I spent most of my morning in my room. I knew it was cowardly of me to be hiding, but I couldn't help but sulk over the fact that Hiei might be involved with someone else. Shouldn't he have told me? Or shouldn't I have brought something up before I started to make moves on him. Is he even involved with this Mukuro person, or were Yusuke and Kuwabara just joking around? I had assumed he was single since he had this "lone wolf" attitude. Well, you know what they say, 'assuming makes an ass out of you and me.'

Finally, when noon hit, I decided I had to figure this out. I didn't have to courage to confront Hiei over this, so I went looking for Kurama. I tried his room at first, but he wasn't there, so I went downstairs to see if he was still in the house. He was sitting on the lazy boy, talking on his cellphone. It sounded like he was talking to his mom, so I went into the kitchen and started to make lunch.

When he was done, he came into the kitchen. "Do you want some help?"

"Sure. Thanks," I said with a smile. He was beginning to catch on that I'm not the greatest cook. "Where are the guys?" I asked, to get conversation rolling.

"I think they went to town. Yusuke went to see Keiko, and Kuwabara went to see his sister."

"But you stayed?" I was a little surprised to see how much time Kurama has spent here.

"Yes."

He said nothing more on the topic. Okay... Trying to keep my voice level, I brought up the whole reason why I wanted to see him. "So... this Mukuro person that Yusuke brought up this morning. I couldn't help but feel like the name was familiar but I couldn't quite place it."

"Ah, yes. She was once one of The Three Kings that ruled Demon World, along with Yomi and Raizen."

"Oh right," I said, remembering. "Yomi and Mukuro took part in the Demon World Tournament, but neither of them won." Yusuke told me a little bit about it.

"That's correct," Kurama said with a little nod as he continued to help with lunch.

Now for the main question. "Yusuke got me confused then when he mentioned Mukuro and Hiei being involved together. Hiei doesn't seem to be the relationship type."

Kurama gave me a little look before he laughed. "He isn't. At least not in the same sense that we would consider a relationship." He paused to test the food. "But there was something different between Mukuro and Hiei." I couldn't help but tense at that. "Hiei had a high amount of respect towards Mukuro but it also seemed more than that. While I can't say Hiei had actual feelings for her, I believe Mukuro had feelings for him. Although, I'm almost certain Hiei stayed with her while he was in Demon World. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering," I said, forcing a grin. I grabbed my plate and actually sat at the table with Kurama. As I ate, I couldn't stop thinking about Hiei and Mukuro. How deep was their relationship? Was I too forceful with Hiei that he couldn't bring himself to stop? Did he even like me?! Okay, I need to relax. When both of us finished eating, we shared the work load on cleaning up. Since there didn't seem to be much of a plan, I figured Kurama might be able to help me with more training. "Kurama," I started, "would you happen to know anything about using weapons?"

"I know a few things," Kurama replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," I started to walk around slowly, "I've been thinking... Hand-to-hand combat is very useful but I have a feeling like it wont get me anywhere fast. So I was hoping I could get some kind of weapons training to give me a little something extra. That, and I figured I could use weapons so I don't have to use my demon side so soon when it comes to having to fight."

"That's a very good idea," Kurama said. "I'm surprised none of us thought about that sooner. Was there any weapon you had in mind?"

I thought about it for a second. "Well, there's the tessen... but I was also hoping for something else. Something that has a little more... bite to it."

Kurama nodded. "Shall we go see what Genkai has?"

When we got to Genkai's training room that had all the weapons, Kurama motioned for me to go see if anything caught my eye. As I walked along the wall, I looked at a few things, even lifted a few to test their weight. I was walking back when I found just what I was looking for. It was a long wooden staff with an iron chain at the top. There was a spiked ball at the other end of the chain. I lifted it up and found that it wasn't really heavy, but it did have a nice weight to it. With it still in my hands, I turned to Kurama with a smile.

He raised an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms. "We're going to have a lot of work to do."

I laughed at that. "What's it called?" I extended my arms to get a good look at it.

"It's called a chigiriki." He paused for a second. "Are you sure about this?"

I nodded. "It looks kind of badass. And look at me," I made a point to gesture towards my whole body, "I'm tiny, I highly doubt people would expect me to be able to use this."

He actually agreed with me. For the next few hours, Kurama helped me train. Both of us kind of agreed that I should wait a before I tackle the chigiriki, so we started with the tessen. I thought we were moving kind of slow but Kurama said that I was catching on really fast. He wasn't expecting that. Apparently I'm a "natural".

Half way through my training, I started to get a weird feeling in my chest. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. Since I was still training with Kurama when it happened, I pushed it aside to focus. When we were walking back towards the house, I couldn't help but rub my chest. The weird feeling wasn't going away at all. I felt like I was being watched. And whoever was watching me... was waiting.

"Are you alright?" Kurama asked when he saw me rubbing my chest.

"Yeah," I lied. "It's just the burning. Sometimes I can barely feel it, sometimes it's all I can feel."

He nodded with sympathy. "You've gotten a lot better lately, so I don't think you'll need to be dealing with that for very long."

Feeling guilty for lying to Kurama, I simply nodded. As we started to walk back towards the house, I realized that I hadn't seen much of Hiei today. I actually feel like I miss him. I've gotten so used to his company that it feels weird to be without him. Even with this whole Mukuro thing. In fact, thinking about that only made me miss Hiei more. This is ridiculous, I saw him this morning, how could I miss him? Then it hit me. Was I... falling in love with him? Was this what love feels like? I can't be... this soon? I pushed the crazy thought aside.

Since there was still some time before dinner, I decided to go upstairs to change. I took one step into my room before I froze. Hiei was standing in my room, waiting. I tensed out of nervousness. Is this when I find out Hiei doesn't have feelings for me? Without a word, I began to pull out clothes from my drawers to change into it. I placed them on my table before I finally turned to Hiei.

"So," I said before I paused. "Mukuro?" There, I said it.

"I have no reason to explain anything to you." Ouch, I thought, starting to turn back to my clothes. "But..." I paused. "I find myself wanting to explain to you."

I turned back to Hiei, still kind of nervous. "What do you mean?"

He looked away before he sat on my bed. To my surprise, he gestured for me to join him. This looks like a new Hiei. I didn't know if I should find this weird or not. He didn't start talking until I sat down next to him.

"Mukuro is someone I respect. She was able to fight through her past and grow strong from it. It's something I can understand. I guess... we were drawn together. Her strength is admirable."

None of this was making me feel better. I looked over at Hiei, confused. The next thing I knew, our lips were touching. I wasn't sure who started it, and honestly, I didn't care. A second later, or maybe an hour, there was a knock on the door. Both Hiei and I pulled apart quickly, our eyes open wide. I quickly looked over at the door and when I looked back at Hiei, he was gone.

"Aly-Jay?" It was Kurama.

"Yes?" I called out, hoping I didn't sound out of breath.

"There's some dinner, if you'd like."

Oh Kurama, such a sweetheart. "Thank you. I'll be down in a minute." I quickly changed and went down to eat. But I couldn't stop thinking about Hiei. I didn't understand at all. Was he telling me that he likes me, or was he saying that he likes Mukuro? Hiei doesn't open up much, or more importantly, at all. So, with what little he said, did that mean he trusted me? Was he willing to trust me? Then I thought about him saying he admired Mukuro's strength. I've gotten stronger, for sure, but did I even compare to Mukuro? Probably not... Was strength the way of getting to Hiei? Is that what it takes?

"Are you okay, Aly-Jay?" Kurama asked. "You don't look so good."

I had to come up with a lie. "I'm fine. It's just," think Aly-Jay, think. "I'm just a little worried about this potential kidnapping thing. It's been weeks since that guy was at my window. I feel like something serious is going to happen. Not like what happened at the beach... They can't be that patient, can they?" That wasn't a total lie.

Kurama nodded. "I can see why you would think that. But you need to remember that you have all of us looking out for you. You might not realize it, but we're pretty strong." I had to laugh at that.

Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't come back until after dinner. Thankfully they had eaten before so I didn't have to feel guilty for eating most of what Kurama made. But even having their energy around didn't distract me away from my thoughts. And frankly, it was starting to get exhausting. Who would have thought that thinking would make me tired. If I was blonde, I would be worried.

When I got up to my room, I looked over at my window and debated if I should close it tonight. I still had this weird feeling, like something bad was going to happen. But if I closed it, maybe Hiei would get the wrong idea. I don't want to push him away when he seems to be opening up to me. Deciding to leave it open, I grabbed the book I started to read to Hiei and crawled into bed. Hiei didn't come to me tonight, and it made me worry. Maybe what he was telling me before was him saying goodbye... My chest hurt at the thought. And that's how I fell asleep. In pain, and in doubt.

I woke up with a start. Something was wrong. I looked around my dark room but I didn't see anything. When I looked at my clock—which read 1:08—I realized that Mizu wasn't around. That's odd, he always spends the night with me. Worried, I got up to go look out my window, hoping he was making his way inside. That's when I saw him. The same guy that was in my window last time.

He grinned at me, and I froze. I couldn't bring myself to scream. When I opened my mouth to do so, nothing came out. That only made me panic more. It wasn't until the guy started opening my window that my survival instincts kicked in. I turned around and ran for my door. Just as my hand touched the door knob something wrapped around my ankle and pulled me to the ground. Completely caught off guard, my face smashed against the floor. Pain erupted across the left side of my face.

As I got dragged across my room, I tried to grab anything I could, which wasn't much. I went for one of the legs of my bed but my fingertips only grazed it. Next came my bed side table. This time I successfully grabbed it, but it was so light that it didn't give me much resistance. But my lamp fell off and went crashing to the ground. Since I couldn't scream, maybe any kind of sound would be helpful. I could only hope that Kuwabara wasn't guarding me. But no one came running. Shit. My last hope was to break my window. At first I tried to use my hands but I was being pulled too fast. Scared out of my mind, I didn't know what else to do. Full on panic was setting it. That's when I realized I could summon water. Forming a ball in my left hand, I threw it at my window causing a loud crash.

God, I'm such an idiot! Why didn't I try fighting? I turned to face my attacker and again I froze. I know his face. He was one of those guys that came to the compound looking for Genkai. I remember because they made me feel so uncomfortable, like they were bad news. Glaring, I tried to claw at whatever I could reach. But it was no use, he would dodge every swipe I threw at him. He huffed, as if he were bored, and started to adjust the way he held me. I still struggled but he was able to tie my wrists and ankles by using some kind of energy. I tried to use my demon side but it looked like they had some kind of binding power as well. My only option was to shake and wiggle as much as I could as he threw me over his shoulder. Well fuck, what do I do now?

I tried to keep track of his movements, hoping I could realize where we were going, but he was too fast. And it felt like he was going in a zigzag path. Either to throw me off, or the gang if they decide to try and follow me. At this point all I could do was wait. I stopped struggling. This wasn't the end, I could tell, so I thought I should save my energy. But I had to keep telling myself to not give up. I can't give up.

We must have been running for hours before he started to slow down. I figured we had arrived but when I looked around, all I could see were trees. Was the place hidden or something. But he only stopped for a second to meet up with the other guy that went to Genkai's compound. They didn't exchange words of any kind, they only stopped to place a bag over my head. I guess they thought of that to...

We travelled for another couple of hours, and they ran the whole time. Just when I felt like I might actually fall asleep, they started to slow down. I forced myself to stay focused. Was there anything I could listen to that might be useful? It didn't seem very helpful. There was complete silence, absolutely nothing, but the air smelled fresh. Maybe we were in a forest, away from any kind of city. We entered some kind of building and the floor creaked so I assumed it was an old one.

Both remained silent as they carried me down a flight of stairs. After they carried me into a room, they set me down into some kind of chair that was surprisingly comfortable. They tied me to the chair before I heard them leave the room. The walls were obviously thin because I could hear every word they said when they closed the door. I tried to get free as I listened.

"You actually did it. I'm surprised."
"What's that suppose to mean?"

"After last time, I thought you'd mess up again for sure. The fear can get to you, man."

"If anything the fear kind of motivated me. I do not want to get on his bad side."

"Speaking of the big guy. Where is he?"

"He should be on his way. But I'm not sure if him being outside of that cave of his would be a good thing."

"That and he's coming to Human World."

"Oh yeah... shit."

I could hear them start to walk away. So I'm still in Human World. At least I know that much. Then I realized how little I did know. Panic started to set in again which caused me to have a hard time breathing. I couldn't catch my breath. Only now, did I realize that I hadn't thought of what they might do to me. While I can handle pain in my feet from pointe, I don't think I can handle being tortured... Will they even do that? What do they have planned for me?

It wasn't long before I heard heavy footsteps coming towards my room. I tensed, assuming it was "the big guy" since his footsteps were different from the other two. The door opened and I had to focus on my breathing. I'm going to die. This is it, I'm going to die, and the guys couldn't save me, and I didn't find out how Hiei really felt about me...

The bag over my head flew off my head and I had to blink from the sudden brightness. I was hesitant at first, but I knew I would have to look at him eventually. After taking a deep breath, I finally looked up at him. My first thought was that he was huge. My second, regrettably, was that he was attractive. He must have been over six feet tall with waving blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and bronze skin.

"So," he started. His voice was deep as well as powerful, "you're the legendary mixed demon."

"Legendary?" I heard myself say in shock.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Well, you better be." He took a step closer to me which made my shrink into my chair. "You don't feel very powerful." With a smirk, he slowly dragged a finger from my left eye down to the side of my lip. "You shouldn't have put up a fight, you're face is too gorgeous for bruises."

I spat at him. He back handed me. Blinking back the pain, I forced myself to not cry out.

"Look what you made me do! Making me angry wont be good for either of us. I was hoping to have a little fun with you before I put you to good use." I started to pant in fear and pain, I had to look away. "No," he grabbed my face and made me look at him. I winced from the bruises. "Look at me. I want you to remember my face. I want my face to be the last you see."

I couldn't stand this. Yes, I was scared out of my mind, but I can't die being tied to a chair. I've got to do something. After I sent a him the nastiest glare I could muster, I said, "What even makes you think that I'm this so called chosen one? You even said so yourself, I'm not that powerful."

"True," he said with a grin. "Let's test that theory, shall we?"

Bracing myself for the worse, I tensed and balled my hands into fists. I kept my eyes on him as he walked to the side. He grabbed something from a table that I hadn't noticed before. When he turned around, all of my courage vanished. He toyed with this large blade as he turned back to me.

"Shall we?" he asked as he pricked his own finger. He sucked on it slowly as if to try and be sexy. I had to fight back a gag.

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. I felt my head shake slowly. That only made him laugh. He grabbed my right hand and yanked it towards himself. It was like my bindings weren't even there. After pulling my fingers out so my hand was flat he sliced my hand with ease. I gasped and winced from the pain but refused to do react any further. Blood seeped out of my hand and began to drip. I never thought of myself as being queasy, but seeing my own blood flow out of my hand made me question that. The big guy went back to the table to grab a bowl. He grabbed my hand again so the blood fell into it.

When he was satisfied with the amount, he let go of my hand, making it snap back to my other. Trying to maintain my breathing, I watched him go back to the table. He looked at me from over his shoulder with a grin before he placed the bowl down. I watched him light a candle then pour water from a pitcher into a smaller bowl. Frowning in confusion, I watched as he placed the candle and water on either side of the bowl. He just stood there for a couple of seconds, staring at the bowl. Once he was satisfied, he turned back to me with a huge grin on his face.

"I don't know if you know this," he said as he grabbed the bowl and candle, "but as an elemental demon, your blood is drawn to which ever element you command. And as you can see," he said placing the bowl and fire in front of me and sure enough, my blood started to ripple and push its way towards the candle. He replaced the candle and grabbed the bowl of water, the same thing happened. "Your blood is drawn to both."

Well... shit.

"So now, the question is," he continued, putting everything back on the table, "how do I take your powers?" He turned to me with a grin that said he already knew.

I frowned at him, still confused. How could he take it from me? That didn't sound possible at all. As if he understood my confusion, his grin grew until he showed all of his teeth. Fangs?!
"Vampire?" I gasp. There can't be real... can they? If demons are really, does that mean vampires are to?

He laughed at me. "Vampire? Please! I've got a better talent. I have the ability to steal peoples demon energy, and more importantly, their 'skills'. The only catch is," he flashed his fangs, "I have to drink it out of them."
My arms and legs began to hurt from how tense they were. When I looked down at my fists, I saw my whole body was shaking. This is it, this is how I'm going to die. I felt trapped, useless. Desperate, I began to struggle against my bindings. I struggled so hard that my wrists and ankles began to bleed.

I needed more time. It can't end like this. "Who are you?"

He smiled over at me. "Why bother with such a useless question? You're going to die, anyways." Again, he laughed at me. "Might as well start sooner rather than later. I tend to not have a lot of patience." He walked up to me. "It's a shame really," he continued as he grabbed my face, "such a gorgeous child, and to be wasted on the likes of me. Maybe we'll meet again, in another life." He forced my face forward and pressed his lips against mine, hard. My only reaction was to bite his lips. "You bitch!" he yelled, back handing me again. "I am going to enjoy this."

He pulled my hair, revealing my neck. Without hesitation, he bit me. This time I couldn't hold back the screams. I could feel every pull as he started to drink and it was painful, so painful. It burned, but it wasn't like my fire side trying to get out. It was more than that. I could feel myself weakening but it only intensified the pain. I struggled but it only made him pull harder. He pulled back for a second, as if something didn't wasn't right to him. I heard him growl in frustration before he bit back into my neck, sucking even harder.

This was it, I knew it. I was going to die. Hiei flashed through my mind. I closed my eyes, picturing his expression when I held his hand for the first time. I thought of his gentle arms holding me. I imagined his fingers playing with my hair. But it wasn't his hands in my hair. It was his. Not Hiei's. I felt a single tear run down my face as everything went black.