Amethyst Eyes

Chapter Five: Your sister?

At the temple, the couple’s activities hadn’t gone completely unnoticed by the old spirit master. She sensed their erratic then rising energy patterns very close to one another and it could only mean one thing.

‘So that’s all he needed.’ She chuckled. (Hey, she’s old not dead.)

Yukina sat across from her, mending one of her kimonos, but looked up to see a grin on Genkai’s face. “Genkai, what’s so funny?” Genkai’s grin widened at the question.

It was a pity her senses weren’t as attuned like the others. Genkai had also figured out, that Hiei was the brother Yukina was searching for. She’d had suspicions confirmed by Kurama a while ago. It was hard to miss his reaction at the Dark Tournament and all the times he perked up when her name was mentioned. “Yukina, if I may be so bold, what made you decide to accept Kuwabara’s proposal for marriage?”

“I know he cares for me very much and I like him. He’s loyal, funny and he’ll take care of me. That’s all I could really ask for.” Her reply was slow at first, but she pointed out his strong points without hesitation.

“Do you think you’ll be able to have children with him being human?”

“I don’t know, we can only try. Koorime become pregnant once every hundred years and give birth to one child without needing to mate.” She sounded a little sad but spoke softly.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?”

“Not at all. I’m 109 years old.”

Genkai’s brow rose slightly. “Have you had any?” Yukina shook her head and looked away. “I’m sorry if the topic is uncomfortable for you.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s nice to have someone trying to get to know me. Kazuma has asked a lot of questions about my life, but never that one. I’m just thinking that if my brother is alive, he’d want to find a way to have children as well. It’s just an instinct demons have when the time comes. But since he can’t have children of his body, he would have to find a mate to bare them for him. I wonder if I’m already an aunt and don’t even know it.”

Genkai found the information interesting and in a way it explained why Yukina wanted to ‘mate’ with Kuwabara. “Don’t think on it to much. You’ll find him someday.” Yukina gave her a sad smile and continued sewing.

Genkai had this sneaky suspicion that marriage to Kuwabara was a bad idea. A VERY bad idea.

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Hiei woke abruptly to a presence in the area. He quickly sat up and looked around. About 15 feet away from the couple stood a young man with short blond hair, sapphire blue eyes and… wings! He wore a black leather loin-cloth and a red strap that held a quiver of arrows to his back. He was positively gorgeous, even Hiei had to pause a second before finding his tongue. Disregarding his nudity and removing the furry appendage wrapped around his waist, he covered his wife and stood defensively next to her.

He felt a little strange and sore, but shrugged off the feeling until he dealt with the intruder. “What do you want?” He snarled.

The young man gave grinned. “Relax. I just want to talk to my sister?”

The response was unexpected and his stance faulted. Hiei was confused, “Your sister?”

“Eros, what are you doing here?” Calliste sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She stood and covered herself with her cloak. It was only then that Hiei realized what the strange feeling was. While they slept, their bodies had changed. They were now in their mature state. Calliste was about 5’8”, but he’s still taller. Standing next to her he’d say he was about 6 feet.

‘Can’t be called a shrimp or chibi anymore.’[1] He suppressed a smirk. That also explained the soreness, but he was grateful nonetheless that it happened in his sleep.

Eros smiled and walked closer to the couple, but stopped a few feet away when he caught Hiei’s glare. “I just wanted to give you this.” He gave Hiei a small red box about six inches long, two inches wide and an inch thick, seeing how protective his new brother-in-law was acting…or was that brother-in-mating? “I know you’re very attached to it.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but give me a few minutes to say ‘hi’ to you properly.” Calliste quickly tied up her hair and slipped into the stream to wash off. Eros kindly turned his back while she quickly washed up, though Hiei kept shifting his gaze between them. Once finished, she walked up to Eros and gave him a big hug which he happily returned. “I’ve missed you so much. How are the others?”

“I’ve missed you too. Artemis misses you greatly, as does Athena. As for Ares, same old same old. But he has settled down a bit, fewer wars but there’s always power struggles going on.” He shrugged. “Try to visit now that you’ve broken the curse, alright?” She nodded.

“Curse?” Hiei watched the exchange between the siblings and got very interested in their conversation. He’d heard the name Ares before, but what curse were they talking about?

Calliste turned to answer him. “I’ll talk about that later.” She turned back to her brother and was about to say more when he cut her off.

/Can I talk to your husband in private for a bit? It’ll be quick. I’d hate to interrupt your honeymoon./

/Please spare him the big brother speech./ She pleaded.

/No worries. Oh and no one will challenge you again. We’ve made sure of that./ A mischievous smirk graced his lips and she just had to know.

/Who’s ‘we’?/

/Me and my old man, of course. Hephaestus also contributed to the cause. Others backed us up when they thought we weren’t being serious. I’ve got to hand it to you though; I never thought you’d befriend so many deities in your…existence. The constellations alone would have been enough but many wanted a piece of the action./

/I really don’t want to be the cause of any war in the Heavens./

/You won’t be. I want you to be happy, just like before./ Eros’ eyes softened and a small smile graced his face.

Hiei noticed the exchange and wondered what could be so important that he couldn’t hear it. Just when he though her brother couldn’t affect him anymore, Eros went and smiled, causing him to blush. He was pretty sure something was off. He’d never acted this way before, but there was just something about him that pulled Hiei to this gorgeous winged creature.

“Please send my love and my thanks to everyone. I’ll visit when I can.” She turned to gather her jar and comb. “I’ll see you inside, Hiei.” Turning to Eros, “Bye.” She hugs him again and ran into the den.

Hiei put on his cloak (even though he didn’t have a problem with nudity) and the two stones from earlier. Eros was still there. “Yes?” He wasn’t annoyed, but he wanted to spend time with his wife and find out about the curse.

“Would you like to make a gift out of those?” Eros asked curiously.

Hiei briefly thought about it, but wasn’t sure what to make out of them. “What do you suggest?”

Eros smirked. Let’s just say Hiei liked the idea. He and Eros arranged to meet in a few days to drop them off. Eros left with the stones and Hiei returned to his woman. He still held the box her brother had given him.

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“What’s in here?” He asked. Calliste lay on the furs waiting for his return.

She patted the spot next to her and explained, “You gave it to me as a wedding gift in our last life. I didn’t want to lose it, so I made sure to take it with me. When we decided to be reborn, I gave it to Eros to hold until we joined again.”

She already knew she’d said too much, but there was no going back. She took the box from him and opened it. Inside was a beautiful silver charm bracelet. The bracelet had seven charms. Two crescent moons, two suns, two stars and a heart shaped ruby. She closed the box and clutched it to her heart as if it was her most precious treasure and it was.

“You’re going to wear it, right?” It was strange to see how something as a bracelet could hold such value to her. It also made him happy to know that she’d treasure any gift he gave her. He looked forward to the look on her face when he gave her his gift. Hopefully, Eros would make sure it all matches.

She looked at him. It was strange how he took everything at face value and hadn’t asked any questions about it. “I don’t know if I should.”

He stroked her cheek and tried to understand why she would hesitate to wear it. Then it hit him. You gave that to me as a wedding gift in our last life.

“I remember a few things about our past together.” Her eyes widened at the realization. How he knew her name, granted not the name others knew her by in this life, but her name nonetheless.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to trigger those memories when I touched you. I just wanted to feel you.” She confessed.

He shifted her onto his lap and kissed her temple. “I’m not mad. I’m grateful to have put a name to those beautiful eyes that haunted my every waking moment when you were away. Tell me about the curse. And why is your brother a bird if you’re a cat. And why do you know so much about our past together?”

She giggled at that. He still didn’t get it. “I’ll talk about the curse last since that’s a bit complicated. As for my brother, I guess his name doesn’t mean anything to you, right?” He shook his head. “He’s also known among the humans as Cupid, the god of love.”

‘God of love? Then that means…’ “That means you really are a goddess.” She nodded. That explained why she knew so much about their past as well. Well, that answered two questions.

“Disappointed?” She asked nervously.

“No. It’s just how I’ve thought of you. I just didn’t think it was literal.” He’s in awe. “Did I know this then?”

“Yes. I told you then as I tell you now, but you can’t tell anyone. As for the curse, well….where to begin. When we decided to be reborn, I was given an ultimatum. If I wanted to be with you I had to live with the spell that had all demons except you want to jump me whenever they saw my face.”

“So that’s why you were all covered up!”

“The curse was to take affect when I turned 16, so I agreed. We had it set up to let you be born first and I would follow soon after, but they placed you in the body of a boy that would soon die for what he is.”

“How could you know that?” His grip on her tightened some, but not enough to hurt her. The memories of his fall momentarily flashed through his mind.

“I was watching. I was given the choice to let you die and live a life alone with my curse while you remained in heaven or delay my rebirth in exchange for your safety.”

“You’re the reason I survived the fall?”

She nodded again. “I was supposed to wait ten years before I went down. I was able to pull some strings, but it only cut my wait by a year.”

He crushed his lips to hers to thank her for everything. He remembered everything that had happened to him from the moment he was born and knew that drop should have killed him. Breaking the kiss for air, he took a moment to compose himself to ask, “What were the conditions to break the curse?”

“Very simple, yet very hard.” She chuckled and took a deep breath. “I was to wait until my one hundredth year before I gave my body to you.”

“That’s not so bad…”

“I also had to stay a virgin within that time. Even before the curse took affect many saw how beautiful and strong I was. You don’t know the problems my parents had to keep all potential suitors away from me. That’s about the time I started to wear veils.”

“Staying a virgin for a hundred years would be almost impossible when you’re in heat. How did you do it?” Granted, it could be done, but he was curious on how she did it. Female demons were almost possessed when they went in heat, the urge to mate would override common sense. Though they did restrain themselves until they found someone compatible, else they’d kill them instead.

“Unlike you, I couldn’t just lock myself away.” She saw his brow rise. “Don’t give me that look. I watched over you from time to time. Though I must admit I have no idea where you learned to kiss like that.”

It had been sometime after the tournament when he first met her. He had no skills as a lover and he didn’t want to disappoint the woman he wanted, which he had decided would be the girl in the cloak. He had asked Kurama for some ‘lessons’ on physical pleasure. The fox was a great teacher and kisser. He taught him how to use control himself while using his mouth and tongue to its full potential. Her voice snapped him from his musing.

“Anyway. I’d come to the human world and go to a temple that had a room especially designed by me to contain me. Since all of my fellow gods were out of the picture until I bonded with you. I selected a few special humans to watch over me for a week every ten years. I compensated them with money or jewelry that I’d accumulated over the years.”

A lot of things were starting to make sense. His birth. The drop from the floating island as punishment. Waiting…waiting?

“Why did they want you to wait ten years to come to me?”

“Because they know that koorime become pregnant every century of their lives. You being male would require a mate to provide you offspring. I would never be able to break the curse if I had to wait the extra ten years. I would be made to suffer by watching you with someone else because your very nature demanded it. If you just took a mate for breeding then I could always kill her, but I didn’t want to risk hurting you if you had an attachment to her. That’s why I came to you a few years earlier, hoping that I could spark your interest until the time was right.”

“You came to me when I turned a hundred and went into heat, didn’t you?” She smiled shyly. He shifted their positions and laid her on top of him. He stared at the ceiling while processing all the information. “So you planned everything, so we could be together.” It wasn’t a question. He shook his head, “It was a brilliant plan on their part. I’m glad it failed.” He didn’t sound angry, if anything he was probably ready to gloat at the failure of the gods.

“I almost failed because I hadn’t expected to encounter Mukuro.” Calliste straddled his waist to look at him better. There was a hint of panic in her voice when she expressed her fear about the Makai ruler.

Bringing her head down to his chest, he stroked her hair to calm her. When her breathing returned to normal, she began to purr and he said, “She’s barren.” Calliste snuggled deeper into his embrace. “I stayed there waiting for you, but you never came.” His voice dropped to a whisper and he nuzzled her head, tightening his grip. “I can’t say I didn’t think about Mukuro, but I used my Jagan to scan her body and found that she wouldn’t be able to give me what I want. [2] All I wanted was you and I didn’t really know who you were. I though myself foolish for falling in love with a stranger.” He turned to lie on top of her and look into her eyes. His speech was almost subconscious, for he’d just confessed his love and continued on to express his feelings while he was in the moment. “But how could I not. I knew from the moment I looked into your eyes and felt that warm embrace, that I would want no one but you.” He kissed her cheek, moving along her jaw and down her neck. “How long have you been watching me from heaven?”

(O.O) her eyes became really big. She was momentarily at a loss for words, but answered the question, “Since the beginning of time.”

Hiei was beyond thrilled with the response. “How long will you stay?” He licked his mating mark. His youki radiated from the area as an announcement to all that Calliste was his. There was also a very small black dragon in the center of the two crescent teeth marks that showed she was bonded to him. Pity he couldn’t see his neck to see the symbol of his chosen.

She moaned her answer, “Till the end of time.” She wanted to ask him more questions, but needed a break. Gently pushing him away. “Nature calls.” Hiei quickly got up and saw her move off the furs, making her way to the door, but paused to say, “I’m also hungry. Do you want to hunt with me after I wash up?”

He gave her a small smile. He wanted to see her beast form. He too answered the call and freshened up. His problem now was that his clothes were too small and tight. His entire body had grown to full maturity. So his chest was broader, arms bigger and longer, as were his legs. He had an absolutely beautifully sculptured body. There had to be a least one Greek god who was jealous somewhere.

Calliste also grew, but unlike Hiei, her clothes are made to stretch. Well, so she’d show a little navel, not problem. She still had her cloak, but she didn’t need those just yet. She knew they had to hurry for they had about three hours before sundown. (I hate the long days of summer.)

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Sometime later, the couple returned to wash up from their hunt and returned to the den. Hiei was not disappointed in his mate’s form. She was about 5 feet at the shoulder, fur as black as the night sky with dark purple stripes all along the back and three tails. She was gorgeous, across between a panther and a tiger. Her fur shined beautifully even in the dim light. He wanted to run his fingers along her fur, but they were on a hunt. There would be plenty of time to play later.

Once in the den, Calliste waited for Hiei to join her in bed. She was sure he wanted some special attention, but that had to wait. Hiei stripped, joining her on the furs, ready to initiate the night’s activities. She moved closer to his face, as if she was going to kiss him and blew, ‘Sleep.’

Hiei instantly fell asleep. She silently promised to make it up to him later. She put on her clothes and left the cloak in favor of the illusion of it. The last rays of sun disappeared below the horizon.

She quickly left the den and moved to the large boulder by the waterfall. Anyone who looked in the direction of her den would see a boulder and rotted wood covered in moss and fungus. A few minutes passed as a shadow moved through the forest. It slowly came to a stop in front of the large boulder. The figure was covered in a long black cloak, standing well over 6 feet, hiding any and all features.

/Good evening./

/A good evening indeed./ Telepathy had always been her preferred form of communication, especially when talking with informants. It was also a damn good lie detector. She had long ago stationed an informant with each of the Makai lords for the sole purpose of keeping an eye out for Claudis and Hiei if he passed their way. /Any news?/

/Claudis has requested Mukuro’s aid in your capture./

/Lovely/, she said bitterly, /Has she agreed?/

/She has agreed in exchange for his assistance in various projects./

/What of her feelings for the Jaganshi?/

/Mukuro cares for him. He is her right hand/, he said. He had respect for both Mukuro and Hiei and didn’t have a problem serving either. Claudis’ arrival was well known in the fortress so he had no problem reporting it to his mistress. The rewards were always worth his time.

/Does she wish to mate with him?/

/I don’t know. It’s said that she gave him the choice to escape to the human world if he chose to, but she fully expects him to come back if she needs him. He has a mansion she bestowed on him sometime ago, so he has a place to stay. If he does return he will have to continue his work with the patrol corps until the next tournament./

It didn’t look as if Mukuro would interfere with Hiei’s life, but she didn’t know what Claudis was up to. She was going to have to find a way to get rid of Claudis once and for all. /Do they know I’m in the human world?/

/No. She knows he’s here. I wouldn’t worry just yet. It’ll be weeks if not months before he finds a trace of you here. If you wish, I can discourage Mukuro in assisting him or hold him for you and you can eliminate him yourself./

She smiled and he heard it. /I like the idea. If possible have her refuse. If we’re lucky he’ll leave without a fight./

/I should warn you that he has been there over a month and asked my lord’s assistance in something called the finder’s sphere./

She snorts. /They’ll never find it./

/How so? Does it not exist?/

/Oh it exists. I have it./

/Always one step ahead. You are a woman to be reckoned with./

/You’re such a charmer. Everything has fallen into place and I’m so happy that I’m about to satisfy your curiosity. I may even see you soon if all goes well within 6 months or so./

/Mistress?/ He looked nervously as she stood on the rock and dropped the illusion of her cloak. He gasped when he saw her face shining from what rays of moon or stars passed through the canopy. Though for added effect she lets her gold aura shine around her so he could get a really good look. He dropped to his knees and bowed. “You’re so beautiful.” His head rose again to see her walk up to him.

“Please stand.” It was rare to hear her voice for it could enchant any poor devil.

“You’ve graced this humble servant with your beauty and voice. I could die a happy monster.” He stood and noticed she’d grown, matured even. “I understand now why Claudis wants you so badly.”

“Yes, well, that’s not going to happen, correct?”

“Correct. I now know why you’re known as the Siren of Death.” His hooded eyes roamed her form and he noticed the bond mark with a black dragon in the center. “You’ve bonded with Master Hiei?” He was a little shocked. He knew of her interest in him and when asked if she wanted him, she said yes but it was Hiei’s choice.

She grinned, “Yes and he is quite happy. As for you, you know what to do and I hope to see you soon. I thank you for coming here to the human world and hope it wasn’t any trouble.”

“The reward was more than worth the trip. Thank you.”

‘Well, I guess I’ll save the sapphire necklace I was going to give him for another time.’ “Return to your post. Keep me informed…you’ve done well.”

He bowed, “I’m honored to serve you. A word of caution, if Mukuro wishes she may employ Master Hiei to assist in your capture. It’ll give her a reason to summon him. I’ll do what I can about Claudis.” That said, he disappears into the shadows.

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Author’s Notes:

[1] chibi = small, short, little
[2] Jagan = evil eye