InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity Redux: Vivication ❯ Partners in Crime ( Chapter 31 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

“Hello, my name is Saori Senkuro, and I’m calling on behalf of the Asian tai-youkai’s office.  We are looking to place some of our orphans, and I wondered if there was any interest in your jurisdiction?”

“The Demyanov bid you call?” Eduardo St. George asked, his voice a very deep rumble, the sound of his very lyrical accent, almost enough to distract her—almost.  She’d heard her mother refer to him as the sex-bomb of the tai-youkai, and Saori pressed her lips together to keep from giggling outright since she also remembered well enough that her father wasn’t nearly as amused by Aiko’s observation of the man in question.  “Is there a certain child he is looking to place?”

Clearing her throat, thinking to herself that she was certainly glad that he couldn’t see her face or read her mind, given her wayward thoughts, Saori forced herself to focus on the topic at hand.  “Well, we have a number of them, actually, of varying ages and both boys as well as girls.  We have some difficulty in placing them here, so for the good of the children, Fai-sama asked me to see if any of the other jurisdictions had anyone seeking to adopt.”

“Sama?  You’re Japanese . . . Oh, wait, are you Aiko Senkuro’s relation?”

“She’s my mother,” Saori said.

St. George chuckled.  It was soft, breathy, almost a caress of a laugh, and even over the phone, she could feel the warmth of it as well as if she would have, had she been standing right there, talking to him in person.  “Ah, I see . . . and you’re working for the Demyanov, I take it.”

“That’s right,” she replied brightly, pressing a cool hand against her forehead, bemused when she realized that her skin was much warmer than it ought to have been.

He didn’t notice her preoccupation—thank kami . . . “Hmm . . . As it happens, I do have a few couples, looking to adopt, but I know that at least one of them is looking for an infant—preferably one that is closer to the parents in deviation.  They’re both eel-youkai, so they’re hoping to find some sort of aquatic child.”

She considered that and bit her lip as she shifted through the pile of biographies laid out on the table before her.  The home did have one—a seven-month-old boy—a moray-eel-youkai . . . “We actually do have one little boy: seven months old, a moray-eel . . .”

“Is that right?” St. George said.  “Good, good . . . Can you send me information on this child?  I’ll check with the others that I know are looking.  There’s a chance they may be willing to take an older child . . . We don’t tend to have very many children available for adoption in this jurisdiction—few enough that the demand can outweigh the need.  Feel free to send me information on all your children, if you wish.  I would be more than happy to call around—see if there are more families who would be interested.”

“That would be wonderful,” she agreed.  “I’ll include my information so that you can contact me . . . I’d be happy to provide any information you need.”

“Absolutely.  I look forward to working with you,” he said.

The connection ended, and Saori flopped back against the high-backed chair with a heavy sigh.

Glancing up from his tasks, Fai arched an eyebrow at her.  “Why do you look like you just had a bomb dropped on you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

‘That man’s voice is something like melted butter . . .’ her youkai-voice remarked.

‘Oh . . . Oh, yes . . .’

“Saori?”

“Hmm?”

Dropping the ink pen in his hand with a loud clatter, he sat back, folding his arms over his chest as he stared at her.  “Saori?”

“Y-Yes?” she stammered, unaccountably flustered as she sat up straight, tried to brush off the odd feelings of bemusement that lingered.

Fai snorted indelicately.  “You talked to St. George, didn’t you?”

“Wha—? Oh, um, uh-huh . . .”

Rolling his eyes, shaking his head, Fai looked even more irritated than he had before.  “Unbelievable.  I mean, in person, okay, but over the phone?”  He snorted again—louder this time.  “From now on, I’ll deal with him,” he stated.  “Don’t even think about—I’ll talk to him if he calls back.”

Saori’s mouth dropped open as she quickly shook her head.  “This is my job, Fai-sama,” she reminded him.  “You hired me for it, and—”

“—And Eduardo’s mother was rumored to be a siren, which I tend to think is true, given that I’ve seen what happens to entirely logical women—actually, men, too—around him, so if he calls back, don’t you dare answer your phone,” he commanded.

She burst into laughter, waving her hands as his expression grew darker.  “There’s no such thing as a siren!” she scoffed.  “That’s just a silly old tale!”

“Actually, it’s not,” he grumbled.  “Stop laughing; I’m serious.”

“But—But . . .”

Fai grunted.  “I’ve heard tale of it before.  There’s a group of youkai that live in the Pacific in one specific area.  Some call them mermaids.  Humans think they’re manatees.  They’re not.  They’re sirens, and they normally stay far, far away from everyone else.  Anyway, what I heard was that Eduardo’s father was on a ship that capsized, that she found him and, against her tribe’s wishes, bore him to land.  She fell in love with him and decided to live with him, but she rarely showed herself to anyone other than her mate, that she was afraid of what would happen if she tried to venture out in public.”

“Hmm . . .” Saori mused, “maybe I should go and look for more of them . . .”

“Don’t you dare,” he grumbled.

She blinked, stared at him for a long moment.  “Fai-sama?”

“What?” he growled, snatching up his pen once more, trying to focus on the papers he was looking over.

“Why are you upset?”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Hardly.  Awfully fickle, aren’t you?  Go around, kissing me, saying you want to . . . to sleep in my bed, and then deciding you need to go looking for a siren, just because you talked to the son of one of them on the phone . . .”

She giggled.  “I was teasing,” she insisted, hopping up out of her chair and rounding the desk.  When she tried to hug him, he shrugged his shoulders to warn her off, and that only made her laugh more.  “Just call it morbid fascination.”

That didn’t pacify him in the least as he lifted his bent arm to hold her at a distance.  “Go back over there, will you?  I’m busy.”

She sat on the corner of the desk.  He smacked her knee with the back of his hand, which only made her giggle once more, and that, in turn, drew a deep sigh from the Asian tai-youkai.  “Do you have a picture of him?” she asked in a very neutral tone of voice—she thought.

She could feel his gaze on her, even though he hadn’t turned his head.  “Of Eduardo St. George?  No.  No, I don’t, and even if I did, I don’t think I’d show you.”

“He sounds like the tall, dark, and handsome type . . .”

“Why are you interested?” he challenged.

“I’m not interested—I’m curious, that’s all.”

He snorted yet again, shaking his head as he made a blatant show of trying to work.  “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Then it’s a good thing that I’m a dog, huh?”

“I’m trying to work,” he told her.

Saori rolled her eyes and dug out her cell phone.

“What are you doing?”

“What?  Me?  What am I doing?  Nothing.”

Fai snorted, his hand flashing out to yank her phone out of her hand.  “You’re googling him!” he growled.  “Really?  You know, don’t you?  He’s married anyway.”

“Then there’s no harm in seeing what he looks like,” Saori insisted, reaching over to retrieve her phone.  Fai shot her a baleful look as he dropped the device into his pocket.  “Oh, come on!  Give that back!”

“Only if you swear you’re not going to try to google him,” Fai shot back.

She wrinkled her nose. “Kaa-chan said that he’s a sex-bomb.”

“Yep, not helping you get your phone back any time soon,” Fai maintained.

She tried to take a swipe at his pocket, but he turned his body to the side, neatly avoiding her grabby hand.  “But it’s my phone, and you told kaa-chan you wouldn’t try to keep me from talking to her—remember?”

His tone was a lot more tolerant than the expression on his face would otherwise suggest.  “I’m not keeping you from talking to her.  I’m keeping you from unnecessarily googling Eduardo St. George.”

“But—”

“Forget it, Saori.  You’re already the equivalent of the Russian princess of the bad ideas.  The last thing you need is any kind of encouragement.”

She smiled.  “I’m a Russian princess?”

“Nope, I said you’re the equivalent of.  Huge difference.  Huge.”

She giggled once more, swiping at his pocket again, and missing again, too.

“I’m, uh, not interrupting, am I?”

Glancing over her shoulder as Yerik leaned into the office, Saori wiggled her fingers pleasantly.

“Good,” Fai said, standing up so abruptly that his chair slid back a few feet.  Then he grabbed Saori’s hand and pretty much dragged her over to his brother before shoving her against Yerik’s chest.  “Distract her, will you?” he ordered.

Yerik blinked but grasped Saori’s shoulders.  “Okay . . . What am I distracting her from?”

Fai grunted as he turned on his heel and stalked back over to his desk once more.  “Herself.”

Saori giggled as Yerik slowly shook his head, but steered her out of the room.  “Dare I ask what you did to get Fai so out of sorts?” he asked in the hallway, letting his hands drop away from her shoulders.

Saori grinned up at him.  “I talked to St. George-sama, and Fai-sama mentioned that he’s part siren . . .”

“Siren?  I don’t think . . . Well, I guess it’s possible.  I mean, it would explain a few things . . .”

“Things like what?”

Yerik shrugged.  “He came to visit a couple years ago—wanted to buy some vodka, if I remember right . . . Fai mentioned that all the women in the castle were acting all weird, trying to be the one to do things for him, almost coming to blows over simple tasks, like straightening his room . . .”

Saori nodded.  “Probably because his voice is dripping with melted butter . . .”

Yerik chuckled.  “Interesting way to put it.”

“Anyway, I just wanted to know what he looks like, and Fai-sama didn’t want me to google him . . .”

“I’ll bet he didn’t.  That aside, I thought you liked Fai well enough.  I mean, you did kiss him,” Yerik replied.

The blush at that reminder was instant and excruciating as the blood rushed violently to her skin.  “I . . . I do like him,” she admitted, biting her lip, her gaze dropping to the floor.  “I don’t know why St. George-sama was so fascinating, not really . . .”

Yerik considered that, and then he nodded.  “I’ll buy that.  Even so, that had to be hell on his ego, don’t you think?”

She made a face.  “I wasn’t trying to do that . . . I was just surprised; that’s all.”  Turning to stare at the office door, she frowned.  “I should go apologize.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll live,” Yerik said.  “Besides, he told me to distract you.”

Saori sighed melodramatically.  “So, how are you going to do that?”

Before Yerik could answer, Vasili strode down the hallway toward them.  “My lord, pardon the interruption, but I wondered if you would be so kind as to hand over your bedroom key.”

Yerik stared at the butler for a moment before digging the key out of his pocket.  “You know, you really don’t have to straighten up my room.”

“It’s my job, my lord,” he replied.

“Except I can’t ever find things when you put them away,” Yerik countered.

“If I may say so, if you’d put your things away yourself, then it wouldn’t be an issue,” Vasili remarked.

Yerik rolled his eyes as the butler strode away.  Saori pinned Yerik with a questioning look, and Yerik made a face.  “He’s been like that since I was a child,” he said.  “Vasili has a very low tolerance for disorder.”

Her lips twitched.  “So, you lock him out of your room?”

To her amusement, Yerik blushed just a little.  “Sometimes,” he admitted.  “You know, I’ve often thought that he’d loosen up if he got laid.”

His bald statement was enough to make her blush, but she laughed.  “Well, if he had something else to distract him, then I guess he wouldn’t be as concerned with your room . . .”

“Nah, what he needs is for someone to jerk the stick out of his butt, if you ask me.”

Saori giggled.  “That sounds so wrong . . .”

Yerik shrugged.  “The truth usually is.”  Suddenly, he stopped, stared at her, a strange sort of expression brightening his gaze.  “Saori . . . How good are you at things like . . . practical jokes . . .?”

“Practical jokes?  I . . . I can’t say I’ve tried to pull them much,” she admitted.  “But if you tell me what to do, I could try to help . . .”

A rather calculating light filled Yerik’s eyes as he stared in the direction of the butler who had long since disappeared from view.  Then he chuckled, grabbing Saori’s hand and pulling her along behind him . . .