InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity Redux: Vivication ❯ The Summit ( Chapter 56 )

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

“Oh . . . Oh-h-h-h . . . m-m-m-my . . .”

“Hmm . . . wow . . .”

“Is it . . . hot in here . . .?”

“I prefer my puppy, but that puppy . . .?”

“He’s like . . . walking, talking porn . . .”

“Porn, indeed . . . More like a very classy, artsy independent film, if you ask me . . .”

“Oh, so he’s why Toga never lets me come to these meetings with him . . .”

“Can you blame him?  He’s delicious.  I think need a spoon . . .”

“What did I tell you?  The sex-bomb of the tai-youkai . . .”

“Kaa-chan!”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Oh, nope, not wrong . . . Not wrong, at all . . .”

Across the room where the men were gathered with glasses of drinks and talking amongst themselves, Rinji rolled his eyes and slowly shook his head as he leaned toward Fai.  “Do you have flood insurance, Fai-sama?”

“Flood insurance?” he echoed, casting Rinji a questioning glance as he swirled a glass of cachaça—a distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice—in his hand.  Eduardo St. George, the South American tai-youkai, had been good enough to bring a case of the stuff.  It wasn’t Demyanov vodka, but it was good.

Rinji snorted indelicately.  “If I’m not mistaken, every last woman over there is eyeballing St. George-sama.  At the rate they’re going, they’re going to drool you out of house and home . . .”

Fain grunted, eyes narrowing as he sought out Saori, who, along with the rest of them, were, in fact, staring rather shamelessly at the South American tai-youkai.  “Happens every time,” Fai muttered, shaking his head.

“Seems a little unnatural, don’t you think?”

Toga overheard the conversation and nudged Fai’s arm.  “Well, they say he’s part siren, so not nearly as unnatural as it might be otherwise.  Besides, St. George isn’t actually the one you should worry about.”

“Oh?”

The Japanese tai-youkai shook his head, nodding at the man who was being led into the room by the butler.  A new arrival, certainly.  Fai’s eyes widened, then narrowed.  Tall, broad, though not bulky, the same nearly black hair as St. George, the same blue eyes so dark that they were very nearly black, but he was younger, definitely more boyish-looking by comparison, and, where St. George seemed to exude more of a feral, almost electric, type air, the younger one, with his easy smile and engaging aura, seemed a lot more approachable, overall, and that combination . . .

“His son, Niven, the future South American tai-youkai,” Toga supplied.  “Usually, he doesn’t come to these summits.  I’ve only met him once before, actually, when he and Eduardo-san came to Japan to see otou-san.  If memory serves, he hit on Mikio at the time . . .”

Glancing at the women once more, Fai grunted and rolled his eyes.  The chattering had ground to a screeching halt over there as all of them—even Saori—just stared, utterly dumbfounded.  It just figured . . . “Hit on Mikio?” he echoed, shaking his head since the meaning of the phrase escaped him.

“Grabbed his ass is probably a better way to describe it.  Poor Mikio turned about twenty shades of red, and then some, if I recall . . .”

Fai shook his head.  “Who is Mikio?”

Toga chuckled.  “Yasha-jiji’s youngest son.”

“Is he gay?” Rinji asked, arching an eyebrow at his uncle, jerking his head toward Niven, who was currently being introduced to the African tai-youkai.

Toga shrugged again.  “Nope . . . Well, not really.  Eduardo-san told me once that he is a lover of beings—that he’s attracted to souls, that it doesn’t matter if the body is male or female, so I’d guess that his son is probably the same way.”  He chuckled.  “Not sure if I understand it completely, but if it works for them, then I can’t really say much about it.”

Fai snorted.  “Sounds odd, if you ask me . . .”

“Don’t worry, Fai,” Cain Zelig, the North American tai-youkai, remarked with a chuckle, accurately interpreting just what was going on.  “I’m sure Saori will be able to drag her attention off of them long enough to marry you.  Maybe.”

“Don’t worry about Saori, Cain,” Fai shot back pleasantly.  “If I were you, I’d be more worried about the idea that my mate hasn’t blinked even once in ten minutes . . .”

Cain snorted.  “Pfft!  She just did.”

“Keh!  The fuck is going on over there?” InuYasha growled, stomping up beside them, arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at the debacle that was unfolding on the other side of the room.  He didn’t stop moving, heading toward the women instead—or one woman in particular, anyway.  “Oi!  Wench!  What the hell are you doing?”

“On the bright side, at least Konstantin hasn’t showed up again with that damned jug of his,” Rinji muttered.

Bas grunted since he had spent the bulk of the morning, nursing a very sore head . . . “That stuff should be illegal,” he grumbled.  “Manly, my ass . . .”

Gunnar smiled just a little.  “That’s what you get for letting that bear goad you into a drinking contest.  He’s probably drank that crap from his bottle as an infant.  Did you honestly think that you’d actually win that contest?”

Bas snorted.  “Shut up, Gunsie.”

Shaking his head at the normal banter passing between the heirs to their respective regions, Fai sipped his drink.  He opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it closed when Yerik strode into the room.  His younger brother spotted him, started toward him, only to stop abruptly when Niven stepped into his path.  He leaned over, whispered something to Yerik that made Yerik blink and . . . and blush . . .?

“Excuse me,” Fai remarked, heading over to save Yerik, who looked entirely shaken by whatever it was Niven had said . . .

“Yerik . . .” Fai said as he closed in on them.

If it weren’t such an awkward situation, Fai might well have laughed at the instant and immediate relief evident on his brother’s face.  “Fai!  Hey, uh . . . O-O-Oh, this is . . .” Trailing off, Yerik grimaced as he glanced at Niven, who was even more ridiculously beautiful up close—beautiful enough to give Fai a moment’s pause, too . . . “I-I-I’m sorry . . . I didn’t catch your name . . .”

Niven chuckled, and the sound of it was akin to a warm caress.  A second later, Fai gave himself a mental shake, scowling at his own stupid reaction.  “I apologize,” he drawled, his voice possessing an almost lyrical kind of accent that only lent more of a strange sort of power to his presence as a whole.  “You are Yerik, I see . . . I am Niven St. George.”

“N-Niven,” Yerik repeated, his initial discomfort, fading fast as he stared at the heir to the South American tai-youkaiship.  “Pleased . . . Pleased to meet you . . .”

“Oh, no, gostoso . . . The pleasure is all mine . . .”

Fai blinked when Niven reached out, cupped Yerik’s cheek in his hand, slowly caressing him, and Yerik just stood there, staring at Niven in an entirely fascinated kind of way . . . Fai cleared his throat, and Niven chuckled as his hand dropped away.  “If you’ll excuse us,” Fai said, grabbing Yerik’s arm.  “There are a couple things that I needed to talk to my brother about.”

“He’s part siren, Yerik,” Fai remarked as he led Yerik down the hallway toward his office.

Yerik shook his head, uttered a terse chuckle that sounded entirely forced.  “W—I—I-I just met him, and . . . I mean, I don’t—”

Fai held up a hand to stop Yerik’s protests, stepping into the office and closing the door behind them.  “I’m not telling you that you can’t do . . . whatever you want to do . . . I’m just telling to that . . . whatever you do, make sure it’s not just because he’s a siren, and you can’t ignore his, uh, song . . .”

Yerik grimaced, crossing his arms over his chest.  “I . . . I don’t even know what just happened.”

Fai shrugged.  “If you’re not interested, then I suggest that you stay away from him.  That’s all.”

Yerik nodded slowly, but his frown was more confused than anything, and Fai sighed.  “You can do whatever you’re comfortable doing, you know.  I won’t ask, and I won’t judge you.  You know that.  Besides, Toga told me that the St. Georges . . . They have kind of a different view on things, and I guess it makes sense on some level.  Just because you’re . . . attracted to someone doesn’t mean anything other than that you’re attracted to them, female or male.  Now, I can’t say I’ve ever been . . . attracted to a man, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”

Yerik rolled his eyes.  “I didn’t say—”

Fai handed his brother a glass of vodka.  He was still drinking the cachaça.  “I didn’t, either.  I just wanted you to know.  Now, if we’re done with that . . . I have a job for you, but you don’t have to worry about it until after the wedding.”

“Okay . . .”

Satisfied that Yerik was listening, he nodded.  “There was a report from a hospital in Romania—something about a man who was admitted, suffering from a rather suspicious condition, and that he was apparently going on and on about . . . some questionable things.  Anyway, they say he’s been stabilized and transferred to a psychiatric facility, so I’d like you to go there, interview the guy . . . See if there’s any truth to his claims.”

Yerik grunted.  “What kind of questionable things?”

Fai shook his head, grabbing a sheet of paper off the desk and handing it over to Yerik.  “Things that humans shouldn’t know a thing about,” he muttered.  “Anyway, I need you to go there and talk to the guy.  Not a hunt, exactly, but the regent of the area’s also mysteriously gone missing, so I don’t really have a choice but to send someone in.”

Frowning as he read over the document, he nodded slowly.  “Damn . . . and you think . . .?”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions,” Fai replied.  “At least, not until I’ve gotten more information.”

A soft knock on the door drew their attention, and Fai started to smile, albeit wanly, when Yerik chuckled and handed the report back to his brother.  “That knock sounds awfully familiar,” he remarked, raising his eyebrows as he headed for the door.  “If you’re looking to steal her away for a few minutes, then you’d better lock the door.”

“Get out of here,” Fai growled, despite the smile on his face.

Yerik opened the door and ruffled Saori’s hair as he slipped past her.

“He’s in a good mood,” she remarked.  “Dmitri called.  He said that the children were enjoying the hotel and that the staff has been extra nice to them.  They even arranged an ice cream party for them . . .”

He nodded.  It had been decided that it would be in the children’s best interests to stay at the hotel where the potential adopters were also arriving, giving them all a little more bonding time together along with the staff that would be watching and making preliminary reports about how well the would-be families were doing.  They’d all stay there together for the next week, getting to know one another before any permanent decisions were made.  “Good.”

Her gentle smile died away, and she cleared her throat.  “Anyway, it’s about time . . . Assuming you still want to do it now?”

Fai stood up.  “Your uncle’s ready?”

She nodded, and he frowned when she rubbed her hands in an almost nervous kind of way.  “Saori?”

“Oh, hmm?”

“You . . . You do want to do this, don’t you?” he asked gently.  “You’re not suddenly deciding that we’re wrong, after all, because of Eduardo and Niven, right?”

She blinked, her expression surprised, for just a moment before she rolled her eyes.  “No!  I just . . .” She grimaced.  “I’ve just never been that fond of needles; that’s all.”

He frowned thoughtfully.  “Well, strictly speaking, we don’t really have to do this . . . I mean, we’re both youkai, so . . .”

She shook her head.  “Ojii-chan said before that it’s very important, especially if your mate is a tai-youkai.”  She smiled, but she couldn’t quite shake the lingering hint of anxiety that brightened her gaze.  “I’ll be fine!  Besides, you’ll be there with me.”

He really didn’t know what to say to that.  Of course, he would be, but he also hated to see that trace fear in her expression, too, even if the benefits would outweigh the risks in this situation . . . “I won’t leave your side,” he promised.

Reaching up, she brushed his hair back out of his eyes, managed a smile that was a little closer to what it ought to be.  “All right.  Let’s do this,” she said.  “And then, tomorrow . . .”

He finally chuckled, taking her hand, sparing a moment to kiss her knuckles before tugging her out of the office.  “Tomorrow, we’ll be married,” he said.  To be honest, he couldn’t wait to have it all over and done with.  He wanted to marry her, certainly, but he had to admit that the lead-up was just a little too much for him, too . . .


Saori slowly opened her eyes, blinked as she tried to regain her bearings in the dimmed bedroom.  Someone had drawn the curtains to block out the harsh daylight, and she was thankful for that since her head felt just a little fuzzy, likely from the mild tranquilizer that Kichiro-oji-chan had dosed her with when she’d started to freak out at the sight of the transfusion kit.  Fai was the one who had asked him to give it to her—something he said he’d never done during a marking before.  But, after a moment of deliberation, he had decided that it would be fine as long as he kept a close eye on her, which was just as well, given that Fai’s mark . . .

A suffusion of blood shot to her cheeks as she bit her lip and rubbed her right breast just over the nipple—the mark that tingled on her skin as it formed.  Trying not to look at that the whole time would have been daunting, at best.  Fai hadn’t looked at her when he’d told Kichiro where the mark was to be, and she winced, then giggled to herself.

Fai was still asleep beside her, a bandage on his arm where he’d been hooked up to the transfusion kit.  Turned on his side, facing her, he snored lightly as she leaned up on her elbow slowly, cautiously, and gently ruffled his hair.

He was a little pale, she thought, maybe a little drawn.  Otherwise, he seemed no worse for wear, and she let out a relieved sigh.

‘Congratulations, Saori . . . You’re officially mates now.’

‘Mates . . .’

‘Sounds good, doesn’t it?’

She bit her lip.  ‘It . . . It really does . . .’

‘What are the odds we could convince him to finish the job tonight instead of waiting for tomorrow night?’

Those words drew a soft giggle from her as well as a light blush, and she lay back down, snuggling against Fai’s chest.  Maybe it was her imagination, but she could swear that the sound of his heartbeat was louder in her ears, almost like she could feel it . . . It gave her a sense of incredible peace, as though nothing in the world could touch her, hurt her, ever again, as long as Fai was there with her . . .

The door opened, and Rinji stuck his head into the room.  When he spotted her, he smiled, but he still looked just a little anxious as he slipped inside and quietly closed the door.  “How are you feeling?” he asked her, holding out a glass of orange juice.

She sat up, still careful not to disturb Fai, and took the glass, wrinkling her nose at the slight sourness that hid below the inherent sweetness of the fruity juice.  “I feel good,” she replied.

Rinji chuckled.  “How good?”

“Pretty much normal, actually . . .”

He seemed inordinately pleased by this, and he grinned, but it wasn’t his normal, good-natured grin, either.  No, it was almost a little . . . dark . . .? “You know, Kichiro-oji said that your mate was too preoccupied, fretting over you, to drink the juice he was given.  He might well be out for quite some time . . .”

And just why did that sound entirely ominous . . .?  “Why do you say it that way?”

His only real answer was a rather deep chuckle.

For some reason, the expression on his face . . . She narrowed her eyes.  “What are you up to, nii-chan?”

He shrugged and reached for her hand.  She wasn’t entirely sure if she should trust him or not, but she let pull her to her feet.  “What are we doing?” she asked quietly, glancing back at Fai, who still hadn’t moved.

Rinji shook his head and tugged her out of the room, into the antechamber.

She stopped short, eyebrows lifting as she shifted her gaze from her grandfather to her grandmother.  “Is something wrong?”

Kagura laughed.  “Well, I realize that the whole idea of the bridal kidnapping really doesn’t usually happen till the day of your wedding, but we thought that we’d get an early start on it.”  She shook her head.  “Russians are a strange people . . .”

Saori giggled, only to cover her lips, her mouth dropping open as Sesshoumaru held open the door and gestured for her to step through.

She did, even though she had to wonder if Fai wasn’t going to freak out when he did manage to wake up . . .