"How far does this cave go?" Amira asked Hiei as they walked through the darkness.

"I don't remember." He replied uncaringly.

"What do you remember?" she asked annoyed.

"I am currently remembering why you annoy me." He responded not looking at her.

"Didn't know you forgot that." She retorted, her arms crossed.

In truth, Hiei had forgotten it, at least temporarily. Last night while they were eating, he couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked in the moonlight. He inwardly growled. Why was he even thinking this! It was AMIRA; of all people; the wolf demon that has been his competition for as long as he could remember. The way Yoko ran his little territory was that the ones that were higher up in rank, got more of the spoil. So Hiei obviously, wanted to be of higher rank. Which he was, but Amira was also. Hiei had wanted her gone or at least wanted to be one rank above her, now he was finding out, that beating her…just didn't seem as important anymore and it bothered him. He looked back at her as she scanned the walls of the cave.

'Good thing she doesn't have a Jagan.' He thought to himself. If she knew what he was thinking he would never hear the end of it. They reached a branching of passage ways and they both stopped.

"Which way oh fearless leader?" Amira asked him sarcastically.

"If I remember, one of these ends in a dead end after a while." He said.

"And that is which one?" Amira asked.

"Not sure, so go check it out." Hiei instructed. Amira glared at him and put her hands on her hips. "Why don't you! You're the one that has been to this cave before!"

"Your going because I don't want to go and you still have to do whatever I say!" Hiei answered smugly. Amira narrowed her eyes but stalked past him into the left passage, her tail swishing angrily. Hiei was glad that he was alone for the moment, especially after he caught himself staring at her butt as she walked away from him.

"What is the matter with me!" He asked himself as he sat down on a rock and crossed his arms.

With Amira

Amira's brown eyes scanned the passage carefully. She may be annoyed with the twerpy little fire demon, but she knew better than to let her anger make her unobservant. The further she went, the colder she felt.

"I feel a cold wind." She said aloud to herself. "I wonder if there is an opening to the outside." She looked up at the ceiling but saw nothing that would indicate an opening. She shivered in the cold and continued on. Amira soon ran into the dead end and turned back around without really noticing it, satisfied that she had found the end. She walked back to Hiei as he looked up at her.

"This is the dead end." She said, pointed over her shoulder from the direction she had just come. He stood up.

"Was it down there?" he asked.

She looked at him confused.

"Was….what down there?"

"The marking." He said, looking at her like she was stupid.

"What marking!" she asked annoyed.

"The one that is on Satira's necklace, and the one that is the reason that we came down here to find!" he snapped at her.

"You never told me it was down there! You just said it was a dead end and you needed to know which path was it!" she yelled back.

"Well I thought it would be obvious!" Hiei said angrily. "I mean you were down there! What did you just turn around as soon as you saw the dead end!"

"YES! I didn't know I had to LOOK for some…"

Amira's words were cut off as a hand appeared out of nowhere behind her and clamped on to her mouth and around her arms. She gave a muffled scream of surprise as Hiei drew his kantata.

"Put down your weapon or she dies now." A voice commanded.

"Looks like I am dieing now." She thought to herself when to her shock Hiei sheathed it.

"What do you want?" He asked in a menacing voice.

"I want the necklace." The voice said as Prakash moved into Hiei's view from behind Amira. "And I intend to get it. Go back to your thief lord and tell him to hand it and the cat over! And to insure that he does, I will keep this one here." He said as he shook Amira for effect. Amira turned wide eyes to Hiei as he looked at her calmly. Even though he couldn't see them, he knew that Prakash wasn't alone. He could sense that they were surrounded and fighting now would be a grave mistake.

"Be calm." He said to Amira telepathically with his Jagan. "We're surrounded. I'll go back and tell Yoko. Then we'll come back for you." Amira gave him a glare that told him he had better come back for her.

He smirked at her. "Don't worry, I'll come back." He assured her as he turned to Prakash. "I'll tell Yoko as long as she remains safe while I am gone." Prakash nodded in agreement as Hiei ran out of the cave and sped toward Yoko's territory.