Sequel to Phoenix
Dark Horse:
1. One who achieves unexpected support and success as a political candidate,
typically during a party's convention.
2. A little-known, unexpectedly successful entrant, as in a horserace.
AUTHOR: Macx and Lara Bee
DISCLAIMER: not mine. Definitely not! I just play with them and hope I tread on no one's toes.
Author's Voice of Warning (aka Author's Note):
English is not my first language; it's German. This is the best I can
do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize
g> The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how
trustworthy those thingies are...
ARCHIVE: yes
WARNINGS: Muraki + Enma-Daiou... not a good combination. Be ready for a nasty surprise.
References made to earlier stories in this series, beginning with Darkness Unleashed.
TYPE: yaoi
RATING: NC-17, just to be safe
FEEDBACK: empty inbox seeks emails g>
The pain had been less in these last few days. Physical sensations were no longer just the agony of healing wounds, of skin scarring, of muscles healing. It was by now suffused by the pleasure he felt coming from deep within his soul, stemming from his observation of his most favorite project.
A thin smile crossed the handsome face and the tall, slender man gazed at the wide expanse of garden. It was an illusion, like so many things, but if he entered the garden he would smell the flowers, could touch the trees, and he would feel the wind ruffle his hair. Still, nothing was real. He was encased in a bubble, a realm within a realm, and he couldn't leave. He could roam around it, but he could not enter the much larger dimension that housed his prison.
Everything was perfect here; everything. Even him. Healing from deep wounds, from burns so bad he should be dead, he was still perfect. The pain was perfect, too. It belonged to him.
"Enjoying the view?" he asked into the quietness of the whole setting.
There was a barely audible rustle of silk and then the very powerful presence of his keeper.
"You seem to," Enma-Daiou remarked. "How unlike you, Kazutaka."
Muraki grinned. "The entertainment is lacking."
"You're not here to be entertained."
"Ah, yes."
He should have died within the fires of the hell serpent, the black fire shikigami, but someone had saved him. He had been in agony from the wounds, but his mind had pierced through the physical sensations, had looked into the bottomless, black gaze of his savior, and he knew he was doomed.
The eyes of his master, showing no compassion, just the cold blackness of space, of the universe, of eternity. Eyes that were as cool as diamonds, just as sharp, and set into a face that was beautiful and disgusting him in one.
His master.
He sneered.
Enma-Daiou owned him, body and soul. He had taken him as his servant, had offered him a deal the young Muraki had been unable to decline, and he was caught in the intricate web this manipulative bastard wove.
"You are playing a dangerous game."
Enma-Daiou stepped behind him, not touching but very much entering his personal space. Then again, Muraki knew he had no personal space here. In this world, this prison, he was only alive because of the will of the Lord of Hades. He served a purpose and Enma had decided it wasn't over yet.
It was the only reason why he had saved him.
"By saving you again? Maybe. I just hate to see something that I so painstakingly cultured die so senselessly. You cost me too much to let you off easily with death, Kazutaka."
Muraki chuckled sardonically. Oh yes, he had been cultured. The last generation of a project Enma-Daiou had finally deemed complete. The only viable one among many. His madness had been planned, his fractured and jaded mind, his viciousness, his cold-heartedness and his immoral behavior.
"You freed him," Muraki murmured. "How intriguing."
"It was time. You played him very well, my pet. You pushed him right into my hands."
"He always was yours."
"As a shinigami, yes, but there is so much more to him, so much potential."
One long finger stroked over Muraki's neck, running over healing burn scars and the man shivered. Faint pain trickled along his nerve endings.
"He is in my hands, just like you are, but unlike Tsuzuki, you have only little more to offer to me."
He refused to show an emotion. Muraki thought it was a mistake to unleash what was inside Tsuzuki, to give him such access to a power that could flatten whole realms. Tsuzuki might be only half demon, but the power was enormous. Muraki had tasted that power before and found it delicious. He still wanted Tsuzuki, wanted to taste him, wanted to take that perfect body and show him heights only Muraki was able to let him experience.
Tsuzuki was a lab experiment. Enma-Daiou had changed one setting, had given Tsuzuki what he had been so afraid of, and he had bound him to his most dangerous shikigami.
Yes, life would be interesting around here, Muraki decided, trying to ignore the teasing caress that inflamed his still aching skin. Hell fire was vicious and while Enma-Daiou had kept him alive, his body was still human and healed slowly.
Enma knew that. Oh, he knew that only too well.
° ° °
Time passed in his little world of no-time. It was funny, actually. He felt like laughing sometimes, but only sometimes. Wounds healed, time flowed, and he was watching it all.
Outside, looking in. Or was he inside and looking out?
Muraki didn't care. He was a watcher who had no influence on proceedings, believed dead or vanished by the others, and sometimes he enjoyed his voyeuristic view of the shinigami serving Enma-Daiou.
He definitely enjoyed Tsuzuki.
The delicious soul was starting to become even more interesting than before. When he had first laid eyes on his prey he had been fascinated by his appearance, especially the amethyst eyes. Later, he had touched and tasted this delightful specimen and he had craved more; always more.
But Enma-Daiou had reined him in. Too bad.
Muraki watched.
He watched the bond grow between Tsuzuki and his shikigami, the shikigami that had nearly destroyed him in turn. The fires of Hell still showed their marks on him in form of scars Enma refused to mend and let disappear. Muraki didn't care.
He watched as Hisoka's bonds to his partner became more intimate and he smiled to himself. Yes, the boy was delightful as well. Such a nice pair.
And he witnessed the freedom of the most dangerous shikigami ever to be born.
It made him laugh.
Enma, my friend, I think you didn't plan that, he thought with a mad touch to his mind. Not at all.
Muraki was too good at being what he was not to let an opportunity like this pass.
"Feeling gracious today?"
The voice held a definite note of mockery and unnaturally colored eyes sought out the target of the words.
"You know what you're doing, right?" the taunt continued with an almost leisurely quality. "You're creating a monster."
"The monster is already there," Enma-Daiou only said, smiling coldly.
"Ah, yes, the beast of his heritage, the demon blood. But you are forming it, you are setting it free." The unnatural eyes danced with mirth. "It's just not going according to plan. He still has control." A chuckle could be heard. "You never thought that bonding him to Touda would actually give him mastery over the darkness, right? You thought darkness and darkness would combine, tear out of him, create what you've been waiting for so long."
Enma smiled more. "He can't escape destiny."
"Destiny, fate, manipulation, whatever."
The white-clad figure shrugged, walking over to a delicate piece of art. Slender fingers ran over the smooth marble.
"You're losing, Enma, and you know it. You can't get to him. He's no longer playing your game. Your pawn has started his own rebellion without even knowing it."
"I never lose."
"Of course not," was the sarcastic reply.
No, Muraki thought sarcastically, you never lose. But there's a first time for everything, my dear Lord of Hades. Even for you.
And then Tsuzuki surprised them both, even Muraki, as he had to confess.
He confronted Enma over something as menial as a servant to the eternal being. Muraki only laughed mockingly.
° ° °
Tsuzuki Asato stood in front of the residence of Enma-Daiou, the Lord of Meifu. He had been here once before, seeking answers to questions that had plagued him ever since Muraki's words about his past. About his genealogy. Well, back then he had come out of that conversation with his powers unleashed, Touda bonded to his very soul, and a lot more problems than before.
And the understanding that Enma-Daiou was a manipulative bastard.
Now he was back, without really wanting to be here. He needed answers only one person could give him, and he doubted he would get them easily.
tbc...