Archaic (Reverse Harem 2)
“Well, at first I had no idea,” she says. “I knew there was something afoot, and I snuck up in the house in animal form as the police did their work. It was the first thing I noticed, but unless you were looking for something, or had an idea that it was foul play, you would have seen nothing more than some small scribbles on the floor, dusted it off and left. I have an excellent memory, so, I went back to my place, and drew it out. I have some buddies over at the Council, so I asked them to look into it. The first one had no idea but the second barely wanted to talk about it.”
“The Council?” I ask. “But I was just with my Chief. He told me that he has no information and has no knowledge of any move by the Council to go after Clarissa.”
“The Chief knows?” Clarissa asks, turning around.
“My Chief is trustworthy,” I reply. “And I need an eye in the council to make sure that nobody is talking about it.”
She nods her head and looks back to Penny.
“Your Chief, he’s right,” Penny says, shaking her stick. “There has been no conscious choice by the council to attack Clarissa or even any knowledge she exists.”
“What do you mean by conscious choice?” Sebastian asks stepping forward, narrowing his eyes.
“That’s where this symbol comes in,” she goes on. “There is an elite group of warriors, trained in secrecy, not under the control of the Council, but lead by, and this is all rumor, but lead by someone with power. Possibly even someone close to the men on the Council.”
“Wait, wait,” Sebastian says. “You are telling me that the Council is possibly breached? I don’t know. I don’t buy that.
This group of ‘Elite Warriors’ where are they from? Are they Primal? What would they want with Clarissa?”
“Those are all good questions,” Penny replies. “Ones I don’t have the answers for yet.”
“He might,” Toshi says, walking in behind us with an older gentleman dressed in traditional Japanese robes.
His eyes glow like Toshi’s, his long white hair falling around his face. He is nimble for a very old man, and I have a feeling that I should not in any way underestimate him. I step to the side and let the two pass.
“Oh great, another cat,” Sebastian groans. “It’s a real fucking zoo in here now.”
I notice Clarissa give Sebastian a scathing glance.
“This is Hiro,” Toshi says, looking over at Clarissa and winking.
“Tell them what you told me, Hiro.”
“The Elite force are real,” he says. “They are old-school warrior ninjas.”
“And how do you know this?” Clarissa asks. “I mean none of us have seen them before or heard of them before.”
“You wouldn’t,” he says. “They are underground, trained in complete secrecy, no touch with the outside world unless sent out on a mission. They are deadly assassins more well-trained than any before. They study the ancient techniques and answer to only one person.”
“And who would that be old man?” Sebastian asks.
“I don’t know who they answer to now,” he says.
“Okay,” I reply. “Then who did they answer to before. Maybe we can find that person and get more information.”
“Well, that will be simple.” He smiles. “They answered to me.”
I look up at Clarissa and squint my eyes. There is something about this that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I don’t like the feeling it gives me. I have been the first to forgive Toshi for betraying us in the past, but I have not forgotten the ways of the cat. The bears are wise. We keep our secrets close to the chest, and we watch everything and everyone. Most importantly, we don’t forget when someone betrays us. If they did it once, then they can do it again.
Clarissa, however, seems to not be as skeptical, moving quickly to Toshi and Hiro and plaguing them with questions. The old man seems legit, and there is no question he is a Cat, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. We all know the Cat is cunning, doing for itself, and for his own best interest. Even an old one like that would have a motive, and whether Toshi knew about it or not is irrelevant. I know I need to keep this close to the chest and keep my eye on everything from here on out. Things just got serious.
Chapter 6
~ Sebastian
Staring out the window , I think about the last time we brought a cat into the mix. He fought me on everything, stole Clarissa away for two days and we had no idea where she had gone, almost got her killed, oh yea, and betrayed us. To top it all off, he is
still here, standing behind me, as much a part of the team as I am. It drives me nuts. If it was only a matter of the history between our kinds, that would be one thing. I could get past that. I could even get past the part where he betrayed us to get to Clarissa. I know firsthand how hard it is to stay away from the girl, but it’s not only those things. As a whole, the cat species are selfish, lazy, they only do for themselves, and they can’t even trust each other. Suffice it say, the last thing I feel like we need on this team is a cat.