a/n Hi everyone! Nanowrimo went well enough last month. I still have my other writing program going on right now, but I have a bit more free time than I did last month so I'm updating this story. So sorry to leave you with a cliffy…I'm notorious for that. Anyways, I won't bother you with more chatting. On to the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin or the work of Feehan.
The two men growled, it rumbled deep in their chest and resonated loudly. 'Stay away from him for a while, Firecracker.' Kenshin said to her and Kaoru felt the pull of his mind as she slowly walked towards him. The amber in his eyes swirled and slowly faded away, leaving behind hard eyes. 'Not that I don't trust him with you…just…' he trailed off, but Kaoru already knew their issues.
'This is stupid, you two are the closest of all the men, brothers in fact. Why are you fighting?' Kaoru paused at her lifemates side and touched the anger that boiled around Kenshin, trying to soothe it. It burned like a hot coal in her hand, but she refused to back away.
'It happens.' Was all Kenshin said. He bowed his head, very slightly, to Sano in thanks for watching his woman; He then grabbed Kaoru's hand and nearly hauled her further into the woods. Kaoru looked back in time to see Sano vanish back into the dark forest.
"Well I think it's stupid." Kaoru muttered, falling into step with Kenshin.
"It is. This whole thing had us on edge, Lifemate. One moment we were going into the battle of our lives, the next, a battle to save a woman's life. Forgive us men for being edgy." His cruel tone was lost on Kaoru; she could feel the frayed nerves. He really had thought Aoshi had turned against them and that they would have to kill him. She felt his fear, the doubt in him that they would be able to overpower the ancient. They would have died, all three of them, and what would happen to the women? Kaoru, Megumi and Tomoe would be left alone to defend themselves, if they survived the death of their mate. Knowing his doubt, Kaoru felt she should be a mess as well, but she held it together somehow, calm and soothing. Perhaps she was finally old enough to harness such powers, like Tomoe.
"I understand where Sano is coming from." Kaoru offered. "And I understand where you are coming from as well." They kept walking, falling into a moment of silence. Kaoru could feel the turning emotions, could see them flickering behind his hard purple eyes. "On one hand, Aoshi needs to be put away for his own protection, as well as the protection of others. On the other hand, we have to think of his lifemate, when she wakes up how will she react to Aoshi's absence? Will it be healthy for her, mentally? But if Aoshi is close to the darkness, even with his lifemate, will it be healthy for her, physically?"
"Well Hiko laid down the law. Sending Aoshi to the Earth and giving him a few months until he can rise. Until then, the girl is our responsibility."
They walked in silence for a while, their home coming into view. "What are we going to do with the girl when she wakes up? We can't keep her, can we? I mean she must have a life, a family who must be worried about her."
"We have to keep her safe, Kaoru."
"Well can't we keep watch over her from afar? She's going to be miserable enough with half her soul locked in the earth, at least she can be miserable in her own environment with people she knows and loves around her."
Kenshin glanced at her as they crossed the yard and made their way to the back door. "You are always the merciful one." He said with a slight smile. Kaoru smiled back and shrugged, it was who she was. "It's Hiko's decision ultimately, Firecracker."
… . . …
Dust brown hair, bent spine and a pleasantly wrinkled face. Yahiko stood in front of the two Carpathians that had been his family for over seventy-five years of his life. And though he was now close to eight-five years old, the two Carpathians had hardly changed in the slightest. Kaoru had hardly aged a day past seventeen, she only became more mature and beautiful looking as her power grew. He loved his supernatural family as much as he had loved his own. Though Yahiko had made peace with the fact that the end of his life was near, He felt sadness and pain, not for himself, but for Kaoru who would be devastated when he finally left this world. But until then, he was spending as much time as he could with her.
"Dear Yahiko. We have a favor to ask you." Kaoru said, taking the hand of the elderly man, remembering the bratty little boy that he use to be. Time had taken his youth, his strength, his wife and his eldest child. His only family now, his youngest child and his grandchildren lived on the other side of the country. Yahiko now once again lived with Kaoru and Kenshin, content to live out the rest of his days with them.
Aged, but bright, clear eyes gazed into Kaoru's sapphire ones. "What now Kaoru-chan?" A hint of a smile.
Quickly Kaoru retold the story of how they found Aoshi with his lifemate clinging to life and how they had healed her. "We need someone to watch over her in the middle of the day, while we must sleep. Can you take care of her?"
Slowly Kaoru watched as Yahiko's bent spine slowly lifted, hunched shoulders were suddenly thrown back and the man seemed to have grown half a foot and appeared a decade younger. Finally, a mission for him once again.
"I would love out help out in anyway possible." Yahiko glanced at Kenshin. "How long will Aoshi be in the ground?"
"A few months, but no one really knows, it's up to Aoshi, that it is." Kenshin said.
Yahiko nodded, understanding instantly the importance of watching over the girl. He knew that lifemates needed each other and they would be torn and in pain if separated for too long. The elderly man felt sympathy for the unconscious stranger.
"We don't think she'll be a problem, but we have her restrained to the bed incase she wakes and isn't…whole." Kaoru muttered, lids lowering.
"You don't know if she's psychic?"
The two Carpathians shook their heads. The gravity of the situation suddenly weighed heavily on all three of them. Kenshin patted Yahiko on the arm. "Come, Yahiko. Pack and I'll take you to Sano's."
The man nodded and turned to gather his things, suddenly light on his feet, as if the joint pain from arthritis in his hips and knees no longer affected him. Kaoru turned to her mate, eyes full of sadness. "I hope every thing goes well, for everyone."
Kenshin wrapped his arms around Kaoru, flooding her with warmth and assurance. He wanted to tell her that everything would be fine. But Kenshin knew better to make promises that he wasn't sure he could keep. And he couldn't lie to his lifemate. "So do I Firecracker, so do I."
… . . ….
Misao glanced around but all she could see was grey, hazy shadows shifting around her. What was this? What happened? Where was she? Where was Aoshi? She couldn't remember much and that frightened her. The young woman glanced down. She was in her blue ninja outfit, clean, dry…as if nothing at all had happened. But she knew something did happen. Her body ached, a soreness that ebbed from deep inside of her. She put her hands up, they were shaking, cold. Her whole body was cold.
A dark shadow slinked in front of her. Misao gasped, eyes darting around at ever moving grey hazy blobs. Echoing laughter surrounded her as shadowy dark grey arms stretched from the haze. Long, bony fingers stretched from long bony arms, reaching for her.
Misao inched back as the fingers grew. Deep, unsettling fear filled the pit of her stomach, it bubbled up from her throat until it threatened to choke her. Unable to stand it any longer, Misao turn and ran. She bolted through the wispy, shadowy haze, looking back to see the black shadow slowly following her.
Misao…
The echoing laughter grew as Misao ran faster. The girl looked left then right but all she saw was shadows. What was wrong with her? Misao had never been this afraid before. Her father always taught her to stand and fight. Misao swallowed and forced her feet to stop. She turned on her heal and faced the dark shadows. But just as fast, the haze faded away as if being blown by a gust of wind. Voiced echoed, soft, far away voices.
… . . …
"And this monitors her heart rate and breathing." Megumi pointed to a tiny green screen. Wires hung from the machine and were attached to the girl with small white adhesives. Yahiko nodded, already knowing most of this information, having spent many times in the hospital when his wife was ailing. The creature in the bed seemed too small to be the lifemate of Aoshi, the Dark One. She reminded him of his granddaughter, sweet and innocent.
"You don't have to stay down here all the time." Megumi went on, snapping the elderly man out of his thoughts. She handed Yahiko a small monitor to snap on his belt. "Keep this with you, if anything starts to go wrong, it will alert you. All you have to do is look in on her every hour. Make sure the machines are working, that's she's breathing and such. She'll need IV fluids to keep her body fed." The healer indicated a clear bag hanging over the bed. "It will need to be changed every three hours, they are kept in the other room. Can you do that?"
"Don't worry Megumi, I remember all the things you taught me." The old man gave her a crinkly smile. Megumi smiled back.
"Alright Yahiko, I can see that we already picked the perfect person for this job." Megumi checked the girl once more before leading the man back up to the kitchen. She touched him as they climbed the stairs, just a friendly gesture that hid the fact that she was taking away the pain from his joints. In the kitchen she showed Yahiko a small TV screen that showed the room below. "Always check to see if the girl is awake before you go down there, it's best to be ready."
"Why is the woman restrained?" Yahiko asked. Sure he was an old man, but she was a whip of a child what could she do?
"We don't know if Aoshi tried to convert her to a Carpathian. Because it seems he was not in his right mind, we don't know if she's a real psychic and can handle the conversion. When she wakes, she could very well have lost her mind."
Yahiko rubbed the small set of scars on his forearm. The last and only time he fought a female vampire, she nearly chewed through his arm. "Understood." He said.
… . . …
Misao crouched down, covering her head with her arms. The voices had faded away, and with that the shadow came back. Hissing whispers and distorted echoing laughter brought such pain and discomfort deep in her body. She peeked out and saw the bony arms and fingers reaching out to her again. Stretching, reaching, wiggling fingers curved wickedly into claws. The shadow hands touched her and Misao felt icy fear lance though her heart. Pain shot to every part of her body. She wanted to be sick but couldn't. She fell back and scrambled away from the shadowy hands, scrambling on her hands and knees. "No!" she cried, but the sound of her voice fell dead on the thick grey haze around her.
As she got to her feet Misao looked to find a second set of shadowy fingers reaching out from a different direction. These though, seemed attached. A large black figure that lurked in the grey haze. Misao couldn't make out its shape, but could see slanted red eyes glaring out at her, almost laughing with their evil upward curling. Misao didn't wait for it to reach across the distance for her. She turned and ran, pushing past the haze that chilled her body and made it hard for her to breathe. Pain prickled on her skin and she looked down to find what looked like thousands of tiny bone arms and hands crawling over her skin.
Misao screamed, flailing and smacking herself to sling off the tiny stabbing fingers, but more just crawled on. The black figure with shadowy hands moved closer, and Misao screamed again and tried to run, but found that the tiny hands were now too strong and she was rooted where they held her. They crawled up her legs and under her clothes and into her hair. She gasped as the dark creature loomed up high over her head and a dozen tiny bone hands dove into her nose and mouth, choking her, suffocating her. They stabbed at her eyes, blinding her.
… . . …
Monitors beeped a loud, fast warning, but the Carpathians had already felt the girl's distress. Megumi, Tomoe and Sano rushed into the room, Yahiko not far behind, moving as fast as his old body would let him. Megumi rested her hands on the girl, placing one on her head and the other over her heart. "She's struggling to breathe. One of her lungs has collapsed."
"What? Why?" Tomoe touched Megumi, lending her strength.
"Maybe I missed an injury?" Megumi mused as she calmed the girl as she struggled for breath.
"I doubt that Megumi. You're meticulous." Sano said gently. Yahiko moved to the far corner of the room so as to stay out of the way and watch with fascination. Carpathian healing always amazed him.
Everyone was silent for a long moment, the monitor's alarm clicked off and the beeping slowed as the girl's heart rate slowed to a more normal pace. "There." Megumi opened her eyes and backed away from the girl. "Her lung is healed." She checked the monitors one more time even though she already knew her condition. "Hopefully there won't be anymore surprises."
… . . …
Misao coughed and gagged as the memory of the tiny bones packing into her throat refused to leave her. What was this horrible place? What happened to her? And why was she in so much discomfort? It was as if she wasn't in her right skin. Misao sat up and held her hands out in front of her. They were her hands alright, her same skin, same clothes, so why this strange feeling? Misao took the chance to look around now that they grey haze was gone. The area was a white void, but in the distance Misao could almost make out the outline of trees. Greenish shadows a few yards away covered by a thick white mist. She got to her feet and stood for a moment afraid that her weak legs wouldn't hold her. But after a moment she took a few wobbly steps and her legs grew stronger with each one.
Yet no matter how far she walked, the white haze still covered everything. Ever so often a tree would suddenly loom up clear and when she touched it, it was solid. Yet the canopy of leaves above was still shrouded in the white mist as was the ground at her feet. Gentle voices spoke now, not the dark hissing voices of before. Misao looked around, trying to find where the voices were echoing from.
"Hello!?" She called, her voice falling dead against the mist. "Hello! Anyone out there? Can you hear me?" But no one answered. Misao felt the weight of suddenly loneliness as the voices droned on without her. As the voices started to fade, she could see the gray haze pressing in from the distance. And in the haze Misao could spy the glowing eyes and sharp shadowy fingers reaching in anticipation. "Go away!" the girl shouted, her feet moving, carrying her deeper into the white fog, trying to run to the voices and away from the strange monsters. "This is crazy." She panted to herself. Where the Hell was she? Was she dead? Was this purgatory or something? The white faded away faster than she could run, and try as she might, she couldn't transform into her wolf. She could still feel her wolf, deep inside as if sleeping. Yet for the first time in her life, it would not stir to take over.
Her body quickly started screaming for air and her legs burned like fire and she had to stop or risk them folding under her. The white faded away and the voices slowly went silent. The gray haze washed over her and with it came the hissing dark voices. "Leave me alone!" She shouted at the glowing eyes as they slowly loomed closer.
'Over here.' Whispered a voice in her head. Just a soft brush of words that hardly made it past the panic in her mind. Misao whirled her head, seeing the fleeing white mist. She struggled to her feet and made her exhausted legs move. 'Quickly.' The voice urged her on. The shadowy fingers stretched to a hideous length, reaching out to her with grasping hands. The red eyes narrowed and the shadows moved faster.
'Misssao.' The horrible things hissed out at her. Then the echoing laughter returned as the creature gained on her.
'Pay no attention.' The soft whisper pushed away the strangling fear, and guided her around the now dark trees and dips in the ground. Again her legs burned and ached, she was beyond trying to breathe and just let her screaming lungs suck in air as much as they could. Tears trailed down her hot face, but try as she might, Misao felt as though she was hardly covering any ground. It was as if her feet were weight down with lead, every step was a struggle. 'Don't give up.' The voice called to her, but Misao was too tired. She couldn't go anymore. Falling back to her knees, she tried to crawl, but even that seemed like too much for her weak body. She fell to lie against the hard ground and the shadows descended upon her. Their echoing laughter deafening now as the cold, sharp, branch-like fingers clawed at her.
"Nooo!" Misao felt cold stabbing fear, pain as the shadow fingers dug into her back, griped her bleeding flesh and dragged her deeper into the darkness. Misao clawed at the ground with her fingers but she was too weak to fight it.
… . . …
Sanosuke bumped the refrigerator door with his hip to shut it. His arms full with a carton of eggs, a pitcher of orange juice and a bag of various vegetables. "Remember when you went on your first major vampire hunt?" he said as he set the items on the counter next to Megumi. She quickly went to work cooking human food with them. His dark brown eyes swung over to the old man at the table.
Yahiko chuckled, "I do remember, you deserted me in the middle of the forest." He shot Sanosuke a disapproving look. "And then you jumped out at me in that bear form. I thought I was going to die."
"Well it took the fight right out of you. That's what I wanted."
"You still don't think humans are able to fight vampires?"
"I know they are not able to fight vampires." Sano corrected as he beat a bowl of eggs with a pair of cooking chopsticks just as Megumi had instructed as she threw the chopped vegetables and some orange juice in the pan to cook. "Hope you can eat whatever Megumi is making you for dinner, Kid." Sano said and got an elbow in the ribs from his lifemate.
Again Yahiko let out a cough to muffle his laugh. But just then, the monitor that was hooked to his belt started to beep. The trio stopped and they all glanced at the tv monitor sitting on the counter. It showed the girl, resting peacefully, but obviously something was wrong. Megumi snapped off the stove and vanished, Sanosuke vanished right after her, leaving Yahiko to take the old fashioned way down to the lab. He made his old body move, happy now that the pain in his joints had somehow vanished, so he was able to move much easier. The girl had survived her first night, she made it though the day without a peep and it was hardly more than a few hours into her second night. Yahiko wondered what could be the problem now. By the time he made it to the lab, the beeping had stopped and both Megumi and Sanosuke were calm. But their eyes told a different story. "What happened?"
"Her heart rate accelerated high enough to trip the alarm." Megumi said, her hand still resting on the girl's forehead. Her hair was damp and suck to her sweating face.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure. There was no reason for it. She's not bleeding internally, nothing wrong with her brain, her breathing is fine." Megumi retreated to the back room where other monitors were printing out an endless sheet of paper mapping the history of the girl's heart rate, brain activity, and muscle movement.
The old man turned to Sanosuke. "It was nothing dangerous, though, right?"
"Truthfully it's not something to really worry about. Humans all seem to have these sorts of fits and starts, but you know Megumi, she worries about ever little thing. And after the episode yesterday, she doesn't want to take any chances. Understandably so. This is Aoshi's lifemate we're taking care of." He added in a darker tone and Yahiko blinked at him and gave a knowing look.
Yahiko turned to gaze at Megumi as she quickly poured over yards of paper with wavy lines, numbers and grids. Though her moves seemed frantic, Yahiko knew she was absorbing every little detail in her calm, collected manner. "I'm not seeing anything that could have triggered such a spike in her heart rate." Megumi said as she glanced at the sharp peaks and valleys that was the girl's heart rate on the paper. Sano walked closer to the girl and hesitantly set a hand on her forehead.
"Could she be in pain?" Sano closed his eyes.
Yahiko watched as his brows furrowed and his lips turned further downward. "Is she?" He glanced over as Megumi stepped up beside her lifemate and touch him on the arm.
"She seems to be anxious." Megumi said slowly. "But she's unconscious. How can that be?"
"It could be her soul." Sano informed her, removing his hand from her forehead. "Her soul is still active even if her body is sleeping. Even more so if she's had Carpathian blood."
"And you didn't think to ask Aoshi before you shoved him in his prison did you?" Megumi snapped. "It would have been nice to know if he gave her blood or even the number of times he bit her." But her voice lacked any real bite to it, as Sano already knew just how upset Megumi was at his attitude with Aoshi. But even so, Sanosuke looked put out and his shoulders slumped.
Yahiko couldn't help but watch in amusement. He knew Megumi would be angry with her lifemate for about ten seconds before she forgave him; such was the way of lifemates. But until those ten seconds was over, Sano looked and felt thoroughly dejected.
"So she could be upset or anxious about something, it's causing her body to react this way." Megumi stated flatly. "Attacked in the night, locked in a coma with strangers around, what could possibly trouble this poor girl's soul." Megumi shot Sanosuke another glare as she fixed the white cotton blanket draped over the girl. "Maybe it's the fact that the other half of her soul is now locked away in the ground somewhere away from her."
"Okay I shouldn't have assumed Aoshi wanted to attack this girl, I'm sorry." Sanosuke finally gave in. Yahiko held his tongue, though his face showed his obvious humor at Sano's predicament.
… . . …
Misao stretched out on the ground, gasping for air. Like a choir of angles, the voices returned and brought with it the white mist that chased away the evil gray haze and black shadowy monsters. Misao lifted her head, surprised to find that she was not bleeding. The sharp stabbing fingers of the monsters brought so much pain that she was sure she was bleeding to death when the voices returned. Sore, tired, and afraid, Misao rolled over onto her stomach and forced hers knees under her and then forced her body to get to its feet. Her body wobbled as she took her first steps. She was just so tired, tired of fighting and running away from whatever those shadows were. Her body and mind was exhausted. She stumbled across the vast field of white, looking for that voice that called her. She knew the voices wouldn't last forever and the darkness would return.
Trees loomed out of the white mist suddenly like soldiers in the fog and they vanished just as fast behind her. "Hello!?" she called, glancing over her shoulder, waiting for that grey haze to emerge from the distance.
… . . …
"Well everything seems to be stable now. I need to get back to Yahiko's dinner." Megumi said, slipping past her lifemate and making her way back up the stairs.
"Sorry buddy, I tried to stall her as much as I could." Sano clapped his old friend on the back. "Looks like you're stuck eating whatever it is she's making you up there."
Yahiko chuckled, "Trust me, Megumi can't possibly make anything worse than my wife when I first married her. I had to choke down a few months worth of burned and ruined dinners."
"But you enjoyed it?"
"Every brunt meal."
… . . …
The haze rose up from the horizon and with it, Misao's fear. Kami, no more…no more pain. Enough already. She ran after the voices, begging them to stay. Already her body was growing tired and heavy. The aches and pains were returning as the rolling dark fog ate up the ground, quickly gaining on her. "Please" she called, turning away from the sight. "Where are you?" she reached out with every fiber of her being. She knew the welcoming voice was near, she could feel it on the edge of her soul. Almost as if she was brushing it with her fingertips but just couldn't reach.
'I'm here.' The voice brushed her mind.
"They are coming back." Misao nearly sobbed. She normally wasn't this weak, but she felt so defenseless here. She couldn't fight shadows, but the shadows could hurt her. She relied on her beast for brute strength and courage, but no matter how far down she dug, she couldn't seem to find her wolf. Her blue eyes shimmered with tears as she recalled the pain she had just recovered from. This was like torture, seeing this dark thing rolling closer to her, knowing the extreme pain and horror it was going to do to her body.
'Don't think about it.' The voice caressed her mind, stronger this time. 'Keep searching.'
Misao nodded to herself, forcing her legs to move. She would find the owner of this voice. If it could protect her or not, it didn't matter, as long as she wasn't alone with this pain anymore. But already the weight was bearing down on her. She had lead in her legs and arms and she worked hard to keep moving, she wasn't going to give up, she refused.
'That's it.' The voice was stronger now. 'Look inside yourself.'
Misao didn't panic as the first knife shaped shadows stretched across the ground. She reached deep down. She didn't find her beast, but she felt something pulling her, if she just walked a little more, if she turned at this next tree. She turned to look over her shoulder.
'Don't look back.' The voice warned gently, but it was too late, Misao had already seen the dark shadows rushing up at her faster than ever. Already her sides ached with the idea of those sharp fingers plunging into her side, digging into her lungs and small prickly creatures crawling down her throat and up her nose and infesting her insides. Horrified, Misao pushed her body until she could no longer feel, and for one moment she thought she was going to faint but she turned around a large cluster of trees and a living mound of a creature raised it's long neck, blinked at her and opened one wing in welcoming safety.
A dragon.
A glittering black western style dragon with huge blue eyes and shiny night blue wings. Wicked black horns curled up from the base of its skull and arched upward, spiraled, like unicorn horns. Tears fell from Misao's eyes as all her strength left her. She saw the ground rushing up at her and then one giant leathery wing blocked out everything.
a/n Oh dear, Misao seems to be locked away in her own personal Hell. Luckily there seems to be a friend there for her. Yahiko went from boy, teen, man and now an elderly grandfather. Trippy huh? It's so hard to think of Yahiko as old, and it's hard to write it too. Next chapter, Misao settles into her personal hell with a strange companion. Thanks for reading everyone! Reviews are loved.