Chapter FIVE: Possessiveness
Holding her head in her hands from the twirling of her vision, she slowly sat up from her laying position. Her azure eyes scanned the odd place that she was at. She was confused, she could have sworn that she had been out in the rain with Battousai just a minute ago.
She shivered when she heard the roaring of thunder, sighing with relief when she was finally able to notice her surroundings from a flash of lightning. At least now she could at least guess as to where it was she had been dropped off at.
Kaoru groaned as she moved a hand to her neck, she could feel her heartbeat pulsing erratically to make more blood to replace what she had lost if her headache and lack of strength was any indication. Yet something puzzled her, the sound of musical chimes didn't reach her ears at her movements. She was sure that the chains would clang together if she moved.
Looking down, Kaoru confirmed her suspicions when she noticed that her diamond cuffs were gone. Her wrists were free and she could feel her own magic soar within her lithe form again, healing her body as best as it could, but no amount of magic would be able to mend her heart.
Biting her lower lip as not to cry from past memories, Kaoru looked closely around at her surroundings for the first time since she had awakened.
Looking about her, she noticed that she was lying on a warm blue futon, inside a room with walls made of thin rice paper, which were decorated with paintings of dark gods whom were worshiped by all shadowed creatures.
Bringing her arms around her from the sudden chill that spread throughout her body, she continued her observation of the room.
The ceiling had a large black star that filled most of the wooden planks, and the floor's wood was polished enough so that she could see her own reflection in it.
Her eyes then wandered further into the shadows, where she noticed that the only shoji door in the room was glowing black. She sighed when she realized that she was imprisoned in this room by a powerful barrier that was no doubt created by Battousai. He had most likely taken off her chains because he knew that even with her magic at full strength she couldn't get away from him.
Despite the position she was in, Kaoru couldn't help but wonder where she was. The place had a dark tinge to it, and it wasn't because of Battousai's presence either. In fact, Battousai's barrier seemed comforting, strong, and warm, yet at the same time dark, mysterious, and powerful like Battousai.
Kaoru mentally slapped herself when she realized what she was thinking.
Battousai was a cruel-killing, immortal vampire, and he would never be a source of comfort and warmth to anyone, especially herself. The only reason why she wasn't dead right now was because he needed her to find the last two Dark Diamond Weapons.
Bringing her palms together, she began to rub them together. Soon enough, a blue glow emitted from her hands and enveloped her entire frame. A smile touched her lips as she felt her own magic rejuvenating her body and bringing warmth back into her soul.
She looked back up at the ceiling once the blue light faded away. The black star reminded her of the symbol on the hilt of every weapon of the Seven Dark Diamond Weapons of Hell.
The thought sent shivers down her spine. She moved her knees to her chest as she wrapped her arms around herself. Guilt played on her face as she remembered what she done for Battousai.
She had helped him find the reverse-blade sword and had literally brought the dagger to him. By giving him the weapons, she had made him stronger, yet if she hadn't, then he would have killed her. But then again, she would have joined her parents in the after life if he had.
You must live on my daughter! You must live as the last of our kind so that one day you may destroy the weapons that destroyed us. Kaoru shut her eyes as the words flooded through her. The visions of last night poured through her like cold water from a mountain waterfall.
Those words were the only reason she remained living, the only reason that she obeyed Battousai. Her heart warmed with revenge when she thought about the fact that by helping Battousai, she would bring all seven weapons together. Then she'd be able to get her revenge and destroy them all at once.
With that comfort in mind, even the dark room seemed to lighten up, and the roaring of thunder and clashing of lightning faded from her world.
Smiling, she crawled back into her warm futon and fell asleep.
Amber eyes glistened over her lithe form as they narrowed dangerously.
A shadow-covered figure silently slid from the shadows and toward the body of the sorceress.
Battousai glared down at his prisoner once he had reached her side. He had heard her thoughts and had felt her hate for the weapons from her aura. It had surprised and amused him, but if she thought to use him, then she was sorely mistaken.
The cloaked figure quietly moved back from the sleeping figure and headed toward the shoji door, easily sliding it open without a sound before walking out.
Closing the door behind him, he made sure that the barrier remained around the room before walking away. He couldn't risk others realizing who she was and using her to gain the weapons. Everyone knew that the Kamiyas had a connection with the dark diamond weapons, and would no doubt use that to their advantage if they captured her.
It also had to do with the fact that this whole place was filled with vampires, and no one was going to shed or take her blood but him. It before never occurred to him that he was so possessive over this magical being until he entered the vampire-filled household.
Walking silently down the hall, his black cape trailed behind him and vaguely fell on his three swords, the dagger being placed within his clothing for safe keeping. He only needed the twin kodachi and the kunai to finish his collection. The twin kodachi's two blades were sure to be separate. This was going to postpone his trip back to his Black Castle.
The halls of the large mansion that Battousai decided to reside in for the time being were narrow, allowing only two people to walk side by side at a time. Its walls were decorated with marvelous paintings, each one filled with the color scheme of the house--black and white and sometimes red.
Kaoru's 'prison' was at the end of the hall, the only one in the entire hallway.
Turning, the Dark Lord turned into another narrow hallway, which led to the outside into the pouring rain.
Shielded by the beams above him, Battousai walked along the outside hall and through a large, red-wooden door.
Servants in light pink kimonos bowed to him as he walked by and quickly went back to work, making sure not to make eye contact with the vampire. It was death for those who looked within his eyes, all save for Kaoru. He rather enjoyed seeing her emotions play across her beautiful sapphires.
Walking deeper into the enclosed hallway, the Dark Lord continued his walk into another thin hallway until he reached a pair of cherry oak, twin doors.
Using his ki, he slammed the doors open and came face to face with a vampire that looked more like a mummy than anything else. If not for his ruby-red eyes and fangs, one could mistake him for an Egyptian artifact.
The vampire was robed in purple attire, contrasting against the bright kimono that the vampire on top of him wore.
They immediately sat up from their position and lightly bowed to the immortal before them.
Battousai narrowed his eyes as he took in the room.
The two other vampires were seated on what looked like a bed and chair all in one. Scattered about them were various pillows, a white net falling around the circular seat. It was the only piece of furniture in the room apart from the table placed in the center of the room. On top of black table were fruits and a long sword.
"My Lord Battousai, do you need anything?" asked the female vampire known as Yumi.
"We weren't expecting you to come into our private room so soon," said Shishio calmly, but Battousai knew otherwise. Shishio was clearly unhappy with his sudden interruption.
"Weren't you informed that I would be coming to stay here, Shishio?" asked Battousai amused.
"Yes. Two friends of Soujiro's had informed him, who in turn informed me that you were in Tokyo," said Shishio.
"What are they to Soujiro?" asked Battousai curiously.
"I told you, they are his friends," said Shishio, confused that Battousai should have missed that, the man never missed anything before.
"Not that, I meant, what is a vampire like Soujiro doing with two pathetic shape-shifters?" questioned the Prince of the Night as he calmly strode in and sat on a black tall chair that suddenly appeared behind him as he moved to sit down.
The chair was taller than he was when he sat down. Made from the bones of his victims, the throne was polished and carved so that each bone was perfectly connected while dried blood made up its color.
The Dark Lord merely watched as Shishio remained as calm as ever, contrary to the way his mate fidgeted with her hands as she looked at the floor.
"Milord, I do not know the actions of the Tenken," said Shishio seriously as he watched as the Prince eyed his mate all too calmly. The vampire had to suppress the instinctive urge to protect woman from Battousai's gaze. He knew that if it came down to it, he would surely lose both his mate and his life.
"Do you know anything, Yumi?" asked Battousai, his tone demanding an answer at once.
Yumi gulped and looked up, freezing in her spot when she was met by two burning spheres of fire. She was getting colder from the inside out, despite the blazing inferno that was boring into her soul.
"I know nothing, milord. I am but a lady, I do not interfere with the men's quarrels with other beings," said Yumi as calmly and politely as she could.
Battousai narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. His face remained solemn as he inwardly smirked. Getting past a mortal's mind barriers was too easy sometimes.
A few minutes of silence later, servants walked in nervously with trays of food. They bowed to both Lords before placing the trays on the table in the center of the room. It was obvious that they were unnerved by the presence of the creature that could kill them with just a single stroke of his finger. It didn't help everyone knew of the Immortal's deeds either.
The vampires all backed away when they were done serving, keeping as close to the wall and as far away from the red-haired vampire as possible.
Battousai suddenly stood up from his seat, the bone-made throne vanishing as he stood. He hated being in areas where the thoughts of the weak were so easy to hear. Though it was amusing to read their fear, he did not like hearing them think so lowly of him, that he was nothing more than Akuma's spawn.
"Aren't you staying for dinner, Lord Battousai?" asked Shishio when the other vampire stood up and walked toward the door.
"I've had my fill," said Battousai darkly as he stepped out of the room. He was telling the truth, drinking a liter of Kaoru's blood did more than quench his thirst, it sparked his senses so that they burned like the fires of Hell. Somehow, her blood had made him stronger.
The vampire merely smirked as he went back to their room.
He himself could not understand why he had suddenly wanted to drink her blood earlier. It was as if her blood had been crying out at him to drink his fill. He could still smell her jasmine scent, could still see the sapphire-eyed sorceress. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her innocent blue ones. It was like a curse that couldn't be broken.
Battousai growled inwardly when he realized that he needed her, that he wouldn't be able to keep sane without her. The thought sent his dark ki flaring when he realized that his sanity would falter even when she was near him. The mere inkling of a suggestion that he was dependent on a mortal made his blood boil. He was Battousai, Prince of the Night, and he was going to overcome this obstacle if it were the last thing he did.
Ki blazing, the Dark Prince entered the room and walked over to the small form that lay peacefully on the blue futon.
xXoXx
"Sou! You have to be careful, the Prince of the Night will kill you if he finds out," said Misao's worried voice as she sat on a cushion in a dark room.
Megumi and Tsubame sat on either side of her, they were in a dark black room, a black star imprinted above them on the ceiling. The room was emptied, except for the walls that hung with black and white painting from past vampire artists. There were only four cushions inside, and the rest of the room was lit by black flickering candles, keeping the room dim and shadowy.
The three girls sat across a man with a simple smile upon his face. He had black hair that glimmered in silky waves in the candles' light. His eyes were a deep blue, his skin was pale yet perfectly soft like a baby's bottom, despite the training the man had endured from his Master Shishio. He was clad in a blue gi and a white hakama and a katana was placed calmly on the ground to his left where he could easily retrieve it if necessary.
As a vampire from the olden days, he was use to the old fashion of clothing and didn't care what others thought. It was also much easier to move with this clothing, giving the Tenken, as he was known, the ability to perform his godly moves with his superior speed. He had only lost to one being, and that was Battousai, his brother.
He had inherited his father's speed and sword abilities, but he was never strong enough to defeat his older brother. Though no matter what happened, he had always obeyed Battousai.
Even before when they were but a decade old, Battousai had always had that commanding aura. How his brother became immortal and wouldn't die even if he was stabbed in the heart a hundred times, he had no idea. But that didn't stop him from training to be like his brother. Their only difference was that Soujiro smiled and Battousai didn't, and that Soujiro could indeed die from a stab in the heart.
"Battousai won't kill me," said Soujiro calmly, his smile never wavering.
The three women instinctively jumped from that name. They had never known anyone as calm and unnerved as Soujiro when it came to the Dark Lord. Though they never figured out why, even Shishio was a little vulnerable when Battousai was around and that in itself was shocking. But the never wavering, smiling Soujiro didn't seem to care that the vampire was in the city.
"He said that he'd come here to see you before tomorrow night," said Megumi, her voice was obviously shaken from the thought of an old friend getting punished by the great Battousai.
"Don't worry so much about it you three. Battousai isn't one to kill without reason," said Soujiro with a reassuring smile upon his youthful looking face, even though he was but two years younger than Battousai himself.
"He has though! I've heard that..." Began Tsubame, but she was cut off when Soujiro's ocean depths met her earth ones, his eyes told them more than his fake smiles.
"They are merely rumors, Tsubame. You had better get back to the Akabeko, Tae will be worried," said Soujiro calmly.
"What about Lord Shishio?" asked Misao as the three stood.
"I have already informed him," said Soujiro with a smile.
"All right, but you better call us if anything happens!" said Misao with a teasing, threatening note in her youthful voice.
"I will," said Soujiro as he walked them out of the room.
"Bye, Sou! Take care," cried the three in unison as they stepped out of the room and left into the night with umbrellas in hand as they raced through the pouring rain once again.
Sighing, the Tenken walked back in after sliding the shoji shut. He sat back down on his cushion as the shadows danced about him from the flickering of the candles.
A true smile touched his lips and his eyes as he remembered how he had first met the two shape-shifters. He had saved them from extinction by killing two bounty hunters whom were after them. It was surprising that the two hadn't run away, but grown attached to him from that day forward. But by becoming close friends with mortals, and shape-shifters at that, he knew that his older brother would not approve.
Battousai never liked weaklings and he would expect his younger brother to only get close to those of his own kind, even then they were to be in the same league as he was. He was never one to like anyone that couldn't defend themselves either, or those who smile without a care in a world. Soujiro had never figured out why his older brother never smiled, why he hated those lower than him, which was basically everyone in the world.
Soujiro sighed, he had always wondered why his brother kept him alive after all these years. He was the only one that came close to his brother in power and he had been sure that Battousai would kill him once he thought that he was a threat. Though since he didn't, he was sure that his brother had to be stronger than he thought.
Rubbing his temples from all of this thinking, the vampire stood and walked deeper into the room until he was in front of what looked like a black coffin made of bones, which had been grinded and molded into shape.
Placing a hand in the center of the coffin, he allowed his dark blue ki to slowly travel through his body, to his hand, and down into the coffin. The blue energy seemed like a liquid as it traveled the frame of the coffin.
Slowly, the dark box began to open. Pale white-clawed fingers began to wrap themselves around the edge of the coffin as it opened.
Soujiro only smiled as the being within the coffin stepped out after over five centuries of slumber, when Battousai last visited Tokyo.
"Welcome back, my lady," said Soujiro as the dark figured looked up at him with a smirk.
xXoXx
Kaoru turned in her sleep, the room had suddenly gotten colder and the warmth of her magic had long since faded.
Opening her eyelids, Kaoru blinked a few times to get her vision back. A frown creased her features when she noticed that her ki wasn't the only one in the room. Someone else was with her, and according to the person's blazing ki, the person was none too happy.
Lightning flashed, acting like her nightlight, its light surrounding the form of a very powerful outline, even when the lightning faded, she could still see the person's red and black ki.
Gulping, she slowly sat up on her futon, one hand clutching the front of her black robes.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kaoru, her voice gaining courage with each word she spoke. A part of her knew very well that the vampire before her wouldn't kill her, but a part of her also knew better than to get him angry.
Amber orbs narrowed as they met her icy blue ones.
Kaoru internally flinched when she saw the emotions playing within those dangerous spheres of fire. Hate, disgust, anger, and what seemed like pleasure in some form were sparkling within his eyes. She didn't understand why he was showing her his feelings. Why was he all of a sudden revealing them to her, and why now of all times?
"Why shouldn't I be here?" asked Battousai calmly, too calmly for the sorceress's taste.
Biting her lower lip, Kaoru merely kept her gaze on his eyes before speaking.
"It's not right for a man to be in an unmarried woman's room while she's sleeping," said Kaoru boldly. She was going to keep her dignity whether her captor liked it or not.
She immediately regretted her words when Battousai grinned at her, his eyes sparkling in the dark as he bent down on one knee so that they were eye level.
Instinctively, Kaoru moved back a bit from his uncomfortable gaze. There was something peculiar about they way he stared at her, it was as if he just wanted to eat her up in one bite.
Shuddering from the thought, Kaoru flinched when Battousai's right hand held her chin up, forcing her to meet his deadly stare.
"There's a lot for you to learn, young one," said Battousai mockingly before continuing, "You should be happy that you're not out in the rain."
Gulping, Kaoru kept silent. Every word that he said seemed to make her colder, yet for some reason, his voice both terrified and coaxed in a strange, hypnotic way. There was something wrong with this, but for right now, she was too busy looking into his bloodlust-filled eyes in terror to ponder about it.
Battousai's chuckle sent waves of curiosity, shock, and confusion through Kaoru. He slowly moved to stand, but his eyes never left hers.
"Learn your place, woman. You and I both know that destroying the Dark Diamond Weapons is utterly impossible, that they can only be destroyed by each other," Battousai smirked. "In the end, there will always be one left." His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. "You know that you can't take these weapons from me, sorceress. I suggest that you don't ever underestimate my strength again, Kamiya. You're not needed to help me find these weapons, I have more than enough pawns to find them for me," said Battousai venomously.
Immediately after saying those words, Battousai inwardly cursed and knocked on wood. It was true that he didn't need her to find the weapons, but he needed her blood. She was like nicotine, one taste and he become addicted. He growled internally for being dependent on a magical being's blood. But as long as she didn't know that, she couldn't use it against him. Battousai smirked. He was still the strongest, he was still without fault.
Kaoru bowed her head in defeat. Who had she been trying to kid? Had she thought that she could defeat Battousai of all people?
"Where are we?" asked Kaoru suddenly, refusing to look up at him. What was the point of looking up when she already knew he was smirking in triumph?
"You're in our room at Shishio's palace," answered Battousai absently as he looked at a picture of a female demon.
"Our room?" asked Kaoru in shock as she looked up at him in surprise. There was no way she was going to share a ed with this man. She looked around for another futon, but there was none. This was not good at all.
Battousai snorted in disgust as he heard her thoughts.
Kaoru looked up at him perplexed.
"Do you really think that I'd stoop that low?" asked Battousai darkly, his words dripping with poison.
She only blinked at him bewildered.
"I can hear your thoughts, wench, and I advise you to either keep them in or don't think at all," snapped Battousai distastefully. His patience was wearing thin.
Kaoru was about to snap back, but thought better of it. It wasn't the smartest move someone could make to get the Dark Lord pissed off, especially when he already looked annoyed. Not wanting to fuel the fire, Kaoru kept quiet.
"We're leaving for Soujiro's palace tomorrow at dawn," stated Battousai as he walked toward his wall, his cape wrapping itself around his form as he sat down calmly. Routinely, he propped his katana against his shoulder and placed his other weapons on the ground.
Raising a delicate eyebrow, Kaoru watched as the vampire shut his eyes.
"Just get some sleep, sorceress, or do I have to help you go back to sleep again?" asked Battousai as he bore his fangs so she could see that he wasn't joking around. Another drink never hurt anyone.
Kaoru stared at him dumbfounded before glaring at him. So her suspicions of herself getting drained of blood were right! She glare turned deadly when his red lips twitched up into a smirk.
Frowning that she couldn't do anything about it, Kaoru reluctantly laid back down on her futon. Gradually, she allowed her eyelids to close above her tired eyes. After all, she was going to need her time to sleep if she was going to put up with her captor tomorrow.
So allowing sleep to lure her to her nightly slumber, Kaoru completely closed her eyes and mind, unaware of the golden ones that never fully sealed.