
The most abundant being sharks.
Like an assembly line, the injured guards were lined up, and also stripped of their clothing and any jewelry. Most had broken bones or bullet wounds already, and we added several, thick slices while avoiding major arteries. No sense having them bleed out too quickly. Barnacle, our prospect, had the unlucky job of lugging all the weight plates to the boat. Now, he had to lift them onto the edge as one of the twins wrapped one end of the rope to the wounded man’s feet and the other twin threaded the other end through the hole in the weight plate.
I let them tie up the seven guards, dropping the weight plates off the side of the boat into the sea and then watching as they screamed and fought for purchase before inevitably being dragged down to the bottom of the ocean.
