Spider, Part Five: "Translator"
by Vega
Author's Note: The name Mariu has been changed to Ashrinu, for reasons of not wanting to name two of my characters the same thing (which I realized I had done later). Feel free to re-read chapter three. Thought I'd warn you so you didn't think Kagewaki was calling her something new.
~~~
Things started to come back to me in bits and pieces after that nightmare. When I awoke the next morning I could remember the sensation of being bitten, but not the face of the creature who had done it. I could remember it's salivating jaws locked onto my arm - remember the panicked thought that it was trying to bite my arm clean off, that it was trying to eat me.
I screamed and the creature shook it's head. I was whipped back and forth like a sick rag doll. That's where the bruising had come from. I felt my limbs flailing bonelessly, stomach-turning snaps and thunks. Worse than that, it's droll splashed all the way up and down my arm, a noxious smelling green mucus that burned as it flowed.
I screamed again, the sound ripping from my throat.
Then the low voice spoke and I turned my head towards the sound. Tears streaming from my eyes I reached out my left hand to the figure in the doorway. I could not see the details of his costume, as he was back-lit by a blazing fire. But he came into the centre of the room, and the magenta glow from the floor beside me cast heightened shadows on his face.
"Help me!" I cried, and he turned to look at me. Red eyes glinted from the deep shadows.
He raised his hand and there was an intense flash of white light. I was blinded. I felt myself drop to the floor. Slowly, my vision came back. The monster that had had me in it's jaws was decimated - as were the others that had been in the room.
The man - if I could call this strange mound of dark fur a man - held the source of the glowing in his hand, and I could see the planes and shadows of his face. His face was a skull.
A screamed again, and the blissful waves of darkness crashed over me, and I was unconscious.
~~~
When Kagewaki came in the next morning and sat on my porch, I felt well enough to crawl over and sit beside him. He smiled when I did so and re-adjusted the folds of my plain kimono for me, as I had worked one of the shoulders loose in the moving and with my injury, was unable to fix it myself.
He re-tied the sling for me, and tenderly lifted my arm into the triangle of cloth.
"Arigatou," I said and he smiled gently.
"You are welcome."
I nodded and looked out over the garden, watching as the light began to dance in shafts between the leaves. In this household, people rose and slept with the sun, so it must have been around seven or eight in the morning. I had yet to see any evidence that this place had electricity.
Tea and a thin broth-like soup which floating flecks of white was brought to us, and though I secretly longed for orange juice and bacon, I ate up. This time I was able to balance the polished soup bowl in my good hand alone. I didn't actually see Kagewaki consume any of the meal, but when I looked over at him, his bowl was empty and he was nursing a cup of fragrant tea.
I wanted to ask him about my dream, ask if he knew who the man in the death's head mask was. Had he saved me? Had he brought me here to Kagewaki? Would he know how I had gotten here at all?
"I wish you could understand me," I sighed and picked up my own cup of tea. I had always been preferable to Earl Grey, and this smelled like Green or Jasmine, but tea was tea so I drank.
"It would make things easier," Kagewaki agreed, sipping from his own cup.
"Definitely!"
There was a pause, and then I turned to look at him. My eyes were wide and I dropped the cup onto the polished wood beneath me, my left hand flying up to cover my mouth, to block my gasp of terror.
I could UNDERSTAND him!
He looked at me as well, although his shock was far more mild and far better contained. "So it did work," he muttered, and reached out. I flinched back a bit but all he did was tap my new earring and set it dancing. I reached up and closed my hand around it.
"W-what worked? How is this possible?"
"A man gave me that jewel shard," he said, " and told me that if you were to wear in on your ear that you would hear me speak in your language." He pushed back a thick lock of his own hair to reveal the matched pair of to my earring hanging delicately from his own lobe, "And, if I were to wear one myself, I would hear your words in mine."
"Holy Hell," I said softly, and his eyes narrowed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to swear," I said quickly and looked away - had I offended him?
"Do not ... I am not upset," he said slowly and I looked back up to meet his richly coloured eyes. "I was startled. How do you know the man's name?"
"His name?"
"The man who gave me this, his name is... is the second word you used."
"Hell," I repeated.
"Yes..." he paused for a moment and leaned forward and deftly pulled out my earring, said, "Naraku," then replaced it.
"Naraku," I echoed. "Hell."
He nodded.
I found myself nervous and wary of this miraculous gift I wore. Could anything good come from a man whose name literally meant Hell? And these things were... obviously. .. HAD to be either extremely technologically advanced, far superior to anything I had ever heard about or read about before, and therefore too valuable to just give away as a gift... or... or it was magic.
...magic...
I swallowed uncomfortably and Kagewaki noticed.
"What is wrong?" he asked, setting down his tea cup, then pushing aside the whole tray. He leaned forward and removed my cup from good hand, set it aside as well, and enveloped my hand in his.
"I don't... I don't understand how this can possibly be working..." I said, and felt the tears of panic pressing against the back of my eyes. I forced them back..
"It is a gift-spell from my Lord Naraku," Kagewaki answered, sounding as if I should already understand this.
"Spell?" I repeated, aghast. "Magic?"
"Yes, magic. Of course."
I wrenched my hand from his and turned away, confused. I didn't want him to see me crying. The tears fell and I didn't know why any more than I could stop them. My brain felt like it was about to explode.
"Naraku brought you to me," Kagewaki said, scooting forward to rest his hands soothingly on my back, "when you were badly hurt. He asked me to care for you. He told me that you had appeared from thin air in the middle of a battle. He said that you may be a... a miko."
"A miko?" I sniffled, wondering why that particular word had not been translated. The meaning, I suppose, was too complex to have an English equivalent.
"A priestess," he corrected himself, noticing my confusion, "with great spiritual powers. A warrior woman."
I shook my head. "I'm not that."
He was silent for a long moment.
"Then how did you come to be in that place? In the middle of the battle? Surrounded by demons?"
"Demons?" I turned back around to look at him.
He nodded and pulled a small patch of cloth from the inside of his haori and dabbed my wet cheeks. "So, you are not a miko?"
"I'm not a... a miko. I'm just..." I paused, trying to REMEMBER. Why could I remember nothing before that hellish nightmare of being torn apart by that... that THING? No, I couldn't possibly have amnesia, could I? The tears threatened to well up again but I screwed my eyes shut and waited them out. When I looked up again, Kagewaki was waiting, patiently.
"Don't push yourself, Ashrinu," he said softly. "Your memories will return with time."
I nodded, feeling queasy.
"Perhaps the fresh air has been too much for you," he said gently and helped lead me back to my little bed. "Rest."
I said nothing, knowing I was trembling, knowing my face must have been a deathly white shade, my lips a shivering knife-slice.
I felt Kagewaki's warm hands around my good one again and looked up to meet his eyes. The roan shade was startling in it's intensity and I could see red fire flickering in their depths. This scared me and I looked away.
He stopped me by cupping my chin in one of his hands and brought my gaze back to meet his. "Do not look away from me," he said softly. "I want to look at your eyes. Your strange pale eyes. Why are your eyes the colour of the skies? No human could possibly have eyes like yours."
"I'm human," I whispered. I wondered if he had been able to hear me.
And then, suddenly, without warning, he was kissing me.
I was too surprised to say or do anything, and by the time my brain sent the message to my hands to push him away, he was up and on the far side of the room, facing the brazier, his back to me.
"Forgive me," he said, his voice as calm and deep as ever. "I should not take advantage of you in your weakened state. You must sleep now."
"I'm not tired," I protested, "I just woke up. Why did you do tha..."
Before I could finish my sentence I smelled the sandalwood and was unconscious.
~~~
"Are you a miko?" I heard the deep dream-voice ask, and I was back in that strange, shapeless void of light and shadows. I looked around frantically, but I could not see the speaker.
"No!" I cried.
"Are you a demon?"
"No!"
"Your eyes say you are of demon heritage."
"I'm human!" Who was I trying to convince?
"How did you get here?"
"I don't understand."
"How is it that you appeared in the Demon Exterminator's Village?"
"I don't know! Is that where I was?"
"Why did you appear?"
"I don't know!" I said again, "I don't know anything! Please, what's going on?! Where are you?!"
"... where are you from?"
"I don't know – far away. Not Japan. I can't remember!"
The light slowly began to vanish. It was being eaten by the dark. I saw a flash of silver and a death's head mask.
I screamed.
~~~
And then I was awake.
I sat up, shivering, panting, smelling my own fear. I looked around, desperate for consolation. Desperate to know that this had been just a nightmare.
Kagewaki was nowhere to be found.
The light coming through the rice-paper outer door told me that it was late afternoon. How long had I been asleep?
I paused, listening carefully, and could hear his voice in the room next to mine. I crawled over and pressed myself against the wall that separated our rooms, desperate to know what he was saying.
"... killed the puppet," he was saying, the gentle quality stripped entirely from his voice, "and took the Shikon Shard. I will kill that meddling hanyou."
I blinked. There, another word too complex for the earring. The magical earring that – no, I shoved those complicated thoughts from my mind. I couldn't bare to face any sort of truth.
"Yes, My Young Lord," another voice said and I heard the soft rustling of someone getting to their feet and the familiar tamp tamp of Kagewaki walking. Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping I shuffled myself over to the outside wall and tried to pull myself to my feet.
I watched as Kagewaki's silhouette passed bare inches from my face, then did a double take. All though the footsteps were those of Kagewaki, this shadow was... unfamiliar. Undefined, with a long nose.
I shied backwards, a small gasp escaping my lips. What was that... that THING? A demon? I wanted to believe it was a man in a cap, but I had now seen and heard too much to believe the simplicity of that answer.
The shadow's head turned and I felt it's eyes on me. There was a faint red glow on the paper that separated us.
The door to the porch slid back and instead of the monster, I saw that it was Kagewaki. I stumbled over to him, relieved.
"I... I saw...!" I began, my breath hitching, "the shadow! It wasn't you! The nose!"
"You must have seen Naraku," he said, "He was walking beside me. He wears a hat with strange brim. Are you well? You shouldn't be moving around like you are. You shouldn't be able to walk yet. You need to rest."
"I don't want to rest anymore," I said, "I've been having nightmares."
"Nightmares?" He pulled me upright and helped me stumble out onto the porch. My legs were like leaden weights, and I felt like a badly manipulated marionette. He waited until I was settled, my bare feet dangling over the hard-packed dirt of the garden path beside the proch before asking, "What sorts of nightmares?"
"I dream about this," I said, raising my right arm slightly, then settled it back in the sling. The bandages began to itch and I wanted to take them off, but I knew it was too early for that. "And I had a dream about... someone... asking me questions."
Kagewaki's eyes narrowed briefly before resuming their normal concerned expression. "What sorts of questions?"
"He wants to know who I am, and where I'm from. But when I answer him, he doesn't believe me!"
"Are you telling the truth?"
"Of course I am!" I cried out, then clapped my hand over my moth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't get upset with you, it's not your fault." Kagewaki nodded minutely in acceptance of the apology, then gestured for me to go on. "I don't remember... anything... before waking up here." I admitted. "I may have hurt myself, gotten amnesia, anything, I don't know. I don't even remember being hurt, I just know how it happened from the nightmares. I see this... monster, with huge teeth and it... it... " I touched my arm and hoped that he knew what had happened by the punctures in my flesh so I wouldn't have to say it out loud. "But it doesn't make sense. Things like that don't really exist. Magic doesn't really exist! Demons aren't real!"
There was a moment of silence before Kagewaki leaned over and wrapped me tightly in his arms, pulling me into an intimate embrace. The memory of his kiss, his soft smooth lips on mine, flashed through my head and I felt myself growing redder.
Why on earth was I blushing? It was just one kiss. And he had apologized.
"Demons are real," he said softly, "I've seen enough of them to know this. And I know magic does work, because I can speak to you... and my advice for the dream is, tell the voice whatever he wants, everything you remember. It can only be someone trying to help you."
I nodded slowly, sniffing back more tears that were threatening. But I wasn't' sure I agreed with him - the voice in the dream was trying to help me? I didn't think that was right... it felt more like... like he was trying to demand information... he sounded manipulative...
It was all so confusing!
This ordeal was starting to become overwhelming. I sallowed again, trying to force away the tears and fear. I felt rather than saw a flash over my shoulder and knew instinctively that the red fire in Kagewaki's eyes had flared for just a moment.
That scared me.
And then he was kissing me again and his skin was too warm, too comforting for me to want to let go.
For the few minutes the kiss lasted, all I could feel was complete trust for his strange man who held me, this strange man who believed in magic and demons, this strange man whom, I realized, I knew nothing about.
When we parted there was a strange taste on my tongue, something I couldn't identify. It was bitter and dusty. I licked my lips and felt a lethargy come over me. I wanted to sleep again, which was strange because I knew I was not tired.
And all I could feel, all I could see, all I could smell was Kagewaki.
But that didn't matter. As long as he held me, I felt safe.
And that scared me too, because deep down I knew I should be feeling anything but.
I slept.
by Vega
Author's Note: The name Mariu has been changed to Ashrinu, for reasons of not wanting to name two of my characters the same thing (which I realized I had done later). Feel free to re-read chapter three. Thought I'd warn you so you didn't think Kagewaki was calling her something new.
~~~
Things started to come back to me in bits and pieces after that nightmare. When I awoke the next morning I could remember the sensation of being bitten, but not the face of the creature who had done it. I could remember it's salivating jaws locked onto my arm - remember the panicked thought that it was trying to bite my arm clean off, that it was trying to eat me.
I screamed and the creature shook it's head. I was whipped back and forth like a sick rag doll. That's where the bruising had come from. I felt my limbs flailing bonelessly, stomach-turning snaps and thunks. Worse than that, it's droll splashed all the way up and down my arm, a noxious smelling green mucus that burned as it flowed.
I screamed again, the sound ripping from my throat.
Then the low voice spoke and I turned my head towards the sound. Tears streaming from my eyes I reached out my left hand to the figure in the doorway. I could not see the details of his costume, as he was back-lit by a blazing fire. But he came into the centre of the room, and the magenta glow from the floor beside me cast heightened shadows on his face.
"Help me!" I cried, and he turned to look at me. Red eyes glinted from the deep shadows.
He raised his hand and there was an intense flash of white light. I was blinded. I felt myself drop to the floor. Slowly, my vision came back. The monster that had had me in it's jaws was decimated - as were the others that had been in the room.
The man - if I could call this strange mound of dark fur a man - held the source of the glowing in his hand, and I could see the planes and shadows of his face. His face was a skull.
A screamed again, and the blissful waves of darkness crashed over me, and I was unconscious.
~~~
When Kagewaki came in the next morning and sat on my porch, I felt well enough to crawl over and sit beside him. He smiled when I did so and re-adjusted the folds of my plain kimono for me, as I had worked one of the shoulders loose in the moving and with my injury, was unable to fix it myself.
He re-tied the sling for me, and tenderly lifted my arm into the triangle of cloth.
"Arigatou," I said and he smiled gently.
"You are welcome."
I nodded and looked out over the garden, watching as the light began to dance in shafts between the leaves. In this household, people rose and slept with the sun, so it must have been around seven or eight in the morning. I had yet to see any evidence that this place had electricity.
Tea and a thin broth-like soup which floating flecks of white was brought to us, and though I secretly longed for orange juice and bacon, I ate up. This time I was able to balance the polished soup bowl in my good hand alone. I didn't actually see Kagewaki consume any of the meal, but when I looked over at him, his bowl was empty and he was nursing a cup of fragrant tea.
I wanted to ask him about my dream, ask if he knew who the man in the death's head mask was. Had he saved me? Had he brought me here to Kagewaki? Would he know how I had gotten here at all?
"I wish you could understand me," I sighed and picked up my own cup of tea. I had always been preferable to Earl Grey, and this smelled like Green or Jasmine, but tea was tea so I drank.
"It would make things easier," Kagewaki agreed, sipping from his own cup.
"Definitely!"
There was a pause, and then I turned to look at him. My eyes were wide and I dropped the cup onto the polished wood beneath me, my left hand flying up to cover my mouth, to block my gasp of terror.
I could UNDERSTAND him!
He looked at me as well, although his shock was far more mild and far better contained. "So it did work," he muttered, and reached out. I flinched back a bit but all he did was tap my new earring and set it dancing. I reached up and closed my hand around it.
"W-what worked? How is this possible?"
"A man gave me that jewel shard," he said, " and told me that if you were to wear in on your ear that you would hear me speak in your language." He pushed back a thick lock of his own hair to reveal the matched pair of to my earring hanging delicately from his own lobe, "And, if I were to wear one myself, I would hear your words in mine."
"Holy Hell," I said softly, and his eyes narrowed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to swear," I said quickly and looked away - had I offended him?
"Do not ... I am not upset," he said slowly and I looked back up to meet his richly coloured eyes. "I was startled. How do you know the man's name?"
"His name?"
"The man who gave me this, his name is... is the second word you used."
"Hell," I repeated.
"Yes..." he paused for a moment and leaned forward and deftly pulled out my earring, said, "Naraku," then replaced it.
"Naraku," I echoed. "Hell."
He nodded.
I found myself nervous and wary of this miraculous gift I wore. Could anything good come from a man whose name literally meant Hell? And these things were... obviously. .. HAD to be either extremely technologically advanced, far superior to anything I had ever heard about or read about before, and therefore too valuable to just give away as a gift... or... or it was magic.
...magic...
I swallowed uncomfortably and Kagewaki noticed.
"What is wrong?" he asked, setting down his tea cup, then pushing aside the whole tray. He leaned forward and removed my cup from good hand, set it aside as well, and enveloped my hand in his.
"I don't... I don't understand how this can possibly be working..." I said, and felt the tears of panic pressing against the back of my eyes. I forced them back..
"It is a gift-spell from my Lord Naraku," Kagewaki answered, sounding as if I should already understand this.
"Spell?" I repeated, aghast. "Magic?"
"Yes, magic. Of course."
I wrenched my hand from his and turned away, confused. I didn't want him to see me crying. The tears fell and I didn't know why any more than I could stop them. My brain felt like it was about to explode.
"Naraku brought you to me," Kagewaki said, scooting forward to rest his hands soothingly on my back, "when you were badly hurt. He asked me to care for you. He told me that you had appeared from thin air in the middle of a battle. He said that you may be a... a miko."
"A miko?" I sniffled, wondering why that particular word had not been translated. The meaning, I suppose, was too complex to have an English equivalent.
"A priestess," he corrected himself, noticing my confusion, "with great spiritual powers. A warrior woman."
I shook my head. "I'm not that."
He was silent for a long moment.
"Then how did you come to be in that place? In the middle of the battle? Surrounded by demons?"
"Demons?" I turned back around to look at him.
He nodded and pulled a small patch of cloth from the inside of his haori and dabbed my wet cheeks. "So, you are not a miko?"
"I'm not a... a miko. I'm just..." I paused, trying to REMEMBER. Why could I remember nothing before that hellish nightmare of being torn apart by that... that THING? No, I couldn't possibly have amnesia, could I? The tears threatened to well up again but I screwed my eyes shut and waited them out. When I looked up again, Kagewaki was waiting, patiently.
"Don't push yourself, Ashrinu," he said softly. "Your memories will return with time."
I nodded, feeling queasy.
"Perhaps the fresh air has been too much for you," he said gently and helped lead me back to my little bed. "Rest."
I said nothing, knowing I was trembling, knowing my face must have been a deathly white shade, my lips a shivering knife-slice.
I felt Kagewaki's warm hands around my good one again and looked up to meet his eyes. The roan shade was startling in it's intensity and I could see red fire flickering in their depths. This scared me and I looked away.
He stopped me by cupping my chin in one of his hands and brought my gaze back to meet his. "Do not look away from me," he said softly. "I want to look at your eyes. Your strange pale eyes. Why are your eyes the colour of the skies? No human could possibly have eyes like yours."
"I'm human," I whispered. I wondered if he had been able to hear me.
And then, suddenly, without warning, he was kissing me.
I was too surprised to say or do anything, and by the time my brain sent the message to my hands to push him away, he was up and on the far side of the room, facing the brazier, his back to me.
"Forgive me," he said, his voice as calm and deep as ever. "I should not take advantage of you in your weakened state. You must sleep now."
"I'm not tired," I protested, "I just woke up. Why did you do tha..."
Before I could finish my sentence I smelled the sandalwood and was unconscious.
~~~
"Are you a miko?" I heard the deep dream-voice ask, and I was back in that strange, shapeless void of light and shadows. I looked around frantically, but I could not see the speaker.
"No!" I cried.
"Are you a demon?"
"No!"
"Your eyes say you are of demon heritage."
"I'm human!" Who was I trying to convince?
"How did you get here?"
"I don't understand."
"How is it that you appeared in the Demon Exterminator's Village?"
"I don't know! Is that where I was?"
"Why did you appear?"
"I don't know!" I said again, "I don't know anything! Please, what's going on?! Where are you?!"
"... where are you from?"
"I don't know – far away. Not Japan. I can't remember!"
The light slowly began to vanish. It was being eaten by the dark. I saw a flash of silver and a death's head mask.
I screamed.
~~~
And then I was awake.
I sat up, shivering, panting, smelling my own fear. I looked around, desperate for consolation. Desperate to know that this had been just a nightmare.
Kagewaki was nowhere to be found.
The light coming through the rice-paper outer door told me that it was late afternoon. How long had I been asleep?
I paused, listening carefully, and could hear his voice in the room next to mine. I crawled over and pressed myself against the wall that separated our rooms, desperate to know what he was saying.
"... killed the puppet," he was saying, the gentle quality stripped entirely from his voice, "and took the Shikon Shard. I will kill that meddling hanyou."
I blinked. There, another word too complex for the earring. The magical earring that – no, I shoved those complicated thoughts from my mind. I couldn't bare to face any sort of truth.
"Yes, My Young Lord," another voice said and I heard the soft rustling of someone getting to their feet and the familiar tamp tamp of Kagewaki walking. Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping I shuffled myself over to the outside wall and tried to pull myself to my feet.
I watched as Kagewaki's silhouette passed bare inches from my face, then did a double take. All though the footsteps were those of Kagewaki, this shadow was... unfamiliar. Undefined, with a long nose.
I shied backwards, a small gasp escaping my lips. What was that... that THING? A demon? I wanted to believe it was a man in a cap, but I had now seen and heard too much to believe the simplicity of that answer.
The shadow's head turned and I felt it's eyes on me. There was a faint red glow on the paper that separated us.
The door to the porch slid back and instead of the monster, I saw that it was Kagewaki. I stumbled over to him, relieved.
"I... I saw...!" I began, my breath hitching, "the shadow! It wasn't you! The nose!"
"You must have seen Naraku," he said, "He was walking beside me. He wears a hat with strange brim. Are you well? You shouldn't be moving around like you are. You shouldn't be able to walk yet. You need to rest."
"I don't want to rest anymore," I said, "I've been having nightmares."
"Nightmares?" He pulled me upright and helped me stumble out onto the porch. My legs were like leaden weights, and I felt like a badly manipulated marionette. He waited until I was settled, my bare feet dangling over the hard-packed dirt of the garden path beside the proch before asking, "What sorts of nightmares?"
"I dream about this," I said, raising my right arm slightly, then settled it back in the sling. The bandages began to itch and I wanted to take them off, but I knew it was too early for that. "And I had a dream about... someone... asking me questions."
Kagewaki's eyes narrowed briefly before resuming their normal concerned expression. "What sorts of questions?"
"He wants to know who I am, and where I'm from. But when I answer him, he doesn't believe me!"
"Are you telling the truth?"
"Of course I am!" I cried out, then clapped my hand over my moth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't get upset with you, it's not your fault." Kagewaki nodded minutely in acceptance of the apology, then gestured for me to go on. "I don't remember... anything... before waking up here." I admitted. "I may have hurt myself, gotten amnesia, anything, I don't know. I don't even remember being hurt, I just know how it happened from the nightmares. I see this... monster, with huge teeth and it... it... " I touched my arm and hoped that he knew what had happened by the punctures in my flesh so I wouldn't have to say it out loud. "But it doesn't make sense. Things like that don't really exist. Magic doesn't really exist! Demons aren't real!"
There was a moment of silence before Kagewaki leaned over and wrapped me tightly in his arms, pulling me into an intimate embrace. The memory of his kiss, his soft smooth lips on mine, flashed through my head and I felt myself growing redder.
Why on earth was I blushing? It was just one kiss. And he had apologized.
"Demons are real," he said softly, "I've seen enough of them to know this. And I know magic does work, because I can speak to you... and my advice for the dream is, tell the voice whatever he wants, everything you remember. It can only be someone trying to help you."
I nodded slowly, sniffing back more tears that were threatening. But I wasn't' sure I agreed with him - the voice in the dream was trying to help me? I didn't think that was right... it felt more like... like he was trying to demand information... he sounded manipulative...
It was all so confusing!
This ordeal was starting to become overwhelming. I sallowed again, trying to force away the tears and fear. I felt rather than saw a flash over my shoulder and knew instinctively that the red fire in Kagewaki's eyes had flared for just a moment.
That scared me.
And then he was kissing me again and his skin was too warm, too comforting for me to want to let go.
For the few minutes the kiss lasted, all I could feel was complete trust for his strange man who held me, this strange man who believed in magic and demons, this strange man whom, I realized, I knew nothing about.
When we parted there was a strange taste on my tongue, something I couldn't identify. It was bitter and dusty. I licked my lips and felt a lethargy come over me. I wanted to sleep again, which was strange because I knew I was not tired.
And all I could feel, all I could see, all I could smell was Kagewaki.
But that didn't matter. As long as he held me, I felt safe.
And that scared me too, because deep down I knew I should be feeling anything but.
I slept.