Shades of Time

Rei stared at Hakkai for all of a split second, worry chasing through her mind, before she started to approach him cautiously. He felt . . . off was the only thing she could think of but off in a way that felt strangely familiar to her. She consciously assessed the energy swirling around him and what she felt hit her hard. She almost laughed. Shaking her head and thinking, Dear gods, I am too old to be educating a demon in his mating phase.



“Thank the gods it’s me and not someone who would have a heart attack from the thought of it,” she muttered to herself. It hurt to watch him struggle with something that should have been as natural to him as breathing. Still, she thought a turned youkai had to be at least a little different than someone born to it.



Hakkai’s head shot up and his claws dug deeper grooves into the solid rock. “Rei, please, please, get away from me while you can.”



“It wouldn’t do any good at this point, Hakkai. You’d just chase me down because, much as I hate to admit it, you’re faster and stronger than I am. You won’t hurt me. At least not in the way you’re thinking. You don’t know whether you want to have sex with me or eat me, do you?”



“How do you . . .” he was confused, she wasn’t running from him. Did he really want her to run? All the more fun for the chasing, some deviant part of his mind whispered.



“I was married to a youkai. Remember? There’s a reason there are so few halfbreeds, most human beings male or female can’t withstand the intensity of being with a youkai. They tend to be both possessive and aggressive.”



“Can you withstand it?” he growled, fingers coming loose from the rock beneath them. She wasn’t afraid, he could sense that, would have smelled her fear if she’d been frightened by him. She knew what was happening far better than he did and he would bend to her knowledge. She was his. His human side tried to deny it and push the notion away, fearing the outcome considering his past track record. But the primal side of him felt that connection, knew he needed her, most of all knew he wanted her and had no inclination to refute that fact.



Something dark had shifted behind his eyes and it almost scared her. This was a familiar thing though, the opening steps to a dance she knew well. She knew that shift and knew it had to be followed by challenge or things could get very dangerous in the bad way in short order. She perched on the balls of her feet, moving into a better position to counter his move when it came. She knew she wouldn’t have to wait long for it.



“Come find out,” she challenged. This was part of the game after all.



He was on his feet almost instantly and moving toward her so fast she barely had time to dodge the first advance. He overshot by only a few feet and by the time he wheeled back around she had already moved out of reach again. She had deliberately moved into the tunnel, stepping on the remains of the dead, even if they were only ashes at that point with this kind of play was just disrespectful. She smiled and made a “come hither” motion with one hand.



He put on an extra burst of speed and was lucky the second time, catching her between himself and the cave wall. He rubbed his face along one shoulder and the side of her neck before scraping his teeth over the delicate skin of her throat. Not really seeking to mark her at the moment, sharp fangs not coming anywhere near being really dangerous.



Rei smirked a little and put both hands against his chest before shoving backward, sending him staggering. She was moving along the corridor again and his eyes narrowed, seeing her in the darkness and thinking it was a good thing he could see in the near black almost as well as in the light. He decided to try another tactic and sent the vines streaming away from his body, catching up to her and winding quickly around her legs. Tugging her off of her feet and sending still more vines to cushion her as she fell before pulling her back to him.



“Tricky little demon, aren’t you,” she said. The vines loosened enough for her to move and she swept one foot behind both of his, sending him backward and barely having time to catch himself. Within seconds she was perched across his knees, grinning down at him. “Now who’s on top?”



His eyes narrowed and he pulled her down on top of him before pitching to one side and rolling them over.



“I am,” he said, putting his face into her hair where it had come unbound in the fight. “It’s the closest I’ll ever get to Heaven.”



Hands sliding under her shirt to feel the bare skin of her sides and back, touching the latticework of small and large scars mapped across her flesh. He growled and jerked back a little, shoving the side of her shirt up to look at the very real evidence someone had hurt her badly and repeatedly in the past. He vaguely recalled Anya saying Rei had paid for their safety in her own blood more often than not. The fact remained that someone had injured his queen and he could not, would not allow that to go unpunished.



Rei sensed the shift in him. Felt him go from being highly sexually charged to being livid pissed in less than a heartbeat. Fortunately, she was used to the odd and rapid mood swings of a youkai. She put both hands on either side of his face and tugged his head up to where he was looking at her.



“What is it?”



“You’ve been hurt,” he growled. He felt himself calming down, getting more in control as she ran one hand gently through his hair, soothing the monster that he was.



“Yes. You know I was a fighter and a killer, Hakkai. It was never a secret.”



“I would have protected you.” Gods why did it always come to the fact he could never seem to protect the people who were important to him.



“I know you would have. You were still a child when most of these wounds were fresh and the last one was something I wished for instead of an accident or me not being fast enough to avoid it.”



He somehow knew what the last scar was and where it was. Some instinct told him there would be a double crescent scar on her left hip from a youkai’s teeth. He slid down her body, pushing the fabric aside to look at what he knew would be there, well healed but they had obviously been deep when they were made.



He looked up at her questioningly.



“Hakkai, you know I’m a widow.”



The smirk that suddenly adorned his face would have been better suited to Gojyo for sheer lasciviousness. “That’s a good thing. I would have hated to have to kill your husband,” he said. His tongue traced the scars almost gently and she felt him smile against her skin.



“Hakkai, what are you . . .” She sucked in a deep breath between her teeth, hands going instantly to his hair, trying to pull his head back. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”



He growled and bore down harder, teeth sinking through skin and into muscle.