Kaoru awoke to the knowledge that some had happened, and that it
involved Kenshin
Kaoru
awoke to the knowledge that some had happened, and that it involved Kenshin. It
wasn’t the warm, fluttery feeling she had gotten as a child. Instead it was the
dark and twisted emotions that she had been discovering since this entire
ordeal with Kenshin had started. It felt like the rasp of his tongue on a raw
cut; the quicksilver movement of his fingers. Whatever he had done, the side of
her that was rapidly growing, the dark side, had enjoyed it. She was receiving
the bloody backwash of something she couldn’t understand, and from the way her
body was shivering, she was enjoying it too.
Sitting up, her fingers
brushed absently against the healed skin of her torn shoulder, and she frowned.
There was nothing to show that the marks had ever been there. Kaoru angled her
hands into the moonlight and stared at the skin. They was more supple that she
remembered them being as a human, and even the calluses had lost a bit of their
rough edge. Her nails were strong, and longer than she generally allowed. However,
if the swords clashing today had said anything, they were difficult to break.
She knew without tracing a hand down the skin of her arm or shoulder that her
skin was softer; as if she could afford the expensive lotions they sold at the
market to sooth her skin.
She hadn’t really examined
her new self, partly for fear of what it would be like when she looked.
Everything had been affected by Kenshin’s blood. Her allergy
to wood, her body’s minor alterations. Even her ability to see in the
dark of the room; the moonlight gave her enough light to see perfectly. Her
sudden attraction to gore, blood and darkness; Kaoru shivered slightly. He had
been so perfect tonight. The way his darkness clung to him, only highlighting
the fury of his eyes, the perfect way he moved.
The interference in his
gaze as he stared at the men before him; the bloodlust that had seeped from him
to her as her gift absorbed what she watched; even now she could sense it. The
whispering flood of heady black need that would slosh through her veins in dark
harmony with his. It was becoming harder to keep this absent part away from the
part of her she wished to cherish. She was learning that it was patient, and
something was building in the darkness. She could sense it, at times like this.
A low twisting of heat that was slowly building in part of her that she didn’t
know had existed until Kenshin had walked into her life. It had something to do
with her gift and the hazed line that connected them that her gift kept
attempting to show her. As if something was not quite right about it.
Misao stirred next to her,
and Kaoru looked at her friend. There were old scars in her Ki, twisted
markings that had her automatically running ‘hands’ over them to test the
depth. Kaoru paused in mid-brush and jerked back. She didn’t even have to call
it anymore. Did something like this just become instinctive? There had to be a
way to protect herself from it. It was like being pounded with the emotions of
hundreds of things at once, and some of it fed her while other parts of it had
her recoiling. Whatever it was, it hid itself from Kenshin, as if it was afraid
of something in him; but when it hid itself, something else rushed forward. She
was beginning to wonder if that was the instinctive part of her Kenshin had
whispered about. Her eyes slide shut at the memory of his hot mouth and his
wicked fingers. If she had been human she might have cried.
It was not something she
was proud of. This sudden knowledge of an attraction to this dark vampire who
had changed her; wrenched her from the life she had loved. She had barely seen
Yahiko and Sano in the past days. She couldn’t even remember how many days had
been between her and Kenshin. A week? More, perhaps? Brining her knees to her chest she thought
about her current predicament.
Okay…she had fangs. She
drank human blood to survive. To be more accurate, she drank Kenshin’s blood,
and he drank human blood. He enjoyed killing. She hated it; but part of her was
beginning to relish it. She was stuck between two very different natures, and
she was going to have to learn to balance them. Kaoru flopped backwards and
stared at the ceiling. This was getting a bit more complicated than she had
first thought it was going to be. If she was completely honest, she would admit
that she hadn’t thought past anything, not since she was changed. She had the
sudden urge to go and spar, but the door was warded…
Sitting up, she noted the
room Kenshin had brought her to. Sighing, because she really wanted something
to drink, she headed for the door. Shifting forward she brushed her fingers
down the door and felt the slight surge of power. It didn’t burn per-se, but it
flickered a warning. Kaoru took a deep breath and reached for the part of her
that was practically crawling under her skin. Thick cords of black and red were
twisted around the screen, and when her fingers brushed close, it was the black
that twisted towards her skin.
The red acted almost
indifferently, so she reached for it and yanked. She thought she felt
something, surprise or annoyance; perhaps both, and then both fell away. Kaoru
frowned. That was entirely too easy. If the swearing from Misao earlier had
said anything, then that should have taken a whole lot more work than it did.
There was something missing. Kaoru watched as what it was slowly dissolved, and
she frowned at it. When she let go she felt a slight drain in her power, but
that was all. Shrugging to herself, she opened the door and looked around. The
halls were still empty. She listened for the sounds of Soujiro and frowned when
she couldn’t hear anything. One of the things she had started to take for
granted was the whispers of others, the sounds of breathing, and the smell of
everything living. It was almost comforting; or at least, it was the most
comforting part of being what she now was.
Moving down the hall, she
walked silently over the wooden boards, her tabi
protecting her bare feet. She had never thought about the possibly of getting a
splinter from the wooden paneling, but now her mind sprung to the possibility
as she walked. It hurt, she decided, that something that had been so innocent
in her childhood was now so dangerous in her youth. She felt like she was 17
going on fifty-something. Bitterly, she reminded herself that she would be
there one day. Looking as young as she did now, pushing a hundred. She didn’t
want to examine that aspect, but it seemed there was going to be no escape from
Kenshin in the form of a mortal death. Was it only four weeks ago she had been
lamenting that Yahiko was going to give her premature gray-hair? Yahiko had no
way of knowing it at the time, but she had always looked forward to it. Perhaps
if her hair was something besides ink-black, then people would take her
seriously. Who took youth without questions, the proverbial grain of salt?
Moving into the kitchen
she paused when she saw Soujiro outside. Kaoru paused, the cup she had secured
to take to the well halfway off the shelf. She didn’t know Soujiro had any
friends in this area. She couldn’t quite clearly see the man’s features or his
coloring, but there was something odd about him. For instance, the way that
Soujiro was standing, almost like a limp doll that had its strings pulled
taunt. Putting her cup carefully on the shelf, she eased back into the shadows
of the hall. There was something off about that man, and she had the sudden
urge to stay away from him. Slipping down the hall she sighed at her parched
throat and was about to open the door and slip back inside when she heard a
board creak.
Kaoru turned with a wary expression,
but couldn’t find anything. However, the hairs on the back of her neck were
standing in definite warning, and she allowed the sheen of power to flicker
over her eyes. The hall became almost pitch in color, since there was no Ki to
lighten the gloom, and she frowned as she searched for whatever had left.
Sighing when she couldn’t find anything, she slipped back inside her room and
shut the door. Perhaps it was just the house settling…
Kaoru was settling the
blanket around her naked legs when she heard something like a hiss and this
time she kicked Misao as she looked around. Misao mumbled something under her
breath, and rolled over, her expression smoothing out in sleep again. What a
great watch-dog she was. There was another noise, and her breath hitched in her
throat. The same feeling of unease and danger raced through her senses and she
stiffened. What looked like a shadow flickered across the floor and headed
towards her, and then there was a snarl.
Kaoru felt her chest heave
in short little pants as she felt the air clear of the danger. Something had
been in the room. Something dangerous, evil, and hungry, and dammitt she wasn’t talking about her absent mate. There she
went again. Referring to Kenshin as…that. Which she
knew to be true, but something inside her seemed to shimmer with resentment. As
if she had done something wrong or he had failed to complete something which
should have been done. Kaoru shivered slightly at the thought of something
running around only half-complete between them.
She had almost managed to
get her breathing back to its normal patterns when the shoji door slammed open,
bouncing back again at the force. Kaoru jumped slightly, wondering how she had
missed his re-entrance into her home, and felt a surge of adrenaline race in
her veins. Misao sat up with an incoherent yelp and glared at the door. The
smaller woman swore like a sailor, and Kaoru wondered if she had managed to get
herself onto a boat to avoid Aoshi. Her thoughts had little time to arrange
themselves as Kenshin glided into the room, his expression darkened by the
shadows.
“Megumi has an extra futon
in her room.” Kenshin ordered Misao. “Go.” Misao’s eyes widened in outrage but
Kenshin flashed several inches of bone-white fang and glared. Misao snapped her
own teeth and picked up and left. The idea of being with a changed vampire was
clearly one of great irritation for her.
“You broke the ward.”
Kenshin softly spoke into the night and Kaoru went to stand to meet him on
equal footing when he was suddenly inches from her and snarling. Kaoru felt
something snake in her blood at the expression on his face and she glared back.
“You shouldn’t have caged
me like a child.” Kaoru started, but her words were stolen as his nose was
suddenly behind her ear, his breath hot on her skin. Her hands automatically
went to his forearms to steady herself as he breathed,
and she frowned.
Anger. Anticipation.
The slightest tang of fear. Kenshin let his eyes droop
at the smell of her skin and emotions. Something had startled her, and her
scent proved that it hadn’t been him. Her fear smelled good, almost as good as
her little temper. Unable to help himself, he let his tongue snake out and taste the slight perspiration on her skin, and he caught the
faintest trace of her blood from earlier on her skin where it had splattered.
Dropping his head, he kissed the skin for a heartbeat before he allowed the
taste of her blood to soothe the taste of black-blood away from where it
lingered on his mouth.
Kaoru gasped in surprise
at the feel of his tongue, and then in the next instant she was pressed flush
against him and he was…her body melted against him even before she could rebuke
it, and something like a purr was crawling from her throat without her
permission. This…feeding was almost comforting, for reasons she couldn’t
explain. Every muscle in her body relaxed at being so close to him, with his
strong teeth buried in her throat. Sighing, her eyes began to feel rather
heavy, and the stroke of his tongue lulled her into half consciousness as he pulled
back. There was a rumble of sound from his chest and she mental berated herself
as her body snuggled forward so her nose as against his collarbone, since he
had raised his head. She thought she caught a flash of impatience from him, but
she allowed the calm feel of the night to flicker through her and fell back
into the darkness.
Kenshin stared down at the
now sleeping woman in his arms and couldn’t decide between bemusement or anger at her. She was curled against him like a cat, her
warm breath flickering over his skin. He could still remember the warmth of her
on his fingers and his frown darkened. He caught another nuance of her scent
and sighed. She had been neglecting to feed herself. Again.
Placing her form back onto the futon, and fighting the urge to push her off
him, as well as the urge to curl her closer to him, he settled her back into
the blankets and leaned against the wall to fall into a half doze and keep an
eye on her warm little body.
She was becoming a
distraction again. Every time her little body came in contact with his, and her
Ki attempted to work between the cracks of his own, he felt the need to finish
the bond. To invite her feminine fangs to bury themselves in his neck and
tighten the bond already between them. His mouth twisted into a frown. It was
one thing for her to need him; but he could find no need for him to desire her.
She was a complication he was sure he didn’t want. It was one thing to use her
as a means to his ends, to have the knowledge that even if he decided he didn’t
want her, no one else could have her. It was a completely different idea if his
body wanted her more than it did. He had admitted to himself that part of him
wanted her, fine. He had her.
He should have been able
to curb that part of him now. He knew her mentality wasn’t that of a vampire,
probably twisted with some strange notion of love. Vampires didn’t feel love;
they didn’t even generally acknowledge its existence. They didn’t understand
humans and their need to apply words to the base emotions. He had no need to
whisper love-sweet nothing in her ears, nor did the part of him that craved her
every movement. However, he couldn’t deny the fact that his body stirred with a
need to take her past her own control and to deliver her into his hands. He was
a man of patience. A smile curving his lips, he let the sound of her breathing
lull him into a half-sleep, shifting until he was comfortable.
It was only a matter of
time until she came to him to fulfill her needs. Then he would judge her and
see where it led him. His little pet was his to have now. Beyond her control,
beyond her reasoning, her instincts craved what only he could give her, and he
would delight in it.
~*~
She
writhed against the chains, her naked body crashing again and again against the
clamps that held her, her underfed, starved body at the beginnings stages of
turning in on itself, her eyes pale yellow around the dark black of her pupil
as disease set in. The smell of blood, stagnant and fresh, fell in a putrid
aroma of stink around her body. The irises of her eyes were white with age, and
the walls were littered with the markings of her nails gouging the walls, the same marks her own body bore.
“She is lasting much
longer than we thought she would. It would seem that the heart of that delightfully
vibrant young man was the key.” His body never fully entered the light, if the
light could be called such. “Tell me, where did you find him again?”
“He was a swordmaster’s son.” The sibilant hiss replied. “I had hoped
that the heart of a man witha Ki worthy of our kind
would revive her.” The second shadow was bent over, as if afraid for his life.
They watched as they woman writhed and stretched and bled. It slid in soft,
careful drops down her body to the drain, which ran into a bowel. From there,
it would go through a purification process, and then be ready for indigestion.
“She may live long enough
for us to find what she hid from us.” He replied as he walked over, softly
tracing the blind woman’s face, watching as she jerked around helplessly, her teeth snapping as broken fangs ground against her teeth.
“What her family will be more than happy to track down for us.”
Both men left the
screaming creature to her own devices and with the shutting of the door so did
the sounds quiet. “Tell me, how fairs the child?”
Both men straightened in
the darkness and walked at a more even pace now that they were not bombarded by
a insane woman’s driveling screams and the bombardment of a slowly leaking Ki
that tore at their own desperately. The blood of her family had been engrained
into his veins for years, and Empaths could not kill one of there own.
Supposedly it was a genetic fault. That was more myth than truth. He had
learned, through all of his experimentations, that it
was actually that an Empath would not survive the absorption of a death-Ki so
close to their own. If they managed to just once, however; then they could
slaughter without reprisal. The first kill of a vampire at their hands, and the
first kill of their family, were the two most likely things to kill a young
Empath.
“She is responding well to
the treatment. Her skills are improving, and in about another month we will be
able to move her to the cutting chamber. They’re predicting that she will last
longer than the other one, but she isn’t as strong.” The second man returned
his voice regretful. “However…we have gotten information back from our spies.”
This peeked
his interest. Ever since her escape so long ago, he had wondered if she
had managed to produce offspring. Not a week ago he had felt the burning of
another Empath being awoken in his power, and he had known she had. Then she
had disappeared, and darkness had threatened his ability to trace her until it
was gone. A smile bloomed on his face, hard and edged against an elegant face.
“Is that so? Tell me about her…this escaped rabbit of mine.”
The man’s eyes lit up with
greed. “She is strong. Stronger than Mio, and young,” he whispered, his eyes
practically fluttering with the impact of his words. He listened to the
description of her youthful body and great power; how she had recently been
changed.
“How soon until she is
here,” he softly asked, delight dripping from his worlds. He watched curiously
as the man shifted from foot to foot, as if nervous. “What?”
He licked his lips. “She
has a mate.”
The man raised a brow.
“With the amount of power I lend you fools it shouldn’t be a problem. You have
the stolen life of an Empath racing in your veins. What more do you need?”
There was a growing edge to his voice.
“She is the Battousai’s
mate.” He tried again.
It stopped him cold. Hitokiri Battousai… “He will be arrogant and lax. When that
happens, bring her here. His hold on her will be easy to break. Do I make
myself clear?”?
His lips pursed. It might
take a while, but he would teach her daughter why his slaves didn’t
escape him, especially why blood-slaves lost there souls.
~*~
“She is
surprisingly adept with that sword.” Megumi commented as she sat down besides
Misao, who weighed the options of ignoring her, or lunging for the jugular, and
instead watched where the woman was correcting Yahiko with his movements.
Yahiko still held the Bokken, but Battousai had been out early and calmly
snapped Kaoru’s shinai, then handed her the sword
with a look that held a world of meaning.
Misao wondered if it meant
he was starting to care for Kaoru, or if it was just self-preservation on his
part. She knew that the pair would, supposedly, share each major wound in hopes
that both would live. If Kaoru infected herself with wood poisoning again, then
Kenshin would be forced to shoulder half the pain. “She has spent most of her
life with them. By the time she fully matures, she will be quite good.”
“You find that
surprising?” Megumi asked, a bite in her voice that
Misao ignored in favor of imagining the fox with several Kunai buried in her
throat. The mental image cheered her greatly, and she offered a full fanged
smile to the older woman.
“You managed to control
you gift.” Misao quietly pointed out. “I am sure she will be fine.” She watched
in satisfaction as the woman paled slightly, her face darkening soon after.
Misao watched as Kenshin moved and adjusted Kaoru’s hold on the hilt and her
placement of her feet, his face expressionless. It wasn’t a stance she
recognized, but she watched as Yahiko watched and mimicked. He too would be
good with a sword. “He works to increase her speed.” Misao absently commented,
frowning when she recognized the Ki at her back.
“Very
good.” Aoshi’s
voice purred near her, and she ignored the heat that rolled through her stomach
at the movement. It was almost a purely domestic scene that had something
rotten rolling into the back of Misao’s tongue. She wished she had met Kaoru
before she had been changed, because she would have been fun to drag around Japan on endless bloodbaths and hunts.
“Have you decided what you
are going to do?” Misao asked her tone bored. Watching Kaoru beat Yahiko to
death with a sword was fun, but only if Kenshin would stop correcting or
altering her form. From here she could catch the look of disapproval on Kaoru’s
face, and she smirked. Kenshin wouldn’t be able to knock her around much
longer, she was getting much more assured of herself, and there were times when
Misao had seen the dark part of Kaoru’s nature peeking at her from behind her
eyes. One of these days the barrier Kaoru wasn’t aware she was holding up was
going to crack and then she would learn to live with her dark nature. When that
happened she knew that Kenshin would have his mate.
Kaoru mentally scowled as
she was corrected yet again in her stance and reminded herself that learning
was something you never stopped doing. He was better than she was. Which meant he had the right to instruct her; but that didn’t mean
she had to like it! When he stepped back she took a deep breath, gritted
her teeth, and quietly demanded the moves she wanted from Yahiko, and began
again.
There was something that
was bothering her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something
about today that was off. She hadn’t seen Soujiro since last night, and while
part of her demanded that she tell Kenshin about her fears, another part of her
suggested that she wait. Kaoru sighed and quietly debated as she went through
another set of drills, mentally implementing the changes that Kenshin had been
giving her all morning. It took some work, because her muscle memory kept
attempting to alter back, but repetition was something she was good at.
This was probably the
reason her brain kept going over and over what had happened the night before;
which unfortunately wasn’t allowing her the peace of mind of only going over
Soujiro. Instead, it also went over the relaxing contentedness of being used as
Kenshin’s snack in the bedroom. It also wanted to point out that that situation
was completely improper and that she should be furious with herself; but she
was tired and couldn’t find the energy. Strong fingers wrapped around her wrist
between sets, and she looked upwards to find a sight she was slowly growing
used to.
“You’re distracted.”
Kenshin informed her quietly, disapproval radiating from his body. Kaoru
frowned up at him, a spurt of anger she couldn’t control echoing through her.
Something flickered in his eyes, and then he stepped back. “You need to feed.”
His voice held that same tone of disapproval and something else. Something definitely darker and less manageable.
Kaoru frowned at him, but
her eyes flickered to where Soujiro was walking over, and a bite of
apprehension ate at her stomach lining. There was something odd about the way
he was moving again. Kaoru walked over to Yahiko, who was standing a few feet
away, her eyes never quite leaving where her mate was standing. She kept
getting distracted by the pulse that was beating steadily in her eardrums, she
wasn’t sure if it was her own, or someone else’s. There was a snarl from
Kenshin as he turned to speak to Soujiro, and Kaoru felt it before she saw it.
Wrongness. Something was terribly wrong, and
she turned to yank Yahiko away from the entrance, when she saw it. The same
whispering darkness she had heard last night, coming at her hard. Kaoru jerked
the same time she heard someone snarl, and then she saw him. Hair the color of
white, white clouds and eyes dipped in a color somewhere between emerald and
blue. It didn’t matter what color eyes they were because it echoed a state of
mind she had seen once before. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t sane.
Kaoru attempted to stumble
backwards, to break out of the darkening colors, but they seemed determined to
yank her in. Mentally screaming, she found herself shoved forward by the
will-power of her own feet, something she suddenly didn’t have control of.
Kaoru couldn’t struggle against him as he calmly picked her up and walked away.
Could hardly find the ability to breath past the twisting,
darkening echoes of power in her blood. Foreign power,
darkness that she couldn’t crawl out of. Where Kenshin was hot and fire
and deceptively dark, this was cold. Cold ice twisting into
her veins that only slowed when her world went black.
~*~
Yahiko
wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but one moment Kaoru was moving towards
him with an expression of fear-tinged panic, and the next Soujiro had his sword
out and was attacking Kenshin. He had been frozen in his spot, something
whispering that he couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, and he was forced to watch as
Kenshin and Soujiro blurred as their swords connected and reconnected in a
dance he was suddenly aware he would never be able to mimic. He faintly heard
Misao’s high pitched wails as he became aware of something other than the
motions of the swords.
Jerking some sense back
into his body, he watched as Misao dispatched shadow with an expression on her
face that wasn’t anything like the Itachi he had teased for four days now. Her
face was white except for the two high spots of color, and she was swearing in
languages he didn’t know existed before that moment. Sano was guarding the
Kitsune Doctor and Aoshi was dealing with the shadows that were attempting to
aid Soujiro.
Something was so wrong.
Struggling to find his own
will-power, he turned in time to see Kaoru disappear into…somewhere; the man
holding her raised a single brow before disappearing. Yahiko found his feet,
and moved to join the fray. As soon as his hand landed on a weapon, they
noticed him. Yahiko was hard pressed to stay alive, but managed to dispatch
several of the…things attacking him when he noticed Kenshin was grinding his
sword into Soujiro chest, and he stilled at the expression on Kenshin’s face.
It was the same uncontrolled fury that had lined his features when Kaoru had
been taken by Jineh.
“Stop!” Misao’s voice rang out as she
bounded over, attempting to get Kenshin’s attention. “Himura!”
She crashed right into Aoshi, who was there so fast that Yahiko didn’t remember
seeing him move. “
“Misao,” Aoshi sharply
interrupted, but she struggled against him.
“It wasn’t Soujiro. That
was Enishi. Don’t you fools understand?” Misao cried out, frustration filling
her voice and face. “That wasn’t Soujiro!”
Yahiko was moving forward
to join her. He watched as Kenshin shoved the sword up to the hilt, watching as
Soujiro coughed and gagged on his own blood, the sword spearing into the right
side of his chest, directly through a lung and chest cavity. Kenshin didn’t
look as if it bothered him, the boy who he had raised as his apprentice for the
past twenty-years speared on the end of his Katana.
“Enishi?” Kenshin asked quietly, pulling his
sword a little to the left to start inching it toward Soujiro’s heart. “Who do
you speak of?”
Misao stopped her fruitless
struggling and glared at Kenshin. “Yukishiro Enishi. He is one of the last
remaining members of that particular line. You should be aware of them; they
were one of your Master’s main competitions in the beginning. Your cut your
teeth on their blood, Himura,” her tone was controlled now as she watched
Kenshin calmly shove his sword another inch. “Do you not remember?” Soujiro
garbled something, but it was lost in the blood flowing from his lips.
Kenshin raised eyes
burning with flecks of white-hot rage. “Enlighten me.”
Misao swallowed hard.
“Yukishiro is the last reaming son of that bloodline. I think he had a sister
at some point, but she died. As far as I know Enishi was thought to be
completely insane. Until around a decade ago, they didn’t think he had a gift
at all.” Her tone was monotone, someone reciting facts. “However, it came out
that he had been hiding it. He is a mind-Empath. He does what Kaoru does with
Ki, except on the mental wave-path. Apparently his father did all sorts of
black magic when his wife was pregnant to make him one, and its
why he went insane at the death of his sister, Tomoe.”
Kenshin frowned slightly
then. Yahiko thought he saw a flicker of recognition flutter across his face,
but then it was gone. “So he wants revenege.” He yanked
his sword out of Soujiro in one swift move and watched as the boy dropped like
a sack of bricks. “He thinks that by kidnapping Kaoru he can get it, then.
Unfortunately for him, her gift cannot be used against me.”
Aoshi frowned slightly. “I
remember when Hiko had you purge the Yukishiro line. It was because of that
boy…I wasn’t aware he had escaped.” There was nothing in Aoshi’s tone that
could ignite Kenshin’s temper, but the man’s expression darkened.
“He wouldn’t have, except
for Tomoe’s gift.” Kenshin turned to Misao and frowned. “You and Megumi patch
Soujiro up. I will deal with him properly when we get to Kyoto. Once he is able to walk, you take
Yahiko and head to my estate there. Aoshi, Sano and I will go after Kaoru. They
will meet you in Kyoto once I get my hands back on her.
There are a few more things we will finish up here before Kaoru and I join
you.”
Misao opened her mouth to
argue, her small eyes flashing again, but Aoshi moved between Kenshin and her.
Yahiko couldn’t understand what he said, but the girl stiffened and showed off
several inches of fang in a fit of temper, but disappeared into the house as
ordered. Yahiko wanted to argue to, but he had seen how easy it was for Enishi
to take over his mind, and he was smart enough to understand that he would be a
liability if he went.
“Bring her back.” He
whispered to Sano, before taking off into the house to help Misao tear
bandages. Megumi was already attempting to fix the hole in Soujiro’s chest, and
she would need all the help they could get. If he could just get the blank,
empty look in Kaoru’s eyes out of his mind, because he had never seen her like
that.
Yahiko watched as Misao
tore through sheets of clean cloth, her expression hard. He thought he caught
the bright sparkle of salt-water, but she must have managed to keep from
crying, because he couldn’t even smell it.
“What did he mean Kyoto?” Yahiko asked wearily. Kyoto was a port town and very, very
dangerous. Most of the old blood had moved there during the Bakumatsu to feed
on the blood and destruction, and it was in those streets Battousai had been
born.
“That’s were the majority
of the population lives.” Misao absently answered her expression distant. “It’s
where the main branch of the Oniwabanshu is. You will probably be staying with
us there. You don’t want to be around a pair of mates attempted to figure out
dominance issues.”
Yahiko wisely decided not
to mention her and Aoshi, and followed her back outside where Megumi was
working to save Soujiro’s life.
~*~
When Kaoru
awoke it was to the sensation of not really being in control of her own body.
She was aware that she was standing up, but that she had no control over why
she was standing. Her brain was bogged down with a thick velvet wrap that
refused to allow her to think outside of the basics. Forcing her eyes open, she
looked around. She was standing against a wall in what looked to be a rented
room in some western-style dwelling. Her eyes landed on the futon, which went
against the small desk and chair, and she rapidly attempted to assimilate the
thoughts in her mind.
“Looks like she is awake,
boss; are you sure this is the Battousai’s mate? She doesn’t look very
dangerous to me.” The voice was high and slightly scratchy, and Kaoru strained
to turn her head but couldn’t do more than blink. There was a
cotton like feeling in her mouth, and she struggled against it fiercely.
“It’s her. She is a tiny
little thing.” A voice she recognized, but couldn’t say how, replied calmly.
The white-haired man walked into her line of sight and gave her a long,
considering look. His almost feminine mouth was pursed thoughtfully, and there
was the slightest tilting to his lips that cast a cruel look to his face. “Hard
to believe something so small could cause so much damage to Jineh. Supposedly
she took him apart. Tomoe” there was a curl to the word that caused her
stomach to churn at the possessive note. “was tiny as
well, so perhaps we can believe the stories.”
Kaoru swallowed and
reached for her gift but he shook his head. “I can’t let you do that, little
one.” His tone was almost playful, but there was a sick note of feralness there that made her redouble her efforts. Sweat
broke out on her pores and ate at the skin of her temples as it slowly slid
down. His eyes widened in surprise when she managed to almost catch hold, and
he sighed. “I didn’t want to do this to you, blossom.”
Then his hands were
grasped on either side of her face, holding her still while his pupils dilated
and he pulled her back into his mind, and the ice of his mind twisted through
hers again. Kaoru’s lips parted in a silent scream, and she fought against him.
“He will come for you.”
Enishi whispered as he easily held her against him, his eyes darkening in color
as he exerted his will against her. “He will come for you, and I will use you
to kill him.”
Kaoru struggled harder
against the cold that threatened to seep into her blood, and then she felt it.
Hot, wild, churning fire burst from somewhere dark inside her and erupted
through her veins as loud as it could. It ate at the marrow of her bones and
sucked at her muscles, and churned in the pit of her stomach with heated need.
Enishi dropped her so fast she stumbled backwards, her body hitting the wall
with a thud as her knees gave out, leaving her to slide down the smooth contours.
Panting breaths rose and fell from her lips as she watched him stumble
backwards, horror and something else crawling into his face.
“You bitch.” He
hissed, moving forward, but stopping. She watched as his nostrils flared as he
got a good long pull of her scent. Then he hissed at her, and dragged his
companion out of the room, leaving her there.
~*~
Enishi
threw the jar of sake he held in his hand into the wall his indigo eyes flaring
brightly. Damn that girl. His fangs bared he clenched his fists tightly together,
his body straining in an attempt to stay still. She was easy enough to control,
her half tamed gift ready to run wild with the single touch of threat. It was
easy enough to slip through her pathetic shields and take her mind as his and
twist her thoughts the way he wished them.
His was the perfect
revenge. Take the one woman who could and would slip past the Battousai's
defenses and use her gift to turn his own dark abilities against him. Killed by
his own touch of death. Then the girl, tainted by the
Battousai, would live a life twisted with guilt and insanity; eventually
killing herself as she drove herself mad. Everyone who knew Battousai would
have to sit down and watch as she slowly killed herself, her gift inverting on
her. Ripping her own Ki to pieces.
He had, perhaps, been a
touch too sure of himself. Careless. In his few
moments of exquisite pleasure -ripping and plundering her soft mind- he had
triggered something he had not been prepared for. Her mating
cycle. A female vampire only went into a cycle once a year. It was only
after she had been bound that her gift would trigger the hormonal reaction that
allowed a female a chance at reproduction. Child-bearing was extremely
difficult for the women of his race; the more powerful the women, the harder to
bear child to full term. It was speculated that a female would go into heat
with animalistic tendencies so that she could rut with the strongest male
around. Presumably her mate.
On the rare occasion that
a female went into heat without her mate to satisfy her cravings, she would use
her Ki to lure every male into vicinity into her bed for relief. Her blood was
relentless in its demands. A woman in a mating heat was also extremely
dangerous. Even as her Ki called every male to her, the female herself would
only bend to the one who had bound her to him. She would fight and kill whoever
attempted to touch her -no matter how her body craved relief- and would fight
until someone managed to subdue her.
As far as he was aware,
the Battousai had not completed the bond. The half bond they shared had started
the trigger to allow the cycle, but did not allow the hold on Kaoru to keep her
from going deranged. "Sloppy, Battousai," Enishi whispered, even as
he caught the smell of Kaoru’s call, his body tightening with demand. "Very sloppy."
This, it seemed,
complicated things.
~*~
Kenshin
watched as Sano talked to a contact, his body tense even as he gave the
appearance of nonchalance against the wall. If you weren’t looking at the hand
clutching his sword so tightly that his knuckles were white, you wouldn’t
notice anything. His hair fell around his face in a perfect disguise, hiding
the sight of his jaw. His teeth were threaded so tightly together that Aoshi
was certain that a few had cracked under the pressure. The only emotional sign
of how furious the man was happened to be his Ki. But that was only because he
had it under such rigid control, that you couldn’t even sense him.
“That’s your fifth contact
tonight.” Kenshin softly said as Sano walked over. There was a strong
undercurrent of impatience in his voice, and the way his had tightened on his
sword was a clear warning. Aoshi was actually mildly impressed that he could
tighten his grip. He was certain there were going to be indents in the hard
metal hilt.
“Enishi has been careful.”
Sano defended. “Anyway, we got lucky. Apparently Meiko’s
specialty is to see through illusions. Enishi has been doing a very good job at
covering his tracks, so Meiko can only give us the
name of the hotel. He isn’t even sure he is still there, but its worth checking
out.”
Aoshi gave the younger man
a cool glance. He hoped for his sake that it panned out. Battousai was getting
edgier with each second his half-claimed mate was away. He allowed his fangs to
glint briefly at that. Even if he had let Misao run wild across Japan, once he
claimed her, he had ever intention of doing so properly. Battousai was letting
his mate run around and had done nothing to correct the situation.
Idiot.
Sighing, he followed both
men back into the darkening streets of Tokyo. It was going to be night soon. If
they did not find the girl before day-break, Aoshi wondered if they would find
her at all.
~*~
Kaoru
tucked her knees under her and rested her chin on the level plane they created.
Her head hurt. If she thought about it, which she attempted to avoid,
everything hurt. She didn't know what to think anymore. It was impossible to
tell if it was night or day, if she was even more than an hour past her
kidnapping. Her memories were twisted now, wrapped in an order that confused
her. His handiwork; the half-finished job he had managed earlier. Enishi. Kaoru tucked herself even closer to her knees,
wishing her slight frame was even smaller than it appeared. She ached. She
wasn't even sure if it was all physical.
She needed to eat. She
hadn’t had anything besides the small mouse she had caught earlier, and she
couldn’t quite remember actually draining it dry, just waking from a cat-nap
with the thing dead in her hands and warm blood on her tongue. Tears caught and
held at her lashes, small jewels of sorrow. The knowledge of her hunger gave
her little peace; and she felt slightly sick at the idea of eating an animal
such as a mouse. Something inside her writhed with the need for a human male’s
warm throat to tear out. To feed on something hot and rushing and filling, and
then to go back to her mate and…
'The Battousai will
come for you.' His
voice had been honey and silk, a voice honed to mesmerize. Kaoru still felt the
fingers of it trailing down her spine, her body shaking with the aftereffects
of whatever he had used to dampen her gift. Stirring something altogether
different in her veins, something that shouldn’t have been there; something
hungry, and something that she knew should not have been there.
'I will use you to kill
him.'
Kaoru ducked low, her face
buried in the soft flesh of her thighs. Her stomach muscles cramped from the
tight position but Kaoru could care less. Her thoughts were sluggish and tired, a reaction to the lack of food. She was going to need
to eat soon. She knew there was prey around, and she felt sick every time she
though of them that way. Pressing a knuckle to her mouth she bit back the
sensation of being pulled out of control. Every time a shadow passed by her
door, she felt the need to lure them in.
Kaoru rocked back and
forth even as small spark of heat began to enter her bloodstream. Every time a
male figure -Vampire or human- came near the door to her small room, her blood
turned to liquid heat. She had first thought it had to do with her need for
blood, but had changed her mind. Even now Kaoru was aware of the beads of sweat
slowly sliding down her temples, of the ache -need- that began to turn her body
to pliant flesh; the burning sensation buried in her bones and muscles, and
female form. Her gift twisted alongside it, calling for something. Someone. Using its manipulative
control on base emotions. Lust. Desire. The need to possess.
Something dark and
primitive was rising in her veins and whispering for attention. Whatever it was, the closer the male, the stronger it became. Kaoru
shook and bit her knuckles harder in an attempt to keep it at bay for as long
as possible. Kaoru felt the tenuous hold on the instincts she had been holding
in check slip and falter as the pounding in her blood increased.
She needed something, and
until she got what she needed, she knew she was going to kill or destroy
everything it her path. It was in the growing red in her vision and the
temptation to simply rip every shred of clothing from her body and press
herself against a hard body in an attempt to repress the ache churning in her
stomach. She wanted something.
She was going to get it.
