Chapter 14
Whoever was pulling Kate along, they were booking it, so fast that she could hear the air whistling past her ears.
"Kate?" called Keiko from somewhere behind. "Kate! Come back!"
Wish I had a choice in the matter, Keiko!
Kate and her savior continued to run, then her hand was released and the dark lifted at the same instant; she doubled over gasping, trying to catch her breath. She finally straightened up to see that she stood in a weather-stained stone courtyard, surrounded on all sides by high walls. It looked like some kind of old temple. She looked ahead, and jumped at the sight of a tall woman standing before her.
Kate blinked, stunned. The stranger was absolutely gorgeous from head to toe. Long, shining blonde curls tumbled down her shoulders and back, framing an exquisitely-proportioned face with knock-out features. Perfect nose, perfect cherry-lipped mouth, and gleaming golden eyes.
She flashed the girl a tight smile. "Sorry for the peremptory greeting, Haya. You were close to a rather messy death and humans don't run very fast, so I had to move her along."
The demon began stalking a wide circle around her, keeping her eyes fixed on the surrounding trees. "You wouldn't think there would only have been one of them tracking you? Xiro wants you dead, of course, and he's never without his brother. You know that."
The demon noticed Kate's confused expression.
"Oh, excuse me. She knows that. You can just let what I say float right over your head, darling. I'm speaking to Haya, and I know she can hear me." The demon laughed at Kate's convulsive shiver. "Don't like hearing her name? Well, she'll be back in complete control once you tell me Koenma's little binding spell, so you had better get used-"
Kate bolted for a gate standing open nearby, and was easily beaten there by the demon, who slammed it shut and twisted the lock into a crushed hunk of metal.
Kate's heart pounded in her ears as she backed away.
I can't let myself be taken over again, I can't-
Her captor sighed. "It is a pity that only the men of our class could paralyze you. We only have that effect on the males." She slithered closer forced Kate up against a wall. "But you're familiar with that power of hers already, aren't you? You've watched her use it on several of your male rivals, before ripping them apart. I bet that was lovely."
A memory cold and sharp as steel shot through Kate's mind, one of spurting blood, claws and screaming. "No."
"My dear human," the demon cooed, trailing a hand down the girl's cheek, "there's nothing wrong with admitting hatred. And even less wrong with acting upon it."
Her expression became intense, searching. "Haya?" she whispered." I'm here. Liu's here. I'll let you out. We'll finish this together."
Kate was pressed flat against the wall with nowhere else to go.
Shit shit shit shit!
The demon's hand reached her neck. In a panic, Kate closed her eyes tightly and thought as hard as she could, Help me, help me, someone! Yusuke, Keiko, Kurama-
A shock zapped through her, bursting her concentration. She gasped and her eyes flew open, just in time to see Liu flinch backwards as if something had burned her. Kate glanced down; the Enkai briefly glowed an even brighter and angrier red than usual, before fading back to its normal smoldering garnet. She looked back up to meet Liu's golden gaze, and her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw the light bulb switch on.
Uh oh.
"Hmmm. So this is what suppresses her." The demon grinned with a perfect set of sharp white teeth. "Well, we can't have that anymore, can we?"
Liu grabbed at the necklace, and Kate barely dodged out of the way. She ran for the other wall, but then Liu was in front of her, looking both annoyed and amused.
"I'm sorry, little girl, but I don't have time for Ningen tag right now."
Then Kate was pissed. Really, really pissed. Sure this chick was a demon and she was, well, human, but that didn't mean she couldn't try and fight back!
Liu raised a clawed hand. "Now, hold-" She lunged. "STILL!"
"FAT CHANCE!" Kate screamed as she grabbed Liu's hand and pushed with all her might against her attacker's arm, careening sideways. Liu shrieked in frustration and twisted towards her, shoving her to the ground. Then she stiffened and whirled around, one viselike hand gripping Kate's shoulder.
"No," she hissed. "Xiro, you bastard, stay where you are or I'll-"
A flash of red filled Kate's vision; something ripped Liu upwards, and Kate was dumped onto the ground. Someone grabbed her arm and she pulled away with a yelp.
"Kate, it's me!"
Keiko! The girl yanked Kate to her feet, and they ran at a crouch to a corner of the courtyard. Kate whipped around to see Kurama leap up onto the rooftop to pursue the woman; she heard Yusuke yell from somewhere else, "Just try and hit me with one of your stupid little energy blasts! I'll smash your face in first!"
Kate said frantically to Keiko, "There's another demon! Keiko, there are two of them, we have to tell-"
A body crashed down nearly on top of Keiko, and the two girls shrieked. A pale, dark-haired man with a face like an Abercrombie model lay before them, retching and holding a spurting wound across his stomach. Kate froze at the sight of the blood gushing into a pool at her feet.
"No, please, DON'T! NO-"
Kate heard Mark as clearly as if he were lying in front of her instead. She gasped and clapped her hands over her ears. His pleas gave way to screams; she moaned and violently shook her head.
A hand closed tightly around her ankle, jolting her back to reality. She found herself face to face with the livid demon, his black eyes boring into hers even as life drained from them.
"You…will never escape him, Haya! You will die, sooner or later, Xiro will-"
Abruptly, he choked and fell back. Dead.
Then Keiko was pulling her along the wall, away from the corpse. Yusuke leapt down from above and looked back and forth between them.
"Hey, are you guys all right?"
"Well, we're alive, anyway," said Kate. "Where's Kurama?"
"Here." The fox dropped down next to his teammate, making one last scan of the area around him before he did the same to Kate. "Are you injured?" His eyes rested on the large splotches of blood on her legs, and he moved towards her.
Kate followed his gaze, then said quickly, "It's not mine! I'm okay."
Kurama relaxed, but only a bit. He began rolling up his whip as he said to Yusuke, "The other male is gone."
"Xiro?" asked Kate.
"Is that his name?"
"Yeah, and what about Liu?" asked Kate.
"Liu? That's her name?"
"Yeah."
"She escaped me. Barely. How do you-"
"She was a talker."
Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Kate. "So. 'Fat chance.' Awesome battle cry."
Kate shrugged. "First thing that came to my mind." She blinked. "Wow." She began to shake with laughter, then her legs seemed to liquidate and she sank to the floor.
Keiko knelt and put her arm around Kate's shoulders. "It's okay, you're safe now."
That sparked a new wave of hysteria. "Relatively...speaking...anyway," Kate forced through her laughter. She wished she could stop.
Kurama flipped open his communicator, making another scan of the sky. "We need to get her out of here now."
Kate finally got control of herself, then scrambled to her feet, ignoring the hand Kurama held out to her.
Keiko looked at the boys. "Both of you, let me know if there's anything I can do to help." She laid a hand on Kate's shoulder. "I really hope this all works out, and," she said, smiling hopefully, "that we get to see each other again."
"Thanks, Keiko," said Kate. After a second's hesitation, the two girls embraced. "Really. It was great to meet you, even if, you know, it ended like this."
Keiko shrugged. "A lot of my days with Yusuke have ended like this, so don't worry about it."
"We'll keep you informed, Keiko," said Kurama. He spoke to the small screen that showed Botan's face. "Botan, we need a portal back to the Spirit World immediately."
"What happened?" said Botan. "Is Kate okay?"
"Yeah, Botan, I'm fine," said Kate, looking irritated. "As is everyone else."
Kurama walked a few feet away to give Botan their coordinates.
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I got a scratch somewhere back there," said Yusuke, pouting.
Kate rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, poor baby." She frowned down at her pants as Keiko giggled. "Ugh, gross, I can't believe I got demon blood on me. That doesn't stain permanently, does it?"
"It's okay, the shirt's red, isn't it?"
Kate rolled her eyes. "Men."
Yusuke grinned and looked at Keiko. "Hey Keiko, I'll take you home."
"You don't need to go back with them now?" asked Keiko.
"You'll be all right without me for a bit, right, Kurama?"
Kurama nodded. "Yes, Keiko shouldn't be alone with that demon on the loose. Just contact myself or Koenma when you'd like to join us."
"Got it." He moved towards the courtyard gate, wrenched it open without much difficulty, and walked out with Keiko close on his heels. "See you two later!"
Keiko did the same, throwing a cheerful smile at Kate which the girl attempted to return.
Kurama held something out in front of her; she looked down to discover he was holding her bag. Instead of taking it, she folded her arms and glared.
"So. He'd been following us since last night, huh?"
Kurama nodded. The portal opened behind them.
"Unbelievable!" she spat at him, before snatching the bag away, throwing it over her shoulder and striding into the circle of flashing lights.
Kurama was left standing in the woods, stunned, until the portal began to close and he hastily leaped in after her.
Wow, this took a while. A long while. So sorry, this has quite possibly been the busiest year of my life, and this summer before my senior year of college (how did that get here so fast?) is shaping up to be just as busy. But I will do my best to have updates much closer together from now on, thanks for being patient and continuing to read! Longer chapters are coming! Please review! You're all wonderful!