Chapter Six

Kerima stared at Kuronue, unsure of what to think. "Leave with you?" she repeated, dumbfounded. "You mean leave my village?" She shook her head, gray eyes baffled. "I can't just leave here. It would be foolish."

"And why would it be foolish? They wouldn't be able to hurt you, and I would keep you safe," he offered, smiling at her. She was adorable in her confusion, he had to admit. She would never be beautiful, but he had to admit that he enjoyed her different expressions when she wasn't hiding her emotions. The little healer made the most amusing expressions. Her eyes were especially expressive. "It's perfectly natural to stay away from the people who hurt you."

She took a deep breath. "My family is here. I will not just abandon them."

The bat demon suddenly remembered something her grandmother had said. "Even if your father is a brute?" he asked lightly.

All emotion immediately vanished from her face. Kerima was not about to discuss her father, not to this man, not to anyone. "My father merely does what it needed. He is an important person in this village, and he has the village's best interests at heart."

"Even if that means issuing punishments?" Kuronue asked her, working hard to keep his voice calm. She was hiding what she was feeling from him, which meant he needed to be careful. The girl had a lot to learn when it came to dealing with him. He was an expert at women. He'd been seducing women likely since long before she was born.

She blinked, looking up at him with innocent eyes. "Yes, of course. It is something he has to do." He father was one of the highest of the elders… not someone she wanted to go against. She would go against him to protect Kuronue, but she still didn't want to anger her father.

"Even if he has to punish his own daughter?" The blue-eyed demon felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Had her own father punished her when she had let him go?

"Well, yes. No one is exempt. Especially not me." Kerima frowned slightly at him, wondering where he was going with his questioning. "My father punishes me when he must." Surely he understood how villages worked. Her father couldn't play favorites, and he certainly had to punish her if she went against his wishes.

Oh god, he was going to be sick. Had her father been responsible for the morning he had woken up with half his face black and blue with bruises a month ago? Had he caused the bruises on his arms that had been shaped like large hands? How much damage had her own father done to Kerima?

A cesspool of rage welled up inside of him, turning his eyes darker. He was going to hurt someone, and it certainly wasn't going to be his little healer. Her father and the others were going to pay for harming her.

"Calm down, Kuronue," she said softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. Her anger scared her, making her tremble slightly. He wouldn't hurt her, he couldn't hurt her, but she was afraid of what he might do. She needed him calmer, so she could convince him to leave. She needed him safe, away from her village. Especially far away from her father. Kuronue wasn't a part of the village, no matter what they thought. Her father had no right to try to force the bat demon to stay.

Kuronue merely arched an eyebrow at her, temper rising farther. How beaten could she be to accept such punishment from her own father? He'd had enough. It was time to see her father. "I'll be back to finish this conversation later," he told her, tone dark. He turned, opening and slamming the door behind him as he left.

Panic seized her. He was going to do something drastic and irreversible, and she was going to regret it. Images of him killing the elders flashed through her mind, and while a part of her enjoyed the vengeance for all her pain, she didn't want anyone to die. She was a healer, not a killer.

Kerima hurried after him, unable to keep up. He was so fast, but her father wasn't too far away. It was a small village. "Kuronue, wait!" she called after him, but he paid no attention to her. He was on a mission, his power rising with his temper.

She knew he wouldn't hurt her, but her immediate reaction to such rage and power was fear. Oh god, with such power, he could demolish the village right now, with everyone caught off guard. Their few defensive people wouldn't stand a chance with no warning. They needed time to prepare to handle someone so powerful; their normal spells just weren't meant to hold someone of such a high class.

How was she supposed to stop him when right now she wouldn't even be able to touch him without feeling pain? Kuronue wasn't in the mood to listen to reason. She had just let a pissed off, incredibly powerful demon enter her village with no way to stop him, and if anyone got in his way, they would likely die.

Kuronue stretched his wings, letting his power fill his skin and then flow out. He knew how menacing he could be, how dangerous he would look like this. Part of a battle was mental. If his enemy was scared shitless before the battle even started, then he had already won. Of course, it wasn't like there was a single person here who could stop him.

It wasn't hard to find the village elders. There was only one building large enough to be a meeting hall for those people deemed important enough to make decisions for the village. In the middle of the day, where else would a bunch of self important assholes be?

He knew he had tunnel vision at the moment. If no one meant him harm, and if they weren't his target, he wouldn't be able to see him. Of course, the edges of his vision were also tinted red. His rage had ebbed some since leaving Kerima's presence, but he was still far too angry to think of anything but hurting someone. What kind of bastard hurt his own children?

The meeting hall wasn't large, but the wooden doors quickly gave way to his power, blowing open and almost coming off the hinges. Wood shards flew through the air; the stone walls held up a little bit better.

Once inside, everyone turned to look at him. It was a group of a half dozen men of various ages. Most of them were likely some of the oldest in the village, and while some looked upon him in fear, the rest merely looked pissed off. They acted as if he was the one who should be cringing after breaking into their oh-so-precious meeting hall. They could all go fuck themselves.

"Which one of you is Kerima's father?" Kuronue called out, voice cold. "I want to know." One man backed as far away from the bat demon as possible, while another hid under a sturdy table at the end of the room. No one answered him. "Now!" he roared.

One man took a deep breath and then took a step forward. He was one of the younger men in the room, his hair as black as his daughter, but his eyes were a non-descript greenish color. He had frown lines on his face, "I am. If my daughter has angered you, I apologize and I will see that the matter is rectified," he said clearly, his arrogance apparent.

"By hurting her again?" the bat demon shouted. His fury was slowly diminishing, but it wasn't fast enough to allow him to think clearly. All he could think of was protecting Kerima from all who threatened her, even if that person was her father.

"I will do whatever is needed." The father tilted his head up, as if daring Kuronue to object. "She refuses to listen, and she often needs to be reminded of who's in charge. Her mother wasn't much different. We had much the same problems when she bound a demon to her through the technique. I will not go through the same process again. Kerima knows better."

Kuronue took a menacing step forward. "And you believe the right thing to do is hurt your own daughter? To beat her? How dare you…." He would have attacked and possibly killed the horrible man, but he felt arms go around his waist and immediate pain shoot through his body. The pain gave him pause.

"Please, stop. Please, don't kill him, Kuronue!" Kerima hung onto the bat demon, despite the pain. Her body was not meant to handle such destructive power, but she would not let him kill someone, not if he didn't have to and she could stop him.

It took Kuronue a few moments to realize where the pain was coming from, and he immediately felt horrible. He had been hurting her, and that knowledge made his rage instantly drain away. His owned power had caused her pain, and thus had harmed him. Gently and carefully, he stroked her hair as he lowered his power level. "Shhh… I won't kill anyone," he told her sweetly. Obviously killing her father would cause her harm, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to dish out some threats. He gave pointed looks to the other men in the room, making sure each one was paying attention to him. "Now, you all listen to me very carefully," he said, speaking clearly. He did not want a single person to be able to claim they hadn't understood him. They weren't going to get out of it that easily. "No one is to harm her again. I don't care why or what she's done. Hurt her again, and I'll hurt you even worse. It's as simple as that."

The bat demon scooped Kerima up into his arms, wincing as he noticed the tears on her cheeks. He had made her cry from the pain or because he had threatened her father. Either way, he would make it up to her. He was good at making women happy. A few simple things, and she would smile again and go back to trying to convince him to leave for his own safety.

"How dare you talk to me like that!" the father snarled at him, eyes narrowed in anger. "You'll change your tune soon, just wait and see."

"Sure, sure." Kuronue rolled his eyes, leaving the meeting hall, unimpressed by the threat. Honestly, the man didn't even have the power bruise him. What made the idiot think he could actually carry out the threat? Really, the people in this village had no idea what the real world was like. They lived in their own little bubble, thinking they were kings of the world.

Perhaps he would have fix that problem… or maybe not. He preferred to deal with women; they had breasts. If he was going to have to do something so annoying, he wanted some amazing eye candy. Maybe if Kerima did a strip tease for him while he taught the men how wrong they were?

Yes, he did like the idea of her stripping down for him. He never had seen her naked, which just seemed wrong. Every other female he'd ever met (of a decent age, of course) had slept with him. Except for Kerima. He'd have to change that.

"Thank you for not killing my father," the woman said quietly, not sure if she should be letting him carry her or not. It could help her cause or hurt it, but she wasn't sure which one.

"You're welcome," Kuronue replied, a flirtatious smile on his face. "Would you do a striptease for me as a thank you?"

Kerima stared straight at him, expression unreadable. "Of course I will. As soon as you no longer possess a dick."

He feigned a pained expression, trying to see if he could still summon moisture to his eyes at will. "You wound me to the quick," he said, sniffling comically; and yes, he still could bring tears to his own eyes upon command. It was so nice to know he hadn't lost any of his talent because of the near death experience. "How could you wish such awful things upon me? Lose my dick? It's a vital part of me. Half of the population of Makai would mourn its loss with me. You wouldn't want to be the source of so many tears, now would you?"

Kuronue wasn't sure if she was feeling better or not, but at least she wasn't crying. That was a good sign. And was that a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth? Oooh, he was doing something right. Damn, he hadn't lost his touch after all.

"Only half the women would mourn, which means only a quarter of the population would cry," Kerima told him, feeling her heart sink. God, she hated being reminded that he was such a playboy. The bat demon would never truly be hers. She could have him for a night, maybe two, and then he would move on.

He tsked at her, blue eyes bright with humor. It was nice to know that she could joke with him. He enjoyed women with a sense of humor. "Fine, only a quarter then. But many would still mourn the loss."

She pushed herself away from him as best she could, forcing him to put her down so he wouldn't drop her or accidentally hurt her. "Perhaps you should go find those women then, as I'm sure they would appreciate knowing they have nothing to cry over." With that parting shot, she walked off, heart hurting.

Kuronue stared at her retreating back. Damn it, what had he done wrong now?