InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In a Different Light ❯ The Demon Hunters ( Chapter 23 )

In a Different Light

Chapter 22: The Demon Hunters

Bastards. Rin slowly slipped into consciousness, face down on a cold, wooden floor. She opened her eyelids a crack and chanced a glance around her new surroundings. She knew they'd moved her, and she was nowhere near the campsite. That much was certain.

It was morning, now. She could tell that much from the multi-colored light filtering in through the beaded curtain hanging in the doorway. From what she could see, they appeared to be in a one-room shack of some sort, maybe 10 by 15 feet, old, rotting wood from floor to ceiling. There were no windows and only the one door, providing the only entrance, exit and lighting for the building. There were no lamps, no fire pit, no furnishings of any kind. She spotted two of her attackers out of the corner of her eye, sitting in opposite corners of the room. They were both dressed in black from head-to-foot, including a cloth-like mask that draped over the lower halves of their faces like a veil, only tucked in to the necklines of their haoris.

From her spot on the floor, she couldn't tell where her other attackers were, but she assumed they were somewhere nearby. It had taken all of them to drag her down, after all. She curled her knees up to her chest in hopes of conserving body heat and brought her arm up to block out the dust, must and mildew of the unused hut. She then closed her eyes enough to be mistaken for sleeping but left them open enough that she could see the feet of anyone headed towards her.

Bastards, she cursed to herself. They would pay for this. Forget about Sesshomaru and his Poison Claw attack, she'd scratch their eyes out with her own nails. She'd cut them to ribbons with her sword. She'd hurl them into the deepest, darkest chasm she could find. The nerve of them! Attacking her while she was going to the bathroom. Of all the indignities!

"It would appear that we have you, your 'ladyship.'"

There was a dagger at her throat, an arm around her waist, and she'd thrown her pants on top of the bush so she wouldn't piss on them.

"You can scream all want. No one'll hear you."

She gritted her teeth then instantly regretted it, a sharp jolt of pain shooting through her jaw. It wasn't fair of them ganging up on her like that; there were five of them and only one of her. They were all in black, and she was alone in blue. They'd slapped her, punched her, kicked her, pulled her hair. They'd bruised her face, split her lip, cracked her ribs, twisted her arm, and ripped her top.

"She hasn't been marked."

"Good. That will make tracking us completely impossible . . . without our little 'clues,' of course."

By the gods, it hurt. She refused to cry, refused to give them the satisfaction of listening to her gasp for air through sheets of tears . . . But something clearly wasn't right. It shouldn't hurt to breathe, and she could hear the sickening crunch of her own bones any time she moved. Though it was partly her own fault, she supposed. She could've gone along quietly like a good victim, but after all those lessons she'd had with Master Li, all that time she'd spent training in the dojo, all the hours she devoted to practice in the mornings ... after all that, it would've been shameful and wasteful to let them take her without a fight. Yes, she was a walking, talking bruise, but she'd got in a few good shots of her own. She'd managed to disarm the one with the dagger, sending her attacker flying into a tree trunk, her opponent's back meeting the bark with a thud, the body falling head first to the ground.

Unfortunately, Rin was so busy patting herself on the back she didn't notice two new attackers springing up on either side of her. Between the trees, the darkness and her masked

opponents, she had nowhere to run. Her only option was to stay and fight and hope that her lord heard them and would soon be on his way to help her.

But that was a naive hope. If he could've heard them, or sensed them in any way, he never would have let her go to the bathroom by herself. The instant he sensed them, they would've been dispatched. The instant the one had said, "It would appear that we have you, 'your ladyship,'" he would've ripped the bastard's throat out . . . But that's not what happened. He couldn't see them, couldn't hear them, couldn't smell them, couldn't sense them at all.

At first that was just speculation on her part. Two thoughts occurred to her simultaneously: 1)he couldn't sense them, and she was completely on her own; 2)he could sense them, and he felt they were so minor of a threat that she could handle them on her own. But the instant two attackers came at her at once, she knew this was nothing her lord would allow. She'd never taken on two attackers at once. But she fought well, despite the odds.

She swept the feet out from under one attacker and crouched down so that the other tripped over her. She supposed they were expecting a helpless prey, one they could just sweep down on and spirit away. But she was so outraged that they'd interrupted her during her bathroom break . . .

She clenched her damaged fist and fought back the urge to growl. Growl, indeed. She silently wondered if she'd take on more of he lord's characteristics as time passed. She could already arch her eyebrows, glare and growl just like him . . . Maybe she could start dressing like him . . . She could have a kimono made to match his haori and her own suit of armor complete with spiky chest plate. She already had two swords-Master Li's and the peacock blade they'd purchased at the festival. All she needed then was her own furry boa . . . What was that thing, anyway? She'd never had the nerve to ask specifically what it was; she assumed it was fairly important to him, though. As she'd told InuYasha, no one was allowed to touch it without permission, and the only three times she'd seen him without it . . . Well . . . he wasn't wearing anything at the time.

She smiled inwardly then fell suddenly sullen. Gods, she cursed. He didn't see her, didn't see them. He was standing right there in front of them, and he didn't pick up on a thing. He stood just off to the side of the spot she'd stood seconds before.

"I'm never traveling in pants again. This is just plain ridiculous. They may be easier to maneuver in, but they just can't compete with squat and go." She reached for her pants to pull them back on when she felt it again. That twinge.

She maintained her grip on her pants and glanced around the darkness. She couldn't make out much in the fading moonlight shining down through barren boughs-just the ghostly outline of skeletal trees and the fuzzy edges of the evergreen leaves and shrubs. It was quiet, very quiet. She could even hear Sesshomaru moving around the campsite, his boot-clad feet treading lightly on the dry grass beneath them.

At that point she came to a conclusion. She didn't care what he thought; something wasn't right, and she wanted to leave right now.

A hand had reached out and pulled her backwards between two crooked trees. Another hand pressed the tip of a dagger to her throat. "It would appear that we have you, your 'ladyship.'"

She drew in a deep breath, but she didn't panic. This was the moment Master Li and Sesshomaru had been training her for, after all. She grabbed the attacker's weapon hand and pulled it straight down, reducing the most dire threat. She then, using her attacker's "pull" force, pushed back and slammed her opponent's back into a tree, loosening the hold he had on her waist. From there, it was a simple matter to send the bastard flying head-over-feet into the nearest tree. She was so proud she didn't panic and so focused on her opponent's defeat, that she didn't notice the two other attackers until they were almost upon her. They sprang at her from between the trees, charging at her from opposite directions. She ducked down and swept the feet out from one of them and toppled the other over her back.

At that point Sesshomaru appeared, making his way along the unmarked, tree-lined pathway. He looked slightly more intent than usual, but beyond that he seemed his usual self. He didn't say anything; he just stood there fifteen feet away, casually glancing around the area.

"Sesshomaru!" She ran a few steps toward him, then was promptly stopped by a kick to the mid-section. Winded, she dropped to her bare knees and looked up to see the veiled face of her fourth attacker, the other three closing in on her from behind her.

"You can scream all you want," her fourth attacker proclaimed. "No one'll hear you." She nodded her head over her shoulder in Sesshomaru's direction.

He was still just standing there. She'd screamed his name, and he was just standing there. She'd been attacked, and he was just standing there. She was kneeling right there, surrounded on all sides, and he was just standing there!

"Rin."

"Sesshomaru!" She rushed forward again and was quickly slammed to the ground, one of her attackers taking her down from behind. She looked up and spit the leaves out of her mouth to see him still standing there. He had called out to her, hadn't he? That meant he'd seenher, didn't it?

One of the others shoved her head to the ground. "Let's get this straight, your 'ladyship.' You don't move unless we say so. You don't talk unless we say so."

"I don't breathe unless you say so?" Rin gritted out. At the moment every bit of air in her lungs was being forced out by the weight of her attacker bearing down on her back.

"Kimi, get off of her. Suki, Akemi, hold her."

They roughly pulled Rin to her feet, forcing her arms behind her. Kimi? Suki? Akemi? Women? Her attackers were women?

She stood stunned as Sesshomaru turned and walked back toward camp. She could smell the acid from his claws. "No!" she cried out. "Don't leave me!"

Her lord gave no response, but her fourth, un-named attacker gave an immediate and violent reply, striking Rin squarely in the mouth.

For the first time in years, Rin tasted her own blood. "Who the hell do you think you are!" she demanded. "Do you know who I am? Do you know who that was?"

"Let's see," her fourth attacker counted off the fingers on her hand. She was just as tall as Rin, but she was stockier, sturdier, heavier. And though her nose and mouth were covered, Rin could make out slight creases at the corners of her eyes. "That was twenty, wasn't it?"

Rin glared at her. What the hell was she talking about?

"Twenty," she repeated. "Twenty words spoken without permission."

Rin scoffed, rolling her eyes. Wasn't someone just a little too full of themselves . . .

"Let her go, girls. It's time she learned exactly who she's dealing with here."

The instant they released her, Rin drew her sword. No mercy, she reminded herself. Whatever these women were doing, it was keeping her from her Sesshomaru. He couldn't see her, couldn't smell her, couldn't sense her. If she let these women take her away from here, he'd never be able to find them . . . and the gods only knew what they were planning on doing with her-holding her for ransom, selling her as a slave, keeping her for their own amusement, killing her . . . who knew?

The fourth attacker drew a sword as well. "I would go easy on you," she said, "but that would only make the lesson harder to learn."

Rin prepared herself, the three other women blocking her way back to Sesshomaru. She could take on the apparent leader head on, or she could try and bypass the other three and make her way back to camp. The leader had a sword; it seemed as if the other three didn't. The leader was the leader, and therefore probably more proficient in fighting techniques. She'd managed to evade the other three fairly easily. The leader hoped to beat her into submission; the other three were barring the way back to camp, back to Sesshomaru, back to safety . . . So many decisions, so little time. She hadn't even had time to put her pants back on!

Luckily, her tunic was long enough to cover everything of importance.

"Twenty words spoken out of turn means I owe you twenty strikes."

Rin scoffed. "Over my dead body."

"Oh, we don't intend to kill you, yet. That would just spoil everything."

"And just what is this 'everything?'" Rin asked.

"Something good for all parties concerned."

She couldn't see her mouth, but her steel grey eyes seemed to take on a malicious glint, a malevolent smile. This is foolishness, Rin thought. You're not a warrior; escape. Think of how many times you would've been killed today if Sesshomaru had been using a real sword. Think of how many strikes that he made that you missed. Yes, you're better than what you were, but you're not ready for a real opponent with a real sword . . . Just go for the other three. If you get a good push off, you can bowl right through them and duck between the trees.

The leader advanced, and Rin made her move. Still holding her pants, still clutching her sword, she headed straight for the other three women.

How foolish, she chided herself when the group of women separated and one of them sent her elbow crashing into the middle of her back, propelling her further forward into an awaiting tree. Fuck. Of course, they weren't gonna just stand there, stupid. You should've known they'd move out of the way.

One of them yanked her backwards by the ends of the hair. When she reached behind her trying to disentangle herself, she again found her left arm forced down to her side. Bastards. She then made a sweeping arc with her sword, temporarily forcing them to retreat.

Run, she reminded herself.

Again, she was restrained by a backwards tug on her. "Gods! Do you think men run around pulling each other's hair?"

The leader appeared before her and struck her across the face. "One," she declared.

Rin struck her in return, for which the leader immediately retaliated with a strike to the face and an upward sweep of her blade. Rin barely dodged, pushing herself back along with the one who still held her hair. She sent her left elbow back, catching her shorter attacker in the ribs, then she turned to face the leader. Apparently, the only way out of here was through her.

"Awake now, are we?"

Rin snapped her eyes shut.

"Ah-ah-ah, you can't fake sleep with me," her captor warned. "I'm a hanyou, don't you know. Very keen eyes, ears and nose."

Rin opened her eyes to stare at the veiled woman before her. She supposed she could be telling the truth. There was no telling what she was hiding behind that mask. The only thing she could see clearly was a slitted pair of violet eyes so pale and so clear they had to belong to a demon.

"You're injured," she said plainly.

She scoffed inwardly. Of course, she was injured. They spent the first half hour of their meeting beating the shit out of her . . . Not that they weren't nursing wounds of their own . . . just none as severe as her own.

The woman in black crouched down and gently rolled her onto her back. Rin gritted her teeth but didn't utter a sound. "I'm Kimi," the woman said, placing her palm flat against the area beneath her right breast.

Rin gasped.

Kimi nodded. "Broken. I suppose Akemi kicked you one time too many."

Bastards, she cursed again. Kicking her while she was crawling on the ground. As tough as she was, she would have begged them to stop if she'd thought they would have listened. As it stood, it just would've made her a more amusing target.

She slashed one of them in an upward stroke along her face. It cut through her veil to the underlying flesh, exposing the scarred skin beneath. Apparently, this one had been burned-from beneath her chin, across half of her mouth, arching upward to the curve of her left cheek. It was nothing but dead skin heavily lined with raised, ropy white scars across the peeling, darkened flesh. The left side of her face didn't even have lips.

"By the gods," Rin muttered.

The bleeding woman struck her with the heel of her hand, knocking Rin on her backside and refreshing the taste of blood in her mouth.

"Akemi!" the leader rushed to the injured woman's side. Of course, they were all injured now, bearing the various cuts and contusions brought about by Rin's blade. The leader wasn't as good as Rin thought she would be, so they both still had they're swords. And so far she'd been lucky; all her wounds were superficial.

Akemi pulled her veil back up, trying to cover her face. "I'm fine, Yori."

Yori, the leader, backed away as Akemi advanced. Akemi was almost a head shorter than Yori. She was thinner, and the skin around her hazel eyes had no lines.

Rin scampered to her feet and prepared for another attack. But instead of going for the upper body, Akemi aimed for her feet. Within seconds Rin was flat on her back, and Akemi had brought the heel of her foot down hard on Rin's sword hand. Rin rolled on her side to defend her hand and received a kick in her back for her efforts. She glanced over her shoulder to see the other three women around her. Akemi was in front of her, foot still on her sword hand; Yori stood at her feet. Suki and Kimi-she wasn't sure which was which-were behind her.

And then another one appeared. Honestly, Rin couldn't tell her apart from any of the other shorter ones except this one had a staff-a tall, golden staff with a hoop on top and a pentagram in the center. That staff was the source of the twinge she'd felt just before she was attacked. That staff was what she'd sensed when Sesshomaru and she were climbing the mountain. That staff was keeping Sesshomaru from detecting their presence. That woman, the fifth one all in black, the last one to appear, she was doing this. She must have erected a holy barrier of some sort. Holy barriers were completely undetectable to all except others with acute mystical abilities in the holy rites.

Master Li had a holy barrier blocking the door of his dojo/home. It was harmless to humans, but it could completely eradicate a full demon of lower rank, and cause a serious power drain to those of a higher rank. Those inside the barrier were invisible to those outside the barrier, and no scent or sound traveled outside. So, as long as that woman had that staff . . .

Rin slowly slid her hand from beneath Akemi's foot, feigning subjugation and broken bones. Don't think about them, just worry about the woman and her staff.

"Got her, did we?"

The voice was unfamiliar to Rin. It was obviously feminine, but deep. It had to be the fifth woman.

"Yes, Takara, we have her."

She couldn't risk looking at any of them or they might puzzle out her plan. As soon as "Takara" got close enough, she'd grab her staff and make a run for it.

"So, this is the demon's whore?" the unfamiliar voice asked.

"Smells like it," one of the two behind her replied.

"If we can believe what that man tells us," Yori said. "You were there. He described them to a tee, and we've been trailing them since they left the festival. Her and her demon consort."

"She'll make excellent bait, then."

Bait? Man? Trailing them?

She shook the thoughts from her head. No, don't think about that now. Think about the woman and her staff. She listened as Takara's footsteps came closer and closer. Just a little longer, she told herself. Just a little longer, a few more steps, a few more feet, and you'll be free . . . The barrier will be broken, Sesshomaru will come, and you can put your pants back on.

"Excuse me, Takara, I still owe her a few strikes for speaking out of turn."

"Don't let me stop you," she replied.

Her feet. The woman with the staff was at her feet. How stupid of her.

She commanded her face to show none of her joy as she sent her left leg out and made contact with the woman's left knee-hard.

Takara went down and took the staff with her.

"Sesshomaru!"

"I'll have to wrap them right away if you want them to heal right," Kimi said. "Broken ribs are dangerous. They could puncture a lung, cause internal bleeding . . . It's not very pleasant to drown in your own blood."

Rin refused to answer as the self-proclaimed half-demon produced some cloth strips, helped her sit up, raised her shirt and began wrapping her ribs.

It hadn't worked. Sesshomaru hadn't heard her. He didn't come back. He didn't know where she was.

Akemi kicked her in the side. "You filthy bitch! Takara is a priestess. You're not fit to look at her, much less touch her."

Takara pushed herself to her feet, staff still in hand. "A valiant effort, but futile nonetheless. The barrier still holds, and you're still our prisoner."

Akemi kicked her again.

Bastards! She was tired of being held hostage. She hated being a liability. She hated that everyone thought she was weak and an easy mark . . . Even with her training, even with her sword, even after all these years, here she was in the exact same situation with someone trying to take a shot at her to get to her lord!

"Get her to her feet," Takara commanded.

Before Akemi, Suki or Kimi could get to her, Rin got to Yori. She leapt to her feet, grabbed her around the throat and brought them both down to the ground. She got in two good strikes before the others got to her.

"There," Kimi said. "All better."

It was little better than a dogpile, the five of them rolling around together with Takara watching on the sidelines, maintaining the barrier. Punching and kicking, hitting, scratching, biting. Pulling hair, twisting limbs, kneeing and elbowing vulnerable places. Rin got in her hits, but they got in more.

"Don't worry," Kimi said.

Rin couldn't see her mouth, but she could see the smile in her eyes.

"This will all be over soon, and we'll never have to see each other again."

The wrestling match ended when a particularly violent blow landed on her head. Things grew hazy, and her limbs grew heavy.

The pile thinned out, and she was lying alone face down on the forest floor. Akemi kicked her a few more times, calling her vile and vicious names till Yori called her off. Rin supposed she was quite upset about her cutting her veil and adding another scar to her collection. She would have laughed at her vanity if it wasn't so pitiful. Then she just laid there and groaned silently in pain, squeezing her eyes shut, willing the tears not to come . . . Such a sickening crunch. Her ribs made such a sickening crunch when Akemi kicked them those last few times.

"Check her," Takara said.

One of them reached down, rolled her over and ripped the neck of her top. "She hasn't been marked."

"Good," Takara replied. "That will make tracking us completely impossible . . . without our little 'clues,' of course. Yori."

Rin felt a sharp pain in her right hand then a warm wetness. She was bleeding. Yori had cut her.

"What . . . are . . . you?"

Yori slapped her-a forehand, a backhand and another forehand. "Still haven't caught on, have you?" she asked.

"We're demon hunters," Kimi said, sitting down in front of her. "We hunt demons, and we've been hired to hunt your lord."

Rin blinked at her. Why was she being so forthcoming all of a sudden?

"I usually don't get involved with the humans. I have a tendency to be too rough. Like when I jumped on you earlier. I'm a lot heavier than I look. My bones are thicker than a human's, so it takes more to make them break."

Lucky you, Rin thought.

"I don't really like involving humans, if you wanna know the truth of the matter. But I've heard this Sesshomaru's a pretty tough character. He's a taiyoukai. I've never fought a taiyoukai before, but Takara says I'll do fine, and she knows what she's doing, so I guess I'll be all right."

How old was this Kimi? She sounded like a little kid . . . Well, maybe not little, but young. Like 11, 12, maybe 13.

"You can talk to me if you want. I'm not like Yori; she doesn't like when people talk. She likes it quiet all the time, but she's not here right now. She's meeting with that man, I think."

Man. That was the second time someone had mentioned "that man." What man?

"And over in that corner, that's Akemi. She doesn't really like to talk, either."

Akemi was the one with the burns. The one whose face she'd cut. She wondered if they were all scarred beneath their masks . . . Except for Kimi, maybe. Did half-demons scar? She supposed that was something she should've asked InuYasha.

"Suki's sitting outside with Takara. They're meditating."

So, it was just the three of them inside. Her and her two captors. She laughed inwardly when she realized they'd put her pants back on . . . They had taken her sword, though. She'd have to get that back before she left.

"So, are you in love with that demon? That Sesshomaru?"

She said nothing, only nodded.

"You know it never works."

She raised an injured eyebrow at her.

"Demons and humans. It never works."

Rin glanced over her shoulder at Akemi; she didn't seem to be paying the two of them any mind. "Why do say that?" she asked softly. Her voice sounded raspy and shaky, not like herself at all.

Kimi's violet eyes smiled. Rin supposed Kimi was a lot like her in some ways. Apparently, neither one of them could stand the quiet in tense situations.

"It sounds like you need water," Kimi said.

Rin nodded.

"No water," Akemi said.

They both turned their heads to the right hand rear corner of the hut.

"If she drinks, she'll have to pee. If she pees, she'll have to do it outside. If she pees outside, he'll smell it."

"Oh," Kimi nodded. "But she could just use a chamber pot."

Akemi's eyes narrowed, her brow creasing. "Do you want to spend the rest of the day smelling urine?"

Kimi shook her head. "Ewww, no." She turned her attention back to Rin. "Sorry, no water. Really sensitive nose."

"What kind of hanyou are you?" Rin asked.

"Wolf."

She felt her blood run cold.

"Don't like wolves?" Kimi asked.

She shook her head.

"I don't blame you. I don't like them, either. Except for my dad. He wasn't a bad guy. He just . . ." Her voice trailed off, and her eyes seemed to water. She was definitely still a kid. Only kids could afford to be so open with their emotions.

"What happened?" Rin asked quietly. "With your parents?"

"Wolves are supposed to mate for life," she replied, still sounding somewhat sullen. "My dad met my mom when she rescued him from a trap."

"A trap?"

Kimi nodded. "He was weak. He'd been out hunting and hadn't found anything for days when he smelled the bait in a trap."

How-we-first-met stories were always interesting, so she wanted to keep this one going. "What kind of trap?" she asked.

"A covered pit with stakes. Humans dig a deep pit, stick sharpened stakes in the ground, then they cover it up and add bait. When the animal comes to take the bait, they fall into the pit, and it kills them."

Rin nodded. She'd heard of traps like that.

"Anyway, wolves are generally pretty fast, but my dad was starving, so he was moving at less than optimum speed, and he fell in."

"Did he get hurt?"

Kimi nodded. "He took a couple of stakes in the leg and in the side. And he didn't have the strength to jump out of the pit or climb out or anything like that, so he just kind of laid there at the bottom of the pit, run through with several stakes, waiting to die."

"And then your mom came along," Rin guessed.

Kimi nodded. "It was her father's trap, so she went and checked it and found him instead of a boar or something."

"So, what did she do?"

Kimi shrugged. "Well, she didn't wanna eat a demon, of course. And she couldn't leave him there to stink up the trap 'cause then they'd never catch any real animals that they wanted to eat. But she was kind of afraid to help him out because then he might turn around and try to eat her."

"But he didn't," Rin said.

"No, he didn't. He was too weak and too happy to be outta there. So, after my mom had fastened a rope to a tree and climbed down to get him out, she pulled the stakes out of him, then helped him out of the pit."

"What did she do with him afterwards?"

"Well, she was just gonna leave him there, but she felt kind of bad for him because he was obviously starving, and he'd gotten hurt in her trap. And he didn't kill her when she pulled him out, so she decided to hide him away and help him for awhile."

"Her mistake," Akemi said. "She should've let him die."

"Probably," Kimi said, her eyes beginning to water again. "That probably would've been the best thing, considering everything that happened . . . But if she had, I wouldn't be here . . . And sometimes I really like being here. And sometimes I really hate being here. But I'm here, you know, so I've just gotta make the best of it."

"You're a monster," Akemi said. "A monster who kills other monsters."

"Well, I can't help that," Kimi said. "I didn't get to pick my parents. I didn't get to choose how I was born, just like you didn't get to choose how you were born."

Akemi scoffed. "Your parents should've known better. Your mother, especially."

"You shut up!" Kimi screamed. "You don't know anything. You're just mad because nobody wants you because you're so ugly! You'll never get married! You'll never have any children! And when you're gone no one will give you a second thought!"

Rin bit her swollen lower lip. She wanted very much to say something, to ease the heightened tension, to soothe the girl in front of her and comfort the woman behind her . . . But that wasn't her place. She was just a hostage, after all, the bait in their trap. She shouldn't want to help them. They were the enemy.

Besides, instead of making them better, she could inadvertently make things worse.

Akemi stood and walked over to where Rin and Kimi sat in the center of the hut. The light filtering through the door was beginning to lose its early morning tinge, softening into a uniform, pale yellow color, illuminating the floor and part of the back wall of the hut. But despite the beauty of the morning outside, the atmosphere inside the hut was getting quite ugly.

Akemi stood between them, off to their sides and ripped her mask off. "A demon that," she declared her voice full of vehemence. "It destroyed my entire village . . . burned it down to ashes without a second thought . . . and it still found the time to violate me in every conceivable way."

Rin swallowed hard and looked away from her. Kimi seemed unfazed.

"And when it was through with me, it threw me into a burning building where, quite honestly, I should've died. So, you see, this isn't the only part of my body that looks like this."

"That's horrible," Rin whispered.

"That's life," Kimi said.

"Kimi, that's not very nice," Rin replied.

"She's not very nice, either."

"No, she's not," Rin agreed, recalling Akemi's treatment of her. "But it sounds as if she's had a tough life."

Kimi scoffed. "So, she got raped, who cares? Do you know how commonplace that is atthis time in this area?"

Akemi's hands shot out and grabbed Kimi's neck, pulling her to her feet. They were both the same size, a few inches shorter than Rin. "Do not belittle me, little monster."

She knocked her hands away as if she were brushing dust off her shoulder. "Don't call me 'monster,'" she retorted. "I'm not a monster; I'm a girl . . . like you were, like she is."

Akemi scoffed, her hazel eyes burning brightly. "If I were anything like you, I'd at least understand why the beast did what he did. I keep hearing how much demons hate humans. How we're vulgar and despicable and low. If I felt that way about something, I wouldn't touch it, much less go to the lengths it went to."

Rin swallowed hard then spoke softly. "Rape isn't about sex, it's about power. It's about being bigger and stronger, so you have to do what they say . . . Though, more often than not, with demon males it's because you're giving off a certain scent. Your scent tells them that you're ready to mate, and the union will produce a child . . . Were you . . . on your cycle at that time? Or just before?" Rin asked.

Kimi regarded Akemi with folded arms and stern violet eyes.

"So what if I was. That's no excuse!"

Kimi scoffed. "You wanted to know why he did it, and now you do." She resumed her seat back on the floor, facing Rin. "Demons and humans don't think of things the same way. Human males think the blood you give off is disgusting; demon males find it quite alluring. It combines two of their favorite things, after all-blood and musk."

Akemi turned away from the two, visibly disgusted, and returned to her corner, replacing her veil and tucking it into her haori.

"My parents got a divorce," Kimi said, continuing with her story.

"Divorce?"

"She said she didn't wanna live with him anymore, and he said okay."

"But you said wolves mate for life. How could they get a divorce?"

"Mom was unhappy living with the pack. They weren't very nice to her. They taunted her and teased her, called her bad names. Sometimes they threw stuff at her and what have you. Dad stopped it when he could, of course, but he wasn't there all the time. And Mom just got sadder and sadder, living there. Especially when he was away."

Akemi scoffed.

"I'm not talking to you, anymore! But anyway, you know how the mating mark works, right?"

Rin shrugged. "I've got some idea."

"Well, it's shared pleasure and pain. You feel what the other one feels and vice versa, be it physical or emotional. So, Mom being depressed made Dad depressed. It got really bad. Dad didn't wanna hunt anymore; Mom was always crying, and everybody else was just making fun of them."

"You remember all this?" Rin asked.

"No," she shook her head. "My dad told me. Anyway, Mom said she wanted to leave; Dad said he couldn't leave the pack. Mom said it was driving her crazy; Dad said it was driving him crazy . . . So, he decided it would be best to let her go back to her village. He wasn't really depressed; he was just living out her depression. So he thought if she went back to the village, that would make her happy, then he could get on with his life."

"But something went wrong, I take it."

Kimi nodded. "The mating mark is a strong bond. It kind of makes you want to be around the person that marked you. So, while my mom was happy being away from the pack, away from them taunting and teasing her, she was also away from Dad, which was bad."

"So she got depressed again."

She nodded again. "Doubly depressed. He was sad that she was sad, and he was sad because she wasn't around . . . So, the members of the pack decided the only way out of this was to kill my mom. Killing her would break the bond, and my dad would be back to normal. So, they went and slaughtered my mom's village. I was a few weeks old at the time, they recognized my scent, and they took me."

"And your Dad?"

"He just got worse and worse every year. He was used to my mom sending him something back from her end, whether it was-by the gods, I'm miserable or by the gods, this is wonderful. So, the entire time I knew him, he was miserable. When I was about five, big enough to hunt on my own, my dad just stopped wanting to do everything . . . He really missed her, and he just couldn't get over it. He couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't think, couldn't drink, didn't hunt . . . I started looking after him. Everybody was supposed to pull their own weight in the pack, but Dad just wasn't up to it."

"Did he kill himself?" Rin asked quietly.

"No," she shook her head. "The pack killed him. They said he was bringing us all down. They said he was too weak to go on . . . I . . . tried to protect him. He didn't . . . He didn't really know what was going on . . . And I didn't think it was fair that they did that to him. I was the one taking care of him, after all, not them. If I wanted to spend all my time and energy hunting for him and feeding him and whatnot, that was my business, not theirs." Kimi sniffed and drew in a deep breath. "Anyway, after they killed him, I left the pack, and I promised that one day I'd come back and kill them all."

"And . . . did you?" Rin asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," she whispered hoarsely. "They were actually in the middle of attacking a village when I caught up with them 10 years later."

Fifteen, Rin thought. She's only 15.

"The villagers thought I was protecting them, but I was just there to kill my old pack, avenge my parents, that sort of thing."

Rin nodded. "Is that how you became a demon hunter?"

Kimi nodded. "And how I met up with the others."

"And you like this?" Rin asked.

"It's exciting," she said. "I don't really have a chance to get bored, except like now, when we're just waiting. Waiting is dull. And it pays well, too."

Rin nodded again. She didn't know if she could sit up much longer. Her head was throbbing; her ribcage ached. Her bloody lip and cut hand felt as if they were pulsing. She was tired and hungry and thirsty . . . And after Kimi's story . . . sad. So very sad.

What would she do if she never saw him again? What if they never let him find her? What if she never managed to escape? True, they weren't marked mates, yet, but he'd already said he didn't want to live without her. And the idea of him wandering around trying to find her, forgetting to eat and sleep, letting his kingdom fall apart, leaving no stone unturned...

No, she decided. She would escape. She wasn't going to just sit here and be the bait for their trap, the food for the starving wolf . . . But she was so sore . . . It hurt to even think about moving. And where was her sword? Not that her right hand was in any condition to wield it; there was a huge gash in the palm where Yori had cut her.

Bastards. All of them were bastards . . . No matter how pitiful their stories were, they were still bastards. They were still keeping her away from Sesshomaru . . . and they wanted to hurt him. They wanted to hurt one of the few people who'd actually been nice to her in this lifetime. They wanted to hurt her Sesshomaru, her lord, her mate.

Bastards. Vicious, cheating, thoughtless bastards.

"I didn't think there were any more demon hunters," Rin said slowly. "I heard their village was destroyed."

"We're hunters, not slayers," Akemi proclaimed from her corner. "The slayers were bred; hunters are made. Every one of us had a defining moment in our lives that made us want to wipe out every last demon living on the face of the earth. We're not from the same village. We're not the same age. We don't share the same views, but we do share a common goal-the annihilation of the demon population."

Rin looked up at the violet-eyed wolf hanyou sitting across from her. Kimi shrugged. "I just like to kill, and I like having money to buy nice things. Plus, it's easier than stealing."

Rin raised a bruised eyebrow at her. "Killing is easier than stealing?"

"Well, they want me to kill. Nobody wants to be stolen from, though."

"Demons," Rin said. "They want you to kill demons, and you don't like to kill humans."

She shrugged again. "They're not much of a challenge," she said simply. "And they make such pitiful noises when they're about to be killed . . . Most of them don't even try to fight back. They just . . . drop to their knees and start begging . . . Except you," she added. "You didn't beg at all."

"You'd already said you weren't going to kill me, so begging wouldn't have done me any good."

"Nah," Kimi said. "You were too pissed off." She shook her head, a bright smile again appearing in her eyes. "From what my dad said, you sound a lot like my mom; she didn't like to be pushed around either. She had a real temper . . . It's just that everybody's got their breaking point, you know. And they pushed my mom beyond that point day in and day out, till she finally had to leave."

"I understand," Rin said.

"I try to," she said. "I try to understand what they went through, but from my point of view it was the pack's fault. If they would've just left my mom alone, everything would've been fine."

"I don't know why you're talking to her so much," Akemi said. "You know what the deal is, what's going to happen to her. It's pointless to get attached to things with such short lifespans."

Rin pretended not to hear her, but . . . what were they going to do with her? Once she "served her purpose" and led Sesshomaru here in some way or another, what were they going to do with her?

"You should talk about short lifespans," Kimi shot back. "I've got a good 500 years in me. How long will you live?"

Akemi scoffed. "Demon spawn."

"Burnt bitch."

"Half-breed hellion."

"Crispy critter."

"Bastard wolf."

Rin smiled to herself as they continued to sling insults at one another. Why did this little exchange feel so familiar? And what was Jakken doing right now?

How would he feel if he knew she was missing? Will she still be missing when he gets back?

But wait. They were supposed to meet them, not them come to us. Would . . . would Sesshomaru leave without her? Would he go meet Jakken and then search for her? Or would he simply give up, finding no human trace of her?

But . . . they said they were setting a trap. They said she was the bait. So they must have left him some way of finding her. She glanced down at her right hand. It was a fairly deep cut. It was going to leave a scar. Her lord didn't have a single scar on his entire beautiful body.

The beaded curtains jangled and Suki stepped into the hut, the light behind her casting a long shadow over the seated figures of Kimi and Rin. "He's coming," Suki announced. "Get her ready."

Kimi and Akemi helped Rin to her feet, balancing the taller woman between the two of them. Who's coming? Rin wanted to know. And get her ready how?

"He's here."

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Author's Notes: Haha . . . Cliffhangers seem to work especially well for this part of the story. I don't mean to be evil, but this chapter's already 26 pages long in MS Word. Getting into anything else at this point would just be bad.

And just for fun, here's the meanings of the names I chose:

Yori (the leader)-reliable

Akemi (the scarred one)-bright and beautiful

Kimi (the wolf hanyou)-she who is without equal

Takara (the priestess)-treasure, precious object

Suki-beloved

Thanks for reading and reviewing, and I hope I didn't disappoint,

theMaven :)