Yusuke wasn't sure where he was going or why. He was wondering around Aerisia and it wasn't until he felt that strange void of energy and a dark and lithe figure sitting up on the kindom wall that he realized what he had been doing. He had been searching for her.

Blythe had come into the picture several years ago when Salvatore, a prominent member of the wolf-demon's royal family, had died by the hand of his mother and returned as a venatore. Yusuke wasn't entirely sure he understood exactly what a venatore was, but he had come to respect the handful he had met, including Blythe. After all, even though Fate dealt a shitty hand to them, they had still agreed to come back to protect humans instead of choosing an afterlife of eternal peace; Despite the world frowning upon them, they fought for the good side in the shadows, protecting the very same humans that feared them. If humans had any idea of the true monsters out there, they would realize the venatores were the least of their worries.

Even Yusuke was learning about a whole new branch of powerful creatures. Gods and goddesses, demi-gods and the various elite demons they had enlisted to protect them with the promise of immortality and power beyond imagination. Entire fleets of these demons existed with little to no vulnerabilities. It was truly a scary concept. Yeah, humans would have a jolly time if they knew just how far down on the food chain they were.

Having been human himself, he respected humans and believed in their unwaivering strength and hope. Koenma had once told him that it was Yusuke's humanity that had made him as powerful as he was and he had to agree.

Yusuke had barely noticed that he had walked up to the wall and was now looking up at the shadowy figure dressed in black. She hadn't moved since he had approached and he was beginning to wonder if she knew he was there at all. Maybe she's asleep. He wouldn't throw the idea away entirely, considering she was wearing the sunglasses that it seemed everyone wore now. He thought about getting himself a pair just so he wouldn't feel so out of place and naked. Her voice shook him out of his thoughts and he realized how wrong he was. "Are you just going to stand there and stare at me or are you here for a reason?"

Yusuke's eyes widened. Her throaty lilting voice reached his ears, sending a shiver over his body. Her voice had always done that to him and he had yet to figure out why. His eyes widened further when it clicked that she had asked him a question. A reason. I need a reason to be here that wouldn't sound creepy like I was a stalker. Think Yusuke. You are better on your feet than this. He jumped up onto the wall next to her and lowered himself into a sitting position beside her as he shrugged. Really? A shrug? That's all you can manage? He chastised himself as Blythe tilted her head to look over at him with an eyebrow raised. She's expecting you to answer, doofus. Say something! "No reason." You suck, Yusuke Urameshi. You totally and completely suck beyond all previous levels of sucking!

He sighed slightly and looked up at the darkened sky, the three dim moons giving the area the slightest glow. It was a struggle to see anything. "How can you wear sunglasses still when it is so dark?"

She returned to looking out at the land and Yusuke mentally smacked himself, realizing he had been watching her from the corner of his eye. You really want her to think you are just some creep, don't you? He yelled at himself but was silent once she spoke. "Our vision and hearing are heightened a great deal to allow us to hunt even in the worst environment. In turn, most light hurts our eyes. The sunglasses alievate that. That and our eyes are," she paused for a moment. "Freakish."

Yusuke tilted his head to the side. "They can't be that bad," he mumbled quitely.

She scoffed. "Trust me."

He shrugged continuing to look up at the sky, finally able to train his eyes to not fall back to watching her. Yeah, a pair of sunglasses could be useful about now. He stretched his arms before locking his fingers together behind his head. "So how did you die?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blythe flinch slightly. Great job, Yusuke. You really know how to make conversation. Why don't you ask her about her sex life and her age and weight while you are at it? He growled silently at himself. His inner voice was really starting to get on his nerves. "It's just that I know Salvatore's story and Stenton revealed his a year or so ago when Hiei came back. I was curious about what happened to you. Feel free to just ignore it though."

Yeah, that's right, Yusuke. Pressure her by telling her how everyone else is doing it. He huffed at himself. Oh, shut up! Suprisingly, he listened to himself but realized shortly after that that he was being ridiculous. Arguing with myself? Really? He sighed. He was pretty sure Blythe wasn't going to answer anyway. She pulled a leg up under her, resting her chin on her knee before she surprised him and spoke in her beautiful foreign accent.

"My husband literally tore the heart from my chest. It was the price for some god to grant him immortality."

Yusuke's eyes widened. He had thought Stenton had a rough time, but to be betrayed by the one person you are supposed to trust above anyone else? "That's awful," he said in a quiet voice.

She sighed and looked back up into the sky. "What is awful is most venatores have had a chance to exact their revenge on those that had wronged them. Since Erik is a God now, I'm not permitted to attack him, or even be in his presence. I think that is why I get along with Salvatore so well."

Yusuke nodded, understanding. Mukuro protected Carlotta so that Salvatore couldn't attack her, robbing him of his vengence as well. He sighed. The more Yusuke came to know about the world around him, the less he liked just how unfair everything was. Fate was one nasty bitch.

Here Salvatore, a pretty good guy, was forced to live in the shadows as a souless hunter, while his mother, Carlotta, who betrayed their kingdom and killed her own mate, was protected like some precious jewel.

Now he finds out that Blythe is thrust into the same existance for no other reason than for trusting her husband, while he was granted God-hood for murdering her in cold blood. It was enough to seriously piss him off. "It's so stupid," he growled as he brought his arms down to his sides, fists clenched in anger. He put up with a lot, but he hated injustice. He hadn't even realized he had spoke outloud until Blythe responded. "Such is life. The pain dulls through the centuries."

Yusuke arched a brow. "Just how old are you?"

Blythe leaned her head back in thought. "To be exact, four-thousand seven-hundred and twelve years old."

Yusuke's jaw dropped. "Man, and I thought Genkai was as old as dirt. Where did you live that long ago?"

She laughed quietly. "I grew up on the island of Thasos, the northernmost Greek island off the coast of Thrace."

He tilted his head. "So you were human before all of this?"

She nodded. "Even though Stenton usually hates human venatores, he still keeps company with me. He has yet to tell me why he doesn't hate me."

"How do you not go insane after being alive for all that time?"

Blythe laughed darkly. "If you knew me, I doubt you would think I am all that sane."

Yusuke frowned. "You don't seem too crazy."

He lifted a hand to his chin before looking over at Blythe in thought. Come to think of it, he didn't know much about her at all. As it turned out, he knew more about Nykairren, who barely spoke at all. It was strange that he hadn't noticed that before. Blythe tilted her head towards him to watch him quietly. Yusuke's eyes traced the patterns of the black tattoo that covered the entire left side of her face and body. Getting lost in the patterns, he barely heard her when she spoke "You have troubles of your own, it seems."

Yusuke frowned and tilted his head as he looked down in thought. "Sure, but doesn't everyone?"

Blythe looked back out towards the land. "True, but it seems this one deals directly with your heart. You wear the agony of your own betrayl in your eyes."

Yusuke flinched. He supposed turn about was fair play since he had asked her how she died but he didn't want to think about Keiko. "It wasn't much of a betrayl. She just didn't accept part of me that I couldn't change."

Blythe tilted her head as she looked back over at him. "Rejection of a loved one over something you can't change is one of the hardest forms of betrayl." she said, her quiet curiousity tinting her voice. "What happened?"

Her voice had been soft and careful, like she knew it was a hard subject. Yusuke sighed as he looked up at one of the moons in the sky. He supposed it was only fair that he told her since she had told him. "The woman I had loved more than anything turned her back on me because of my demon heritage. I was born human, and it wasn't until I died during a case I was working for Koenma that my demon blood woke up and brought me back to life.

"After that, it seemed like she wanted to completely forget about what had happened. Like she just wanted to go back to how things were before I was hit by a car and Koenma gave me my life back in exchange for working as a spirit detective. I couldn't figure out why, but I was restless in the human world. I couldn't stop thinking about this part of me that I had no idea what it was. I decided to go to the Makai to learn more about it and she hadn't been too hip on the idea.

"When I came back around two or three years later, she had been so happy to see me," he smiled softly, remember Keiko's smiling face. "It seemed like everything was good, but when I started to try to talk to her about my experiences in the Makai, she all but shut me out. She would change the subject, completely ignoring what I had said. We fought about it a lot before she finally told me that she just didn't want to know about that side of me. She believed that that part of me was evil and bloodthirsty. I tried to do everything I could to prove to her that I was still the same guy as before but she wouldn't listen to any of it.

"Finally, she gave up trying to pretend and walked away."

The silence stretched out before Blythe spoke quietly. "You deserve someone who accepts all of who you are."

Yusuke sighed. "Right, because humans love demons and demons don't regard half-breeds like trash."

"Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places. Perhaps you shouldn't be looking at all. From what others say, you find your soulmate after you have given up even trying to look."

Yusuke glanced over at her to see that she was still looking at the sky. "I guess so," he said as he sighed and closed his eyes once he tilted his head upwards. "Do you think your soulmate is out there somewhere?"

"Honey, I have no soul."

He flinched. He supposed that would be a problem. She spoke quietly with a sigh. "Besides, Enki forbids venatores to have relationships anyway. Too distracting from our cause. I've heard of venatores getting their souls back, and leading normal lives again, but for all I know it could be myth."

"Well, if there is a way, let me know. I'd be happy to help you out."

Blythe's eyebrows shot up as she turned her head over to him. "You would help me?"

The disbelief in her voice made him cringe. It reminded him a lot of Hiei. Acts of kindness had been completely foreign to his old friend. Yusuke was happy for him though. He had finally found peace in his life with Jen, the defiant little wolf-demon who went against her society to help then fight off the soul-sucking delphyr demons who had tried to take over human world. "Yeah, I would help you. Almost five thousand years of service should get something at least."

She sighed and looked away as she stood up. "If there is anything I have learned over my life span, it is that we rarely get what we deserve."

Blythe jumped off the wall to the ground and Yusuke jumped down in front of her to block her path. "Yeah, well, I happen to be pretty damn good at changing the shitty things that Fate creates. If there is a way to get your soul back, you have my word that I will do whatever it takes to get it for you."

Blythe scoffed as she looked down. "You are a good man, Yusuke, but some things can't be changed."

She moved to step around him and he caught her wrist, pulling her to a stop as he turned toward her. "I don't believe that for a second."

Blythe turned back toward him, staring at him, or at least he thought. What he wouldn't give to be able to see her eyes, just to know if she was actually looking at him. Without thinking, he reached his free hand up towards her glasses but she flinched away. "They won't scare me," he said quietly.

"That is what I am afraid of," she said, nearly inaudiable.

Yusuke tilted his head as he continued to stare at her. "Why?"

"I don't trust people. Believing no one could ever feel anything other than fear for me helps me to keep everyone away. I've grown accustomed to being alone and even like it that way. For someone to accept me as I am would just throw everything into a blender, allowing myself to open back up to be betrayed again. It is better to keep everything at a distance."

"I don't believe you are happy being alone. No one is," he said quietly as he stepped closer to her.

She was close enough now that he had to look down at her. She wasn't much shorter than him; No more than a few inches. She sighed as she kept her face pointed off somewhere in the distance to the side.

Yusuke's free hand reached for her sunglasses again, only she didn't flinch away. He carefully pulled them off her face. Thick black lashes were pointed at the ground. The hand on her wrist trailed up her arm to rest on her chin as he tilted her head towards him, her eyes still cast down at the ground. "You can trust me," he whispered.

After a moment of hesitation, she looked up at him, all of his breath escaping his chest. Her irises were completely black and in them, he could see the pain and agony of thousands of years of being alone. He could see the fire of anguish burning in her eyes from being cursed to a never-ending existance of darkness and solitude. It was almost enough to make him double-over in pain. But among all the things he saw in her eyes, it was the slightest glimmer of hope, that seemed buried and hidden by everything else that took his breath.

Without thinking, he lowered his lips to hers, a stab of fire shooting through his entire body at the contact. Blythe melted into him as his arms instinctively wrapped around her. His tongue acted on its own accord as it brushed against her lower lip. Her palms rested against his chest as her mouth opened, granting him access. Fire coarsed through his veins as he tasted her, their tongues moving together in a passionate dance. His fists clenched in the back of her shirt as her hands slid up to wrap around his neck.

With a powerful passion ignited in him, he backed her against the wall, pressing his body against hers as he slid a hand up to the back of her neck. Her skin was cool against his palm as he continued to taste her, exploring her mouth completely and memorizing every detail. Never had even dreamed of feeling this type of passion. It took control of him and made his head spin.

Much to his disappointment, she pulled back a fraction and he rested his forehead against hers. Their eyes locked for a long moment. Her hands slid back down to his chest, little electric waves following their path and she sighed. "I can't be saved, Yusuke. Save yourself the pain and forget about trying."

With that, she disappeared completely, leaving nothing but air in his arms and her soft, defeated words ringing in his ears. He leaned his head against the cold wall, pulling himself back together as the memory of how her lips felt against his assailed him. "Everyone deserves a chance at being saved," he said quietly. With a sigh, he turned and headed towards the palace, silently vowing to do whatever it took to save her tormented soul.

A/N~ So I have had this scene playing in my head for a little while now, and it was really starting to cause issues in trying to write for Blood Ties, so I decided to write it out and share it with the lot of you. If you haven't read Blood Ties, you may want to. It will give a little insight into what's going on, though I will be trying to write this so it can stand alone, for those who aren't really interested in reading Hiei's story (Though personally, I can't imagine why, but to each their own.) I've also left little tidbits in this excerpt of a few of the things to come in Blood Ties for my readers who have been reading up to this point. :) Yeah, that's right, I am introducing deities.

Additionally, I will probably write out something of a handbook on the side for the world I've kinda meshed with YYH universe as well as my thoughts on characters and situations, but don't worry! I will be releasing a chapter to Blood Ties very soon. With scene finally out of my head, I've started playing through how the next chapter of BT will go. Most of my re-editing is done, I just need to upload them to the site and replace the chapters.

If you have any questions or you are interested in receiving a link to this handbook (I can't publish it here since it isn't really a story. More like a dictionary...lol) I also wouldn't mind suggestions as to where I can post this guide without getting burned alive by site admins. Maybe a wiki o.o

Would love to hear your thoughts :)

Much love ~Jessa