A/N: Here we are everyone! Look at the pretty long chapter in which everything will (hopefully) be explained. This chapter is by far the darkest yet. Heed the T warning. Heck, it might be borderline M. Can't remember what the exact rules for such things are. In the meantime, one of the following sentences is true; the rest are false.

A. I have a Purple Chinese Spiny-nosed Dragon living in my backyard.

B. Kenshin and crew are mine and mine alone.

C. I am a movie star in my spare time and will soon be co-starring in the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean."

D. I am a compulsive liar.

Eternity in a Grain of Sand

Chapter 5

Hiko's eyes widened slightly as Kenshin's fiery ki ripped through the clearing, leaving the advancing henchmen breathless and on their knees. His attention quickly redirected though. He was not an expert magic user as Kaoru was, but he was not incompetent in such matters. Kenshin's outburst had broken some of the key elements of the spell circle, allowing Hiko to begin unweaving the composition. He could feel the tall ninja working alongside him to hurry the process.

Kenshin was the first to completely shirk the effects of the spell, his rampant ki still aiding him to burn away the magic faster than the others. His katana was drawn and upon the henchmen before they could even think of reacting. The tall one fell first, never even having the chance to rise from the ground. The short one was on his knees and managed to raise his gun to try and block Kenshin's strike. The metal cleaved in half as though it had been paper and Kenshin's sword continued downward to effectively decapitate the scum.

Kenshin turned to his companions just as Hiko regained the ability to move. The sword master stepped forward almost hesitantly upon meeting his pupil's rage. He had never seen such fierceness in Kenshin's eyes and he was wary of the vortex of power that centered on his baka deshi, though Kenshin's control over his ki was beginning to assert itself.

"Do you know where he might have taken her?" Hiko asked as he sheathed his sword.

For a moment, the redhead seemed not to have heard him as he focused his attention on trying to sense the magical trail Enishi might have left. Then his eyes snapped to Hiko with sudden clarity. "No, but these two might," he said, his voice deathly calm as his sword gestured to the dead vampires. With smooth movements of his sword, he slid the spell collar off the one he'd decapitated and offered it on the tip of his sword to his master.

Aoshi broke loose of the spell, though he continued to concentrate on its weave as he worked to free Misao also. He approached slowly and absently, his body performing motions that his mind was not really aware of. Misao broke loose a moment later and ran to meet him. Aoshi hugged her to himself briefly before turning to join the other two.

Hiko handed him the spell collar without question, and Aoshi closed his eyes as he teased the spell stored there, now dead without the life of its occupant. After a moment, he handed it back as he spoke curtly. "It's a basic blood-binding spell. They can't do anything he doesn't tell them to and he can eliminate them…or rather could, at any time he wanted. I don't know if we can use it."

Hiko wracked his brain as he stared down at the dull black metal. His knowledge of dark magic was limited, having never had a use for it himself. The spell in his mind's eye was similar to a tracking spell, but some of the dark symbols and bindings were very unfamiliar. "I could try," he said at last, handing the collar back to Kenshin, "but it wouldn't be very fast. Right now we need is speed."

Kenshin dug into his pocket for his cell phone and the others watched him warily. His ki was still flaring at intervals, lashing out into the mocking, clear morning air. He dialed a number with stiff movements and waited as the phone rang. After five rings, someone picked up.

Every vampire present could hear as a curt voice on the other end snarled, "This had better be worthwhile, Battoussai."

"I need Enishi's location and I need it now," Kenshin growled, his voice brokering no time for argument.

"Does it have to do with Kamiya?"

"Yes," Kenshin said, his grit teeth nearly cracking under pressure.

"Just a moment," the curt cold voice answered. Kenshin resisted the urge to shout that he didn't have a moment. If there was one thing he'd learned in his last hundred years of life, it was that impatience only garnered anger, especially from the Wolf. The tapping of computer keys could be faintly heard over the line as Saitoh worked to find Enishi's location.

"My last informant places him in Norway roughly two hours ago, but I suppose that's not soon enough," Saitoh murmured more to himself than to the vampire on the line. Kenshin's eyes narrowed and he savagely bit his tongue, reopening the wounds from Kaoru that had nearly been healed.

"I know he has a haunt in Spain where he traffics humans but the agent there has reported nothing. The tracking device I have planted in his phone isn't responding." Saitoh sounded angry and the furious typing on the keyboard suddenly stopped. The click of a lighter was heard on the other line before Saitoh's voice returned.

"He's effectively disappeared from our network." Kenshin opened his mouth to say something, most likely profane, but the Wolf cut him off. "However, there is one who would know where he is."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he realized exactly what the Wolf was insinuating. "She wouldn't help me," the redhead hissed. "You know she wouldn't."

"But she would help Kaoru. They knew each other when Kaoru returned to Japan in the 70's. Try her."

The line went dead before Kenshin could draw a retort. He glared angrily at the phone before snapping it shut and thinking. His re-acquaintance with Enishi when he'd begun working for the Council had been uncomfortable at first, but the white-haired man had insisted that there were no hard feelings. Only later had Kenshin learned that that was because Enishi had returned to Tomoe's grave after working twenty years to master the dark magics he then used to bring her back.

Kenshin had seen Tomoe only once after learning she was alive…but what she was now could not be called living. Enishi had done well in restoring her body to its former self, but the scent of rotting flesh still clung to her and the sound of dry bones clacking together still echoed through the air when she moved in just the right manner.

But the point in which Enishi had truly failed was bringing back the true Tomoe. Her soul had been in death far too long by the time her brother was able to call her back. It had warped beyond all recognition, becoming a spiteful and angry creature whom never spoke a word of kindness and would never dream of taking pity on a sixteen year-old warrior for doing his duty.

Kenshin had not been able to even be in the same room as her for very long. Staring at her face and seeing the dead eyes had torn at his heart and hearing her melodic voice twist in anger had made bitterness burn in his blood. She had taken one look at him and told him she never wished to lay eyes on him again. She had continued to hiss spiteful words but Kenshin had retreated almost immediately, sweeping out the door of her secluded home and never looking back. To seek her aid now…

But Saitoh had said she knew Kaoru. Would the cold shell of his former wife be willing to help the ancient vampire, even if it meant helping Kenshin in the process? Kenshin knew that Saitoh would continue searching for Enishi, but even his resources did not stretch everywhere. Kenshin opened his cell phone again and scanned through the numbers. Hers was there, a small tribute to the feelings they'd shared when she'd been alive. Taking a deep breath, he called the number.

oOoOoOoOo

Kaoru's first awareness as she woke was the fact that the surroundings were unfamiliar. Her mind felt groggy and slow and struggled to take in details. She tried to press fingers to her temples only to find she could not move her hands. Tiny details began ingraining themselves in her head. The acrid scent of burning hair hung in the air. Spell circles were sketched on the wall with unsteady, almost jerky lines. An undercurrent of blood hung in the air. Black stones comprised the walls. The sound of breathing echoed from the other end of the room.

Kaoru tried desperately to put the pieces together, but whatever had been done to her was inhibiting her concentration. Nothing made sense. Cloth rustled on the other side of the room, and she knew someone was there. A shadow loomed over her face, and her eyes worked to take in the details past the haze of her mind.

White…something is white, her mind told her. It's…hair. And those are glasses. Rose-tinted glasses. I know this man…

Slowly, her mind regained its focus and recognition alit in her brain like a giant carrion crow, looming in a mocking portent of death. "Enishi," she whispered, her tongue thick and dry.

"Kaoru," he purred, his hand running along her cheek teasingly, "so wonderful to see you're awake."

Fear gripped Kaoru's mind, replacing the haze his spell had left. She fought to bite down her panic even as her hands began to shake. No! she screamed in her mind. I am not the cocky idiot I was five hundred years ago. He will not break me this time!

Even as the idea solidified in her mind, Enishi leaned down and kissed her cheek. Kaoru squirmed as her skin began to crawl from where he'd touched her. He left a film over her skin, like the residue of black oil, and she longed to scrub it away.

"Don't touch me, you bastard," she hissed, trying to wet her tongue so the words were coherent.

Enishi chuckled, stepping away from the table she was lashed to. "But Kaoru, once you were so fond of my touches," he said, his voice belying ice hidden in sarcasm.

"When I was a fool blinded by my own power," she answered, straining her neck to keep her eyes on him. "I sealed my own demise by trusting you and your loving words. We both know I'm wiser now."

"Wiser, yes," he answered as he moved beyond her field of vision. She heard the sound of machinery moving, and the table she was on began tilting so that she was held upright at an angle. "But you still feel the same amount of pain."

She watched him, hatred burning in the silver depths of her eyes. He matched her glare with his own, red eyes glowing faintly in the half-light of the chamber he'd brought her to. "I would dearly like to stay and torture you for a while, but my dear sister has called upon me," he drawled, his sarcasm only disappearing when he referred to his sister.

Kaoru's eyebrows rose before she could stop the reaction. She'd gotten to know Tomoe before she'd discovered that the woman was Enishi's sister. The woman's wrongness had called to her in the mountains of Japan, bringing her to the tainted magic that had first allowed Tomoe to rise again.

For several months, Kaoru had stayed with Tomoe and eased the woman's pain. The spells used to bring her soul back and bind it into the realm of the living were very painful to the soul that was dragged back from the gates of death. Kaoru would've killed the dark haired woman had Tomoe asked it, but she'd insisted only on easing the pain. Kaoru had fled from Tomoe's home upon discovering that Enishi was the woman's "brother" and was coming for a visit. Tomoe had promised to keep her lips sealed on whom had been in her home for the last several months, but Enishi had sensed Kaoru's vampiric ki anyway.

That near-confrontation had prompted Kaoru to move to Africa for several years, but she maintained touch with the resurrected Tomoe, occasionally sending magical packets to aid the woman's pain. The irony that she had befriended Kenshin's long-lost love was not lost on Kaoru, and she had actually rather enjoyed the twist in her own bitter way.

Kaoru knew little of how Enishi had come to regard Tomoe as a sister, but she did know that he'd discovered her abandoned at a rather young age. He'd raised the girl and arranged her marriage with her childhood love, Akira. Beyond that, the rest of the story was a mystery to Kaoru except for the snippets Tomoe herself had shared.

Enishi seemed to have noticed he no longer had Kaoru's attention and he frowned. "However," he hissed, stalking towards her, "I can leave you a parting gift."

His hands planted on either side of her head and the glow of magic flared as spells he'd laid there activated. Kaoru screamed as the magic rushed through her veins like acid, burning every fiber in her body. Enishi's twisted smile loomed in her vision, and she closed the scant inches between them to smash her skull to his.

Enishi reeled back, the spell stopping instantly as he pulled away from the circles. At first, the inhuman smile clung to his mouth as he touched his bleeding lip. He lapped at the blood for a moment before eyeing her again. His glare alone was enough to make her involuntarily shiver. "You will pay for that, bitch," he hissed. His hands slammed into the circles again, increasing the pain tenfold. Kaoru's voice broke with her scream and her world went black.

oOoOoOoOo

Kenshin walked away from the others as the phone rang. One glare over his shoulder told them not to follow. He waited in a tense pocket of air as the rings went on and on. Finally, someone picked up.

"Hello."

Her voice was weak and shaky, but he still recognized it well. A lump formed in his throat, and for a moment, he was unable to speak.

"Hello?" she said again, her faltering voice barely audible.

"Hello," he whispered, trying to reign in the emotions left from his time as a human with her. Neither of them were what they once were, but his mind could still remember.

They other line was silent for so long he feared he'd lost the signal, but she finally spoke, a touch of bitterness present in her voice. "Kenshin?"

"Tomoe, before you hang up, please listen. I wouldn't call if it wasn't extremely important. You met a vampire in the 70's named Kaoru. Your brother has her right now, and I do not doubt that his intentions are to kill her. Do you know where I can find him?"

Again the line was silent, and Kenshin did not even breathe as he awaited her response. Finally a gust of air that might have been a sigh was heard from the other end. "My brother just called," she said, her voice cold and tired. "He is in China. I can give you the exact location of his whereabouts."

Kenshin listened and memorized carefully as she listed off various towns around the area Enishi was hidden in as well as the exact longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates of his hideaway. When she finished, she was silent again.

"Thank you, Tomoe," Kenshin said softly, allowing the anger that still burned deeply in his heart to dissipate for a moment. "I know you didn't do it for me, but thank you."

"Goodbye, Kenshin," Tomoe answered, her voice slightly stronger. "Tell Kaoru to come visit when my brother is dead."

The phone line clicked dead and Kenshin stared for a moment as the screen blinked the ended-call message before flipping it shut. He had work to do.

oOoOoOoOo

When Kaoru awoke a second time, her mind had absolutely no trouble discerning where she was or why she was there. She glanced around the chilly stone room and tried to sense Enishi's presence. He seemed to be elsewhere, but not far. Kaoru used his absence to begin working on her escape. She'd allowed Enishi to destroy her once. He would not succeed a second time.

First, she studied what she could see of the spells binding her to the table. They were basic but strong and well made. Testing her own power, she found it lacking. She was still recovering from her two spells in Transylvania. She didn't doubt Enishi would bind her power too, when the time came, but for now he'd left it free, most likely to taunt her.

She couldn't help but grin almost predatorily. He underestimated her. Carefully, she murmured a few select words that opened magical conduits normally hidden by the natural world. A storm was brewing outside and would aid her greatly. She called down the power brewing in the clouds, and it answered her readily, even through the layers of stone that separated them. Grasping a thick tendril of natural magic she began feeding it into Enishi's spell holds as though the circles were locks and the power the key.

After only a few moments, the circles flared and melted away like candle wax. Kaoru flexed her wrists and sat up, doing the same to the bindings on her ankles and stomach. Five hundred years had not been misspent in hiding. She had taught herself much about the magic of the world; she would not be caught by magic's fire again without knowing how to play with it.

Kaoru studied the room as she stretched the kinks out of her back. The magic of the storm still eagerly played around her, and if she did not use it, it would go rampant and destroy at will. Kaoru's eyes caught on the twisted spell circles on the walls, taking note that almost all of them were of dark magic. She frowned as she recognized the names of several Council members emblazoned within the magic. Those have to go, she thought to herself, allowing the storm to tear the wall apart without a thought.

The crumbling stone made little noise, cushioned by wind that should not have existed underground. As the dust settled, Kaoru allowed herself a feral smile. The room adjacent to Enishi's workshop was an armory. She stepped into the room and was surprised to see her ebony and ivory daggers carefully placed on a pedestal. Stepping close, she felt the magic crackle out to snap at her skin. Enishi had tried to destroy the knives, the fool. Vampire magic had no effect on them.

Kaoru reached through his corrosion spell and carefully lifted the daggers, ignoring the way they burned at her flesh. Once she had the leather grips settled in her palm, she immediately felt better. The daggers were quickly hidden away in her sleeves, and she chose a beautiful katana from among Enishi's collection.

She frowned when she felt his ki moving. He was coming back to torture her. She considered meeting him in the lab, but decided a battle in the elements would give her an edge he wasn't expecting. With her decision made, she considered moving out of building stealthily. But what would the fun in that be? she thought to herself, a dark grin adorning her face. With no more than a thought, the elemental power she had in her grips ripped through the walls, creating an easy path for her to follow. Just as she emerged into the twilight of the storm, she heard Enishi's shout of frustration.

oOoOoOoOo

Kaoru took a moment to gain her footing and study the layout of the land. They were somewhere on the harsh steppes just south of Mongolia; that much she knew just from the scent of the land and the way the it rolled away forever without even the slightest hint of a human. Part of Kaoru was surprised that Enishi would choose such an exposed hideaway. Any approaching enemy could be seen, yes, but they could also see Enishi.

She cast an eye upward at the roiling storm clouds. If there was one thing she remembered from her short visits to the steppes before, it was that the storms were some of the most powerful on earth. They were well known for their ability to strike without warning and to kill humans with fierce lightning strikes. However, such power meant Kaoru would have a great deal of magic at her fingertips, even with her still weakened reserves.

Slowly she turned back just as Enishi emerged from the dust her destructive tendencies had left in their wake. His red eyes glinted dangerously in the shadows of the storm clouds, seemingly magnified by his rose-tinted glasses. His manic smile had disappeared to be replaced by an expression of sheer rage.

Kaoru smirked slightly, drawing the katana she'd stolen from him. As she drew, she gathered power on the lightning symbols etched into her hand. She'd drawn them on two days ago, but they had only faded a little. Lightning began to crackle the length of the sword, superheating the metal and making tiny booms of thunder rip through the air.

"I had planned on giving you a relatively swift death," Enishi growled as he drew his specialty weapon, a wanbatou. "But since you had to go and piss me off, I think I'll draw it out. How does three months of agony sound?"

Kaoru met his glare with one of her own. She did not answer him but for a murmur under her breath. "Not this time."

Without warning, she leapt forward, blade intent on Enishi's jugular. He blocked, his movements faster than her own. The lightning lashed from her blade, snaking down the length of Japanese steel and traveling through Enishi's hand. He jerked away as the smell of burnt flesh began to permeate the air.

"Bitch!" he hissed. After that, no more words were exchanged. The opponents spoke with actions rather than words.

Enishi rushed forward, his hands beginning to glow with a spell. Kaoru immersed herself in the power of the storm. She was the wind that buffeted them across the grass, the clouds that boiled and massed in the sky, the rain that began to pelt the land mercilessly. She attacked Enishi with everything at her disposal. Her sword flashed through the air, reverberating against his again and again.

Enishi was faster than she, there was no denying. However, the elements she wielded through the lightning served to distract and injure him enough to make up for their differences in speed. As the rain lashed his body, he jumped away, making a quick spell circle in the air with his glowing hands. Kaoru tried to move away before it could strike her, but one edge caught her body and wrapped her up like a fish in a net.

The circle constricted, drawing her limbs against her body and searing her flesh like hot wires. She cried out and the storm cried with her, sending down three bolts of burning lightning at once. Their power amassed around Enishi and Kaoru in a giant triangle, the thunder momentarily deafening both vampires.

Kaoru's hair stood on end as she ripped through Enishi's spell and closed the triangle around them, drawing the heat closer and closer. Dry steppe grasses caught fire in spite of the rain and began to burn and steam. Enishi eyed the flames warily, sensing their unnatural power. Visibly torn between his opponent and his life, he finally leapt out of the encroaching flames, landing some fifty feet away on higher ground.

Kaoru did not follow immediately. While she would have dearly liked to kill Enishi, her goal was merely escape. She considered her options carefully and was nearly ready to draw herself into the winds of the storm and disappear when a harsh shout echoed across the plains.

Both combatants glanced warily to their sides without ever really taking their eyes from each other, but a single glance was enough. Among the blowing grass and stinging rain a shock of red hair was visible, as well as several sets of glowing vampire eyes. Kenshin rushed across the steppes, leaving the others far behind.

Kaoru could see the calculations crossing Enishi's face as he quickly realized he was outnumbered and overpowered. His decision to escape was almost palpable in the air. "Not this time," she whispered again, the words becoming a mantra as the flames licked closer to her body. In her mind, a pattern began to glow. She wrote the symbols in the wind and spoke the chants through the thunder all around them.

Just as Kenshin came within striking range of Enishi, the white-haired man began to run, his blood red power gathering on his hands as he went. He shouted a word, the first in the spell that would allow him to escape unscathed. He never sensed the power closing in around him. Just as he finished the last word of the spell, flames leapt in at him from all sides, licking at his body unnaturally.

Enishi staggered, losing the concentration necessary to wield his spell. Kenshin closed in with death in his eyes, his sword gleaming threateningly in the occasional flashes of lightning. Just as he might have dropped the killing blow, Kaoru's shout echoed across the field.

"NO!" Her voice alone was enough to stop his blade inches from Enishi's burning flesh. She staggered closer, and Kenshin rushed to aid her when it became clear that Enishi would not be going anywhere soon.

"Let Saitoh deal with him," she told the redhead wearily, her body sagging against his unconsciously. "He'll be much more creative than a simple decapitation."

Kenshin looked down at her incredulously before glancing back at the burning figure. "And the flames won't kill him?"

Kaoru's smile was brutal and bitter. "Oh no," she said softly. "I made sure of that. Consider it more acid than flame, burning but never killing."

With that morbid thought, Kaoru silently fainted into Kenshin's arms. He lifted her before turning eyes again to the bright figure on the plains. The storm was dying now, moving on in the skies. Dim twilight shone in the west, hinting that sunset was near. The moon winked out from the skittering clouds, illuminating the battle scene in seemingly unnatural light. Kaoru had gained her vengeance, restored her honor. But at what price? he thought to himself, his mouth thinning to a grim line.

oOoOoOoOo

I'm getting sick of waking up this way, Kaoru thought to herself as her vision faded in and out of focus. She did not know where she was, but she did remember that Enishi had been taken care of. Slowly, the world became clear and red met her eye. Her first thought was Kenshin's hair, but on closer inspection she discovered it to be a silken comforter. With slow, deliberate movements, she threw the blanket from her body.

Every muscle screamed in protest. She had not felt so horrible since she'd last been human. Carefully, she planted her feet in a plush rug laid across the floor. The complex Indian designs in the rug made her vision swirl before slowly coming to a halt again.

Reaching out her senses, she hissed when she realized how weak she was. While the storm's power had been raging through her she had not felt the depletion of her own magical resources. With its power gone, she felt distinctly like an overcooked noodle and at the same time strangely hollow. The small amount of magic she had left was just enough to tell her that several vampiric ki were close at hand, most of them familiar.

Kaoru began to stand and her traitorous knees immediately wobbled. Her hand stretched to grab the cherry nightstand to her side as the door to the room she was in swung open. She glanced up just enough to catch flashes of amber gold and sunset red before she had to look down again to try and place her feet.

The door shut and a moment later Kaoru was lifted into the air. Before she could even voice a protest Kenshin's mouth was upon hers. Kaoru melted against him, having neither the ability nor the will to fight. She could sense his emotions behind the kiss, his desire to prove to himself that she was indeed alive if not completely well. He dominated the kiss, his lips sliding sensuously over hers until a nip at her lip with one of his fangs made her gasp. He took what was offered freely, tongue perusing her mouth languorously to learn every nuance. They broke the kiss not because they lacked breath but simply because Kaoru was too damn flustered to respond.

"Now that I've got that out of my system…" he said with a roguish grin, "how do you feel?"

Kaoru lacked the ability to reply for a moment and that only made his smirk grow wider. When she did speak she said, "Like I've been run over by ten cement trucks, and you are not helping you…you…" Her words failed her again and Kenshin chuckled, his laughter rolling dark and deep from his chest.

She glowered at him as he turned and began walking towards the door of her room. "Everyone is anxious to see you," he said, his eyes still bright with laughter.

"Everyone can go to hell," she muttered. "I'm not in the mood to see them all right now."

"Oh?" he questioned looking down at her. He could see as the memories began to replay in her mind. Every dark thought began to replace the emotional wall that had been missing just a moment ago. "Then let's stay up here," he murmured, carrying her back to the bed. He was well aware that bringing her into a room full of people would only give her more of a chance to rebuild the walls.

She curled into him on the bed for a moment before gently pushing away to lie on her back. Kenshin observed carefully from the side as her blue eyes became far away, recalling events both recent and ancient.

"What did he do to you?" the red head asked quietly, keeping his voice soft and gentle. Kaoru did not look his way, but he could see the flinch in her eyes. He was willing to be patient to hear her out though. After a long time had passed, so long he almost thought she was refusing to answer, she began to speak.

"Five hundred years ago I was quite content with my position in life. I was a member of the Blood Council and was living it up in Venice…the city of sinners in the eyes of the Church."

Kenshin's eyes widened in surprise. When he'd asked his question, he'd meant her short time in captivity in Enishi's Chinese hideaway. However, if she was going to speak of Enishi's first assault on her, he was more than willing to listen.

"That was where I first met Enishi. The boy was almost freshly turned…only sixty or so years old. He oozed charm and I was smitten with him in a heartbeat."

Her lips curled in a smile at some remembered nuance that had first attracted her to the white-haired man as Kenshin looked on incredulously. There were many things he could imagine Kaoru being, but smitten was not one of them.

"We had a whirlwind courtship that involved a great deal of traveling and sex. He seemed to know how to have fun in a way few of the vampires of the time understood. They were all caught up in the romantic image of the vampire that was blooming--that of the stalker of night, beautiful and deadly and completely boring.

"I woke up some several years after first meeting him--we were in Africa, several hundred miles south of where I was born--the sun was just rising and I could look out the window and see a pride of lions moving to find their shade for the day. His arm was around me and he was still sleeping. I looked at him and saw the morning light on his face and for the first time in my life I thought 'I might be in love with this man.'

"Our relationship changed after that. I never actually told him my feelings, but he seemed to sense my change in mood. He began introducing me to the side of himself that he'd previously hidden. He showed me his human trafficking and his interest in the dark magics. He introduced me to his love of mixing blood and drugs. He revealed to me just how tainted he really was, with a love of killing humans to feed. He became a man I did not know anymore.

"For a few years, I clung to the image I still had of him in my head—that of a young man singing at the top of his lungs in a gondola in Venice. But every new shade of him killed the image a bit more. A time came when I woke up in the morning, looked at him, and thought 'I'm going to spend the rest of my extremely long life with this?'

"I decided to leave him. At first, I simply told him and packed my bags. I was too damn cocky. I should have known he wouldn't just let me go. His ties to a Blood Council member had opened new doors in his underground businesses. I brought him the power he craved. Towards the end of our courtship, his name was suggested to be brought on as a member of the Council when Gensei-sama was killed by vampire hunters.

"My first attempt to leave was absolutely unbearable. His studies in the dark magics far surpassed my own. He strung me to a stone table and tortured me for days on end, giving no reprieve from the avenues he took to make me suffer. He assumed after that, that he had me completely in his power—that I was too weak to fight him again.

"The following year he was elected to the Council and we returned to my homeland in Lower Egypt. That was when I made my second attempt to escape. Being so close to the soil I was born on gave me an advantage in magic, made me stronger and harder to kill. But he still caught me.

"This time, the torture went on endlessly for months. With his position on the Council, he no longer needed me. Towards the end, Saitoh started sniffing around and that was probably what saved me from death at Enishi's hands. Enishi was forced to dump me off in the desert before returning to the Council.

"Before leaving though, he mind-raped me. Do you know what that is, Kenshin?"

"I know the basic principle," Kenshin murmured, too amazed that she was sharing any of her story to elaborate on his knowledge.

"Mind-raping is the deepest form of dark magic. It involves a mind to mind contact that begins with breaking the mental barriers of the brain. After that, each portion of the brain is systematically tortured. Synapses are destroyed, entire sections rendered completely unable to function. For humans, the process is over quickly. Only a couple of sections can be destroyed and then they die. For vampires, the process is infinite as regeneration replaces the destroyed portions again and again.

"But there is more to it than simply destroying the physical brain. The rapist is intimately connected with every thought and memory the victim has ever had. They have the power to torture the victim endlessly with images of death and hatred or give them infinite pleasure, calling up memories of a particularly good night of sex or of one of those rare truly happy days. Enishi was masterful at that particular part. Pain and pleasure alternately, moving so fast between the two my brain could not wrap around it. Many lesser people would go mad under such torment. Especially when he started toying with my memories of my parents.

"Enishi destroyed almost everything I had, almost every part of my brain and sanity, before he left me on the burning sands to die of starvation. He assumed that I would not be able to feed, my regeneration would slow, and I would die. Egypt aided me though. My motherland retained a magical connection to me that allowed desert animals to find me, sacrificing their lives for mine.

"I crawled out of the desert seven years later. The Council had ended and would not meet again for another twenty-three years. Okina-sama, the man who'd gotten me on the Council, was in Egypt when I returned. He helped me until I informed him I had decided to withdraw from the Council. I made him so angry he tossed me out on my ass.

"Everywhere I went the vampire population ridiculed me. I was a complete joke. What twenty-five hundred year old vampire couldn't stand up to another vampire not even a century old. So I disappeared into the wilds of Japan, where few vampires ventured because the culture was so unfamiliar to us. That, Kenshin, is what Enishi did to me."

She turned her head then to look at him with haunted eyes. Kenshin immediately wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her as close as was humanly possible. Her body shook, but not with sobs. Her tears had all dried up long ago. Her shakes were from her own weariness and pain. Kenshin buried his nose in her, whispering soft nothings as she regained her composure. After long bitter moments had passed he spoke.

"I would tell you I was sorry if I thought it would help in any way. However, I know it won't. Instead, I'll tell you that I will never betray you for power or any other reason. And I will stand by your side until you are ready to take the love I have to offer. And then I plan to teach you to enjoy the world again, if you'll allow me."

Kaoru said nothing, her face buried against his simple white shirt. He had not expected a reply though. They lay there a bit longer, simply enjoying the company of each other's arms. When the tiny clock on the bed stand struck seven though, he rose, lifting her with him.

"Let's get you something to eat," he told her softly, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.

"You will not carry me into that room like some invalid," she growled as he began to make his way towards the door. "I know for a fact Saitoh is in that room, and I'll not give him any unnecessary ammunition to further patronize me. He'll enjoy using the barbs he's gathered from the last hundred years enough as is."

Kenshin laughed outright at her spirit, still indomitable after all that had happened to her. Gently he set her on the floor, allowing her to lean on him as he opened the door to the outside world.

Glossary type thingy:

baka deshi-idiot pupil (Hiko's personal nickname for Kenshin)

steppes- the rolling hills that are the main landscape (other than desert) of northern China and southern Mongolia

wanbatou-Enishi's specialty weapon; longer than even a Japanese katana; Chinese style, Japanese steel

A/N: No! No! Fear not! This is not the end! I'd be (more) evil if it was. However, the upcoming chapter will be long in coming, probably not until late April, as I will be out of town a lot the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I've given you all a nice sense of closure, rather than a cliffie, until then. If I have left any plot holes uncovered, if you have any questions over plot (how did… who was…) leave them in your review and I will try to address them within the next chapter if they don't ruin everything. In the meantime, happy reading everyone!