Chapter 6: Felicia the Shadow Demon

* Here is the long awaited sixth chapter. Okay here's a small warning before I begin. This chapter contains drugs as well as much more humor than I intended. Sorry. The next chapter will be back to more serious matters.*

The three demons look everywhere for someone who could help Mika. They came across a small cottage like dwelling. A small figure of a woman sat in a tree in front of the small home.

"A member of our traveling party was gravely injured. Can you help? She may not live otherwise," Mericu yelled up to the small woman.

The woman jumped from her branch and glared at them with forest green eyes, "Why should I help you?" She stood no higher than 5 foot. She had dark burgundy hair that rested on her shoulders. The young looking woman wore a black fighters outfight with a matching trench coat over top. Throwing knives and stars were strapped to her legs with belts. Probably the only thing that made her look like a demon besides her clothes were her pointed ears.

"We'll offer generous confinsation if you help," Artemis said, pulling out gold coins and jewels she had put in her pocket during the heist.

"Hmm," the small demon pondered. With god like speed, she took the treasure from the phoenix and returned to her starting position. She studied the coins and jewels before turning back to the thieves. "You've got yourselves a deal," she smirked, "Follow me inside."

They quickly followed her inside. It had only one room, but was warm and comfortable. Vials of herbs potions, and poisons sat on shelves, lining the walls.

"Set her down on the futon while I get what is needed," the shadow demoness instructed.

Kurama did as he was told and gently set Mika on the futon. He knelt down next to her and watched carefully as her chest slowly rose and fell. The vertically challenged demoness fingered the vials on her shelves and pulled two random bottles off. She walked back over to the group, with bandages and vials in hand, and knelt down acrossed from Kurama.

"You're lucky you came to me when you did. She's lost a lot of blood," the demoness said. She dipped the bandages into the contents of the vials and then wrapped Mika's wounds. "She'll be out for awhile, but she'll live," the shadow demon stated with an emotionless face.

"Thank you, um….," Kurama stuttered.

"Yeah, what is your name?" Mericu questioned.

"Hn. Your names first," she retorted.

"Mericu," he introduced. "Youko Kurama," the silver kitsune replied.

"So you're the infamous Youko Kurama," the demoness said.

Kurama nodded in accord and Artemis continued the introductions, "I'm Artemis and she's Mika." Artemis pointed to her unconscious friend.

"Your mate I'm guessing, from the look on your face when you came in," the demoness asked pointing to Mika.

Kurama struggled to keep his face from showing any sign of embarrassment. He looked his accuser in the eye and replied, "Not exactly."

"We told you our names. Let's hear yours," Artemis said, crossing her arms.

"Hn. Felicia the shadow assassin," Felicia smirked and sat back on the floor, arms crossed.

"Shadow demon, huh? You don't look dark to me," Mericu cockily spoke.

Felicia glared at him, then in one swift movement she had him up against the wall by the neck. "Appearances can be deserving. Do you want to see what I'm really capable of, wolf boy?" she sneered. Her hair was blowing in an imaginary wind, this made her look more furious, especially when her eyes turned red.

"No…no. I'm good," Mericu whimpered.

Felicia smirked and set Mericu down, before quickly returning to her seat. Mericu rubbed his neck and carefully walked back to the group. He took a seat behind Artemis. She turned around and glared at him.

"No hiding behind me, chicken," Artemis sneered and yanked Mericu up beside her.

Mericu scowled at her and crossed his arms firmly against his chest.

"You can stay until she is healed," Felicia muttered.

"Thank you," Kurama uttered not taking his eyes off Mika.

The door busted open and a figure ran inside slamming the door behind him. Mericu and Artemis both jumped and clung onto each other. They looked at each other and jumped away rubbing their hands on their pants as if touching something vile. Everyone turned their attention to the figure leaning against the door with all his strength.

"Do not go out there!" he said short of breath.

"What did you do now, Kevin?" Felicia asked arching an eyebrow.

"Oh nothing. Absolutely nothing," Kevin quickly stated.

Someone starts pounding on the door, "We know you're in there, human! You sold us some bad weed!" (Okay before you say anything. I DON'T DO DRUGS! Kevin is a friend of mine who yes does them and I can't stand it so he is trying to stop.)

"Kevin?" Felicia said walking over.

"I did nothing illegal, I swear! That guy's lying!" Kevin shouted. He turns toward the door and yelled, "And I'm not human! I'm a quarter demon, you ass whip!"

Mika groaned but remained unconscious. Felicia looked at her and then turned back to Kevin. She reached behind her and unsheathed a machete from her back. Kevin got the idea and jumped to the side. A smirk grew across Felicia's face as she stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

Everyone's attention turned to the door except for the injured vixen. Shouts, metal hitting metal, cries of pain, and heavy objects hitting the ground were heard from outside. Felicia walked in with a bloody machete at her side.

She turned her attention to Kevin who opened the door, "You say you can take care of yourself, but when a deal goes sour you come running to me. Learn to take care of yourself, baka!" She walked over to a cabinet, took out a cloth and started cleaning off her large sword.

"Who dat?" Kevin asked walking over to the others.

"A group of thieves with an injured companion," Felicia stated matter of factly, "They're staying until she's well."

"Not very good thieves, if you get injured," Kevin taunted walking closer so he could be seen in better detail.

Kevin was rather tall for a human, around Kurama's height. He had very messy brown hair and bloodshot blue eyes hidden behind rose colored sunglasses. He wore extremely baggy martial art pants, a white muscle shirt, and a backwards baseball cap. A dagger handle could be seen sticking out of his side pocket in his pants. What didn't come as a shock was that he had a joint in his hand.

"It was her first time. She did well until she got hurt," Artemis explained harshly to the stoned looking quarter breed.

"Well soooorrrry. Don't get your panties in a twist," Kevin said putting his hands up in defense as he sat down between Mericu and Felicia. He then brought his joint to his lips.

"What have I told you about smoking in here, Baka? Especially around the ill!" Felicia sternly told the teenage boy beside her.

"Well excuse me for living," he sarcastically said before putting it out and putting it in his pocket.

"Whoa, what the hell? You throw me into a wall and then you're practically nice to a human. What the hell is your problem?" Mericu yelled past Kevin to the shadow assassin.

Felicia glared at the wolf demon. "Apparently your personality. The reason I didn't attack him is because he supplies me with herbs for potions. And I'm not being nice! I'm keeping my word, Kevin gives me herbs and I save his dumb ass. Anymore questions, wolf boy?"

"Uh, no none at all," Mericu said inching more towards Artemis.

"Some personal space please!" Artemis yelled at Mericu, shoving him over.

Mika moaned and turned over in her sleep. Kurama noticed this and glared at his comrades. A low growl escaped his throat. Both Artemis and Mericu stopped bickering and turned toward their leader.

"Sorry, we'll be good," Mericu said taking the his seat between the phoenix and quarter breed.

"Don't worry, Kurama. We'll be quiet. Mericu and I won't wake up your girlfriend," Artemis teased in a calm manner.

Kurama glared on last time at her before turning his gaze back to Mika.

"So how big of a mess did you make this time?" Kevin asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Why don't you see for yourself? Unless you're a wuse like him," Felicia answered pointing to Mericu before resuming the cleaning of her machete.

Kevin stood up and walked over to the door. Once it was opened and Kevin could see the front yard his bloodshot eyes widened. "You didn't give them a chance!"

"I have to see this," Artemis commented and walked over to the door. She peered outside and disappointment filled her face. "How could I miss a fight like this?! That looks like it was fun. Kurama, stop staring at Mika and check this out!"

Kurama sighed and joined Artemis and Kevin at the doorway. He looked around the front yard and moaned. "To bad we missed it. I could have used a good fight," Kurama said.

The front yard was a complete mess of blood. Body parts were everywhere and many were no bigger than the size of a hand. Kurama then turned toward Felicia, "You do good work."

"Well of course. Do you think I would be a good assassin if I couldn't defeat 20 pathetic looking demons?" Felicia inquired, putting her machete back on her back.

"No, I guess not," Kurama said.

Night came quickly. Kevin went back home, Artemis and Mericu leaned against two different walls and fell asleep, glaring at each other for earlier comments. Felicia gave Mika the futon so she went outside and slept in the tree she was in earlier. She said she preferred being out there anyway. Kurama laid down next to Mika and kept her in a protective yet gentle embrace. Making sure not to cause her pain form her wounds.

(Back to Mika's point of view)

I could feel someone holding me as I slept, like a teddy bear or something. I slowly opened my eyes for the first time in two days. Just from staring at the ceiling I could tell I was not in the hideout nor the castle we raided. The grip around my torso tightened ever so slightly which was followed by a sigh. I turned my head and there was Kurama, sleeping peacefully beside me. I smiled and squeezed out of his grasp and stood up.

Looking around the room I was in, I saw small bottles of Kami only knows and Artemis against one wall and Mericu against the opposite one. Everyone was there but the question was where were we? I spotted the door and stepped outside into the morning sun. There was the slight sent of blood in the air, but it didn't bother me that much. The sun warmed my face as I took note that we were in a village.

"I see you're finally awake," said a female voice from above me.

The voice caused me to jump, but quickly regained my compositor. I scanned the tree for life and saw a small woman with burgundy hair sitting on a branch, leaning against the trunk with her eyes closed.

"Who are you?" was the first thing to come from my lips.

"I'm called Felicia. And if it wasn't for me you'd be dead right now. I mended your wounds," she said.

"Well thank…" I was interrupted.

"I do not wasn't your thanks. I did it for the money I was offered. Your friends seem to care about you a lot," Felicia commented, cracking one green eye slightly to look at me.

"I guess they do," I said looking down with a smile on my face.

Someone grabbed me from behind and held me tightly against them. "Who said you could get up?" Kurama whispered into my ear.

"You don't own me," I stated turning to face him.

"Not yet," he uttered just above a whisper, a smirk played acrossed his features.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I asked playfully.

"You'll find out soon," Kurama answered in the same tone and kissed my neck.

"If you don't mind, could you please do that away from my tree. I don't need to see such stupid ningen emotions played out," Felicia said glaring at the two of us from her perch.

Artemis and Mericu busted out of the doorway.

"Mika's not in bed!" Mericu yelled and then saw me in Kurama's loving embrace, "Oh…"

"I guess your feeling better, huh Mika?" Artemis said winking at me.

I nodded and smiled widely. Kurama released me and took a few steps back.

"Well not that you're better we can go home," Kurama said seriously, "I don't want to know what the others did to the hideout."

"Probably a huge mess," Mericu commented.

"Great more work for me when we get back. I'm going to make those assholes clean it themselves," Artemis threatened, slamming a fist into an open hand.

"Artemis, you always make them clean up," Mericu pointed out.

The four of us chuckled and started out of the village, bidding good-bye to Felicia. She just 'hn'ed as we walked away. Felicia seemed to be the antisocial type to me so I didn't push anything in trying to learn about her. We walked all day following Mericu who had guided Kurama and Artemis there in the first place, so he was the obvious choice to get us back. We made a fire and sat around it as the night took over the world around us once again.

"We should be back by now," Kurama made obvious, folding his arms across his chest.

"I was sure we go this way. Maybe we should have gone East instead," Mericu pondered out loud, scratching the back of his head.

"Mericu!" I yelled, glaring at him.

"Are you telling me, you got us LOST!" Artemis shouted. She stood up and glared down at Mericu, eyes glowing brightly in the dim light.

"Don't worry, I'll get us back by this time tomorrow," Mericu reassured her.

Artemis and Mericu got into a fight. They shouted insults to each other as they fought with their weapons. Kurama shook his head before turning his gaze to the fire.

"I guess I can't be part of your clan," I said without thinking.

"Why would you say that?" Kurama questioned turning his gaze onto me.

"I failed the initiation, didn't I?" I asked looking down at my hands.

"You still proved yourself. Don't worry about it, you are now a official thief. Welcome, to the clan," Kurama whispered in one of my fox ears.

It tickled slightly and my ear twitched. Kurama chuckled and wrapped me in his arms and pulled me onto his lap. He whispered things into my ear which made me giggle and caused my tail to twitch happily behind me.

"Such a display. You foxes make me wretch," said a familiar voice from the tree tops.

Kurama released me but I still remained in my comfortable seat of his lap. We both looked up and scanned the trees for the voice. The two bickering demons stopped at the sound of the voice and looked up at where mine and Kurama's gazes were focused. Two green eyes shinned in the dark of one tree.

Mericu sniffed the air, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the village?"

"Hn," she said and jumped and landed next to the fire, "I was bored and I figured there might be some excitement near you four."

"Well there won't be much excitement right now since SOMEONE got us LOST!" Artemis exclaimed, glaring at a certain wolf demon.

"Well that just means there's more of a chance we'll run into something….entertaining," I pointed out.

"Now you're thinking like a thief. Tomorrow morning we'll try and head in the RIGHT direction and see if we can find anything. You are welcome to join us, Felicia," Kurama said.

"I was going to come If I was welcome or not," Felicia said crossing her arms and took a seat against a tree trunk.

*Okay that's it for this chappie. In the next chapter a familiar character will come in. You're going to have to wait a day or two to see though. Until next time.*