Guest: Here's the new chapter! Enjoy.
Vampire Ronin: If only Sage knew. Just wait until later when Emily nearly gives him a heart attack. OOPS! Spoiler alert. Hehehe Thank you for your lovely compliment. I only speak a few words in Japanese, actually. All the translated stuff is from Google Translate. I throw it in there occasionally just because. Just for argument's sake, I am going to say the snake is from the Nether Realm. Enjoy!
CHAPTER TEN
Warning? Walking to the house? Wait for next message?
"Argh!"
Rowen brought his hand up to his face and rubbed at his temple. There were multiple papers splayed across his desk with multiple words and messages starting with "Wa." After Cye had found the cloth, Rowen had brought it home to analyze the chemicals. It turned out that the combination of chemicals was a weaker version of the sleeping serum he had created.
"Would Emily have been knocked out for long?" Sage had asked.
"I don't think so. It was probably used for short transportation. So she's still nearby somewhere," was what Rowen had said.
Rowen had been wearing himself down to the ground with worry with trying to figure out the rest of Emily's message. Everyone was trying to do their part with locating Emily. Ryo was down at the University talking to students that had seen Emily while Kento was following up re-tracing Emily's steps from the University to the road.
Sage was down at the police station checking up on old cases to see if any of them matched up to what had happened to Emily (while trying to keep things quiet from his father). Rowen couldn't be sure what Cye was up to, but he imagined it was just as important. Rowen closed his eyes and continued to rub the side of his head.
Rowen's door creaked open and Cye poked his head in. He shot his friend a flop sided grin before coming all the way into the room.
"You need to get some rest, Rowen," Cye said. "You're working yourself into a frenzy."
Rowen shook his head firmly.
"I have to figure out what Emily was trying to tell Sage. It might be the key to figuring out who has her," Rowen protested.
Cye came over and slapped a hand over the paper he had been scribbling on. Rowen frowned up at his friend and moved the hand holding his pencil but Cye caught it in his other hand.
"We'll find her. You can be assured of that. But we won't be any help to her if we're all dead tired. Sleep, then come down for some food."
Rowen released a deep sigh but agreed that he needed the sleep. He pushed himself away from his desk and laid down on his bed. He cracked a smile when he felt his friend throw a blanket over him.
"Thanks, 'Mom'."
Rowen's laughter grew when Cye picked up a pillow and wacked him in the head. 'Mom' was an occasional nickname for Cye when he was acting overly motherly to one of the ronins.
/…/
She watched in fascination as a shallow cut on her forehead healed before her very eyes. Emily stood in the bathroom cleaning her hands up. She had cut them up pretty bad in her fight against Sekhmet. Thank the Heavens Ryo had given her a couple of lessons with his katanas.
Emily gritted her teeth as she pulled a small piece of wood out of her hand. She would have been a lot worse off if Sekhmet hadn't been suddenly called away. He had stopped his attack without warning, then had grabbed her around the waist and disappeared. He had reappeared in the living room and left her.
Then again he could have used the blades with venom, too, Emily thought.
With a little bit of peace, she had decided to clean herself up a little. Kaori had returned her backpack and she had used the spare clothes in there to change. She scooted her backpack into a corner before bending to tie her shoelace.
Suddenly, she stood in a fluid motion and whipped around. She nearly jumped back in fright at the sight of Badamon.
"The power of the ronin armors grows with every minute but Master Talpa needs it before the ronin warriors can come to your aid," he said.
Emily backed up slowly away from the spirit. She didn't need her new friend talking to her mentally to know that the spirit had something up his sleeve in mind.
In the blink of an eye, Emily was transported. She appeared on her knees in a room unfamiliar to her. Her head felt cloudy and she couldn't seem to clear it. She could hear chanting in a strange language coming from all around her.
Emily gasped. All of the energy was draining from her body and she couldn't seem to get a breath in. She gasped for breaths, but she could feel the oxygen leaving her body and her lungs squeezing painfully from the lack of air.
/What is he doing? If he keeps this up, he's going to kill me!/
Emily began to shake as she brought her hands together in front of her as if to pray. She thought of the light streaming in; she thought of spending time with her friends; she thought of her brother.
Badamon stared in astonishment as the young girl glowed green and started to emit a bright light
from her hands.
Emily's eyes shot open to reveal glowing whole green eyes. A flash of lightning blasted Badamon across the room. In retaliation, the nether spirits flew through the walls to surround Emily, keeping her trapped within a vortex of nether power.
Cuts sliced across her arms. Her nose bled without warning. Emily fell forward clutching her stomach and biting her bottom lip. She let out a blood curdling scream just before darkness consumed her.
/…/
Sekhmet walked down the hallway, trying to sort out all his thoughts. Talpa had finally divulged the information to his Dark Warlords on why Emily was still alive. To say they had been stunned was an understatement. Now he understood why she was healing so quickly and how she seemed to be getting better at defending herself in a fight.
If what Master Talpa says is true, then she could be the key to beating those ronin whelps. With them gone, she would have no reason to fight us anymore, he thought.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Kaori. There was blood on her hands and she had a panicked look on her face. She spoke rapidly, to which Sekhmet had to force her to slow down and repeat herself.
"Sugu ni kite kudasai [Please come quickly]!" she exclaimed.
"Nazedesu ka [Why?]" the confused warlord asked.
"Kanojo wa hontó no warui kega o shite imasu. Watashi wa shukketsu o tomeru koto wa dekimasen [She's hurt real bad. I can't stop the bleeding]," Kaori explained.
Despite her elderly age, the woman grabbed him and yanked him back to their rooms. Upon arriving at the living room, Sekhmet could see why the woman had been so worried. There was blood everywhere.
"Go get some water and rags."
While Kaori rushed off to comply, Sekhmet went to his room for a few things before returning to the living room. He knelt by the couch where a severely injured Emily lay. He picked up a wrist and felt for a pulse, which he was grateful to find a steady beat. Kaori soon arrived with the water and rags which she almost dropped.
"Koko de nani o yatte iru [What is that doing out here?]" Kaori demanded.
Curled up above Emily's head was the albino Burmese Python. It had its head resting below her chin with its eyes closed.
"Hanarete iku, josei [Go away, woman]," he spat.
She made a loud huff sound before placing the stuff down and storming away. He had the snake out to calm the young woman down since one of her captors was tending to her wounds. Normally, he wouldn't have cared in the least but Talpa needed her alive.
He picked up the rag, dipped it in the water, and cleaned away the blood. By the time he was done cleaning all of her wounds, the basin of water was a deep red color. Emily mumbled incoherently.
Most of Emily's cuts were shallow but there were a few deep ones he had to use some of his herbs on. If this is what Emily looked like, he hated to see what the other person looked like. Come to think about it, he wasn't quite sure who had fought with her. Dais and Cale would have known better than to have gone this far in fighting her and not healing her after.
He worked silently in cleaning her up as best as he could. After a while, he noticed that some small cuts were healing from the armored ability of Halo. Pulling a blanket off the side of the couch, he draped it over Emily. He left the snake with her as he returned to his room.
Can't have the little witch catching a cold, he snarled in his mind.
Once in his room, he started working on different experiments. The next time Sekhmet looked at the time it was several hours later. He left to find something to eat. When he entered the kitchen area, he found a small casserole cooling down on the dinner table. He dished some out to eat and sat down.
Not a minute later, his fellow warlords joined them. They spoke of a few topics, switching between the different languages the three were fluent in. Kaori appeared in the living room to check up on Emily before coming into the kitchen.
"Yúshoku o arigato [Thank you for dinner]," Cale told her.
After being with the woman for as long as they had been, the three warlords knew better than to not thank her. When she had first started serving them and they hadn't offered their gratitude, they had gone a week without food. Well, that wasn't entirely true. They all just sucked at cooking. Kaori raised her eyebrows and glanced at the table.
"Watashi wa sore o shinakatta [I did not make that]."
"I did."
Four pairs of eyes snapped over to the doorway where Emily was leaning heavily on a counter, looking as though she were ready to drop. Kaori was at her side in a flash and offered to get her something to drink. Emily only asked for water which the woman bustled away to get.
"Look what the wolf coughed up," said Cale, turning his head back around to eat.
Emily glared at the back of his head but wisely chose not to say anything as Kaori brought her the glass. She took a few small sips. She almost choked on it when Sekhmet appeared by her side
without warning. He surprised her by taking her arm to roll up her sleeve to look at her arm where her bone had just barely broken through the skin before.
[Should you really be helping her?]
Sekhmet glanced at Dais with a raised eyebrow.
[Do you want to be the one to tell Master Talpa that we let her die?]
Dais saw his point and returned to eating his dinner. Sekhmet applied a little pressure to the bone and was prepared for the weak kick to the back of his leg. After much silence, Cale finally spoke again.
"I'm surprised Halo hasn't figured things out yet. Must not care about his lover very much."
Sekhmet stepped back just in time before Emily spit out the water in her mouth. She coughed a little before catching her breath. Cale and Dais had their heads turned shooting her weird looks.
"*cough* What did you just *cough* call me?" she asked.
Curious about her initial reaction, Cale repeated himself. Emily's eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her mouth failed to work. She started to say something, stopped and frowned instead then brought a hand up to her mouth to hold back her laughter. Her mixture of reactions amused the warlords to no end.
[I think you broke the mortal, Cale.] Dais smirked.
[Maybe it was the way he said it. Perhaps they're not as close as we originally thought.] Sekhmet.
Emily finally calmed herself down. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and took a deep breath before standing up straight.
"Lover is not the word I tend to use for Sage," she said as she reached into her jeans back pocket for something.
She pulled out a small piece of paper and limped forward to hold it out to Cale. He took it from her and turned it over.
The paper was a portrait of four blondes, three girls and a boy. There were two unfamiliar blondes in the top of the portrait. On the bottom were Sage and Emily. Emily had her arms around Sage's neck and her head leaning against his. Sage had his arms crossed over his chest and a warm smile on his face.
A sudden feeling hit Cale dead in the stomach.
/Oh, no. This little witch cannot possibly be Halo's…/
"Sage isn't my lover. He's my brother," Emily stated firmly.
/…sister./
Emily smiled gleefully at the shocked looks on the warlords' faces. She had already known they were going to be royally screwed and now they knew it, too. She snatched the photo back and turned around to limp back to the living room.
"Sage is my older brother, not my boyfriend. Oh, gross! You three are morons," she mumbled, more to herself than them.
A sudden thought that occurred to him caused Cale to smirk. This new development changed everything. He saw his prey in a whole new light now. But one thing was for sure.
Hell hath no fury like a ronin whose sister's been snatched by a warlord.
END OF CHAPTER TEN