Cursed Hearts

“Her soul is curious about you… it knows you are its sibling, even if she does not remember. It is the tie that binds her to us all.” Hyakuhei felt the longing Tama was feeling meld with his own. “Soon Tama… very soon. You will have your sister.”

*****

Hyakuhei stood at the top of the mall escalator watching Kyoko glance around the shopping center in amazement. She had always been an innocent and it seemed in this life she was no different. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

‘Come to me,’ he whispered within his mind knowing she would hear the summons without realizing it.

Kyoko glanced up toward the second floor and then eyed the escalator as if it was an amusement ride at the fair. “Can we?” she smiled at Tasuki then back toward the moving staircase.

“Sure,” Tasuki smirked then laughed when she made him get on first. “Oh sure… sacrifice me… why not.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter then held on to the railing as if he was terrified.

Sticking her tongue out at him, Kyoko gripped the rubber on the handrail and stepped behind him. “Stop watching me like you're expecting me to run back down the steps.” Kyoko warned when he kept glancing over his shoulder at her. She looked up pretending she had done this before, but when her gaze locked on the man coming down the escalator parallel to hers, she forgot to breathe.

Long dark hair framed the most beautiful face she had ever seen. The only people who could even come close where the new guys she’d met today at school. His lips were relaxed but she could feel them against hers in a heated kiss. His luminous dark eyes where framed by thick dark lashes.

As he grew closer on his downward slope toward her, Kyoko felt her heart skip a beat and everything slowed down. She could feel him reaching for her and she wanted him too. His hand left the rail to move the couple of inches that separated her side from his. The second he laid his warm hand across hers, time caught back up with itself and she was at the top of the escalator.

Kyoko felt disappointment rush through her when she swung around to find him but he was nowhere to be seen.

*****

“She’s home,” Kamui called from the front porch then flinched when his brothers joined him so fast he hadn’t even seen them move. “And look who’s with her.”

“Tasuki,” Toya said in a voice that was way too calm to match the heat in his eyes.

“Looks like she went shopping,” Kotaro stated.

“I would have been fine with the short skirts,” Shinbe sighed longingly.

“You would.” Kyou coldly glanced sideways at him, causing Shinbe to move to the other side of Kamui for safety reasons. One of them being the fact that he was scared.

“She can’t just run off like that.” Toya crossed his arms over his chest wondering what was taking Tasuki so long to get the hell back in his car.

“But she doesn’t know that,” Kamui pointed out, “At least she came home at a decent time.”

“A decent time would have been before dark,” Kyou said flatly.

Toya started down the steps but Kyou reached out and placed his hand firmly on his shoulder. “Tasuki is only carrying her bags in. He is almost finished.”

“I’ve told you to stay out of my head.” Toya glared back at Kyou, “One day you’re not going to like what you find crawling around in there.” He jerked his shoulder, making Kyou let go of him. The last thing he needed was Kyou listening in on his thoughts. Having part of Tadamichi within him was creepy enough. He made sure his mental defenses were up then glanced back across the street as Tasuki’s car pulled away from the house.

“I wonder if she thought to stop and get something to eat,” Toya mumbled, thinking out loud.

“Why would that worry you?” Kyou asked curiously knowing Toya was not one to say random things.

“She almost passed out during drama class today. I overheard her tell Tasuki that she hadn’t been eating because of the move,” Toya informed him before adding, “Tasuki also asked her to go with him to the masquerade party Friday night at the school.”

Kotaro’s lips thinned as he pulled a long-bladed knife from the waist of his pants and started flipping it through his fingers like a baton. “I think Tasuki has appointed himself her bodyguard in hopes of being a little bit more.”

“If he’s not careful, he will be a little bit dead.” Knowing how that sounded, Toya quickly added, “He’ll only find himself a target for the demons if he becomes too close to her.”

“There are five of us… I think we could outnumber his advances if we tried.” Shinbe smirked.

“We failed today.” Kyou’s voice held no emotion, but the look in his golden eyes was angry. “We are her guardians and she is only a human girl that is more fragile than most. If she keeps putting herself in danger by disappearing, then we will have no choice but to reveal ourselves for what we are… her real guardians.”

“And tell her what she is?” Kamui shook his head. “She isn’t ready for that… think about it. Our priestess isn’t even eating right because her world has been turned upside down. Give her time to adjust to that first. In the meantime, maybe we should become closer to her so that when we do tell her the truth, she won’t think we’re crazy… or worse, see us use our powers and think we’re some kind of aliens.”

“I still think your wrong about that. She needs to turn to us if anything happens. Right now, the only person she would turn to would be the Shinbe wanna-be that she seems to like so much,” Toya pointed out.

“Hey, I resent that,” Shinbe said trying to hide his grin.

No… you resemble that,” Kamui elbowed him good naturedly.

Toya kept his gaze across the road, but in his mind he was remembering how she’d almost melted in his arms. “She’s our priestess. We’re drawn to her and I think she’s also drawn to us. I doubt she’ll freak out as much as you guys fear she will.”

“Let us compromise,” Kyou said. “In case something does go wrong… she needs to know we are right across the street.”

“Agreed,” Toya said.

“First… she needs to eat.” Kyou pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

Chapter 6 “What Demons Fear”

Kyoko had just finished putting away her new clothes when the doorbell echoed making her jump. Rushing downstairs, she looked through the peephole and saw a delivery guy holding five large boxes of pizza. Opening the door, she frowned knowing it was a mistake. Before she could say anything, the guy held a hand up to stop her.

“I know you didn’t order the pizza because the family across the street ordered it for you. It’s a welcome to the neighborhood gift.” He smiled and handed her the boxes. “And they already paid for the pizzas and left me a huge tip.” He nodded and headed back for his car.

Kyoko smiled nervously then looked across the street. Seeing long silver hair flashing in the porch light she knew that could only be Kyou. All the guys from school were out on the porch looking across the street at her. Kyoko’s lips curved into a real smile. She waved at them then motioned for them to come over.

“And we have our invite,” Shinbe nearly purred as he started down the steps.

Toya reached out and cuffed him on top of the head. “If you don’t behave over there, then it will be our last invite.”

Shinbe narrowed his eyes and turned on Toya. “Who died and made you the only one who could touch her? She’s just as much ours as she is yours, you prick.”

“We all died you stupid fuck.” Toya backed Shinbe the rest of the way down the stairs as silver started to swirl within his eyes. His voice became dangerously low as he growled, “You’re so damned horny that I can smell it.”

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