Chapter Six
Every
fiber in my body wanted to gasp in surprise, but I swallowed down
that instinct before it had the chance to surface. My throat ached
from the effort, but I couldn't have them being suspicious of me.
Though by attacking their vertically challenged friend, Hiei, their
opinion on me couldn't have been the best. Not the way I wanted to
be remembered by the Reikai Tantei.
I had to suppress a physical slap to myself when I realized that I had loosed a true growl. Hopefully they hadn't heard it, or were too caught up in watching my actions to notice, but I knew that probably wouldn't happen. If they were as powerful as Koenma made them out to be, then they knew I was no ningen. Plus, my growl wasn't exactly a meow, either.
The shortest one, Hiei, was studying me intently, both with his visible eyes and hidden one. The Jagan was concealed behind the white sweatband and carried many abilities with it, one he was attempting to try on me now. As soon as I felt the gentle prodding of someone trying to get into my mind, I cleared my head of thoughts that could bring attention to themselves. Creating a mind block would've been too suspicious in the eyes of the ill-tempered fire demon.
After he had thoroughly searched through my thoughts and not found anything interesting, he pulled out and settled for glaring at me instead. I didn't have a problem with it. In fact, I glared right back.
My hopes of not being interrogated about the growl were dashed when Kurama glanced at Hiei briefly, probably having a telepathic conversation, and said, "So, you're a demon?"
I was about to retort with "What's a demon?" in a futile attempt at trying to conceal my identity, when Genkai surprised us all and said, "She's no demon."
Her voice carried the tone of knowing more than the ones she was talking to, and I knew she had figured out what I was. If she was training the great Yusuke Urameshi, I wasn't surprised she was able to sense my…race, if you will. She glanced at me briefly before crossing her arms and setting her gaze on the four men in front of her. I had a sneaking suspicion, and I was going to voice it.
"You knew what I was all along, didn't you?" I asked, eyes narrowing.
"I had a feeling," she replied.
There was a silence in which I leaned my back against the tree I'd been originally knocked out of and began throwing my dagger up and down, carefully avoiding touching the blade. Though it was my weapon, my race still couldn't interact with man-made things. Now, we could touch cement, or fabric, or such, but they weren't things we were used to. Cement and concrete weren't harmful to us; they were just preferred not to be dealt with. Metal shaped by human hands I couldn't touch at all without being burned by it. I wasn't complaining; human metal-making was primitive.
"You can't just have that conversation and leave us hanging there," spoke up Yusuke angrily. When I made no move to answer, Genkai sent a glance my way. I nodded and put my dagger away in its holder on my leg, intent on listening to the upcoming discussion.
"She's an immortal," answered Genkai.
"A vampire?" asked Kuwabara.
I snarled and flickered in front of him, not bothering to hide my sharp canines from view. He shrieked, sounding amazingly like a female, and jumped in surprise. I would've found it funny if what he'd called me wasn't so insulting. I roughly grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled, bringing his face down to my level and glaring right into his eyes, my anger at its boiling point.
"I am no vampire," I hissed.
"Then why do you have fangs?" he asked in a tiny voice.
If he thought that was bad, he should've seen me when I was really angry.
"That, ningen, is none of your concern, nor will it ever be," I growled before throwing him over my shoulder and onto the ground.
I wasn't very fond of vampires. I admit, my race was closely related to them; in fact, we were cousins, but we didn't exactly see eye-to-eye. I didn't know where it started, I didn't even know how it started, but there had been an ongoing feud between vampires and my race since as long as I could remember. We both drank and have superhuman strength and such, but there were many differences between us. My race couldn't walk in the moonlight, while vampires couldn't walk in the daylight; my race tended to have a strong bond with animals, while vampires tended to eat them. Metal made by human hands was our weakness, wood was theirs.
These are some of the reasons why Kuwabara calling me that was so insulting. It was demeaning for me to be called one of those…things. Especially when I had a bad history with them.
Having burned out my anger by taking it out on Kuwabara, I straightened and calmly brushed my kimono off. I began walking back to the tree I'd sat in, been pushed out of, and leaned against, when I heard the whistling of something coming towards me. Fast. My hand leapt up, as if with a life of its own, and grabbed the blade of the katana that had been sailing through the air, intent on cutting my head off.
My eyes snapped up to see two crimson ones glaring back at me. It hadn't been one of my neater catches, and the katana had cut into my palm, which was easy to tell since was dripping in a steady rhythm to the ground. Hiei and I stood there for a few seconds before I took a step backwards and let go. In my peripheral vision I could see Kurama wince at the sight of my hand.
I clenched my fist, holding it up next to my face for Hiei to see, and reopened it. The cut had disappeared and the skin had completely healed over, nothing left to signify I'd been injured except for the few drops of on the ground. I lowered my hand to my side before smirking, turning on my heel, and walking back to the temple to see if Yukina needed anymore help with preparing lunch for everybody.
Still walking
away, I grinned and couldn't help thinking, Emerald: 2, Hiei:
0.
It'd been
three weeks since my little encounter with the Reikai Tantei, and I
avoided having another one like it at all costs. Whenever they'd
visit the temple I'd make sure I kept out of sight, fleeing to the
forest or going to the secret hilltop I'd discovered with Braelyn.
Speaking of my guardian angel, I hadn't seen her in the longest time. Maybe I'd really hurt her feelings speaking like that back on the hilltop. I couldn't help it though, she knew I didn't like other people's sympathy; it made me feel too weak.
I hadn't seen Hikaru, either, but that didn't surprise me. He often disappeared for months at a time to travel to the Makai. Honestly, sometimes that boy could get on my nerves. Although, I could be just as infuriating when I truly wanted to be. I guess what goes around comes around.
"Emerald, could you pass the pepper?"
I looked up from the cucumber I was chopping for the salad I was making long enough to spot the pepper to my right, pick it up, and hand it to Yukina. Botan, Yukina, Kayko, and I were making dinner for ourselves, Genkai, and the Reikai Tantei, who still had no idea I knew that they were the spirit detectives.
I picked up the wooden cutting board the slices of cucumber were on and pushed them into the wooden salad bowl with the blade of the knife. I glanced at the salad before realizing, with a scowl, that it needed another cucumber. I picked another one up and cut the cucumber into slices once again, the blade moving incredibly fast. I dumped the slices into the bowl and picked up a carrot to start on.
"They're going to be so surprised!" squealed Botan. She was practically jumping up and down in excitement and I watched the knife she was holding warily, just waiting for something bad to happen. She was helping me in my long quest to fill up the salad bowl with vegetables.
"They're going to love it!" grinned Kayko with just as much enthusiasm.
"For how hard it is, I hope so," I muttered to myself, knowing they were too wrapped up in their own to listen to me. They'd become tolerable enough for me to be around. I had so easily fallen into their personalities. There was just something about these three women that I found amusing.
I threw some more lettuce into the bowl and stole the pepper back from Yukina to sprinkle it lightly over the top of the salad for some flavor. If the boys didn't like it, too bad. I wiped the back of my hand over my forehead. Yukina was stirring a soup she was boiling on the stove while checking on a turkey she had in the oven every five minutes and Kayko was practically slaving over a chocolate cake she was making.
Kayko was so jittery about the men coming that I was amazed she hadn't messed something up already. It was obvious to anyone with a brain that she was hopelessly in love with Yusuke, as he was with her. They never really talked about it with anyone, but one glance and you knew they were together. Their eyes lit up and their cheeks flushed when you mentioned something that even sounded like the other's name. I was just waiting for Yusuke to propose to her, as was the human custom.
I hadn't fed in those three weeks and I knew I needed to by the way I kept getting headaches. The women already knew I needed to survive, but that didn't mean I wanted to feed while I was guarding their temple. I was too afraid something would happen in the amount of time it took me to go to town, lure someone into a secluded area, and drain them. It could take an hour for all I knew; an hour I wouldn't be protecting them. Although, since the Reikai Tantei were coming to dinner to tonight, maybe I could feed right after dinner. The temple would be guarded by them and I could get my fill.
"Emerald, could you check to see if they're coming?" asked Kayko, smoothing the frosting on her cake and making sure no spots were left uncovered.
I nodded and wiped my hands on my apron before walking out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and into the main room of the temple. I slid open the door to come face-to-face with Kurama. I blinked in surprise before quickly sliding the door shut again and walking back into the kitchen, leaving very confused Reikai Tantei behind me.
"They're here," I announced calmly.
I watched in amusement as the kitchen immediately exploded into action. Messes were cleaned, bowls and knives were thrown into the sink to be washed later, and the dinner was quickly shuttled from the kitchen to the dining room. Wanting to do something, I quickly picked out nine spoons, nine forks, and nine knives from the silverware drawer. Unfortunately, my hands weren't large enough to carry all of them, so I had to dump the utensils unceremoniously into a carrier I made by holding the end of my apron, making sure I covered my hand with a rag before I touched them so I wouldn't be burned. I quickly rushed into the dining room and placed one of each by each of the plates. The women had already rushed off to change into something else.
With a sigh I walked out of the dining room and into the hallway while untying my apron. I lifted the apron off of me and draped it over my arm, walking slowly towards my bedroom. I twisted the knob and opened the door and immediately my eyes widened. Clothes were strewn everywhere, and some were still in the process of flying through the air. I blinked once and looked to where they were coming from to see the three women themselves digging ferociously through their clothes to find something to wear.
"How about this?"
"Oh, this is so adorable!"
"Does this go with my eyes?"
"Where did I put my kimono?"
"I can't find my obi!"
"Does anyone have a hair tie?"
Honestly, I don't know how they could get so worked up about a simple dinner. If anyone should be nervous, I should for slamming the door in the men's face. I couldn't help it though; I knew the women would kill me if I let the men into the temple when they were still unprepared. Knowing Yusuke and Kuwabara, they weren't going to let me live that down. I watched the three ladies, amused, leaning against the doorframe with my arms crossed. When the women were finally done dressing themselves they turned to walk out the door, smiles on their faces, took one look at me, and frowned. Before I could speak they were pulling me into the room and searching for an outfit for me.
When they started tugging at the bottom of my shorts, I backed away.
"I'm fine, I'll go in this."
Unfortunately, instead of warding them off like I hoped the statement would, it only made them more persistent. Their mouths were set into firm lines and I knew no matter what I said they would eventually get me into the outfit they'd picked out for me, which, as far as I could see, was a very short dress.
I tried edging around them towards the door, but the next thing I knew something slammed into my side and I was being pinned down to the bed. Before I could speak a word of protest, I was lying there with nothing but my underclothes on. I was wrenched off the bed by my upper arm at the same time something slid over my head. When I finally realized what it was, it was too late for me to take the dress off; and, with a sudden stab of , I saw just how short it was.
"I will not wear this," I growled.
"Oh, yes, you will," shot back Botan with such ferocity I swallowed my rude words and sat there as they put a few finishing touches on their own outfits.
"Ready?" asked Kayko in an overly cheery voice. She pushed me out of the room and I snarled warningly at her before beginning to make my way to the dining room.
Then I froze.
I couldn't go there in there in my state. Walking around in this poor excuse for a dress in front of Hiei and Kurama, two male demons, while I was in heat was practically asking - no begging - for a mate. Unlike our vampire cousins, my race contained demon , which means we got all the lovely side effects to go with that part of us. My race mated like normal demons and, unfortunately, the females also had heat cycles like normal female demons.
I also couldn't attempt to explain that to the women. I was pretty sure they knew about females in heat, but it would just be plain embarrassing if I had to explain to them that I could barely control myself during those times as well. The best I could hope for was to sit as far away from Hiei and Kurama as possible and then avoid talking to them for the rest of the dinner.
This was going to be a long dinner.
I waited for the three ladies to catch up to me and then fell to the back of the group, trying to hide myself as much as I could. A strand of hair fell into my eye and I brushed it away at the same time an ever familiar voice exploded throughout the temple. I winced and covered my sensitive ears with my hands.
"Oi, Emerald! Why'd you close the door on us?" shouted Yusuke. I stood on my tippy-toes to try to look over the heads of the three women, since I was much shorter than them, and could just barely see Yusuke's angry face.
Before I could speak up for myself Kayko grabbed my upper arm, quite roughly, might I add, and pushed me to the front, leaving me to deliver the surprise of the dinner we'd made. I couldn't really blame her, she could barely talk without stuttering nervously whenever Yusuke was in the room. I stumbled and caught myself for the second time today before turning my head around and giving a true growl, causing the ladies to shrink back. Happier now that I'd released my anger, I turned back to the Reikai Tantei, tugging on the bottom of my dress to see if it would go any lower.
"We made dinner," I muttered. Someone nudged my back and I had to keep myself from strangling them. Louder, I snarled, "The humans forced me to engage in a less-than-desirable act, consisting of cooking food for the disgusting lot of you, and now you're going to eat it whether you like it or not."
Then I strode past the group and into the dining room, hesitating for a moment as the others trailed in behind me. Botan shot me a venomous glare when she caught sight of me, probably because I'd ruined the surprise a bit, but I just sniffed and turned my eyes away in boredom.
"Yukina, my love, this is perfect!"
"Did you seriously make this without burning the temple down?"
"This is very thoughtful of you, thank you."
"Hn."
I quickly claimed my seat at the end of the table while everyone else began seating themselves. Luckily, Hiei and Kurama sat at the other end, opposite each other.
"Where's grandma?" asked Yusuke, not bothering to wait for her and beginning to pile food on his plate. Kayko rolled her eyes at his actions.
"Right here, dimwit."
Genkai appeared in the doorway and walked to her place at the head of the table, beginning to place food on her plate. When she was done everyone immediately moved into action and began taking what they wanted. I pulled the ladle out of the soup bowl and began filling a tinier bowl with it. I needed to feed, so my appetite for any other food was completely gone. I felt a tiny bit of regret, too; the turkey looked delicious. Instead, I settled for taking tiny sips of soup to make it look like I was at least making an attempt to eat, making sure I wrapped the handle of the spoon in my napkin so my bare skin wouldn't touch the silver handle.
"How was your day today?" asked Yukina politely.
"A demon got loose in the Ningenkai today," said Yusuke, shrugging, before beginning to shovel food at an incredible rate into his mouth. I had to wonder if he even chewed it. My head snapped up at the news and my eyes widened in surprise.
"Where?" I questioned sharply.
"Huh?" answered Yusuke, pausing in his eating to swallow and answer me.
"Where did the demon come from?"
"Uh…the Makai…"
"No," I snapped, irritated, "which part of the Makai?"
"What?"
"Honestly, are you always so dense?" I growled. "The Makai has separated into a northern Makai and southern Makai; which one did the demon come from? Well?"
"The Makai separated?" spoke up Kuwabara.
My gaze flickered to him for a second before I answered, "Yes. Urameshi?"
"I…I don't know."
"How could you not know?" I said, the level of my voice rising.
"Emerald, why does it matter so much?" asked Kurama, making his way into the conversation. By now, everyone had paused in the eating to watch the interaction between me and Yusuke.
"It is a matter that is quite important to me. That is all that should concern you," I snarled, turning my anger on him. "Do you know, Shuichi?"
He shook his head and I furiously pushed my chair away from the table, ignoring the stares from everybody, and stormed out of the room and out of the temple. As soon as the fresh air hit my face I was immediately calmed. The outdoors seemed to do that to me. I turned around and slid the door closed before holding my hand in front of me and creating a portal.
I didn't really remember who I fed on, or how many people I fed on, but I knew as I walked away from the portal I'd exited from in the forest and towards Genkai's temple that I felt much better. I was also happy I'd finished all of my feeding before the sun had gone down. It was setting at this moment, but I didn't have to worry about the moon for another fifteen minutes at least. I sighed and broke through the trees to see the temple standing before me. I knew they were going to be angry with me, probably furious, but if they knew why I'd been so intent on knowing they'd understand. Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to tell them the reason, either.
I boldly slid open the door and walked inside to see everyone seated around on couches and chairs, Hiei being perched on the window seat as usual. Their heads all turned to me at the same time and we stood there staring at each other for a few seconds before I moved into the room and slid the door shut behind me.
"You have
something on your cheek," said Yusuke finally.
Instead of
retorting, I chose to completely ignore him and instead strode
silently across the room and down the hallway towards my sleeping
quarters. I slid the door closed behind me and then sat down on my
futon, wiping my cheek with the sleeve of the dress I was still
wearing. I looked at the substance that had come off and shrugged. It
was just a bit of .
I was contemplating turning in for the night when a sharp knocking brought me back to reality. I glanced to my doorway and didn't see anyone. I thought I must've been hearing things until the knocking came again – louder this time. I realized it must be coming from the main entrance to the temple. Curious as to whom the new person was, I lifted myself off my bed and shuffled to the doorway and down the hallway. When I reached the main room I stood in the entryway and leaned against the wall, my eyelids feeling as though they weighed a few tons. The one who'd answered the door was Kurama, though I couldn't see who had knocked in the first place.
"Wow, Mister, you have really silly hair," said a high-pitched feminine voice, probably a child. The only problem was the child had a little lisp, so it came out sounding like a series of hisses.Kurama chuckled and replied, "Yes, but I've grown quite attached to it."
"Anyways, would ya like to buy some cookies?" she asked in that lisp.
I was curious about this little . Why would she come all the way up here to a temple completely cut off from the rest of the city, when she could simply walk around a neighborhood going door to door? I furrowed my eyebrows and pushed myself away from the wall, now more awake. I walked up behind Kurama, ignoring Hiei's eyes following me as he fought down his instincts for mating, and stood on my tiptoes to peer over Kurama's shoulder.
The child was no taller than four feet tall, and wore Barbie Velcro sneakers, jeans with an elastic waistband, and a red zip-up sweatshirt with the face of Tweedy Bird on the front. In her hands she held a box, probably filled with the cookies she was trying to sell. Her thin, light brown hair was in a loose, high ponytail, held up with a bow just as bright of a red as her sweatshirt. Ocean blue eyes twinkled up at me when she spotted me peering at her over Kurama's shoulder.
"I'm fine, but thank you anyway," answered Kurama, a little suspiciously. Apparently he was just realizing the oddness of a little coming to Genkai's completely unannounced. He was about to close the door when the child began speaking again.
"Hey, Miss! Whadda 'bout you? You wanna buy some cookies?" she asked, smiling. When she smiled I noticed her front two teeth were missing and two new ones were just barely poking through the skin.
Kurama turned around to face me and I felt a moment of panic, wondering what his actions were going to be with us standing so close together. When his gaze landed on me he nodded politely before his eyes widened the tiniest bit. His normally green eyes flickered gold for a second or two before they went back to normal and he turned to walk back into the main room, a distracted expression on his face. I looked back down to the child to see her still grinning at me.
"I'm sorry, but-"
"How 'bout I give ya a free one anyways," she interrupted, shoving something into my hands. I was about to give it back when I realized she hadn't given me a cookie, but a piece of paper. I blinked at it, confused, before looking back to the mysterious child. She grinned, her eyes flashing a pale orange, before giggling, "Well, gotta go!" Then she was skipping back down the stairs and out of my sight.
I gazed down at the paper in hand for another second before clenching my fist around it to hide it from view, sliding the door closed, and turning around to face the occupants of the main room. I nodded at them, my way of apologizing, before striding back to my room. When I opened the paper I saw it to be an envelope with a sticky note attached to it. The sticky note read:
Lady
Theda,
This came for you from the toddler himself. Whatever it
is, it seems important. If you can bring some friends, you know who
to invite!
I smirked, knowing from the sense of humor and handwriting that it was December who wrote it, and gazed at the envelope. In bold letters, right on the front, it addressed the recipient of the letter as "Lady Emerald Theda". I grunted and ripped open the envelope. A piece of stiff paper that was a rectangle four inches long and three inches wide fell out and onto my bed and the message stared back at me in extravagant letters.
10th
Anniversary of Team Urameshi
Prince
Koenma cordially invites you to attend the 10th
anniversary of Team Urameshi at the Spirit World castle. The above
mentioned event will take place on July 13 at five in the evening. It
is a formal event, so please be aware that your choice of clothing
must be appropriate.
I crushed the invitation into a ball and flicked it into the trashcan in the corner of my room, angered Koenma was too scared to contact me in person about an event happening the following day. If he had to rely on my soldiers to deliver a simple message to me, then the pacifier-sucker wasn't worth my time. Who cares what people would say about me if I didn't attend?
Okay, maybe I cared about their opinion a little bit, but my own anger and history with the prince was enough to make me hesitate about accepting the invitation. We went way back, and most of the history between us wasn't good history. Koenma and I had had many disagreements.
I lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, causing my eyelids to droop with sleepiness as soon as I did. Before I fell asleep, I couldn't help but think, To hell with it; maybe I will go.
