Hello lovelies. Now, because I am somewhat lazy, I shall be stealing a trick some of my fave writers on here tend to pull and answer your reviews in the author notes. I apologize if I neglect anyone. (117 hits at last check) And in this chapter, Lotus starts talking. Her talking is like ::this::
No name 128- {bows} I apologize for my rusty as heck french. I can revise the chapters that are messy if you would be so kind as to point out my mistakes. (I really did take three semesters of french in college, but I've had no practice since)
white rose fox- you are too kind dear.
xXxPrinceTypexXx- thank you, and here ya go, next chapter.
I fell from my perch and had just enough presence of mind to tuck and roll like the boys had taught me. Yusuke's idea, since Hiei was teaching me, and he spent a lot of time in high places, so, naturally, it was decided I would learn how to fall.
Hiei landed on the ground beside me. "I should have let you fall earlier."
Yusuke ran out the back door, closely followed by Kuwabara and Kurama. "What the hell were you two doing out here?" the zombie asked.
"It wasn't me!" I held up my hands in surrender.
Just then a voice singsonged through the yard. "Lotus. Lotus, I know you're here you little whore, come on out so we can dance again."
"Damn," Kuwabara cursed, "I knew it was too quiet around here."
Several demons landed, cutting Hiei and I off from all exits. The tallest, and arguably the prettiest ugly demon in the bunch, started toward me. "There you are. Come on out so we can play, Lotus."
Hiei shoved me behind him with a mental command of, 'Pretend you're clueless, onna. Let us handle this.'
The advancing demon stopped and laughed. "Up to your old tricks again, I see. Last time it was the fox who got in between us."
"What the fuck are you talking about? You got the wrong girl. Who the hell are you?" I babbled. If I was gonna be clueless, I was gonna go all-out. I held onto Hiei's shirt and peeked over his shoulder like I was scared. Not a hard act, I was scared witless of this thing, and it was all Lotus' fault.
To everyone's surprise, the answer to his identity came, not from the demon in question, but from the fox. "He is Niroth, Lotus' murderer. Yoko wants to thank him for that." Kurama's voice sounded two-layered and strained, like he was barely holding something back.
"And what about Suichi, the little boy playing at being a hero, what does he have to say?" Niroth laughed, dismissing the fox completely.
Kurama snapped his whip. "I can't let you hurt the girl. She is not the demon you fear." His voice had gone back to normal.
Niroth laughed again, apparently we were hilarious to him. "You couldn't stop me the day I killed the demon bitch, what makes you think you can keep me from killing the human?"
Kurama flashed me a guilty look, then spoke. "I wasn't actually trying that day."
::I'll kill that mangy bastard!:: Lotus' scream blocked out the rest of Kurama's declaration. I tried hard to make her shut up, I could not afford to be distracted by the bitch now.
"I think I'll let her new toy show me what he's worth. You can play with my bodyguards, fox." Niroth growled, turning his glare on Hiei.
Hiei threw off the baggy outer shirt he'd been wearing, baring his arms and black tank, at the same time he drew his sword.
"Hiei, the great master of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, defending a human woman. My, the world must be ending." Niroth sneered.
"I'm merely surprised that a coward like you actually attacked when the girl has more than one bodyguard." Hiei struck before he even finished talking.
Sword and claws clashed in a blur of movement. The flurry of blows was followed by a pause, as the demon bent on killing me again wiped the blood from a wound over his eye. "You really seem to be serious about the girl's safety."
Hiei deftly blocked the sneak attack with his katana.
What happened in their fight after that I couldn't say. Vines lifted me into the tree at a dizzying speed. I mentally screamed my frustration at Kurama, because the vines were English Ivy, but they smelled of fur and roses.
'Baka ningen onna, just shut up and burn anything that comes up there that isn't one of the four of us protecting you.' His calm mental voice made me angrier.
Dammit, I was no damn damsel in distress, I could fight. But noooooo. Those damn vines would tighten and multiply every time I tried to break free. Then I looked toward the house and figured out why this tree was Hiei's favourite. I had a perfect unobscured view into the window of my room. I filed that away to add to the list of what I had to bitch out the boys for later.
A small imp-like creature scurried along the branch toward me. I thought it was kinda cute, in a demon-dog internet picture kind of way. That is, until it pulled a blade on me. The blade looked like some kind of bug mandible or stinger, unpleasant either way.
Then it gained friends. I started flicking flames as fast as they appeared, but they just kept coming. One managed to get past my defenses and sliced the back of my right calf from knee to ankle. I screamed. Unpleasant had been an understatement in my original description.
I was still screaming when all the imps around me burst into black flames. The pain was alternately burning and stabbing in time to my heartbeats. The ivy that had held me up there now formed a kind of tourniquet on my leg and brought me back down to the ground.
I never touched the ground. Hiei caught me and carried me into the house to put a proper bandage on it till we could get me to hospital. Worry rolled off him in waves.
Telepathy is a handy dandy thing to have when creating a cover story. Hiei wouldn't let anyone near me at the house. He barely let the EMT's do their job when they arrived. So I thought of something very quickly to explain his overprotective behavior, and hoped to all the gods he wouldn't kill me for it later.
"Can he ride to the hospital with me?" I asked before the doors shut.
"Only family ma'am." the one riding in the back replied.
"He's my fiancee, and he's so upset, he'll get in a wreck if he has to drive himself." I gushed, playing it up. Gods I should try out for movies.
The EMT just waved Hiei into the ambulance.
Hiei sat and held my hand like one would expect a worried fiancee to do. 'Fiancee? Really?'
'Shut up, I got you in here didn't I? Just play along with my cover story, we don't need human cops involved.' I gave him a small pained smile, like I was expected to. "I shoulda listened to you about gros grandpere's sword, honey."
"Shh, just be still until we get to the hospital, dear." Hiei said.
By the time we got into the exam room, we had the whole story perfect. So when the doctor asked how the hell I got sliced so bad, I just started babbling about gros grandpere's* Knights of Columbus sword being hung wrong.
"Sweetie, its not the display board's fault you kicked the wall during that last kata you did." Hiei teased.
"It would have stayed up if I'd put in the extra staples like grandpere** told me to." I replied.
"Well, lucky for you it wasn't all that sharp anymore, just a shallow cut, you'll need stitches. I'll be back with the suture cart." The doc stood and walked toward the door. Once there, he turned and glared at Hiei.
Hiei leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I told you it would be fine you silly girl. Overreacting about a little accident again."
"I just hate it that they all think you did it dear." I smiled up at him.
The doc shook his head and left.
They put me in bed as soon as I got back, and kept me there for two whole days. I was drugged most of the time on the scrip for painkillers, so the claustrophobia didn't kick in too fast. Hiei kicked everyone else out and insisted he was responsible for my injury and my care while I healed. And he hardly left the room, like he thought I'd be attacked again.
The morning of the third day I woke without him noticing, and got to be blissfully clearheaded for the first time since the incident. "Hiei, you can stop with your guilt trip now. Its not your fault I got hurt."
He jumped a little at the sound of my voice. "It is my fault, I spent far too much time toying with that scum, instead of doing my job and eliminating the threat." He punched the wall beside the window and left a single crack.
"Meh, you did what you had to. And what you had to do was fake out the bastard and make him think you'd be a pushover like Kurama." I patted the bed beside me as an invite for him to sit. It didn't take an empath to know he wanted to be closer.
He sat. "I did thank him before I killed him. If he had not killed Lotus, we would not have the experience of protecting you." He looked anywhere in the room but at me, and a small amount of nervous escaped him.
"Oh my dear gods, the dragon is being sweet!" I nudged him with my knee and instantly regretted it. I moved the wrong one, and it hurt.
He held me close so fast it made me dizzy. "Perhaps I shouldn't be sweet anymore."
I slapped his shoulder playfully. "Oh! I know about your little peeping tom perch out there." I glared at him.
A look of confusion crossed the fire demon's features.
"You're such a pervert Hiei. That tree has a perfect view in my window."
"I watch you sleep. That's it. I don't even go up the tree till 10 minutes after your light goes out, by then you're always in bed and completely covered. Then I watch till I get tired and go inside to my own room."
"You have never watched me dress? Not even once?"
"Not even once. Its not for me to watch."
"Hiei, can I please leave this room? If I stay here much longer, I'm going to go nuts." I gave him my best begging puppy look. Which, admittedly, sucked because of my blue eyes.
He moved to pick me up.
"I have crutches so that you don't have to carry me, oni-san." I pointed at the sticks in question by the door.
"I do need to carry you down the stairs. Your balance is crap on those sticks." He lifted me in a fireman's carry.
I giggled and grabbed the crutches on the way out.
Sorry for my lateness! I fully blame the eclipse and christmas. (it has nothing to do with the boredom of typing what I wrote by hand, no, not at all.)
*gros grandpere- great grandfather
**grandpere- grandfather