Ticking Timebomb

Chapter 49 – Living on Anesthetic

. . .

Before she could attack me further I had Kasumi pinned to the stone floor. I pressed my toes into the ground, pushing back as she fought me, feet slipping on it's smooth surface. It had been awhile since I'd fought her and I had not truly realized how strong she had grown.

The drug flowing through her veins tossed her inhibitions to the wind. Even as I held her with all the upper body strength I had she clawed and punched like a wild animal. But it was when she bit me that I stopped trying to restrain her.

As a human, Kasumi didn't know what it meant. That it staked a claim she had no right to. She was just damn lucky it hadn't broken skin. I might have killed her if it had.

As it was, I did flip her over and kick her off me. She shot up into the air before falling hard to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She laid there stunned for a long time and I remained laying on the ground, just trying to catch my breath. I clapped a hand to my neck, reassuring myself that the skin there was intact.

"...Hiei?"

I heaved a great breath and closed my eyes. "Have you come to your senses?"

"I'm not sure...are the walls supposed to be moving?"

I scoffed. At least she wasn't trying to attack me anymore. "Of course not, idiot."

"What's happening to me?"

I sat up, staring across the cave to where she had landed. She looked pitiful. She'd curled up onto her side and her hands were fisted against her temples. I knew the drug would work fast, as it was designed, but if it made her sick it would defeat its purpose. I didn't have more to give her.

"Nothing is happening to you. It's merely the serum."

"You fucking poisoned me."

I sighed. She could be so irritating. "Don't be dramatic."

She coughed, unable to catch her breath. The fit did not immediately subside. And so I rose to my feet and crossed the threshold to her side. She'd clamped both hands over her mouth as if to stop them that way. It was unfortunate that the first thing the sickness targeted was the lungs. She'd be coughing for some time yet, even once the serum did its job.

I hauled her up into a sitting position, whacking her on the back twice to get her to stop. She loosed one last feeble moan and then drew quiet, staring at nothing. I had done my best to avoid reading her mind, knowing she did not want me there. After the night we'd come for her at Konstantin's keep she had erected a mental barrier. It was one I could break, if I wished. But I respected her wishes and kept my distance. She would let me in when she was ready.

Until then...I would take this opportunity to ask her outright what she was hiding. It was one of the reasons I'd asked Yusuke to leave. I knew she would be more likely to talk without an audience.

"Whatever you're seeing isn't real," I said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I am right beside you."

As if in slow motion her eyes finally shifted from the dying fire to pin me with her gaze. She reached out, both hands held aloft. My natural instinct told me to flinch away. But I stayed, curious.

She cupped both of my cheeks, her hands like ice compared to the heat of my skin. And then leaned in a little too close. Too tempting. She smelt like sickness and sweat but underlying there was that smell that was naturally Kasumi. It was a scent I could never forget, no matter how often I tried to purge it from my mind.

Her pupils were so large I could have almost confused those eyes for Chronos' if it wasn't for the small ring of gray around them. She blinked once...twice and then her face screwed up.

"You're on fire," she whispered.

"My body temperature is naturally higher than most." I explained, as if she were numb.

"No...like, you're on fire."

I closed my eyes briefly to collect myself. I needed to keep my patience in check. She was under the influence of the drug. And it was causing her to hallucinate. That's all it was.

"I guess it doesn't bother you. Being a fire demon and all."

I reached up and grabbed her hands in mine, drawing them away from my face. "If I was burning wouldn't you be as well?"

She looked down at her hands held in mine and then back up at me. She chewed it over for a second and then shrugged. "But it feels like I'm burning every time you touch me."

I sucked in a sharp breath at her words. Said so innocently but holding so much hidden meaning. I told myself that she didn't know what she was saying. She had less control over herself than even when she was drunk. It was pointless to look into anything she said.

"You have no idea what you say..."

"It's true though...and your voice...and your eyes...the way you carry yourself. It drives me fucking nuts."

Before I had time to come up with some sort of response, she struggled to stand and then made her way over to her forgotten pack. She rummaged around for awhile before shouting an, "Ah-ha!" And pulling out some sort of packaged food. She made her way back towards me with her prize, but not before tripping and falling on her face. I rolled my eyes, suppressing the chuckle I could feel building in my chest.

She got back up, tossing the floor an indignant glance, and finally plopped back down beside me. She handed me the item in her hands with a smile. I took one look at it and sneered. "Cup noodles?"

"Will you cook them for me?"

"What do I look like, a stove?"

"Well...now that you mention it."

I glared at her. This goddamned woman...

But it did not faze her, she only smiled and then took the cup back. She set it down on the ground in front of her and just eyed it, as if willing it to cook all on its own. Kami help me...

I was about to pick the damned noodles up and throw them when she said, "I've been lying to you."

Ah...

I thought it would have taken more prying on my part. More pretending to get along, more playing of her games.

But I had decided I was done playing some time ago.

"That's obvious."

She curled into herself then, wrapping her arms around her legs and burying her face into her knees. I thought she was going to cry, but no sounds of sobbing reached my ears. She merely sat collecting her thoughts. I waited, silent, preparing for whatever bomb she was about to drop on me.

But it never came. Or at least, not the one I had been expecting. Instead a hand shot out and grabbed the collar of my shirt. I was wrenched sideways, caught off guard. I planned to defend myself, thinking she was asking for a fight again. But I was sorely mistaken.

Her mouth slammed into mine. All teeth and chapped lips and a hunger I had never expected from her. It made a fire rage through my veins. It made me stop breathing, if for just a moment. Because I had not expected it and I did not know if I wanted this or not. But damn if it wasn't good.

She tasted just as I remembered, bitter and sweet without even trying. I hadn't realized how much I craved this until I suddenly didn't have it. And so I fought back. I fought with fang and tongue and a slick, wet heat unlike any other. I wanted to eat her alive. I wanted to touch and taste and feel until I was filled up with nothing but Kasumi.

And I hated myself for that weakness. I hated her for bringing it out in me.

But more than anything I hated the way it made me not hate it at all.

She broke away from me, almost violently. Her eyes were wide, horrified at what she'd done. And like some pathetic fool I reached forward to kiss her again. Craving more of that contact - more of her.

She backed away from me, sliding until her back hit the wall of the cave. She clapped both hands over her mouth...and then...

Was she laughing?

Kasumi broke down into hysterical giggles even as I watched tears well in her eyes and spill down her face. She ended up stuck somewhere between sobbing and broken laughter. I had no idea what to do or what to say to make her stop. So just like the storm that raged outside I waited for whatever this was to pass.

When it did - snot running down her face - she let her hands drop like rocks to the floor. They smacked the stone but no pain registered in her eyes. She didn't clean herself up or even rub away the tears. She just sat there, dejected, broken...lost.

"They tortured me, Hiei."

"I know," I whispered. I had seen the scars. Just like then, my fire burned a hot trail through my blood in outrage. The suffering she'd gone through...the strength it would have taken to come out even some semblance of who she once was...

I knew that suffering. I knew the anguish and the rage and the undeniable pain. I would not have blamed her if she decided to hate us all after this. After what we had put her through...what the Reikai and Koenma...all of us, were making her do.

I hadn't wanted to think about what was to come. That when she went to close the gate that it could very well mean her death. Ryuunosuke needed to die. If we did not make it in time...and the gate opened...

The world wouldn't end. She wouldn't let it, I knew that. The cost of one for billions. That is the price she would pay...what we would all pay. And she would go with a smile and some smart ass remark and not even give a damn because she was doing it for the greater good.

Fuck the greater good.

"He tortured me," she whispered again. "And I can't even hate him."

My brow scrunched in confusion, "Who?" Surely she didn't mean Konstantin.

"Caius..." she breathed.

Caius...that bastard. He'd touched her as if he were familiar with her body, as if they were long lost lovers who'd been reunited. So self-assured and confident, dressed like some ostentatious bird. I'd disliked him the second I'd laid eyes on him.

But then I put it into context, what she was trying to tell me. I had to bite back the scathing remark I had on the tip of my tongue. Instead, I asked through clenched teeth, "Caius was the one who tortured you?"

But she wasn't listening again. Her eyes saw right through me, to somewhere far away and forgotten.

"Kasumi?"

Her head fell back against the damp stone of the cave. She still had sweat beading on her brow, the fever having yet to break. I could see her suffering. I could feel it with every weak pulse of her energy and every sluggish breath she drew into her lungs.

Now was not the time to incite anger. Caius would pay for what he'd done if I should ever come across him again. Even if Kasumi had taken a strange liking to him.

I made my way over to her, crouching in front of her and waiting for her to come back to her senses. Her eyes still staring somewhere beyond my shoulder she slowly began to speak.

I stayed silent, afraid to break whatever spell she was under. But each word she spoke brought an unbridled rage along with it.

"I was captured in the woods...somewhere. Big men, demons...wolves were chasing me. They slaughtered them. Took their pelts."

I'd garnered as much during our investigation. This was nothing I didn't already know.

"And then...we traveled for a long time. My energy was trapped...hidden. They took all my things other than the clothes on my back.

I was beaten into submission before we even reached...that place. The keep. Konstantin kept me locked up at first behind energy suppressing bars."

That's why the Jagan hadn't been able to find her the entire time we'd searched. Human slave trade was alive and well in demon world, even in our time. Humans with spirit energy would have been coveted.

"That first night...and the night after that...and the one after that...well. You know. So I agreed to stay, to fight for him."

She took a deep shuddering breath and her eyes cleared. "Hiei, I'm so sorry. I'm so weak."

I held up a hand, dragging the back of my knuckles down her cheek, seeing in her eyes she wouldn't be able to speak further. Her energy waned, calling for sleep.

So I whispered, "Show me."

She hesitated, that doubt in her eyes making my skin crawl with some unknown worry. But after a time she nodded, leaning back against the wall once more.

I reached up, fingers outstretched, and placed them in the center of her forehead. As always, she shivered at my touch. The effect I had on her...

It made my blood boil. It was...intoxicating. A power unlike any I had ever before held in my palms.

But now was not the time to think of such things.

I delved into her mind, into her very being. I picked through memories, timelines, vivid and beautiful dreams. I passed by it all, in search of that one string of memories. And when I found it...walked through them in her body...experienced all that had been done to her in her place...

I pulled back, violent, raging. I was shaking with my anger.

My anger at what had been done to her...but also, at what she'd kept hidden

"Caius is the dragon." It wasn't a question. I didn't want an answer, not from her.

I rose, unable to look at her. She'd let him get away. She had purposely prolonged our agenda because she had grown to like him. Her reasoning did not matter, none of it mattered. She could have taken the heart and been done with it.

I wished I could say I had not expected such a blatant betrayal from her.

"I never meant to cause any harm," she said, voice soft, pleading.

"You never meant any harm?" I parroted back, voice devoid of emotion.

She didn't pick up on the slow burn of my fury, didn't realize it was directed at her just as much as it wasn't. The cave grew hazy with the heat. My power flowed out freely – unbidden, uncontrollable – as wild as a forest fire.

She stared at me, eyes just as hazy as the air around us. But even as high as she was she still managed to surprise me.

"I made a choice that night Hiei." She shifted, so she was sitting up straighter. "I don't want the heart. I don't need it."

I scoffed, "How do you plan to beat Ryuunosuke then?"

She smiled, a look of sadness, lacking happiness in every crease of her mouth. "I don't."

The pulsing of my core, the intensity of my heat, the feeling building in my chest – it shifted, broke, changed.

I clenched my jaw, swallowing hard, and lifted my chin to her in a subtle acknowledgment. "You plan to die."

"No," she breathed, "No, Hiei. I plan to fight. I will not go down without taking him with me." She splayed a hand across her chest, over her heart. "This I promise you."

"Just when I thought you could not become more of an idiot," I sneered.

She used the cave wall as support, sliding up it so she was standing. Eye to eye now, the gray of hers hardened to steel.

"Are we really gonna have this argument when I'm high as a goddamn kite?"

So she'd noticed. At least she no longer thought she was poisoned. "I'm surprised your feeble brain bothered to notice."

She wiped the snot from her nose with the tips of her fingers, dragging the stream across her face. She sucked the rest back in, hocking it into the back of her throat so she could spit it to the floor.

My lips curled in disgust.

"Attractive right?" she said with a sarcastic smile. "I won't be much of a loss. So stop giving a shit about it."

She moved away then, keeping a hand steady on the wall, to help guide her through the cave. Her words had a left a mark, more than I liked to admit. I knew she had wanted to sacrifice herself...but I was hoping something would change her mind, give her hope. But it seemed that everything we'd done thus far had only solidified that idea.

"You lied to me," I spoke to her back.

She halted her shuffling, hanging her head as if defeated. "I didn't lie. I kept things to myself."

"I see no difference."

"I am allowed to have secrets!" she snapped.

"Not of this magnitude. You jeopardized everything."

She swayed on her feet, crumbling like broken glass. I didn't like her so weak. So complacent. Where was her fire? Where had the old Kasumi gone?

"I saved his life. You saw...you saw why I did it."

"You have a bleeding heart."

She turned to pin me with a glare then, "At least I have one, bleeding or otherwise."

Those words bit into me, silencing any words that may have left my lips. I snapped my mouth closed, successfully cowed.

She shook her head and turned away, continuing her slow shuffling to the cave's entrance. I wanted to ask where she was going...but then again, I didn't really care.

She stumbled out into the pouring rain, passing by Yusuke without even a glance. He'd found the only dry spot, beneath a small outcropping near the cave's opening. But Kasumi and I were soaked within seconds of stepping outside.

She walked out into the raging storm, raising her hands towards the sky, chin upturned, letting the rain run over her face.

The rain washed away everything, the dirt, the sweat, the tears. The cold did not stop her, nor did the powerful gusts of wind.

She began to twirl, feet pounding into the mud, splashing it up and on her so the rain could wash it away again.

Her hair whipped around her head with each jerk of her body, with each spin of her feet, shaking of her hips, and movement of her hands.

Kasumi stood in that storm and danced until her legs could no longer bear her weight. She danced like no one was watching, even though Yusuke and I both stood stunned into silence at the display. But I had a very different reason for watching in reverential awe.

Because for the first time since meeting Kasumi I'd thought...I'd thought she'd looked...beautiful...

Even through my still simmering anger, even though she had kept things from me again...and the fact she planned to die in what felt like only a few short months...

I still had never seen her quite so...breathtaking.

. . .

We spent three long days in that cave. After the first night under the influence of the drug Kasumi's mood had evened out. But she had blatantly ignored me as best she could since. When she did have to speak to me it was with clipped short sentences or one word answers. She spent the rest of the time with Yusuke, who had kept his mouth shut for the most part. He knew more than what he was letting on. I knew his hearing was better than a human's, though perhaps not as sharp as mine or Kurama's.

On the last night, after Kasumi had drifted off to sleep in the corner she'd claimed as her own, Yusuke had pulled me aside.

"What is going on with you two?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Listen, I'm all for keeping out of people's business. But this shit is getting old."

I ignored him, concentrating on stoking the fire. I heard him sigh in annoyance. "Oh good, the silent treatment."

He grabbed my shoulder, wrenching me around to look at him. "She isn't out to get you. Look at what's on her plate, Hiei. Look at what she's facing!"

I ripped away from him. "Don't you think I know that?!" I growled.

"You're in denial. About a lot of things. Do you want what little time you might have left to be like this?"

My eyes narrowed. I could feel myself shaking, from fury or bitterness or pain, I didn't know which. This was no business of his. How dare he...how dare he even suggest...!

"You have written her off as good as dead, just as she has done," I snarled, voice low, aware of the sleeping body not far from us.

"Come on man," he said on a sigh. "She's my friend too and that's the last thing I want. But we need to face the fact that there's a good chance it's going to happen."

My eyes drifted to the girl in the corner. She was sitting up, sword resting against her shoulder, hands clutched around it. Her bed roll was wrapped around her shoulders. Hair slicked back, one side shaved but in the beginnings of growing back in. Lashes resting against alabaster cheeks. Lips chapped, but the color having returned after days of illness.

She'd become such a constant part of my daily life that I didn't want to imagine what it would be like without her there anymore. I did not want to think there would come a day I could no longer climb in her window, watch her while she slept, heckle her until she snapped. How long had it been since I'd met her?

Not long enough to feel this way.

I was a fool...a useless, broken, weak fool.

"She's not going to die," I finally said, the fire having left me. "We will find the heart. And I will end Ryuunosuke before the prophecy has time to pass."

"So we get the heart, then what? Do you even have a clue what we're supposed to do with it?"

I nodded. Yes, that was the other reason Hitomi had asked to see me the day we'd left. Why she had bothered to tell me all this instead of her sister I would never know.

Once again I fingered the ring in my pocket. With Yusuke's nosy gaze following my every move I walked towards Kasumi, crouching until I was close enough to reach for one of her hands. I was careful, quiet, so she would not stir. I placed the simple ring, bearing a stone of deep green, upon her left ring finger.

It exuded a bit of power, but not enough for an untrained eye to notice.

When I returned to Yusuke he just stared at me with a raised eyebrow. "Keep your mouth shut if you know what is good for you," I snapped.

He raised his hands defensively, "Aren't you supposed to do that when she's awake?"

"What?"

"Ya know, propose?"

"Propose what?"

He looked at me as if I were daft. I had no idea what proposal he could be talking about. What did a ring have to do with it in the first place?

Yusuke snorted, doing his best to hold back laughter. I glared at him, confused on what could possibly be so funny. This was not the time for jokes or mirth. And I hated being mocked.

"Do you have a death wish?"

He snorted again, tears in his eyes. "Sometimes I forget how stupid demons can be."

"What did you just say?!"

He shook his head, swallowing the laughter and said, "Nevermind. It's nothing. Lets get back to the heart issue."

My lip curled in confusion, but I let him change the subject, if for the simple fact that I didn't want to talk about it anyway. "I had a meeting with the sister before I left. She explained what must be done."

"The sister...? You mean Hitomi?"

I nodded and his mouth turned down in contemplation. "So, what did she tell you?"

I was about to tell him, when a raspy voice interrupted with the exact answer I had been about to give. "It needs to be eaten."

Yusuke's eyes shot to the girl across the cave, surprise etched into his features. My eyes traveled their way to her at a much slower pace, as if I wished to avoid the inevitable.

She still sat the same as before, hands clutched around her sword, bed roll wrapped around her. But now her eyes were open. And for the past three days they've looked exactly the same – hard, cold, empty...but resolute.

"You have to eat it?!" Yusuke shrieked, disgusted.

Kasumi didn't answer him, she was too busy staring at the ring on her finger. She held her hand up, flashing the piece of jewelry. "Real sweet of you Hiei, but what the fuck is this?"

My jaw dropped just a bit. The little bitch had been awake the entire time. How the hell had she fooled me?!

She laughed bitterly, "Right. Okay." But she wasn't talking to either of us.

I stiffened. The god hadn't reared its head in weeks. Why now?

"Nevermind, I see what it is now," she said to me.

"What the hell?" said Yusuke.

"Chronos explained. I don't sleep unless she's awake now."

"What?" I hissed.

She rolled her eyes at me. "It's not much different than what you do with the Jagan."

"Except the god can't be trusted!" I was on my feet, ready to start a fight with her again. Ready to put her in her place. Ready to just hear her say anything to me other than yes or no or some other one word reply that made me want to rip my hair out.

She watched me with hollow eyes. A single brow raised. Not willing to be baited. No longer willing to fight me.

I snarled once and stalked from the cave without a backwards glance. Yusuke called after me but I did not return.

I needed space. Needed a chance to breathe without her scent filling my senses.

It was still raining, as it had done for days. We were here at a bad time – monsoon season. But the pelting water did not bother me. I was just thankful it was not an acid rain.

But the rain came with its own disadvantages. For I had not sensed nor seen the man that stood outside our makeshift hideout. And in my animosity towards Kasumi's latest bout of anger inducing idiocy I had been blinded to the demon's energy signature.

For standing in that pouring rain, long hair soaked to the point it stuck to every bare piece of skin, was the dragon Caius. In his arms was the limp body of a tiny girl, hair and skin just as obsidian black as his own.

I had never thought in my wildest dreams the man would be stupid enough to come to us. A bad day had just turned itself into something remarkable.

"Hello Jaganshi," he said. "Is Kasumi inside?"

But before I could answer him, his energy flared. Not a warning or challenge, but a desperate call for help. A cry for the girl that had spent weeks within this man's presence.

A cry for the woman he had tortured...for the woman he had abused and damaged beyond repair.

"Like hell," I snarled. And without a second thought I charged towards him.

Only to smack face first into a barrier. I fell backwards into the mud, staring up towards the deluge in disbelief.

Kasumi stood over me, hand held out, a single eye having flooded black. The barrier was powerful, near impenetrable. But I don't think she realized just how fucking furious something like this would make me.

I rose from the mud with a carefully constructed fake calm. And through gritted teeth I spoke, "Take down the barrier."

Her face held true remorse but she still shook her head. "I can't. Not unless you promise not to touch him."

"Take down the barrier Kasumi!" I hollered.

She did not use words. She did not argue. She only pulled her broadsword from its sheathe, tossing the container aside, she held the blade aloft.

"Hey guys, come on, lets talk this out!"

Neither of us paid attention to Yusuke. Neither of us cared.

Even if that bastard Caius hadn't shown his face this had been a long time coming. The tension between Kasumi and I had reached a peak...and it had just fallen over the edge.

My energy burned through me, causing the rain that hit my skin to turn to steam. Through the mist I felt her come and pulled my blade the exact moment hers came swinging towards me. They clanged together, sparks flashing.

We sprung apart only to charge each other again. I didn't use my speed to my advantage. I fought on equal par with her. I wanted this. I needed this.

And so did she.

There was no rhyme or reason to our fighting. We used swords and fists and feet without abandon. And she fought with all her might, even with her still healing injuries.

Eventually we gave up on sword play all together, tossing the blades aside like so much trash. Then it was the smack of skin on skin, the taste of blood in our mouths – bruises and pain and heated intensity.

No one dared interrupt.

And even if they had they would have been met with the same fate.

We spoke with each droplet of blood that was shed, with each new wound rent into skin. We spoke with violence where words had failed us. Because like me, Kasumi repressed everything she could. She spoke in terms of anger and pain and cold callousness because she knew no other way. Not now. Not when so much weighed on her.

And as she swung another fist towards my face I came to a realization. I grabbed her fist in my palm before it could connect. When she swung with the left I grabbed that one too and pulled her close.

She struggled at first, but I watched as the fight drained from her in due course. "Enough," I whispered. "Enough..."

"That's enough..." I breathed again.

And then she was slumped against me, a bloody, bruised, and broken mess.

I fisted a hand into the hair at the back of her skull and pressed her to me, not nearly close enough.

I tipped my head towards the rain, eyes closed...just as broken as she was.

When the barrier fell from around Caius I did not make a move to hurt him. In fact, I ignored him completely.

Because Kasumi was mumbling into my neck. Words that would have been unintelligible to anyone else.

But I heard...

And I wished with all my might I hadn't.

. . .

A/N: And that's the end of Hiei's POV for awhile. What did Kasumi say to him? What the hell is Caius doing there?

Find out next time! And thank you everyone for reading!