"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name." -Andre Breton

Gravity

Chapter Thirty-Four

The heated fog in my mind cleared instantly. My eyes flashed over to Hiei. His own gaze was leveled directly on me as he watched my panicked expression with a single raised eyebrow. My mind was screaming at me to run away from the situation, but my feet stayed firmly planted on the ground. I knew we were caught. There was no way to get out of this. David had caught us in a heated kiss, and there was nothing I could say or do to make him think other wise.

I scrambled over words in my mind as David looked in between us expectantly. I knew Hiei wouldn't come to my rescue. He enjoyed watching me stumble over myself too much. Thankfully, my saving grace did come when Tetsuya turned around the corner. He paused mid step when he saw the three of us, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Uh.." he said, glancing over us quickly. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" I squeaked, before turning away from David and scurrying away. It did cross my mind that I had just left Hiei in David's cross hairs, but I would be totally lying if I said I felt bad about it. Maybe I felt a little bad, but as I reached my bedroom and slid my door shut behind me, my relief that I had gotten out of the situation for now overrode my guilt.

I leaned against the door with a heavy sigh of relief, but I knew that soon I would have to answer David's questions. But how was I supposed to do that when even I didn't fully understand what was going on? I was trying to keep a ten foot pole between Hiei and I, and being so close to him just sent that out the window. How was I supposed to stay away from him when we were staying in rooms literally right next to each other? I knew I couldn't run from this anymore. It needed to be dealt with somehow.

I stared up at the ceiling, unseeing as my brain turned over the situation. Mi mewled at me from her place on the bed. I shifted my gaze over to her and she stared back at me in a way that I knew she was urging me to go and find the certain fire demon that had me so confused.

"But what if I don't know what I want?" I asked her quietly. A response flickered over her eyes and I could only sigh and turn my eyes away from her and back to the ceiling. I knew what I wanted. I just didn't like the reason why. I hated that it was because of this hormonal change inside of me. But it was stupid for me to think that I could fight it. Somehow he had managed to get inside of my skin and left his heat that left me craving more and the more I fought it the more I needed it. It had only been a few days, and it felt like an eternity in a frozen wasteland without his heat to warm me. How could I even begin to think I could fight this?

Before I even realized that I was moving, I was standing in front of his door. I gave three sharp raps and waited only for a moment before opening the door. He was leaning against the sill of the open window in his room. Ruby eyes slid open slowly, only to narrow at me as I slid his door shut behind me. He watched me closely as I crossed the room, letting myself get pulled into the heat of his energies. I stood only inches in front of him and watched as his eyes trailed over me, leaving a heated trail in their wake. I bit the corner of my lip as my fingers reached for the hem of my shirt before lifting it over my head and letting it fall to the ground.

The black flames that I was becoming quite familiar with were in his eyes. He reached out a hand to pull the hair tie at the end of my braid off, then trailed his fingers through my hair to unravel the curls that it tried to contain. Those same fingers trailed up my spine and pulled me to him, closing the space between us. His lips crashed into mine, setting my skin and bones on fire. I kissed him back with the same heat he ignited inside of me. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his hands trailed across my hips and over my stomach at the top of my shorts, his fingers dipping below their edge just enough to send shivers through my body at the memory of our last encounter. I felt him smirk against my lips before he trailed a heated path with his kisses down my neck and to my shoulder. A gasp escaped me as his teeth grazed against my collar bone while his hands slid their way up my sides and around the clasp of my bra. His fingers made quick work of it, and I let go of him long enough to let it fall to my feet.

He stood from where he leaned against the window sill. My fingers shook in anticipation as I fumbled with the buttons on his shirt as he took a step forward. His hands reached up to grasp mine, and my gaze lifted to his. I felt my mouth go dry when I saw that it wasn't ruby that stared back at me, but total blackness of the flames. He pushed be back with another step, then another, and another until we reached the edge of his futon. He leaned down to press a heated kiss to my lips which turned my knees to jelly. Before I could gather myself, I was laying on my back with him hovering above me, his eyes trailing down to my bare chest. A rumble came from somewhere deep inside of him before he leaned down to kiss the scars that marred my flesh. The heat that came across the sensitive new skin sent a moan to my lips as he trailed further down in an agonizingly slow pace. It was almost like stars came across my vision when his mouth found the sensitive nub of my breast. My back arched into his touch with a broken moan, which he greedily accepted as his fingers dug into the bones of my hips.

His mouth came to capture mine once again, his teeth nipping at my lower lip. A whimper escaped me as I bucked my hips into his. He broke away from the kiss to trail his teeth against my collarbone once again. I heard a whisper from him as the heat of his breath danced across my skin.

"Mine."

I felt a sharp pain that quickly melted into pure ecstacy as his teeth sunk into my skin.

My eyes flew open as I sat up, startling Mi who, I was guessing, had been sleeping soundly beside me. My eyes darted around my room, looking for Hiei but I found that he wasn't here. I scrambled to my feet, tripping and almost face planting on the floor, and scrambled over to my shelves. In the reflection of a small mirror that I had, I peered at the skin on my neck where Hiei had bitten me. The skin was clean. Only the blue marks laid there. Not even a bruise was visible. I spun around on my heel while covering the area with my palm as I tried to gather myself.

It had all been a dream. All of it was a dream. My memory was beginning to come back to me. When Hiei and I had gotten busted by David, I had run to my room. I had argued with myself for a long time about going to talk to him, and I must have fallen asleep. A deep blush came to my face at that realization. I had really dreamed about Hiei and I. Together.

My eyes trailed over to my window and I felt dread drop deep into my stomach. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. I scrambled to change into something to train in, pushing away the memory of the dream and what it made my body feel in response. I grabbed my bo and ribbon as I rushed out of my room, almost slamming into David as I darted down the hallway. I called an apology out to him and disappeared around the corner. I couldn't worry about that right now either.

Yokuto was sitting on the porch with his pipe in hand when I slammed open the front door. He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

"I-I'm so sorry," I panted. "I over slept."

"Don't worry about it," he said, turning back to look out over the trees. I faltered in my step at his words. "You had quite the day yesterday, so I'll forgive it this time. Don't be late again." He stood and emptied his pipe into the grass before turning to me while he tucked it into his sash. "We're going to be starting something different with your training. Hiei told me that you asked him to also train you, is that correct?" he asked. I gave a single nod in response, silently praying that he wasn't angry that I had asked. "I think that would be best for now. But, I'm going to have him help while I train you."

I didn't hear a single thing he said after that. My mouth went dry as I looked out over the yard to see Hiei with his back to us as he drew his sword out of it's sheath. It suddenly became very hard to breathe as he turned, and his ruby colored eyes slowly opened to meet my gaze.

"Daelyn?" I heard, snapping my attention back to Yokuto, who's molten eyes were narrowed at me. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You look like you're about to be sick."

"I'm fine," I breathed, then shook my head. "Just had a weird dream. I'm fine." I leaned my bo against the wall to tie the ribbon around my eyes. "So, tell me again, why does Hiei have something sharp and pointy that it looks like he's probably going to try and stab me with?" I asked.

"Because he is going to try and stab you with it," Yokuto smirked. "While I stand back and watch you fight him so I can see what you need to work on. Hiei will be training you to build up your speed in the process."

"Great," I said, picking up my bo and pursing my lips. "Sounds like fun."

"I've instructed him to fight you at his full capacity, Daelyn," Yokuto said, causing me to pause in my decent down the steps of the porch. "This isn't you simply sparring with him like you did with Yusuke. We have two weeks to prepare you to defend yourself against Seikatsu if it comes to that. This is a matter of life and death."

"Doesn't sound so fun anymore," I said, continuing my walk out to where Hiei stood in the yard. It hadn't seemed fun in the first place, being so close to him after my dream last night, but now that I knew he was actually going to be trying to inflict bodily harm to me, the idea of "fun" was the furthest thing from my mind. I had heard stories about how strong Hiei was. How fast he was. He could be absolutely ruthless, with a dash of no mercy on the side.

I was extremely thankful for the ribbon covering my eyes. It meant that I didn't have to look Hiei in the eyes. The dream kept running through my mind, making it hard for me to breathe while being so close to him. In reality, we were still a few feet away from each other. But that didn't keep my body from going into over drive with feeling the flames of his energy. Being in this form, or since my demon energy had been fully released (I wasn't really sure), it was hard to ignore him. It was hard to push away these feelings. Apparently even my subconscious even thought so because I couldn't stop thinking about him running his fingers down my body and- I shook my head. I couldn't think about that.

I raised my bo and started spinning it around me, while watching him closely, building up speed until it was a blur around me. I wasn't unfamiliar with his speed. I had experienced it first hand when he had to take me anywhere. I knew my fairly untrained eyes wouldn't be able to keep up with him, so I would have to put all of my focus on trying to sense him before he got too close to me with his pokey, stabby self.

He blurred away once he figured that I had prepared myself enough. I focused myself to sense the energies around me, to try and sense any disturbances. Just as I had focused myself enough, I felt him behind me. I lurched forward to get out of his reach, barely making it as his sword grazed over the small of my back. I spun around, swinging the bo wide, which he easily dodged and was already pointing the tip of his sword at the base of my throat.

"You're extremely slow," he stated. I swallowed at the dryness in my mouth as he blurred away again. "Do you realize how easy it would be for me to kill you?" he asked behind me, causing me to jump at his sudden closeness. I could feel the heat from his body radiating against me, and my skin eagerly reacted to it. He pressed the cold metal of his sword to the side of my neck, sending an involuntary shiver through my body.

"Then how do I get faster?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level, trying to so hard to not give away the effect he was having on my body.

"Push your body beyond it's limits," he said, then disappeared. My expression fell into a bland scowl.

"Thank you for that eloquent description," I grumbled, then started spinning my bo once again. So I had to push my body beyond it's limits? Wasn't that impossible? I mean, limits were there for a reason. I grumbled a few other choice words and focused on trying to spin my bo faster, creating a blurry barrier around me. Part of me wondered if it would have just been easier to have a different weapon. Something stabby. It seemed to be Hiei's favorite. But I knew it just wasn't my thing. I didn't like the idea of stabbing someone mercilessly to death. I'd rather just give them a good blow to the head and knock them out. But the problem was getting close enough to Hiei, and being quick enough, to land a blow like that. I still wasn't able to do that to Yokuto. It would be a cold day in hell before I was actually able to land a blow on Hiei.

I felt a shift in the energy to my left. I ducked low, hearing a sharp slice though the air above me. I used the momentum of my dodge to roll forward, putting some distance between Hiei and I. He didn't stop. Just as I had come to my feet, he charged me again, and I jumped back away from his sword. I needed to figure out a way to get that damn thing away from him or I wasn't going to stand a chance. In one fluid motion, he rushed forward, his sword pulled back and ready to strike, and while I focused on the tip of his sword glinting in the sun, I didn't notice his fist that was being pulled back for a lower hook aimed right at my stomach.

I felt the air be knocked out of me as the color of the world disappeared around me, leaving only blurring energies as I flew back a few feet and landed roughly on my back. I laid there for a long moment, completely disoriented as the energies swirled around me, throbbing with each wave of pain that hit me. It felt like my diaphragm had completely seized up, keeping my lungs from refilling with any oxygen. I couldn't form a single thought in my head. He had quite literally, knocked me senseless.

There was a shift next to me, and the familiar flames of his two energies appeared, hovering over me. "Get up," he said simply.

I resisted the urge to send a stream of curses at him and forced my mind to even out the energies around me back into shapes, and let the colors come back to me. I swallowed a deep gulp of air and sat up, grimacing at the pain in my stomach. That was definitely going to bruise, and it definitely was going to hurt for a few days. But instead of bitching about it, I bit back my complaints and forced myself to stand as he watched me with narrowed eyes. I still refused to look him in the eye. I was afraid of what my body would do if I did. It was already reacting to the heat of him, even thought the haze of pain from my stomach.

When I reached my full height I searched around me for my bo which had gone flying off somewhere when I was thrown back by the strength of Hiei's punch. My body went stiff. Blood. All I could see was blood. It covered the grass in a sea of crimson. Bodies were strung from the trees, hanging lifelessly as the wind whipped around me violently. I heard voices fading out behind me as the smell of iron hit me in full force.

Then I was alone completely. I forced my mind out, searching the area for any signs of life, but found nothing. Slowly, I turned to look around, trying to not let my mind linger too long on the fact that dead bodies were hanging from the trees, some even missing limbs. Yokuto's temple was in ruins. It looked like it had long since been abandoned, and burned down to leave only the remnants of what it used to be. It almost had seemed as if the world had come to a stop. There was no noise, even as the wind blew around me, rustling the dead branches of the trees. There was no life. I could only sense death, and pain.

It was a strange sensation. Being alone was something that I was used to. But this was a new type of alone. This was utter, and complete silence of the world. It was the kind of silence that sank deep into my bones, chilling me to the core, yet it was an almost familiar feeling. Like something I had felt before.

I saw movement in the trees in the corner of my eye. I twisted my head to see a figure pause, just barely at the edge of the shadows that the trees cast. I clenched my fists as the figure moved out of the shadows after a moment. Before I could fully see who it was, it blurred away, then appeared directly in front of me. I went completely still.

Standing before me was an all too familiar face. Wild, curly black hair that stuck out like a mane when it wasn't well kept. It was tangled, frizzy and stuck out in so many directions that I couldn't even count them. Pale skin that was stretched over an oval shaped face, marked with deep blue lines that trailed up on her cheeks. A dark smile etched it's way across her face, baring the fang like teeth in between her not quite full enough lips. My eyes trailed up to the deep, jewel toned blue and much too large eyes that stared back at me. I swallowed a lump in my throat as she shifted, and her head tilted to the side as she took in my appearance.

I knew I was looking at something that looked exactly like me, but something deep inside me told me that this wasn't me. She looked completely feral with the way her muscles twitched, like she was about to pounce on anything that moved. I was even slightly afraid that she'd pounce on me with her three inch long, dagger like nails if I even so much shifted my weight. Still, I couldn't be sure that I wasn't looking at a reflection of something buried deep inside of me.

"Are you.." I started quietly, then paused when she twitched at my voice, her eyes flickering up to mine, narrowing dangerously as her disturbing smile fell into a tight line as she clenched her jaw. "Are you..me?" I asked after gaining my courage back momentarily. I felt that small surge of courage flicker away as she leaned forward to study my face.

Another smile stretched across her face as she pulled away from me and touched one clawed finger to her chest where three puckered scars and one long scar disappeared into her shirt were, then reached out to touch mine. When her finger touched my skin, it felt like my head exploded. A bright white light engulfed me, then suddenly I was standing back in the front yard of the completely intact temple.

"Daelyn?" David said, leaning down in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. I focused my attention on him, having to squint my eyes to focus on him as a deep pounding started in on my head. "Are you okay? You completely zoned out for a few minutes."

I tore my eyes away from him to the crowd now surrounding me. Hiei stood just behind David, his gaze set hard and unwaveringly on me. Yokuto was standing to my left and I could see in the corner of my eyes that Elijah and Knox were approaching to my right from the temple, with Tetsuya leading them.

"I think..I was hallucinating," I said finally, turning my attention back to David. As I said that I felt something warm drip out of my ear. I reached up as Yokuto asked me something. I didn't respond as I touched my fingers to something wet, then pulled my fingers back so I could see them. They were sticky with bright red blood.

Suddenly everyone was moving as I felt more blood drip from my nose. I felt myself being picked up, but I couldn't focus on who it was. My head rolled to the side, as my vision went completely black. Everything came back into focus once again, except I was back into the blood filled world with the girl who looked just like me.

My hand shot up to my ears and nose to feel for any blood, but my fingers came back clean. She appeared in front of me once again, her eyes wide with curiosity. That paired with her feral appearance seemed strange. I let my hand fall back to my side as she watched me with curious intent.

"Can you speak?" I asked her, gently.

"..Yes," she said after a moment. I clenched my jaw at her voice. She sounded exactly like me, except in the way that someone would sound if they recorded themselves and played it back. "I do not speak often," she said, pursing her lips. "I have no one to speak to. When I tried to speak to you before, your teacher locked me away."

"Those hallucinations..they were you?" I asked, my eyebrows knitting together as I crossed my arms over my chest with clenched fists.

"Yes," she said, her muscles twitching in her arms. "I was trying to tell you that you were not yet ready to open yourself up to that energy. Same as all of this," she said, motioning around us to the blood covered ground and bodies hanging from the trees. "We are actually in your subconscious." When she said that, the blood started to melt away. The trees started to flicker, then completely disappeared. We were standing on the beach, the water crashing at our feet. Her eyes twitched around, taking note of the scenery change.

"When I was at Seikatsu's temple..?" I asked, clenching my teeth. Had that been her that caused those horrible visions?

"Yes and no," she said, narrowing her eyes as she looked back at me. "He awoke me inside of you, and that in turn caused the hallucinations you saw. Most of it was the potion that he gave you, but I am fairly certain that I did cause some of them," she continued. "I'm sorry if I caused you any pain. That was not my intention. That is why I locked your memories away from your hallucinations when I broke free from the seals that your teacher placed on me."

"Oh.." I murmured. "I remember Hiei asked me if I was still hallucinating," I said, mostly to myself. Her whole body twitched at the sound of Hiei's name. I lifted my eyes up to her, from where I had been staring at my feet.

"Hiei," she said, testing his name on her tongue. A smile stretched across her face, much different than the dark grin she had before. "I like him. He's strong."

"I..I like him too," I said quietly, dropping my eyes back down to my feet. "I just can't."

"Why not?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Because I refuse to mark him," I explained firmly. "I refuse to own him. No matter how much I want him, I have to ignore it."

She was silent for a few moments as I watched as the water crashed over our feet again. It was strange talking to her. She looked like me, she sounded like me. But at the same time, she didn't feel like me. I had no idea who she was, or what to call her.

"If you are intimate with him, it might stop your urges," she said, drawing me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, taken back.

"If you become intimate with him, it could stop your urges," she repeated, her muscles twitching as she shifted her weight. "There's a change that they could become worse, but there's a higher chance that it would stop them."

"...You're telling me to sleep with him," I said, my voice wavering at the thought.

"I'm not telling you to do anything," she said, shrugging. It was strange to see her do that. She was obviously all demon, completely feral, and the gesture had been extremely human like. "It's just a thought. There's no need for you to suffer with this while trying to deal with Seikatsu at the same time."

"Who exactly are you?" I asked.

She opened her mouth to answer, and then I was staring up at the wooden ceiling of Yokuto's temple. My head was pounding, and I felt extremely nauseous. David's face appeared in front of me, his expression pinched with worry.

"Can you hear me?" he asked. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I would vomit, so I only gave a weak nod. It sent a shock wave of pain through my head. I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain. David pressed his hand to my forehead. "You're burning up," he said. "You need to rest. Hiei will keep any dreams away, okay?" he assured me, brushing the hair out of my face.

With my eyes shut, the pain in my head started to ease, leaving me to easily slip into sleep. The last thought I had was the way I enjoyed how Hiei's gaze left a trail of fire along my skin.

First off, let me apologize for how friggin' late and short this chapter is. I planned to update earlier last week and just. Ugh. A lot of crap is going on. Everything is starting to settle down, so hopefully I can get back to at least a decent update schedule. We're about to start getting into some really interesting stuff in the story, and I'm ready to get it published.

ANYWAY. So, next chapter is going to be quite interesting. A lot of questions are going to be answered, at least on David's part. Haha I just couldn't resist putting that conversation off. Dae-dae stop running away from your problems dammit! Just kidding, don't ever stop because it's fun to write haha.

TheDoctorsTimeLady: Haha sorry! I just can't resist them sometimes, even though I know they're so cruel. But it keeps things interesting right? Thank you!

TheBucklingBridge: I try to keep you guys in the loop of what's going on with my updates! I don't want you guys to start thinking that I've abandoned the story, you know? Especially when it's starting to get interesting. Seikatsu's reappearance is coming up here in the next few chapters, so you won't have to wait long! And he'll be interacting with more than just Daelyn:)

KK1372: Would it be bad that I just threw that in there on a whim? Haha, I like to keep my readers on their toes. Things are finally starting to settle down, so I hope I can update more often. I doubt that I'm going to be able to go back to every other day updates for a while, if at all, but I hope to atleast once a week. But I will finish this story, hell or high water!

Catharina M: Thank you so much! I put a lot of thought into her dream sequence, and her subconscious. I'm talking like, about four hours of research just for that one point in the story haha. You got the nail right on the head about the ocean representing change and confusion and blue being a spiritual guide! I actually hadn't thought of the partial baptism! It's a perfect fit haha. I'm actually planning for Kurama and Daelyn to be very good friends! I want their friendship to be kind of a breath of fresh air through all the twists, turns, angst and pain that I have planned. I was totally cracking up at the bra scene, but at the same time I was like you SOB. How could you destroy a good bra like that? But, he'll get what's coming to him when Dae-dae finds out.:) David and Kurama are totally going to have a bromance now. I didn't have it planned before, but after you said that I totally have to add it in. It has officially been friend shipped and it's going to happen. Haha it's going to be perfect. Tetsuya is so much fun to write. He brings alot of smiles and happiness with everything that's going on. He's going to play some huge parts later in the story and well. All I can say is Hiei is going to have some competition haha. Knox is one of my favorite characters that I've come up with, tbh. I kind of picture him as that cousin that always has these crazy ideas that get you in so much trouble, but they're so much fun. So you guessed correctly with him being like her other half haha. Things are finally starting to settle down, so I'm doing okay now:) I hope that I can get back on schedule soon!

Lestatsgirl15: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this one too!

Thank you everyone for your patience, favorites, follows and reviews! I'd love to hear who you all think this other Daelyn is. Do you think she's good? Evil? A little bit of both? Please leave a review and let me know what you think!