Chapter Two

Intruder in the Garden

Shiemi gingerly brushed her fingertips against the wound on her neck. Tears springing to her eyes from the sharp sting of pain. It had been three weeks since the training camp and while everything had settled down again, the mark had hardly healed. According to Shura Sensei, it would probably take weeks to heal and even then it would leave a mark. She had said there was a type of toxin in the saliva of demons that slowed down the healing process.

She didn't remember anything after the demon larva had taken control of her body. But Shura Sensei had explained what had happened and what the wound meant. The Demon King of Earth had claimed her as his own all for the sole purpose of antagonizing Rin. Shura Sensei had gone on to explain that while usually demons only took the occasional human lover, every once in a while, a demon would claim a human mate. She had then been told that Amaimon had disappeared but if he returned she was to report it immediately.

Shiemi prayed that she never saw that monster again. She had been plagued with nightmares of him ever since it happened. But surely he wouldn't. He had only used her after which she had been discarded. What was worse was that Shura Sensei had warned her against forming a relationship of any kind. If Amaimon returned he might kill her and her lover. Demons viewed their marked humans as property and could get territorial should someone threaten to take it from them.

How would she ever tell her mother that she was married to a demon. The tears that had gathered in her eyes finally spilled over as she bowed her head. At least only Yuki and Shura Sensei fully understood about her situation, her classmates thought it was all over now that he was gone.

XxX

Amaimon yawned before popping a yellow candy into his mouth. It was one of the pieces from a handful he had snatched from his brothers candy dish. It appeared this one was a lemon-honey flavor, honey was one of his favorite flavors after watermelon.

The sound of a door opening and shutting alerted him to his brothers presence. He ignored the entranced and continued to concentrate on the flavor of the candy in his mouth.

"Amaimon." He greeted as he moved about his office.

Amaimon offered up a halfhearted wave but said nothing. Only when he felt a large hand clasp his shoulder did he turn to face his brother. Mephisto wore a smile that promised pain. "So my little brother finally took a wife. And one of my darling little students no less."

Maybe he hadn't thought that course of action through as much as he thought he had. Mephisto had kept him in limbo for the last several weeks until everything had calmed down in the exorcist ranks. Deciding the best course of action was silence, he popped another candy in his mouth. This time the flavor was lime-coconut.

"Tell me brother, what do you plan to do with this woman?" He went on, squeezing down on his shoulder painfully.

Really, he didn't have any plans for this woman. She was merely convenient for provoking Rin and should the need arise all he would need to do is fetch his woman and dangle her in front of his brother.

As though reading his mind, twin purple eyebrows lifted in disbelief. "You're just going to leave her?"

"I have no use of her except to lord her over Rin." He answered bluntly.

Unlike some of his brothers and his father he had never taken a wife. There were vary few high level female demons as they mostly died during child birth from mating with a stronger demon. Usually with his father, brothers and even some of his cousins. Human wives were meant for carnal pleasures while demon wives were meant for siring progeny. Amaimon had always preferred to release his tension in battle and so had never bothered with females of either dimension.

A hard smile that looked as though it might crack his face replaced the disbelief. "Clearly, you don't know what you've done. Tell me, do you know the laws of taking a wife?"

Because Mephisto was starting to look manic, Amaimon answered. "When a woman's been marked no other may pursue her. The woman is henceforth bonded to the man until death. If the vows are broken the one responsible may be put to death. If another seeks a marked mate than he shall also face death." Everyone knew that, Amaimon didn't see the point Mephisto was trying to make.

Digging his fingers in to Amaimon's shoulder he hauled him over to one of the office windows and pointed down to the students milling about. Immediately his eyes zeroed in on the half demon, his brother. He was running across the courtyard waving his hands and attracting attention from the nearby humans. He only stopped when he reached a female in the school uniform. It took him a moment, but he soon realized the female was his bride. Jealousy surged in his veins at the sight. He may not care about the human but she was marked as his.

"It's a shame Rin doesn't know the rules." Mephisto said from directly behind him. "But whether either if them know the rules or not, if you kill them, I'll kill you."

The desire to remove Rin's heart and eat it in front of the woman was maddening. "I understand." Even if it was his right, Rin was under the protection of their older brother.

"You must do what you must. But do not reveal yourself to our youngest brother."

Spinning on his heels, Amaimon walked out of the office, grabbing a handful candies on his way out. Apparently his wife needed to learn her place.

XxX

Shiemi wiped the sweat from her brow and gave a small sigh of satisfaction. Looking around her garden she saw that the sun had already started to set without her noticing. Her mother was in town shopping and without her to remind her, Shiemi had missed dinner entirely.

Looking back down she smiled. If her mother had been here to call her inside for supper than she never would have had the time to plant her poppies. They were vivid shades of red and orange and they filled her heart and garden with delight.

She began to gather her tools so that she could head in for the night when she felt a presence behind her. Her whole body tensed in fear and the grip on her gardening shovel tightened. She closed her eyes and prayed for strength before spinning around on her knees and swinging the shovel wildly.

It was worse than she could have imagined and she let out a shriek of terror before stumbling back and falling on her rear in the dirt. The gardening shovel was held lightly between a thumb and index finger with long dark nails. Teal eyes moved from the makeshift weapon to her, making her whole body quiver in fear. Please anybody but him.

Sitting on his haunches was the Earth King Amaimon.

Shiemi willed her body to move and to run as far and as fast as it could carry her but it seemed completely frozen in his presence. He continued to stare at her with that blank face. Shiemi was sure he was planning on the best way to make her scream. But he continued to stare at her and made no moves toward her.

Gathering her meager courage she forced herself to speak. "R-R-R-Rin is-isn't h-here." She was stuttering so awful that it surprised her she managed to finish the sentence.

His head tilted to the side slightly. "I'm not here for him." He stated bluntly.

All breath and blood seemed to leave her. If he wasn't here to pick another fight with Rin then that meant he was here for her. This time she did get her limbs to move and she scrambled away from him before making a mad dash to her house. Her traditional attire making it difficult. Though what could a locked door with minimum barriers do against him?

She never made it to the house, a single hand closed around her wrist stopping her. She almost ripped her arm out of the socket in the process. Hot tears welled up in her eyes before pouring down her cheeks. There was nothing she could do, she couldn't summon her greenman and no one was around to save her. She was powerless and completely at his mercy. Turning around to face her worst fear, she saw that the demon was watching her still with the same empty expression.

"A-Are you going to k-kill me?"

"No."

Shiemi searched his face for some sort of clue but found nothing. He was like a stone wall. She looked down at her wrist that was still in his hand and couldn't help but wonder at how warm his skin was, warmer than was normal. She tugged her arm weakly but he didn't let go. Biting her lip she forced herself to look back up at the demon

"Why are you here?" Her voice had finally steadied but her dread continued to grow. Him being here could only be bad.

"You are my bride."

She whimpered and tried to pull her arm away again to no avail.

"It occurred to me that as a weak human, you wouldn't know the rules of marking." He went on. The wound on her neck throbbed painfully at the reminder. "You are mine now. No other may touch you."

Was he talking about Yukio?

"My brother has made it clear that I may not kill Rin. But if he continues to pursue you I will protect what is mine." He went on to say, his elongated fangs glinting dangerously in the fading light oh the sun.

Rin? Why would Amaimon think he was interested in her. "He's just a friend!" She pleaded. He needed to know the truth. Rin had gotten lucky last time but Amaimon was one of the Eight Princes and had been around for hundreds of years.

"He is infatuated with you. That is the reason I choose you."

It was a truth she already knew but it still hurt to hear. Of course, she still thought that Anaimon was just looking for another reason to pick a fight with Rin. They were just friends.

Amaimon tugged on her arm to bring her closer to him. She gasped at the sudden closeness of the demon and attempted to move back to a more comfortable distance, like the other side of an army of exorcists. It was an attempt in vein though as his hold was absolute.

Shiemi whimpered when he moved her collar down to reveal the bandaged wound. Amaimon swiftly yanked the bandage off and let it drop to the ground. He prodded the bite mark with one of his finger nails. Pain erupted from the spot and spread like wildfire. Crying out she fell to her knees, clutching the wound.

He finally released her wrist and watched her a moment as she willed the tears away from her eyes. "This is the only warning I'll give on the matter." He said. And then just as soon as he'd come he was gone leaving her alone in her darkened garden.

With him gone, she let the tears pour down her face and soak into the grass. The pain mixing with the grief caused her to become a sobbing mess. She couldn't let Rin or the others know he had returned, not when everything had just gotten back to normal. They would only try to fight him and die in the process. She was useless as an exorcist. But if she could protect her friends by keeping him at bay, then maybe all of this was for the best. She would bear this burden for her friends it was the only thing she could do now.

A/N

Alright, this time someone leave a review. Please let me know what you think. As it stands I'll be discontinuing this if no one expresses any interest.