You find the most wonderful things in the least expected situations…
He was known as the manslayer with the speed of the gods. Hitokori Battousai, the most powerful and fearsome figure of the Bakamatsu. Even the name was enough to send shivers of fear down a grown man's spine.
She would kill him tonight.
She was ready, she told herself as she was escorted to his chambers. The silence was only broken by the silken blue of her western style dress swirling around her feet. It was low enough in the front, with a slit high enough on one toned leg to make the guard walking with her blush and babble like a school boy. A silver snake coiled itself around her golden arm, and her ebony waves were pinned up in a severe knot, stabbed with pins adorned with jeweled ornaments. A silky veil hid her face, showing only her navy eyes above the material, but they were enough to guarantee her beauty.
And she felt the cold lethal burn of her knife's sheath upon her thigh.
"Your quarters for tonight, my lady," the guard bowed deep as he opened the ornate doors. She bowed in turn and surveyed the room with a critical eye as the door clicked shut behind her. The futon was made with military precision, neat enough to make her think that one might have never used it at all. There was little light, and so the only thing she could dimly make out was a sword rack, bearing the hitokori's katana and his wakizashi. She walked silently over to them and ran a delicate finger down an elaborate sheath. For the first time that night, she shivered. She could almost feel the power radiating from them. How many lives had he taken with these weapons? How much blood had he shed?
He had shed too much, taken too many. It would stop with him.
Sensing that she was not alone, she turned slowly to be met with a pair of glowing eyes.
For a terrified instant she could do nothing but stare at him. With only a single burning candle as a light source, his shadowed face looked like a demon prince's face, flaming red hair and golden cat eyes freezing her to her place.
"So you are the one I picked this morning?"
His voice was smooth as a babbling brook, with the dangerous undertone of a raging waterfall. She could only nod dumbly, and forced herself not to gasp when he stepped closer.
In the light he was gorgeous, fine features and an angel's face. A harsh cross-shaped scar on his cheek was the only thing that saved him from the burden of complete perfection. She unconsciously backed up until the hard wood of the wall was pressed against her back, fascinated by the predatory expression on his face as he followed.
"Frightened, little one?"
Annoyed by his condescending tone, her chin came up in immediate defiance, azure gaze meeting his head on. "No."
A smirk graced his mouth as golden eyes darkened swiftly in approval. He leaned forward, lips brushing her ear as she felt her heart hammer.
"You should be."
And he swallowed her gasp with a savage plundering of her mouth.
Straining against him as his hands and mouth worked magic, she cursed when she noticed that his legendary hands were inching under her skirt by means of that cursed slit—and towards her knife. Struggling was in vain, as his slight form hid surprising strength.
"You move too fast, Battousai," she panted, wincing as he used tongue and teeth to wound and entice. "Let me…"
Her voice trailed off, eyes widening as he practically threw her on the futon, breath rushing out of her lungs as she landed hard on the thin mat. He smiled, a slow, feral curve of the lip as he watched her shove her disheveled hair out of her eyes. He liked this look on her better; the glittering of annoyance in her eyes, face flushed, chest heaving, and hair wild and free- no trace of the cold and proper geisha remained. How wrong that had looked on this girl, he mused, tossing his own red bangs to lock his own heated gaze with hers.
To his slight surprise, she smiled, a small one that spread softly across her features.
He was more than a little wary as she slinked across the mat, the veil giving her the look of an enchantress. He found himself on his back, and cursed at himself for letting his guard down just for a pair of indigo eyes.
Then her lips found his and he could not think of anything at all.
She was a dash of cool water; she was a spurt of hot flame. She was everything that Himura desired in a lover. Snapping his eyes open, he nearly cursed to see that the crumpled veil still hid almost her entire face, and throwing his head back as she moved a trail of fire down the column of his neck, he moved as to rip it off.
Her laughter was smoky and intoxicating as sake as she nimbly caught his questing fingers in her own.
"Again, Battousai, you move too quickly for me," she admonished.
His eyes were like molten gold, causing shivers to go roll down her spine. A wicked smile darkened his gaze and she felt faint.
"I like speed."
Blinking in shock, she found herself with her back on the silk covers of the mattress, and cursed herself. How could she let her guard down for a pair of amber eyes? She was on a mission too important to be distract-
Oh, my…
His mouth was at her throat, his hands everywhere at once. Desperate, she clenched the sheets and bit her lip to keep from losing her mind. Gasping for breath only to have it lost to her again, she managed somehow to reverse their positions, which he did not seem to mind. Mind still hazy due to his rough administrations to her fevered skin, she groped for her tanto blindly, nearly crying out in relief when her fingers caught the leather belt that strapped that blade to her thigh.
He had worked her dress off of her shoulder, and was currently working on the long range of clasps that ran from the neck in the back. Panting for breath, she slid the knife out without a sound. As he brought his lips to hers, she faltered for an instant.
But it was an instant too long.
Gasping, she again found herself sprawled on her back, eyes wide in horror.
His face was mocking, with a humorless smile that did little to compliment his blazing eyes. The blade was in his grasp now, his free hand wrapped around her slender throat.
"And what do we have here."