desk’s deep drawers and tossed it to him. Shinobu caught it and cradled it in his arms for a moment, like a baby. He looked down at it lovingly.
“I’ve missed you,” he said to the weapon. Then he tossed it back to Quin and began pulling on clothes. “Watch yourself, Quin Kincaid. I’ll not go easy on you.”
Fiona arrived then, with a soft knock, bearing tea from Master Tan. It was Quin’s pleasure to watch him drink down the entire bottle, while plugging his nose and gagging. Then they went up to the roof to spar.
Shinobu opened his eyes to discover it was nighttime again. He was lying on Quin’s bed. Through the round window next to him, a glow came into the room—the distant city lights of Hong Kong reflected off the dark water of Victoria Harbor. A pale oval of this light was slowly making its way across the ceiling. Quin lay next to him in the bed, deeply asleep and breathing softly. Her warm hand was against his arm.
She’d brought him up to the roof of her house in the afternoon, and they’d sparred for nearly an hour. She’d gone easy on him, he knew that much, but he’d been happy to discover that his muscles weren’t too out of tone. He was healing well and his strength was coming back quickly.
After the fight, he’d lain on the floor of Quin’s bedroom, exhausted. Every part of his body ached, and the wound in his side throbbed with the beat of his heart, but it hadn’t mattered. The fight had been exhilarating.
Since Quin had been up most of the night before looking at the journal, the sparring had drained her completely. She’d fallen asleep, and he’d fallen with her. But now he was awake.
His body was aching still, but differently. He rolled onto his side to look at Quin. Her face was relaxed, and locks of her dark hair fell across her closed eyes. Shinobu smiled at how pretty she looked. He thought of the many different girls whose beds he’d found his way into. Usually there was a lot more fooling around and a lot less sleeping next to each other fully clothed, but Quin had watched him almost die twice, and she was being careful. Looking at her now, he couldn’t imagine why he’d ever been with anyone else. This was the only girl he wanted.
He pulled her close and put his lips against her shoulder.
“I love you, Quin Kincaid,” he whispered.
In her sleep, she turned toward him, and her arms came up around his neck.
“I love you,” he said again. He kissed her softly, and he could feel her kiss him back. “I love you,” he whispered to her. “I love you. I love you.”
She was waking up and pulling him closer and kissing him for real now.
“I want to undress you,” he murmured.
She nodded against his cheek.
A noise from downstairs floated up to the bedroom.
Shinobu raised his eyes and discovered that Quin’s bedroom door was still open. It was nighttime, but not too late. Fiona must be awake and downstairs.
“I’ll be right back,” he whispered.
He crawled out of the bed and moved over to the door. Poking his head out into the hall at the top of the stairs, he listened. He could hear Quin’s mother in the healing office downstairs, humming to herself.
He began to close the bedroom door, but paused in the middle of the motion. Just outside the bedroom was the open door to the upstairs bathroom. A faint light from downstairs reached into the bathroom, and Shinobu noticed a small ceiling panel that was out of alignment with the others. The panel was only a quarter of an inch out of line, but he’d been trained for most of his life to notice small changes in his environment. He looked at the ceiling and guessed immediately that that was where Quin had put the focal—in a hurry.
He stood in the doorway of her bedroom and stared at the out-of-place panel. The odd ache he’d felt when he’d woken up—now he knew that it was an ache for that metal helmet. He’d woken up wanting it as he used to wake up craving opium. But the focal wasn’t a drug. It was only a tool, a tool Seekers had used for hundreds of years, a tool that Quin admitted was to help focus the mind. It was a good thing, and it had made him feel so good the first time