Kaoru woke up feeling off balance with the lingering memory of a dream she couldn’t quite remember except for the pounding of her heart and her throbbing temples. She felt exhausted and tried to grab hold of her nightmare – this one involved long hallways and the scent of blood. Shivering even under the heavy press of the covers, she swore under her breath when she couldn’t remember anything else. A lot of good hallways and blood did her. Allowing herself to stay curled up under the covers until her heartbeat slowed; she uncoiled enough to glance at the window.
And found her gaze clashing with sleepy yellow eyes instead.
He was in front of the door; his eyes alert even if the rest of his body broadcasted early morning looseness that only someone who had slept ever really managed. Did he ever blink? Swallowing heavily, she checked the amount of sunlight coming in from the windows with her peripheral vision. What time was it? She bit her lower lip, trying to decide what to do first when Himura rolled forward into a crouch and her stomach tightened painfully. Long red hair fell over his shoulder, the only movement as he watched her, clearly testing her reaction to his being in the room.
If he wasn’t acting so damn predatory and hadn’t tried to rip her throat out, the… prettiness of him would have been a whole lot more distracting. As it was, the shift of muscles under his taut skin and angle of his sleepy yellow, yellow eyes only reminded her of how much beast had settled under his skin. She had a predator sitting in front of her door and all she really wanted to do was to stand up and hit him over the head with a lamp and run for it.
At least he wasn’t actually in bed with her.
Carefully leveraging herself up, she swallowed past the lump in her throat.
“You just… stay over there.”
The corner of his mouth curled upwards but to her relief, he settled back down; balancing on his heels as he obviously waited for what she planned to do next. Now what… Shinomori hadn’t given her much the night before. After his rather dramatic and Misao-like declaration for such an emotionless void, he had turned and left her alone with… him. And here she was. Still alone with him, even after managing to wheedle herself back to her room to hide under the covers.
She distinctly remembered locking the door.
Taking a deep breath, she decided she was safe enough (or at least as safe as she was likely to be) and allowed herself to study him; not just the movements he was making. The only real difference in appearance between the man and… whatever he was now was his eyes. The soft violet had disappeared under a mix of molten yellow and wheat gold. He was too far away to see clearly, but her memory of what his eyes had looked like in the garden was vivid. The strange pupils and yellow iris made her uneasy but they seemed to have darkened a little. She wondered if they would act as an indicator for his moods and if she was to be close enough to notice. His face was still lined near the eyes and faintly at the mouth and there seemed to be something about his hair that looked… off; but he almost appeared to be the same.
Until he moved. She wasn’t certain how he was managing it, but he rolled, shifted or glided through whatever space was around him. It was if the normal human limitations had been stripped from his joints and muscles and replaced by something else; as if he had extra extensions under his skin that she just couldn’t see. And last night she had sworn she heard claws clicking on the wood floors… but his nails were short, human. Licking dry lips, she took another deep breath.
“Can you talk?”
He didn’t bat a lash but there was a shift in the air – it was heavier, thicker with the impression of teeth.
She was going to take that for a no.
A really, really big no.
Right.
“Okay.”
So now what? Reaching up, she pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. So she was somehow stuck with a man turned (turning?) beast – in some sense she couldn’t see but could feel – who couldn’t talk and didn’t blink. Lowering the blanket, she slowly slid her bare legs out from under the covers.
The deep abrasions on her knees were gone.
She stared blankly at the unmarred skin for long seconds before she turned a narrowed eyed look over at Himura. He stared back, seemingly unconcerned. She was really considering that lamp.
“That had better not have involved licking.”
His head tilted just a fraction in what could have been a challenge. She considered it – and decided against it. Better to just avoid getting hurt later on. Settling her feet onto the floor, she stood carefully. Himura had rolled onto the balls of his feet, but he wasn’t making any other motion. He still felt like a predator but now…
It was almost like he was laughing at her. Taking another deep breath, a little of the tension in her stomach loosened as she careful slid around the bed to where the bathroom was.
“I’m taking a shower. Stay here and don’t even think about coming in.”
The smile lifted enough to show a hint of teeth – very white teeth that for a moment looked sharper and elongated than any human teeth she had ever seen. Forcing herself to hold his gaze, she curled her hands into fists behind her back. He was not seeing her naked. The air shifted against her skin again and Kaoru decided to take that as a yes. Moving swiftly, she shut the door behind her and closed her eyes.
Having a door between them made it a lot easier to breathe. Several more deep breaths and the sick feeling in her stomach disappeared. Opening her eyes, she quickly set to work turning on the shower and stripping out of the clothing that was still dirt stained from the incident in the garden. Carefully, Kaoru pulled the ward out of her pocket and set it on top of her shorts. She couldn’t say why she wanted it close, but Shinomori’s reaction the night before had been interesting.
The hot water felt wonderful. She stood under it until her shoulders stung and turned red. The soap smelled the same as the stuff she normally used – even though she didn’t recognize the package – and she forced herself not to think too closely about that. Instead, she scrubbed herself as close to raw as she dared. It wasn’t until she was reaching for one of the towels that she realized all the clothing she had was what she had been wearing. It was stained with sweat and dirt and desperately needed washing.
Biting her lip to hold in the rather eloquent string of curses, she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She would have chopped off her own hand right then for a clean set of underwear and her familiar, comfort clothing. Counting to ten, she pulled her self-control back together and drew in a ragged breath just as the air… lurched. It felt like someone had sucked away all the pressure in the room and for a moment she felt weightless. And then it was gone and the darkness behind her eyes was colored with bright spots. Her knees felt a little wobbly and she staggered into the glass doors behind her. Swearing, she opened her eyes and found herself looking at a pile of clean clothing on the counter.
Fresh, clean clothing that looked comfortable.
Her hands shook a little as she lifted the soft, cotton, button-down shirt. It took her a few moments to realize it was a man’s shirt and her fingers froze halfway through buttoning it up when she realized who was small enough to own a shirt that only hit the top of her thighs. She didn’t know if Yahiko was around so that left…
She twisted around to find her old clothes and found they had disappeared. Well, there was no way she was going outside naked. The pants were her size and she pulled them on but was forced to roll the cuffs of the shirt up several times before she could deal with her hair. By the time she was ready to leave the relative safety of the bathroom she felt more human if not a little more in control of her emotions.
X
Misao stared at the piece of paper in her hand, her mouth set into a thin line. Another dead end.
Taking another deep, calming breath she slowly crumpled the paper in her hand and forced herself to think. The healer was moving fast but she was gaining. The little lady at the corner shop even remembered this Megumi Takani and had wondered at how frightened she looked.
She should be frightened, although Misao rather figured that she was more frightened by the giant Technicolor display of raw power that had ripped the mansion from the skyline two day ago than by anything else. Misao sympathized with that, she really did. Her own gut had turned to ice at the sight and the sickening, terrifying knowledge that Kaoru was somewhere in the middle of that had made her almost physically ill with terror.
Thankfully, they made excellent tea to deal with those situations – and when that hadn’t helped she had raided her favourite aunt’s liquor cabinet and gotten plastered. Once the hangover had receded a little and she had been able to think past the guilt – oh shit, Kaoru going back had been her idea – She had settled into the task of fixing it.
Misao was certain Kaoru was alive. Everything that healer woman had said about Himura, everything Kaoru had said about Himura and the damned dreams of blood gardens had given her an inordinate amount of hope. Kaoru had been alive to see that the gardens were bloody, after all, and she hadn’t been suffering from a gaping wound in her chest or stomach at the time.
Hope.
So she was tracking down the healer. Which was taking far more time than she would have liked. All she had was a first name after all, and while all doctors were required to register with various state and magical boards, Misao had hacked into three databases and still hadn’t located anyone with a name even remotely close to Megumi.
This was fine. So instead, she had begun creating a list of information that she had from what little conversation Kaoru had had with the woman. Doctor. Tall, thin. Had been practicing for years. Apparently had some affiliation with Himura and had magical healing talent. She had been in the area for some time (at least sixth months or more depending on the time line, but it gave her a starting point) and possibly of exceptional talent if she had gotten herself involved in this situation in the first place.
She had been fairly pleased that she had narrowed down the list to twenty people.
She was not pleased that it had taken her over eighteen hours to track them all down. Now she had one more name and the woman matched this Megumi’s physical description but was avoiding her. Misao was fairly certain that this healer was the one who had found Kaoru and when she got her hands on her…
If she got there first, anyway; from what she could see, this Megumi was being hunted down by several people and not just her. Tapping a finger against her lips, Misao considered the visitor who had been talking with her aunt the night before.
Misao was always wary when the Council felt it had the right to stick its nose in some business. She had been expecting it, of course – Technicolor explosions and the disappearance of space would catch their attention plenty quick, she just hadn’t expect them to send an agent who fairly reeked of magic. It shouldn’t have been possible for him to already be there… which made her wonder if he hadn’t already been stationed near the mansion in the first place. But if the Council was already aware of what was going on why hadn’t they done anything to lessen the effects or stop it?
Saitoh Hajime was going to be a problem. Eyes like his saw too much and there was a fair amount of magical talent lingering at the edges of his aura. Her aunt had been uncomfortable talking to him and her aunt could handle just about anything. So what had she missed? It was obvious he thought someone in the family knew something – but her reputation of being the magical misfit had served her well and he had simply left before dinner.
She hated being left out of the loop and the knowledge that she was running out of time ate at her. Well, that was fine. She liked a challenge. Squaring her shoulders and making sure the wards that were supposed to keep her invisible to any seeking magics – and really just made the back of her eyeballs itch – were in her pockets, she set off again.
Because Kaoru was stuck in that mansion and she knew her best friend was fighting to get out.
X
“Are you sure you don’t have any… I don’t know… cheese and bread? I can do cheese and bread.” Kaoru stared into the pantry before turning to her host. Himura had been gone by the time she exited the bathroom and she had been thankful for that. She didn’t know how much more staring she could handle before she started tearing at her own hair. She needed to get out of the house and she was itching to make sure that the garden was okay.
It was the little things that were going to keep her sane, after all.
Tae looked affronted. “That is not a balanced meal.”
Kaoru glared at her before turning back to the pantry. “Yeah well, at this rate I am going to starve to death.”
“There is plenty of meat in the fridge.”
Kaoru slowly peered around the edge of the cabinet door and frowned. “That would require me to possibly actually cook something.”
Tae crossed her arms and looked stern. Or tried to. The knowledge that she could toss forks through her not-quite-corporal form depending on the mood of the spell made it difficult for Kaoru to take her irritation seriously. It was much worse when she was actually threatening her with a spatula that could actually do damage.
Sighing, she reached up and tugged on her bangs. “Tae, I have had a couple of really bad days now. I need food. Now, I realize you don’t know me but my cooking isn’t… great. So unless you have an assortment of cold cuts and cheese in that fridge, everything else is going to be useless to me. Except eggs. I’m pretty decent at eggs. Mostly.”
Tae frowned at her. “Kaoru…”
“We can argue over lunch.” Kaoru tried, sounding desperate. “Please Tae…”
The shorter woman sighed. “There are muffins in the bread box. I made them yesterday, before… But we do we need to talk.”
Kaoru frowned at her. “About what?”
“Kenshin.”
“What about Himura?”
“Kenshin, Kaoru. Call him Kenshin. I thought we talked about that last night.”
It was Kaoru’s turn to cross her arms. Yes, they had. But calling him Kenshin gave him a name and… it brought with it the memory of soft violet eyes and bare feet; the smell of ginger and a warm moment shared in a library. If she thought of him that way – warm and intensely gentle – she might forget he was a predator and that could get her killed.
“I remember you mentioning that… right around the time you were telling me to let him lick me.”
Something else that made her stomach knot and her heart pound in her throat if she thought about it too long…
“It helped.”
“I refuse to talk about it. At any time.”
Tae looked frustrated. “If you would just help him a little…”
Kaoru stared at her. “What?”
“I can’t… just… let him help you!”
“Let him help me or I help him? Which is it?”
“Both.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t talk about it more than I have, I’m sorry.” Her mouth twisted into something like a smile. “Terrible thing about these particular curses… they just don’t let you talk about them. Just, please… he would never hurt you, not intentionally and I don’t think that his… more… basic instincts would hurt you either.”
This conversation was going nowhere fast. Growling, Kaoru stalked over the bread box and grabbed the first muffin there. Chocolate chip. Nodding, she turned on her heel and left the room. Tae didn’t try to stop her but there was a frown etched between her eyebrows.
What did they think – that this was easy on her?
Sinking her teeth into the soft bread, she chewed rapidly and headed for the doors that would lead her out to the garden. She needed to think. Pushing the doors open, she took another bite and almost choked on it. The garden was… ruined. Kaoru stared at it in shock. She hadn’t even considered what the events of the day before would have done to the roses and she suddenly had trouble swallowing the last of her muffin. It stuck in her throat.
What on earth had happened out here?
Trees were upended and the benches were cracked. It looked like the earth had shifted, displacing several large rose bushes and the rest were beginning to wilt. Petals had been shredded and torn from the vines, mingling with mulch and earth.
A bleeding garden.
The flashback from her dream sent a shudder down her spine and something started buzzing in the back of her skull. Setting her jaw, she marched towards the nearest shed to locate a wheelbarrow. The first thing she needed to do was pick up the branches and flowers and get them away from the rest of the plants. Then she could get a good view of how much damage had been done to the root system and she could at least attempt to repair it.
Even if being outside under the strange sky was making her edgy, it gave her something to do.
By the time her back started hurting she had barely made a dent in the mess. She had broken off three nails on her left hand when she had tripped on a root and overturned the wheelbarrow she had been using. That had just pissed her off even more and she was covered in dirt. Feeling ineffective, she stared at the landscape around her and considered kicking something.
“This place is a mess.”
Kaoru turned, picked up a rock and threw it at Sano. It went clean through him, but it made her feel better.
“Hey! No need for violence! I was just... commenting.”
“Oh shut up.” Yahiko growled before turning to face the mess himself. “She did a number on it.”
Kaoru swallowed her frustration and flopped on her back and tried to ignore the way her temples were starting to ache. Shutting her eyes so she didn’t have to stare at the sky, she allowed herself to simply absorb the feeling of the garden around her.
“I hate it.”
Their feet didn’t even crunch on the mulch anymore. The only reason she knew they had moved was because a shadow fell over her face.
“Hate what?”
She moved her fingers. “This. All of this. What that crazy woman did. Yukishiro. There was no reason…” she cracked her eyes open and studied their guilty faces. “What?”
Yahiko looked uncomfortable but Sano looked downright nervous. “We can’t tell you.”
Pushing herself to her feet, she glared up at him. “I am getting really tired of hearing that.”
Yahiko shifted his weight, “Doesn’t make it less true.”
Frustration welled up in her chest and threatened to choke her. Gritting her teeth, she started counting slowly in her head. That didn’t help. Everything she was feeling was forming a tight knot just below her throat and it was going to surge up and suffocate her if she didn’t do something; the buzzing in her head was making her slowly deaf and she wondered if it was possible to just keel over from too much stress…
Fisting her hands into knots she worked to get a grip on her sudden surge of temper – flipping the wheelbarrow wouldn’t do her any good – so she ground her teeth together and finally stomped one foot in sheer frustration.
She was so damn tired of picking everything up just to have it ruined when she thought she was done! She just wanted everything fixed.
… and her foot sank into the earth and continued to swallow her until it hit her knee. The leg went numb and she careened forward, slamming down onto her knee and her palm scraping painfully into the dirt before they were swallowed as well. If she could have panicked past the high pitched buzzing in her ears, she would have. The earth moved around her leg and hands, and a sensation of heat crawled across her skin. The buzzing changed into something that almost sounded like the voices of small children and then for a single, clear moment there was silence and a pressure that pressed against her back and shoulders that needed release…
Then the earth rolled and let her go. She found herself tumbled out of the ground that had tried to swallow her and she landed on her butt somehow, left leg completely numb. And before her disbelieving eyes everything changed. The dead branches, scattered mulch and broken flowers didn’t move except where the earth had shifted but…
But the ground was smooth. Completely, effortlessly smooth the way it had been before it had been trashed. The rock paths even repaired themselves. There were no more cracks, no great jutting roots exposed to the air; just the debris and broken stones and flowers that looked like they needed attention… and the soft, almost giggle…
She felt light headed.
What…
“Holy shit…” Sano breathed eyes wide.
“She isn’t going to like that at all,” Yahiko whispered.
What the hell had that been?
Staring at the garden, she thought for a moment she heard a small, sweet voice whisper near her ear: welcome.
X
The apartment in front of her definitely belonged to a healer. She could feel it. The fact that the north side of the garden was layered in large, brilliant roses put a bounce in her step because it had to be the one she was looking for. The connection of the flowers to what Kaoru had been doing was something she would have to look into further later. What was more interesting was how the very air seemed to thrum with life.
And none of it was noticeable until you passed through a barrier. It was just so… clean!
‘Those are some immensely powerful wards.’
Edging around the corner of the house, she frowned. The front door had been all but ripped off its hinges and there was glass on the ground. The ward in her pocket was fairly vibrating in reaction to whatever magical residue remained on the ground and she crouched down, letting her fingers brush against the soil.
Fear and sweat hit her, followed quickly by the impression of teeth. Frowning she pulled her hand back and tried to make sense of the images. Sometimes she really hated the way magic worked. Showing her that Megumi felt like a deer being hunted by a tiger wasn’t going to do her any good except in making her consider investing in a much larger ward that worked as the equivalent to a tiger pit.
Oh well, she’d add that to the list of things to do later. Right now she had a trail to follow. If the images she was picking up were that clear then the fight had to have been recent. Which meant that if she moved quickly she might be able to find and help the good healer escape; then she’d have the time she needed to pick her brain.
If she was good at anything it was leaving false trails.
Whoever was chasing Megumi, however, was hardly worried about someone finding the trail. It was ground into the very earth and she was able to follow it at top speed. She made it a point to muffle her footsteps and to keep her magic and aura pulled tightly against her body. There would be little point in actually finding the healer if the guy chasing her could sense her approach. Unless they needed this Megumi for something, they would just kill her. Curses like the one that had done this to the Himura mansion required power and a lot of rage.
Sliding silently around a corner, she stilled when she caught sight of the two figures warily circling each other. The healer must have had some power, because the tall, white haired man with the obscenely orange pants was holding a… Misao tilted her head. He was holding a sword. And his smile wasn’t exactly sane.
“I won’t ask you again, healer.”
“My answer has not changed. I betrayed him once by accident, I will not do it deliberately now.”
The blonde shrugged and his stance changed.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Misao said pleasantly, ignoring the almost desperate look on the tall, thin woman’s face as she made her presence known. She unclenched her fingers; it was a physical strain not to let the weight of the blades she had hidden in her sleeve fall between her fingers.
She was pretty sure there was no way in hell she was going to manage to injure the white haired man in front of her – who the hell used swords anymore, anyway? – and his smile told her he knew it. Unfortunately for him, the way of the ninja had nothing to do with big, dramatic samurai battles but winning the small, less important ones.
And when all else fails, ignore ninja tactics all together and go for a really big explosion.
“Get out of here,” Megumi said firmly, her lips pale with strain.
Misao shrugged. “I can’t do that, I’m afraid.”
The blonde shrugged. “Two deaths are no more problematic than one.”
Misao smiled brightly at him, so wide the edges of her mouth stung. His eyes narrowed and she flicked her wrist out, letting loose dozens of small wards she had intended to use for another purpose. The pale eyes of the blond man widened and he cursed, diving to the side as they flared red hot and then shattered, leaving behind a blazing inferno of uncontrolled magic. They were loud against the inside of her head as Misao grabbed the healer and pulled her out of the alley.
“Come on, that won’t distract him long and we need to lose our trail!”
“Don’t you mean get him off our trail?”
“What good would that do? He’d simply pick it up again.”
Pulling out two wards she flung them into the air while muttering a word of power. Boy, she hoped those worked. She didn’t think the good healer was up for the traditional method of sneaking and hiding to lose an opponent and she really didn’t feel the need to lose that much time. Grinning widely, she dragged her into the market that was humming with energy and pulled Megumi through the complicated stalls and dragged them both through as much uncharted magic clinging to the braziers as possible.
The tea shop she was aiming for was a welcome sight. Sliding in through the side door, she pointed to a chair and waited for the wary, gasping woman to take her seat. The taller woman coughed heavily before raising her eyes. The expression was guarded.
“Who are you and why did you help me?”
“You’re Megumi. I’m Misao.” Her smile showed more teeth than was strictly polite. “Where is Kaoru?”
X
Kaoru told herself that tracking dirt through the mansion would give Tae something to do other than worry. Rubbing her freshly washed palms together, she slowly moved through the library. The shelves were a good twenty feet high so that meant she was going to have to use the ladder to get around if she really wanted to see what was up there.
And she really needed answers.
That had been magic outside… not to mention that the garden had partially swallowed and then apparently spat her back out. Kami knew she had spent enough time around Misao’s crazy clan to know what magic looked like but she wasn’t supposed to be able to do any of that. She had been tested, repeatedly, and nothing had even blinked on those scales. Except, of course, she had apparently just fixed the damage that had been done to the garden and she didn’t even have one of those reaction headaches that could lay Misao up for hours after she tried a new spell.
Shinomori hadn’t said anything about the possibility of magic. Not that he had said a lot in the first place… just that half assed explanation that they were all disappearing. She was getting ahead of herself and trying not to think of anything that had happened in the garden. Sitting on a chair she squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to think of the two issues that were really troubling her.
What exactly did she know about what was going on and how the hell had she done… that. And she was going to get answers because dammit, if she could sling around a garden then she could find a way to start hitting people over the head with something bokken-like and making sure it hurt.
What exactly had Shinomori said? What had they all said? Best to start from the beginning then and work her way through what she knew so that she could… possibly find out what was going on through whatever information was available in this damn library. There had to be something she was missing.
Tapping her fingers on her thigh, she considered everything that had occurred since she started working there. Tae and Gensai hadn’t apparently aged a day since she graduated from high school and stopped working at the mansion. Six years wasn’t a lot of time but there should have been some change, she supposed. So maybe that had some connection to everything that had happened here.
She hadn’t seen the strange, yellow-eyed security guy since her second day on the job. Saitoh. That was it. He seemed to be missing. Although a great deal of the staff seemed to have completely disappeared, so maybe they hadn’t been pulled into the vortex… but then, why had the ones who were still here… maybe she had been pulled in because she could rearranged earth.
Biting her lip hard enough to taste blood, she turned her mind back to Megumi. Megumi had said there was a curse and she had tried to fix it; that it had backfired. How had she tried to fix it? Kaoru would most certainly say that being stuck wherever they were with everyone around her impossible to touch as a sort of backfire… but there was proof that that was actually part of the spell that Megumi had tampered with. So what, then?
And why were Sano and Yahiko worried about what Yukishiro would think? Did that mean that the woman would just drop in whenever she wanted? Fuck. She really hoped not.
Then there was Himura… who was insane or getting there really fast. Except everyone kept saying that he wasn’t… It was clear that whatever had been done to him had made speech difficult or impossible for him. Did that mean he could explain things to her if she could figure out how to fix him? Frustrated, she tapped her foot against the floor. Did she really want to spend enough time around whatever he had become to find out? The possibility of knowing what he was thinking behind those angled, predatory eyes made her heart pound and she had to swallow several times to work moisture back into her mouth. No. Most certainly, definitely no.
It didn’t help that everyone was trying so hard to push them together. Did that mean Himura was the key to getting this… this… fixed; that he needed her help to do it? Oh kami, she hoped not. Biting her lower lip, she swallowed. What did it mean if he was? Closing her eyes, she took a deep calming breath and pushed down the butterflies that were lodged in her chest.
Yukishiro. Who was she? Why was she doing this? What was so damn important about the garden that she had attempted to shred it and what… something about that name was sending off a niggling sensation in the back of her skull. She should have remembered it… where had she heard it before?
Kaoru took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Okay. So the best place to start figuring this out was at the beginning. She didn’t know where that was but she did know who was involved, Himura and the Yukishiro woman. Mages tended to live in clans so it was possible that Yukishiro was a clan name the same as Himura or Makimachi… which might be where she had heard it before.
So it was just a matter of seeing if this library had any documents connecting the two and how.
Which meant she needed to get up and crawl up that ladder and start looking because if she wanted to hide something she would have put it out of immediate reach… damn. Sighing, she forced her tired muscles and still tingling leg to work. Standing, she arched her neck and slowly turned in a circle.
“How the hell am I supposed to find clan histories in this place?” She spoke the words out loud because it was too quiet and she licked chapped and bruised lips when the air shifted around her skin. She turned again, looking for some sign of presence in the room and swallowed.
“Hello?”
Nothing. She was certain she would have seen Himura. Reaching up to rub her suddenly aching head she took a long, shuddering breath.
The sound of wood creaking against wood had her head snapping up and she stared at one of the tall ladders as it slowly moved itself along the shelf. Breath catching in her throat, she bit her lip as it finally came to a stop directly in front of her and wiggled.
Kaoru stared at it and it wiggled again. Seven rows up, a book shifted forward and dipped in her direction.
“You have to be joking…”
This time the books around it fairly vibrated. Wiping sweaty palms onto her clothes she inched forward and very slowly moved to grip a rung. It was warm under her hand and for a moment she thought she smelled roses… and then it was gone and the wood was cold under her fingers. Swallowing again, she began her climb and called herself every type of fool. Bracing herself on the ladder by wrapping her foot around a rung, she reached for the book.
And found herself starring at a book that looked several hundreds of years old and clearly labelled as a history book of some sort. Taking a deep breath, she opened it. A slow, tentative smile curled her lips. Clan history.
“Thank you.”
Kaoru didn’t know what or who she was thanking but she had a starting point. Thumbing through the book, she started to browse through the pages, wondering what exactly she was looking for. She wasn’t certain how long she had been thumbing through history books when the sound of the door opening and shutting caught her attention. Clenching her fingers around the spine, she turned and her heart started hammering in her chest.
“So you survived after all.”
Kaoru swallowed down her fear, squared her shoulders and stared down at the woman watching her from dark red eyes. “Yukishiro.”
The edges of the woman’s mouth curled. “Call me Tomoe. I always felt a murder attempt should leave the adversaries on a first name basis, Kamiya Kaoru.”
Kaoru said nothing, unsure how she was supposed to proceed.
“It is a pity that he didn’t kill you in the garden. Your presence here slows my plans down. It’s nothing personal, you know.”
“Nothing personal,” Kaoru repeated, eyes narrowed.
The slight smile never left her mouth. “No. I have waited a long time to have my revenge, Kamiya Kaoru – and I find that I am growing impatient. You will tell me where you hid the remains of the plant that is holding this damn mansion together and I will make your death quick.”
Kaoru tilted her chin. “And if I don’t?”
“Then your death will take longer.” Tomoe sighed. “I do hate torture; it seems to… lack something of elegance. I suppose we could just let this charade play its way out and then Kenshin will rip you to shreds himself but…” her lips twisted. “I find I do not wish to wait that long.”
“I won’t tell you anything.”
She sighed. “I suppose I should have expected that.”
“Yes, I imagine most people are not particularly fond of cooperating with those who have tried to kill them.”
Tomoe smiled. “Well, we do what we must.”
Before Kaoru could ask what she meant by that, the air pressure changed, heating rapidly until it hurt to breathe through the rage of it. Kaoru would have been terrified of the sort of power it took to do that except Tomoe didn’t appear to be directing it. Scowling, Tomoe lifted her hand and started muttering in a language that grated on her ears. She had nothing… her eyes lowered to her hand.
She threw the book.
The blast went low as Tomoe was forced to use her hands to stop the book from hitting her face instead of aiming the attack and it incinerated the ladder beneath her feet. Scrambling at the bookcase for some sort of purchase, she yelped when she lost the battle with gravity. An inhuman roar shook the room just as her foot refused to untangle from the remains of the rung and she twisted around, grabbing for the shelf. Her hands slipped and her head slammed into a wooden shelf; the world swam and faded as her body dropped to the floor.
X
Kaoru knew she was dreaming.
She just wished she understood what she was seeing. She wasn’t afraid because dreams couldn’t hurt her – but she still she couldn’t stand up. The vines had tangled in her hair and when she moved the faint bite of thorns pressed into her arms and legs, against her throat. The sweet scent of roses was almost overwhelming and just at the edges of her senses she could hear faint, curious whispers.
A moment ago she would have sworn something soft slid down the side of her neck.
She couldn’t look away from the man in front of her to see what it was.
It was the same man she had seen before when the flowers bled, but he was different. He was as naked as before, but this time the air around him shimmered and he appeared to be buried from the hips down. As she watched he wrapped his fingers around a single rose.
And his hands started bleeding.
Kenshin Himura.
The name skittered across her conscious without her permission and his head twisted in that strange animal grace that made her heart pound for reasons she wasn’t ready to examine just yet… and his eyes met hers. The violet was heavily threaded with amber and when his lips pulled away from his teeth they were not-quite-fangs and they glittered. The muscles in his shoulders rolled as he lifted a hand in her direction but her world was narrowing down to the expression in those eyes.
Heat. Hope. And a desire that made her mouth run dry. She couldn’t flinch away or lean towards him, the vines and heavy flowers were holding her still. So she curled her fingers into the ground and she realized that they were wet. Something hot dripped onto her cheek and she lowered her eyes from the scorching gaze of the man watching her to the ground.
Everything was covered in blood.
X
Kaoru woke with someone’s hands in her hair. Blurrily, she tried the swat the offending objects away as she worked to peel her own eyelids open. The world was a bright mix of red and yellow so she slammed them shut and groaned. Bad idea. Shifting in the vague hope that sitting up would help her scrambled brains right themselves; she froze when the warm surface she was laying on moved.
And the faint, careful movements of claws against her scalp told her exactly who she was using as a pillow. Cautious of the light, she cracked one eye open and then the other. Himura had pulled her partly into his lap and was feathering his clawed hands against the back of her scalp. His fingers brushed a sore spot and she flinched away from him… and suddenly became aware of the pounding in her temples.
At least this time he had pants on.
Swallowing, she tilted her head back and looked up at Himura. His eyes were flat with temper and pale, wheat-gold lines were bleeding away from his pupil, cutting into the darker bronze and amber tones but the rest of his face was composed. No violet. No raw, burning need. Just a smouldering temper and the strong angle of his jaw.
She hoped he didn’t notice the way her pulse was picking up speed.
What had Tae said about dealing with him?
Swallowing, she closed her eyes again; she really hoped this worked. “My head hurts.”
She felt him still; even the hand that had curved around what she was certain was going to be a fairly decent sized goose egg. For a moment she wasn’t even sure he was breathing and then he sighed, a deep, ragged noise that was followed by the air pressure shifting around them. Kaoru was beginning to recognize it as a sign of magic… at least here. The fingers in her hair untangled themselves and for a moment she thought he was going to help her sit up before the edges of claws scrapped her temples, followed by the warmly calloused fingertips. They pressed against her temples before moving slowly along her scalp to the edges of the knot – and left behind warmth and tingles that slowly faded the pounding in her skull away.
Then his hands were on her shoulders and carefully helping her sit up, fingers deliberately brushing against her body in ways that were not completely polite. The knot in her gut was slowly easing – and being replaced with those damn nervous flutterings – and even when she found herself leaning against his shoulder to catch her bearings as she reopened her eyes, none of her acidic like panic ate at her stomach with his presence. Carefully, she shifted so that she was a little more comfortable and glanced up at Himura through her lashes, trying to gauge his reaction. His eyes were still hot with temper but his jaw was no longer clenched so tightly she could hear his teeth grinding.
“This would be a lot easier if you could talk.”
He closed his eyes and leaned into her a little. She took a deep breath.
Tomoe had tried to kill her. Tomoe that thought she was hiding something. Something that was protecting the people here; Tomoe didn’t want Kenshin to find it. It had something to do with the garden.
She had called her Kamiya Kaoru instead of Kaoru Kamiya. Maybe that was a hint…
“And I’m sorry I don’t…”
That was as far as she managed before she found herself sprawled in his lap, cheek pressed up against his chest. His body was vibrating with the force of his growl and her hands flexed against the shirt she had caught between her fingers in an instinctive reaction to balance herself. His nose slid down the side of her face and settled just below her ear, where he snarled.
For a moment, she was too startled to move. Hot breath ghosted down her cheek and neck; fangs pressed lightly against her skin and for a moment she felt the animal. Something primal warmed her stomach and left her feeling breathless. And it pissed her off. She was tired of being bullied around and she was not attracted to this… this… well, she was tired of being bullied. It was time she did something about it. Letting go of his shirt, she reached around to his back, fisted her hand in his hair and jerked.
His head pulled back and yellow eyes narrowed as she stared up at him. This morning was not going well for her. She had done what she thought might have been magic, Tae was being bossy in the kitchen, Tomoe had tried to kill her and now this… man was being irritable with her because she was trying to apologize.
“Stop it.” Her tone was sharp and she met his glare head on. “I am not a child to be pushed around, Himura. I can apologize for things I am responsible for, regardless of your opinion.”
His lips lifted away from his teeth and she tightened her grip on his hair. “No.”
One of the hands that had been resting on her hip slid around to her back and up her spine before his long fingers encircled the back of her neck. Claws pricked hers skin but she held his gaze.
“I am tired of being bullied.”
His hand stopped moving – even if the claws were digging in lightly – so she took a deep breath and continued.
“I am not happy about this situation, I don’t like being unaware of what is going on but I am most certainly not keen about slowly fading away or being murdered, either. Tae said you won’t hurt me…. Not on purpose anyway and that she can’t help me figure out what is going on. Is that true?”
Something flickered against the corner of her mind – a delicate scrap of claws or teeth; not unlike the sensation of voices in the garden – and then he relaxed against her, body uncoiling. She hadn’t even noticed that level of tension until it was gone. She almost swallowed her tongue in surprise when he offered her the line of his neck, watching her from those lazy yellow eyes.
She rather thought that was a yes.
“I want my ward back.” She hadn’t even noticed it was missing until now. She wondered what it could have done to protect her from Tomoe.
A low level vibration rumbled between them.
“I don’t know who has it but…” She tilted her chin at him. “I won’t be defenceless next time that… Tomoe decides she wants to kill me.”
The teeth at her throat surprised her. He moved too fast her to follow but she was starting to get the feel for this sort of communication. He was responding like a predator. Instead of struggling like every bone and muscle in her body demanded, she unlocked her muscles one by one until he was supporting her weight. She couldn’t quite unlock her death grip on his shirt or the muscles in her thighs, but he seemed to notice the attempt and a warm tongue replaced his teeth.
With her throat bare to his mouth – the way her heart was hammering in her chest was making it hard to hear herself think – she tried again.
“I’m not saying that…” she paused when the fingers that had tangled in her hair moved warningly and she decided to change the subject. She was sprawled across his lap and his mouth was moving against her neck in soft, butterfly tingles and she was finding out that her lungs weren’t working properly. She had to force each even breath and she tightened her hold on his hair. He made no move to release her and even with his fangs scraping gently across her skin, his hold was surprisingly gentle.
His posture didn’t appear to be threatening and his fingers were moving in soft circles against her scalp. The last of her muscles relaxed and she found her nose pressed up against his neck as he continued to hold her.
He was so damn warm.
Shutting her eyes, she reminded herself that he had his fangs against her neck and… but maybe he could… if she could only learn to understand what he was trying to tell her. Misao would never forgive her if she went and disappeared and… she wouldn’t forgive herself if she let something small like the fear of a slow, painful death stop her from getting out of this mess.
Because that was all this was.
“Can you help me with the flowers?” Her words came out softer than she intended and she swallowed to work moisture into her mouth.
His arms slackened and her eyes flew opened, startled, when the tip of his tongue traced her pulse before letting her slide down away from his mouth. His eyes were filled with the look from the dream and she swallowed, hard.
Taking a deep breath, she explained herself.
“Tomoe seems to think that there is something in the garden that is dangerous to her. I don’t know what it is although I think you do.” He didn’t even blink. “So what we need to do is fix everything so that she can’t figure it out until we find a way to get out of here.”
Slowly, gaze never leaving hers; he helped her sit back up. Her muscles felt a little watery but he didn’t seem to mind the way she used his shoulder to push herself to her feet. Brushing off her pants – she winced when dirt flaked off her fingers and to the mostly clean floor – she was startled when he caught her hand, staring at the edges of her fingers. They were bruised and one finger nail was caked with blood.
“Oh, they’re fine; don’t…”
Deliberately, gaze on hers, he sucked the tips of her fingers between his lips. The soft, velvet strokes of his tongue had her eyes widening, knees locking in place as he deliberately took his time with each finger. Her breathing had deepened without her permission and when he finally let her hand go and looked at the other, she tucked it behind her back.
There was no reason that her stomach should have those sorts of butterflies.
Swallowing at the expression in those damn eyes she took a slow, very deliberate step away from him, angling her body towards the door and hoping it hid the way she her knees wobbled just a little.
“Shall we?”
X
Misao curled her fingers around her mug of weak tea and stared at the shivering woman in front of her. Taking another hot sip, she leaned back. The doctor was still refusing to meet her eyes and that was fine.
“I’ll spring for some pie but you’re going to have to start talking. This isn’t a reward system for lack of results, you know.”
“I wasn’t aware this was a reward system at all,” The woman said finally, sounding tired.
Misao smiled, over the edge of her cup. “Oh, it’s not. But I figure if I get something warm and edible in you, you’re less likely to faint on me.”
That roused the woman enough for her to straighten her spine.
“I…” her words died as she finally met Misao’s gaze.
Misao kept her expression pleasant. “Let me make this clear so you understand exactly what is going on, alright? Two days ago our time, my best friend and the mansion she was in disappeared. I want them back. You’re going to help me figure out how to do that or I’m going to take you back to my apartment and give magical interrogation a shot.”
The full mouth thinned. “You won’t break me.”
Misao shrugged and took another sip of her drink. “Probably not, but what I will end up doing is splattering you about one piece at a time. I am a terrible conventional mage but I’ve sort of figured out how to direct it, shall we say. And I’m going to be a lot better at directing by the time you and I are finished with that conversation.”
Megumi paled. “But… in the alley.”
“Oh that?” Misao brightened, reaching into her pocket and slapping down a fairly singed ward. “That was just a little misdirection. I’ve discovered I have a knack for that. But actual application of magic?” She wiggled her fingers with a huge smile. “Things tend to go boom. For the record though, I don’t want to splatter you. That will take time and my gut says we don’t have a lot of that left.”
“You can’t help them.”
Misao lifted a brow. “Oh?”
“No one can counter a curse over three hundred years old.”
Misao looked thoughtful and shrugged. “Did you try?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s hope I get real good at directing in the near future, lady, because we’re going to try again. Now why don’t you explain to me what happened?”
Megumi shook her head, lines around her mouth and eyes strained. “I cannot.”
Misao lifted a brow. “You do understand that the words ‘painful death’ usually don’t go so well with ‘slow’ in the same sentence?”
The healer took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. But you already know too much. Anymore could risk the life of your friend.”
“Her life is already at risk,” Misao said mildly. “I understand curses, lady. I do understand that you are limited and I may, on some level, even sympathize with you. But you are going to tell me what I need to do to help Kaoru.”
She went to open her mouth but what little color she had left in her face drained away. Misao hooked her foot around the healer’s ankle and twisted around. In front of the door at the coffee shop was a tall, sharp jawed man with cold yellow eyes. Pinned to his chest as an insignia that had Misao biting back a curse.
“Saitoh,” Megumi whispered.
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