"Talking"
"Thinking"
-Telepathisis-
Flashback

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Chapter Seventeen
Vampiric Issues, Part I

I think I will give up on this 'website' contact thing. The only contact I got was from a little girl...and it turns out her cat was stuck in a tree. Wait, scratch that, her ghost cat was stuck in a tree. All I did was shoo the damn thing down and then head home.

Talk about a waste of time...

0x0x0x0

For the first week, Kurama is confined to his room by a combination of Botan and Yukina. They eventually relent, but he is still not allowed to leave the dojo itself.

"Going a little stir crazy?" Sora questions sympathetically.

"No. I'm good." Kurama replies absently, his eyes not leaving the book on his lap.

"Yeah." A teasing grin tugs at the corners of his mouth. "That's why you've read almost every book here."

"This is the last one." Green eyes finally leave the page to meet amused blue.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I know where some you haven't been into are. You can read English, right?" The look of disdain the question earns him causes him to crack up. "Alright, I'll go find 'em."

Kurama rolls his eyes. "There's no way I missed any books. I've scoured the entire dojo."

Artemis enters, bows to him slightly and continues towards the door.

"Why did you bow?"

The girl does not turn, though she does pause. "According to Sora, it is polite to do so in your culture." She continues on.

"And why does this matter to you?"

This time she turns to face him. "You may want me drawn and quartered, but as you are now my teammate, it is..." The girl stops for a moment to collect her thoughts. "No matter what you think of me, or I of you, I intend to be professional. If that includes observing cultural customs, then so be it."

He is silent as she turns to go.

At the door, she turns to face him again. "Actually, I do not believe you want me drawn and quartered."

He raises an eyebrow. "Why?"

"That is a favored English torture, not Japanese."

The fox demon finds himself staring after her.

0x0x0x0

"Here."

Wide green eyes stare at the milk crate full of books.

"There's probably more than that, but I had to unearth them all, so..."

"I should take what I can get?"

"Pretty much." He mumbles. "Ah, crap. I'll be late." The older but shorter boy rushes out, leaving the redhead to stare after him.

"Between him and Artemis," he picks up a book off the top of the crate, "things'll be interesting at least." He shifts into a more comfortable position before cracking open the book.

0x0x0x0

Yukina enters to find the fox demon deeply ensconsed in a book; a slowly growing number beside him is morphing into a pile. Her eyes linger on a book; she bites her lip.

"Ah...Kurama?" She approaches.

"Mm?" Is the distracted but polite reply.

"May...may I borrow this book?"

"Sure."

When his eyes do not stray from what he is reading, she gains the courage to take it. With one last glance at the preoccupied fox demon, she sneaks to her room, cradling the book.

Not long after she leaves, Botan enters. "Hey."

"Hm?" He actually looks up.

"You can venture onto the porch...but no further!"

The book is dropped and he is halfway out the door by "further".

He finds Sora and Yusuke training in hand-to-hand combat; Artemis is seated on the porch, her back to him. He frowns, then decides it is time to at least speak on civil terms with the girl. The moment his hand touches her shoulder, she bolts. One arm gets the brunt of her weight; sharp needles of pain stab her from wrist to shoulder.

"You okay?"

She looks up to find a worried Sora bending over her; Yusuke blinks and stares; Kurama still has his hand outstretched.

"Fine." Artemis manages out as she stands and brushes herself off, ignoring the further needles of pain as she does so. "Thank you for asking." She adds before clambering back onto the porch, then heading inside.

"So how'd you escape?" Sora questions after tearing his eyes from her retreating form.

"On parole, actually." The redhead replies.

"What do you...?" The other boy then spots irate magenta eyes in the window. "Oh..."

"Oy!" Yusuke scowls.

The bat demon sweatdrops before resuming the match.

Glad to be able to experience the good weather, Kurama sits on the edge of the porch and contents himself with watching the two spar. He is pleased to note Sora's progress from the last time he saw him fight.

0x0x0x0

Kurama is still slowly but steadily working his way through the crate of books; now, though, he is found reading on the porch.

"Why did you surprise me while I was meditating?"

The redhead nearly loses his grip on the book.

"If that hits the ground...well, you will have someone homicidal--not me--to deal with." She adds offhandedly.

"For the same reason you surprised me. I came to--"

Artemis scowls. "I made plenty of noise; you did not."

"How would you--"

"My focus was the noise around me."

"...I wanted to talk to you. We may have..." The boy trails off.

"Yes, I am well aware it is my fault we 'started off on the wrong foot'. To be perfectly honest, I will be polite to you, as courtesy warrants, but I was already warned about you."

He feels his temper flaring. "Warned?" He keeps his mannerism and tone calm.

Artemis notes the change in his eyes almost instantly. "This."

"What?" His tone is calm and he appears affable.

"You appear calm, complacent...your eyes are another story. You are seething, if I read them correctly."

The redhead ignores this. "...am I correct in assuming Koenma wants you to stay?"

"Yes."

He runs a hand through his hair. "Then it would be better if we got along."

"Last I checked, you wanted me dead after some non-English method of torture." Wary silver eyes regard him. "Have your views of me changed that much?"

"I still think you're dangerous."

"That makes two of us." She bites her lip. "If you could get to the point, please?"

"I will try to suspend my first impression of you if you try to suspend yours of me."

There is a long silence as she weighs her options. "I agree but know this: I have no designs on you or yours."

"Then why are you always around Sora?"

"I do not follow him; he seeks me. I suppose Kimi requested it...perhaps because she feels we will not get along."

"Because she thinks I'll kill you." The redhead corrects.

"...that too."

Kurama nods his agreement to his suggestion, but knows it will be extremely difficult for him to accomplish his half of the agreement...if he can accomplish it at all.

0x0x0x0

"Why are you reading Soul Music?" (1)

Kurama lowers the book to find a curious Artemis with a book of her own. "I read all the others."

"Ah..." She frowns. "Well, if you end up enjoying the Discworld, let me know. I have most of the rest of the series in my room..." (1)

"Are these yours?" He indicates the pile of books on the sofa beside him.

"...no. I am merely borrowing them." With that, she abruptly exits.

The fox demon gives up on the book and heads to the kitchen.

Botan sighs and gives Yukina an "are you sure?" look.

Yukina grins. "Kurama, you can resume training now."

He gives both a grin and heads outside.

"Finally!" Sora gives him a welcoming smirk before downing half a water bottle. "It's only been, what, two--"

"One and a half." Artemis corrects from her spot under a tree; she is reading A Hat Full of Sky. (1)

"Are you up for a match?"

Sora and Yusuke exchange "holyshitletsnotletthathappen" looks. "It's cool, I was headin' in anyway." Yusuke hurriedly stands.

"It is fine." She places the book down and rises. "I am beginning to believe I am a masochist." She thinks idly as she faces him; her arm is still sore from earlier on in the week.

"Hand to hand only." Sora states, visibly nervous; Yusuke nixes the heading inside and watches, as apprehensive as Sora. Both nod to his instruction. The match begins normally; both block and trade blows with startling accuracy.

"Slower than normal vampires?" He questions as she continues to parry his strikes with what seems to be little effort.

"Adrenaline." She replies, fighting the urge to wince when she blocks with her sore arm. "If I am not careful, this will end up broken...and then I will really be screwed..." The girl throws herself aside to dodge his next attack. The two soon fall into a pattern; she blocks his feints, then dodges his real hit. Both lose track of the sequence as they near a tree. Artemis realizes too late that she is blocked in; she can dodge and hit the tree, be hit or block. She decides to block and barely manages to stop the stream of expletives that cloud her thoughts from dropping off her tongue.

Yukina and Botan rush outside. "Who's hurt?" Yukina asks.

"Kurama..." There is a world of warning in Botan's tone.

"I'm fine!" He protests.

"Artemis...?" Sora approaches.

"Fine as well." "Heh. Fine. Right. Shit!" She tries to move her arm and finds the needles have become a constant feeling akin to molten lava flowing up her arm.

Botan glowers at the fox demon; Yukina's red orbs are worried. With a sigh, he allows himself to be dragged back inside to be thoroughly poked and prodded. It is sometime later before anyone thinks to make sure Artemis was telling the truth.

"It doesn't matter." Botan tells herself. "She's just a vampire anyway..."

0x0x0x0

"Why do we have to do this?" Sora whines as he throws his pen down and contemplates dropping out of school; this stupid book report that is due in a few days is just not worth the effort.

"At least you're not Kimi." His companion murmurs.

Blue eyes meet distracted green. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"She's got to catch up on all this work, plus what she missed before." He replies.

"You're cheery." Sora mutters as he puts his papers back in the folder; he turns to Artemis, who is sitting in a chair nearby with a gameboy in her hands. "Whatcha playin'?"

"Zelda. Kimi complained she is stuck, threw it at me and told me to 'work my magic'." The girl replies as she works on locating the final boss. "Stupid Gannondorf and his bloody castle..."

"Which Zelda?" He plops down on the armrest.

"A Link to the Past."

Neither boy misses how stiff she is now, nor how she is barely breathing.

"What's wrong?" Kurama inquires.

"You sick or--"

Artemis and the gameboy flee the room, leaving two nonplussed demons to wonder what that was about.

"Intrigued or something, huh?"

"Whaddaya mean?" Sora's expression is innocent and confused.

"You're always hanging out with her."

"Oh..." The blue eyed boy mumbles. "Well, she looks lonely most of the time and Kimi's not here..." He pauses. "I feel bad for her. She's stuck here with us, most of us don't like her and the one friend she has is off somewhere..."

"She nearly got both our moms killed." Kurama states.

"But it wasn't--"

"All her fault?" Green eyes hold all the warmth of a glacier. "She pissed some vampires off, got scared and ran for the nearest 'safe spot'. It didn't matter that she could've put someone else in danger."

"As lovely as your version is, I can tell you didn't talk to Artemis or Kimi. Try it before you keep stating this like it's fact."

"You believe that 'dimilamia' nonsense? It's been--"

Sora drops a book on the table beside him. "Read it and tell me she doesn't fit it."

"I already did."

"Then read it again." The other boy states before meandering off, most likely in search of Artemis.

Kurama scowls at the book, but picks it up when he finishes his work. He scans the index, locates dimilamia and turns to the page.

Dimilamia

A very rare creature; they are seldom encountered. Their creation and another factor contribute to this.

He skips ahead.

Creation: A dimilamia is only created when the venom or fang of a dead vampire is exposed to a human. Any unique abilities they gain are dependent on their sire.

Life: Due to the crossing of genes they have, they possess a mismatch of human and vampiric traits. Some examples are the ability to survive off human food but the inability to tolerate sunlight; the thirst for blood, but able to stand sunlight; normal hair color coupled with vampiric eye color...

Kurama skips ahead again.

Rarity: The other factor that makes them rare is the fact that vampires instinctively hate them and take great pains to kill them. There have been documented cases of vampires destroying themselves just to kill a dimilamia. Vampires view them as unnatural; their version of zombies. Many claim they are jealous, as dimilamia can blend in far easier than they...

0x0x0x0

No mission, no nothing. Officially on boredom island. Will smoke-signal for food and company later.

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(1) - All owned by Terry Pratchett. Woo. You go, crazy author man!

Sorry for the late post. I had a lot going on this weekend.

Catcha next weekend.
~Emma