The Wielder of BlackFire:
The Legend Lives Part II-Rose's Renaissance
By: Black Dragon Diva
Sequel to: The Legend Lives
Summary: There's a new enemy stalking toward the human world, determined to rule both Ningenkai and the Makai. Koenma sends the Spirit Detectives off. To find their old partner. And Old enemy. Problem: She's not who she used to be...
Chapter Twenty-Five: Time- Friend or Foe?
Time, ever illusive and ever secretive, has a way of being childish. It casts fabulous illusions of itself flying by those who desire it the most and creeping around those who wish for it only to pass. For the Spirit Detectives, it can be said that time was brushing past them with all the speed of a run-away train about to jump its tracks. They trained and trained and fought to salvage every second before the speeding locomotive abandon the tracks and created chaos. But it seemed as though an illusion, that time had begun to toy with their sanity simply by being there to taunt them.
Rose gave a quiet sigh from her perch on her windowsill. She glanced quickly around the room, satisfied in seeing Yasha sleeping quietly on her bed. There wasn't time to wait for her eyes to fade back into color from gray, so she quietly eased her way into the dark room, stepping down onto the plush carpet silently and turning to close the window without a sound. She noticed two light incisions in the wood where her hands rested and hurriedly willed her clawed fingertips back into harmless human nails. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and felt the power fade as she did so. She reached up, touching her hair -noticing only a faint coarseness to it- and ears. They had, thankfully, shrunken back to their normal size and shape. She dusted off her skin of the dirt and debris she had picked up along her excursion.
With cautious footsteps she pulled on her bedclothes and eased into her futon beside the sleeping ermine.
When she finally closed her eyes, the limey luster that made them glow wildly had faded to a smoldering flame.
Hiei flickered onto the tree branch to land in a crouch. It was instinctual, and a good thing it was, for his mind had wandered far away. He sat down, glancing at the position of the moon, so high in the sky that a false dawn stretched out in the east, and settled into his own comfort.
Weariness straddled his heart and made it difficult to breath steadily.
...Flashback...
Hiei stood far from the window, watching from the seclusion of a nearby tree-line as Rose, bare of all clothing but the most intimate necessities, crept from her room, eyes bright in the moonlight; bright enough to make red eyes widen and invoke a thrum in the demon's chest.
She stalked forward, sending the surrounding open area sensory looks that screamed prey about to be caught.
The young woman glided toward the woodland only after she dubbed all was safe, water-like muscles rippling and changing under skin, face becoming pointed and ears slanting. Claws burst from under fingertips and she winced, exposing jagged canines.
She ran into the woods, a gurgle of agony in her throat that she refused to release. And Hiei followed until she caught his scent and maneuvered in a way that cut off his ability to trail her.
The wolves howled in fear of a monster in their midst.
Hiei had refused to use his Jagan to track her. He could tell merely by the power signature that she was trying to desperately to suppress that it would only be blinded and, in turn, prove useless. But Hiei was not one to be outwitted and thus had waited until she returned from her shape-shifting escapade, wondering what he would see in her eyes.
Would they be bright blue with terrifying power?
Would they burn a smoldering, angry dark green of her spiritual energy?
Would they be bright emerald? The color of neon lights and hybrid auras?
He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly through his nose. He had been unable to see her in the open of the training yards. She had stuck to the tree line upon her return and the moon had crept behind depressing cloud cover. He couldn't see what shape she had taken.
Had a blackened dragon, or even a sooty wolf, stepped upon the sacred earth of the forest? Or was it a canine of lighter hues? Of bright chartreuse eyes and ivory fur?
The youkai pressed the heel of his hand to the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the unsteady, curious churning of his gut. Time was breathing down their necks. Was it because of the Wave Master, or a far more intimate threat? Because Rose was learning with astounding swiftness the arts that had been seen preformed only by the woman of whom they had seen as both and ally and an enemy; the container of the Black Blaze, who could control the very fires that Hiei had rippling over his right arm in a tattoo that was frightfully similar to the image of the creature adorning Rose's bedroom wall.
He took a slow, deep breath, feeling the crisp scent of the night wallow in the crannies of his lungs and ease out the sickness he felt breeding there. There were two days left. Was it enough or far too much? Would they be protecting the brunette or burning her with Thorn's former ally?
He looked up at the slowly lightening sky. At the end of the second day the moon would be full. Full, like the night Thorn was free. Or perhaps that was an eclipse of the Black Blaze's nature and it would prove to give the pulsing power he would need to rip free of the thick human flesh?
From the room that Rose had claimed Yasha growled. The girl soothed him with sleepy mumblings. Even now the fire youkai could feel the fading spell she had put on the ermine to ensure that he would sleep soundly and wondered if the creature knew it had been... bewitched. Judging from the soft, content yowl, the answer was no. There was cooing and warm whispers and the settling of bedsheets.
It was barely a moment later when she stood in front of the window, opening it with a difficulty she didn't have earlier that night. She looked up and glared at him. Hiei merely stared back, impassive.
"I can't sleep when you're disturbing the fledglings," she said obtusely. He frowned down at her and crossed his arms defiantly. She took a seat on the window's edge, her bottom effectively covering the marks on the wood. The glare in her eyes made him want to lick his lips with unease and was disturbed by how upset he had become as of late. She tilted her hand, chasing the light from her eyes, and the urge disappeared as quickly as it had come about.
"I'm not a child," she said suddenly, brows pulled downward with irritation. "You don't have to watch over me like a two-year old in a cutlery shop."
"There are dark things around these parts," he told her neutrally. Like dragons and half-dead lovers. "You're powers are still too young to be controlled on a night like tonight."
She scowled. "I'm controlling them just fine. I know you were spying on me," she snapped. "You're always watching me, like you're expecting a miracle or a disaster at every turn."
Which was true, he thought. He watched her with hope that Thorn was still there, the humanity and the demonicness shining through eerie eyes and seductively manipulative expressions.
The quiet soaked into the space between them and the words echoed through the empty wind that was the passing of time. Too little, too late? Too much, too fast?
"Tell me, Hiei," she said at last, her eyes having strayed to the foliage draped in tones of gray and finally off the black-clad youkai. Said demon stiffened only in the grip of his fingers on his arms, ready for something to justify her treason or her innocence.
"Why do you trust me?"
"I don't," he said quickly. And the lie tasted sour on his tongue. But he couldn't trust her. Not without knowing if the wolf had been black or white, or if there were scales instead of fur, that had been roaming the woods.
"You do," she said quietly, and there was a falter of fatigue in her voice. Hiei's gaze jerked toward her and there was a pinch to her face that hadn't been there a moment before, a startling line of uncertainty that consumed her expression.
He jumped down onto the sill just as she made to abandon it. The expression vanished and in its place was once more a glare and the smooth expression of distrust. He put his face close to hers, glaring back just as fiercely, Jagan burning under the clothe that covered it.
"Why don't you tell Yukina she's your sister?"
The question made Hiei's face close off in sudden rage.
"What are you talking about?" he growled, voice threateningly low.
"I can see it," was the defiant retort. "You can't hide it from me. She's precious to you." And there was innuendo in the tone, and there were unspoken words.
Like Thorn was.
He grabbed her chin and her arms came up to press against his chest, disallowing any closer contact.
"You don't know anything," he spat. She snorted and there was a smirk that pulled at her lips that he wanted to punch away. How dare she assume that she knew about anything concerning him?
"You love her."
And he didn't know what she was saying. Aloud, it was Yukina, someone so precious to him as to make him decide to live through the agony of getting the Jagan Eye. Underneath it was Thorn. And Thorn... she wasn't precious. She was the enemy.
"You stay out of it. It's none of your business," he snarled quietly at her. He released her with a jerk and pursed his lips and tried to calm his energy levels before the woke the household.
Rose opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it and looked away. She slipped off the sill, leaving Hiei to stare after her with a glare that threatened to boil the Arctic.
She paused half way to the bed.
"Hiei, am I supposed to... know her? Feel her?" she asked quietly. Hiei's glare faded into bewilderment that was masked behind his anger.
"Is she feeding you memories?"
There was a humorless laugh that bordered on hysterically frightened.
"The question is, am I stealing her identity?"
Hiei could feel the quiver of fear in her aura from across the room.
What did this girl, surrounded by such powerful people and her own strength, have to fear?
AN: w00t! Finally this chapter is OUT! Its been a while, I know, but a Private Message and one e-mail later both of which telling me to get my ass in gear have inspired me to sit at my desk for two hours and pump this chapter out. It's short. It was revised until unrecognizable. Which means there are threads of the story that I must change in the future. Oh darn. Oh well :P.
Anyway, thank you all for your ongoing support! Here you go!
Special thanks to:
Ensatsu-Kokoryu-Ha: Yay! thank you so much for getting me motivated! I got your PM and was like: okay I'm doing this tomorrow after class! And vwala! Here it is! Thanks!