Chapter 2

When Kaiba returned to continue guarding her room, CiCi had fained sleep. She didn't want to worry him because she knew the hider in the shadows was closer now than ever. Turning away from where she knew he was standing, she slowly opened her eyes and stared drearily at the window ahead of her. The thick, red curtains were drawn shut, but she felt like she could stare right through them to the starless night beyond. Somewhere out there something was lurking. Somewhere out there, somewhere close, something is waiting for her, to take her from this place and back to her parents; that much she was sure of.

Desperately she resisted the temptation to squirm uncomfortably. She wouldn't let her uncle know she was awake. She couldn't. Not yet anyway. Faining a sleepful sigh, she closed her eyes again. In her mind she could still see the world beyond the curtain. Only now she was out in it. The cold blast of air was fresh against her face, as she stood on the wall around her balcony and stared down at the ground below.

There in the garden staring up at her was a pair of beautifully dark eyes, set into a deeply shadowy face. The eyes watched her for a long time, before turning away.

'Wait,' the sound of her own voice surprised her.

The watcher stopped and turned back towards her.

'I don't want to go back to them,' she tried to sound as calm and confident as possible. 'I don't want to go back to my parents. Tell them my brother and I no longer belong to them. We'll never belong to them.'

For a few moments the watcher was silent. Then they appeared to nod and turn away again. CiCi was about to sigh in relief, when she felt something hot breathing down her neck.

'You're more powerful than I thought,' a thick voice hissed at her, 'there's no way I'm going to let you go now.'

As she felt the watcher's arms wrap their way around her, CiCi desperately pulled away, only to find herself falling over the edge of the balcony.

'NO,' her eyes flung open.

'CiCi its okay,' Kaiba gently pulled her into his arms, 'you're safe; it was just a bad dream.'

Kisara was almost surprised just how much the techniques Kashmana had taught her helped. Sure she was outnumbered and she definitely wasn't going to win anytime soon, but she was able to hold her own much longer than she might have without them. Ducking away from an oncoming attack from their leader, Kisara decided it was time she withdrew. There was no way she was going to be able to do this on her own. She needed backup and she needed it now.

The only problem was, she had no idea where she was going to get back up from. She had no allies amongst the demon forces she could call on and she wasn't exactly looking to ask False for help. Not after what she'd heard him say. A part of her considered turning to the MacTay, after all they were always looking for an opportunity to get back at the devil for what he'd done to Heama. But even if they were willing to fight for her they would probably want something in return, they usually did.

So maybe she should try the Balance Council. Even as the thought occurred to her she knew how stupid it was. The Balance Council would want to know how she ended up in that situation and there were just too many questions she wouldn't be able to answer. So maybe she should try asking Dee for help, but how was she supposed to get to her when fire demons were notorious for dampening the Jump ability, especially when hunting a running prey.

'There's no where you can go we can't find you Hateling,' an approaching fire demon taunted, 'you're ours.'

'Don't be so sure,' she turned and held her right arm out towards them, with her palm flat and fingers pointing to the left.

Behind this she placed her left hand, fingers pointing upwards, before closing her eyes. She hadn't wanted it to come to this, mainly because she didn't know how to use any of her Power Limitless abilities, never mind control them, but she had no choice. If she didn't…

'What do you think you're gonna do little girl,' the demon laughed, 'double slap me? Summon some kinda crucifix. I'm not a vampire you know.'

'I know,' she flicked her eyes open, hoping they had the correct look about them now.

The look on the fire demon's face suggested something, although Kisara couldn't be sure if it was the right kind of something or not.

'So you can glamour a little,' the fire demon snorted, before summoning a large sword into his hands, 'you don't scare me.'

'Well I should,' Kisara tried to sound more confident than she felt. 'Because this isn't a glamour.'

'Really,' the demon smirked, 'then why does it look so fake?'

'Because I'm not used to using it,' she felt a little foolish for being so honest, 'but that doesn't mean I can't use it, or that I won't.'

'Bring it on little girl, let me see what you've got.'

Once her lackeys had been dealt with, Mertieha had taken no time in fleeing the scene. It felt good to both of them to know they could install such fear into someone supposedly so fearless. And yet at the same time…

'We mustn't get distracted,' Mokuba warned, 'we've got a mission to complete.'

'I know,' Serenity nodded, 'I hadn't forgotten.'

'Good.'

'Its just that was so much fun, don't you think?'

'Of course it was fun,' he smirked, 'but we can't allow ourselves to become distracted.'

'But I want to chase after her.'

'I know, but we can't.'

'Can't we?'

'Serenity, we have to get to Ni, remember.'

'I know, but Ni can wait, if we let her get much further then…'

'Then what?'

'She might return with a larger army of ice demons and then what?'

'Hm,' Mokuba mused for a few moments, 'I guess that wouldn't help matters at all.'

'So then, let's chase after her.'

'I'm still not sure,' he shook his head, 'I mean, what if…'

'We can do this,' Serenity coaxed, 'you know we can do this, if we just try.'

'We don't have time for both.'

'Don't we?'

'No, we…'

'Shh,' she hushed him, 'don't think, just feel. What do you feel we should do?'

'I feel that we should go after her.'

'Exactly.'

'Then I guess that's what we'll do.'