"Kay? Come on, Kay-girl wake up, please?" I let out a groan as my hand went to the back of my head. What was a bandage doing there?
"Leave that alone," a voice told me. "You've got a bad cut there and it won't take much to get it bleeding again. Not to mention that beautiful black eye you're sporting." I slowly opened my eyes and scanned the room- first I noticed that I was on the floor, then the blurred faces around me.
"Botan? Yusuke?" Both gave a sigh of relief. "What's going on?"
"We could ask you the same question," said Yusuke. "Voices coming from in here woke me about around three o'clock this morning. I tried to come in but the door was locked!" I looked over and noticed that my door was now on the floor- he must have really wanted to get inside. "When I got in, you were on the floor totally out of it, with blood all over the floor!"
"Then he called me," said Botan. "And I was here in a flash." I sat up and then got a good look at myself in a mirror that was on the other side of the room. The left side of my face was completely black and blue. I shook my head.
"Oh God," I muttered. "How am I gonna explain this to Aunt Atsuko? She'll never believe I wasn't fighting with someone."
"She went out soon after I left your room," Yusuke told me. "And she's not home yet. We'll just tell her that you fell down the stairs or something- she'll be so hung over, she'll never know the difference." There was a pause. "What really happened, Kay?" As he asked that question, I asked myself the same thing... then, it all came together.
I hadn't fully woken up, but even in a state of sub-consciousness, I could tell there was someone in the room with me... and that someone wasn't friendly.
"Open your eyes, Kaira," whispered an unfamiliar voice in a seductive tone. "I know you're awake." My eyes opened and I saw him standing over me. Long black hair, violet eyes, light skin: Hitukeri Batosei. I shot up off the bed and was about to call for help (He's a vampire remember? Trust me, I'm not stupid enough to take him on with no weapons!) when he clapped a hand over my mouth and pushed me back down onto my pillow. "Now, now Kaira," he said. "We don't want to bring on your cousin's death sooner that we need to, now do we?" My eyes narrowed- if looks could kill... let's just say that Batosei would be deader than dead.
"Chikushoume!" I cried, his hand muffling my voice. "If you want me, just get it over with!" Batosei removed his hand from my mouth and allowed me to sit back up... only to backhand me across the face, knocking me into the wall next to my bed.
"I'd think twice before calling me a 'son of a bitch' again," he told me. I turned away from the wall, looked at him and smiled.
"Don't worry," I replied. "I've got better phrases lined up for you." Before I could do or say anything, he grabbed me by the neck and held me up against the wall. I could feel my breath weakening as I tried to get his hand away from my throat, but I knew he wasn't trying to kill me, at least not in this way. That would defeat his purpose. His eyes suddenly turned red as they locked with mine. He knew how much fear I had just by looking into my eyes- and the fact that it wasn't much made him even angrier.
"Watch what you say, Kaira. Especially if you want that cousin of yours to get through this case alive." I let out a 'keh.'
"You've got what you want right in the palm of your hand- why not just turn me now?" Batosei began to laugh.
"I take it Koenma hasn't told you- in order for me to bring back my love, I must turn you during a full moon." He looked out the window- the moon was in it's last quarter. "You have two days to live life as you know it. After that, I kill Kaira Urameshi and reborn my beloved Tsuki. Between now and then, I suggest you look after the ones you love."
"Kay!" called a voice, followed by someone banging on my bedroom door. "Kay, is everything all right?" Batosei smiled.
"It may be him, Kaira... or it could be someone else..." I let out a low growl type sound as my eyes narrowed once again.
"Kutabare, chikushoume!" The next thing I knew, I was flying across the room and slammed into a far wall, my head hitting a small shelf. Then, everything went black.
"You said "Fuck you, son of a bitch," to a vampire?!" cried Botan. "What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking, Botan," I replied. "At least not about that..." I looked over at Yusuke. "I didn't want him to come after you or Aunt Atsuko... or anyone else."
"No worries, Kay," Yusuke told me. "He's not gonna touch me- we ain't gonna give him the chance." He smiled. "It's the weekend so tomorrow night, we go find him."
"We?" asked Botan. "You, Kaira and I are going after him?" Yusuke shook his head.
"There's more."
"Who, Kuwabara?" Suddenly I realized what he was getting at and smiled as well, a light giggle escaping my lips.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun."
I looked him dead in the eyes and smiled. Hiei just glared at me, still not over the fact that I had gotten the better of him during our last meeting.
"Damn it," thought Yusuke. "Koenma sent Kaira to keep the peace between me and Kuwabara- but who's gonna keep it between her and Hiei? I better do something before they kill each other."
"All right, guys," he said, aloud. "From what Botan has told me, Batosei hangs out in dark alleys, parks and night clubs... don't be getting any ideas, Kaira." My gaze, which had been transfixed on Hiei, slowly shifted to Yusuke and my smile widened.
"I've gone sober, cuz," I said. "I don't even like the taste anymore, so you ain't gonna have to worry about me."
"Either way," Kurama spoke up. "I feel that it's better if we all stick together... for more reasons than one." He then looked over at me and winked and felt my cheeks begin to turn red and no matter how hard I tried to stop it, my heart began to beat faster. And there was this feeling that I had never felt before...
"Get a hold of yourself, Urameshi!" I thought. "It's like you're in love or something!" I instantly shook that thought away. Kurama may have looked my age, maybe a year or so older, but Yusuke had told me how old he really was... but that wasn't the problem. A guy like him was way out of my league- he was above me.
"All right," I said. "Lets roll."
We walked the streets in the dead of night in complete silence. Each of us had a single weapon in our hand- a wooden stake- but as far as I was concerned, the greatest weapon I had was around my neck: the necklace from Kurama. Why do I think that? The night before, when Batosei had me by the neck, he touched the chain of my necklace and I saw him wince. I don't know if it was from the small cross the dragon held in his talons or what. But I did know that it had some sort of effect on Batosei, making it a wise choice not to take it off.
"This is pointless!" Kuwabara exclaimed, suddenly. "We're walking around here like a crazy mute cult or something! How's this gonna help us find Batosei?" I nodded and leaned up against a nearby wall.
"His ugliness has a point," I said with a chuckle, ignoring the death glare I received from Kuwabara. "Batosei knows I'll come looking for him, that's why he came to see me- to make sure I'd come looking for him." Kurama shot me a look.
"He came to see you?" he asked. I nodded and gestured to my bruised face- the one that Botan had told me could be hidden easily. I believe her exact words were "They don't call it Cover Girl for nothin'." Yeah, whatever... But back to the matter at hand.
"You think I got this from Hiei?" I asked, sarcastically. As Botan, Yusuke and Kuwabara roared with laughter, and Hiei's anger flared up, Kurama kept staring at me, with his eyes filling with concern... and a bit of hurt.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I shrugged my shoulders as the feeling crept over me again. I didn't tell him because I hadn't wanted to worry him. I just flashed him a smile.
"No worries, Kurama," I said. "Everything's gonna be... whoa!" While I was trying to reassure my friend, the wall behind me suddenly started to move. As I fell backwards, I reached out to grab whatever I could to hold myself up- I grabbed Hiei and ended up pulling him back with me.
"Kay!" yelled Yusuke, running towards the wall. But by the time he had gotten there, the wall had closed up again. Yusuke let out an angered yell and slammed his fist against the wall. "No worries, she said. Yeah, right."
**Hello everyone, Botan here. All right, it would seem that Batosei's two day warning was just a ruse to draw out Kaira, but now he's caught Hiei as well! It's obvious that there's no love lost between these two, but when Kaira gets injured, will they be able to pull together to fight off a group of vampires? We'll find out next time on Yu-Yu Hakusho!**