A/N: I just want you all to know I've had that stupid "I've only had X for 24 hours but if anything happened to it I'd kill everyone in this room then myself" meme stuck in my head for three weeks with an image of Hiei holding Ashland, so now you can all suffer with me. Also, I deleted my old writing twitter which was bogged down with my old sins from that one time I was an idiot and self-published a novel that was NOT shelf ready. That means I made a new twitter! Hurrah! Find me at WistfullySin if you want to see pictures of my thoughts and sporadic updates on my stories/thoughts.
Also, I know I need to go back and correct some things in Ch14 and that's next on my agenda!
Hiei stalked into the house and sat Ashland on the counter, examining her. He turned her arms, her face, everything that had been near the kappa. A few bruises marred her wrist but the limb functioned and she didn't wince or cry out when he prodded at it. She was intact. Globs of snot streaked over her cheeks and tears dripped off her chin, or at least he hoped those were tears since his hand was now soaked with the liquid. Not to mention his shirt. Finding Ashland in one piece dampened his fury, but only dampened. It was not snuffed out.
The anger made it easier to ignore his own aches. The bruise on his throbbing hip from where he'd thrown himself down on the wood to grab the child. The scrapes up his side and down his leg from sliding over the pier. His ribs hurt. All this was buried under his concern and anger.
He'd give almost anything for a sword and his energy at the moment.
Ashland pulled on his arms until she had managed to crawl but into them, wrapping herself around his chest, little arms clinging to his neck. Even as he held her close, palms flat on her back to keep her in place, he grimaced. Whatever she'd just smeared on his neck had most definitely not felt like tears.
"Ashland." Hiei's spoke her name in a low rumble, trying not to further scare her but needing her attention.
Hiccups came before a watery, "What?"
"You're safe." He kept his voice low, eyes glancing toward the door. Kurama would be soldiering up the yard with Victoria soon so he needed to speak his piece quickly. "As long as we're here, you're safe."
"But the demon turtle!" She started wailing again, little body shaking with sobs and fear.
"It can't hurt you anymore." He promised her, resolute. And it wouldn't. If Victoria's stunt didn't work then Hiei was sure a fishing pole, muscle and some palmed sized sharp rocks (perfect for caving in skulls) would resolve the issue. He continued. "I have to help Victoria. You'll have to go with Kurama."
"No! Kurama isn't as strong as you! He won't save me!" She argued into his neck, holding him tighter.
Hiei pulled her off of him despite her protesting whine and attempts to keep latched around him. Standing her on her feet, he knelt down to her eye level. Despite his amusement that Ashland had assessed him the stronger of the pair, he scowled.
"When I need protecting, I go to Kurama."
He reached up and pulled a dish rag out of a drawer, beginning to wipe her face free of whatever gunk crying children excreted.
"You do?" She asked quietly, her tears slowing.
"Yes. So you'll be strong like me and you'll go with Kurama."
She sniffled, a gross wet sound he despised to his core, and then nodded. "Okay, Uncle Hiei."
He nodded back and picked her up again to sit on the counter beside the sink. The dry cloth simply wasn't enough to cleanse her cheeks. He turned on the water, wet the rag, and went back to work. Once he was done with her face, he wiped his neck and washed his hands. The fury rampaging through him had grown quiet, lurking, waiting for its moment to reappear. He hated this. He hated being too weak to fight a kappa of all things. He loathed that water could instill such dread in his being. And worst of all, he'd allowed Ashland to nearly be drowned because he was powerless. He was a pathetic excuse for a demon no better off now than he'd been when he'd first received the jagan.
He couldn't even blame his ineptitude on this stupid human body because VIctoria hadn't hesitated to attack. She'd charged their assailant without fear. She'd ripped the arm of a beast that could have killed and eaten her if she had made even the slightest mistake.
That glow in her eyes, the echo of her voice… her losing consciousness. He knew she'd used too much of her energy. She was the same as him that way. She'd need rest and a safe place to recover.
Hiei realized then that he had never seen Victoria at her best. Even holding a gun to his jaw she'd never had glowing eyes or exuded such an intense aura as what he'd felt on the dock. Was this how she fought demons in her world? Had they only ever glimpsed the tiniest crumbs of her power?
The idea of it chilled him. What would she be like in his world? Coming here had robbed Kurama and himself of their power. Would it be the same for her, or would the reverse be true?
The door creaked open and Kurama struggled to navigate himself and the woman on his back through the narrow doorway. Hiei pulled Ashland from the counter, setting her on her feet once more before moving to accept Kurama's violet haired burden from him. Victoria's hair had grown int he months they'd been together, revealing over an inch of dark roots.
"How is she?" Kurama asked, nodding toward Ashland who watched them with large, wet blue eyes. Her blonde ringlets were frazzled from how much she'd rubbed her head against Hiei's chin and shirt.
"She'll live." Hiei responded, dragging Victoria by hooking his arms under her armpits. He propped her sitting up against the back of the couch, turning her face this way and that the same as what he'd done with Ashland.
"She might've hit her head. We shouldn't move her, Hiei." Kurama fussed, moving to stop Hiei's examination.
"That's not it." Hiei scoffed and began gently wiping the blood from her face where it poured from her nose. "You can't see the signs? I'm disappointed in you. She's overexpended her energy, Kurama."
Kurama couldn't decide which surprised him more, Hiei's caring touch on Victoria's face as he cleaned her up or by Hiei's likely correct assumption. He'd disregarded the idea without realizing it because they didn't have their own energy. A foolish notion, as Victoria very obviously had her own energy and power. Still, this was a different world and Victoria's body played by different rules.
Energy or not though, unlike Hiei, she was very human. "It could be both, Hiei. Please be careful with her."
"I can handle this one. You should change your clothes and look after Ashland." Hiei didn't look over his friend.
"My clothes?" Kurama asked. He wanted to point out Hiei's state to him, the tears in his tank top, the blood peeking through the tattered material. Not to mention the crusty dry spots on his chest.
"She's bled all over you." Hiei gestured loosely to a large red patch on Kurama's white tee.
"Is Tia going to be okay? Why is she sleeping? Why is she bleeding? Does she need a doctor?" Ashland's questions came as she shuffled closer to the two men. "Did the demon turtle hurt her?"
"That's a pretty accurate name." Kurama muttered to Hiei, vaguely impressed with the ingenuity of children.
Hiei and Kurama exchanged a look before Hiei point at Victoria and signed Okay for the little girl whose sign was still impossibly limited.
"She'll be alright, I'm sure of it. Now, why don't we go get into our pajamas? I think it would be fun to camp in the living tonight so we can all stay together. What do you think?"
Ashland expressed her muted excitement for hte idea. Kurama walked over and took her by the hand, leading her to the stairs.
"You can help pick out pajamas for Hiei too." Kurama offered as they ascended the steps, chuckling when Hiei yelled at him.
Kurama used his phone to get a snapshot of the three sleeping figures cuddled together on the living room floor. Hiei lay in the middle of Victoria and Ashland atop the pulled off couch cushions. The little girl slept mostly strung over Hiei, short arms draped over his chest, small body pinned to his side by a protective arm, her head tucked against his shoulder, blonde curls mingling with thick straight strands of black. Victoria lay on her side facng away from them exactly where Hiei and Kurama and placed her hours before. Her back pressed flush to Hiei's ribs on the side opposite Ashland, not by her own movement but because Hiei had chosen to lay that close to her. A blanket swaddled the three of them straining to encompass their forms.
It was a rare moment he wanted to document for his own sake. Hiei so openly displaying his protectiveness of the two girl had startled Kurama, but it also pleased him immensely. His mind turned back to the idea Grams had planted in him weeks before. He and Hiei were changing as a result of being here.
He wondered how his friend would handle going back to his old life. Would he miss Ashland, in all her rambunctious glory? Would he miss Victoria and the lake? Kurama suspected that Hiei would miss the lake itself most of all.
Kurama knew he himself would miss this place, these people. Thinking about their eventual separation no longer filled him with hope and relief. Instead an uneasy sense of loss came to him. It was an honest feeling which told him the truth whispering beneath everything. Yes, he wanted to go home. There was so much he missed and people he longed to be with. He wanted to taunt Kaito with his adventures and the knowledge he'd gained from Google. He wanted to tell his mother he was alive and well and maybe a little thirsty for an American sweet tea. Yusuke would be envious and enamored with their adventures. Kazuma would be endlessly enthralled with the fact they had somehow crossed through not only dimensions but whole realities. Yes, there was so much he longed to do once he got back.
Still, that preliminary sense of mourning warned him that he would miss being here too, and that going home wouldn't be as easy as he had once thought. Knowing this now, he wanted to savor the rich flavor of these eventual memories.
So he took another picture, this time with himself in the frame so he could prove that this had been real. Not prove to others, but to himself. On long nights when he'd surely be alone, he would want to call on these moments. Once they got back to their world Hiei would likely dart off to explain himself to Mukuro, once again existing on the fringe of their once tight-knit gang. Kurama would need this reminder of his friend's existence once he too reentered his life.
Hank stood-well laid-guard by the back door Kurama sat and watched over the three most impacted by the evening's earlier trauma. Hiei had insisted on taking first watch but Ashland refused to sleep without him. She had been utterly terrified of what she called "the demon turtle".
If he were being honest with himself, Kurama was more than a little terrified too. Victoria had told them before that their presence had changed things. When the will-o-wisps had appeared she'd been curious. Hadn't she told him they didn't have such spirits here? At the time he hadn't cared much. More so he'd found it interesting and he'd been invested in puzzling out their hostess and her intentions.
But a kappa did not belong in their lake. He didn't need any of the locals to tell him that. Its existence screamed of bad omens. What else might lurk out there now? What others dangers hovered just out of sight?
He studied Victoria as she slept, a frown solidly on his face.
She'd never awoken after falling unconscious on the dock. In fact, she was still in her day's clothing because neither man felt it right to undress her. Hiei had announced she was fine, no major injuries to be found once Kurama and Ashland had eventually come back down the stairs. Ashland had been so attached to Hiei out on the dock, and Hiei had been so angry and worried for her in turn that Kurama hadn't argued when the other man had hauled the child toward the house and got as far from the water spirit as possible. It had fallen on Kurama then to carry the woman into the house.
While Hiei tended to Victoria, Kurama and Ashland had made up their camp in the living room. It had lightened the girl's spirits some, so it had accomplished its role as a distraction. By the time Hiei had laid Victoria on the cushions of their fort everyone seemed much calmer.
A million worries flooded Kurama's brain for Victoria and her health. Did she have a concussion? Were they allowing her to quietly die in their presence instead of doing as Ashland had suggested, calling an ambulance? Was it merely what Hiei had said, a case of severe over-exhaustion? Was it brain trauma? Victoria had been ill earlier that evening and afternoon, snappish and in pain. Could they really discount that one had something to do with the other? So many explanations for why she'd collapsed with a nosebleed.
His anxiety about it kept him alert. He watched her breath, checked her face frequently to see if she was bleeding again. He even checked her pulse a few times, finding momentary relief in the steady beat of her heart. He wanted her to wake up so he could be absolutely sure. He needed to be sure.
Before, he would have worried over her health because it would have directly impacted getting him home. Now, that came second to the fact he was scared for his friend.
Hank shot to his feet, which prompted Kurama to do the same as the knob on the front door turned back and forth. Eyes narrowed, Kurama moved to stand between the sleeping people and the door, feet slid apart and hands poised for combat. He wasn't fond of hand to hand, but he'd do what it took. The sound of cloth moving earned a glance behind him. Hiei stood with a glower so powerful it almost scalded him, and in his hand was the handle of a large kitchen knife. Without waiting for their intruder to actually manipulate the lock Hiei stomped around Kurama, unlocked the door from their side, and then grabbed the person on the other side by their shirt, dragging them down to the floor so he could straddle them, dropping the knife in a downward strike.
"Stop that!"
Hiei's attack stopped, his body going rigid as Grams crossed the threshold. Vanessa lay under Hiei, her shirt still wound in his fist, her face scrunched as she prepared to be struck by his weapon. Kurama's pulse raced in his ears.
Hiei dropped Vanessa's shirt and stood up, his glare settling on her first then turning toward Grams. He spun the knife in his fingers idly, shoulders still tensed. He was coiled to spring but containing himself, Kurama noted. The fact Grams' command had been so impactful, robbing Hiei of his momentum mid-strike raised his eyebrows. Was this the strange power Hiei had been so adamant Victoria and Grams wielded?
"Hey guys." Vanessa offered the smallest greeting, accepting Kurama's extended to help her rise to her feet.
"What are you thinking waving that thing around?" Grams laid into Hiei, wagging a finger at him. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?"
Hiei crossed his arms, knife still held in his right hand, and stared at her dully before purposefully glaring at the wall. He offered no response other than rageful silence.
"We've had quite the night already." Kurama spoke tensely. "We are both on edge. Perhaps had we known you were stopping by we would have greeted you both in a more appropriate manner. Although, I would like to know where you got that knife from, Hiei."
"The kitchen." Hiei nearly spat the answer. The tendon in his neck protruded as his frustrated mounted. He snarled. "Ask them why they're here."
"Where is Vick?" Vanessa asked, looking around the living room. Ashland sat up and yawned, rubbing her eyes and calling for her mom tearfully.
"She was just there." Kurama frowned, looking at the section of cushions Victoria had been sleeping on. "Hiei?"
"She was there when I got up." Hiei frowned too, looking around the room. "You didn't see her?"
Grams went to the child and picked her up, rubbing her back. Vanessa wandered up the stairs calling for Victoria by her nickname, checking her room then the boys' room. Kurama peeked out the front door, glancing around the lawn before stepping back in and shutting the door behind him. Hiei looked out back, Hank the dog next to him. He made sure to pull the dog back in by the collar.
The toilet in the downstairs restroom flushed and the door opened, Victoria stepping out to be greeted by several sets of eyes on her. She looked exhausted, glancing from face to face.
"What? I washed my hands." She told them and Kurama chuckled, but it was reserved.
She looked awful, as though she hadn't already slept several hours. His concern that she had actually hurt herself renewed. It was Hiei that strode to her side first though, Hiei who seemed to realize she was unsteady on her feet because he shouldered himself under her arm just before she sagged downward, Hiei who helped her sit on the floor. Vanessa rushed to the kitchen to get her a glass of water.
"Thanks." Victoria offered weakly in response to the cold glass pressing into her palm.
You should still be Hiei floundered then, not knowing the sign for hibernating. Instead he signed long and sleep together, doing his best to get his annoyed point across. Victoria watched his hands, then her brows sluggishly pulled together and she offered the slightest shake of her head. He got the gist that she didn't understand so he turned to Kurama.
"Tell her she's an idiot and she should still be hibernating."
Kurama, somewhat amused by the adamant tone Hiei took, acquiesced. "Hiei said you should still be hibernating. He seems to believe that your state is due to you using too much energy."
"He's right." Grams offered, laying Ashland who had gone quickly back to sleep onto the couch cushion fort. "You over did it. Again."
"Had to be done." Victoria sputtered, coughing around the water in her throat. Hoarsely she continued, "Couldn't let it win."
"It?" Vanessa asked, looking to Kurama for answers.
"We had an unfortunate visit from a kappa this evening. It attempted to take Ashland. Without Victoria and Hiei's interference, our young friend would have surely been eaten." Kurama explained in that boggling calm manner of his.
Hiei hunched into his shoulders. He had done nothing to save Ashland in his opinion. He was powerless to do more than hold onto the screaming child and hope that he could win a game of tug-o-war with a water spirit. He said nothing about it. Then he eyes dipped down as he felt fingers brush the back of his knuckles. Victoria offered him a wan smile, giving his hand a single gentle squeeze before she retracted the touch all together.
He hated that she knew he felt weak.
"It wasn't just the kappa." Victoria cut through the murmured discussion between Grams, Kurama and Vanessa. "It was the thing that brought the kappa here. I saw it. Or her, I guess. I saw her."
"What?" Vanessa jerked around to stare at her friend. "Who?"
"The girl responsible for all of this." Victoria closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall.
"Excuse me, baby." Grams nudged Hiei out of the way so she could kneel beside her granddaughter, back of her hand coming to rest on Victoria's forehead. After a moment she kissed her forehead too. With a cluck of her tongue she pulled back, frowning. "You're feverish."
"I didn't make this up. It was not a fever dream." Victoria's tone turned sharp as her defenses rose. "I know what I saw."
"I'm not saying you made it up honey, I'm saying you're feverish." Grams tutted back.
"Vick, what happened?" Vanessa sank down too.
Kurama, as the last man standing, felt awkward about just leering over everyone else so he too came to floor, seating with his legs tucked neatly underneath him. He waited for Victoria to explain herself. Hiei looked to him, eyes pinched slightly, so he offered a nod in return. If Victoria had really encountered the being responsible for this what did that mean for them?
"It started as a headache. It came out of nowhere. Kurama saw me, I went from fine to dying in minutes." Victoria began. "I had to go to bed. It was awful. Like this sound started and it started getting louder and louder and louder until I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't think. It hurt so much.
"I remember Kurama asking me to come down to eat, but I couldn't even get out of bed. I can't really describe the sound, but it like listening to something being ripped out against its will. Like, someone ripping the door to a vault open but at the same the vault was trying to repair itself? I can't… I never heard anything like it before. Never. I just wanted it to stop.
"I closed my eyes, and then, suddenly, I wasn't here anymore. Or, I was, but I was also there. I was standing on the path between worlds."
"Victoria." Grams' voice was stern but quiet.
"I didn't do it on purpose." Victoria offered back tersely.
Hiei raised his eyebrows. He'd never heard or seen Victoria be disrespectful to her grandmother. They seemed impossibly close and in tune with one another. He didn't know what her statement implied, exactly, but he knew it wasn't something she was supposed to be doing. Grams' wrinkles deepened as her expression continued to sour.
"Path between worlds?" Kurama ventured, looking solely at Victoria. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means she was on the astral plane, standing between here and there." Grams told him. When he raised an eyebrow, she turned her bright blue eyes to Vanessa. "You speak science better than I do."
Vanessa grimaced. "I wouldn't call this science, exactly, Grams. But I'll try. Okay, so imagine this is our world," she held up the pointer finger on her left hand then the pointer finger on her right, "and this is another world. See the space between them? That's what they call the astral plane. It's the inbetween. In this case it would be the space between here and the otherside, like where demons come from."
"Interesting. The three worlds exist cohesively in our world. There is no inbetween to get stuck in." Kurama hummed then. "I guess there is limbo, but you're not likely to get caught there on accident."
"Going to the astral plane is dangerous because if you can't come back, you just get stuck nowhere." Grams told him. "Not to mention, it draws trouble. That space isn't meant for mortals to walk, and if you go there you might come back with something following on your heels. Something that destroys your bathroom."
"That's not what this was." Victoria leaned more heavily against the wall behind her, her permeating exhaustion showing on her face. "This wasn't like then. This wasn't like when I went looking for Dorian, Grams. This was… it was the same but somewhere else. This wasn't us and them. It was us," she gestured to the three women, then looked at Kurama and Hiei, "and them."
"Wait, you're saying you were walking the space between our reality and theirs?" Vanessa stared, agape. "That's impossible Vick. That's straight up-"
"I know what I saw." Victoria ground out again.
Grams and Vanessa pressed their lips thin, forcing themselves to be quiet. Kurama reached over and set his palm on the top of Victoria's curled fist where it lay on her lap. His touch allowed her to exhale slowly, closing her eyes.
"I know what I saw." She repeated more calmly. "And I saw the veils, curtains, whatever you want to call them. It was surreal. I was on this path and it was barely wide enough for my body, the veils were fluttering on either side. I saw the lake on my left and then on the right, I saw a river, black as jet. The sky was red but it wasn't reflecting in the water. I tried to grab it, y'know, the barrier or whatever but I couldn't touch it. There wasn't resistance really, it was more like, I guess my timing was wrong? Like, we kept missing each other, the barrier and me. Then I looked ahead and I saw her.
"She was just this slip of a girl. Long blond hair, blue dress. She couldn't have been older than fourteen, fifteen. She was so young. But she could grab it. She could touch the veils and she did. She pulled them open. That's when the kappa jumped over. Other things came too, but I didn't see where they went or what they were or how many. I just saw a blur dive into the lake. Then there was this man behind her, and he called her Alice. I don't know what the hell that was, but I know a demon when I see one."
Victoria closed her eyes, pulling her hand from Kurama's to rub her face.
"She said something to me. I screamed for them to stop, that they didn't understand what they were doing. But the kid, she said something weird. She asked if I was in Wonderland too? Then she called me the Cheshire cat." Victoria's hand dropped back to her lap, limp, and she looked up at the ceiling with blank eyes. In a whisper she said, "I don't think she knows she's breaking reality."
"Breaking reality?" Vanessa swallowed, posing the question with a shaky, quiet voice.
"The path between grew thinner." Victoria explained. "The veils began to overlap more and more. And where they overlapped, they bled together."
Everyone grew hushed, the entire room deadly silent.
"Someone is using that little girl to end the world."
The truth, uttered so blandly from Victoria's lips, rocked them all. Together they sat on the floor midway between the kitchen and living room, each one considering the ramifications of this new realization. Then Victoria winced, grabbing at her head and uttering the smallest, pained cry.
"Vick?" Vanessa grabbed at her shoulders, fearfully looking first to Kurama then Grams for help.
But Kurama was busy with Hiei, who had covered his ears with a snarl, one eye closed and the other barely open as he hissed, "What is that god awful fucking noise?"
"There is no noise, Hiei." Kurama answered in English.
"It's the barrier I put up around the house." Victoria choked out. "Something is hitting it. Something strong."
A voice called to them from outside the front door, loud and beckoning. "Victoria, come out come out wherever you are!"
"You said nothing followed you." Grams shot at her pained granddaughter. "That is not nothing, Victoria."
"Victoria," the voice sang, deep and amused.
"I'm going to rip his goddamn throat open and watch him choke to death on his own fucking blood." Victoria snapped, fury suddenly painting over her eyes and face as she rolled to her feet. Wrathful she glared at the group still on the floor. "Stay here. I'll handle this."
She went up the stairs as the man's voice sang her name again and again, each time with another taunt to get her attention. When she came back down the stairs, she had her gun in her hand. Jerking the door open, she stomped outside with a fierce sneer.
"What the ever loving fuck do you want, Dorian?" She yelled at him, marching across her driveway to the perimeter of her land. He stood there, toes pressed to the line, a devilish smile on his face. His shined shoes managed to reflect the lights from the house. His suit, as usual, was immaculately cut to his form, his hair gelled back from his face. And his eyes, they were glued to Victoria.
"You've been busy." He told her, amused with her anger. "Nice barrier, but you're getting weaker by the minute and so is it. It's only a matter of time before I break through."
"Eat me." She spit. "You're not getting in here, Dorian. Not while I still breathe."
"No?" He tilted his head and smiled with too much teeth as he watched her lift the heel of her hand to the spot between her brows. "I think you're overestimating yourself, Victoria. Look at you. You wasted all your energy, didn't you? You've got nothing in reserve. As you are, you're nothing. Let me in. It'll be easier on you if you do."
"Fuck you." She hissed, raising her gun with a shaky hand. Victoria pointed the barrel at his chest, keeping the weapon just barely on her side of the protective line. The barrier had to remain intact, if it fell Dorian would find Kurama and Hiei. She did not want that to happen.
"We've done this dance before, love. You know it won't work." He reminded her.
"Dorian? As is in the one that nearly killed Victoria months ago?" Kurama demanded, watching as Grams rushed around the room. She dug out Victoria's chest of stones and started pilfering through the pile.
"Yes." It was Vanessa who answered him.
"We have to go help her." Kurama nodded for Hiei to follow him to the door. "We can't allow her to fight someone that powerful alone."
"No." Vanessa trembled as she placed herself between them and the door, shaking her head. "Vick has taken a lot of pain to keep you guys hidden from him. You're not in your world anymore, you aren't strong enough to help her. Don't get in the way."
"Move." Kurama told her firmly, eyes growing dark. "Vanessa, you are a friend, but I will move you if I have to. We will not allow Victoria to die to save us. Right Hiei?"
No answer came. Vanessa dared to move her attention from Kurama's face just as the redhead turned around.
"Hiei?" He called.
Hank whined, scratching at the screen door leading to the back porch. The main door had been thrown open. Vanessa swore and Kurama stared, eyes wide. Grams stared at the door too, disbelief obvious in her expression.
"Well, that's not good." Grams spoke, but even to Kurama she sounded mildly impressed. "That boy is light on his feet for someone who carries so much anger around."
Dorian knocked on the protective barrier with his knuckles once again, and the connection of his energy against her spell made Victoria wince again. She staggered, that spot he'd kissed on her forehead searing. Stumbling from the pain, from the exhaustion, from the panic, she didn't notice her gun sliding over the line until Dorian grabbed the pistol by the barrel and used it to drag Victoria off her property.
His hand found her throat immediately, squeezing and crushing as he lifted her off her tired feet.
"You've done a good job, pet. Look at you, so strong and so fierce. But you overstepped when you went astral. Too bad. Now, I'm going to ask once more. What did you see?"
Victoria grabbed at his wrist, trying to pull at his vice-like fingers. She choked, swinging her feet.
"I'm waiting." Dorian's tone grew colder. "Tick tock, Victoria. You're running out of time."
Dorian hissed, dropping Victoria who landed in a wheezing heap on the rocky driveway. Blood welled up from a thin cut on the demon's wrist, the fabric of his suit sleeve and the cuff of the white shirt underneath cut through.
Hiei's dark hair bled into the darkness of the night, his knives glinting. Dust curled up around his boat shoes and bared calves as he came to a stop in a wide stance. His mouth twisted upward into a grin, his eyes glowing delight. Victoria groaned behind him, tucked safely back behind the barrier of her own creation. Hiei barely spared her a glance, his attention firmly on the dapper finger before him. He spun one of the knives and lowered himself slightly, ready to spring.
Excitement coiled through him for the first time in ages.
Kappas and lakes weren't his element. Not even close. But cutting demons to pieces for touching things they weren't supposed to touch?
Now that was entirely in his area of expertise.
And how ready was he to show this asshole everything he knew.
