The Storms That Bind Us

Chapter 9


The dark was cold, cruel and vast. He floated through it, searching for any sign of escaped from it's clutches. Voices whispered around him like spirits and he struggled to hear them, but he remained deaf to what they were saying. He couldn't move, bound by an invisible force that kept his limbs frozen. Where am I? Am I dead? A woman's soft laugh made his spine tingle with unease.

"Wake up," she urged.

I'm not already? Quiet again, then his head jerked, his body hitching with a cough as icy cold water hit his face. He blinked his eyes rapidly with the shock, becoming aware that his head was throbbing and fuzzy. He took gasping breaths, and heard soft laughter around him. He went to move, but was denied. He swallowed against a dry throat, taking in his situation with growing apprehension. He was upright, sitting on a chair, his wrists strapped down to the thick metal armrests. His ankles were just as bound against the hard legs. He body felt so weak, he wasn't sure that he could even make himself move if he had the chance.

He blinked a few more times, wondering why it still seemed so dark. He lifted his head, biting back a groan. The room was windowless and appeared to be made from stone. Candles made the atmosphere gloomy and dim, and he could smell the smoke from the burning wicks. He saw her sitting in a chair across from him, candlelight exposing her soft features. She didn't scowl, didn't smile, only tilted her head as if observing something of interest.

"Sorry about the cold bath, but we've been trying to wake you for half an hour. I may have went a little overboard with the tranquilizer dose, but you are powerful and I had to stop you from killing any more of my companions."

"I'm sure you're heartbroken over it," his voice croaked, and he coughed against a irritating tickle in his throat.

She smiled then. "Oh, I think we'll survive without them."

Hakkai moved his eyes from her to the darker shadows of the room, seeing his other attackers nestled in the dark, the complete and utter silence from them unnerving. He had to guess the woman was the leader of this group. He watched her, getting a better look now that his head was clearing a bit. She had similar attributes to the man with the scarred face. He absently wondered if they were siblings, but found he really didn't care either way.

"Why didn't you kill me? You could have easily enough while I was incapacitated."

"We don't want you dead." She beckoned to one of the men and he moved, coming into the light with a bottle of water toward Hakkai. He looked at the him, then away, refusing the offered bottle being pressed to his lips. "It's only water," she chuckled.

"I'll pass," he said stubbornly, keeping his head turned.

"Suit yourself. Aito, back away."

He finally got a name for one of them, not that it did him much good. He looked back at the woman, finally awake enough to feel angry for letting himself get captured so easily. These youkai obviously had some kind of plan to use him. That pissed him off even more and his eyes narrowed at her. They were all still in human form, perhaps to hide their auras from his friends. He still didn't know where he was, or if he was still even in the town anymore.

"What do you want?" he asked after moments of thick silence.

"Oh, we're planning on getting the scripture. I'm sure we'd get rewarded well. Killing those three would just be a bonus."

He laughed, genuinely amused. "You think kidnapping me and using me as bait will work? My friends aren't stupid, and they certainly won't accommodate you so willingly."

"I'm not stupid either." She leaned forward in her chair, looking into his eyes. He blinked, his artificial eyes straining to see through a blur. She smirked soft, lifting his monocle into view. "Sorry, it fell off when you passed out."

"You say sorry a lot for a kidnapper." He tried to move his bound limbs again, but to no avail, the bonds were tight and he only accomplished pain as his skin was pulled.

"Your eyes are far too pretty to have to wear this," she mused softly, running her forefinger along the round lens.

"Compliments aside, what the fuck do you want?"

Something about her easy going manner was getting to him. There was something she was hiding under that smile. She still refused to answer, caressing his monocle languidly. She was attractive, and perhaps she was trying to use that on him, but she'd be foolish to think something so inadequate would work.

"So eager to play?" she whispered, eyes locking to his.

"Enough games."

"I haven't even started yet."

He wanted to curse, but his lips froze as an invading pressure pushed in his head. He gasped, fighting against the presence seeping into his mind. He couldn't shut his eyes, turn his head or even scream. He could feel her there like a frigid shroud surrounding his soul. He shuddered, cold sweat breaking out all over his body that she had total control over.

Don't fight me, and it will be over quick. Her voice coaxed softly, but he refused to obey. Have it your way. Pain spiked through his head, and he cried out hoarsely. All memories surfaced against his will. He fought to hide them away, but the bitch was too powerful and pulled every emotion, every sensation, every private moment of his past out of him. It was a total violation as she raped his mind, tugging and pulling at shades of his life. Pain or happiness, it didn't matter, it was all for her to see.

Everything went black again. It felt like hours, but it had only taken minutes for her to be a twisted voyeur of his mind. He came to slowly, breath ragged like he'd been running to save his life. He looked at her, head throbbing from her intrusion. Again she was watching him with interest, brushing his monocle on her bottom lip. He wanted to rip her throat out.

"Bitch."

The others shifted around the room, probably eager to rip him apart, though none came near. She was in charge of this party. She smirked, the tip of her tongue sliding between them to obscenely lick the curve of the lens at her lips. He swallowed against the rawness of his throat, feeling tired and sick from the attack. Her silence spurned him, and she knew it. She stood to tower over him, resigning to stay silent. He waited for a punch, a deathblow, perhaps another forced invasion, but none come. His eyes remained looking straight ahead when she walked around behind him.

"You could have at least bought me dinner before that. How rude," he quipped.

She finally responded with a soft laugh. He flinched when her fingers brushed through his sweat soaked hair. She started humming a soft tune, the haunting melody caused him to shudder when he recognized it as a song he used to sing for Kanan.

"You are a naughty boy, Cho Hakkai," she said, letting the tune die on her lips. He couldn't see her face, but he could almost feel her smile. He held his breath, head jerking when he felt her hot breath against his ear. Her fingers tightened and roughly tugged his hair to keep him still. "Fucking your own sister. Now that's kinky."

"Shut up!" He fought the bonds uselessly, growling in protest when he felt the vile slip of her tongue over his limiters.

"It's okay, baby, I'm not judging. Not at all." She spoke to him as if speaking to a child, and he ached to see her dead. It had been long since he'd been filled with so much hate. "I don't even begrudge that you killed our fellow youkai. You had to do what you had to do, right?"

"I'll kill you too." His voice caught as he said it.

She went on like he'd said nothing. "And now you're getting off with that Sanzo priest. All around dirty boy, you are."

"You fucking bitch!" She had even seen that much. His wrists twisted, the thick leather straps creaking against the metal. Laughter mocked him from around the dim room, and it only infuriated him more.

"Call me what you will, but you are no different from us." She released her grip and walked back around to stand before him once again.

"I'm not like any of you." He glared up at her, sickened by her soft expression.

"But you are." She eased over and straddled his lap, intimate like a lover. He struggled more, the bonds not loosening an inch. He only managed to please her with his desperation. "Stop struggling. I have no intention of hurting you, only to set you free."

"Free?" His breath came faster, scorching his tender throat. "I thought I was bait," he said with sarcasm.

"Bait of a sort." Her fingers touched his cheek, caressing. They were cool against his hot skin, but he refused to pull away this time, challenging her with his eyes. "We hide what we are when it suits us to reach our goal. Why do you hide, Hakkai? Do you despise your youkai side so much?"

"You just took a joyride through my soul, you tell me."

"Mm, yes I did, and that was one wild ride." Her body eased back, her ass resting on his legs. He wanted to knock her away, but the ability to do so was beyond him. Slow and deliberate she pulled the thin straps of her top down over her arms to expose her breasts. Her nudity did nothing to stir him, but he did look at the ring that was pushed through her right nipple.

"Nice costume jewelry," he muttered, watching her grasp the stud with her fingers and pulling it free. By the time he looked back up at her face, her eyes were a beastly youkai yellow. She was smiling more, her fangs dipping downward by her bottom lip. Her pointed ears pushed through her long hair as most youkai's did. "Giving yourself away, aren't you?"

"Oh, I want your friends to find us." Her hand waved briefly to the others and limiters came off to show their true forms. "I want them to find you," she purred. Her claws teased dangerously close to his artificial eye, then scraped lightly up and through his hair. She didn't draw blood as she easily could have, but tormented him with the feather teasing scrapes along his skin.

"So, this is your brilliant plan? Sit and wait for them to come? Not a very effective ambush."

"I saw you, Cho Hakkai?"

"What?"

"You're a very beautiful youkai." Her tongue licked over her fangs, her eyes becoming calculating.

"Your point?" He didn't like where this was going, and began to feel a real sense of fear growing.

"Once you feel the wave, you'll wonder why you've never allowed yourself to be free."

Shit. This woman was more dangerous than he had first thought. He despised taking off his limiters, and only did so when it was extremely necessary. The wave had not affected him, but he'd never had them off long enough to find out. It was something he'd rather not know, but he was about to get a forced test from this insane bitch. He jerked his head when her hand moved toward his ear in a futile attempt at stopping this madness.

"Don't try to resist."

"You're only going to endanger yourselves! You have to know I'll attack if you're stupid enough to set the beast free!"

"You're still drugged up, friend." The familiar voice from the man he first encountered come close behind him, and his hands went on either side of his head to keep him still, claws digging painfully into his scalp. "You'll still be too weak to attack. Plenty of time for you to feel the wave and join your true brothers and sisters."

"Don't do this!"

"When they come, and they will, you will kill them and take the scripture for us," she said with cold certainty.

"No." This isn't happening.

"Aito," she beckoned.

"Yes, Erossa?" Finally he had her name and the sound of it made his insides twist and his body shudder with sick dread.

"Take the limiters and destroy them when I free them from his body. He won't be needing the restraint of the cursed things anymore." She looked into his terrified eyes and smiled seductively. "Now, join us, Cho Hakkai."

"No, damn you!" His protest turned into a growl of tortured pain and anguish when the three clips were cruelly pulled from his ear, his voice echoing against the stone walls and filling the foreboding darkness with it's mournful song.