Grace
A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfiction
By the Dragon's Daughter
Summary: In the smoky streets of London, a battle is brewing. Kenshin is a former business man who has just discovered life in all its varied forms. Kaoru, a vampire, is running for her life when a certain red-head stumbles into it. Modern-Day AU.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. I am making no profit by writing this fan fiction. It is intended for recreation purposes only.
Rating: R for language and violence
Pairing: Kenshin/Kaoru, Aoshi/Misao, and Sano/Meg
Chapter Four: Waking Sleeping Beauty
Kenshin was on his feet the second he smelled the foreign magic in his home. Its scent was sickly sweet and carried the metallic tang of blood: Faerie Magic of the bad kind. Worse, the smell was coming from the guest room!
When he reached her, Kaoru was collapsed on the bed and staring blankly at the ceiling. Her skin was icy cold when he touched her cheek. Something had cast a stasis spell on her.
There was nothing at the window when Kenshin checked. The Faerie had probably run as soon as the foul deed was done. It wasn't in their nature to stay and make sure their mission was completely successfully, especially if they'd been bound by a mortal. Yukishiro was desperate indeed if he was making deals with the Unseileigh Court. Even so, it was a wasted effort.
Satisfied that there was no more danger, Kenshin gathered Kaoru into his arms and carried her into his own bedroom where he could rest assured that they wouldn't be interrupted as he broke the spell.
Before leaving Japan, Kenshin's old mentor had drilled him ruthlessly on the magical arts. He'd never be a full wizard, but he would never be an easy victim.
There were seven Realms of Magick: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life, and Death. Each realm had two forms. Stasis spells were Water magic of the Ice variety. It was the most basic of Faerie Spells and also one of the most famous, being responsible for Faerie Tales such as 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Snow White'. By nature they trapped a victim in their 'cold' thoughts and feelings simulating catatonia. It was actually very easy to break once you knew how. One simply had to stimulate 'hot' feelings in the victim to counteract the 'cold' ones.
In the Old Tales 'True Love's First Kiss' was always enough to break the spell, but that only worked in the case of a sheltered virginal Princess. Kaoru on the other hand had deeper sorrows to remember and would require something a little stronger.
Kenshin kicked the tangled sheets and blankets off his bed and settled Kaoru down in their place. After a moment's thought he turned up the thermostat and removed her bathrobe. Underneath she still wore his dress shirt. He paused a moment to stifle his rage at Yukishiro and then slowly undid the snaps.
Kaoru's body was far from perfect. Her skin was pale from lack of sun and she had a great many scars from old wounds that had healed badly. Kenshin found claw marks on her belly, old burns on her legs, and what looked like the stab wound from a stake in the muscle of her shoulder. She was a little on the thin side and her hands were calloused from centuries of work.
No, Kamiya Kaoru wasn't perfect… she was better.
Kenshin stripped out of his own clothes without taking his eyes off her slender frame laid out before him like a feast. This wasn't the way he'd envisioned their first time together, but he'd take what he could get. After all, there was no way in hell he was going to let anyone else touch her like this.
He knew her defenses would be strong even when she was spellbound, he'd gone up against them before when she'd pulled away after feeding on him. If he'd had to match his own skills against them then he doubted he could have breached her mind without damaging her, but fortunately for them both Kaoru had a weakness.
His beast came willingly to his call, knowing perhaps what was at stake. Colors took on a bright edge as he let a little of his other self filter through his body. It was difficult to stay half changed, but Kenshin held doggedly onto his razor sharp claws as he used them to slice through the flesh of his chest.
Once the damage was done, Kenshin pulled back from his beast and for once it went quietly. It took an effort of will to keep his wound from closing up in the wake of its departure, but he managed it.
Lying down on the bed, Kenshin hauled Kaoru up on top of him and touched her mouth to his bleeding wound. Just as he'd predicted her barriers dropped and her instincts took over. He closed his eyes and let her past his own.
Almost immediately he realized what Kaoru had meant when she'd said that their interaction before had been abnormal. This time she took dominance from the beginning and he had to struggle to keep from succumbing to the wash of artificial serenity that she pushed on him.
He retaliated by gathering his feelings for her and pushed back.
Kaoru's presence in his mind faltered and for the first time he actually felt her take notice of him. She stopped trying to make him submit and responded to his wordless display with a tentative return.
For a second, Kenshin was overwhelmed by the welter of images in his head, but slowly he began to sort them out. He saw Kaoru watching him walk down that dark street, felt her appreciation of his lean form. When she rapped her arms around his neck he could smell his own cologne from Kaoru's point of view: spicy, rich, and completely male.
He saw the night in McNally's from her point of view. He saw himself watching from across the table, secure in his own power and fascinated by her. Her felt her falter under the attention so unlike what she received from day to day. He even experienced her silent battle for control against her mounting obsession with his hair.
Kenshin responded with the image of her lying on his bed, dwarfed by his shirt, and looking far too cute and sexier than any woman had a right to be. Almost immediately he received an image of himself from the back as he underdressed.
A burning sensation on his chest brought him crashing back into his body. He lay still for a moment, trying to orient himself until he registered the rasp of Kaoru's tongue over his chest wound. Somehow they'd got turned around and Kaoru was on the bottom now with her legs comfortably wrapped around his hips. She'd licked his wound closed.
She looked up at him, eyes clear and focused, and licked a bit of his blood off the corner of her mouth. "That was…creative." She said huskily. "A warm bath would have done it. It was only a Red Cap."
Kenshin flushed despite himself. "It was gone by the time I got there. I didn't want to take chances."
Kaoru smiled and pulled him down for a kiss. "I'm not complaining. Quite the opposite in fact, I preferred it to a bath." Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she ground her hips against his in one drawn out sensuous movement. "There are parts of you making promises. Care to deliver?"
"Oh, I'll do more than that." He growled and attacked.
Aoshi Shinomori was having a very bad day.
First he'd received simultaneous requests of assassination from two different clients, both old business and well respected, but unfortunately on each other. Aoshi had had to politely turn them both down and neither had taken it well.
Furthermore, he'd received multiple demands from Yukishiro to have Kamiya Kaoru terminated… again. He'd yet to reply to any since he couldn't come up with a way to phrase 'no' that didn't sound like he was laughing in Yukishiro's face. Although as time wore on, Aoshi began to wonder if that wasn't the only way to reply.
Aoshi hadn't gotten as far as he had in his short life by being stupid and taking on a Vampiress easily five times his age was one of the stupidest things he could think of. Even if he were that dumb he still wouldn't have gone after Kamiya. She was chaos embodied: impossible to predict. It'd be like signing his own death warrant and showing up at the execution block with his neck washed.
He hadn't brought his Oniwabanshuu this far just to die now.
As the date for the Blood Council neared things just got stranger. A great deal of it was predictable, after all Yukishiro had been trying to kill Kaoru almost from the moment he'd crossed over Life into Undeath. It was nothing new, nothing interesting, but the frenzied way he was going about it now was.
Aoshi had always wondered if the Junior Attendant had been faking his competance and now it seemed he was.
It was rare for a human's mind to survive the transition through Death, although not unheard of. Usually… pieces were lost along the way; important pieces like self control. Whether or not a Vampire came out crazy had a great deal to do with the person they'd been when they were alive and if they'd had something strong enough to hold onto when they changed.
Aoshi himself was one of the rare vampires who'd made the change successfully. He didn't credit his will power for that or any other saving grace. He'd just been too stupid and stubborn to realize how hopeless it all was. For that matter, he still was.
There was a framed photograph on his desk that had been face-down for five years, ever since he'd learned of her disappearance. All his power brought to bear and it had turned up nothing. She was gone.
That photograph represented every failure in his life that he'd yet to atone for.
With an effort of will, Aoshi shook of his maudlin thoughts and keyed up his e-mail account on the sleek laptop that graced the ebony desk of his office. There were no new requests, but somehow a Porn spider had gotten his address and there were thirteen new bits of spam to delete. Aoshi made a mental note to have Hanya look into it and destroy whoever was responsible.
Just as he started to close the browser, his cell phone rang in his pocket. Aoshi slipped it out and flipped it open.
It was Hanya.
"Report." He answered shortly.
"I've received the intelligence files you requested." Hanya stated from the other end. "There something here that might interest you."