For Love of a "Pet"
Chapter Sixteen
"Cassie?" Kaline said in a quivering voice as her friend answered the door, a suitcase clutched in one of her hands. "Can I stay with you for a while?"
"Sure," the dark brunette replied, nodding her head and opening the door as wide as possible. She had noticed the other girl's bleak expression and overly bright eyes. Her friend had been crying hard.
As the lighter-haired girl put her stuff in the guest room, Cassie sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" she asked softly. "Why do you look like someone just ran over your dog?"
Kaline nearly collapsed on the bed next to her friend, burying her face in her hands. "Kurama... Youko..." She began to sob. "Dear Kami!"
"Kurama was the cute guy from your dreams, wasn't he? The one you fell in love with?" Cassie inquired as she wrapped a comforting arm around her friend's shoulders. Kaline nodded. "Well, it sounds like we can have a pity party together. I just found out last night that Hiei doesn't love me."
"I'm sorry." She sniffled for a few moments.
"I am too, for the both of us."
The two girls then cried on each other's shoulders, both giving and taking support. Tears soaked their faces and shirts. They sobbed until their tears ran out, leaving them both sniffling and blurry-eyed.
The blue-green eyed girl quickly hugged her friend and then stood up, tears still shining on her cheeks. "Now, how about we hit the kitchen and purge on chocolate as the Girl's Handbook for Getting Over Guys suggests?"
Kaline gave a small, weak laugh. "Yeah. That sounds good." Her tears falling slowly, she followed her friend to the kitchen.
Moments later, the two had raided the cabinets and fridge for anything and everything sugary and fattening. Cassie avoided the ice-cream; however, Kaline had no reserves about that. The lighter-haired girl was half-way through a quart of the cold substance when the doorbell rang.
Frowning, the dark brunette stood up, depositing her bag of M&M's on the counter as she went to see who was visiting. She went to the entryway, opened the door, saw who was standing outside, and promptly slammed the door in the man's face.
"Bastard," she spat out.
"Who was it?" Kaline called from the kitchen.
"Hiei," Cassie shouted back as she locked the door and went back to finish off her chocolate candy. Fresh tears were on her face when she sat down.
The taller girl gave her friend a small, supportive smile and a hug. "It'll be okay." She paused. "Oh, and your popcorn's done popping."
The darker-haired girl shook her head sadly. "I don't know how you do it. You act more like your normal self than I ever could in your situation."
"Call it a defense mechanism. I just push the bad stuff out of my mind," Kaline said. "Selective memory is a wonderful thing, and so is mental blocking." She took a very large bite of ice-cream and shivered. "So, I take it that you didn't give Hiei a chance to say a word, huh?"
"Nope."
"Good."
Hiei stared at the door that had just been slammed in his face. In his mind, he could still see Cassie, eyes red and cheeks damp with tears. The fury and sadness on her face had been unmistakable when her eyes had met his. The raw pain in her teal orbs had made his heart twist painfully in his chest.
"Cassie..." he whispered, not moving from her front porch.
"She's not talking to you either, is she?" Kurama asked, coming up to stand by his friend.
The fire demon turned to look at the kitsune. "What are you doing here?" Hiei growled, eyes flashing in annoyance. It didn't seem fair that his best friend wasn't having relationship problems while he was. "You're supposed to be at Kaline's, being catered to like a pet."
The taller male shook his head sadly. "No. I changed forms last night to help her warm up. She thought she was imaging things, but when she woke up..." He gave a small sigh. "She yelled and threw me out of her house. She was unbelievably angry."
"Hn. I don't care about your silly problems with the little girl." The red-eyed man crossed his arms, glaring at his friend.
Kurama shrugged. "I was hoping that Kaline might be here, since she's not at home. I don't see her car, although it could be in the garage. For some reason or another, I feel like she's here."
"Cassie talked with someone after she shut the door," Hiei admitted.
"That might have been Kaline; it might not have been. I'm not sure if she would seek refuge with her best friend, an obvious maneuver, or if she would find a less apparent place to hide out." Kurama looked sadly at the front door. "I have quite a few things to apologize for, but she's hiding from me." He turned his gaze to his friend. "I believe that you have an apology to make as well, don't you?"
The koorime crossed his arms. "Hn. That is none of your business."
"You could always try apologizing to her over the phone or through a letter," the kitsune suggested. "Although I probably shouldn't be giving out relationship advice."
"What did you do to screw up?" Hiei wanted to know as he began to walk away from Cassie's house.
Kurama followed his friend. "There's a lot that you don't know," he began to explain. "First off, Kaline can somehow enter my dreams, which is how she came to know me in my human form. She thought that I was just a part of one of her dreams, so she... did some things that I believe that she wouldn't have normally done." He paused. "Also..."
"There's more?" 'He really did destroy his relationship with Kaline.' The redhead nodded. "Yes. I didn't tell her a few things, like the fact that I was her pet fox or that I was a demon. She informed me quite clearly that I should have informed her of those facts." He sighed sadly. "She was positively furious."
"Baka kitsune," Hiei said, shaking his head sadly.
"I don't think I have a right to protest against that comment at this moment," Kurama replied quietly.
After that, the demons walked in silence for a while, both musing over their problems with the girls. Niether felt like talking, and they proved that misery loved company.
"Well, you two look positively depressed," Botan commented as she appeared, dressed in her normal pink kimono. "Hiei, did your favorite tree get cut down or something?"
"Hn. That is none of your business, Ferrygirl," Hiei growled threateningly. 'There is nothing a depressed person hates more than a cheery person.'
The blue-haired girl took a step away from him. "My, you're testy," she commented. "Well, Koenma wants to see you two right now. Yusuke and Kuwabara are already there and waiting for you guys to arrive."
"Do I look like I care?" the fire demon retorted. 'I don't want to deal with the stupid human or any of our missions at the moment.'
"Hiei..." Kurama said softly. 'This is bad timing, but what can we do? We have a job.' The black-clad male just crossed his arms and glared at the redhead. "I believe that we're ready to leave now."
"Great!" Botan then promptly dragged them off to Reikai.
Kaline and Cassie sat down on the couch with two bags of popcorn and stuck The Matrix into the VCR. Normally, the dark brunette would have quoted the entire movie, talking right along with the characters; however, she was too depressed to do that. Kaline had brought out her favorite stuffed animal that she had packed, and she tightly hugged it to her body. So, the two girls watched the movie in relative silence, making small comments every so often as they both shed tears.
Once the movie was over, Cassie sighed sadly. "This is just plain pathetic. That movie usually cheers me up." She had cried during most of the movie, and her face gave it away.
"I know." The other girl stood up and left to throw her empty bag of popcorn away. When she came back, she came up with an idea. "Well, since this is a pity party, we could stick in a sad movie and just bawl our eyes out."
"Hmmm... possibly," Cassie replied softly, beginning to search through all her video tapes. "Now the sixty-four billion dollar question is whether or not I actually own a sad movie."
Kaline began to help her friend in the search, but they didn't find a single depressing movie, much to their disappointment. "Well, we could always go to Blockbuster and rent a few movies."
"Or we could stick in one of the other movies and cry anyway," the darker-haired girl counter-offered.
"Anastasia?"
"Sure."
"OK, toddler, they're here," Yusuke said rudely as Kurama and Hiei walked into the room. "Now spill the beans. What's going on?" He slammed his fist on Koenma's desk, looking incredibly unhappy.
"Yeah!" Kuwabara agreed. "What's so important that you had to wake me up on a Saturday before noon?"
The green-clad human turned to the carrot-top. "Botan should have let you sleep in. You really need your beauty sleep... not that it would probably do you much good. You're so ugly that it would take you a million years to even look somewhat decent."
"Hey, Urameshi!" he protested. "You take that back."
"Are you sure that it would take a million? I was thinking that a few trillion at least," Hiei stated, smirking. He wanted to fight someone, wanted to take his bad mood out on someone, and the idiot was looking like a good target to him at the moment. Actually, the idiot always looked like a good target to him.
"Do you want me to pound your face in, shrimp?" Kuwabara asked threateningly, shaking his fist at the fire demon.
"You couldn't hit my face if your life depended on it," the black-clad demon responded coldly. "I'm not even sure if you could hit the broad side of a barn."
Botan stepped between them before the fight progressed too far. "Enough, you two. We don't have time for this."
"Botan is right. Loki is on the loose, and for some reason, he is much stronger than he should be," Koemna said. "He seems to have acquired powers from an unknown source."
Kurama considered that for a moment, while Yusuke went straight into demon-butt-kicking mode.
"He'll still go down," the raven-haired human said, punching his open palm. "I'll pound him, and then I'll pound whoever gave him the new toys to play with."
"Ha!" Kuwabara scoffed. "You'd get your butt whooped, Urameshi. I, the great Kuwabara, will defeat him."
"Great?" Yusuke repeated, laughing. "Yes, and you had better remember it." The carrot top puffed out his chest a little. "I am the greatest fighter of them all."
"Greatest loser is more like it," Hiei commented, jumping in to insult the tall human once again, causing another argument.
Kurama sighed as the fire demon caused another fight with Kuwabara. "This is going to be a long mission."
"I'm gonna call it a night," Kaline said as she stood up, hugging a stuffed cat to her chest. They both had watched movies and cried all day, a very exhausting experience... at least mentally and emotionally.
"Okay," Cassie replied. "I'm gonna stay up for a little longer."
The lighter-haired girl yawned. "You do that. G'night."
"Good night," the blue-green eyed girl responded, trying to smile at her friend. She failed, but she knew that the other girl wouldn't mind.
Kaline walked down the hall, and went into the guest room. A moment later, she screamed, a blood-curling sound that echoed through the house and made blood run cold.
"Kaline?!" Cassie went running down the hall and into the bedroom, finding a ten-foot tall, green demon standing by the far wall. He was trying to grab the gray-blue eyed girl with one of his four hands, failing every time.
"Help!!!" Kaline scrambled to get as far away from the demon as possible. "Go away, Loki!!!" Fear filled her blue-gray eyes as she dodged every one of his attempts to capture her.
"Loki?" The darker-haired girl repeated as she charged into battle. She knew that name. "Leave my friend alone!" She tried to punch the demon in the stomach with her left hand, but he dodged. As he was still moving to avoid her, she sent out a wave of water from her right hand, hitting him in the head.
Loki stumbled back a few feet, but he quickly righted himself. "Is that the best you got, demon?"
'Oh, shit. I'm in trouble,' Cassie thought frantically, glancing over at her shocked guest. What Loki had said had surprised her. "Kaline, get out of here now!" Her friend tried to obey, but the demon grabbed her before she could move too far away.
"Dammit! Let me go!!!" Kaline struggled to get out of his grip, but she failed. "KURAMA!!!"
Kurama turned around suddenly, his attention off in the distance. 'Kaline...' he thought, his red hair blowing in the wind as his green eyes searched for the girl. After a moment, he shook his head, trying to clear it of his thoughts. 'I'm being silly. She can't be here.'
"Hey, Kurama!" Yusuke shouted over his shoulder when he noticed that the kitsune had stopped walking. "You just gonna stand there all day? Or are you gonna come with?"
Shaking himself out of the daze, the redhead nodded. "Yes. I'm coming."
"Good." The raven-haired human went back to tromping through the underbrush, and the others followed.
"What a fool you are, calling out for him," Loki said with a laugh. "He is far from here, so far that he can't hear your screams. You would do better to ask your dead parents for help."
"Cassie! Kurama!" Kaline screamed again. "HELP!"
The dark brunette scowled as she summoned up all of her spirit energy. "Die, you monster!" she shouted. "Tsunami wave!" A huge stream of water shot out of her open palms at the demon, hitting him square in the chest.
Loki groaned and clutched at the wound with one of his hands, anger on his face. "I was going to leave you here; however, for that, you're coming with me and your little friend."
'I'm so dead,' Cassie thought as she slowly backed away from the enemy. 'I'm out of power.'
"No, you're not dead yet. You might be soon though, if you don't behave yourself," the green demon spat out, glaring at her.
'Shit. I have a mind reader on my hands.' She mentally cursed, calling the demon ever bad name she could think of. When she ran out of insults, she began to make some up.
"Enough!" Loki growled, leaping towards her. In a split second, he had her clasped in one of his hands. "Now, it's time to go." He readied himself to teleport to his mistress's palace.
"HIEI!" Cassie screamed with all her might, praying that he could hear her. She knew better though. If Kurama was too far away, then the fire demon would be as well; however, that didn't keep her from calling out to him. "Hiei, help!"
Hiei snapped around, drawing his sword as he jumped into a tree. He searched the area with his red eyes, a scowl on his face. 'Did I just hear her call out to me?' he wondered. 'It's possible that my jagan could have picked up on it.'
"Yo!" Yusuke called up to him. "What's the deal? You see or hear something?"
"Shut up," he snapped in response, concentrating. After a moment, he removed his headband and began to search for Cassie with his mind. He connected to her after a brief moment, finding her in a state of near panic.
'Cassie?' he called out to her, tone laced with worry.
'Hiei?! Thank Kami. Loki has me... Kaline too. I don't know why he took us; however I'm too weak to fight, and Kaline's near tears.' Cassie's voice sounded faint, like she was almost too tired to talk, even mentally.
'Where are you?' he asked, being practical.
'I don't know. This is what it looks like though.' Cassie sent him a mental picture of a large, lavish room. Elegant pillows big enough to fully stretch out on rested in a circle around a roman-style pool. On the edge of the picture was Kaline, tightly tied up with glowing green rope.
Hiei growled. That had not been of any assistance to him. 'Can you give me anything else that might help?'
'Well, Loki did mention that-'
'What do you think you're doing, bitch?!' an angry voice demanded to know.
That was all Hiei heard before his connection with the girl was cut off. Growling, he jumped down out of the tree.
"Hiei, what was that all about?" Kurama asked as his friend replaced his headband around his forehead, covering the jagan eye.
The fire demon let loose a string of the worst cuss words he knew, many of which were in a demon language.
Kurama's eyes went wide. "What's wrong?" He understood the short demon well enough to know that something bad had happened.
"I talked to Cassie. Loki has the girls." The koorime's expression was dark and forbidding.
'No... Kaline can't be in that kind of danger.' The kitsune paled. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Do I look like I'm joking?!" Hiei retorted angrily, growling. "The bastard has them, and Cassie is nearly scared out of her mind. Kaline is about to cry, and I can't figure out where he took them."
"Why didn't you ask Cassie where they are?" Kuwabara wanted to know.
The fire demon turned to the carrot top, ready to punch his lights out, literally. "I did, you idiot, and she had no clue! All I have is a picture of the room they're in."
"Describe it," Yusuke recommended, somehow staying calm.
Hiei glared at the tall, stupid human for a moment longer and then did as Genkai's student had suggested. Once he was done, not one of the others could offer any ideas.
"I would guess that they are in a palace, but I could be wrong," Kurama stated, giving a small sigh. "I just wish that there was someone we could ask about Loki, maybe find out who he's working for and where he might be."
"Do you think perhaps Jin, Touya, or any of the others from the Dark Tournament might know anything?" Yusuke wondered.
The kitsune considered that idea for a moment while Kuwabara made another stupid statement, causing Hiei to nearly chop off the carrot-top's head.
"We might as well ask them. It certainly can't hurt," the redhead said. "And it's not like we have a better plan."
"We don't even have a worse one," Yusuke added. "We desperately need more plans."
"Hn." Hiei sheathed his sword, which had been aimed at Kuwabara's neck, and began to walk off. He turned around once to look at the other spirit detectives. "Are you coming or not?"
"Huh? Where are you going?" Kuwabara asked stupidly.
The fire demon nearly rolled his eyes. "Don't you ever ask anything intelligent?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" the carrot-top retorted, shaking his fist at the short demon. "Are you calling me stupid?"
"Took you long enough to figure that out," Hiei commented, beginning to walk off again. "Now, if you're planning on talking to the demons with me, then I suggest you follow."
"Oh." Kuwabara blinked dumbly, finally noticing that all the others were leaving him far behind. "Hey! Wait up!"
The spirit detectives talked to every demon they could think of, but not one of them knew a thing. After three days, the four were beginning to feel disheartened. Hiei was even more on edge than usual, using any excuse to take his bad mood out on Kuwabara. Yusuke just couldn't seem to crack jokes, and Kurama was withdrawn, keeping pretty much to himself. Every so often, the kitsune would sigh or whisper Kaline's name.
It was close to dusk when they stopped to camp, and Hiei and Kuwabara began to argue once again. The fire demon was winning when he suddenly froze, spinning around.
Loki appeared about thirty yards away, surprising everyone except for Hiei; however, the three other spirit detectives didn't stay that way for long. Both Hiei and Kurama drew their weapons and prepared to attack.
"Put those away," the enemy ordered. "If you attack and kill me, then you may never see your precious girls again."
The two demon spirit detectives froze at those words, lowering their weapons, but not putting them away. "Where are they, Loki?" Kurama demanded to know, voice cold.
"Don't answer and I'll slit your throat," Hiei added darkly, a murderous look in his eyes.
Loki just chuckled. "You wouldn't dare do that," he commented. "You'll lose the girls if you do."
"Dammit, demon!" the fire koorime snapped.
"If you're not here to hand over the girls, then I suggest you start talking or start running," Yusuke stated, powering up his spirit gun.
"Now why would I hand over my wonderful toys before you give me a new one?" the green demon asked, smiling evilly.
Kurama narrowed his eyes at the enemy. "What do you want? I'm assuming that it's in the Reikai vault."
He nodded his head. "Yes, it is in there," he informed the redhead. "There's a vial of water from the Fountain of the Dragons that I want. Koenma has been guarding it for years, and I want you to bring it to me in exchange for the girls."
"Hn."
Loki turned his attention to the fire demon. "I've been having fun playing with your girl. She screams really loud. Yours too, Kurama."
"You bastard! What have you done to them?!" Hiei bellowed, unbelievable fury apparent on his face. "If you've touched her..."
"Oooooh, I most definitely have." He put great meaning into those words, letting the spirit detectives have a good guess about what the girls were going through.
"You've raped them," the kitsune growled out darkly. Green power swirled around him, making everyone except for Hiei take a step away from him. The fire demon didn't move because his power was doing the same thing. Their energies swirled around them, causing the air to pop and the grass to crackle beneath them. Green and red light began to spread out, forcing everyone to move even farther away.
"Calm down you two," Loki suggested, leering at them. "I've done that and more. Let's just say that I know Kaline heals much faster than Cassie does." He cracked his knuckles, feeling pleased with himself. He loved torture. "Knives and whips are fun."
"Bastard, you will pay for that!" Hiei raised his sword and launched himself at the enemy, using his great speed to his advantage. Kurama was quick to follow with his rose whip ready to strike.
Loki vanished an instant before the two demons could attack him; however, his voice remained. "You have three hours to bring the vial of water to this exact location. If you do not succeed in doing this, then I will keep the girls and begin even worse tortures." Chuckling followed that statement, which only infuriated the two demon spirit detectives even more.
"I'll bring you the vial," the kitsune promised. "And in return, you will free both of the girls."
"Three hours," Loki repeated, the remainder of his presence disappearing.
Hiei sheathed his sword. "Three hours."
CotA: Hey people. I finally got the chapter posted. The next one should be out soon enough.
L-Soul: Yes, bad things happen. Murphy's law seems to apply here. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong.
Neolannia: Sorry. *hugs Neolannia* Don't pout anymore please. It depresses me.
Midnight: Umm... there won't be much romance between anyone for a bit.
Rei Akita: *laughs* You know I'm going to update soon. I can't just leave my readers hanging forever.
Yanou: I understand the computer problem. Mine goes on the fritz every so often. And the weather changes in her dream simply reflected her moods. If she's happy, then the sun will shine; if she's angry or sad, then the weather will reflect her mood as well.
PWA: Yes, it was a sad chapter; however, it might be a bit before everything is all hunky dory again.
kuramalover321: *smiles* I think you can read minds or something. You made an excellent guess about Loki.
Lady Rose Jade: I grew bored of Rome. I like my new story much better. :)
