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Walks at Midnight
By : Henrietta
Category: InuYasha > General
Views: 4163 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story. - Chapter List
- Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Inuyasha series and I am not making any profit whatsoever from writing this story.
AN: I’m back! I had a massive case of writer’s block and I apologize for the long delay in posting this. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to review. I won’t make you wait so long again. Special thanks to my betas, Dark Avenger and Stephanie, for their hard work and patience, as well as to Weeping Lotus for her encouragement.
x x x x
Fortune watched idly as tiny droplets of rain beaded on his forearm, teasing his sensitive nerve endings. His inhuman stillness prevented the disruption of the gathered tension of each shivering bubble. Occasionally, he would flick a stray droplet from his arm, watching as it fell to the wet sidewalk below.
Eventually tiring of this, he flicked his wrist, sending a spray of water to his left. The driblets ran down his arm and hand and dripped onto his pants’ leg. He didn’t mind getting wet, just as he did not mind the occasional sound of thunder from high above. The damp, clean smell of thick air reminded him of boyhood days spent enjoying the wet weather. He recalled the excitement of finding a slightly alien landscape created by the wind and rain. Colors and textures were dampened by the rain and downed limbs and branches often littered the mossy ground.
Exploding through the doorway, young Fortune ran madly across the damp ground, mud sucking at his feet, the heady feeling of freedom swelling in his chest, all of this the result of having being stuck indoors for far too long. Outside, the colors of the trees and mossy undergrowth in his mother’s garden had deepened to deep jewel greens and the tree trunks had become slick, dark waterlogged browns.
Being cooped up inside had never suited the vampire, not now nor when he was a young human. The air was flat and still inside his home, almost suffocating. It had driven him outside, but the electrically charged pressure of the darkened clouds looming above offered little of the sense of freedom he desired. It was early evening and he needed a distraction.
“Are you ready?”
“The question is, are you ready for me,” he turned to face Sesshoumaru, who had managed to approach unnoticed. The misting rain had left the youkai’s hair flat and heavy-looking and the front of Sesshoumaru’s shirt was quite literally molded to his body. Fortune had never seen the youkai wet before and half-expected him to crouch down and shake himself off like a wet dog any second.
Sesshoumaru turned away, heading back in the direction from which he had just arrived.
“Leaving so soon? Was it something I said?” Sesshoumaru ignored him.
“It’s raining,” Fortune shouted after him, “let’s go inside and wait it out.”
“We have work to do. I have not located Erin’s whereabouts as of yet.” He stopped and turned, but didn’t move any closer to the vampire.
“Oh, it’s only been one day, or three. They’ll not harm her, at least until they get what they want,” Fortune made this last statement under his breath, “come back, I need company this evening. I’m feeling,” Fortune looked up at the sky dramatically, blinking away stray raindrops, “restless.”
Sesshoumaru was not persuaded. With a low growl, he leapt high in the air and Fortune lost his form in the deepening gloom of rain and shadows.
x x x x
The glowing green whip cut a high arc through the air, coming down square in the middle of its target’s forehead and burning its way through its body. Just like several of its kind before it this evening, the vampire disintegrated into ashes. Sesshoumaru stalked towards the abandoned lot where he had seen a fleeing vampire disappear. He could feel several others nearby, lurking in the shadows just out of his immediate reach. He did not intend for them to escape his grasp, or the tips of his claws.
He could not help but enjoy this exercise in vampire extermination. He almost laughed out loud as he imagined Fortune’s grinning face in place of the low-level vampire’s as he sliced a deep gash in his chest. His refusal to help search for Erin was unforgivable in his eyes. He could not help but feel a slow-burn of frustration at each taunt, each insult he levied the youkai’s way. Though the centuries had mellowed him somewhat, Sesshoumaru remained, at his core, a proud youkai lord. His sense of humor and wit had become more developed over the years, mainly as some sort of defense mechanism which was required in order to accept his humbled status of walking among mortals and restraining his natural youkai tendencies. It had been a chore and Fortune was now testing those loosened boundaries.
He felt real animosity towards Fortune upon this particular evening. He should be here, hunting by my side.
Sesshoumaru took particular pleasure as he swiftly pursued his prey through the thick vegetation of the vacant lot. He stopped short and with a quick swipe of his claws, he had the vampire’s neck within his grasp. It was such a sudden motion that it was only after it was accomplished that he felt the wet slap of his hair across his face. He jerked his head, dislodging the damp hair from his vision. The persistent rain made his long, silver hair heavy and unwieldy. It had been getting in the way all evening.
He paused a moment to study the struggling creature in his grasp, rather like some overgrown feline twisting wildly beneath his hand.
“What can you tell me?” He loosened his grip around the vampire’s neck.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Another arrogant creature. Even the low-level vampires were not immune to this particular character flaw; they gained a feeling of undeserved superiority through their ability to prey off of humankind. “Hn,” he sighed as he crushed the creature’s neck in his claws, slicing down through his ribcage. Before the screams had stopped, Sesshoumaru was already walking back towards the street. The fun of killing these creatures was now wearing thin and he was left feeling frustrated. Apparently, there was so many vampires in the city that it was no simple task to gain information about Erin’s or her captor’s whereabouts. He must find one that actually knew something.
Fortune could help, he was certain of it. It grated on his nerves that the vampire had not been forthcoming. And what was even more irritating was the fact that his keen senses were of no help either. There was no scent of her anywhere other than the most familiar places and that was both disconcerting and humbling. He had not encountered such a thing since his hunt for Naraku centuries ago.
When he reached the pavement, he felt a sudden swelling of vampiric presence directly behind him and he reflexively lashed out with his claws in the direction of the threat. His body moved gracefully without the burden of coherent thoughts and commands.
Unbelievably, there was no slice of flesh. Sesshoumaru became very still, evaluating the situation.
“Sesshoumaru, you prick.” Fortune stepped out of the shadows, holding his arm high in the air, a neatly sliced sleeve dangling several inches. “I think I’d rather you’d sliced my arm. Now I must walk around all evening looking like a hobo.”
“Pity that,” Sesshoumaru quipped, falling into his familiar flat monotone. He turned and walked away.
“Hey, buddy, where the hell do you think you’re going? Haven’t you had enough of killing innocent weaklings? Pick on someone your own size!”
“I just did. You complain too much.”
“Poor little things.”
“You haven’t seen what I can do to a pair of pants.”
“Touché.”
“Fortune, could you please leave my presence?”
“I’d be more than happy to accommodate… but may I ask why?”
Sesshoumaru’s golden eyes glinted in the moonlight, but he made no reply.
“I ask you again, haven’t you tired of running about this city killing these weaklings and making a fool of yourself?”
“No.”
“At least you’re willing to admit it.”
“Admit what?” Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, nearly reaching the ends of his patience.
“That you need me.”
The youkai was seething inside. Nothing would please him more at the moment than to slash out with his claws and send Fortune’s head rolling. He was not in the mood for Fortune’s taunts, nor to be called a fool by the ridiculous personality in front of him. His fingers twitched, but he would not provoke a fight. He had to admit to himself that he did need the vampire’s help. Tracking Erin had not gone as planned. There was no scent, no trail, no lingering presence, just nothing. The only thing vaguely similar he had encountered recently was Fortune’s stalking games.
Yes, Fortune could help. He should have been willing from the beginning, but for his insufferable temperament. The problem was how to acquire his help with the minimum amount of blows to his pride.
“You may come along if you like.”
“That’s not good enough, Sesshy-dear. It is obvious that you need me, otherwise you would not still be standing here.”
“I stand where I like.”
“Listen Sesshy, I don’t have all night.”
“Fortune, I suspect you’ve done all of this simply to put me in the position where you can find amusement at my expense.”
“Hm, well now that I think about it, it has provided that particular added benefit.”
His comment was met with stony silence as the youkai continued down the street at a steady pace. “I will help. It will get me in a load of trouble, but I’ll help.”
“You may begin now, then.”
“You’re not even going to ask what trouble this might cause?”
“I don’t care.”
“Thought you’d say that. You’re predictable, as well as dull.”
Sesshoumaru stopped in the middle of the street and turned back, “I’m waiting, vampire. Or do you want me to stop going after weaklings and go after you?”
“Threats only turn me on,” he replied, more pleased now to help if there would be some entertaining banter included in the process.
“Just as long as you can relate the information I need in that state.”
He nodded his head, grinning. “Of course, my friend, but you must wait.”
“And why is that?”
Fortune nodded towards the east.
“Tomorrow then.”
“Of course. Now, walk me home and tell me of your search thus far.”
“It’s raining again,” the youkai muttered, quickening his pace. “You’ve seen what I’ve accomplished so far, seemingly nothing but to rid the world of some of your less savory counterparts.”
Fortune laughed as the two hurried through the fading darkness towards home, finding that statement amusing in more ways than one.
x x x x
The next evening, Sesshoumaru stood in front of Fortune’s home just before sunset. He watched as another dreary, waterlogged day melted into a brilliant array of colors to the west. This time of day always made him feel a strange yearning for the past. He watched as the sun’s rays disappeared below the trees and houses, lost in thought.
“Where is my sister?”
Her voice startled him out of his reverie. Of course, he had noticed her approach, but the wind had been coming from the wrong direction and he’d not been concerned by a passing human.
Her scent and voice were familiar and he quickly identified the human as Erin’s sister. He turned slowly to face her, wondering what he should tell her.
“She will be returned to you soon,” Sesshoumaru decided it wise to avoid specifics with this particular human female. It was dark out now and he wished Fortune had not kept him waiting. Tonight he’d promised to accompany him and direct his tracking efforts in a more fruitful direction.
Erin’s sister began walking up the overgrown walkway towards the front of the home. “Fine, if you won’t help me, I’m going in there to get her myself now.” He recognized the fear and desperation in her scent and she was obviously trying to cover it up with strong words.
“She’s not there.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Where is she? I know you have her inside there,” Nisha tried vainly to peer around the inuyoukai’s tall frame and into the interior of the home through its tall front windows. “Erin, Erin,” she yelled plaintively towards the closed doorway. He stood there unmoving in stony silence.
Nisha stepped closer and took up an aggressive stance in front of him. “Where is she?” Her teeth were bared at him as she spat out each word angrily. “What’ve you done to my sister, you fucking pervert?” She attempted to elbow past him and he grabbed her arm tightly, preventing any forward movement. She raised her hand, as if to strike him, but when she looked directly into his eyes, her rage quickly melted away under the glare of his cold, barren eyes. She pulled her arm free and backed away, without taking her eyes from his.
“You do not have to worry about your sister, she’ll be fine,” he said more softly this time, hoping to placate the girl.
She tilted her head down, curls falling forwards over her eyes, “I have to know what has happened. There are evacuation orders. She can’t just be running the streets with all of this going on,” she sighed and added in a calm voice, “I realize I don’t look after her as I should, but I am her sister. Please just tell me where she is.”
“She will be returning home very soon, I give you my word,” he answered, hoping she would give up and leave at this reassurance.
It was not to be. Her face twisted and her calm disappeared beneath a resurgence of anger.
“Erin is fourteen! You can’t just keep her away from me! What are you some sort of child molester? I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t do it with my sister!”
Sesshoumaru was at an uncharacteristic loss as to what to do about the situation. It was not going as well as he’d hoped.
“It’s a good thing I followed her here before so I’d know where you were holding her now. I don’t know how they do things where you’re from, but you just can’t kidnap kids in America, don’t you know that, you fucking pervert?”
Sesshoumaru scarcely heard her ranting at this point, as he was focusing on the tickle of Fortune’s presence coming nearer. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or unsettled that the vampire would soon be entering the fray. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw him appear in the doorway.
The young woman had turned, still ranting, and was moving back down the walkway towards the street, shouting, “I’ll be back with the police! Erin, I’m coming for you, baby.”
“Ni-sha,” Fortune drawled playfully from the doorway as if he were calling a particularly naughty child.
This stopped the young woman dead in her tracks. She whipped around to find Fortune leaning on the door frame, smiling in a relaxed, disarming manner. “You’re looking for that girl, Erin, right?”
“Yes,” she hesitated, “where’s Erin and who are you?”
“My name is Fortune and I’ll be more than happy to help. I must apologize for my friend here. He’s a bit… different.”
Sesshoumaru’s eyebrow twitched dangerously.
“He and Erin have become fast friends, you see,” he continued in an amicable tone, “I would be more than happy to tell you where she is, even if my friend here will not. Come inside. I’ll answer any questions you might have.” He held his arm out, beckoning her. As if entranced, she turned and started slowly moving towards him, brushing past the youkai without even sparing him a sideways glance. When she reached the doorway, Fortune guided her in with his hand placed reassuringly on her shoulder.
He smiled back over her shoulder at Sesshoumaru, giving him a wink. It was not a nice smile. Sesshoumaru briefly considered intervening on behalf of Erin’s sister, since her safety was questionable in the hands of the vampire. But as he had more pressing matters to attend, namely finding her younger sister, he left her to deal with the vampire on her own. Or rather, Fortune would be left to deal with her as he saw fit.
Blast that vampire, he thought as he slipped quietly across the garden, melting into the shadows Once again, he was unaided in his increasingly frustrating search for Erin.
x x x x
Miles away, but not so far as one would think, Erin stared out of the window at a street inside the French Quarter. “Don’t forget about me,” she whispered to no one in particular. She sat down on the floor, leaning back against the couch and tried to forget about her current situation.
At times, it was difficult for Erin to remember that she was a prisoner. She was not treated badly and the worst she could say for the experience so far was that it was terribly boring.
Of course, she had been terrified at first and had imagined the worst. When the two vampires snatched her, she’d thought they meant to kill her. She struggled until they told her that she would be returned safely if she would only cooperate. How she had trembled with fear as they brought her to this place, expecting to be thrown into a cell or dark basement. It was in this state that she’d met Milosh. She had feared him at first.
Milosh was human, though she had mistaken him for something else due to his intense eyes and arrogant demeanor. He assured her that he was completely human, verified by the fact that he came and went during the daylight hours. He was not what you would call handsome. His facial features were large and thick and Erin thought he looked very different from anyone she’d ever met. He was distinctive, somehow, without having any sort of distinctive feature about him, except perhaps his eyes. His perpetual scowl and intense gaze frightened her at first. He couldn’t have been much over twenty and she wondered what it was that he could be so angry about all the time. This would not remain a mystery for long, however.
And so it seemed that she was to have free range of a sparsely furnished flat which appeared to be currently occupied by herself, a cat named Pretty, and Milosh. She had not seen the two vampires since they had brought her here a few days ago. Milosh informed her that their names were Josef and Aneska and he served them in some useful capacity of which he would not elaborate.
Her first real conversation with Milosh went something like this:
“It’s good that you’re quiet, since you’ll be staying here with me for quite some time.”
Erin hesitated for a moment before taking the bait, “They’ll find me. They’ll take me back tonight.”
“No. They won’t,” Milosh answered in a tone which sounded much more certain than the one Erin had feigned. “Aneska will ensure that.”
“Who? That girl?” Erin was a little surprised by this answer, as the girl who had brought her here had seemed very pretty and young, but certainly did not seem to be any match for Sesshoumaru or Fortune.
“Yes, that one,” Milosh’s scowl seemed to deepen, if that were even possible, “she has taken the blood of countless zmeu such as yours in her long life, while such creatures still roamed Europe. She has great power.”
“Whatever you say,” Erin said lightly. She was not about to willingly give any authority to these strangers.
“Is that not what your friend is, a zmeu, shapeshifter, a faerie? By any name, they are no match for her.”
Erin realized that she was being subtly probed for information. She had no desire to be used any further as a tool against her two friends, therefore she ignored Milosh and began biting her fingernails.
He shoved her roughly from behind, “Speak, girl, I asked you a question.”
“No, he’s a vampire,”
“You know of whom I speak.”
“Is that why I was brought here, because Aneska wants to drink his blood? Why doesn’t she just go after him herself is she’s so tough?”
“Why indeed? That’s what I’d like to know as well.” He sat there contemplating this, lost in thought. She thought the conversation over and headed to the small kitchen that they shared.
Unexpectedly, Milosh poked his head around the corner, causing Erin to spill the glass of water she was drinking down the front of her shirt in her surprise. “Shit!”
“It isn’t only that one, you know,” he stated, his scowl briefly transforming into a smirk at the sight of her accident.
Erin grabbed a dishtowel and dabbed at the water spots ineffectually. Her shirt was soaked.
“Josef most likely came up with this silly little game in order to bring Fortune. Fortune’s his, you know.”
“Like I care,” she shoved past him. Holding the front of her shirt out with one hand, she escaped to the bathroom.
x x x x
Days passed slowly, boredom quickly replacing any lingering fear. Milosh had helped to alleviate her worst fears in the beginning with his reassurances that she would not be harmed. Despite his unwillingness to help by allowing her to leave, he seemed somewhat concerned that she be comfortable during her stay, or as comfortable as the fold out sofa-bed and small living space would allow.
She was bait. The worst part of being bait was feeling vaguely guilty and the drudgery of waiting and not knowing whether it would be a day, a week, or a month before she would be free once again. If she had to stay here much longer, she thought that she might go insane. There was no television, she couldn’t leave the flat, and the only other person she saw on a daily basis was Milosh. What a barrel of monkeys he was. However, even his company was better than being alone. In fact, he could be quite amiable in an dull sort of way and by the time he would return in the evenings she was ready for any sort of conversation. She was not certain where or how he spent his days after he left the flat. She did not ask, deciding he must be performing some task or another for Josef and Aneska. During the day there was only petting Pretty (she soon discovered Milosh hated Pretty and all cats, for that matter, but tolerated her presence only because Aneska had picked her up as a stray somewhere), cooking herself meals or reading. There was any number of books, ranging from thrillers to romance. She was even bored enough to try a recipe out of a cookbook she found. It tasted, well, awful, so she went back to cooking her usual pasta with Ragu or ramen noodles, which Milosh seemed happy to pick up for her at the store.
As she sat reading late that afternoon, she asked Milosh who the books belonged to. “You must learn to not ask so many questions, especially those that you wouldn’t like knowing the answers to,” he replied mysteriously. She had rather hoped that the books had belonged to another female who might show up and offer a welcome change.
Erin was more restless than she had ever remembered. She wondered when Sesshoumaru and Fortune would find her. There was not any doubt that they would come for her, either in her mind or theirs. But what she could not fathom was why she was here if it were only a simple matter of bringing them all together. Why not just ask them to show up? If no one was to be harmed, what was the point?
It made no sense, really, if they didn’t mean to harm anyone, and she told Milosh so.
“The silly games the immortals play never do,” Milosh was quick to remind her. She wondered if he were correct.
In the evenings, Milosh would often sit beside her and alternate between talking to her and reading one of his own books, which was not written in English. Their conversations were generally one-sided. Milosh would often rant on and on about politics or the state of the world, or some other dull topic. He would have made a good teacher, she thought. Still, it was better than silence and he would occasionally tell her about the places he’d traveled, which interested her. He had been all over Europe and was originally from Slovakia.
Once she asked him what he thought of New Orleans so far and he’d simply spat on the floor. After a moment of shock, she couldn’t help but giggle and he gave her a strange look. Later, she asked him the same question just to see if he would spit on the floor again. This time he simply complained about the heat or the crime, so he managed to make that dull as well.
The next evening, in attempt to escape the monotonous routine life had settled into, she began relating a few humorous stories she had involving Fortune and Sesshoumaru. He sat there silently. She couldn’t tell if he was listening until she mentioned that Fortune had taught her to play chess, wondering if they might could play together as well.
“Chess, eh? I think I have a set around here somewhere.” He went to his room and returned with a wooden box, which he plunked down before her, adding, “Fortune taught you, did he? You know he’s a killer just like the rest of them.”
Erin sat silently for a moment, toying with the hem of her shirt, her happy, talkative mood disrupted by his accusation. “That’s not true,” she said finally.
He gave a nasty laugh. “You’re such a fool, though I’m not much of one to talk. I was like you once, the very same age when they found me, when I began to serve them, not knowing what their kind truly was. Evil is not a good enough word for them. They are scum.” He paused here, noting that the girl was staring out the window, pretending to ignore him.
“You’ll remember my words when you find out for yourself one day.”
“They aren’t like that,” Erin said in a low voice, “they care about me.”
“So you can talk after all. What are you to them, their human lover?” he sneered.
Erin almost laughed aloud at his ridiculous statement. “No, they’re my friends.” The word sounded naïve and silly, though she could come up with no other way to describe her relationship with the vampire and youkai.
“Friends, pah. Humans are nothing to them but a food source. And your ‘friend’ Fortune is nothing but a killer. He deserves to rot for his crimes, for all the people he has murdered to feed his worthless hide. They all do.”
“Fortune has never killed anyone that I know of.”
Milosh snickered at this comment and Erin tried to hide her rising doubt behind a confident voice, “Sesshoumaru isn’t a vampire, anyway.”
“Ah yes, the shape-shifter. You trust him, do you? It will not end well with that one either.”
“They’ll come for me, you know.”
“What does that matter? Some silly game the immortals are playing amongst themselves. They don’t care about you. I’m only trying to help you by telling you this.”
“Yes, yes, you’ve said that, but if you really feel this way, why don’t you leave? Why don’t you let me leave?” She gave him a hopeful look.
“Aah, there it is. I stay because I hate them. I will have my revenge one day, one day he will be vulnerable and I will be there. He knows this, but is too arrogant to care, that bastard kurva!”
He slid an arm around her shoulders. She removed his arm quickly, standing up and walking over to the window.
Watching her with an indiscernible expression in his dark eyes, he chuckled and added, “As for you, my dear little fool, I cannot allow you to escape while under my care because I wait for that moment when I am to destroy him.”
Erin made a sound of disbelief at his statement.
“You don’t think I have a plan? I will have my revenge against all of them.”
“What did he… they do to you?” Erin asked, curiosity winning out over her anger.
“At first, I thought he was my savior. I loved them, just as you love them.” He paused for a moment, as if gauging his next words carefully, “I was born in Slovakia, as you know. I am a Rom. My family was Romany, or gypsy as you might know the term better, and we were scorned and hated by all the gadje in the village. Josef took me away from all of that, gave me an education, decent clothing and food…” he trailed off, an odd note to his voice that Erin couldn’t place.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Milosh gave her a cold look and continued, “We had to constantly be on guard for our very lives, and our enemies were our neighbors, the villagers. How they hated us. A gang of youth calling themselves ‘the young Nazis’ came for my cousin and I one night. I escaped, but they chased my cousin into a lake and trapped him there. They stood on the shore and shoved him back whenever he tried to struggle ashore, for he could not swim. They waited until he slipped under the water and drowned,” his tone was bitter now and his eyes were filled with an old pain, but he continued, “The story made the more liberal newspapers in the surrounding countries and things were quiet for some time. The Slovaks were embarrassed, not by the act itself, but by the reminder that they had a ‘gypsy problem’. A year later, three boys from the same gang chased my sister and I from where we’d been foraging for mushrooms in the near by woods. I was fourteen at the time, just as you are. They caught my sister and raped her while calling her a gypsy whore. She was fifteen. My sister lay there sobbing afterward in her torn clothes, not wanting to return home and admit what had happened. I waited by her side and cried too. I hadn’t been able to do anything! It was that night that Josef found us there in the wood. I remember the first time I saw him, standing on the hill like a ghost or spirit – and that is exactly what I took him for. He must have been watching us for quite some time. He finally approached us and asked me if I wanted the boys dead. I replied ‘yes’.”
Milosh paused, his eyes shining with malice he turned to Erin, “Would you not have wanted the same?”
She nodded.
“They were found dead the next day. I rejoiced and hoped for the strange man’s return. He did, several nights after that, pledging to protect me and my sister and to provide a better life for us if we would only go with him. We left with him and for many months I was happier than I had ever been. I had money, clothing, food, shelter. I even had enough to send back to my family in Slovakia. We lived with Josef in his estate in Austria. My sister spent her nights with him. This did not bother me at the time, since such is the fate of many Romany women from out land. But one day she came to me, weak and shaking, telling me she wished to return home. I refused her, as was my right as the male family member, and she showed me two tiny marks on her neck. ‘He takes more from me every night. One night he will not stop and I will be like those boys…’
We left that evening. We boarded a night train heading back to Slovakia. The other passengers looked at us as if they had never seen such a sight, ‘Gypsies paying to ride a train, who would have ever believed it’, they must have been thinking the way they were looking at us. The bastards. That night, I fell asleep huddled against our baggage. The next morning, I woke and my sister was dead. No one claimed to have seen anything, but I knew better. He had killed her and if anyone had seen, none of those bastards had bothered to help.”
He took a deep, ragged breath before continuing, “I did the only thing I could do. I returned and tried to kill Josef myself. I didn’t succeed, of course, as young and naïve as I was. And he laughed at me as he held my wrists, actually laughed. He said I could stay, that I could stay and serve him and that my reward would be that maybe, just maybe, I would finally succeed one day.” His eyes were shining with a startling brightness, as if he were speaking about some sort of enthusiastic hobby.
Erin shivered. She hoped he was finished. She didn’t want to hear anymore.
Apparently, he was. He stood and walked towards the door.
“I’m sorry,” Erin called after him, feeling it wasn’t right if she didn’t say something.
“Is okay,” he said quietly and she heard the door pulled to and the key scraping in the lock.
He’s definitely crazy, Erin thought as she turned back to her book, wishing she had been provided a television to take her mind off of his troubles as well as her own.
x x x x
Sesshoumaru sat across the quickly darkening study as Fortune dressed. The dim light did not bother him, as he could see well in the dark. What did bother him was the time that Fortune seemed to be wasting on his buttons.
“Staring won’t get my shirt on any faster,” Fortune seemed to have taken a hiatus from the seemingly difficult task of dressing himself and he leaned back in his chair, shirt still open to his waist. “These pearl buttons are teeny tiny,” he commented, “They really exhaust me.” A short, bark-like laugh escaped his lips, which all but ruined the serious look he had been trying to adopt. “Well, go ahead and stare with those pretty golden eyes of yours then. That is, since you can’t take your eyes off of me,” he licked his lips and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Sesshoumaru flinched, finally glancing away and Fortune laughed outright this time. “I know it amuses you to make me wait as long as possible. Your nature is truly perverse if you find pleasure in such ridiculous things.”
“They may not seem much to you, dear one, but to me they’re what make life worth living.”
“To annoy me is what makes your life worth living,” Sesshoumaru replied absentmindedly, staring up at the ceiling and drumming his fingers on the side table.
“You should be flattered.”
“And I should…” he stopped abruptly in mid-sentence and smiled at Fortune, “I’m very patient.”
“And I have all night. All of eternity, for that matter.” Fortune settled back into his chair.
“You’re determined to make me angry?”
“Let’s just say I need some entertainment. You haven’t been around much to help in that…”
Sesshoumaru stood up and swiped at the couch, leaving four long slits in the old silk from which a moldy-gray stuffing came oozing out.
“Good Lord,” Fortune said, sitting up straight in his seat.
Sesshoumaru stalked over to where he sat and snatched up his shirt, tugging it up over his head. “What the hell?” Fortune staggered to his feet while he attempted to pull his shirt from the youkai’s grasp, stumbling sideways with the material still covering his head. There was a ripping sound as claws rent the thin material. Fortune fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.
“That’s another shirt you’ve ruined this week,” he sputtered out between giggles. “Oh yes, take me baby. Rip my clothes off and take me on the floor like the dog that you are.” He snorted and flailed his arms, his laughter seeming rather uncontrollable at this point. Sesshoumaru let him be.
Finally, his insane giggling subsided and he lay there on the floor curled up in a ball, the torn pieces of his shirt still hanging off his shoulders.
Sesshoumaru nudged him in the ribs with his booted foot. “Have you had enough fun now, or should I destroy some more of your furniture for your amusement?”
Fortune only snickered a little, unmoving.
“I’ve never liked your wall-covering. I think I can improve on it by...”
“Okay, okay, that’s enough destruction for one night, even for me.” Fortune interrupted as he shoved himself off the floor, a wide grin still gracing his features.
Sesshoumaru removed his hand from the textured wall, a little disappointed. The wallpaper was truly garish, in his opinion.
“You want to know more about why Erin was kidnapped, and who’s behind it?” he asked as he removed the tattered remains of his shirt.
Sesshoumaru was a bit taken aback at his sudden willingness to speak after leading him on for so long. He would have to remember in the future that extreme measures seemed to fire the vampire into action.
“It’s Josef, the one who made me. He sickens me, but that does not stop him from trying to win me back by various means every so often.”
“He made you?”
“Well, they usually say, I am his, or some such nonsense,” his lip curled in disgust. “The first time I met Josef, he could barely speak English and I was still human. We both were.”
He settled himself back into the same chair with a distracted air, “My family was living in Beaubassin, a French colony in what is now Nova Scotia. We called it Acadia, land of plenty. My mother was originally from a wealthy family, but she left France for the new world with my father, who was low-born, but with many dreams of making a life and name for himself. They were forbidden to marry and that is one of the reasons my father had opted for making the perilous trip over the Atlantic in the early 1700s. Did you know that there existed what was considered a ‘reasonable’ mortality rate among the ships passengers during that time?”
As always, Sesshoumaru found it interesting to hear the vampire talk of his human past. As he spoke, his face showed some strain as if it were difficult to recall the details from so long ago, or perhaps because these memories tugged at his emotions. Sesshoumaru listened in rapt fascination.
“My father died when I was young, but my mother told us many tales of their ‘great’ romance. He was a trapper, which was a dangerous profession, but game were plentiful at that time…” He paused for a moment here. “After his death, my mother continued living in Beaubassin, but things were hard for her there. The English were jealous of the French’s early settlements and were attempting to import Germans and Dutch to form a rival colonies loyal to the queen,” he snorted, as if this were somehow humorous, “Josef was among one of these new settlers. His father was a great, hearty German who had married the most fragile-looking female I’d ever seen. She had a head of dark curls as long and pretty as your own,” Fortune gave him a wink, “and a pair of the loveliest eyes I’d ever seen, as large and innocent as those of the wild deer we hunted. The German claimed he had ‘stolen’ her from her family farm in Moravia. She could barely speak French or German, but I remember her well because she was my first love.”
Fortune paused again, staring off into space as if remembering more than he was willing to tell. Eager for him to continue, Sesshoumaru cleared his throat.
“Josef was her son. He could barely speak German or French either when he first arrived, preferring to speak his mother’s native Czech tongue. From what I could gather, his father hadn’t been around often while he was growing up, and as a trapper, he was now absent most of the time as well. But Josef was clever and picked up French quickly. He also picked up on the nature of his mother’s and my relationship rather quickly as well. I discovered that she was innocent in looks only. She loved me because she was lonely. I loved her because I was young. I was fifteen at the time.
When winter came, I was off again with my older brother, Gilles, as we had taken up my father’s trade as well. I didn’t see them for a year after this and things were becoming ever more complicated between the French and English. The Germans were not welcome in Beaubassin. It was only through trapping that I even came into contact with their strange family. As I’ve said, I hadn’t seen them in a year, but by the time that I did, Lucia had died. “
“Josef’s mother?”
“Yes, I was heartbroken. We stayed with Josef for some time after that and offered that he could come with us since his father, also a trapper and by rumor a philanderer, was rarely home. He looked so much like his mother… I’m afraid I developed rather an infatuation with the younger boy. I was seventeen at the time, and he sixteen, but I was, by far, the more robust one. I was basically a man by the current standards. Josef was delicate, fragile, just as his mother had been and seemed to be in need of someone to care for him.”
“Robust,” Sesshoumaru repeated, arching an eyebrow.
“Well, when compared to Josef, yes I was, dear youkai,” Fortune grinned, “I was quite popular with the ladies as well.”
“No one was safe from your charms, apparently,” Sesshoumaru teased, unable to resist the jab at his character.
Fortune snorted and waved his hand in front of his face in a dismissive gesture, “In the beginning, Josef was filled with resentment. He had known of my relationship with his mother and blamed me for her infidelity. However, I spent much time talking with him in his broken French and teaching him, and he soon began to talk to me, to open up to me. Damn it if his eyes, so dark and deep and like his mothers, didn’t lure me in. He spent the winter with us and we became inseparable. There was much that transpired between the two of us, but that story is for another time,” he sat down again, only to immediately stand up and begin pacing again, “and I don’t know what he saw in me... perhaps I was a replacement for his absent father? But I know what I began to see in him. I fell in love with him. And when I told him that,” Fortune’s lips curled into a strange smile, “he left us the next day. I was heartbroken for the second time in my short life. I know now what a fool I was to waste such a feeling on that bastard.”
“I soon heard that he had returned to Europe that year, using his mother’s meager savings to pay for his board on a returning ship. If only he’d stayed out of my life after that.”
Fortune rubbed his temples, a very human gesture no doubt left over from his mortal years, “Josef did return and found me years later, when I had a family of my own. He was no longer human at that time. By that time we were no longer living in the Acadian lands,” Fortune’s voice took an especially bitter tone, “The English filth had taken the lands and homes of the French-speakers, which included us. My brother and I had returned to find my mother had been forcibly deported by ship from Acadia, and our home was burned. Those greedy bastards wanted to make sure we had nothing to come home to so that we would roll over easy for them. It took us almost a year to find my mother; she’d been sent to Boston with only the clothes on her back. She was… half-starved and had been treated like an animal.”
“Once reunited, my mother directed our little family to what is now Louisiana where she had learned an old friend of her family had settled. She quickly remarried there. Apparently, the friend of her family was an admirer of old of hers and a widower as well. His name was Leblanc and he had settled on the lands there, in the area near to what is now St. Francisville. He was a complete bastard, but that’s beside the point. He’d formed one of the early plantations in the area. It was like living in a crude town, really, and it was quite a change for my brother and I who were used to roaming the wilds. But…” He stopped again, as if trying to decide which information was important and what was not, “we eventually settled down and married, had children...” again he seemed unsure as where to go next with his monologue, wiping his brow and rubbing his eyes as if agitated, “Josef arrived shortly after that. He came in the night, declaring that he wanted me. He said that he loved me after all and had never stopped thinking of me. And that now, now we could go away together and finally be happy.”
Fortune stopped his pacing and looked directly into Sesshoumaru's eyes with a haunted look, “When I refused, telling him that I had a life here and children, and it had been long ago when I retained feelings for him, he became angry. He said I would regret it.”
Again, he looked away. “I lost my family then. He took me and I became vampire that very night, as well as becoming his temporary prisoner. When I finally gained release, I returned to find that they were gone. Dead, presumably. “
Fortune laughed bitterly, “To think he still had the nerve to ask me to come with him… and still pursues me to this day. Disgusting.”
Sesshoumaru’s expression did not change as he listened to his story, but he admitted readily to himself that this new side to Fortune fascinated him. But ever practical, he ignored any questions he would have liked to have asked about Fortune’s past life and focused on the present circumstances. “Erin was kidnapped because this Josef wants you to come to him.”
“Um, yeah, sort of,” Fortune shrugged, “that and that old bitch has a taste for you kind.” Not that I can blame her, Fortune mused, remembering the strange effects of his powerful blood.
“Who knows what those two have cooked up? Who really cares? Aneska may be clever and powerful, but I have a few tricks of my own.” He cracked his knuckles for effect. “You’ll see.”
I can only imagine, Sesshoumaru laughed to himself and added aloud, “I’m sure they are trembling in fear at the possibility of your reprisal.”
x x x x
Erin watched Aneska paced about the room with an almost cat-like grace as she conversed with Milosh in what was presumably their native tongue. It was a quick, brusque language where all the consonants seemed to flow together into a hissing monotone. She wasn’t able to pick out any particular words and it annoyed her to be left out of the only conversation she’d heard all day.
Erin settled deeper into the overstuffed chair where she had been writing poetry in her journal and did her best to ignore them.
Aneska tired of her pacing and sat down next to Milosh. Though she was facing away, Erin could see from the corner of her eye that Aneska had tilted her head in a girlish flirt and she was now drawing out her speech. Milosh grinned widely back at her, looking at Erin like a love-struck teenager.
“Oh, Milosh,” she purred, “we’ve been leaving out poor Erin, now haven’t we? How rude of us.” Aneska shifted slightly so that she was now facing Erin. “Milacku, is Milosh good company for you? Is he good cook for you?”
“Is he ‘a’ good cook,” Milosh corrected.
Aneska laughed and continued, “He is a good servant for you, no? Does he entertain you? Tell me no and I will beat him, the lazy cican!”
It was Milosh’s turn to laugh at this statement and he added, “Only you find me entertaining, Aneska.”
“That is true; you frown too much and are much too serious for a young girl such as Erin, not like her Fortune. Tell us some story of your Fortune,” she asked, flicking her wrist in an annoyed gesture, “what Josef sees in him I still not know,” she added in a lower tone.
Erin ignored her, but Milosh was more than happy to comply, “she says he taught her to play chess, that he talked with her, and that he played jokes with her on the shape-shifter.”
Aneska tittered at this, covering her mouth, “you made jokes on the shape-shifter? That is like something out of tale. I also have a tale of Fortune,” she laughed again, louder this time, “maybe twenty years back when he still was with the vampires, he was bartender in club for short time. Finally, he has decided that he didn’t like his chief and he killed him.”
“His boss, he killed his boss,” Milosh corrected.
“No matter.” Aneska flicked her wrist again as if warding off unwanted comments.
“And your English is hopeless after how many centuries? Six? Seven?”
“A lady does not reveal her age, Milosh. And as for my English, where is the ignorant boy that I tutored just six years ago?”
Erin looked up questioningly, though she still refused to speak to Aneska directly.
“Ah yes, my little Milosh was fine student. I taught him language, history, how to read.”
“I already knew how to read,” Milosh interrupted loudly. Erin noted that he was smiling as if this were some familiar inside joke between the two of them, “you think I am some dumb gypsy, eh gadje?”
“Boring yes, even spoiled, but never stupid.”
Aneska cut her eyes at him and held his gaze like this for a moment before she turned again to Erin, “but I ask you, Erin, why has he not come for you yet? Are you such an unimportant creature as you look like?”
Erin’s eyes filled with tears so she quickly lowered them. She pretended to be reading her journal, refusing to speak.
“Fine,” Aneska stood and brushed past her as she made for the door. “Takove hlupac,” Erin heard her mutter as she exited. Milosh laughed softly at this, “and the girl should have the bedroom. Where is your hospitality?” she chided gently and the next thing Erin heard was the key grating in the lock. Milosh placed the key inside his shirt as usual.
Erin heard his footsteps approaching, but pretended to involve herself in writing as he squatted down beside her. “You know, she is right. Fortune is both mad and evil just like the rest.”
“Like the rest, you mean the rest except for Aneska?”
Milosh hesitated for a moment before replying, “She is also like the rest.”
“Oh really,” Erin turned back to her book, knowing this would bait him.
“Yes, really,” he said more forcefully, “she is”. He tapped on the coffee table with his forefinger.
“When she was here, you would have thought you two were on a date, the way you were smiling at her. You like her. She’s pretty,” she added when he merely stared at her.
“It was appropriate to smile,” he answered flatly, but he stood up and began to pace in the same direction Aneska had taken.
“You like her. I can tell,” Erin grinned up at him, one step from singing ‘Aneska and Milosh sitting in a tree…’ Her insinuations were certainly getting a reaction from him and it was the most fun she’d had all week.
“She is,” he stopped pacing for a few moments, looking for the right word, “pleasant. But that doesn’t change anything.”
She stifled a giggle at the audacity of her next accusation, “I saw the way you were looking at her. You’re in love with her.”
Milosh turned to face her and his eyes were serious and jaw clenched tightly, “I most certainly am not. What do you know, little fool? You’re still just a silly child, despite your age.”
Erin’s amusement turned to anger at the insult. Her knuckles tightened around the book she was holding, making her all the more determined to prove her point. “Whatever Milosh, you’re just an asshole. You’d never, ever kill her, no matter what’s she’s done and you know it.”
Swiftly, he slammed his fist down on the coffee table causing the glass of water there to overturn, its contents leaking onto the carpet below. “Enough. Don’t speak of what you do not know.” He stalked off into the bedroom and she heard the door slam shut behind him.
She looked down and realized that her hands were trembling from the encounter. Closing the book shut with a snap, she let it fall to the floor with a thud and walked to the window. The next day, however, Milosh silently moved her few personal items into the bedroom before he left for the day. He refused to speak to her that evening as well and he did not return until it was very late, so she crawled into the bed with a book and thus spent the entire day in silence except for Pretty’s purring.
The next morning, things had returned to normal. She woke to Milosh’s shouting at her for letting Pretty sleep in his bed.
“Aneska seems to think it’s my bed,” she grumbled on her way to the bathroom. She had slept deeply in the big, soft bed and had not wanted to get up.
Milosh was already dressed and announced he was leaving, which disappointed Erin a little since she wasn’t looking forward to being alone again all day.
“Will you be gone all day?”
“Will you miss me?”
Erin snorted in reply.
“I’ll only be gone only a short time today.” Milosh stood in the doorway, staring at her, seeming suddenly ill at ease.
“What? I thought you said you were leaving?”
“I have something to tell you before I go.”
Erin waited for him to continue, her stomach clenched painfully, but she ignored it.
“I heard them whispering about your precious youkai and that bastard Fortune,” Milosh’s tone was snide.
Getting no response, he continued, “they were spying on your friends and they saw them take her.”
Milosh paused for a moment, before adding with a slight smile, “you never mentioned that you had a sister.”
Finally, Erin looked up, giving him a worried look, “this better be good,” she huffed, trying to hide her sudden nervousness. Her stomach lurched. She tried to calm herself, telling herself there was nothing to be worried about.
“Apparently, your sister came looking for you.”
Erin’s face lit up for a moment.
“She threatened them,” Milosh took no pleasure in watching as her face fell, despite the fact that he had been right all along, “when they could not produce you, she threatened them. And Fortune killed her.”
“What?” Erin’s heart stopped.
“You heard me,” Milosh lowered his eyes, his voice no longer snide.
“No, no, no,” Erin stood up and began to pace back and forth, “none of this is true.”
“And yet your Sesshoumaru continues to search for you, despite the fact that he did nothing. He stood by and let Fortune kill your sister, the bloodsucking bastard,” his lips were curled in an angry snarl. The old pain was there in his eyes. He walked towards Erin, whether to offer comfort or with some other intent, she didn’t care. “I hate you!” she screamed and jerked away.
“No, you should hate them,” he replied coldly, anger and frustration making his fingers twitch with the desire to strike some rational thought into her.
“Why the fuck should I believe you?”
“If you don’t believe me, just ask your precious youkai when he comes for you.”
Erin sat down on the floor and laid her forehead against her knees, “Leave me alone. Get out,” she said weakly.
“Just ask him,” he gritted out the words through his clenched teeth. As he watched her turn away from his words, his face twisted into a mask of rage, “ASK HIM!” he bellowed out.
Erin flinched but did not raise her head. “I said fucking get out!” she cried brokenly, hiding the hot tears which now slid down her cheeks. She heard the door slam violently and then she was alone.
x x x x
AN: Please review and let me know if I’m back on track. More fun to come - You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
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