No Way Out | Teen Wolf & The Vampire Diaries

Chapter 36

"They go after anyone with a connection to the supernatural," dad informs us, following our discovery of him rummaging around in his study the next morning, bloody and bruised. "Werewolves, banshees, kitsunes..." he trails off, looking around at my friends and me with a sage expression. "Snow leopards."

"Then who was the guy they went after in Japan?" Isaac asks. Right now, I'm just pretending to know what they're talking about — like what the heck is the context here? How much did I miss when I was away?

"A Kumicho — a Yakuza boss," dad answers, grimacing as I swipe an antiseptic wipe over a large, oozing cut on his temple. "It was my first gun deal. I was only eighteen, and it was supposed to be a simple exchange... except Gerard left out the minor detail of the buyers being Yakuza. He wanted to see if I could adapt in the moment. Testing my ability to, uh... improvise."

"Or, your ability to survive," Allison responds, sifting through the plasters in the first aid box and strapping four thin pieces of tape over his cut, using them like stitches.

"The moment the sun came down, it was like they just materialised out of the shadows," dad carries on, nodding at Allison, "They had swords — not curved like katanas, but straight, black steel, like ninjatos."

"Yeah," I mutter, "One was swinging that at Isaac earlier."

"Right up close and personal," Isaac adds, shuddering at the reminder. "What did they want?" he inquires, the office chair creaking slightly as he leans forward.

"To get to the Kumicho," dad answers, "They cut down every living thing in their way."

"Did they mark him like they did us?"

"Not exactly..." dad says with a distant look on his face — he's recalling the events of that night, clearly.

"What was he?" Scott asks.

"I don't know. But, there might be someone who does. There were a few others who survived that night. One of them was a man named Katashi. They called him "Silverfinger" because of an unusual prosthetic... and it looked like he was getting ready to take them all on himself." He exhales heavily. "I've known for a while Katashi was in the country. I spent yesterday tracking him down."

"Didn't look like he wanted to be found," Isaac remarks, glancing pointedly at dad's numerous cuts, bruises, and scratches.

"Not particularly, no," dad responds with an air of dismissal. He doesn't seem all that surprised by this Katashi guy's evasiveness.

"You think he knows what they are? Or what they want?" Scott asks.

"Maybe..."

"What if he doesn't want to talk?" Allison queries, her shaped brown eyebrows knitting together in worry.

"What if he doesn't even remember you?" Isaac pipes up.

"He'll remember this," dad claims, sliding a wooden box beside him onto his lap and opening the delicate-looking metal clasp. My friends and I crowd closer around him to peek at what's inside.

It's a shattered, black metallic mask that belongs to the ninja things. The mask is menacing — it forms threatening frown, the forehead crinkled with disapproval, the teeth bared in a sinister snarl. It sends subtle chills up and down my skin.

"I know I didn't kill it — I'm not sure you can. But, I slowed it down long enough for us to get out of there," dad explains.

"What was behind the mask?" Scott asks, his eyes flitting up from the mask to dad's fatigued face.

"Darkness. Absolute darkness."

My phone starts ringing, abruptly ripping my attention from my friends' horrified and panicked faces.