Just realised it's been nearly a year since I started this thing! Crazy! Thanks for waiting so patiently for an update. This chapter dragged, and I've been busy with exams, and a new job, etc. The dynamics are starting to heat up, so I hope you enjoy this one! Also went back and updated the formatting a little on previous chapters, so hopefully they're easier to read. :)
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Chapter Five
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The next morning was painful. Shura had barely slept and the bags under her eyes were black as bruises. She'd awoken with a start in that big plush bed, and she could feel his presence like a thundercloud as soon as her eyes opened. Mephisto was not happy. Shura quailed from the memories of what had put him in such a bad mood. Even the thought of his touch was enough to send a stab of heat through her abdomen… Shura shivered, feeling her eyes ache with unshed tears. Normally life was fairly uncomplicated for the exorcist. If she wanted something, she indulged. Never before had she wanted something that would destroy her. Mephisto was a demon. She knew he would argue that Rin was too, but there was a darkness in him that scared her. He tried to hide it with his goofy clothes, and flamboyant personality, but there were times where his true nature seeped through the cracks. Sometimes the curl of his smile, and the flash of cleverness in his eyes, showed an intellect so vast, and alien, and cruel, that Shura knew that letting him lay so much as a finger on her would be a grave mistake. Already she was paying for her indiscretion last night. Mephisto lay still on the other side of the bed. Shura snuck a look at his tense back. He was awake. She could feel his irritation at her like a bruise, as well as a flicker of desire that made her toes curl.
Shura felt frustration well up like poison. Was he literally always horny?
Shura rolled further away and forced her eyes shut. It was still early, and the longer she slept the less time she'd have to spend with her jailor.
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When she awoke it was to bliss. Shura didn't open her eyes, just enjoyed the feeling of total relaxation and warmth. Mephisto was holding her. The realisation came slowly, but she couldn't ignore the feeling of his chest rising and falling beneath her, nor the way his strong arms were wrapped around her. The exorcist wished she could. She felt too good to move away from him, peaceful in a way that she couldn't explain. Shura nearly purred when Mephisto played with her hair, scraping his nails lightly over her scalp. Her breath must be tickling his neck, but the pulse under her cheek was steady. The exorcist stirred, enjoying the stretch in her muscles as she moved. Mephisto made a pleased sound, his chest rumbling underneath her. Shura back arched with a breathy little gasp as his hands started to roam, fingertips trailed softly over her skin. His touch was stroking her body back to life, rousing her from her daze.
'Literally, always horny,' she thought wryly. But as her body started to tingle, the haze started to fade from her mind. Alarm bells rung faintly, even as she pressed herself closer. Mephisto shifted beneath her, pressing his face against her neck.
"We shouldn't be doing this," she breathed.
Mephisto groaned. His voice was a growl as he started to lave her neck with kisses.
"Say you want me."
Shura gasped dreamily at the sensation of his hot mouth on her throat. "No."
Mephisto nipped. He turned rougher, turning the slow, gentle burn into flame. His fingers dug into the firm curves of her ass, and Shura cried out with delight.
"Say you want me." His voice was hypnotic.
"No." Shura's voice trembled as her hips ground against him, trying to get some relief as Mephisto tormented her.
His phone rang.
Shura pulled away with him with a gasp, heart pounding with the shock of the tinny music. The sudden chill of being away from his warm body swept the cloud of sleepiness and lust from her mind, and Shura was horrified. Mephisto let out a howl of frustration that she'd eluded him once more and stormed out of the bed. He grabbed his phone as he left, and a few minutes later Shura heard a window shatter in the other room. She lay in the bed, gasping for air and her heart threatening to beat right out her chest. The exorcist didn't understand what was happening. The thought of being with Mephisto made her throat fill with bile, even now hot shame sat like a lead in her stomach. But somehow the lightest touch made every rational thought fly out of the window. As if hearing her thoughts Mephisto appeared at the doorway, still not able to move far from her side. His mask was nearly perfect. But Shura trembled at the look in his eyes.
"Get ready."
Reluctantly, Shura climbed out of bed and started getting changed. She pretended that she didn't know Mephisto was watching.
An hour later the mood was still sour. They were in a meeting of all things, trying to hammer out the details of the upcoming exorcist exam. The process was always painful, but sitting next to someone you weren't talking to made it even harder. Being this close to him made her skin crawl. Not for the first time she lamented her bad luck. She could feel the bags under her eyes and Shura knew that she was getting odd looks from the other teachers. The chatter about the exam passed by this a blur of sound. Shura felt her eyelids drooping.
'Ma'am! What demon would you consider for the exam?!"
Shura's eyelids felt like they were glued together. She cracked an eye open, and peered at the impertinent young teacher.
"S'good… question. Needs m're thought…"
She was out like a light before they could ask her anything else.
A few hours later, a flash of light brought her back to consciousness. Shura jolted muzzily upright with an unattractive blort. The room was empty, and Mephisto was twirling his phone in his long fingers.
"I've never actually seen someone blow snot bubbles in their sleep before," he said with a wry smile. "Your charms never fail to amuse me."
Shura groaned and swatted him lazily. "Yer such a pain in the ass," she groused. "Best nap I've had in weeks."
They were quiet for a while then, the silence truly comfortable for the first time since they'd been joined.
Mephisto broke the silence. "Miss Shura, I don't know about you, but all this arguing is rather tiresome."
He looked unusually sincere. His eyes lingered on the dark circles under her eyes, and her pinched face. He extended an elegant hand. "Truce?"
Shura narrowed her eyes.
The demon sighed. "I think it best to try and put the whole… uncomfortable situation behind us. We will never be friends, but we can get on until this is over."
Shura pursed her lips. A respite from this unending tension sounded nice, but…
"Y'just want sex."
Mephisto chuckled and the sound was like a caress. "Of course. You are a very beautiful lady after all, Miss Shura. But I'm not a Neanderthal. You won't find yourself being carried off into my lair."
Shura glowered at him. "Pinky swear ya won't start anythin'."
Mephisto grinned at her, totally unrepentant. "Ah, you can't expect me to do all the work for you, Miss Shura. I am a demon after all."
Shura's lips tightened but a little snort of laughter slipped through anyway.
Mephisto chuckled too, but his smile seemed a little worn. "Frankly, I think we're both exhausted from this."
Shura chewed her lip as she looked at the table. Even she could admit that no living creature could handle this level of pressure for long. Shura still didn't trust Mephisto at all, but she knew that sooner of later the tension was going to break. And if they didn't tread careful, it was going to be with a double homicide.
Shura forced a smile.
"Fine," she said. She shook Mephisto's hand, still a little reluctant. "We can try."
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Truces were underrated. Shura settled further into the plush beanbag with a deep sigh, her eyes fluttering shut and a small smile on her face. Bliss. Mephisto was sitting on a beanbag next to her, but respectfully had placed himself as far away as he could. The edge of deep distrust was still there, but even just accepting it made Shura feel lighter than she had in days. She hated to admit it, but Mephisto was right about the stress being too much. Lounging around and reading magazines together was odd, and still a little tense, but it was better than being at each other's throats. A few fights weren't the end of the world, but Shura knew that after the weeks of constant tension she was dangerously close to losing her marbles. She wasn't one to stress normally, she'd faced some scary monsters in her time, but deep down Mephisto frightened her in a way the ugliest creatures couldn't. He acted like a tame exorcist but some animal instinct made her hair stand on end whenever he was around. And her inexplicable attraction to him was making it harder. His touch made her gut clench with desire, and bile rise in her throat. As hard-headed as she was, Shura knew that nobody could live like that for long.
So that was why she was currently chilling on a big, puffy beanbag with a prince of hell, reading about celeb love lives. It was bizarre, but the relief was worth feeling a little like she'd gone through the looking glass. They'd been sitting together for a couple of hours now, carefully and politely ignoring each other. Shura snuck him a glance and noticed that though he held his magazine open, he was just staring distantly at the page. She smothered a smile. He really was making an effort to make her feel a little better. Of course, if she did something really crazy, he was going down with her, but still the gesture made her feel oddly soft. She took pity on him.
Clearing her throat, she said, "D'ya hear? Keti Kash is pregnant again."
Mephisto's head snapped up, his mouth hanging open.
"No!" He gasped.
Shura turned the magazine and he studied the glossy pictures intently.
"Who's the dad this time?" He asked.
Shura shrugged. "Think it's the same guy as the last one, the underwear model."
Mephisto looked impressed. "She's inhuman."
Shura snorted with laughter. "I wish we could get Angel to investigate her as a potential possession case."
Mephisto's eyes glittered with mischief. "A most intriguing idea, princess. I will give it some thought."
She cackled at the thought of the infamous Keti Kash getting her claws in Angel, and Mephisto's wide smile glittered with fangs.
The last bit of tension between them lost some its edge after that. Shura knew that this peace couldn't last forever, they were too different to get along for long, but for now she was content.
Mephisto's velvet voice finally broke the comfortable silence. "Princess, what kind of muscles do you prefer your man to have?"
Shura blinked at her comic, her expression going blank. "I understand all the words ya just said, but the order they're in is giving me trouble."
Mephisto gave her an amused glance, but obediently held up his magazine. The page was pink and very sparkly. Squinting at the blinding colours, Shura could just make out, 'Discover Your Dream Prince!', and a strange flowchart.
"Who's on offer?" She asked despite herself.
Mephisto smiled lazily, "Answer the questions and you'll find out."
Shura looked at him for a moment, before shrugging indolently. "Eh, middle of the road, I guess. Put lean or something there."
Her companion was quiet for a moment as he dutifully jotted her answer down. "Okay, hair colour?"
Shura looked up lazily and pursed her lips as she stared at the ceiling. "Dark hair."
A smile curled at Mephisto's lips and he winked. "Your options are looking good, my dear. Now, do you prefer cute, weak guys that you can mother, or strong guys that look really cool?"
Shura stared at him. He laughed at her expression. "I'll put that down as strong."
Mephisto chewed on the end of his pen, and the exorcist found herself distracted by the flash of fangs.
"All my answers are going ta be, like, hot, strong and dependable." Shura's eyes grew dreamy at the thought of her perfect man. "How 'bout 'gives good massages', and rich. Then I'll be happy." She laughed loudly and Mephisto chuckled as he filled in the rest of the quiz.
He flashed her a look of pure mischief, but seemed to physically restrain himself from saying something. He returned to the quiz, toting up numbers.
"Shura, my dear. This is your dream man!" He held the magazine aloft and Shura gazed up at the picture of her beloved.
"Wow, sexy." Shura gave the image an admiring look. "Who is he?"
Mephisto gave her a shocked look. "Only the coolest pirate in the entire world. He cut an island in half."
Shura pretended to fan herself, and he laughed. But there was still a sly curl to his smile that she didn't quite understand.
After that strange, almost friendly, interlude there was about half an hour of reading magazines and ignoring each other, before Shura's nerve broke.
"This is freakin' me out," she said with a sigh.
She threw down her magazine, as Mephisto stretched and checked the time on his phone.
"Better than I expected, my lady. Patience is not one of your many virtues."
Shura pulled a face at him, but that wasn't really debatable. Mephisto stood, and tossed down his own reading.
"I'm going to have a shower, and give you an opportune moment to pretend I don't exist. I expect the reprieve will do wonders for your blood pressure."
Shura couldn't help a snort of laughter at that. It was true.
A bit later when she sat with her back pressed to the shower door, listening to the spray of water, she realised why Mephisto looked so smug. Her dream man sounded an awful lot like him.
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Growing demon plants was much harder than Shiemi had anticipated. Especially since her beloved Nee-chan was still being held captive somewhere, and she had to go into this rather blind.
"A-Amaimon, I'm sure having Nee back would – uh, help me. Help me grow the plant, I mean," she said with a nervous laugh.
His expression could have been carved from marble.
"No."
Shiemi patted more soil down around the strange, ugly plant. Her face puffed up with annoyance, she glowered at the little blue shoot. It wasn't growing well, and Shiemi was worried. She talked to it constantly, trying to encourage it, but she knew she was doing something wrong. She had a suspicion that the plant knew she was afraid of it.
"Amaimon," she tried again. "I think I need to go see the adult plant again. I don't know what will make it grow right."
She peeked nervously at her captor, and was a little disheartened to see him drag his hands slowly down his face. He was staring at her now, his eyes like as blue as ice, and just as chilly.
All at once his expression changed, becoming less pained and more thoughtful. He tapped his claws idly off the wall he was perched on, and eyed her like a cat.
"You want to go back to the garden," he finally said.
Shiemi started, her eyes widening.
"Yes!" She managed to stammer out.
"Well, then you have to play a game with me." Amaimon was smiling now.
Shiemi shuddered at the sight of it. The terror he provoke was so strangely familiar. But her heart ached to see the Garden again, and her charge was dying.
"What kind of game?" She whispered, her mouth dry.
Amaimon waved a hand dismissively.
"You're too weak to play properly," he said. Then his mouth twisted down sharply. "And I'm not allowed to hurt you," he spat.
Shiemi was quiet as a mouse as she waited for his strange temper to pass, and soon enough that awful grin painted his face again.
"You run, little exorcist," he said. "You run, and I will catch you."
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Shiemi raced through the long grass. Her breath came in short, harsh gasps, and her heart beat like a hammer in her ears, but she had to run. Amaimon had given her five minutes head start to reach the great oak tree on the other side of the gardens, across a wide field. Every quick step felt like a second slipping through her fingers, and she knew she couldn't stop.
The great oak loomed up on the horizon, and Shiemi's heart gave a little flutter of hope. She was so close now. She was so close, she had to reach it. But the last second had trickled away, and she was slammed to the ground. Amaimon rolled with her as she fell, finally shoving her down into the grass. Shiemi couldn't move. Her heart pounded so fiercely with fright that she thought it might burst. Amaimon held her down, his body pinning her tight. His pupils were so dilated that Shiemi could only see a sliver of blue, though his face was pressed right up to her own. He was panting with excitement, bearing his fangs at her like a fox with a rabbit. She panicked. Shiemi struggled to get away, yanking at the immovable prison of his grasp. In her fear her hips accidentally ground up against his own, and Amaimon snarled so loudly that her whole body shook with the force of it.
"Don't move, little exorcist. Or I really will hurt you." She could barely understand him, his voice was so distorted with unnatural pleasure.
Shiemi stilled at the threat. He shoved his face in the crook of her neck, snuffling at her. She couldn't help but quake. But when he licked up her throat, the sound she made wasn't all terror.
"You lose," he said.
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Shura was blindfolded. She wasn't totally sure how she had let that happen. Mephisto had finally said that he couldn't take any more of her moping around, and marched her out here. Wherever 'here' was. And she hadn't been moping! It was just boring being stuck to Mephisto's schedule. Turns out that he had more responsibilities than he had ever let on.
"Are we nearly there yet?" She groused.
She heard a faint chuckle, closer to her ear than she was expecting.
"My dear, please be patient." Mephisto voice was like velvet in the darkness. "This is my own personal space, so I've had to hide it quite thoroughly."
He led her down what seemed like an endless corridor. It grew colder and colder as they walked down the gentle slope. By the time they stopped Shura was shivering.
"Hope it's warmer wherever yer takin' me. Won't be able t'do shit like this," she grumbled.
Mephisto laughed again. "I've taken your fragile flesh prison into consideration, my lady."
There was a pulse of energy, and Shura felt the ground rumble beneath her. A great screech, like rock sliding against rock, rang through the air. She jumped violently, and hated herself for digging her hands tighter into Mephisto's arm.
They moved forward again. Shura felt her ears pop and the air warm considerably. Soon Mephisto gently tugged her to a halt.
"We have arrived!" His voice rang, so Shura could tell they were in a big room. Why they were in a big room, she still wasn't sure.
Shura snorted at his theatrics.
"Allow me to remove your blindfold, princess."
All at once, Shura could see again. She blinked in the dim light, but looked around her with a little more respect than she had before.
"How did ya hide all of this?" She asked, her mouth open as she stared around the enormous space.
If she'd been asked to describe it, the only words that would have come to mind were 'cavern', and 'cathedral'. She walked forward a little, her steps ringing on the mosaic floors, and her eyes wide as she took in the grand ceiling, carved from the very stone.
Mephisto's deep voice broke her thoughts.
"I come here sometimes when I need to train."
Shura noted the thick layers of dust on some of the features, and Mephisto's smile grew smug.
"I said, 'when I need to'."
Shura rolled her eyes at his vanity.
"What a hassle…" she said, but her eyes were still wide with wonder.
Mephisto grinned and Shura could see every wicked fang.
"Don't lie, my dear." His eyes narrowed with amusement. "You've been dying to see what I can do."
Shura's stomach flipped at the innuendo. She stubbornly ignored it.
"Fine," she snapped. "Only because I'm in a good mood."
Mephisto chuckled, but wisely kept his mouth shut. He held out his arm like a Victorian gentleman, and Shura took it, a little grumpily. Mephisto led her into the middle of the floor, where a ring was carved into the floor.
"My lady," he said, all fangs, "Let's dance."
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Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, your messages give me strength when I feel like giving up. Let me know what you thought of this chapter too!