Yahiko wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but one moment Kaoru was moving towards him with an expression of fear-tinged panic, and the next Soujiro had his sword out and was attacking Kenshin. He had been frozen in his spot, something whispering that he couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, and he was forced to watch as Kenshin and Soujiro blurred as their swords connected and reconnected in a dance he was suddenly aware he would never be able to mimic. He faintly heard Misao’s high pitched wails as he became aware of something other than the motions of the swords.
Jerking some sense back into his body, he watched as Misao dispatched shadow with an expression on her face that wasn’t anything like the Itachi he had teased for four days now. Her face was white except for the two high spots of color, and she was swearing in languages he didn’t know existed before that moment. Sano was guarding the Kitsune Doctor and Aoshi was dealing with the shadows that were attempting to aid Soujiro.
Something was so wrong.
Struggling to find his own will-power, he turned in time to see Kaoru disappear into…somewhere; the man holding her raised a single brow before disappearing. Yahiko found his feet, and moved to join the fray. As soon as his hand landed on a weapon, they noticed him. Yahiko was hard pressed to stay alive, but managed to dispatch several of the…things attacking him when he noticed Kenshin was grinding his sword into Soujiro chest, and he stilled at the expression on Kenshin’s face. It was the same uncontrolled fury that had lined his features when Kaoru had been taken by Jineh.
“Stop!” Misao’s voice rang out as she bounded over, attempting to get Kenshin’s attention. “Himura!” She crashed right into Aoshi, who was there so fast that Yahiko didn’t remember seeing him move. “
“Misao,” Aoshi sharply interrupted, but she struggled against him.
“It wasn’t Soujiro. That was Enishi. Don’t you fools understand?” Misao cried out, frustration filling her voice and face. “That wasn’t Soujiro!”
Yahiko was moving forward to join her. He watched as Kenshin shoved the sword up to the hilt, watching as Soujiro coughed and gagged on his own blood, the sword spearing into the right side of his chest, directly through a lung and chest cavity. Kenshin didn’t look as if it bothered him, the boy who he had raised as his apprentice for the past twenty-years speared on the end of his Katana.
“Enishi?” Kenshin asked quietly, pulling his sword a little to the left to start inching it toward Soujiro’s heart. “Who do you speak of?”
Misao stopped her fruitless struggling and glared at Kenshin. “Yukishiro Enishi. He is one of the last remaining members of that particular line. You should be aware of them; they were one of your Master’s main competitions in the beginning. Your cut your teeth on their blood, Himura,” her tone was controlled now as she watched Kenshin calmly shove his sword another inch. “Do you not remember?” Soujiro garbled something, but it was lost in the blood flowing from his lips.
Kenshin raised eyes burning with flecks of white-hot rage. “Enlighten me.”
Misao swallowed hard. “Yukishiro is the last reaming son of that bloodline. I think he had a sister at some point, but she died. As far as I know Enishi was thought to be completely insane. Until around a decade ago, they didn’t think he had a gift at all.” Her tone was monotone, someone reciting facts. “However, it came out that he had been hiding it. He is a mind-Empath. He does what Kaoru does with Ki, except on the mental wave-path. Apparently his father did all sorts of black magic when his wife was pregnant to make him one, and its why he went insane at the death of his sister, Tomoe.”
Kenshin frowned slightly then. Yahiko thought he saw a flicker of recognition flutter across his face, but then it was gone. “So he wants revenege.” He yanked his sword out of Soujiro in one swift move and watched as the boy dropped like a sack of bricks. “He thinks that by kidnapping Kaoru he can get it, then. Unfortunately for him, her gift cannot be used against me.”
Aoshi frowned slightly. “I remember when Hiko had you purge the Yukishiro line. It was because of that boy…I wasn’t aware he had escaped.” There was nothing in Aoshi’s tone that could ignite Kenshin’s temper, but the man’s expression darkened.
“He wouldn’t have, except for Tomoe’s gift.” Kenshin turned to Misao and frowned. “You and Megumi patch Soujiro up. I will deal with him properly when we get to Kyoto. Once he is able to walk, you take Yahiko and head to my estate there. Aoshi, Sano and I will go after Kaoru. They will meet you in Kyoto once I get my hands back on her. There are a few more things we will finish up here before Kaoru and I join you.”
Misao opened her mouth to argue, her small eyes flashing again, but Aoshi moved between Kenshin and her. Yahiko couldn’t understand what he said, but the girl stiffened and showed off several inches of fang in a fit of temper, but disappeared into the house as ordered. Yahiko wanted to argue to, but he had seen how easy it was for Enishi to take over his mind, and he was smart enough to understand that he would be a liability if he went.
“Bring her back.” He whispered to Sano, before taking off into the house to help Misao tear bandages. Megumi was already attempting to fix the hole in Soujiro’s chest, and she would need all the help they could get. If he could just get the blank, empty look in Kaoru’s eyes out of his mind, because he had never seen her like that.
Yahiko watched as Misao tore through sheets of clean cloth, her expression hard. He thought he caught the bright sparkle of salt-water, but she must have managed to keep from crying, because he couldn’t even smell it.
“What did he mean Kyoto?” Yahiko asked wearily. Kyoto was a port town and very, very dangerous. Most of the old blood had moved there during the Bakumatsu to feed on the blood and destruction, and it was in those streets Battousai had been born.
“That’s were the majority of the population lives.” Misao absently answered her expression distant. “It’s where the main branch of the Oniwabanshu is. You will probably be staying with us there. You don’t want to be around a pair of mates attempted to figure out dominance issues.”
Yahiko wisely decided not to mention her and Aoshi, and followed her back outside where Megumi was working to save Soujiro’s life.
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When Kaoru awoke it was to the sensation of not really being in control of her own body. She was aware that she was standing up, but that she had no control over why she was standing. Her brain was bogged down with a thick velvet wrap that refused to allow her to think outside of the basics. Forcing her eyes open, she looked around. She was standing against a wall in what looked to be a rented room in some western-style dwelling. Her eyes landed on the futon, which went against the small desk and chair, and she rapidly attempted to assimilate the thoughts in her mind.
“Looks like she is awake, boss; are you sure this is the Battousai’s mate? She doesn’t look very dangerous to me.” The voice was high and slightly scratchy, and Kaoru strained to turn her head but couldn’t do more than blink. There was a cotton like feeling in her mouth, and she struggled against it fiercely.
“It’s her. She is a tiny little thing.” A voice she recognized, but couldn’t say how, replied calmly. The white-haired man walked into her line of sight and gave her a long, considering look. His almost feminine mouth was pursed thoughtfully, and there was the slightest tilting to his lips that cast a cruel look to his face. “Hard to believe something so small could cause so much damage to Jineh. Supposedly she took him apart. Tomoe” there was a curl to the word that caused her stomach to churn at the possessive note. “was tiny as well, so perhaps we can believe the stories.”
Kaoru swallowed and reached for her gift but he shook his head. “I can’t let you do that, little one.” His tone was almost playful, but there was a sick note of feralness there that made her redouble her efforts. Sweat broke out on her pores and ate at the skin of her temples as it slowly slid down. His eyes widened in surprise when she managed to almost catch hold, and he sighed. “I didn’t want to do this to you, blossom.”
Then his hands were grasped on either side of her face, holding her still while his pupils dilated and he pulled her back into his mind, and the ice of his mind twisted through hers again. Kaoru’s lips parted in a silent scream, and she fought against him.
“He will come for you.” Enishi whispered as he easily held her against him, his eyes darkening in color as he exerted his will against her. “He will come for you, and I will use you to kill him.”
Kaoru struggled harder against the cold that threatened to seep into her blood, and then she felt it. Hot, wild, churning fire burst from somewhere dark inside her and erupted through her veins as loud as it could. It ate at the marrow of her bones and sucked at her muscles, and churned in the pit of her stomach with heated need. Enishi dropped her so fast she stumbled backwards, her body hitting the wall with a thud as her knees gave out, leaving her to slide down the smooth contours. Panting breaths rose and fell from her lips as she watched him stumble backwards, horror and something else crawling into his face.
“You bitch.” He hissed, moving forward, but stopping. She watched as his nostrils flared as he got a good long pull of her scent. Then he hissed at her, and dragged his companion out of the room, leaving her there.
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Enishi threw the jar of sake he held in his hand into the wall his indigo eyes flaring brightly. Damn that girl. His fangs bared he clenched his fists tightly together, his body straining in an attempt to stay still. She was easy enough to control, her half tamed gift ready to run wild with the single touch of threat. It was easy enough to slip through her pathetic shields and take her mind as his and twist her thoughts the way he wished them. His was the perfect revenge. Take the one woman who could and would slip past the Battousai's defenses and use her gift to turn his own dark abilities against him. Killed by his own touch of death. Then the girl, tainted by the Battousai, would live a life twisted with guilt and insanity; eventually killing herself as she drove herself mad. Everyone who knew Battousai would have to sit down and watch as she slowly killed herself, her gift inverting on her. Ripping her own Ki to pieces.
He had, perhaps, been a touch too sure of himself. Careless. In his few moments of exquisite pleasure -ripping and plundering her soft mind- he had triggered something he had not been prepared for. Her mating cycle. A female vampire only went into a cycle once a year. It was only after she had been bound that her gift would trigger the hormonal reaction that allowed a female a chance at reproduction. Child-bearing was extremely difficult for the women of his race; the more powerful the women, the harder to bear child to full term. It was speculated that a female would go into heat with animalistic tendencies so that she could rut with the strongest male around. Presumably her mate.
On the rare occasion that a female went into heat without her mate to satisfy her cravings, she would use her Ki to lure every male into vicinity into her bed for relief. Her blood was relentless in its demands. A woman in a mating heat was also extremely dangerous. Even as her Ki called every male to her, the female herself would only bend to the one who had bound her to him. She would fight and kill whoever attempted to touch her -no matter how her body craved relief- and would fight until someone managed to subdue her.
As far as he was aware, the Battousai had not completed the bond. The half bond they shared had started the trigger to allow the cycle, but did not allow the hold on Kaoru to keep her from going deranged. "Sloppy, Battousai," Enishi whispered, even as he caught the smell of Kaoru’s call, his body tightening with demand. "Very sloppy."
This, it seemed, complicated things.
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Kenshin watched as Sano talked to a contact, his body tense even as he gave the appearance of nonchalance against the wall. If you weren’t looking at the hand clutching his sword so tightly that his knuckles were white, you wouldn’t notice anything. His hair fell around his face in a perfect disguise, hiding the sight of his jaw. His teeth were threaded so tightly together that Aoshi was certain that a few had cracked under the pressure. The only emotional sign of how furious the man was happened to be his Ki. But that was only because he had it under such rigid control, that you couldn’t even sense him. “That’s your fifth contact tonight.” Kenshin softly said as Sano walked over. There was a strong undercurrent of impatience in his voice, and the way his had tightened on his sword was a clear warning. Aoshi was actually mildly impressed that he could tighten his grip. He was certain there were going to be indents in the hard metal hilt.
“Enishi has been careful.” Sano defended. “Anyway, we got lucky. Apparently Meiko’s specialty is to see through illusions. Enishi has been doing a very good job at covering his tracks, so Meiko can only give us the name of the hotel. He isn’t even sure he is still there, but its worth checking out.”
Aoshi gave the younger man a cool glance. He hoped for his sake that it panned out. Battousai was getting edgier with each second his half-claimed mate was away. He allowed his fangs to glint briefly at that. Even if he had let Misao run wild across Japan, once he claimed her, he had ever intention of doing so properly. Battousai was letting his mate run around and had done nothing to correct the situation.
Idiot.
Sighing, he followed both men back into the darkening streets of Tokyo. It was going to be night soon. If they did not find the girl before day-break, Aoshi wondered if they would find her at all.
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Kaoru tucked her knees under her and rested her chin on the level plane they created. Her head hurt. If she thought about it, which she attempted to avoid, everything hurt. She didn't know what to think anymore. It was impossible to tell if it was night or day, if she was even more than an hour past her kidnapping. Her memories were twisted now, wrapped in an order that confused her. His handiwork; the half-finished job he had managed earlier. Enishi. Kaoru tucked herself even closer to her knees, wishing her slight frame was even smaller than it appeared. She ached. She wasn't even sure if it was all physical. She needed to eat. She hadn’t had anything besides the small mouse she had caught earlier, and she couldn’t quite remember actually draining it dry, just waking from a cat-nap with the thing dead in her hands and warm blood on her tongue. Tears caught and held at her lashes, small jewels of sorrow. The knowledge of her hunger gave her little peace; and she felt slightly sick at the idea of eating an animal such as a mouse. Something inside her writhed with the need for a human male’s warm throat to tear out. To feed on something hot and rushing and filling, and then to go back to her mate and…
'The Battousai will come for you.' His voice had been honey and silk, a voice honed to mesmerize. Kaoru still felt the fingers of it trailing down her spine, her body shaking with the aftereffects of whatever he had used to dampen her gift. Stirring something altogether different in her veins, something that shouldn’t have been there; something hungry, and something that she knew should not have been there.
'I will use you to kill him.'
Kaoru ducked low, her face buried in the soft flesh of her thighs. Her stomach muscles cramped from the tight position but Kaoru could care less. Her thoughts were sluggish and tired, a reaction to the lack of food. She was going to need to eat soon. She knew there was prey around, and she felt sick every time she though of them that way. Pressing a knuckle to her mouth she bit back the sensation of being pulled out of control. Every time a shadow passed by her door, she felt the need to lure them in.
Kaoru rocked back and forth even as small spark of heat began to enter her bloodstream. Every time a male figure -Vampire or human- came near the door to her small room, her blood turned to liquid heat. She had first thought it had to do with her need for blood, but had changed her mind. Even now Kaoru was aware of the beads of sweat slowly sliding down her temples, of the ache -need- that began to turn her body to pliant flesh; the burning sensation buried in her bones and muscles, and female form. Her gift twisted alongside it, calling for something. Someone. Using its manipulative control on base emotions. Lust. Desire. The need to possess.
Something dark and primitive was rising in her veins and whispering for attention. Whatever it was, the closer the male, the stronger it became. Kaoru shook and bit her knuckles harder in an attempt to keep it at bay for as long as possible. Kaoru felt the tenuous hold on the instincts she had been holding in check slip and falter as the pounding in her blood increased.
She needed something, and until she got what she needed, she knew she was going to kill or destroy everything it her path. It was in the growing red in her vision and the temptation to simply rip every shred of clothing from her body and press herself against a hard body in an attempt to repress the ache churning in her stomach. She wanted something.
She was going to get it.
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