TRIBUTE: Part Nine

    "I DON'T think you can." Finn's words scraped out. "You're burning through those bodies. That's why you want us. And if you take us, we die anyway." She continued ferociously, "You're nothing but pieces of paper."
   "Finn." Christie sounded on the verge of hysteria.
   Finn gently put her hand over his mouth as she met Jintong's burning gold gaze. She didn't dare look at Jack, because she was admitting to something she'd always suspected about the Fatas. "You can't kill us. You need one of us--a human--to do it for you. Flesh and blood."
   "So it's a draw, is it?" Jintong began to move back, step by step, while Jack watched him.
   "I believe so," Jack told him. "The Mononoke and the Skriker won't take part in this. Like you, they're wisely afraid of Reiko."
   "We're as old as she is." Jintong smiled slyly. "And what are these mortals to her?"
   Finn saw the rustling shadows drawing closer and the entire nightmarish aspect of the evening, instead of dulling her into the numb inertia she'd been experiencing since Lily's death, sharpened her. She said, quietly, with a wondering realization, "You need us more than we need you."
   A whirlwind of paper blossoms, leaves, and snowflakes swept over them as she and Jintong regarded one another.
   "Do you see their plan?" This, from the until-then-silent Jade. "The Magician. The Empress. The Hanged Man. The Sun." She cocked her head to one side. Her face was expressionless, but her voice was threaded with despair. "We have lost, Jintong."
   Jintong looked at each of them. The smile became a shadow on his face. "So the trick is on us. But now I know--these two mortals are not meaningless to your family, Phouka." He turned to Finn. "You guessed correctly--we cannot take what is not freely given. There is nothing with which we have to bargain. Beaten by the house, we accede." He bowed, folding into the night.
   "Well, shit," Christie whispered.
   Finn couldn't believe it. She stood very still, marveling at what had just occurred.
   She turned. They were gone, the menacing silhouettes. Only Jade remained, watching Finn.
   As Christie sank to his haunches, his arms over his head, Jade said to Finn, "They will be the death of you, braveheart."
   Then she, too, was gone.
   "What happened here?" Christie's voice was muffled.
   Finn broke her gaze from Jack's to crouch beside Christie. "It's over now. You're safe."
   "They took him." Phouka, Finn realized, was speaking to Jack. "I had no other way to fetch him back."
   "Are you explaining yourself to me?" Jack was staring at Phouka. "Because it's not me you should be apologizing to, cara."
   Finn rose, reeling a little. How could she go back to her somewhat ordinary life after this? She said, "Let's go. Now."
                                                                                      ***
The ride home was quiet, until Christie shook himself and said angrily, "Isn't anyone going to tell me what just happened?"
   Phouka, driving, glanced at Jack, who was in the passenger seat beside her. Jack, one arm on the back of the seat, turned his head and looked at Finn. Phouka said, each word succinct, "Nothing happened."
   "Oh no you don't," Christie began, then sounded baffled. "What did I just say? Hey, where were we going again?"
   "Phouka." Finn wanted to grab the other girl's hair. "What did you d--"
   "Here we are." Phouka swerved into the driveway of Christie's house.
   "Yeah. Yeah. Okay." After Phouka parked, Christie dazedly got out. Finn threw a furious look at Phouka and slid out after him. She heard Jack say to Phouka, "You're going to addle that boy's brain if you keep doing that."
   "Christie." Finn hurried to his side as he walked toward his house. As they stomped up the porch stairs, she said, "Are you all right?"
   "I'm fine." He grinned, but his eyes were glassy.  "See you tomorrow."
   "Christie."
   "Yeah?" He turned as he stepped into the warmth of his house.
   "Are you sure you're all right" Finn was worried about the glazed look in his eyes. "Do you remember--"
   "This weird night out at Max's Diner with the Fatas?" He gazed past her at Phouka and Jack. He frowned a little. "Yeah. See you at school, okay?"
   "Okay." She watched him close the door.
   She trudged down the steps. Jack and Phouka had gotten out of the Mercedes. Finn strode past them, across the street, heading for the wooded lot that led to her house.
                                                                            ***
Jack, watching Finn walk away, said to Phouka, his voice dark, "You used her to get rid of them."
   Weariness dragged at Phouka's voice. "I needed a mortal. She's stronger than you think--Jack!"
   Jack was already vanishing into the weedy lot across the street.
   Phouka cursed.
                                                                          ***
Finn knew he was chasing after her in that way of his, feral and preternatural. She wanted to whirl around and tell him to go to hell, but sensed he may have already been there. She'd just engaged in the scariest game of Rock, Paper, Scissors ever and she couldn't summon the courage to tell one dangerous and damaged person to leave her alone.
   She halted. She turned and he was there. She struck him, one hand flat against his chest. He allowed her to shove him against a tree.
   "What are you?" She whispered, more afraid now than she'd been facing off the Zhi'Ren.
   His expression was serious. "Just what you see."
   "Stop." She didn't mean that word to sound the way it did, as if her soul were being shredded. "I don't want this. I don't want to know things. I don't want this world you live in."
   "Liar." The word was almost voluptuous the way he spoke it. "What you said back there was true--we can't get to you unless we're invited."
   "You're saying I invited you?" She still had her hand against his chest, which wasn't hollow anymore--she felt the drumming of his heart. He straightened. He was so close, suddenly, his mouth only a breath from hers.
    He said, "You did invite us, Finn. Maybe you didn't mean to--but we are drawn to lost souls."
   "I"m not a lost soul." But even as she said it, she knew it wasn't true.
   "Finn. I've been one." His gaze was shadowed. "And look where it got me."
   "I don't know what you want from me, Jack." She felt as if she were pleading.
   "You're the one who wants something from me. Don't pretend you don't need to know things, because there's something inside of you screaming. And all of them, my family, can hear it."
   She felt as if the pain twisting up inside of him was bleeding into her. She searched his gaze with her own and saw the anguish behind the shadows in his eyes. She stood on tiptoe, closed her eyes, and kissed him.
   It was like kissing an electric current wrapped in darkness--it jolted her from her head to her toes and shot heat through her, thieving her of breath, but so sweetly, she was scarcely aware of his arms folding around her or her own circling his neck because that kiss had become glorious and neverending.
   Her mouth swept from his. She still had to breathe. For a moment, she didn't know if she was steadying him or he was keeping her from falling.
   "Finn," he whispered against her temple, with his heart beating. "Forget."
   It was an order. Finn knew he'd meant it as an enchantment, whatever Phouka had done to Christie, but it didn't work--
   Then the night was gone from her.
   She sat on the swing, gazing up at the stars. She'd fallen asleep for a second, and dreamed. She frowned, rubbed at her temples.
   It had been a dream in which Jack had not been heartless.
   Something drifted toward her through the air. She reached out, and caught it. It was a leaf, webbed and delicate, made of crimson paper.
                                                                     The End

TRIBUTE: Part Eight

"FINN." Jintong rose with the grace of a viper. Finn fearlessly met his golden gaze over Christie's shoulder. Christie whispered her name again.
   "What do you want?" She let go of Christie but maneuvered so that she was between him and the young man.
   Jintong gently told her, "Two new lives. Jack, doesn't your girl know what we are?" He drew aside his collar to reveal a hole in his neck, its edges smoldering cherry red, shadows beneath.
   Christie whispered, "What's wrong with you?"
   "You can't have us, "Finn told him, almost breathless with mad defiance.
   "The White Cat has already made the deal." Jintong didn't even look at her. He was watching Jack, smiling.
   "Do you think we're giving you tribute?" Jack spoke as Finn and Christie drew back. Finn looked around for Jade but didn't see her. Phouka had risen and was calculating the confrontation between Jack and the Zhi Ren. Jack continued, emanating danger, "You're mistaken."
   "You're nothing but the muscle." Jintong's voice was just as dangerously quiet as Jack's. "The White Cat is Reiko's lieutenant. Her word is law."
   "Finn." Christie sounded shaky. "What is this?"
   "A family feud. Don't worry." Finn looked around for Jade. Where was she?
   "What exactly did Phouka tell you?" Jack didn't take his gaze from Jintong. The tension in the air shimmered.
   "In exchange for the boy and the girl, we'll leave without letting our presence be known." Jintong spread his arms and Finn saw, out of the corner of one eye, quick movements around them. She heard rustling and crackling noises.
   Jack continued in that tone thrumming with violence, "What, exactly, did Phouka negotiate?"
   Jintong slid a glance toward Phouka. "I give you what you want if you leave without causing harm."
   "Finn." Jack spoke without taking his gaze from Jintong. "Have you and Christopher suffered any harm?"
   "You mean aside from psychological damage and nearly getting sliced by mirror shards?" Finn whispered, shivering--not from fear, but from the dark violence Jack's kiss seemed to have instilled within her.
   Jack's smile widened. "I'd call that harm, wouldn't you, Phouka?"
   "Most definitely," Phouka agreed with a droll humor Finn thought completely inappropriate for the situation.
   "That's not--" Jintong snarled. His gaze slid to Phouka. "Trickster bitch--"
   "Deal's off." Jack retreated with Finn and Christie behind him and Phouka guarding their backs.
   Jintong's eyes blazed. A wind spiraled around him, making his coat flap. "There are more of us than there are of you."
   Finn saw the tall, shadowy figures fluttering in the night around the temple and fear splintered through her. The figures resembled black paper cut-outs, but the light from the temple's lamps gleamed across flat faces like photographs or paintings . . .
   Christie was snatched from Finn. She screamed and reached out as he was dragged upward by a black kite shaped like a person.
   Phouka cursed and something flashed in her hand.
   The small knife she flung tore a hole in the paper shape of the monster dragging Christie into the air.
   Christie fell. He rolled up, scrambling back. "What the f--"
   "Christie!" Finn lunged and grabbed the knife. And froze.
   Jade had appeared from the temple darkness behind Christie.
   "Finn?" Christie blinked. He whispered, "There's something behind me, isn't there?"
   Finn glanced at Jack, who had drawn a long dagger and was pointing it at Jintong. "You forgot what Jacks are for." Jack spun and went for Jade.
   Jade swept forward.She unfolded a fan of black paper beneath Christie's chin. He went still. Blood glistened on his chin. Jade's eyes were burning black holes in her face. Finn recognized, in Jade, the desperation of something supernatural to survive. A weakness.
   "And you forgot how we can hurt them." Jintong smiled. "Unless you want the boy to die from the worst paper cut ever, you surrender."
   Finn was reminded of Alice in Wonderland's stand-off with the playing cards--
   She dove forward. She grabbed the fan from Jade. The paper crumpled between her fingers, but one sharp edge cut into her palm.
   Phouka grabbed Christie's hand and pulled him away from Jade, who stood staring at Finn. Jack was still, watching Finn, waiting, holding Jintong off with a black knife.
   Finn turned to Jintong. She tried to remember what she'd read in her father's books on Chinese mythology. She couldn't recall anything about Zhi Ren. All she could remember were stories of how to bargain with supernatural creatures. She said, "You can't have us. We don't agree to it, Christie and I. Most of all, we don't belong to Reiko. We're not part of her family."
   "I see"--Jintong straightened, all languor gone--"we've a girl who reads the proper books. You will agree, Finn. Or we'll kill you."
                                                                         *** 

TRIBUTE: Part Seven

JACK strode past her and she followed. Cherry blossoms--more paper, she noted with a shiver--were flurrying around them now instead of the false snowflakes.
   A girl appeared kneeling in the center of the pagoda, her kimono a glistening whiteness, her hair  fall of rose-pink around her mask-like face. Jack addressed her with careful respect, "Why are you with the Zhi Ren? They and the Mononoke were never friends."
   The girl moved slightly and Finn's mouth went dry.
   The girl was made of paper, from her robe to her skin, and the voice that issued from her was an uncanny ripple in the air. "We travel together. We, also, are outlaws."
   "Is that why you look like them?" Jack's sweeping gesture indicated the paper girl's entire being.
   "We tried to warn you. You must continue no farther."
   "Oh and why is that?" Jack leaned slightly forward, mocking intense interest.
   "We don't want to make enemies of the Ban Nathair."
    "The Mononoke. A Skriker. You all travel together. You're a Family. And there is already a Family here. By stealing Phouka, you've absolutely made an enemy of Reiko."
   "Phouka Fata came for the boy. She broke covenant law."
   Finn's heart jumped. Foreboding swept over her. Christie . . .
   Jack said with gentle menace, "What boy?"
   "The boy with the red curls. The poet."
   "No," Finn whispered as Jack began to curse venomously and softly.
   Then Finn was striding toward the pagoda and the paper girl. "No. Not Christie. He had nothing to do with this--"
   "They waylaid him on the road." The paper girl's eyes were midnight in her mask. She turned her attention to Jack. We want no trouble. We will not be part of this."
   A wind swept over them and the paper girl came apart, unraveling, leaving Finn and Jack facing the pagoda. On the other side, the path continued through a grove of cherry trees.
   "Christie!" Finn ran forward.
   "Finn." Jack caught her in the pagoda. She twisted to face him.
   "No. You don't get to tell me what to do. It's your world that's taken my friend and you're going to help me get him back."
   "Phouka tried to get him back and do you see her succeeding?" Jack had her right arm in a steely grip. His gaze was savage. "This whole thing has gone sideways and, as usual, you're running headlong into it--"
   "What do you want me to do? Stand here, useless, while you go on alone?"
   "I don't know what Phouka's intent was in bringing you with us, but I'm beginning to wonder."
   "Wonder what?" Finn jerked free. She ran down the pagoda steps, onto the path, with Jack beside her.
   "What she's up to. She knows this was a set-up. Why drag you into it?" He seemed to be speaking to himself.
   Finn halted, because they had emerged from the cherry trees into a forest of black bamboo. A red temple like those follies in large gardens rose before them. In front of it was a pool of black water. Upon the water glided swans of white paper, life-sized origami like the Mononoke girl. To either side of the temple, bound to its pillars, were kites constructed into the images of gold and black bats. Finn marveled at the terrifying, impossible beauty of it all.
   Phouka sat on the temple steps, her head bowed.
   "Phouka!" Finn moved around the pond, Jack a smoldering darkness at her side. "Where is Christie?"
   Phouka lifted a bleak face. She said calmly, "I've negotiated."
   Jack, his gaze on the shadowed interior of the temple, said, "Just how have you managed that?"
   "By promising something else." A shadow languidly emerged from the temple interior; a young Asian man in a black three-piece suit, his hair a golden mohawk. He leaned against one of the pillars. "Hello, Jack."
   Jack's expression was grim as he studied the new arrival. "I know you."
   "You know me." The young man's eyes flared inhumanly golden. "And you know Jade, though we look a bit different now."
   There was a wavering of shadow and light and Finn flinched as a girl appeared before them, very pale in a cocktail dress of green silk, her hair a sleek, black fall around her face. Jack whispered, "Jade."
   The Asian girl's burning, dark gaze fell upon him. She raised one bare arm and Finn gasped when she saw holes in Jade's skin, like burn marks with darkness beneath.
   "You remember"--the young man with the golden mohawk sank to a crouch--"what you did to her?"
   Swift as a flicker of insect wings, the girl was suddenly close to Finn, whose skin crawled as if she stood before a giant wasps' nest. Finn gritted her teeth and said to the girl, "Where is Christie?"
   Jade cocked her head, an inhuman thing trying to understand.
   "That's enough." Jack's voice was low as he gently drew Finn back from the creature. "I do remember you, Jintong. And your grudge is against me, not anyone else here."
   The young man nodded as if considering this. "But you've changed since San Francisco. You're a real Jack now. Ironic, isn't it?" Jintong rose. "Leave it to that Rangda bitch to Jack an exorcist."
   Finn glanced at Jack. Despite her fear, she felt she'd just gotten a clue as to who he was.
   Jintong said, gently, "Come on out, pretty boy."
   When Christie stumbled from the temple, Finn lunged toward him. Then Jack was, impossibly, in front of her. "No--"
   She dodged him and raced up the steps. Christie blinked dazedly when he saw her. She flung her arms around him, which was usually not something she'd ever do.
   "Finn . . ." he murmured.
   Jack cursed. "Now he knows your name."
                                                                           ***