Cordellus and I are having breakfast in the neighboring town.
The hideout was destroyed in an explosion that took out half the building. Zander's cover-up story was basically perfect: I had been caught in the bomb I threw to take him out, and he had been shot while earlier on the job.
No one would doubt him, or so I hoped.
Zander had said he would contact us once he found intel, and for that purpose, he took Cordellus' phone number.
"How does it feel to be a free man?" Cordellus asks, bringing me out of my reveries.
"I am a cursed man," I groan in response as I focus on him, "not quite my ideal free man fantasy."
"But you're also now free of the organization's clutches," he counters, wiggling his eyebrows.
"I wasn't in a cage, you know," I deadpan, narrowing my eyes at him.
"They have brainwashed you," he goes on. "You were nothing but a tool to them, a killing machine even."
That stings slightly but I shrug off the feeling.
"Well, I would have carried on being just that if it weren't for the damned curse," I counter with an eye-roll.
"You should count your blessings. She could have killed you," he says in a conniving tone that is almost unnerving.
"Well, she might as well have killed me," I retort bitterly. "I am now useless."
"I see there's no reasoning with you," it is his turn to roll his eyes at me. "Let's not forget that the curse can be lifted."
"How?" I ask urgently.
"I'm no witch," he shrugs. "We'll have to find out."
"This moon curse can kill me, you know," I then sigh. "I don't want to die just yet."
"When you say moon curse, one would think you're going to become a werewolf or something," he says to my utter and complete confusion.
"Werewolves feel the call of the moon strongly when it is full, and they often change to their wolf forms. Some even call it the curse of the moon."
My eyebrows shoot up into my hairline.
"We should find this curse another name," he says earnestly. "I hate werewolves."
I face-palm at that. What is wrong with this man? I don't care how we call it. Curse. Plain and simple.
"We cannot call it Selene's curse," he begins, uncaring of what I am thinking and no doubt projecting. "Too sexy of a name and again, too werewolf-y."
"Who's Selene?" I ask, going with the flow after a sigh.
"She's the moon goddess in Greek mythology."
I nod at him absent-mindedly.
"Her Egyptian equivalent has a name that's nice and peculiar – Khons. Khons' curse. What do you think?"
I shake my head negatively. "Pass."
"Fine," he sighs, eyes narrowing slightly. "Tsukuyomi is my last resort. It sounds exotic, doesn't it?"
"Tsuky-what?" I echo after him.
"Tsu-Ku-Yo-Mi," he repeats slowly. "Tsukuyomi's curse has a nice ring to it in my opinion."
"Let me guess. Tsukuyomi is the moon god in some other culture."
"Touché. We're talking about Japanese culture here."
I sense that the man is itching to explain, and thus I offer him the opportunity to, "I take it you're a fan of Japanese culture."
"A big fan," he nods vigorously, a smile adorning his face. "My obsession started when I began watching anime…"
I smirk at him and tune out his explanation.
How can a three-hundred-year-old vampire be so peculiar? If not for the gruesome earlier sight of blood smearing his lips and shirt, I would have said he was as innocent as they came.
"Innocent?" He scoffs. "Me?" He both sounds and looks incredulous.
My smirk broadens and I say, dismissing his disbelief, "It does have a nice ring to it."
"Tsukuyomi's Curse it is then," he announces, a proud smile on his jolly face.
He then chuckles suddenly as I am reaching out for my cup of coffee.
"Something funny?" I raise an eyebrow.
Is it something I said or thought? I wonder.
"Ironically, Tsukuyomi means, according to some, see the moonlight."
I narrow my eyes at him, "Ironic indeed since, you know, I cannot see a damned thing under the damned moonlight."
Before I have the chance to say something else, he is quick to say, "We have already agreed on the name. Don't ruin it because you feel offended somehow."
I end up nodding at him in resignation.
There is no use arguing with the guy, and thus I refrain from doing something foolish, of which the consequences are already obvious.
We have had breakfast and it is now time to hit the road.
"Where to?" I ask as I get in the car we have rented using one of my many fake ID's.
"To where the car will take us," he says cryptically.
"Seriously, Cordellus," I interject. "We're not going on an adventure."
"No, we're going on a journey to find clues so as to break Tsukuyomi's Curse."
"So, where to?" I attempt to question the man again.
"To the east," he says. "I have a few friends that could be of help."
Friends? I am flabbergasted to say the least.
"Friends," he confirms earnestly. "Don't be so surprised. I even had a wife once upon a time – or twice."
I let out a stunned "Okay," seeing as I find it almost absurd.
"Is it hard to believe that I can be liked by people?" He raises an eyebrow.
There's no point in lying to the man. He can after all read minds. "Yes, kind of."
He chuckles good-humoredly.
"Most people would have said no."
"Are your most people assassins?" I wonder out loud.
"You make a valid point," he concedes after a beat.
And with that, we head out for this destination he's so cryptic about.
I'm not even sure why he doesn't want me to know.
"For an assassin, you're sure awfully trusting," he then muses out loud, eyes and focus completely on the road.
"Well, the circumstances kind of forced my hand," I tell him grimly.
"Oh, don't be that way. How bad can it be having a vampire as a partner?"
Awful. I sigh mentally. Awful!
"It'll be fun," he then says, his tone of voice almost like that of an amused child.
"Right!" I scoff. "It's just my life on the line," I tell him bitterly with a sideways glare.
He has the nerve to chuckle at me.
"You're so naïve," he says. "No matter what, lives are always on the line."
I shake my head negatively, and look out the car window so as not to get into argument with the peculiar vampire.