A.N.: For my anonymous reviewer's benefit, here's the answer to your question:

Soukoku- a Mazoku with black hair and eyes

Happy Reading!

Chapter 11

"Well shit…"

Yozak muttered as he fanned himself with a hand after they watched Kagome perform the dance to cool the blush off his face. "I wasn't expecting that."

"You told me not to worry." Hube shot him a sharp look.

"Well, sure, but I wasn't expecting that!"

"You sent her out into a brothel as an exotic dancer without even knowing what it would have entailed?"

"Shinou, Hube, of course I knew what the job entailed!" Yozak looked back at his snarling partner defensively and pouted. "I just wasn't expecting her to be that good at it!"

Him and Hube were right outside the building just across the street looking into the ground floor room from a wide window they had bribed an attendant to keep the curtain open to after a few lewd jokes and comments.

When Kagome told him she could dance and agreed to his brilliant plan, Yozak was ecstatic and immediately dug around his pack for the perfect outfit for her despite Hube's snarling protests but realized he was too big for her to fit into any of his clothes. After buying a maid's outfit from one of the workers at the inn they were staying in and making her wear it, getting into the brothel was a piece of cherry cheesecake. He was a little bit worried since Kagome was basically a foreigner and she insisted she keep her black hair and eyes to get the owners more interested in her but she assured him she was going to be fine. Apparently she wasn't kidding.

She was more than fine.

Him and Hube gawking at her from across the street speechless were living proof of that.

"His Majesty is so going to kill you…" Hube muttered, eye still bulging as he gaped at the female soukoku entertaining the three nobles on the cushions.

"Not if you shut up."

"There's a chance they'll be meeting her if there's ever a gathering in the palace and then what? Have you ever thought of that?!" The one eyed man stared back at the orange haired man incredulously. "The only we can shut them up about her is if we kill them and we can't kill those three yet; we're only here for information, not an assassination!"

"He he don't worry too much, you're starting to look like His Excellency Gwendal when you do that," Yozak winked at him. "I told you, I've got it all under control."

"That brings little comfort to me somehow…" the full Mazoku spy deadpanned.

"Hey have a little faith; how long have we been in on this job together?!"

"Long enough for me to know not to have any faith in you."

"Hey!"

"Hush, Willaperht's taking her somewhere!"

"What?! Where?!"

Both spies watched the good looking dandy wrap a possessive arm around Kagome's waist and proceeded to take her up the stairs.

"Oh shit!"

Hube looked back at Yozak, alarmed at his reaction. "What? Why?"

"Erm…"

"You just cursed, Yozak, I don't like it when you curse; it usually means nothing good so why the hell would you curse?" Hube was getting nervous now.

The orange haired man's face was now very pale. "Willaperht was supposed to have his room placed downstairs not up!"

Hube punched the wall just beside Yozak's head, making a sizeable dent in it as he snarled at the terrified half Mazoku's face. "What the hell does that mean?!"

Yozak tried to stifle his concern for the female soukoku and fended off Hube's suddenly worried face with a calm mask. "We're going to have to go hunting and we're going to have to do it now. You can beat up on me later."

"Damn it!"

Both of them rushed towards the brothel through the dark alleyway and immediately sought to find the fastest way in.

Both Hube and Yozak felt the beginnings of panic crawl up their spines in worry for their charge not only because the girl in question was the sister of their Maou but because they were beginning to care about her personally. She had agreed to help them without question even though this was practically none of her business anyway and they would never forgive themselves if something unpleasant happened to her. As they rushed to follow her Yozak thought he now understood Yuuri's feelings for his sister.

After spending time with her on the road, no one could stand to lose someone so precious…

/****/

Sir Willaperht Meier Lotharing was a proud Mazoku.

His demon noble status plus his roots coming from his von Spietzberg mother and von Roshvall father assured that. Like almost all demon nobility, he was raised to think that the world was theirs for the taking and nothing should stand in their way when they wanted something. He was also taught to despise humans and that Mazoku were above them. The thought of Mazoku even mating with humans disgusted his mother to no end up to the point that it had her nauseous just thinking about it. She had to have a bottle of salts set aside for her during her fifth cousin's on her mother's side Lady Cecile von Spietzberg's wedding to the human swordsman Dan Hiri Weller. He had listened to her jeer at the wedding of Geigen Hube Brischella and his human wife. She was among the first to rejoice when his Uncle Stoffel sent the Luttenberg Brigade out into the front lines to their deaths. She would smile at the Maou during social functions but would sneer at him in the privacy of their palaces, poking fun at the soukoku king's human mother.

Yes, almost as soon as he was weaned he had witnessed how terribly wrong it was for humans and Mazoku to be together since they were not on the same level. That humans were filthy and wrong; always wrong; and that Mazoku were the creatures of higher intelligence.

So when Willaperht had discovered that he was quite intrigued and curious about humans, it disturbed and shocked him almost into madness. But, true to a man's nature, one can find the forbidden sinfully erotic…

Just as the woman in front of him was sinfully erotic to him…

Kagome listened to him tell her all this as she was taken to his room and she forced herself to keep her act up by smiling up at the noble Mazoku and ignored the way he was kneading her bottom in the most unpleasant ways. She wanted nothing more than to purify the bastard to next week even though some part of her pitied this man. In a way she understood him. She might not agree, but she understood him. Having to believe nothing else and being pulled into a whole different direction by reality would not have been easy and, if one has a weak will like Willaperht it would be so easy to sink into madness. If she had a mind as weak as this man's then she would have fallen into its pits a long, long time ago. She understood so she can forgive. But there was no way in hell she was going to fail her friends.

Yozak and Hube were depending on her. She can get her dues on this dandy later.

"We're here, my dove…"

Kagome 'reluctantly' let go of Willaperht's arm to slide into the now open door leading into one of the more expensive suites available in the large brothel. As soon as she was in it she had to gasp for real at the sight that met her.

It was as though every inch of the room was covered with various chests full of different colored Maseki! It looked as though she hit the mother load itself.

"Amazing…" she breathed as she walked closer to the stones, temporarily forgetting her 'client'. "There's so many…!"

With a fingertip, she gently brushed the rough surface of the stone nearest to her which was of a ruby red color and caught the light of the half a dozen scented candles littered in the room. Kagome completely ignored the gaudy, eccentric decorations and rather disturbing items littered around the room. She should report this to Yozak.

Her thoughts were interrupted when something cool was pressed gently against her collarbone. Willaperht had pressed a smooth, crimson colored Maseki there and it glowed against her skin like a large drop of blood. She could feel the cool crystal against her skin and something else. The pulse of magic was faint but there… Could it be…?

"As I thought," Willaperht whispered in his ear. "Red suits you the best…"

Kagome forced out another alluring smile and turned around, wrapping her arms around his neck and distracting the idiot with her body pressed against his. "I'm glad you think so, my lord, I am honored that you are showing all this to me. Are your friends also keeping such treasures in their rooms?"

"Oh no," he laughed, running his greedy hands over her naked shoulders and Kagome shivered in disgust at how cold they were. Willaperht must have mistaken the move for pleasure since he smirked at her and proceeded to run his hands further down her arms. "We do this by rotation. It just so happens that I'm the one in charge tonight."

Which practically meant they put you on guard duty but you were too stupid to realize it; Kagome thought wryly.

The raven haired miko fought the urge to fry the bastard to a crisp when he copped another feel on her but settled for giggling and coyly spinning around to get away from his arms and teasingly created some distance between the both of them by gliding behind a table with yet another chest filled with Maseki on it making a mental note to start with the pervert's hand. "That's so responsible of you, milord; to command such respect from your peers."

"Ah yes…" the Mazoku stared at her with a greedy leer, clearly delighted by the thought of a chase. He was clearly enjoying the game she was playing. "We've been partners in trade for decades now and I am head of their operations! Most of our successful ventures were produced by me. Those two would never be able to survive without me!"

Right.

"Remarkable," she breathed instead, noting that he was edging closer to her so with another coy smile she whirled away behind yet another stack of chests filled with Maseki. She was beginning to guess the man deliberately exposed these stones here to entice his chosen bedmate for the night; how amazingly stupid. "I always have been attracted to the smart ones."

"You are soukoku, are you not?" Willaperht asked, again trying to edge closer to where she was. "How and why are you in human territory? You are Mazoku, after all."

Kagome sighed dramatically and proceeded to tell her 'tale'. "I was living on the small coastal towns on Karbelnikoff lands when a group of humans attacked our village and kidnapped me. Actually, since the village hated me because I am soukoku, they practically gave me away. I was then sold to slavery and had been passed from master to master ever since.

"However, ever since Yuuri-heika began to ally himself with humans, my masters became afraid of his wrath and set me free," she narrated, seeing the Mazoku stop and stare at her and she could see him believing every word she said. She could only hope she wasn't laying it on too thick. "From then on I have had to do my best to work for a living wherever I go. My dream is to someday return to Shin Makoku and maybe… Maybe return to my family someday."

"If you want I can take you back there, milady!" he offered with a smirk that told Kagome the imbecile thought she was falling for him already. "I, Sir Willaperht Meier Lotharing, shall take it upon myself to get you back to our homeland and I will treat you like a queen!"

Or a glorified sex toy. "Really, milord? You are not just playing with my heart?"

"Of course not; I swear it by my honor as long as you are mine, nothing will touch you!"

Kagome was so unimpressed by the jackass that she couldn't produce the melodramatic tears she was planning so she merely turned and fluttered her lashes at him hopefully; thoroughly disgusted with herself. "Oh, milord, I am yours! When can we leave?!"

"As soon as I come back with my business partners from the Ruins of the kingdom of Ichri to deliver all this lovely Maseki I will come back for you, my heart! And then we will sail back to Shin Makoku together!"

There it was; that place again. She didn't know anything about the place but she'll take a shot at it and pray. "The Ruins of Ichri? What would anyone there want with so much Maseki? Are they trying to rebuild the city?"

Willaperht laughed at her patronizingly and finally 'caught' her again in his embrace and she let him. His answer may be important to Yozak and Hube and she was still under control of the situation. All she needed to do was remind herself that she was doing this for her friends. "Of course not, my dove!"

Kagome tilted her head to the side and pouted at him for extra effect. "Then how do you profit by trading such precious stones in the middle of nowhere?"

The aristocratic dandy's smirk was so wide Kagome thought he could swallow an elephant. "Let's just say we are doing a very special… project that can restore the world to its previous order. Now enough of this; come to bed, my dove. I am anxious to taste you."

Oh I don't think so, mister…

As Willaperht bent down to kiss her and she was acting as though she was going to allow him, Kagome allowed a small amount of her energy to appear as pin pricks on her index fingertip. She was getting ready to touch his nape with it which will, in turn, knock the idiot unconscious long enough for her to escape. But before she could do anything, the door to the room was suddenly kicked open violently, making Willaperht and her jump away from each other in surprise and turn towards the disturbance.

Kagome was expecting Hube or Yozak or both of them together barging in and coming to her rescue; not that she was depending on them that much; for the past four years after completing the jewel she's learned to take care of herself since she's had to what with her trying to get out of Inuyasha's and Kikyo's way. But still, to have people concerned enough about you that they would rush in to get to your side because you matter to them warmed her heart.

But that warm rush froze at the sight that met her at the threshold of the room...

His stance was as regal as she remembered; every inch of him bespoke a warrior who has been on battlefields for longer that she could even imagine or even a dark emperor ruling over his court, displaying his power for all to fear and see. His dark gray cloak was flung aside to expose his uniform and his broad sword glinting menacingly in the light of the candles in the room. The maryouko flaring off him was violent and murderous and bloodthirsty and it was enough to have Kagome frozen in place with the sheer wonder, terror and beauty of it.

Usually she could dispel this; she was not an ordinary priestess, after all; but what prevented her completely were his eyes… His Prussia blue eyes were leveled at Willaperht with such frosty, violent intent that she shivered. It reminded her of the times when she had met Sesshoumaru during her journey while she was alone and he was passing by. Those eyes meant death. A complete contrast to the lonely, determined blue orbs that stared at her with grim determination that first time he spoke to her. It was like meeting a stranger, a crazed stranger, for the very first time…

"L-Lord von Voltaire!" Willaperht exclaimed, his voice pitch hiking up because of fear. Kagome was surprised he wasn't soiling his pants yet. "W-what is the meaning of this?!"

The Mazoku lord merely responded by striding quickly towards the other Mazoku male who was clambering over to the wide bed in search of his own sword but he was so scared he fell to the floor, merely staring at his executioner in horror. Kagome was horrified that Gwendal seemed to really want to slice the Mazoku noble in two. She knew Willaperht probably deserved it but can't Gwendal see doing that would be a very big mistake?!

Gwendal looked like he was beyond thinking rationally, though. He looked dangerous and very, very angry. He got in between Willaperht and the bed and stared down the frozen noble with eyes that could have frozen an ocean. Willaperht was starting to babble incoherently and Kagome's eyes widened when Gwendal raised his sword to strike him down.

"No, stop!" she rushed to Gwendal and held on to one of his thick arms. "You can't kill him, that's murder!"

Gwendal turned his furious eyes on her and Kagome shivered at the rage she saw there but she held her ground as best as she could.

He sneered. "You care about him that much?"

"No, of course not!" she yelled back at him. "People know I was with him! If you kill him now those people who are heading off that rebellion you were telling me about will blame his death on the humans and endanger the alliance! Can't you see that?!"

The Mazoku lord stopped and looked at her. For a moment, Kagome saw him sneer at her before he shook her off, causing her to tumble over to the side but she relaxed when he merely knocked Willaperht out with the back of his sword. Very hard. He then lifted the unconscious Mazoku by the collar of his shirt and threw him across the room to hit the wall on the far side of it and watched as he slid down to the floor with probably a broken bone or two.

Kagome winced.

That was going to really, really hurt in the morning. Then she turned and glared back at the Mazoku lord. "What do you think you're doing?! Are you crazy?!"

Her question seemed to have stiffened his shoulders and she tried not to step back when he turned his eyes turned back to her. They weren't freezing anymore but the fury burning in them was no less frightening. "I should ask you the same thing, don't you think?"

"What?" she looked up at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?!"

"So is this the reason why you were so eager to leave Shin Makoku?" he asked her sarcastically. "Is this how you were going to prove Rolf's innocence?"

"Lord von Voltaire, what are you talking about I don't understand-"

"I'm talking about this!" he exploded and then he shocked her by grabbing her arm and roughly pulling her towards his hard body and she gasped when he ran a rough hand from her throat down to her barely covered chest and over her exposed belly. It was a far cry from the gentle hold he last laid on her the last time they parted. His eyes burned into her like soldering irons and she was hard pressed not to flinch. The accusation in them reminded her too much of Inuyasha's eyes whenever he looked at her back then... "What did you think you were trying to accomplish?! Is this the kind of life you wanted? Do you think to shame the Maou into returning you back to Earth?!"

Kagome tried to muster her courage to respond. "What are you talking about?"

"You damn well know what I'm talking about!"

"Actually I don't or I wouldn't be asking you this question!"

Kagome swallowed at the half crazed look in his eyes and tried to pull away from him but he merely tightened his grip on her arm until she winced. That was going to bruise. "How did you get here?! Did you give Yozak and Hube the slip?! Did you use your powers on them? Are they dead right now?!"

"What?! I would never- Look, whatever it is that you think I was doing is not—"

"You gave His Highness your word. Your word, damn you!" clearly he was beyond listening to her now. He looked pissed enough to chew nails. "You made me believe you were willing to sacrifice your own comfort for the sake of His Majesty and His Highness but here you are selling yourself among the humans like a prostitute!"

"What? Wait—Ah!"

He had thrown her over to the bed but before she could even bounce twice over it, he was already over her and Kagome found herself trapped under the hard length of his large body with no hope of escape aside from melting him off of her which, she knew, was not an option. She was too busy trying to understand why he was so mad and why he was acting this way because she couldn't understand why such a kind man would feel such violent wrath. She still believed in his kindness since, even as he touched her roughly she could sense he was holding back. His warmth reached out to comfort her cold skin from the cold air it has already been exposed to since the night had started.

"Were you thinking Willaperht could really help you?" he hissed at her fiercely. "Did he promise you the moon and the stars?! Did you think anyone else could help you get back to your infantile half demon?!" he laughed at her mockingly and Kagome was arrested from her thoughts by the rough grating sound of it. It sounded as though he hasn't used it in a long, long time and the sound alone sent pleasant goose bumps all over her skin. "I'm sorry to disappoint you but only your brother the Maou and Shinou can take you back to your world. Willaperht and his companions are nothing more than trash that doesn't even have half the maryouko Elu has!"

Kagome could hear the hate every time he spoke Willaperht's name, his handsome face twisting into a malicious mask even as the heat in his beautiful blue eyes burned her.

"But maybe that wasn't what you wanted," Kagome's breath hitched when he ground his hips into hers and she could feel him all hard and wanting through the thin silks that made up the lower part of her costume. "Maybe you wanted this?"

She was starting to panic now and tried to struggle free. "No, you got it all wr—"

"Are you having second thoughts now?" he asked her, his voice hoarse and Kagome's eyes widened when he knelt over her and started taking off his great coat to expose a white dress shirt underneath and he ripped the buttons off it's collar to expose the smooth column of his manly neck and collarbone. The sight made Kagome blush wildly. "Maybe you just want to be able to replace the memory of your half demon lover with the touch of another man? A full demon perhaps?"

"Wait—"

"If that's so then I would gladly offer my assistance instead," his voice was now rougher than before and he was starting to eye her body with eyes that glowed with a different kind of heat entwined with the anger that burned there. "Do you want me to be rough? Or do you want me to be gentle, my lady…?"

"Stop it!" Kagome tried to squirm from underneath him, unknowingly increasing the friction between their bodies, not understanding the heat that pooled into her stomach at the low, sensual quality of his voice. "This is not what I want! You don't even know what I want!"

"And you think working as a high class whore will get you whatever it is that you want?!" he yelled back at her before running half mad eyes over the curve of her cheek down to the long, lovely column of her neck then lingered over her barely covered breasts with something akin to longing. "You are a fool."

Kagome was really scared of him now. He was staring at her the way those other men downstairs were staring at her earlier during and after the dance. Sure that was the whole idea of the dance, she wasn't that ignorant; she just wasn't expecting anybody else to lose their control like this. And she certainly wasn't expecting it from Gwendal!

She tried to get angry and get the point across that she was serious about wanting out of the position he had cornered her in. "What I do in my life is none of your business, Lord von Voltaire, now get off me before I fry you!"

His Prussia blue eyes turned back to her and rage and some other emotion sparked to life there again even wilder than before. "I see, so that's what you believe, isn't it? Then shall we test that theory? Let's see if I can bend that will and make it mine."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"If it keeps you from the clutches of other men then I'll make it a mission!"

The raven haired miko gasped when Gwendal slipped a hand behind her head and pulled her head back, exposing her neck and her wildly beating pulse to his hungry eyes. Her hands tried to push him away again but it was like moving a wall. Her eyes widened when she felt the tip of his tongue glide delicately over her pulse point before it was followed by a pair of warm, soft masculine lips.

"Unh!"

Kagome felt dizzy. That one touch made her instantly weak and she felt like butter melting into Gwendal's hands. Her breathing started to get labored and she could tell she was already flushed. She'd kissed Inuyasha several times before and on the lips! She even allowed Hojo to kiss her a year ago. But none of them made her feel like this. Like everything that was hot and tense was gathering inside her body until she felt she was going to explode with the sweet, sweet pain of it. And he wasn't even moving his lips anymore, it was just there. Savoring that fluttering pulse point as though utterly fascinated by it, his breathing just as ragged as hers.

If her head wasn't pulled back so far she would have seen Gwendal's eyes closed as well, disbelief and desire keeping him still. Not able to believe she could feel so good… Not even expecting she could taste so sweet...

She felt his free hand pulling at her skirt until his warm hand was gliding softly under her leg making the heat and tension multiply itself by a hundred until she was moving restlessly against him and, before she realized it, he'd pulled up her knee so she lay exposed to him in the most vulnerable way she had ever been with a man.

"Don't!" she breathed out even as her body moved against him in a way similar to how she was dancing earlier.

"Do you find this so disgusting?" she heard him ask against her neck roughly but with a curious tenderness that made her weaker. Kagome could feel every word he said vibrating through his chest still crushing her breasts and despite herself, the female soukoku felt her very being drawn to it in the most primitive way possible. "Too bad. But I assure you Willaperht would do so much more. He's known to be rough with his bedmates… You are better off exploring these things with me…"

And suddenly realization dawned on her. Her anger at him and her confusion dissolved into a kind of relief that melted her tension and brought touched tears in her eyes at the knowledge. Still quivering from the onslaught on her senses, she stilled him by gently; blindly running her right hand from pushing against the broad expanse of his chest up to his firm neck until she reached a hard chiseled cheek that she tugged slightly so she could look him in the eye, intrigued by the quivering breath he drew as she did so. When their eyes met she saw confusion there, overpowering the anger and that unexplainable heat that made his eyes half close. She wondered if he even realized he was leaning into her touch.

She looked him straight in the eye and tried to convey her sincerity and her feelings into her gaze even as a pair of tears escaped her and she gave him a small, trembling, reassuring smile.

"It's alright, Gwendal…" she whispered to him gently, her eyes looking into his own melting ones tenderly. "I'm fine."

His eyes widened and his face fell in surprise. He tried to fight her and she could see him gathering back his anger by looking away but she caught his face with her other hand trapping his gaze to look into hers and her thumbs stroked his cheekbones to calm him.

"I'm sorry I worried you, I didn't know you were going to be here," she continued to whisper to him, trying to convey her sincerity with her touch and words. "You think too much of everyone, even me. It's okay, you know? Yozak, Hube and I had this all planned, they wouldn't let anything bad happen to me. Thank you for coming to my rescue, though."

"R-rescue…?" he asked hoarsely, staring at her as though mesmerized by every nuance her face made.

"Uh huh," her smile became warmer, not even noticing how Gwendal practically melted at the sight. How he shivered against her at her touch. "I could have put him to sleep for a while with my powers but you bursting in like that?" she laughed. "Seeing him so terrified was enough revenge for fondling me earlier. Seriously, I have not met another man who loved to hear himself talk since Naraku."

"W-what…?" Gwendal shook his head in confusion as though trying to clear the fog from his brain. "I- I don't understand…"

"Look around you."

He did and she watched as his eyes widened the moment he noticed what was in the room. "Maseki…!"

"Yes," she told him softly and he looked back at her immediately. "I think we've caught part of your rebel faction, Gwendal."

His eyes widened and shame filled his cheeks with blood as he immediately scrambled off of her and backed away. "M-my Lady, I—"

"Jouchan!"

"Lady Kagome!"

She rose just in time to see Yozak and Hube barge into the room, swords drawn and panting, concern clearly mapped over their faces. Both of them stilled, however, when they saw Gwendal in the room. And they both started sweating cold bullets of dread when he pierced them with eyes that looked like they can burn them to the ground right where they stood.

"Explain." Gwendal's voice shot through the room like a whip and both men flinched and paled. Kagome winced, feeling sorry for them. "And this had better be good."

Kagome sighed as she rose from the bed and arranged her clothes. To be honest, although she felt sorry for her friends, she found herself relieved that the attention was off of her for a few more moments. She needed a few more minutes to gather her composure back together and to stand without her knees knocking against each other. Although she managed to get Gwendal back from that frightening haze of fury, she wasn't sure if she could easily get herself back to the reality where no one wanted her the way Inuyasha never wanted her. She needed to stop dreaming of the impossible and she needed to rest.

This had just been a very long night…