Chapter Four:
Her large wings carried her long and far over the vast plains of white. Towns passed under her wing-tips as she flew quickly, fueled by nothing more than her anger. She wasn't angry at Goku, though she had thought she was, but more angry at herself. Her hooted greetings to other night birds such as herself were returned and when she passed over forested terrain, she thought she saw a figure moving under the cloak of the trees. Swooping down to get a better look, she landed on a thick branch, talons closing and digging into the bark of the limb she was perched on.
The figure walked under her, long blonde hair glimmering with the shadowed light from the high moon. It moved slowly, almost weakly, as it rested with its back to the tree. Hooting softly, she looked into blue eyes. Rustling breast feathers with her beak, she waited for him to call her down.
"I can see you Chi, and I know that you can see me..."
Letting go of the branch, she dove towards the ground and opened her wings at just the right moment and touched down onto the snow rather lightly. She shifted easily, thankful for the warm cloak that was held out to her. "Damian."
"Any news? How is she?"
"The same as she was before you left..."
"Then why have you come out here?"
"To tell you that we have some...guests staying with us."
This caught his attention and flicked a stray lock of golden hair behind his ear. "Who are they, and what are they doing there in the first place?"
"There are three men, and a woman. One is wounded and the other two brought him to the castle. But I have to tell you that he's Kingarni."
"And that means what to me?" His voice wavered. Something wasn't right.
"It means that he's of the same species as Bulma. I thought you knew about all of this before?"
"Maybe...perhaps..." He sighed heavily, a hand running over his face as he closed his eyes.
She stepped forward, bare feet numb from the cold snow under her feet. "Milord, what troubles you?"
"I...have not fed since before I left the castle. I've been too worried as of late. Things from my past are coming back to haunt me. I can see them in the shadows, I can feel them when I drain a life from a body."
Placing a hand on his arm, Chi-Chi pulled the cloak closer around her naked form. "But you know that you cannot continue on if you do not have something to eat."
"I know, and I've gotten so slow that I cannot hunt any of the wildlife here..." Damian's form was slowly sliding down the trunk of the tree. He felt Chi-Chi kneel beside him, hand son his face as she turned it upwards to study for a few moments.
"Then feed off of me."
"What?"
"You need the strength, feed off of me."
"I ca...cannot."
Growling, she pulled his head to the junction of her neck where shoulder melted into the graceful column. "Feed." Hot breath stirred against her flesh. Pushing his head closer to her flesh, she commanded the word again. Parting his lips, he dragged the tip of his tongue across the supple skin and opened his mouth wider to pierce the neck with his fangs.
A cry broke out from her mouth as she felt blood leaving her, making her light headed. The sounds of his greedy gulps filled her ears before it died away to the steady drumming of her pulse. Tearing his head away, he panted; chest rising and falling with every intake of air. "I'm sorry.. I, I shouldn't have taken so much. Are you all right?"
Nodding, she found that her vision blurred. "Yes. I'm fine."
"Now what did you really come out here for?"
Licking her lips, Chi-Chi turned her head to look at him. "I believe I have found a way to heal Bulma."
"What?"
"Yes. That man I was telling you about, Vegeta they call him, he's Kingarni. Bulma's Kinlarni. Not exactly the same species but both were-felines. If I could take some of the blood from the man and somehow put it into her body..."
"Then she should be able to regain strength and fight off the poison." Damian finished for her.
They looked at each other for a few moments before Damian stood up and helped Chi-Chi to her feet. Their bodies had melted the snow around them and a passing figure could tell that people had rested there. "You're cold. We need to get you back to the castle. We shall try this idea of yours though I'm not exactly sure how it'll work."
"Me neither, but it's worth a try." Sliding the cloak off of her shoulders, she handed it back to Damian and nodded her head. "I shall see you back on this eve?"
"Aye. On this eve."
Her body shrank right before his eyes, bones melding and bending as skin grew feathers. In the matter of moments the woman that had been standing before him transformed into the great creature of the sky. Ruffling her feathers, she nodded once and took off with a loud screeching cry.
Relief washed over her mind even though her body seemed to be failing. Wings became harder to move up and down and soon she found herself forcing them to move up and down. Muscles screamed in agony as she willed herself to keep flying towards the speck in the North. Thinking of Bulma, her one and only true friend, laying on a bed in pain spurred her to move, what would have been her arms if she were in human form, faster.
The dot gradually grew bigger and bigger with each wing-beat and none to soon she flew into her own bedroom window, glad that she remembered to keep it open because it was then, as her form was gliding through the air, that her wings gave out and she was sent sliding head first, body changing as it moved, into the bedside table.
It wobbled, threatening to fall over and in its dance of gaining back its balance, a vase tumbled down the side and crashed loudly beside her head. The sound brought a pair of feet running as Elizabeth skidded into the room followed by Goku and Krillin. "Oh... oh no." The maid muttered as she came to a stop beside her fallen mistress.
"What is it?" Goku said as he stopped behind the woman to look over her shoulder. "Lady Chi- Chi!" he gasped. Her form was thrown on the floor, head and shoulders lodged under the side table while shards of thick glass decorated the floor with its dark purple beauty. He rushed to her side, feet crunching the glass under his boots, as he reached down and gathered her up.
She was cradled in his arms and when her head fell back he saw the bite mark. Elizabeth shook her head and went to the large over-stuffed bed with its purple cover and tossed it back. "Come set her down. She'll be all right. She's just tired that's all."
"But what about the blood and the mark? Who attacked her?" He walked to the middle of the bed and placed the woman in his arms gently onto its soft surface. Her hair fanned out against the pillow creating almost a perfect fanned shape. Chi-Chi didn't move at all, her fainted slumber too deep to be brought back so quickly.
"No one attacked her. I promise you when she gets a good nights rest she shall be feeling much better and then answer your questions."
Krillin held back away from the bed, his bald head turned to look out the window with a slow shake. There was something that someone wasn't telling either him or Goku, something very important. And yet he couldn't put his finger on it.
If the Lady Chi-Chi became so enraged with Goku for the simple fact that he hadn't told her that their Master and friend, was indeed not fully human they could get mad at her for withholding something so important from them.
"If she wasn't attacked, what happened to her?"
The maid looked up from rearranging the blankets over the woman's sleeping form. "Like I said before, she'll tell you when she's ready. Not before."
It was together that they heard the front doors to the castle burst open and feet running all about to see what the commotion was. "The Lord!" Elizabeth breathed as she took one last look at Chi- Chi before turning on her heel, grey skirt in hand and took off at a quick jog down the stairs. Goku and Krillin looked to each other with the shake of heads.
"What the hell!" An angry voice growled out from down the hallway. The two men broke out into smiles as they exited Chi-Chi's room and walked calmly down a few doors and into the red and gold room.
"You!" The angry man said from his spot on the bed. "Where am I?"
Goku broke into a grin. Their Master was starting to feel better. "You're here, Milord, because you were stabbed and this was the only place to go."
"Did they take that woman I've found myself stuck with?" Vegeta tried to move a little but found that the pain radiating from a spot on his side a little too fresh to jar.
"No, your wife-to-be is here as well."
"Damn. That's a bit disappointing." His black ears perked up from his hair and moved around slowly. Krillin looked at the man with wide eyes for he would have expected Vegeta to lay his life down to protect the woman that he chose to marry. Obviously he was wrong. Keniko, he agreed silently, wasn't the easiest person to get along with sometimes but she knew how to be sweet if she wanted to be. "Get me something to drink. Wine, rum, anything. I'm thirsty."
"Aye Milord." Goku smirked as he exited the room. Orders for Krillin were being shouted, echoing them down the halls. He walked passed Bulma's room and a flash of pink curls caught his attention. Stopping in the doorway, he took a silent step inside. Keniko was into the woman's closet holding things up to her chest before tossing them onto the floor.
It seemed that most of the dresses didn't seem to hold her attention as a large pile was in the middle of the floor. "What do you think you're doing?"
She let out a startled gasp and turned around, red velvet pressing to her chest. "Oh! Goku, you scared me."
"I asked you what you're doing. I hope you understand that this woman is sick and could be dying,"
"Good, she won't need her dresses then, and she surely won't miss this one."
"And I hope that you're going to clean this up as well."
"Please," Keniko laughed, brushed back a rogue curl that had slipped from its pin. "There are maids and servants to do that work. I'm not going to dirty my hands. Plus, I hear the man that lives here is pretty good looking. Now my fiancee is holed up in bed at the moment, wounded, I'm sure that I can get some attention," the last word was said with wiggled eyebrows and a silken whisper. "If you know what I mean."
"Disgusting woman." His fingers itched to wrap around her slender neck and twist it to such an angle that it snapped. But she was a lot stronger than she looked and more deadly that a bite from a poisonous spider. Goku heard her giggle from down the hall as he bounced down the spiraled set of stone stairs, and then down another set. Voices could be heard from behind a closed door and as he was about to bypass it, the wooden slab parted just a bit.
"Is there anything I can get for you Sir?"Elizabeth asked from the crack in the door.
"I need something to drink. Something strong for my Master."
"Oh," her eyes widened, "He's awake I see. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." The door closed and he was left staring at it. Something most defiantly wasn't right. They were hiding something and he needed to ind out what it was. "Here. Take this. It's only brandy, but it's the best that we've got in this room. I'm sorry but could you please go back upstairs and tend to your Master..."
"Thank you." He left the woman who watched him walk back up the stairs with slow steps. Only once he was out of sight did Elizabeth close the door and go back to the meeting that was going on behind the closed door. Turning, Goku headed back to the room where Vegeta was staying. He checked in on Chi-Chi, and then the woman's blue-haired friend, and then walked beside Vegeta with the bottle of brandy. "This is all that they had at the moment. It seems that they're in a meeting of some sorts."
"I don't care." It seemed that Krillin had propped pillows up behind his shoulders so that he was almost sitting up. His hand was held out as if expecting to have the whole bottle placed into his palm so he could nurse the amber liquid from the crystal bottle.
Goku didn't think so. There was a glass of water, Vegeta's water, on the bedside table so he had replaced the water with half a glass of brandy. "Here."
Looking into the cup, liquid swirling around with easy practiced wrist movements. "It seems to be of a good vintage." Heaving a shrug, Vegeta opened his mouth and swallowed the drink as it slid down his throat. Half a glass was gone in one long swallow.
"Well that was go–" He was interrupted by the sound of a pained cry, a cry that a woman makes when in serious agony. "What the hell is that?" Three pairs of eyes were turned to the general direction of the sound and Goku felt his forehead starting to sweat.
"I do believe that it's Lady Chi-Chi's friend."
The twisted moans were getting louder. "Who?"
"Lady Chi-Chi! She's the one that helped you."
"God damn it, that racket is more than I can take!" He threw the blankets back away from his sweating body and very carefully pushed himself away from the bed. Bare feet hit the foot and then slowly allowed the weight of the man to sturdy the shaking limbs.
"Milord, please you shouldn't be up! You're seriously injured!" A hand waved the protest away and Goku had no other option than to close his mouth.
"Wounded or not, how the hell is a man supposed to relax with that kind of noise going on in the next room?" His panther ears twitched forward as another pained sound came from the room next to his, this time with the hint of an underlying growl. This caught his interest. Slowly moving his form from the bed to the open door way, his black eyes first scanned the room.
Blue and silver. Hn, such a woman's room. His tail unwound itself from around his hips, flicking bach and forth smoothly as he took a step into the room. The first thing that caught his attention was the azure hair fanned out across silver pillows. Next his eyes slide with slow ease from bare shoulders to the cuffs around the woman's wrists.
She let out another scream, this time the sound vibrated off of the walls in the hallway, echoing its way downstairs. Orders were faint voices in the vast halls and yet Vegeta heard them. It seemed that there was something seriously wrong with woman who was lying before him. "Chi- Chi! We need Chi-Chi!" A rough voice shouted as the figure ran up the stairs.
"Yes Milord!"
"What are you doing in here?"
Vegeta turned around and instantly his eyes narrowed. "This wench was disturbing my sleep." His tail shot around his waist once more, the tip of his tail brushing against the well worn fabric of his black pants. Blond hair moved smoothly around the man's back as he stepped into the room and walked towards Vegeta. Stepping out of the way when he saw that tell-tale dead look in vibrant blue eyes, he let the man pass him. The man had triggered something in his memory and he felt like he had seen this man before. But where?
"She's not doing so good."
"Damian! My god, what's going on?" Chi-Chi yawned as she ran into the room, her purple dress robe billowing out behind her. "Bulma!" Running to her friends' side, she whipped back the blankets and then pointed to the damp cloth. Damian handed it to her and watched as she wiped away some black ooze that had broken from the skin.
Vegeta's eyes widened as he stared at the woman's chest.
From collar bone to naval was nothing more than an inflamed swollen mass of black and red. He could feel the burning stench of flesh from where he stood. The skin on her sides were bright red and starting to blister. "This woman's burning frm the inside!" He whispered
"We have to do something Chi-Chi! Anything! Look at her skin, look how it's seeping that black liquid!"
It was as if her pores had opened and decided to push out a dark substance as little beads collected on the all ready swollen, burnt flesh. It hissed as it made contact with the air. Pale eyelids shot open to reveal lifeless blue eyes. "My god!"
Chi-Chi looked into the face of her best friend and let out an involuntary squeak as she saw that the blue eyes were no longer just blue, but laced with black as well. The bonds were the only things that held Bulma's hands away from her chest as she screamed again. "You!" Chi-Chi's jumped up and walked to the very stunned Vegeta. "We need your help."
A smirk crossed Vegeta's lips. "Why?" His arms lifted to fold over his chest.
"She's dying! We need your help!"
"I need a better reason then that."
Chi-Chi let out a growl and stalked to the man, tears in her dark eyes. "She's my best friend! She's dying. If you cannot help us then the only thing left for me in this world is the bitter days and empty promises of a sweet death that is out of my reach. She is my friend! You are a stranger here, a guest, and you have to listen to me. Please.. Please..." Chi-Chi's head dropped to her chest for a quick moment. "If you don't help, so help me God I am going to make your life a living hell."
His smirk widened. "It already is a living hell. You know nothing of it. But yes. I shall help you. Tell me what I have to do."
Everything around the room stopped. There was no noise coming from Bulma. Damian let out a soft moan, cold hands lifting up to shake Bulma's shoulders. "She...dead..."
Chi-Chi whirled around and let out a cry before she threw herself against the still form of her friend. "No!" Hands clutched at the woman, sobs shaking her shoulders as she shook the pale, burning body of her friend. "No!" Damian looked out the window, the night sky starting to lighten.
With a strangled moan, he jumped up and flew from the room.