“All right.” Raiden finally let me go. “We’ll call a cab,then.”
We went back to the main street, and I blinked—the sun was already setting, bathing the tops of the buildings with gilded light. Just how long had he and I been arguing? Raiden flagged down a cab, then held the door open for me so I could get infirst.
Pretty gentlemanly behavior, I thought as I slid along the faux-leather seats,considering he was yelling at mebefore.
“So,” he said casually as the cab eased into traffic. “You work at Shabu ShabuHouse?”
I nodded—he must have recognized my uniform. “My mom and I run the restaurant together.” I didn’t see any reason to tell him that, right now,Iwas the only one running the place. I winced as I remembered all the paperwork I’d skipped—I would be having averyfull daytomorrow.
“I see. And you’ve never noticed anything…odd, about any of youremployees?”
I was about to shake my head when I remembered how Janet had changed from her normal appearance to a weird, monstrous,mummything. My stomach turned as the memory of her yellowed, sunken eyes and skeletal arms filled myhead.
“I see that you have,”Raiden observed quietly, switching to Japanese so we wouldn’t be overheard by the driver.“She’s agaki.”
My mouth dropped open.“How…how do you know that?”Was this guy friends with Janet? Surely I would have noticed if she was hanging around a hunk likethis.
“I’m a shaman. It’s the family business to know which yokai are hanging about town, and Janet has a file. She’s actually been working at the café since the day it opened, under differentguises.”
“Well that explains why she’s always eating,”I muttered, trying to wrap my head around it. I couldn’t deny that the hallucination I’d seen looked pretty much exactly like agaki.Gakiswere tormented spirits who were constantly hungry and thirsty, but no matter how often they ate, they could never satisfy themselves. And Janet had a constant habit of taking frequent food breaks. She always brought in a huge bag filled with snacks to tide her over on everyshift.
“So, if you know that Janet is a yokai, how come you’ve left her alone?”I asked warily.“Or do you not hunt down every yokai that youfind?”
Raiden shrugged.“She does no harm, so we leave her be,”he said.“The reason she is so attached to your café is because it once belonged to an ancestor ofhers.”
“Oh.”Sadness swept through me—what must it be like to be tied to a spot for all eternity, simply because you couldn’t bear to part with something that had belonged to a loved one? But I shook it off—I couldn’t let myself be swept into all this stuff. I needed to focus on my medical degree and keep the shop running at the same time. I hoped to start working in cancer research, and if my mom went back into remission, that might buy enough time for me to help find a real cure forher.
A slim hope, but one I clung todaily.
“You need to come by my family’s shrine,”Raiden said, breaking my train of thought.“I get that you don’t want to be a shaman, but since you obviously are one, you need to learn the basics of how to defendyourself.”
I scowled. “Just because I can see ghosts doesn’t mean I’m a shaman,”I argued.“Maybe I’m just clairvoyant. Ever think aboutthat?”
Raiden threw back his head and laughed, flashing perfect white teeth. The sound raised the hairs on my arms, and I couldn’t figure out if I was annoyed or turned on, which really pissed me off. Why did he have to be so damnattractive?
“Denial doesn’t suit you well,” he finally said, his gaze hard again.“You’re a walking statistic right now, Aika, and as a shaman, I can’t just stand aside and watch you get killed. You need to learn what you’re dealingwith.”
A walking statistic?I drew myself upright, indignant, and prepared to give him anearful.
“The archaeological dig between the coast and Mount Koya has taken an unsettling turn,”a female voice on the radio said, distracting me before I could give Raiden a piece of my mind. I leaned forward to listen—my mother had been following news of the dig intently. She hadn’t been home to Japan in years, but she was still very loyal to the country, and the idea that an important piece of history might be uncovered was exciting to her.“The archaeologists found a tomb halfway up the mountain, hidden in a forest cave that has never been explored until now. Several team members went into the newly excavated tomb yesterday but did not return. Tremors have been shaking Mount Koya since then, and some of the more superstitious residents evensay—”
A loudcrackrent the air outside, followed by a sizzle. I jumped in my seat as all the street lights went out, including the traffic lights. The radio hissed, turning to static, and the driver, an Arab wearing a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt,swore.
“Must be a power outage,” he grumbled. “I was listening to that,too!”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Raiden murmured in English, his eyes narrowing on the radio. “I wonder what those archaeologists found atKoya-san.”
Dread settled in my gut like a lump of greasy tofu, and I swallowed back a wave ofnausea.
“Looks like this is my stop,” I said as we pulled up in front of my dingy apartment building. I opened the door. “Thanks for the ride,” I said to Raiden, looking back at him. His dark eyes met mine, and even though he’d just pissed me off, I was suddenly reluctant to walk away from him. That tug in my chest grewstronger.
“Maybe I will come and visit the shrine,” I said hesitantly. There was a connection between us, and I wanted to know what it was. Besides, what’s the worst that couldhappen?
Raiden’s lips curved into a smile that made my nerve cells do what I was pretty sure was the neurological equivalent of a mating dance. “I’d like that.” His voice was dark and just a little bit husky, and suddenly I was no longer quite sure what he wanted fromme.
Could it be that he felt the same pull Idid?
I opened my mouth, feeling like I should say something. But he looked past me, breaking the moment, and his face tightened withworry.
