For Love of a "Pet"

Chapter Eleven

Cassie rolled over and slammed her fist on top of her loud, obnoxious alarm clock. A cracking sound followed the pounding, and she winced, cracking one eye open to view the damage. The alarm clock was in pieces. "Well, there goes another one," she said with a sigh. "You'd think that people would have come out with demon-proof alarm clocks by now."

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she climbed out of bed at stared at the still dark sky. "I'm an idiot... a complete idiot for agreeing to get up at this stupid hour." She continued to grumble as she took a quick shower, got dressed and ate breakfast.

"Dawn. Why dawn? Wouldn't midnight have been better? He seems to be just as much as a night owl as I am." Cassie shook her head, noticing that the eastern part of the sky was finally beginning to turn lighter. "Hiei should be here soon."

With that thought on her mind, she went to her hall closet and pulled a long object wrapped completely in paper out of the back. She unrolled the package, finally revealing a sheathed sword that was about the same size as Hiei's katana had been. The ocean blue hilt was artfully decorated with ancient-looking siren designs, the sheath covering the etchings that continued onto the surface of the blade.

Cassie smiled softly and carried the sword outside with her. She sat down on her front porch and resigned herself to wait.

As the first sun's rays broke over the horizon, Hiei appeared, dressed in all black with his sword already in his hand. Without even giving the girl a chance to stand up, he charged at her.

'What in the world?!' The brunette eye's widened, and she brought up the sheathed sword as quickly as she could. "Ow!" She felt the force behind the fire demon's strike all down her arms, and she dropped the weapon in surprise. Before she could pick the weapon back up, she felt a cool piece of metal under her chin. 'I'm not so sure this is fun anymore. He never mentioned anything about attacking me before I was ready; however, he is taking this serious... very serious. I guess that this method does make sense. Still, I wish he had a different teaching method.'

"Never drop your weapon," Hiei stated. "And you were holding your sword wrong." He pulled his blade away from her neck and allowed her to move again. "Pick it up, and I'll show you the correct way to put your hands."

'That's it? No apology for just attacking me without warning? I'll get him back for that later.' Cassie glared at him and then did as he said, and soon he was showing her exactly what she needed to do.




Loki stared down at two people, a man and a woman, practicing with swords. They appeared to not notice him,, and he smiled evilly at that.

"Mistress," he whispered. "The one in black is an associate of the kitsune. Should I do anything?" He paused, as if listening to the wind. "But, Mistress, there are two demons down there! Fenrir isn't strong enough to take on both of them himself."

He winced, acting like someone was yelling at him. As he cringed, his mind recalled his long torture that he had suffered through because of his past failures. "As you wish, Mistress." The demon bowed his head in submission and vanished.




Cassie gasped as Hiei came at her once again, his sword positioned to strike her down. She raised her own weapon to block the attack, praying that she would succeed, and she barely moved her naked blade into position in time.

Her sword sang when Hiei's weapon struck it, the sound vibrating through the air. The fire demon hesitated for a brief moment before swinging at Cassie again. She stepped back and moved her sword to meet his. 'I'm getting better! I didn't drop my weapon!' she thought happily.

Hiei's eyes flashed as the almost musical sound of connecting swords rang throughout the area. Scowling, he made a few quick movements, and Cassie suddenly found herself on the ground, the tip of Hiei's blade an inch away from her throat. Her own weapon lay halfway across the yard.

"Okay... you win, Hiei," the brunette stated, feeling a little sad that she had lost the fight again. "Can I get up now?"

The fire demon stepped back, bringing his blade to rest at his side. "What kind of sword is that?" he asked, frowning. The sounds it had made were strange, especially since they had made him feel exactly like he did whenever he kissed Cassie. "Where did you get it?"

Cassie stood up. "It was my mother's sword--her weapon of choice," she answered. "It's called the Siren Sword, and that's all I know about it."

"Hn." Hiei walked over and reached down to pick up the fallen blade, wanting to inspect it. Before his hand could encircle the handle, blue light flashed and the sound of beautiful watery singing filled the air. Her jerked his hand away, surprise on his face. 'What was that?!'

"Are you okay?" she inquired, worry apparent on her lovely features as she ran up to check on the male.

"Yes," the koorime stated, blinking a few times. He had never experienced anything like what the sword had just put him through.

"What happened?" Cassie cautiously reached down and picked up her sword, apprehension in her movements. She sighed in relief when nothing occurred.

"I-" Hiei cut himself off, his attention turning to the sky. His gaze quickly lit on the roof of a nearby house.

Cassie followed his gaze. "Oh my..."

A black wolf the size of a horse was standing on the red shingles no more than fifty feet away from her. Bright orange eyes stared straight into her blue-green ones, making her shiver. The wolf was an evil demon, and a rather powerful one on top of that. The power that radiated from him felt dark and damp to her, and that worried her. She was class C, while the wolf was a little above her... maybe class B. If she fought against him, she would most likely lose.

"Hiei... we can't fight it here... in the open," she whispered. "It's dawn, so my neighbors who are actually awake might overlook sword fighting, but not a giant black wolf!"

The fire demon nodded his head, although he really didn't see what the big deal was. "Where is a private place we can use?"

Cassie thought for a few minutes, her eyes on the wolf who was pacing back and forth, as if he was thinking over his attack plan. "North of here there's a part of town that's old and abandoned. There's very few people there, if any. That's the closest place."

Without saying another word, Hiei took off. Cassie briefly caught sight of him striking out at the space in front of the wolf demon before continuing to run off. Howling in anger, the evil demon ran after the koorime.

"He just left me here..." The brunette frowned, set down her sword, and then began to race after the other two. "He might need my help, and he just left!" 'Idiot!'




"Mistress, Fenrir will not survive through this battle alone," Loki stated, watching Hiei and the wolf demon begin to fight in a run down section of town. The already crumbling buildings were quickly becoming in even worse shape due to the fighters. The man in black kept hurling Fenrir into the unstable structures, much to Loki's disappointment.

"Please, may I help him?" He winced, slightly curling in on himself. "Forgive me, Mistress. I did not mean to anger you. I will return to your side immediately." Mentally sighing, he vanished.




When Cassie found the place where Hiei was, she was greeted by the sight of a large black wolf flying toward her. She reacted automatically by hitting the ground, allowing the huge shape to fly over her. The demon whizzed over her head, and she heard the wind rush by her as he did so. She didn't stand back up until she heard a small crash that meant the flying wolf had collided with something. A half second later, a louder crash followed, signaling that a building had fell down around the demon's ears.

"That could not have been very pleasant," she commented softly, glancing over her shoulder at the crumbled building before concentrating on finding Hiei. It didn't take her long to spot him. He was in the center of the area of destruction, a serious expression on his face. He was obviously still in fighter mode... not that Cassie minded. She thought he looked kind of cute when he scowled.

"Cassie, move it!" he shouted right as she heard the sounds of moving rubble.

Eyes wide, she began to turn around. 'There's no way he could have survived that. There's absolutely no way. He has to be dead,' she thought, but unfortunately, she was wrong. The wolf demon had survived. "Shit! Tsunami wave!"

Water rushed out of her hands, the powerful stream looking like it had come out of a large fire hose about a foot in diameter. The blast hit the demon head on, throwing him back about ten feet and soaking him from head to foot. Other than that, it didn't have much of an effect.

The wolf demon stood back up on all fours and shook the water out of his black fur coat just like a dog would, looking almost completely unfazed by the attack. Before he finished shaking, Hiei appeared in front of him, his sword flashing in the sunlight.

Before Cassie could blink, the fire demon swung his sword seventeen times, each attack hitting home. He moved away as the demon slumped to the ground. 'He shouldn't have attacked her,' he thought. 'He would have lived longer if he hadn't.'

Orange eyes filled with venom stared at Hiei as blood began to cover the ground with a thick coat of dark red. "If you truly were a strong demon, you would have been able to kill me sooner," the wolf demon stated, the words sounding strange coming from a long mouth loaded with fangs. "When you meet my brother, you will not live long. He will slaughter you."

With a painful shudder, he ceased to breath. His eyes closed, and his whole body went limp. The wolf demon had died.

"What was he talking about?" Cassie wondered as she took a few steps back from the spreading blood. "Who's his brother? Why did he attack us?"

Hiei shrugged. "He was a fool to attack me," he stated, sheathing his sword. The blood didn't seem to bother him. "And I plan to find out the answers to those questions."

"Okay then... what do we do with the body?" She moved back a couple more feet. "We can't just leave a horse-sized wolf in the middle of any street, especially since you guys just destroyed about half the buildings in this area."

"Burn it." Hiei's fist was suddenly encased in fire, and his eyes matched the color. With a calm expression on his face, he quickly punched at the fallen wolf's form, the fire leaving his fist to engulf the target. The dark flames devoured the body, and within moments, the dead creature was nothing but ash.

Cassie sighed. "I guess we leave now." She didn't feel bad for the demon; after all, it had attacked her, but she didn't want to stick around to see what happened to his gray remains.

"I need to talk to Koenma," the fire demon stated, bringing her full attention to him.

She suddenly noticed that he had quite a bit of blood on him and his garments; it just didn't show up all that well on his black clothes. "Oh my. Hiei... look at yourself!" She pointed at his clothes and body. While the blood wasn't apparent on his attire, she could easily see the blood against his skin, and his clothes had a few rips in them, obviously from a creature with claws and teeth that had moved in a little too close a few times.

Hiei glanced down at what he had on. "My clothes have been in worse condition."

Cassie shook her head, fighting back a sigh. "Can they be machine washed?" she inquired as she grabbed his hand and began to drag him back to her house.

"I... don't see why not." He frowned, wondering what was going through the girl's head. She was acting so strangely.

"Good. I can throw them in the washer while you take a shower and get all the blood off of you," Cassie said firmly.

Hiei just sighed and let her lead him back to her house.




Cassie put some clean towels and clothes in the bathroom, gesturing for Hiei to enter after she did so. "Just toss your dirty clothes into the basket right outside the door. I'll get them clean while you take a shower. The soap and shampoo are in the shower already. Use them if you want." With that said, she disappeared out of the bathroom.

After glancing around the cheerful, light blue bathroom with its gray marble sink and combo medicine cabinet and mirror, Hiei inspected the shower. It was a dual tub and shower, and without much work, he figured out how to operate it. Then, he did what Cassie wanted, throwing his blood covered clothes into the plastic laundry basket in the hallway and then stepping into the shower.

He stayed in the shower until the water going down the drain was no longer pink. Then, he shut off the water, climbed out, and pulled on the blue and white plaid pants and black button-down shirt. He scowled at the clothes, but he decided not to worry about it too much.

Hiei exited the bathroom and began to wander around, looking for Cassie. He found her in the living room, a sketch pad in her lap and a pencil in her hand. She was focused on what was in front of her, the pencil moving at an amazing speed.

Curious, the fire demon sat down on the couch next to her, leaning over so he could see what she was doing. She was drawing what looked like a rather simple female human figure in an elaborate dress.

"Not bad," he commented.

Cassie jumped at the sound of his voice. "Oh! You surprised me, Hiei." She put a hand over her racing heart. "I think you enjoy doing that." She paused, remembering what he had said. "Oh, yes. Thank you for the compliment. I do try hard... especially since I make part of my living off of fashion design."

"Do you only do dresses?" Hiei asked.

She shook her head. "No." She flipped back a few pages to show him some of her other designs. "Actually, I'll just let you look through that while I toss your clothes into the dryer."

"How long will it take for them to dry?" he wanted to know as he accepted the sketch book from her.

Shrugging, she stood up. "Ninety minutes at least." She walked off, smiling, with the image of Hiei's wide red eyes in her mind.




Cassie came back into the living room to find Hiei slowly examining each and every page of her sketch book, his red eyes studying each drawing. With a smile on her face, she yawned and sat down next to him. "What do you think?"

"I like some ideas better than others," he answered. "But I haven't seen all of them yet."

"Okay." She yawned again, leaning her head on Hiei's shoulder. 'I guess staying up late and waking up early finally caught up with me. That's just great,' she thought. 'Well, I guess I could rest my eyes for a few moments.' She closed her eyes and just listened to Hiei's steady breathing. Without realizing it, she allowed the rhythmic sound lull her asleep.

Hiei didn't notice that Cassie had fallen asleep on him until he finished looking at all her drawings. He allowed a small smile to play across his face as he examined her angelic features, one of his hand coming up to trace the edge of her face and lips. 'She's beautiful.'

After a few moments, he decided to not wake her, so he moved a little until he was comfortable. 'It can't hurt to take a short nap. After all, my clothes aren't dry yet.' Then, he fell asleep himself.









CotA: Well, this is great. Two... maybe three more chapters, and things are going to become rather... interesting.

Sess-chan: Yes, interesting is one way to put it; however, I would describe it differently.

CotA: I'm sure you would. You're the muse who gave me the ideas for the rest of this fic.

Sess-chan: Of course. The short muse only likes to torture Kagome.

CotA: *pats Sess-chan on the head* Yes, you're a good boy... although I'm not sure how many people will agree at the end of the story.

Sess-chan: Oh well. I do not care what they think.

CotA: I kinda figured that.

Sess-chan: The review responses are below.

Luraia Soul: You're welcome. I'm just glad I could share the wonderful pic. :)

PWA: Yeah... he was a little sly in that chapter, planning out Kaline's seduction. But, hey. He is a guy.

Neolannia: Post faster? I'm writing these chapters as fast as my muses will allow. Sorry. I do try to update at least once a week.

Bijin-chan: Well then, tell Sumi-chan thank you for me. You still deserve some thanks as well, because you were the one who sent it to me. ^_^ *hugs Bijin-chan* I still have the pic, and I plan on keeping it for a while. I'm even going to try drawing it eventually.

Passerby: I will update as soon as I can.

Rei Akita: Thanks for reviewing.

Sam: I understand. I am sorry about the lack in action. I kinda hope this chapter made up for it and explained why there was a slight stalling. And while you're an action girl at heart, I'm more of a romance/action girl at heart. BTW, I believe a few more chapters and I'll get to the serious action. ^_^