Grimm Tales: Rise of the Yokai

Chapter 15 Bound By Blood

By the time Nick walked in five minutes later, things had started to calm back down. Many of the diners that had stayed after Kora and I had smashed the ice golem into snow cones were still a little freaked out, but they'd settled down pretty quickly once Nick showed up. He's always just sort of had that effect on people.

"All of you, come with me," said Nick, and he led us back outside.

As quickly as we could, we walked him through our encounter with the yuki-onna.

"How come Izanami and her goons can keep getting in here?" asked Jason. "I thought the island was protected so things like this didn't happen."

"It is," said Nick. "But apparently we're going to have to strengthen the spells around the island. They were never intended to keep gods out. I'd hoped that since Izanami wasn't at full strength it would be enough, but apparently I was mistaken."

"You'll have plenty of time to work on that after we stop her," I said.

Nick turned to me, "You know where she is?"

"Sort of," I said. "Last night, she mentioned the Graveyard of the Atlantic."

"That's the waters around the Outer Banks," said Nick.

"Right," I said.

"Yeah, but, Zane, that doesn't exactly narrow it down," said Sarah. "That's still a two hundred mile stretch of islands."

"Then we'll just have to figure out which one she's on," I said.

"But how?" asked Miroku, "The map still doesn't have enough of her power for me to find her."

"But we don't need to use the map anymore," I said.

"Why not?" asked Miroku.

I held up the towel I'd used to clean the blood off my face.

"Because we've got this."

Nick's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair.

"That's brilliant," he said.

The shocked tone in his voice did wonders for my self-esteem.

"What? What's brilliant?" asked Tobias.

"We can use another tracking spell," I said. "But we won't be looking for Izanami's power. We'll be looking for mine. I don't know why she wanted some of my blood, but she did. So instead of tracking Izanami—"

"We can track your blood," said Jason. "It would lead us right to her."

"Exactly."

I still wasn't sure why Izanami had wanted my blood in the first place, but it didn't matter. Whatever she'd wanted it for, she'd made a big mistake. She'd given us the perfect way to find her, right here, right now. And I wasn't about to let the opportunity slip through my fingers.

"Have any of you ever used this kind of spell before?" asked Nick.

"I have," said Miroku. "But I've only ever used them for short-range tracking. I've never used one on an area this big."

Nick thought for a moment.

"I don't like this," he said. "This seems a little too convenient. Izanami must have known we'd be able to track her through the blood she took from you, so why risk it?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. But, Nick, if she really is trying to summon Orochi, we have to stop her. Amaterasu said it wouldn't take Izanami more than a few days to finish with her plan. If we don't stop her, now, we might not get another chance."