Author's Note: I just could not leave 'well enough' alone. And so here's Empire of Blood - the sequel to Rush. It's darker, sexier, and much more gritty than its predecessor. Not for the faint of heart or squeamish.

Also, every once in a while I'll be including song choices for certain chapters, just because this fic was written by the inspiration of a lot of good music.

This Chapter's Song Choice: Magic Man - HEART

X

"Cold, late night so long ago when I was not so strong, you know...A pretty man came to me, I'd never seen eyes so blue...I could not run away it seemed we'd seen each other in a dream. Seemed like he knew me, he looked right through me..."

-HEART

X

She was standing in the hallway outside of Seto's room. The door was closed, but she could hear faint music coming from within. It was something like an RnB song: slow, sensual, and just rhythmic enough to appeal to her inner stripper. Her bare feet were cold upon his polished wooden floor. The only thing that she was wearing was a pair of undies and a simple white t-shirt, no bra. In her hands, she held a glass pan of tiramisu that had been chilled to perfection. It was the most scrumptious, luxurious-looking thing that she had ever seen.

The door slowly swung open. The music grew louder as she walked in. Seto sat upright in the bed, the velvet silk sheets twisted around his legs and his wrists handcuffed to either side of the bedboard. He was eyeing her coolly, his bare chest rising and falling slowly. His pants were slung low on his hips, resting a few inches short of the v-shaped cut of his abs.

It was the second most scrumptious, luxurious-looking thing that she had ever seen.

"You sure took your time," he said as she placed the pan on the bedside table.

"The tiramisu took longer than expected." She dipped her finger in the dish and swiped up a heaping portion which she stuck happily in her mouth. The music was throbbing still. The lyrics were sexy and yet so gentle.

"That's no excuse to be late for work."

"Work?!" She exclaimed. "But Seto, it's Saturday. I-"

"You know what kind of work I'm talking about," he flexed his fingers, testing the strength of the handcuffs. The muscles in his upper arms shifted, taking her breath away. "You've been assigned to a new project."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"Eating that tiramisu off of my chest."

"Say less, you kinky lunatic motherfucker." She jumped on the bed and crawled towards him on her hands and her knees. He shifted until he was lying on his back. She ran her hands along his chest, his stomach, the front of his pants. The tiramisu would be dealt with later, she decided. Because right then, she needed a taste of something else. She undid his big, silver KC belt buckle.

"Oh, man look at that thing," she whispered in awe. "Jesus, Seto. Why didn't you tell me you kept a Blue-Eyes White Dragon in your pa-"

x

She opened her eyes with a scream and bolted up. The world around her was dark save for the dusky silver moonlight slipping in through the part in the curtains. She could just barely make out the silhouette of Kaiba's bookshelf and the chess table standing in the corner.

She moved the cover away from her legs - someone must have put it there, she didn't even remember falling asleep - and let her feet down on the floor.

"Bad dream?" An ever so slightly sarcastic male voice asked. She looked over and saw Seto with his legs crossed on the opposite couch. A red blanket had been draped over his thighs, and he held a coffee mug halfway to his lips. His laptop stood open on his lap, the light from its screen illuminating the dark circles beneath his eyes.

"Yeah, sorry. It was just…it started out good and then it turned into a nightmare."

"What made it a nightmare?"

"The fact that it ended."

He set the coffee mug down, delicately, and then shut his laptop. The blanket fell away from his thighs as he stood up. For some reason, she was reminded of a dragon rising in its cavern and uncurling its wings along the walls. Her head craned back a little as she looked up at him.

"I have no tolerance for unfinished business," he said, strolling leisurely towards her. He stopped when he was right in front of her, bent down, and placed both hands on either side of her chair. Once again, she was inclined to find his blue eyes wildly hypnotic. "Even if it is only in a dream."

"Then we have a lot of work to do, Mister Kaiba, sir."

He leaned down closer, teasing the possibility of a kiss. "Then let's stop dancing around the matter, shall we?"

"Okay, but: question," she said, holding her finger up. "...do you have any tiramisu?"

"Wait...what?"

X

"GAH!"

KaibaCorps Cyber Security Team Lead Sara Suzuki threw her hands in the air and leaned back. Getting no response to this, she balled her fists and slammed them down on the table hard enough to make Marie look up from her phone. Pink disco lights flashed across the stormy expression on her face and the many desecrated platters of sushi and empty beer bottles between them.

"I'm bored," Sara said, pulling a mighty pout. "No, correction: you're boring."

"What the hell did I do!?"

"Nothing! That's the point!" Sara raised a beer glass to her mouth, realized that it was empty, and set it back down with a defeated sigh. She waved at a passing waitress and held two fingers in the air. "Two shots of tequila," she called over the blaring music. "One for me and one for the wilting daisy over here." The waitress nodded and Sara glanced back down at Marie. "You know, I hate to be the one to say it but...you've been a real stick in the mud ever since Ryo disappeared on us. Where did you say he was, again?"

"Family emergency," Marie said distractedly, glancing back down at her phone. This was a lie, she knew. About a year earlier, her best friend and colleague Ryo Takagi had gotten involved in a rather shady bit of business with KaibaCorp's main business rival, Arronaxx. With the help of a few KC-supplied resources and good ol' fashioned ingenuity, Marie had managed to get him fake passports and a one-way ticket to a new life in Belize. She was the only one who knew of his whereabouts and preferred to keep it that way. She had no doubt in her heart that Arronaxx would tear him to shreds if they found out where he was living. "He'll probably be back one day."

"I sure hope so. It's beginning to look like he was the only thing that you and I had in common."

That hurt, but Marie tried her best to ignore it. She looked back down at her phone and watched the three black dots flickering in her text message app. Seto was typing something. Or, rather, he had been typing something on and off ever since she first texted him that morning. She wished he'd hurry it up. Waiting for his response made her anxious and giddy, although in truth he rarely ever responded to her. He was a busy man, she knew that. But still. The blinking dots were telling. It was proof that he had picked up his phone, considered texting her, and then, for some reason, hadn't.

The waitress returned with two shot glasses. Sara immediately took one off the tray, downed it in one go, and then glared at Marie.

"You wanna know something?" She asked as she wiped her mouth. "I retract my previous statement. You've been a real stick in the mud ever since you started sleeping with the Bastard Billionaire Seto Kaiba."

"What?" Marie yanked her head up. "I'm not-"

Sara's eyes widened and she pointed at Marie around the shot glass. "Oh shit," she said, "No home runs in the Erotic Arena, eh, Tonette? So what base did you land on? Third? You gotta pick up the pace, girl, or else he'll get bored." She waited patiently with a wicked smile on her face as Marie resisted another urge to look at her phone. "So. I guess I'll ask, then. Does the cargo match the ego?"

"Shut the fuck up," Marie hissed. And then added, "It's none of your busine-"

There! The dots in the app disappeared. There was a moment where nothing happened and then suddenly her phone gave a cheerful chirp that made her heart leap.

He had finally texted her back.

Earlier that day, she had sent him a picture of the cover page for Domino City's infamous gossip magazine. In it, someone had superimposed his face onto the World Weekly News Batchild's with the caption Seto: Summoner of Satan? Proof That KaibaCorp's Salacious Sovereign Is Under the Illuminati's Spell!

She had found the badly photoshopped image ridiculously hilarious and had followed it up with the simple text: they're on to you.

Now, he had sent her a link to an online news article. This one bore a picture of her face. Except, it was a photo taken from her high school yearbook. It was anything but flattering. In the picture, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Darla Sherman from Finding Nemo. All she needed was a bag with a dead fish and she'd have completed the look. The news article had been captioned Everything We Know (and Didn't Want to) About Seto Kaiba's New Advisor.

Beneath the link, Kaiba had included the message: I'm not the one who should be worried.

She could have hugged the phone to her chest, she really could have, but suddenly Sara plucked it from her hands and glared at the screen.

"Seto Kaiba's new advisor-" she muttered incredulously. Marie snatched the phone back and held it against her chest, her cheeks warm with embarrassment. This was not how she had wanted to break the news to Sara, not at all. "What the fuck qualifies you as a KC advisor?! How did that even happen?"

"I've got gusto," Marie said proudly, using Kaiba's very own words to her advantage.

"You've got as much gusto as my tits in a push-up bra. So let me ask you again: how the fuck did you become Seto's new advisor? What happened to Mr. Woodsworth?"

"Long story," Marie muttered before downing her shot.

It wasn't a long story, not really. Only a few days earlier, she had been walking with Seto through the halls of KaibaCorps. Suddenly a man had come charging at them, several KC security guards in hot pursuit. She recognized him immediately: this was Mr. Woodsworth. He was what the KC culture called a Shadow Lurker: like Mokuba, he worked behind the scenes on Seto's behalf. His official title was Seto's Personal Advisor but what the hell he did, Marie had no idea. All she knew was that he worked on the floor directly beneath Seto's in a swanky room with a view of the entire city

"You evil, conniving, snot-nosed son of a bitch," he had thundered at Kaiba, trailing a sloshing bucket behind him. "I'll make you pay for what you did!"

He had raised the bucket over his head. Kaiba was quick to put his hand out and push her away, just as the man slung the bucket forward and doused Seto in a viscous red liquid. Kaiba had flinched, a disgusted sneer crossing his lips before the security guards had grabbed the man and tackled him to the ground.

"Wallow in the blood of your own kind, you bratty little uncultured pig," Mr. Woodsworth had growled before the security guards picked him up and forced his hands behind his back. "You're worse than Gozaburo. Your parents probably killed themselves on purpose so that they wouldn't have to deal with you-"

"That's enough," a security guard had said before pulling him away and marching him down the hall. Marie had turned to Kaiba and gasped at the sight of him. He was covered from head to toe in what she assumed was pig's blood, a la Carrie from the movie of the same name. It had completely blanketed his face until all she could see were his two eyes staring blankly into the distance.

He had shaken his head slightly, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, and gently ran it around his chin. "I hope you're not scared of heights," he had said dryly, looking for all the world as if he hadn't just been assaulted.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm relocating you to Mr. Woodsworth's office."

"But I thought that was the office reserved for your Personal Advisor...or wait," she said, pointing her finger at her chest. "Am I your new Personal Advisor?"

"Among other things."

"But Seto, I don't-"

"Haven't I told you before," he had said, a smile in his voice as he walked away. "You've got gusto, kid. And that's all that matters. Any more questions?"

"Um-"

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and take a shower. In my office. In outer space."

She had no idea how the tabloids had gotten wind of her sudden promotion nor what Seto had done to piss off his very own personal advisor. But then again, she figured, every multi-billionaire run company had ears in the walls. And in terms of Mr. Woodsworth...well, he probably wasn't the only one who wanted to throw pig's blood in Kaiba's face.

But of course, she couldn't tell any of that to Sara. If there was anybody who deserved a sudden and inexplicable promotion it was her, not Marie.

Marie looked back down at her phone and read Seto's message over and over again. I'm not the one who should be worried.

She texted back without even thinking. You should be. The only thing I'm guilty of is a bad haircut and a set of crooked teeth. Your problems are more cosmic. I think your chakras are misaligned.

He responded immediately. Your little euphemisms are amusing.

Her response: Your little Svadhisthana is amusing.

His: Luckily for you, I have no idea what that means.

"Je-sus Christ, Marie!" Sara slammed her hand on the table again, rattling the empty bottles. "For the love of God, give it a rest, will you?! Seto's not going to suddenly disappear if you stop texting him for two seconds!"

"What do you want from me, Sara?" Marie asked in exasperation, although she was embarrassed to be caught so engrossed in her phone.

"I want you to grow up and start making better decisions in your life."

"Okay, fine. You're right. You win, Suzuki. Maybe I should start by getting out of this bar and finding new friends that are a little more sympathetic."

Sara leaned back and crossed her arms with a smile. "Good luck with that. Seto has you wrapped around his pinky finger like a too-tight golden ring. He's not going to let you make friends. He wants you to depend on him. He needs you to feel like he's your whole world. Strokes his pretty little ego, don't it?"

"Sara, I'm gonna need you to take a few steps back-"

"No!" Sara said, leaning forward. The people around them fell into a hush and glanced back at them uncomfortably. "I'm going to need you to take a lot of steps back. Hell, Marie, I'm going to need you to run. That man's no good, I can promise you that."

"And just how the hell do you know that?" Marie held two fingers up at the waitress: two more shots.

Sara shrugged. "He fits an archetype. Wanna know the number one career that sociopaths gravitate to? CEO-type positions, like the one our dear Seto holds-"

"Right, Sara. Do you know what's third on the list? People in the media, and then journalist types. As a social media accounts manager, what does that make me?"

"Similar but in-com-patible," Sara said quickly. "Okay, so. Let me break it down for you. You haven't gone all the way with him, right? You probably told him that you're just not ready. And he probably told you that he's okay with that, and he'll wait for as long as you want. Right?"

"...right-"

"WRONG!" Sara bellowed, suddenly sitting up. "He's playing you for a fucking fool. It's all a game to him. He's wearing his good-guy facade and wearing it well. You just wait until he gets tired of waiting. He'll use your hesitancy against you, tell you that you owe him everything for making him wait so long. Marie - MARIE, just shut up and listen to me for a minute," she reached over the table and clamped her hand against Marie's mouth. "I'm only telling you this because I'm your friend and I love you and I've been through enough Sugar Daddies to put the Tootsie Roll industry out of business. You're from San Diego, right? I'm sure you're probably used to college beach boys and dumbass tourists willing to give anything to spend a weekend with mousy-blonde Cali dolls like you. But Seto is nothing like them, get it? He's savage. And cutthroat. Get too close to his flame and he will burn you like a moth."

"You're wrong-"

"No. I'm sorry that you mistake my honesty for brutality."

The waitress appeared with their drinks. Marie took both glasses off of the platter and downed them before Sara even had a chance to take one. She did not like where this was going. She had been through it all before: everyone, from KC's very own high-ranking officials to Ryo and now Sara enjoyed poking holes at Seto's character. But she was beyond that. She had seen the worst and the best of him and had decided, all measures considered, that he was a genuinely good guy.

Or, as Sara had been insistent on implying, she was just hopelessly and traumatically in love with him.

Unable to take anymore, she staggered up and threw her purse strap over her shoulder. She wobbled on unsteady feet towards the doorway but Sara was quick to leap up and charge after her. She put her hands on Marie's shoulders and spun her around just as she was about to grab the door handle.

"I get it, sweetie, I really do," Sara said, her blonde hair hanging in sweaty strands around her face. "He's this big, famous hotshot and you're super happy that he's into you, of all people. You've never…" Sara paused for a moment as she struggled to find the right words. "...experienced anything like him before. He's like a fucking rose in a field full of weeds but...he's dangerous. He's got thorns. That's all I'm saying. He's nothing like you. You are not a part of his world."

"Sara, I'm warning you-"

"What? Wanna punch me? Go 'head, Tonette." Sara said, holding her arms out. Several bar patrons got up and surrounded them, watching the tension unfold between the two women with interest. Someone put their hands on Sara's shoulders and she pushed them away. "Then go cry to Seto about how no one understands your relationship. He is a kid, Tonette, who's only just coming to terms with his own power in his industry. And you know what that makes you? A toy that he can play with and experiment on. When he's done dissecting whatever lies beneath your thick skull, he'll discard you like a broken marionette and move on to bigger and better things. Or," she added with a pursed smile, "he'll go back to bigger and better things."

Marie knew exactly who Sara was talking about. She hadn't seen nor heard from Mizumi - Seto's old flame and right-hand woman - in a year, ever since Kaiba had cut her off for her treacherous dealings with Arronaxx. But, like an eerie sense of paranoia brought on after watching a scary movie, Mizumi had a way of sticking around.

Marie spun around and held her arms out. "Anything else, Sara, or are you finished being an insufferable know-it-all?"

"Only this." Sara crossed her arms over her chest and took on a very self-satisfied air. The people around her were watching her hungrily, like an audience unsure of whose side they were on. "One day, Seto is going to slip up and reveal his dark side. You'll be scared, but he'll gaslight you into thinking that you're imagining it all. And when you come to your senses and realize what he's capable of, I'll be right here waiting for you. I won't tell you I told you so because we'll both already know it. Besides, he's got giant jug ears. You ever notice that?"

Marie's eyes narrowed and she shook her head in sheer disbelief at the other woman's audacity. "Get bent, you repulsive demon slug," she spat before turning away and trudging out the door.

"Adios, Marie," Sara called after her, her shrill voice ringing above the sound of the music. "Enjoy your gusto before he takes it from you."

X

Marie stood with her back against the wall, staring up at the star-speckled sky as she waited for a taxi. She could hear the crowd cheering Sara on as she serenaded them with some cheesy pop song at the karaoke bar. She turned around and punched the wall hard enough to make her knuckles sting. Who needed friends, she thought, when they knew you well enough to tear you down?

The only friend that she wanted then and there was Seto: insufferable pretty boy Seto with his bad rep and perfect hair. Maybe Sara was right: maybe he did have her wrapped around his pinky finger. But so what? He was a heck of a lot kinder to her than Sara had ever been.

She dug her phone out of her pocket and dialed his number. It took several calls but finally, he answered. She could hear clicking, like he was working away on the keyboard of his laptop.

"Let me guess," he finally said, his voice smooth and empty of all emotions. "You've been warned to stay away from KaibaCorp's Salacious Sovereign."

"How did you know?"

"You're usually so chatty."

"You're right," she sighed. "It's not the salaciousness that I'm worried about. It's the whole fraternization with Satan that concerns me." Silence. "Are you busy?"

"What do you think?"

"Can you maybe make yourself busy with me?" Silence, a bit of keyboard clicking, and then silence again. "Okay, I didn't want to take it there but, as your new Personal Advisor, I must insist."

"Marie," he said, exasperation showing in his voice. "Not right now."

Now that really stung. She bit her lip and examined her knuckles for bruises, trying her best not to think of all the things that Sara had said. Then he said something that made her heart leap in her throat.

"Tomorrow. 8 pm. Some of the company shareholders are holding a dinner party in the hills. And as my new Personal Advisor, I think you're overdue in meeting them. I'll pick you up around 7:30."

"Sounds groovy."

"For now. And Marie? One more thing."

"I'm all ears."

"Try not to dress like you got into a fight with the discount rack at Macy's."

"I'm willing to throw a punch or two for a good deal. You're a businessman, you get it." She exhaled and watched as the frolicking mist evaporated in front of her face. There was so, so much more that she wanted to say. But she couldn't. It didn't feel right. So instead she said, "okay."

"Okay," he said back. She listened to him typing for a long time. Where was he, she wondered. All alone in a darkened room in the silent KaibaCorps tower or sitting at home behind his desk, engrossed in his work but every once in a while stopping to look out the window? Both of these images made her sad, for some reason. Sometimes she got the impression that he truly was alone in his big ol', expansive kingdom.

But, wherever he was, it was obvious that he had forgotten that she was still on the phone.

"Okay," she whispered. "Good night."

There was no response to this. She pressed the red END button on her phone and slipped it into her pocket. She looked up at the sky again as a taxi rolled to a stop in front of her. There was something odd about it all, she ruminated as she crawled across the worn seats. As the driver pulled away, she watched the blur of streetlights sliding across the window, feeling a strange weight settling upon her chest. Yes, there was definitely something wrong. She felt as if she was moving away from safety, and inching ever closer to some strange, unforeseeable disaster.