Disclaimer: I don't own shit.
Note: Sorry this has taken so long guys. I hit not a writer's block, but a lack of motivation; a lack of urge to write. I don't know, I've been real tired lately. Then again, I've also been really rushed and extremely busy, so it's understandable to a point. Anyways, no more excuses! Sorry, and sorry, and you have KyoHana's story-slut skills to thank for me actually getting this out.
Review Responses: Alright, someone mentioned that they were confused if Hiei had run away from Kurama. Of course, I can't remember who it was and when I went to go look it up I couldn't find it, so I give up, and just whoever asked that then YES Hiei ran away from Kurama and look, I've gone cross-eyed and run out of breath.
Thank you all so much for reviewing and liking the story!
Note: This chapter contains nonconsensual sex in other words RAPE and, though not a lemon, is rather explicit. Please do not read it if it makes you uncomfortable. Also, there is light description of torture, so please, please, please, only read to your comfort. I won't be accepting flames for this sort of thing.
And, by the way…No one guessed the real cause behind Hiei's…oddness and murderous intent. Enjoy as we draw to our climax.
-o-o-o-o-
Embrace the Winter Snow
Chapter 10
-o-o-o-o-
"Hello Urameshi."
Hiei's voice was full of mockery and bloodlust, and his crimson eyes gleamed with malice. His grin, wide and maniacal, sent shivers through Yusuke's body.
"Hiei….it-it was you?" Yusuke's voice echoed softly from his throat, his voice a sorrowful mix of pain and sorrow. His fists, clenched and shaking at his sides, bellied his hidden anger. "You killed Kuwabara and Yukina? You beat Kurama within an inch of his life!"
The fire demon's grin grew wider and turned from maniacal to that of one beyond lunacy. Yusuke flinched as the sword nicked the flesh of his neck. A thin cut formed on his skin, large enough for a small trickle of blood to trail the length of the sword, the crimson gleaming against the contrasting metal.
Keeping his cold, insane eyes locked with Yusuke's betrayed ones, Hiei bent forward and licked the rich liquid off of his katana. His eyes flashed, and not in anger, sending more shivers down Yusuke's spine.
"I enjoyed it, too."
Yusuke screamed out as his rage took over at that confession, blinding his logic. He tried to swipe at Hiei as he felt his own energy sky-rocket. Nails were forcing length out of his fingers as they sharpened and he could feel his air tickling the back of his neck as it began to grow. Blue tattoos were fading in and out of existence among his somewhat tanned skin.
"Hold it, Urameshi." The transformation ended with the tip of Hiei's sword moved to his chest, digging into his flesh slightly. Burning red eyes blinked brown as logic once more fought against his anger.
His transformation remained half complete as the sword stopped his demonic reaction to the rage that burned within him. He couldn't believe that he had let his demon nature out of his control. He had not done that in years.
"Heh, you're weak, Urameshi." Hiei stood straight, his sword held in one hand and barely applying pressure but keeping it as a warning. "You couldn't protect him. You still can't; Kurama will be mine once more."
"You bastard!" Yusuke spat out, remaining still against the blade. Hiei smirked and twisted the metal, digging it deeper into his flesh. Yusuke hissed through clenched teeth, trying to block his pain from sight.
"You couldn't protect any of them," the fire demon taunted in a whisper, accusing and mocking. Yusuke bit his lip and took a deep, calming breath.
It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't have done any more. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't…it wasn't…It was. It was his fault.
"Why?" he asked as his mind all but shut down its rage and resistance. It was all his fault. His voice was cold but thick with the pain of betrayal and, worse, the pain of having betrayed, himself, however illogical.
The fire demon before him was applying more pressure to that sword and Yusuke knew he was going to die. He knew that his partner, comrade, ally…friend, was going to kill him, was going to drive that sword through his chest and listen as his ribs cracked and his lungs were punctured. Hiei would revel in pleasure as his blood filled his lungs and he drowned in his own life force. He was going to die…again.
But this time, it would be at the hands of his friend. And this time, there would be no coming back.
Hiei shrugged. "Because I could. Goodbye, Yusuke."
Yusuke shut his eyes as time slowed and a mix of fear and acceptance lingered through his mind and soul. He could hear his own heart beat pounding in his ears, the blood rushing through his veins. The sound of blood dripping off his fingers as he pierced his sharp nails into the palms of his hands, enhanced through the deafening silence. He could hear Hiei take in a triumphant breath and felt the sword leave his skin, pulled back for his final blow. He heard the sound of footfalls to his left, a curious thing, and then he heard a familiar voice screaming out his name.
An even more curious thing, as his attacker would be the last one he expected to scream out his name. But it had definitely been Hiei's voice screaming his name.
And the next thing he knew, something collided with the side of his body, sending himself and the object of collision to the ground, rolling after the hard impact with the floor. Brown eyes snapped open to see a dark figure climbing to his feet several feet away. It was the attacker of his side, the one who shoved him to the ground….the one who had saved him from the fire demon's blade.
And it was Hiei.
Wide eyes blinked in disbelief as Yusuke looked from his potential killer to the dark newcomer. He was staring at two of the same image.
He was staring at two Hiei's, facing off against each other in his own bedroom.
-o-o-o-o-
Hiei climbed silently to his feet, rage radiating off of him in waves of heat. He paid no attention to the detective that was lying on his stomach, transformation finally reverting, staring up at him in shock and disbelief.
He paid no attention to his surroundings, no attention to the world around him at all.
None of that mattered. What mattered was his rage, Kurama's revenge, and the punching bag he was about to take it all out on. A punching bag that stood before him, hissing in anger like a wild cat. Reaching to his hip, he drew his katana from its sheath, leveling it at his own image.
"So this is how you got close to the Fool and my sister!" Hiei growled, his voice raising to a furious shout. As he stood facing the copycat, he once more felt the anger begin to overwhelm his senses and he fought to not only control it this time, but to play it to his own strength.
His copycat, with a face contorted in rage, suddenly broke into laughter. The cold and mirthless sound of the cackle sent shivers down the spines of those present. Crimson eyes as deep as their real counterparts held a cruel amusement as he leaned towards Hiei in a mocking sort of stance. "Did you forget one, Hiei?" he raised his own sword to mimic the fire demon. "Or are you still ignorant of my claim on Kurama?"
The fire demon, if possible, grew more dangerous and Yusuke suddenly feared for his house. It might soon spontaneously combust with the heat radiating off of Hiei.
"So it is true." The venom within that voiced betrayed every thought Yusuke had ever held of Hiei. It went far beyond the normal fear that every sane person felt from Hiei, friend or stranger. The fire demon before him, the original and the one who was radiating enough heat to make steel catch fire, was terrifying him.
His face had contorted to that of true rage, a demon beyond anything that Yusuke had ever seen, including the many creatures they had faced before this. Icy red eyes, belying their own contradiction, stared at the counterpart in such ferocity and revulsion that the fire demon's child-like features had turned to that of a devil in guise. Yusuke was practically shaking from the look alone, and he was not on the receiving end of it.
The fire demon tilted his head to the slightest degree, his katana matching his movement to perfect balance and a hint of offense. "Tell me, shape shifter," he hissed through a tight jaw, voice seething with sought revenge, "did you force yourself upon my mate?"
The on-watching hanyou's eyes widened as he forced his jelly-formed legs to hold his weight. Kurama was no longer Hiei's lover and the fire demon, as of four days ago, had continued to refuse most relation with the fox.
Was this only Hiei's way of avenging Kurama? Were his words merely a form of vengeance?
In actuality, though the detective would never know, those words had formed without thought. Hiei had spoken without his mind mulling over the words, and the result was all the evidence of what he already knew.
He still loved Kurama, and he found himself once more longing for his former mate, and desiring nothing more than the death of his tormentor.
"I did," the fake answered Hiei's question, the voice filled with mockery. His leer grew larger and the look of insanity once more turned worse. Wide-eyed and almost panting in excitement, he began to laugh once more. "And I listened in pure pleasure to his screams!"
"Kisama!" Hiei shouted out and disappeared in a blur as he charged. The fire demon clashed against the fake's sword counter as it became a game of rapid, beyond-sight parries and counters.
The only problem was that Yusuke could no longer see the two demons, let alone tell them apart and choose one to attack. It was your standard game of "Who's Who?"
The copycat dodged and the two once more locked swords as metal hitting metal ringed through the air; an after sound that followed the insane speed of the attacks. The two locked swords as the shape shifter leaned towards the frame their hooked swords created.
"I've never heard such enticing screams," he whispered and Hiei pulled his sword, allowing the force pushing against it to cause the blade to slide the length of the shape shifter's sword, nearly cutting the leering copycat as he moved away.
Nearly, and most unfortunately only that.
Hiei blocked another attack and lost his balance momentarily. As the fire demon braced himself with an arm on the floor, the fake kicked at his exposed limb and he hissed as it sent him rolling across the ground. The counterpart tried to separate his head from his shoulders and Hiei managed to break the attack with his own sword, but a katana was meant for one-slice kills, not parries. His sword was likely to break under the stress.
"Yusuke?" The raven-haired man turned in an almost panicked fear at the sweet, but terrified sound of his wife's voice. Keiko stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and bright with fear and confusion as she watched two identical fire demons charge at one another.
"Stay back Keiko!" Yusuke screamed and the woman obeyed, backing up slightly and unconsciously putting a hand to her stomach. Luckily, and with a luck that brought a sigh so relieved out of Yusuke's mouth, the two demons were too well engaged to notice the new addition to the audience.
Lying on the floor with the copycat's foot on either side of his body, Hiei staved off a sword inches from his neck with his own blade as the fake used gravity to his advantage, pushing harder and harder to try and separate Hiei's head once more. The fire demon was using all his own strength just to fend off his own death. The fake leaned down over his own sword, drawing as near to Hiei as he could.
Taking every opportunity to taunt the fire demon, the copycat whispered quietly to his counterpart, "Such enticing screams…And they grew even more…arousing each time."
Hiei screamed out all the anger and all the rage that that one sentence had invoked alone. Each time? Within Hiei's mind, thoughts were flying. Each time as in…each scream? Or each time as in…?
Something shifted within the fire demon's body, something deep and buried. Something he thought he had gotten rid of. Something he thought he had lost.
The fire demon shoved the fake off with so much force that the copycat lost his footing and tumbled to the ground. "How dare you!" Hiei screamed out as he climbed to his feet, sword in hand. "How can you possibly care so little about him?"
The blade of that katana sliced through air as his copycat barely managed to dodge in time. Hiei didn't even seem to notice as his rage blared through his own words and movements, the sword once more slamming down through the air. "How can you hurt someone so kind? How can you find such enjoyment in his pain!"
That hazy red fog from his prior experiences in uncontrollable anger had returned to the fire demon's mind. But this time…this time he could see through it, and what he could see was a redheaded demon with an angel's everything; face, personality, heart, body, everything.
And all he could see were crystalline green eyes broken in pain and betrayal.
Now he knew. Everything had finally clicked. Kurama hated him, and he had a right to, but not for the reasons he thought. The fox hated him because he believed that Hiei had betrayed him, taken everything from him.
Taken it all like he was nothing more than a toy.
The copycat screamed out in pain as Hiei's blade sunk into flesh, pinning the skin of his upper arm to the carpet of Yusuke's bedroom. The fire demon hadn't even noticed he'd struck again.
All that rage and all that pain…everything was this disgusting creatures fault. He kneeled over the copycat, digging his knee into the demon's crotch. The fake growled out a deep scream as he tried to fight, but Hiei pinned down his sword arm.
"You have caused me the greatest pain in my life," Hiei whispered in a voice that could send shivers down Satan himself. But the copycat beneath him, though his body did shake at the tones, only forced through a mocking grin, which caused Hiei's eyes to blare his anger even further.
"I may have raped him, fire demon," the fake replied in a voice that sounded all-knowing. The sound of it was like nails on a chalkboard to both Hiei and Yusuke. "But I'm not the one who wanted him dead for the snow-girl's death."
Hiei's eyes widened slightly. He had already drawn together that his attack on Kurama that morning was unjust and cruel, but he hadn't yet plugged it in with the appearance of this copycat.
And now he truly hated himself for all he was worth. To Kurama, this must have been the deepest pain. Not only did the fox believe that his lover had killed Yukina, raped him and then beat him within an inch of his life, but he also believed that Hiei had come back and blamed him for his sister's death as a cover story.
"How can you hurt someone so pure as he?" Hiei asked in a voice that made the two onlooker's eyes widen. It was the voice of someone whose emotions were torn in two, each on one side of a broken heart.
The copycat grinned maliciously. "Because I took away that pureness…and I reveled in the pain of its destruction." The fake suddenly brought up his knee, despite Hiei's footing on his crouch. He slammed his foot into Hiei's chest, sending the fire demon backwards.
The copycat grabbed the hilt of Hiei's sword, loosed from the fire demon's grip, and pulled it from his own flesh, hissing. He threw it to the side and turned to Hiei, but his attention was not long held. His eyes were drawn off the fire demon that was climbing to his feet and to Yusuke, who had one hell of charged finger aimed directly at the copycat.
"Hn." That was the only sound that passed the room before he disappeared in a black streak of displaced air.
Yusuke all but collapsed to the floor as he lowered his hand. The conversation before them had been hard to discern from its quiet levels, and he had deduced from the last statement that the Hiei on the floor had been the fake one.
Of course, it made him nervous that he couldn't be sure, and that was his only reason for not firing when he had the chance.
Well, that and the fact that he would have destroyed half of his house in the process, and there was no guarantee that the fake would have actually gotten hit.
Hiei walked over to him, bending down to grab the discarded sword before he turned to the detective. Yusuke had been ready to give a small smile and crack a relaxing joke, but the look on the fire demon's face told him that there would be no laughs tonight. No jokes to break the sturdy silence.
"Why didn't you tell me?" The fire demon's voice was low and dangerous, the anger within it concealed only to a certain level of animosity.
"Hiei-"
"That night, in the woods," Hiei cut off the detective with his sharp but quiet words. "Why didn't you tell me that Kurama had been raped?"
Yusuke stumbled back a few feet, more out of a lack of having any idea what to say to the demon. So, he told the truth, or as much of it as he could actually reason out under that crimson gaze.
"I…I didn't tell you, Hiei, because I didn't know how you would handle it," he replied cautiously. "Kurama…he was your mate and…and I didn't know what you'd do, or if you'd even care."
The reality of that last reason hit Hiei hard, and he looked up to Yusuke with eyes that suddenly understood everything that they'd done, and everything that they had lost. The detective came forward, gently clasping him on the back with a comforting hand.
"It's okay man, you didn't rape Kurama. We can fix this whole thing up, we just need to go tell the fo…" Yusuke's voice trailed off and Hiei's eyes widened at the incomplete sentence.
If Yusuke was here, in this room, then Kurama was once more at the temple, alone with Genkai and Tekara. And the copy was no doubt heading to that very location.
Now that they knew his secret, how he had been getting so close, his game was up. He would take what he had claimed, and he would kill the rest.
Yusuke and Hiei were moving within seconds, the latter flying out the window at a speed that defied that of which even he was normally capable of doing. Yusuke ran passed Keiko, stopping only long enough to console her and give her a light kiss on the cheek, before he followed Hiei's path out the window, leaping to the rooftops for transportation.
-o-o-o-o-
He was lost to supple and calming darkness, a warmth that wrapped around him happily. He was aware of only two things; the black blanket that encompassed his body lovingly, and his awareness itself.
He was no longer asleep, but lost in the folds of the blankets of sleep, slowly and lazily searching for the opening that would lead him to the waking world…
…Kurama opened his eyes to darkness. No, that wasn't darkness. That was the ceiling. He was just in a dark room.
That ruled out the possibility of waking up to his alarm clock. Well, that and the fact that there was no annoying beeping. Of course, Hiei was known for breaking that specific item, and had done so on several occasions.
But the darkness meant it was the middle of the night still. The redhead roused himself out of the low futon, automatically noting that he wasn't in his bedroom at all, but in the temple.
So it wasn't the alarm clock, or his family, or Hiei…No, Hiei would have made himself known if he had indeed been the one to wake him. Plus…yes, that's right, Hiei wasn't supposed to arrive until the morning.
Which would explain the temple scene, the lack of alarm clock, and the absence of Hiei…but it still didn't explain the actual waking up part. Kurama climbed off of the low futon and stood up, walking towards the door of the temple room.
He had not made it fully to the door when he heard footsteps outside in the hall and he suddenly remembered what had woken him up.
It had been a scream. A single female scream. Yukina's scream.
The fox was fully awake now. He drew a rose from the nape of his neck, the beautiful flower bursting forth into bloom. The fox frowned as he drew up beside the wall, lifting his hand. The soft skin of his fingertips brushed the edge of the wood when the footfalls paused, stopping the kitsune.
A silence that strangled the single occupant swallowed the room as there was a pause between the two silences.
Then, the door was pulled open and Kurama's eyes widened as booted feet left footprints of wet, snow caked imprints on the tamati mats. Not that he should have had shoes on in the first place.
His thoughts focused on the man standing before him as Kurama stumbled back in surprise. The rose dropped to the floor, the petals gently bending in as they hit the unyielding wooden surface. The soft thud that followed was the only sound amid the silence between the two men.
The newcomer took a step closer, entering the room. Kurama remained wide-eyed but found his body unable to move as he stared at the man before him.
"What's wrong Kurama?"
That deep, but soft voice. The voice of his lover.
It wasn't what he had just heard, despite what he was seeing.
The voice he heard was cold.
Very cold.
And not the voice of his lover.
"H-Hiei?" Kurama's own voice was shaking as he stood before his love. What fear was this that he was feeling? He stood before his lover now, all but paralyzed with fear and his limbs shaking from the exertion of trying to hold the rest of his body still.
But if that was his lover, then there was something very different about him. A coldness, an evil intent that he had not truly seen in years. Kurama blinked, finally able to get a hold of himself, struggling impossibly within his own mind to conquer the absurd fear that rattled his body.
"H-Hiei…" Kurama shook his head slightly as he took a deep breath, calming his nerves. "What are you doing here? Y-You aren't supposed to be here for a few more h-hours."
Hiei's eyes narrowed slightly, but his smirk, one that sent shivers down Kurama's spine, remained in place. His lover took a few steps forward, moving slowly, almost like a prowler, and the fox had to fight the instinctual urge to move back as well.
"What's wrong, Kurama?" Hiei asked as he took another step forwards, drawing close to enough to touch the fox. He gently reached out his slim hand, tracing his fingers down the skin of Kurama's cheek with his rough fingertips. "Don't you trust me?"
The fox shivered, though from the touch or the tone, he did not know. "O-Of course I do, Hiei," he replied, still unable to steady his voice enough to match his now still body. "You just surprised m-me. I'm confused, Dragon, th-that's all."
He tried to offer a comforting smile, the one that would make his lover beam at him in his own way, but it came off weak, and shaky. Hiei tilted his head to the side, a predatory gleam in his eyes that matched the smile.
"Confused, Kurama?" Hiei whispered, running his hand down to the fox's neck, drawing little circles with his fingertips. He smirked most evilly as he felt the body beneath him shiver in delight…or was it in fear?
Yes, it was fear. Kurama feared that smirk, there was something so darkly exposed on the very surface that he was afraid of what might be truly buried beneath. But something hit the fox like a slap to the face and suddenly, Kurama no longer noticed the fear. All he felt was the guilt of that fear.
How could he be afraid his lover so greatly that he doubted what was within his heart? He knew Hiei's heart. There was nothing evil in it; nothing that would hurt him.
Nothing.
He gave a smile and, though it was shaky, it held more of his normal love in it. "I'm alright, Hiei but…" his brow furled slightly as his gaze drew passed the fire demon. "I thought I heard someone s-scream. I thought I heard Y-Yukina scream…"
Hiei's red eyes narrowed slightly, and the shivers returned to Kurama's body, the fear once more sparking in his mind. Guilty ridden or not, there was something so very different about Hiei. Something he should definitely fear.
"No one screamed, Kurama." Hiei's fingers had begun to trace down from his neck to his collarbone, beginning to trace down the very curves of his bare chest.
"N-no," the fox whispered in reply. He knew what had awoken him, he knew that someone had screamed.
No, he knew that Yukina had screamed. He shook his head but he could not bring himself to look down at Hiei, to meet those gleaming red eyes that stared up into his face with a longing insincerity.
He could not bring himself to look. So he remained with is eyes looking to the open door.
"H-Hiei, I know that Yukina screamed….I k-know she did!" he protested as he moved a hand down to Hiei's hand, his fingers gently wrapping around the fire demons, stopping their sensual movement. "Someone screamed, Hiei."
"Kurama," the fire demon's tone had changed into one of impatience, and the fox glanced down in surprise. Hiei's eyes were almost ablaze with a need that Kurama had never seen within his lover. It was a longing for something he'd never had, an incessant need that would never leave him alone.
And it was just one more thing to send shivers down the fox's spine.
"Don't you believe me?" Hiei's tone was accusing, and just those words sent more waves of immense guilt through the fox's mind, freezing his protest until he realized that, no matter how much guilt he might feel, he still knew that Yukina had screamed.
"N-no, it's not that, Hiei," he replied in an unsteady, shaking voice. "It's just…I…I just want to double ch-check. Make sure Yukina's o-okay, alright?" He gently pushed passed the shorter demon, leaving his hand to touch only air. He started towards the door, feeling a little more comfortable with his surroundings now.
However, his immediate comfort didn't last very long. Kurama took four steps, enough to get within a foot of the door when the sound of metal slicing air lit up his ears. The sound switched to that of a soft thud, metal through flesh, and Kurama's eyes widened in surprise.
His breath became shaky and sketchy as his emerald green eyes changed from shock to pain and he glanced down, four thin, skinny fingers tracing the edge of a sword that stuck out from his stomach.
Kurama could feel the closeness of the metal to his spine, piercing between his organs. He could feel the warm blood drip down either side of him. And he could hear the blood pounding in his ears.
The soft footfalls of Hiei's booted feet stopped behind him with an agitated sigh. Kurama gasped, his breath gurgled with the blood that his stomach was rejecting, spitting up into his mouth as Hiei grasped the hilt of the sword and pulled it from the fox's slender body.
A small trickle of the crimson liquid dribbled from the corner of his mouth as he moved it nimbly as if muttering unheard words. The tip of the sword slid from his flesh and he collapsed to the floor, both his knees and then his thighs giving out beneath him.
He winced, the rest of his mind and body unresponsive, lost in shock, as Hiei grabbed his hair and began pulling him back into the room. His lover, his Hiei, the one who could never hurt him, would never hurt him, at any cost, had just impaled him with his own sword.
The fire demon dropped him back down in the center of the room and then straddled his hips, crouching down to sit on his knees, one leg on either side of Kurama. He slowly ran his fingertips around the wound to Kurama's stomach, before gently dipping within the bloody split of skin.
The fox's body finally responded, even if his mind was numb with pain and betrayal, and he screamed as fingers probed his burning flesh and pounding wound. He could feel the blood soak into the wood beneath him slowly and he found breathing slightly more difficult as he tried to gather too much air in response to his scream and began choking on his own pain.
"Shhh," Hiei whispered above him as he slowly moved his fingers away from the wound. Bringing up the crimson coated digits, he ran his forefingers up both of Kurama's cheeks, leaving two streaks of his own blood.
The kitsune stared up into his eyes, the fire demon's color matching that of the liquid on his fingers. His blood; his life force, draining away in a similar manner as the sanity drained from Hiei's eyes, leaving only lust and need, raw need.
"H-Hiei…" With that heart-broken sob of desperation and betrayal, the first tear flowed from Kurama's eye, rolling down his blood-covered skin to drop onto the wooden floor by his cheek.
"Stop crying! You're a fucking demon, for god's sake," Hiei commanded harshly as he drew up his sword once more. "You're a disgrace, Kurama. Can't even hold a little pain back, can you?"
Kurama screamed out as the sword was buried through his chest cavity, the very dip in his skin where his ribs ended. He felt the metal stretch his skin down into his own organs before it split apart, blood rushing to the surface as the sword pierced down through layers of flesh, then muscle, tearing it to a shred in its eager path downwards.
He felt the blade strike his right lung, pressing up against the very edge of it, stretching its encasing and endangering his oxygen supply. But the metal surged on, snapping three of his ribs in the force it took. The metal stretched his muscle and skin once more, shredding both before it buried itself deep in the wood beneath him.
But even that wasn't enough. The force applied to the wood was too great and it cracked under the strain, imploding inwards until the sword pierced the next layer of flooring. The hilt was just centimeters from Kurama's torn and bleeding torso when it finally stopped its descent.
"Can't have you trying to get up on me, now can I?" Hiei asked in a voice low and husky, thick with his own throbbing need. Kurama shivered, turning his head to the side.
How could this be Hiei? But it was Hiei, leaning over him, holding the hilt of the sword buried within his body. He may have been in shock, but his eyes did not deceive him.
Hiei pulled back slightly, raising back onto his knees so that none of him was pressed against Kurama. The fox was still held by the sword, though the weapon was no longer held by Hiei. The fire demon, instead, lowered his hands to his own body.
The hands moved down to his white belts, hastily casting each beside before pulling his pants down to his knees, not even bothering to remove them or his shoes. His hands then traveled to Kurama's own bottoms, and the fox shut his eyes tightly as his pants were torn off of him.
This couldn't be happening.
It couldn't.
Couldn't.
Kurama screamed out as several digits violated him, and he struggled desperately against their almost foreign movement. His fight for distance from those fingers did not last long as his entire body, not just his chest, screamed out its reminder of the sword protruding from his body.
His eyes remained tightly shut as the blood covered fingers of Hiei's free hand moved over his cheek and then down his neck. The blood trail traced over his chest, following every contour line of his muscular body.
Kurama could not stop the tears from running down his cheeks as Hiei's fingers were pulled cruelly out of him and replaced with something he wanted far less. A scream ripped through him as Hiei entered him dry and quickly, burying up to his hilt.
"S-stop!" he screamed out, his voice begging for an end to the activity, but Hiei just laughed, the sound sending shivers down the kitsune's already shaking body.
"That's right…scream for me, Kurama," the fire demon bent over and whispered in his ear, his own body quivering in his need and lust. He pulled almost entirely out of the fox, pausing for a few seconds until the first thought of security entered Kurama's mind. When he saw the fox dare to take a breath, he slammed his body against him, burying himself as far in as he could.
The fox's cry of pain pierced the silence of the temple as he tried desperately to move, the sword slamming against his body and holding him to Hiei's thrusts. The fire demon would pull completely out and thrust as hard as he could back in over and over again, until the fox was lost to a hazy fog of pain and forgotten innocence.
His cries raged through the silence until his throat went raw and his voice hoarse. Tears streamed down his face until there was no more salt and water available for him to cry.
The next hour was a blur of continuous pain, the same hurt over and over again, brief intervals of tortured beatings until his lover and rapist was once more aroused. The sword wound to his lower abdomen was not healing for the continuous movement that ripped at it, and the chest wound was widening with every rock that his body received, shoving against the unmoving metal.
Kurama wasn't sure when he heard the high pitched scream of agony from outside the temple walls, the cry for a love long gone. He wasn't sure when the pain abruptly stopped, when Hiei pulled hastily from him and dressed quickly.
He was aware, however, when Hiei leaned over him, his fully dressed body pressed against Kurama's bare one. "You get better with each fuck," he whispered huskily within the fox's ear. "Wish I had all the time in the world but your little friends are here. Don't worry, though, I'll be back for one last round."
Kurama's body was unresponsive and his mind was in a similar state of numb reprieve, simply free of the pain that had been raging through his body for the last hour. He blinked half open eyes, his responses slow and dull from ache.
"Now, we'll have to do something about your wounds. I can't have you getting all your strength back on me," the fire demon's voice was still low, almost less than a whisper, as he hovered just above the fox's face. Kurama didn't register as the fire demon's hand dug at something in his pants.
He did notice when the thin piece of paper that was pulled out and pressed against the back of his neck. He screamed, the last one his sore throat could possibly manage, as the ink on it slowly sunk into his skin. Pinpricks of impossible pain struck through his spinal cord, down his central nervous system until his entire body was aflame with the pain.
It ended almost as abruptly as it had begun and Kurama fell back against the wood, his body week with ache, exhaustion, and abuse. Hiei smiled as he continued to whisper to the fox, "That's one step better. But…I can't have you spreading around my little secret, either, now can I?"
Kurama's eyes widened in slow response, the first in the last hour, as Hiei pulled the sword from his chest. He gave a silent scream, all his raw and torn throat had left to offer as the already sorely tampered wound was given a final tug, and pieces of the broken mat and wood beneath him were lodged into the wound upon the swords exit.
His eyes, once more tightly shut against pain, opened wide when cold, wet metal touched his neck. He looked pleadingly, shocked, into Hiei's cruel crimson eyes. The fire demon smirked.
"To make sure you don't tell," he whispered menacingly before he drew the blade across the fox's throat. Kurama's eyes widened to their full extent as he tried to draw in breath to an instinct to gasp.
He choked on his own blood, both from his failing right lung and the slow trickle of blood down his throat. Kurama coughed up the red liquid, spewing it down his own chin, a gurgled cry of pain coming from his burning chest and stinging neck.
There were no more words left to describe the pain, the betrayal, the torture that his body was undergoing as Hiei stood, wiping his sword on his shirt.
"Farewell, Kurama," Hiei whispered one last time as he turned around. "I'll be back for that last round."
With that, he vanished out the window and into the snowy world beyond. Kurama stared, his eyes half lidded in pain and focused solely on that window beyond his head. The snow drifted past his vision, resting on the branches of the tree outside the window. Small flecks drifted in from the cold, resting on the sill and warm bed before slowly melting in peaceful ignorance.
The fox was just as ignorant as his own fingers moved slowly up his own neck, no longer under the influence of his consciousness. He was unaware as the door was slammed open, Yusuke running in at the sight of his friend in a pool of blood. He didn't notice the detective's attempt to pull Kurama's fingers from the wound in his neck. He never remembered fighting against the detective.
All he saw was the snow drifting passed the open window.
-o-o-o-o-
Kurama woke with a silent scream, crying out to the unknown. His wide, green eyes tried to focus on the darkness and he waited, panting in the blackness as cold sweat dripped down his skin.
His eyes fluttered closed as he calmed his breathing, logic sinking within his panicked mind, his chest aching with his attempt to slow his gasps. When he opened emerald orbs, the dimmest of outlines was brought to his eyes, and he could see the contours of the temple room.
Kurama gave a sigh as he slowly, lazily looked around the room. He didn't want to go to back to sleep, not to relive the same dream over and over. Green eyes glanced over to the window and stopped immediately.
The window was open. Fully open. He threw off his covers and stood, backing away from the window, where snow was slowly drifting in to rest and melt on the bed.
Just like that night.
"Hello, Kurama."
The fox spun at the voice that echoed eerily behind him.
The voice of every nightmare he'd had for the last five years.
-o-o-o-o-
Muwahahaha!
Well, I certainly hope that was satisfying enough for the long wait! I truly apologize for how long it took, but I AM BACK! I'm happy and fully in the writing mode. I hope to get some chapters out on Memories, Spider bite, and maybe even content.
So I hope you enjoyed.
Author's Note
…high pitched scream of agony from outside the temple walls, the cry for a love long gone… Okay, if you didn't catch what that meant, it was Kuwabara screaming out Yukina's name when he and Yusuke stumbled upon her body.
Well, I stayed up till Midnight to edit this for you, so please forgive any errors. But I am tiiiired! So gooooood niiiiight!