The Shotgun Approach

by SuperNova90

In my mind I saw all the tiny chess pieces and tried to predict all their movements, from start to finish, but Yusuke was always the wild card—that one unknown factor that could ruin the entire game. Etternia is a rare demonic species called Elementa. She works as a paramedic in Sarayashiki and finds herself quite tangled up with Yusuke Urameshi, current king of demon world.

34. Cities on Fire

The Shotgun Approach

Chapter 34: Cities On Fire

A/N: Picks back up where the Yusuke chapter left off, but in Ettie's POV.

Gore/canon typical violence warnings in place for this chapter!

. . .

I did not sleep.

It was rare for me these days because behind my eyes; I saw things, far too many things. Things the drugs once suppressed and were now coming back tenfold.

So, I waited. I sat awake in my room with the girls—Hana and Eiko—who were soundly sleeping in their respective beds. They were both opium addicts and best friends since birth. Their mothers forced them to go to the rehabilitation center in the first place, but now they stayed of their own volition to be away from their strict families.

I could not say I blamed them.

The sun rose slow and silent, bathing the room in light, and I knew this was my cue to get up. I left without making a sound so the girls could sleep a little longer before the day's activities began—the counseling, the medications, the exercise, the group therapy—the list was endless and pointless. But it seemed to help them, so who was I to judge.

I made my way further up the hall, closer to the nurses' quarters. That was where they put Hiei and Yusuke up for the night. I was curious to see if the king obeyed me and took him home. And if not, I wished to check Hiei's stitches a final time.

The nurse who stayed with me during my first days of withdrawal was at the desk yawning over a large cup of coffee. She waved me through, unlocking the doorway and opening it with the push of a button.

They hadn't left then, it seemed.

I strode down the hall, quickly making my presence known, and barged into the room without any warning.

Trying to hide my surprise at the sight of Hiei sitting up in bed and slowly savoring a cup of broth brought by one of the nurses, I rounded on Yusuke who was slumped in a chair beside the bed and looked as if he hadn't slept a wink.

The king watched me with eyes the color of wine, and his markings were stark against his skin instead of slightly faded as they usually were when not using his youki. Hiei said nothing, his breathing labored and eyes glassy from the pain. He continued to drink until the bowl was empty and then he handed it off to Yusuke who took it without ever looking away from me.

"We'll leave as soon as he's with it," he said.

Even as Yusuke spoke, Hiei's head bobbed on his shoulders and a fierce rush of wanting surged through me. I wanted so badly to give him the energy he lacked, to heal his wounds and put a cease to his suffering.

There was only me to blame for the inability.

"Is he even aware of where he is?" I asked, moving to get a closer look at the fire demon and hearing Yusuke's quiet growl in turn.

"No," the king replied. "If he did, you think he'd still be in that bed?"

I turned to Yusuke then, curious as to why he was resorting to baser instincts and the fact he was so severe so suddenly. His hatred for me was apparent...and a given. But this sudden change in attitude was a striking difference from how he was the day before.

"You need rest," I said.

The bowl in his hand clattered to the floor, bouncing twice before it finally shattered, and then he was on me.

Yusuke pinned me to the dresser across the room, the knobs digging into my back and drawers rattling in their housing. Hiei's head shot up, and he stared unseeing at the two of us, and I just stared back over Yusuke's shoulder and hoped he wouldn't try to move. Perhaps he saw something my eyes, or maybe he was really just that out of it because he turned away a moment later and stared out of the window instead.

Turning my gaze back to the seething king in front of me, I realized Yusuke was just as out of it as the fire demon was.

"Let go of me," I said, keeping my voice steady and without inflection of any kind.

Yusuke did no such thing.

He dragged his nose up the side of my neck, taking deep breaths of my scent and savoring it. I shivered and tried to shift away from him to no avail.

"I saw you, ya know," he murmured, replacing his nose with his lips. He lightly brushed them across my skin, and I felt goose flesh rise up over my arms and neck. "The two of you making out in the middle of the street like he was your long lost lover that just came back from the war."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied through gritted teeth, straining my neck away from him as far as it would go. My hands came up to grip his forearms and try to pry his hold off my shoulders, but they remained like steel bands.

"Yes, you do," he said. "You liked it too, didn't you?"

Yusuke nipped at my ear, and that was when I took matters into my own hands.

I kneed him hard in the balls, and he dropped like a sack of grain, clutching his manly bits and rolling around the floor like a fool.

After a few minutes of him being over-dramatic, he flopped onto his stomach and groaned. "Shit."

"Are you done?"

"Yeah..." he whined from the floor, his face planted in the tile.

I strode over to Hiei who watched on with a face so blank I wanted to slap it off him. Gripping his chin, I turned his head left and right, and when he finally hit my hand away, I knew he wasn't completely lost.

"We are all under duress, so I'll forgive you this once. But for the record, no, I did not ask for nor did I want Hiei to...kiss me...that night. If you wish to know what he was thinking, he would be the one to ask."

"I was thinking I would like to gut you," said demon snapped, glassy eyes staring up at me with such intense dislike I almost laughed in his face.

"Ah, finally coming to I see. Good to know you are still your usual cheerful self."

"Where the hell am I?" he snapped, just now realizing he wasn't where he was meant to be.

"The rehab center, in the nurses' quarters," I supplied, peeling the bandages from around his torso off. There were spots of blood soaking through the white and I wanted to be double sure the stitches hadn't ripped open.

He jolted forward, the sudden movement definitely tearing several of the stitches I'd labored on the night before, and shoved me away.

Surprised he still had the strength to do so and quickly realized I should stop underestimating him all the damn time, I stepped back and held my hands up in surrender.

"Do not," he growled, "touch me."

"Fine, I hope your wound festers, you stubborn little child."

He stared at me. In fact, they both did. Hiei's lip curled at the insult, but he didn't say a word. Odd.

"Sounds like the old you," Yusuke murmured from the floor. "The girl I fell in love with."

I crouched, glaring at Yusuke with years worth of pent up anger and resentment. "I am no girl. I'm forty years your senior. You are both children to me."

"Ouch, that hurts worse than the kick to my nuts," he said, moving to sit cross-legged on the tile, still rubbing at his privates as if checking to make sure they hadn't fallen off.

I remembered the time I called him a little boy and almost hoped he would react the same. That anger...that determination. I wanted to see it again, wanted to feel the rush of danger just from the look in Yusuke's eyes, wanted to feel the heat of it in my bones.

For so long, I'd been numb.

Now I would give anything to feel...something.

Even if the feeling was of one of them ripping me open and leaving me for dead.

A knock at the door made all three of us turn, and one of the orderlies was there to escort me back to the patient area. "It's time for breakfast, Ettie-san."

I nodded, rising from my crouch and thoroughly planning on leaving without another word. It didn't matter. It was better this way. Cut all ties. Stop all plans and burn the board along with all its pieces. It was over. And so were our partnerships.

My folly made sure of that.

A hand struck out and grabbed me around the wrist. I looked down on Yusuke, and something in my eyes made him grip harder until I wondered if he planned to bruise me just to know he left a mark. His eyes searched my face, the red in them receding until he was just Yusuke again, and then he tugged.

Not expecting it, I lost my balance and fell into him.

He leaned up, meeting me in a kiss that made a blush bloom across my cheeks. His lips were chapped but full. He smelt of cigarette smoke and beer, but it wasn't such an unpleasant thing, considering who he was.

It was chaste, soft. Everything Hiei's kiss wasn't.

He drew away and released me, letting me steady myself and right my clothing. I refused to look at the other sets of eyes trained on me and merely left the room with my head ducked low enough that my hair would hide my face.

Hiei's kiss harbored no love or kindness.

But Yusuke's possessed all of that and more, as gentle and unassuming as it was.

I touched a hand to my lips and for the first time in an incredibly long time...I felt the smallest bit of fleeting happiness. I knew it was pointless, a useless emotion to be feeling because Yusuke would be gone within the hour, and I would not see him again.

Staying here was safe. Controlled.

I could help people and would not be tempted so long as I remained behind the locked doors of this facility.

My powers were gone, my body and soul forsook. This was the best place for me.

The sound of the nurse's quarters door locking behind me was like the toll of a bell just before an execution. It made my stomach twist, and I swallowed thickly, closing my eyes to collect myself. The kiss was nothing-a goodbye at most. It meant nothing else. Do not dwell on it, do not think. Move, Etternia. Move and don't look back.

I took a step forward and another and another...until the door was out of sight, and I was once again just Ettie—the drug addict. The healer. The mistake.

Etternia was dead.

It was time to leave the past behind.

All of it.

. . .

A pair of ravens—Huginn and Muninn—flew in lazy circles about the ceiling. They would nip at each other playfully, calling out to me to join them, but I had no wings, and my wind would only carry me so high.

I tried to summon it, to join them if only briefly, but a pain searing through my core and bones and flesh brought me back to reality, and I realized I was just hallucinating...again. Always hallucinating. I should just be thankful I was no longer throwing up every other second, but the dreams and night sweats and constant images ingrained in the backs of my eyes were doing me no favors.

A knock at my door forced me to sit up and, without prompting, it opened. Behind it was the orderly Yuri, a young man with a lot of schooling behind his belt and no real-world experience. This was his first job, and it showed through his nervousness and the way he fidgeted whenever he was coerced into adequately interacting with the patients. I was one of his biggest concerns, it seemed, as he was always extremely anxious whenever he was in my presence.

"Can I help you, Yuri?"

"Ah...the mistress has asked to speak with you."

I sighed, casting a look to my current state of undress, and rose from my bed to retrieve a robe. Yuri blushed like the good little boy he was and turned away.

There was no time to waste with dressing, Siobhan would not wait.

I followed Yuri to her office, chuckling beneath my breath when he quickly opened the door and ushered me in just so he could shut it again just as fast. He was just as fearful of Siobhan as he was me...I couldn't blame him. She was a force to be reckoned with, a firestorm raged beneath her breast and in her heart. She was wholly different than all others of her race I was privy to meeting over the years.

After months of being here, Siobhan grew to take a liking to me. I wasn't sure as of why, but it was beneficial in many ways—my plants, my freedom inside this place. The only thing she would not allow me to separate myself from was counseling. But, I supposed, if she was my personal counselor, I could understand why. She would be considered a failure and unfit to run the rehabilitation center if she couldn't even put a dent in me.

Which, of course, became my reason to give her the hardest time I possibly could.

"Welcome, Etternia. Please, take a seat."

I didn't. I chose to stride over to Siobhan's window that overlooked the courtyard, and for a split second, my stomach dropped to my feet. When it rushed back up again, I was forced to clap a hand over my mouth in fear, I would vomit all over Siobhan Ryan's beautiful ornate rug.

Yusuke was standing outside, across the street. I could see him, tiny in the distance, but unmistakable. Cigarette smoke floated about his head in a devil's halo, and he was dressed the same he always was—jeans, leather jacket, high-tops.

His hair was getting longer, I noticed. It fell into his eyes a lot more now.

"Ahem," Siobhan cleared her throat, and I turned to her with a look of disdain.

"What do you want today, Siobhan? You know I will not speak to you."

"Why was the king here in the dead of night last week?"

She knew how to cut to the quick, didn't she? "I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would a king come here of all places?"

"Not a king. But you already knew that." She rose from her wing-backed chair, long graceful limbs and long hair cascading over her shoulders for once. Her beauty made me ill. "Why was Yusuke Urameshi, King of all demons, here in my facility?"

I pinned her with a stare so cold she actually took a step back.

She was an Aos Sí, and I did not fear things weaker than I am. She had her tricks and her magiks and her mind-reading. She chose a good profession for her abilities, and I commended her on helping people instead of torturing them as most of her race did, but I was not afraid of her.

"You have no power over me, Siobhan Ryan. It would be good for you to remember that."

She sighed, frustrated with me and my stubbornness, and fell back into her seat, clearly forgetting what she rose for in the first place.

I turned back to the window, watching as Yusuke stubbed out his cigarette and took one final look at the rehab before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked away.

Why? Why was he out there?

Wasn't that kiss a week ago meant to be goodbye?

"You poor unfortunate soul," Siobhan murmured. "You're in love."

I placed a hand against the glass, my breath fogging its surface and obscuring my view. "I love nothing and no one."

I said it with such finality that Siobhan did not say a word afterward. She did not refute me or tell me I was wrong. There was no lie in my words. I could not love him or anyone, the emotion was lost to me ages ago on the day my son was torn from my arms, and Artair was sealed in his icy tomb.

Everyone I ever loved only suffered.

I could love no one...not ever again, or they would endure a far worse fate than any that came before them.

. . .

The swift crack of ice freezing startled me awake. My first instinct was to pull on my magiks for protection, but the moment I did a blazing agony rent its way through me and I curled in on myself, holding my chest where my core resided dark and barren.

The noise came again, and my eyes darted to the window.

The glass shattered and the girls—Eiko and Hana—screeched in terror, flying from their beds and running for the door.

It was slammed shut the instant they attempted to open it by a gust of wind...and I watched in horror as both their heads were sliced from their necks by that same wind. I screamed, though it did me no good, and fought back the insistent need to rush to their sides. There was no point, they were dead, and nothing I could do would bring them back.

Instead, I rose from my bed with all the rage of a betrayed queen and howled, my voice conveying all the pain and fury their deaths brought me.

They climbed through the window, axes in hand and armored as if headed to war. And perhaps they were.

I realized this was the darkness I sensed looming on the horizon for months. It was Einarr's next move, with Magni backing him, and it would put the final nail in the king's coffin.

Yusuke was in far more danger now than ever.

Like hell was I about to allow them to checkmate him.

I ran at the first man who came through the window, breaking his arm and disarming him. I was struck in the calf with a spear of ice, the blade slicing through muscle, and without a thought, I reached down and tore it out. Blood sprayed the tiled floor, and I threw it straight through the eye of its wielder.

The first man's ax in my palm, I grinned, eager for the fight.

Many years ago, I made a vow to myself—I wouldn't use violence unless absolutely necessary, to save myself or the lives of others. I would not kill or harm any living creature without the most explicit reasons.

I wanted to make my son proud. I tried to make Artair proud. I wanted to do everything within my power to be precisely who my father never wanted me to be.

I was meant to heal people.

But the feeling of hot blood streaking across my fingers and the taste of it in my mouth as I tore a man's ear off with my bare teeth made me feel something—something I'd longed to feel for what felt like centuries.

Killing these men, taking revenge for the loss of Eiko's and Hana's lives...

It made me feel euphoric. Strong.

Useful.

A blast of wind sent me careening into the wall, smashing through it and into the bedroom next door which was thankfully deserted. The occupants must have heard the commotion and ran for it. Smart.

It was without a doubt the men were here for me—to capture or kill me, I did not know, but my gut told me they would use me in any way they could to hit Yusuke where it would hurt the most. I was a liability without my energy, no matter how physically strong I was, I didn't stand a chance against multiple enemies laden with youki.

Extricating myself from the rubble, I ran for the door, skidding through it and out into the hall where I was met by two more adversaries.

The floor froze beneath me, the ice crawling up my legs to pin me in place. The man on the left's hand lit aflame, and he strode closer, a twisted smile stretching his lips.

I freed my right leg and then the other, kicking the fire user square in the chest with the flat of my foot. He toppled over, sliding down the hallway thanks to his partner's proverbial ice skating rink. Using the distraction to my advantage, I struck the other guy in the knee, landing a punch to his face when he was forced to kneel. His nose shattered, and I was quick to hit him again.

He blocked it, shoving me back in the hopes I would lose my footing.

By then his cohort was standing and running for me, a sword held high with intent to cleave me in two.

Beside me was a lever for the fire alarm. I pulled it, the alarm sounding instantaneously and the sprinkler system activating, dousing us with water and soaking the three of us through in seconds. No more fire. But it was perfect conditions for the wind and ice user before me.

He froze the water streams, the pipes bursting open and spewing more and more water. He tried to freeze this too, and for a moment I wondered what stupidity drove this man's brain so entirely. Why not use the water itself? And yet, there he was continuing his fruitless endeavor, forgetting about me as if I no longer mattered. He could have drowned me by now, the fool.

The hallway flooded, the ground turned to thick ice, essentially trapping us before the idiot managed to get all the water blocked off enough to stop entirely. I dodged a fireball thrown through the first icy barricade, the second just barely missing my face as it went flying down the hall behind me. It hit the opposite wall, clinging like liquid and lighting it on fire.

He created more and more fire until the floor was once again water and then we were fighting against a current as it turned into a stream, the water up past my ankles.

"Stop, idiot, it will start the pipes going again!"

They argued back and forth in my mother tongue, and I used the opportunity to steal one of their swords, highly offended by their behavior.

I held the hefty weight in my hand, testing it and smiling. I looked up at them both to find the men gawping like buffoons. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"You have no powers," the shorter of the two laughed. "What will you do? Talk us to death?"

They chuckled, and I lunged, putting the sword through the bigger man's neck, reveling in the blood that gurgled up his throat and down his chin; at the stunned look on his partner's face.

Ripping the blade upwards, I sliced his head in two and watched him fall dead to the ground.

Pivoting to point it at the second man, he only stared with wide eyes when I came for him, his fear making him forget to fight entirely. A pathetic bunch of soldiers these were. No wonder they defected from my father's armies to join with Einarr. My father would have killed them himself for their uselessness.

With the second man gutted, I wiped the blood from my sword on his trousers and made my way further into the facility. Things had gone silent...almost stagnant. Strange...and worrisome.

I crept around corners with silent steps, listening, and hearing nothing.

I might have killed them all, though I highly doubted it.

The fire alarms blared on, a beacon of hope that the rest of the facility's occupants made it out alive. The only one I was most concerned about was Siobhan. The woman wouldn't allow her ship to sink without her going down with it, and while I did not particularly like her, I did not want her to die because of me.

It was terrible enough Eiko and Hana...

Do not think of that now, Etternia. Later...later I will grieve their loss. Right now, I must make it from this building with all my limbs still intact.

I could hear the faint noise of sirens over the shrieking of alarms and knew the fire department and EMS would be outside, rounding up the patients and staff streaming from the building. I would let them handle that part while I searched inside for Siobhan...and waited for the next assault.

Creeping down hallway after hallway, I took the back route to get to her office hoping to find her there. She had a home, I knew that, but she was always here. Day and night. The times she did leave was rare and far between, and there was little hope left in me to assume she would not be here tonight as well.

Rounding the corner, I spotted an entourage of demons outside her door and backtracked, pressing my back into the wall and peering around the edge to watch them without being seen. They stood around, speaking old Norse in muted tones and deferring to who I knew just by looking at her that she was the leader of the pack.

Her hair was an icy blue, shaved at both sides, so all that remained was a long slick strip down the center of her skull. The rest was braided in a thick cord down her back and hidden in the twists of hair were small needles—poisonous, no doubt.

I crept from my hiding spot, inching closer and closer, thankful for once that my energy was sealed and unnoticeable.

Pinpointing the demon farthest from the group, I chose him as my first target. Using stealth, I moved like a shadow, none of them noticing until it was too late.

He fell like a sack of grain, his throat slit.

They heard it, and all turned at once with their weapons drawn. I wouldn't stand a chance, I thought, as I quickly counted them—one, two...five, not including the leader. And now that I was closer, I realized exactly who she was.

I stood a little straighter, a sudden burning hatred lighting my chest on fire.

"Never thought I would see your face again," I spoke in my mother tongue.

Inkeri was one of the few women who rose in the ranks of my father's armies. She was sterile, born that way, so she was no good for breeding or tending to other children. The Elementa women all feared if a sterilized woman or man came in contact with their children, they too, would end up unable to bear children. It was the only thing that truly mattered to them, minus the World Tree and the gods.

It was a terrible omen to meet her here.

Inkeri smirked, flipping her blade in a single hand and shifting to an offensive stance. She waved off the men around her who circled to defend her, snarling. "This fight is mine."

I would not win. Not as I was now.

What could have happened to make Inkeri defect? She was loyal to my father...or, so I always thought.

Holding my stolen blade aloft, I faced off against her, prepared to go down fighting at the very least. I would not disgrace myself by running. I was not afraid to die...even if the only thing waiting for me was a lifetime of torment in Hel.

Inkeri charged, her face a fierce snarl, and I dodged the first swift swing of her sword. It clanged against the wall, creating a cacophony of sound in the small space, but she quickly recovered, swinging the blade wide and only just nearly missing cutting me in two.

The men took their chance to begin battering at Siobhan's door, and I wondered what sort of magic she used to keep it from merely shattering to pieces. They flung all kinds of things at it—spears of ice, balls of fire, even hefty chunks of stone torn from the very walls of the building. Nothing even put a dent in it.

"Pay attention!" Inkeri hollered, successfully connecting her next swing.

It sliced my arm, opening the long sleeve of my bland shirt, but the cut was shallow. A warning more than anything.

We circled each other, testing...waiting. The grin never left Inkeri's face.

I could imagine the stories she would tell once she killed me—great tales of her battle against their leader's most hated child. The thought made me laugh out loud, and in turn, the grin on her face finally faded to a vicious frown.

Well, I couldn't let her kill me without first giving her some scars to take home, now could I?

Lunging, I cut her across the thigh, the slice deep but not deadly. She blocked my second and third swings, parrying on the forth, but I pivoted kicking her feet out from under her and stabbing my sword into her shoulder.

This was when she chose to use her powers.

Inkeri could not use wind. But she was highly skilled with the use of water, the element she specialized in.

Her hand wrapped around the blade embedded in her shoulder and I watched as her blood crawled up its surface like watery ropes. I pulled back a little too late, and the blood followed, inching up my hand and arm until it was wrapped all the way to my shoulder.

Without my own powers, the blood continued to travel until it reached my mouth. It pried my lips apart, and I tasted a thick metallic tang on my tongue as it proceeded to drown me.

Choking, I dropped my sword and grabbed for my throat.

Foolish.

Pure stupidity.

I coughed, hacking up blood that was not my own, but more and more came to take its place. I could not swallow it down fast enough.

Soon it would stop. Inkeri could not drain herself. I knew that.

But there was so much. Too much.

I dropped to my knees, still clawing at my throat, leaving deep scratches even though I knew it would do nothing to help me.

Inkeri stepped forward, picking up my fallen sword, so she held one in each hand, menacingly twirling them. "It is an honor to be the one to kill you," she said.

I glared up at her, my vision growing fuzzy around the edges from the lack of oxygen. My baser instincts took over, and I felt my body try to reach for the power that was always there but suddenly wasn't. I felt the pain, searing agony of the brand on my back, but it continued to reach...continued to dig and dig until it touched something else.

No.

Not that.

Anything but that.

Koenma took my youki. That much was true.

But no one was able to take a person's life energy.

I felt a brief sense of euphoria so intense that tears gathered in the wells of my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. Power. So much untouched and untainted power.

It spilled out, covering the hall in an iridescent light, shimmering like sun motes or the surface of clear ice after it's rained.

With the power came more pain. My mouth opened in a silent scream, Inkeri's blood coming up in droves to soak my clothing and cover my face in a red so deep it was black. Even with the expelling of her blood, I still wasn't able to breathe. My life energy flooded out, unstoppable. It burned Inkeri's henchmen to ashes, and it was all she could do to pull up a shield and save herself from the onslaught.

Untamed. Wild. An element unknown to my people.

The energy would not stop. It spilled from within my core like hot oil, and nothing I did would reign it back in.

I was going to die. By my own hand. My body finally betrayed me.

Someone knocked me in the back of the head with something substantial, and I fell forward, still awake but stunned. I rolled on to my back, and the last thing I saw before that same object came down to smash me in the forehead was the wild red of Siobhan's hair.

. . .

For days I slept, dreamless and barren. Someone gave back what I lost, giving up pieces of themselves to fill the void where my life energy once was. The vessel was almost empty, merely drops of it remained, clinging vestiges of what made up my core, and only life could replace life.

Instinctually I knew who it belonged to, but I was of no mind or body to stop him.

When I finally awoke a week had passed, and I could hear the sounds of voices arguing loud enough to hurt my sensitive ears. The light in the room was too bright, and I could see it before I even opened my eyes, so I didn't. Instead, I laid there with my breaths being drawn quick and painful. Panic. Pure panic.

Someone's hands came to rest on my shoulders, shaking me.

"Open your eyes, woman!"

I refused. The light would hurt. The hands on my bare skin felt as if they cut to the bone. Everything ached-everything.

Why? Why was I still here?

I wanted to be dead.

I should have been...

A harsh slap against my cheek forced my eyes to open, and I stared up at the furious face of Jaganshi Hiei. It was like looking into an inferno, the red of his eyes deep and burning.

"About time," he said, backing away. "You lazy waste of air."

Sitting up, I ignored his insult to get a better look at my surroundings.

It wasn't a room I recognized—all except for a framed drawing hung up on the opposite wall above a desk that looked to be used only to throw useless junk on. It was the painting I did of Yusuke for Christmas two years ago. He'd hung it...

Realizing I was in the king's bedroom, I took my chance to take a good long look at everything. His desk was covered in papers and nick-knacks, pens and broken pencils. Then there was the painting above it and several posters pinned to the neutral colored walls. Pieces of clothing were flung in random places on the carpeted floor, and I noticed a sizable bloodstain that someone poorly attempted to scrub out, leaving behind a rusted pink color. Behind the smell of cleaner, I could tell it was Hiei's and I cursed beneath my breath.

He was still injured, and now here he was tending to me...giving me life energy he couldn't spare.

Why...?

He hated me...

Kurama cleared his throat, the only other occupant in the room. He was sitting in Yusuke's rolling desk chair on the far side of the room, most distant from Hiei and I.

My eyes skipped to him for only a second before I pinned the fire demon with my stare instead. I made sure my eyes said everything my lips couldn't and I watched as a sneer spread across his face.

"Another life's debt," he said. "One that you will soon repay."

He reached out and grasped my arm, hauling me out of bed and forcing me to my knees with his hand firmly planted in the center of my back. He pushed harder until I was resting on my forearms, my head bowed so low my hair completely obscured my face.

I was still wearing the clothes from the rehab, I realized. I could see where my arm was bandaged and the bloodstains soaking the front of the shirt. Blood that wasn't my own. So much of it. How many of my people did I kill that night?

No. Not my people.

Magni's.

I felt when my arms began to shake, not from the strain of holding myself up, but from the realization that I was no longer safe inside the walls of Siobhan's legacy. That I broke my vow to never kill another living thing again...and then there was the fact I actually...enjoyed it. It brought on a sense of usefulness, of an old elation once lost to me. I should no longer have felt this way. I tried so hard to rid myself of the last vestiges of the old Etternia.

It would seem I failed...in all sense of the word.

Yusuke's bedroom door opened, and I heard a sharp intake of breath. I did not lift my eyes to look at the person's feet. The feeling of his presence, even lacking the energy I could no longer sense, was enough to tell me who it was.

The King strode into the room and snarled at Hiei, "What the hell are you doing?"

Hiei's hand did not waver. The pressure on my back only became more cumbersome.

And then his voice, dark as the blue blood that ran in his veins, said, "She is swearing her fealty...to you."

My back stiffened beneath his touch, and I felt his fingers skim across my spine almost imperceptible the movement was so slight. The breath I released from my lungs rattled my entire chest.

Fealty, huh?

Another goddamned brand.

Yusuke's Hands all had them—the marks. They weren't obvious, but I'd caught glimpses here and there. Kurama's was the most elusive, as it was in a spot most people wouldn't even think to look. It was a stroke of luck when he decided to show me around his greenhouses one day in a pair of shorts that rode up every time he squatted to check on a plant. And there it was, the mark on his inner thigh.

The mark was simple—a star with many sporadic points colored a bright blue.

Hiei's was on his left shoulder blade. Kuwabara's was on his chest, over his heart.

And now I would be receiving mine directly beside Koenma's brand. Two reminders of how far into the dirt I'd genuinely fallen. But at least with Yusuke's...I could wear it with some pride.

Though I was never meant to belong to anyone.

"She isn't going to be a hand," Yusuke snapped. "Don't be stupid."

"We should have done this a long time ago," Hiei said, tone rough. "You need to know where she is. Always. That is the only way this will work."

"I hate using them for that, and you know it."

"You can't say it hasn't come in handy over the years," Kurama said, taking Hiei's side.

"She agreed to it," Hiei lied, his fingers pressing into my skin, a warning to keep my mouth shut.

"Then why are you holding her down?"

Hiei had no decent reply, and I heard Yusuke release a heavy sigh just before his knees popped into my line of vision. He placed my chin between his forefinger and thumb and lifted my head. "No one is forcing you. But I can keep you safe."

His eyes darted across my face, tired and worried and sad. A look that didn't match who he was. Yusuke Urameshi was not one to be broken or beaten. He didn't give up or give in. Stubbornness should be his middle name. Stubborn and foolish and rash. Everything that attracted my attention to him in the first place—his attitude, the leadership and kindness he exuded. Even when he was just a teenager, I knew he would grow into something great.

Now here he was, his face so weary he looked much older than a man of almost thirty.

I did this to him, I realized. It was me. All of it.

From the start, it was always me.

My tears no longer turned to ice when they spilled, they only soaked the carpet beneath me, drop after drop.

I was never much for crying...not until recently. Now it seemed that was all I did.

Hiei's fingers twitched, and it took all my willpower not to turn and stare at him. Why was I here? What was this?

Suddenly asking me to swear fealty with no explanation, it was absurd.

Was it a case of wanting to keep your enemy closer? Or perhaps it was just their way of gaining better control of me. Just like my father wished. Just like Einarr attempted and almost succeeded. Just like Lord Yomi spent countless hours trying to do.

Someone always wanted control of me.

I was sick of it. Ill from being brought down again and again by a man, whether it be for love or loyalty. I was not so desperate for friendship or allies that I would prostrate myself just to please them. If this is what it took to gain even the smallest grain of forgiveness, I would still say no.

The brand from Koenma was my only option besides the gallows.

It was doubtful they would kill me should I refuse, but I never knew with Hiei. He was almost impossible to read at the best of times, and now he was even more closed off. The feeling of his fingers still firmly pressed into my back hinted at nothing other than the clear warning to stay put.

Realizing they were all staring at me, waiting for me to reply, I cleared my dry throat. "I do not need your protection, my King. And I swear fealty to no one."

"Tch," Hiei's hand moved to the back of my head, gripping my hair and wrenching my head back out of Yusuke's hold. "He might not want to force you, but I do. You will do it, or you will find yourself in a Reikai prison cell."

"Hiei, this isn't what we agreed on!"

"I don't care," he snarled at Yusuke, lips so drawn back I could see his fangs from the corner of my eyes.

"Let her go, Hiei," Kurama's voice was calm and soft, almost resigned. "We won't be handing her over to Spirit World. She's done nothing wrong."

Hiei's hand didn't leave my hair and the look he shot Kurama would have eviscerated a lesser man. After a long moment of intense staring between them, Hiei's hand fell away, and he folded his arms across his chest, face twisted with so much anger it looked agonizing.

Even with my newly gained pseudo freedom, I did not rise from the floor. I took a single look at all the boy's faces, wondered where the last of the hands was and what he would say about this, and then I hung my head again.

Staring at my hands, I waited for whatever they decided to do. That was when I felt the itch again. The burning desire for something to take an edge off of all the emotion filtering around the room. Feelings that were not mine, but I felt strongly nonetheless.

In rehab, I was given medications to curb the need. They were given to me in a little paper cup like clockwork every single day with breakfast and dinner.

How many days did I sleep?

How many days since my last dose?

Kurama rose from his seat, the chair squeaking the only sound in the room. He strode over to me, all long legs and graceful hands, before reaching into his pocket and producing a prescription bottle with my name on it. He placed it in my hands and wrapped them around it, nodding. "Siobhan's parting gift. It is enough to last three months. She said after the pills are gone, you are on your own."

"You saw Siobhan?"

Kurama smiled, secretive but not unkind. "I have known her for quite some time. She is not to be underestimated."

"That's the chick that dropped her off here, right?"

Yusuke sounded so goddamned tired. He was just as sick of all of this mess as I was.

"Mm, the very same," Kurama replied. When he turned back to me, the deep green of his eyes was serious once more. "Don't fall off the precipice so soon. Fight for it, if you want it."

Swallowing, I nodded, and Kurama removed his hands and stood straight, giving his full attention to Yusuke. "I am going to hitch a ride home with Kazuma. He's been sleeping on the couch for hours now, he should be in a proper bed."

Yusuke nodded and walked him out, whispering as they went, leaving me alone with Hiei.

He stood too close, the warmth at my back suffocating as I took a pill from the bottle and swallowed it dry. I waited for some derisive comment, but none was forthcoming. He merely stood there, watching me with a gaze I could feel eating its way through the back of my skull.

His fingers connected once again with my scalp and I expected to feel him tearing at my hair, but his hands only brushed as much of it aside as he could, digging for a better look at what was beneath. "More tattoos," he murmured.

"Mm. A wolf on one side...a raven on the other," I informed him. "My clan's known familiars."

The pads of Hiei's fingers brushed across the fine hairs on the side of my head, hair that was once shaven much like Inkeri's was, back before my time as a Volva. When I was a leader in my father's army. A long-forgotten memory I wished would stay buried.

Pulling away from Hiei, I buried my own hands in my hair and curled in on myself. What was I doing here?

"You almost died."

His voice was almost soft, and it startled me, making my back go rigid, and my nails dig into my skull. "What is your goal here, Hiei? What happened while I was sleeping?"

He moved around me, slow and menacing, and when we were face to face, he crouched to be at eye level. His red flashed with fury, his smirk profoundly wicked, and teeth bared in a clear threat. He ground them together as if he wanted to chew his words and spit them at me. "Yusuke needs you. He needs you under his control, more specifically, because your brother has played his hand."

"What do you mean? What has Einarr done?"

Hiei's smirk turned darker still, and he rose to stride over to Yusuke's single bedroom window. He threw open the curtain, and with great trepidation, I rose to my feet.

Each step I took closer made my stomach drop further until I was looking at a post-apocalyptic world as if something from a movie.

The sky was lit up with fire...red blazing across the city for miles. The places that weren't burning were covered in frozen ice tundras, seawater creating jagged spikes and edges and sheer cliffs. My eyes took more and more in—the buildings caving in on each other, falling into the ground that was torn apart from earthquakes and massive flaming meteors.

This was the darkness always looming at the back of my mind. The darkness that Magni and Einarr heralded and I did nothing to stop.

Nothing other than becoming a distraction.

And that was precisely what they were both hoping for.

Once, I thought I was the Queen, slowly traversing the board with the King. Moving him exactly where he needed to be to be most useful to me.

I was wrong. So irrevocably wrong.

I was not the Queen or the King or even a Knight. No.

I was a pawn.

A pawn that played right into my own son's hands.

. . .

A/N: Annnd, here is where shit really hits the fan.

This chapter is super long. And I am total shit at writing action scenes, haha. I hope y'all don't hate it.

Also, I'm sorry I've been pretty absent. I have had on going health issues and life kind of kicked me in the balls this year (again), so I haven't been writing much. I will update as often as I can, so please bear with me.