The blade cleaves through the table, halving silk and ceramic alike. 

           It takes me a moment to realize I'm still alive.

          "Mithridatism," Veah says, the faint trace of her shock paling her face. "The practice of immunizing yourself against poison by ingesting small doses every day."

           Okami grins, licking the blood from the corner of her lip. Savouring it like wine. 

           Glasses and plates crash to the floor. The other Mafia jump to their feet, outrage sparking in the air. The lights turn on, and there is no more darkness, no more fire-lit shadow. The entire room is illuminated, and every single person in the banquet hall jumps to their feet like they are ready for battle.

            Okami's ax is embedded in the table.

            She didn't kill either of us. Why? 

            From the corner of my eye, I see the girl on the dance floor. Her element was adrenaline. She stands free of her bonds, unmoving, all of her muscles bunched as though she is a predator lying in wait.

             Two problems. 

             What's it gonna be, Kaya?

             Ax murderer or adrenaline-induced junkie?

             In a matter of seconds, it is decided for me.

             Every single member of the Mafia in the room pulls out their gun.

             No, let me rephrase that. Considering the small, minor detail that this is the Mafia hotspot of the century.

              Every single person in the room pulls out their gun.

              A symphony of metallic clicking.

              "Murphy's Law," I whisper. 

              "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong," Veah finishes under her breath.

               I love her.

               Throughout the room, the cold black steel of rifles, shotguns, pistols and berettas are aimed in every direction from the Italian Mafia. Combined with katanas, swords, throwing stars and kamas from the Yakuza . . . well, we certainly have a party.

               I'm pretty sure my death is imminent.

               Nobody in the room breathes.

               A single teaspoon clatters on the floor.

               Veah's eyes are on mine. A storm, lit by the white-hot glare of thunder, narrowing on me. Wordless. In a single breath, I know what she is asking. I nod.

              Out of all the guns in the room, we are at a standstill. Nobody moves; nobody tenses a muscle. There must be at least ten weapons pointed at me, but I can only stare at Veah. Between us, Okami's ax is buried in the wood. There is blood speckling her sky-blue kimono.

              Despite the fact that half the room has a gun trained on her head, that smile on Okami's face slowly deepens.

              All it takes is a single moment. A single strike of lightning.

              Veah is the first to fire her gun.

              And the entire room explodes.

              It takes less than a heartbeat for a war to ignite. An onslaught of bullets rains down like an almighty storm, shattering against cups, plates, walls. Chairs crash and tables are turned over, used as shields. 

              Veah is grinning as she throws me to the ground. Covering my body with hers.

              We hit the floor, and she is on top of me. Her eyes bright, with a dangerous smile on her soft, lush mouth. 

             Words cling to the back of my throat. I thought we were going to die. 

             I don't know why Okami didn't kill us.

             She should have. She should have.

             All I can think to say is, "That plan sucked."

             Bullets collide above us, striking against the wood, against the tablecloths. Beside me, I notice a trickle of blood slithering over the gold-veined floor. 

             There is an upturned table blocking our view of the fight. But the shield won't last long―the sound of gunfire is like deafening music. A bloody melody.

             "We should get out of here," I say breathlessly.

             Veah is still leaning above me. Her grey eyes sharpen with amusement. "No," she says, still looking at me as she fires her gun somewhere to the side. I hear the sound of a man choking on his own blood. "I have to finish what I started."

             She is already pulling back, already trying to stand up―

             But I grab her by the collar of her suit, bringing her lips down to mine. I taste the rich sugar of cherries and breathe, "It's a shame I never got to rip this off you. I was looking forward to fucking you on top of the table."

             Her eyes widen. "What a dirty mouth you have," she whispers. 

             "Veah?"

             She looks at me, and I think I am forgetting something. 

             What can't I remember?

             It was important. I know it.

             A diamond fixture on the wall several feet away explodes into a thousand red-painted pieces. A head rolls over the floor.

             I hesitate, searching her face, and settle for, "Don't you dare think of making me a widow. Although I do look good in black."

             Gunfire ricochets against the wall behind us. A chandelier crashes to the ground.

             "You look too good in black," Veah says, leaning back down to graze my ear. "No one would be able to keep their hands off you if you were a widow. I'd be very, very jealous."

             "Then I guess that means you shouldn't die and make me a widow." A man's scream is cut off by a gurgle, and then a thud as his corpse hits the floor. More bullets crack against the table beside us. "Besides, you'd be in heaven. What are you going to do about it, if there's someone hitting on me while you're dead?"

             "I'll be in heaven?" Veah laughs. "What gave you that idea?"

             "You think you're going to hell?"

             Her voice is whisper-soft against my neck. "I think," she says, "that heaven is no fun anyway. If all the sinners are in hell, I bet it's a party."

             "A gay party," I breathe. "With rainbow lights."

             "Hey, lovebirds!" Ren shouts. "We're kind of in the middle of a massacre!"

             Veah springs to her feet, as swift as wind, and fires carefully into the distance. Hitting her mark. After seven shots, she empties her gun of the casing and tosses it to the floor. And next, she pulls out two swords from behind her back.

             "How have you had swords on you this whole time?" I hiss.

             The corner of her mouth tilts. "No offense, Kaya, but you're the most oblivious person I've ever met."

             Behind her, a man lets out a Japanese battle cry and hurls himself towards her back―

             I am ready to scream her name when she turns, as casually as though he was asking for the weather, and decapitates him.

             All that with just a slice of her sword, I think.

            Where can I get one of those?

            Mai yells, "Kaya, watch out!"

            I turn―just in time to see a man pulling the trigger.

            But before I even process it, Veah knocks over a table. She is so fast she may as well be harnessing lightning. It takes her less than a heartbeat to kick the man's knee out, and in the next second, she has driven her sword like a spike into his head.

            I was wrong.

           There is one thing hotter than a girl in a suit.

           And it's a girl in a suit beating a man to death in my honour. 

           Is that violent?  I wonder. 

           Then I realize what I forgot.

           I didn't tell her I loved her.

           Mai is dragging me by the arm, urging me to follow. "Come on, Kaya. Veah will kill me if anything happens to you."

           "No," I say. My decision is made. "I'm not going anywhere. That's my girlfriend out there, and this is my fight."

           "Okami disappeared when the chaos broke out five minutes ago," Mai tells me hurriedly. "We have to go. She knows you were the one who poisoned her!"

           "She's on the loose? Like hell I'm leaving!"

           "And what are you going to do about it, Kaya? Put a bullet in her head? You're not ready for something like that."

            I yank my arm away from her. "Don't tell me what I'm ready for or not."

            Veah's gun is still in my back pocket. I can do this.

            "For someone with a genius-level IQ, you're a real fucking idiot!" Mai says.

            I glance at Veah, who moves like a hurricane between the members of the Mafia. With a blur of silver, I hear the echo of their screams. Red splashes the walls. All around us, there are bullets and swords and stars. Mayhem. I can barely hear over the noise, but my eyes search the crowd for Okami's sky-blue kimono anyway.

           She can't get away. Not again.

           Distantly, I wonder about the girl with the drug in her veins. The girl with the adrenaline that must now be pumping through her, giving her superhuman strength.

           Where did she go? 

           If she escaped in the chaos . . . good for her.

           "If we don't do something about Okami," I say to Mai, "then all of this will be for nothing. We're never going to get a chance like this again. And she can't be gone." I saw that bloodthirsty bitch. There's no way she'd turn down a battle like this. "We just have to find her."

           "The problem is," Mai hisses, "that the Italian Mafia are against the Yakuza now. And the Yakuza are against us."

           "So everybody here wants to kill us?"

           As if in answer, a chandelier above us shatters.

           Glass rains down. I taste blood.

           Mai drags me further, knocking out a man with her elbow between his eyes. "Yes, Kaya," she says patiently. "Everybody here wants to kill us."

           Well, considering the level of my IQ, I'd say those are not great odds.

           "We have to," I plead. "If we don't, she'll come after us. She'll hurt Veah in the worst way possible. What if she goes after her parents again?"

           "You heard about the hospital trick," Mai says, her eyes flickering as if this is a surprise. As if this is information she didn't think Veah had confided in me. "Okay . . . I get it, Kaya, but . . . if Veah found out . . ."

           "It doesn't have to take long. We just have to hit her head or―or―"

           "Kill her?"

           "If it comes to that," I say grimly.

           "Fine," Maiko grits out. Her stare flashes to Veah again, who now has her sword against one of the Yakuza's throats. "Fine. Let's do this. Fast."

            A glint of sky-blue weaves through the crowd.

           Okami's kimono.

           "There!" I say, grabbing Mai. "She went there, into the bathrooms!"

           "Oh, God," she mutters. "Look at that."

           And I look―as a circle of three or four of the Yakuza forms in the hallway. As though they are protecting Okami from outside.

           My attention snaps back to Mai. She is suddenly gripping a woman's throat in her hand.

           "I'm―not trying to hurt you," the woman wheezes. "My name is Vittoria Abru―"

           Mai lets her body slide to the ground.

           "Please tell me she's not dead," I say.

           "She's not dead."

           "Seriously?"

            "Yeah," Mai says, as if this is disappointing. "Just unconscious."

            There are five of the Yakuza now gathered outside of the bathroom's hallway. Guards. 

            "Those are the Kamikaze," Mai says in a low voice. 

            "What? Why is that such a bad thing?"

            "Because,"  Maiko continues, "they're Okami's version of the suicidal bombers in the Japan Special Attacks Unit."

             "You mean . . ."

             "Okami made her own Kamikaze. Each one of those men is ready to die for her―to, quite literally, blow themselves up for her right now. You are not going anywhere near that."

             "But I need to―"

             Mai shoves me down behind an overturned table, ducking to join me. "If you think you're going anywhere near that, you're crazy."

             "She took everything away from Veah. I want her rotting behind bars."

             "Every single one of those guards there will blow themselves up if you get too close―and they won't go down without taking you down with them. You're not going." 

            "She can't just get away with it," I continue furiously, and I stand up―

            Mai pulls me back down, just as Ren rolls behind the table. Bullets strike against the other side of the wood. He is panting, breathless, as he says, "So what are we up to over here?"

            Maiko narrows her eyes on his face. "There's a little bit of . . ." Gently, with her thumb, she wipes his cheekbone. "You had a little blood there," she explains. 

           Ren is looking at her like she is the entirety of the stars in the sky.

           "Spare me, Bonnie and Clyde," I say, trying to stand up again―

           Mai yanks me back down. "Kaya? Want to tell Ren your genius plan?"

           "I'm going to go over there and―"

           "You're going to go over there?"  Ren peeks out over the table at the guards near the bathroom's entrance. "With Suicidal Bombers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5?"

           "I need to―"

           "You need to stay alive."

           Across the banquet hall, I see Veah surrounded by a group of the Italian Mafia.

           "That idiot,"  Ren groans. "She would probably provoke the entire Soviet Union if someone dared her. I'm gonna go help."

           "You do know she doesn't need help, right?"

           "Well, yeah. But why would I let her have all the fun to herself?"

            More bullets embed into the wood. As Ren leaps up, slashing his way through the crowd, Maiko pulls me behind the shelter of another overturned table, closer to the bathroom entrance.

            From up close, I see the five guards are made up of one girl and four men. 

            If I got too close . . . would they really blow themselves up?

            Are they really willing to die for the Wolf?

            "I have to do this," I whisper to Mai. "I know how much Okami hurt Veah. I . . ." I love her. I can't stand to see her in pain. Okami can't get away with this.

            "I don't get it," Maiko says, as she leans up over the table and fires her gun like a sniper. "Why do you care so much? I know you like each other, but this . . . this is a whole other level of crazy."

             I don't know what makes me do it.

             But I say, "Want to hear a secret?"

             Maiko squints out at the crowd. Pulls the trigger. A man drops dead, and she turns to face me. "What is it?"

             "You asked me earlier what we were doing during the time we were late."

             Mai narrows her eyes. Confusion drawing her eyebrows together. "And I guessed it had something to do with handcuffs. What about it?"

             I smile. Behind me, my grip tightens on the wooden leg of a broken chair.

             "The secret," I whisper, leaning towards her, "is that we got married."

             She barely has time to sputter out, "What?" 

             I ram the wooden leg of the chair against the side of her head.

             She's going to kill me when she wakes up.

             And then I start running―in the direction of the Kamikaze.

             Well . . . it's a good thing she can only kill me if I'm still alive.

>>>

This is certainly going to be fun.

I love you all so, so much.

From the moon and back,
Sarai