Chapter 5 “Phantom of the Opera”

Chapter 5 “Phantom of the Opera”

Toya heard the locks click on the surrounding doors and could feel his brothers closing in at a fast pace. When the room lit up with shimmering light, his gaze searched for Kamui recognizing that it was his magic illuminating the room. Seeing all four of the brothers headed toward him, his senses went on full alert.

“Any idea what kind of demon it is?” He backed up in line with his brothers when the heavy stage curtains fell from the ropes that held them up, barely missing him.

“I’m guessing it wants to be the phantom of the opera when it grows up,” Shinbe stated then they heard a clicking noise that sounded like claws tap-dancing across hardwood. It moved so fast all they saw was a streak of darkness.

“Come out, come out, where ever you are,” Kotaro called making his voice echo softly in the theater.

“Nice touch,” Kyou complimented him with a raise of his eyebrow. “Now can we please be grownups and kill this thing?”

Toya nodded toward the darkest area of the stage. As everyone’s attention focused on it, the shadow stretched and rippled, peeling itself from the walls and floor. Blood red eyes flashed open but its form wasn’t so much humanoid as a twisting between human and arachnid. Its upper body remained mostly shadow, while its legs filled out with sharp bony spikes at the joints and tips. Its mouth opened like the cheese on melting pizza and it let out a screech as it took off up the wall and across the ceiling.

“It’s a good thing it’s almost Halloween or we’d have a hard time explaining that spine-chilling sound carrying through the halls of the school.” Kamui shivered shaking the creepy sound off. The last period bell sounded causing the demon to screech again as it ripped the speaker off the upper edge of the wall then threw it at the guardians.

“Good… no witnesses.” Kotaro eyed the creature wearily, taking note of the fact it was getting ready to jump.

“This thing's gonna be a pain in the ass,” Toya growled right before he was slammed into the row of seats behind him. He quickly pulled his silver dagger from his waist and swung his arm sideways, slicing the deformed demon across what could only be described as its stomach.

Nasty-looking tentacles erupted from its back just as Kotaro tackled it, trying to pull it off Toya. The tentacles wrapped around him, joining with Kotaro’s momentum and sling-shot him across the room and into the edge of the stage.

Toya watched the dark apparition riding the spider demon lean toward him and inhale like some demented vacuum making his hair lift off the ground. The spider’s fangs were showing as it slowly opened its jaws to attack.

“Damn it! It smells Kyoko on me.” Toya’s arms were now wedged underneath its heavy body leaving him at a disadvantage.

Kyou raised his hand, forming a glowing ball that became oblong as he moved his hand from side to side. Slinging his hand out, the shape streaked across the room, stretching out to form a whip and lashing itself around the head of the demon. Jerking his hand back, Kyou ripped the demon off Toya, but he had to struggle with it to keep it from returning to Toya as the silver guardian picked himself up off the floor.

“Why the hell is it only after Toya?” Kamui complained. He quickly raised his hands, whispering words as he added the odd sign language to give the spell strength. The demon skittered sideways and back, trying to avoid the coming strike, but Kamui turned, following its every move. Coming to the end of the chant, his palms turned outward and the last word echoed across the room, slamming the spell into the demon.

The demon screeched, reaching for Toya as the force of the blast sent it plowing through several rows of seats before it smashed into the wall. Its legs instantly turned inward as it braced itself against the wall to use it as a backboard for rebounding.

Before it could jump, Shinbe was in front of it, casting another spell that held it against the shattered sheetrock while the other guardians surged forward and literally tore it limb from limb. Shinbe noticed the shadow demon trying to slither up the wall and escape them.

In the blink of an eye, he leapt up the wall and was like a cage around it. “Hey Nasty, just where do you think you're going?” he growled as a crystal blue barrier appeared over it like a half bubble. Shinbe pushed himself off the wall, landing easily on his feet. The mutilated body of the arachnid that was scattered on the floor twitched several times then caved in on itself as it turned to dust.

“You can’t just leave that there,” Kamui threw his thumb toward the odd sight of the shadow slithering around inside of… what was starting to look like a see-through blue egg sack.

“Ye of little faith,” Shinbe smirked watching the sack get smaller and smaller. “By the time it’s done shrinking, it’ll take a microscope to find it. Now…” he turned and walked straight up to Toya and sniffed.

Toya gave him a look that should have sent him running. When his brother was stupid enough not to take the hint, he reached out and grabbed Shinbe by the throat, lifting his feet several inches off the floor to back him up to arm’s length. “Do not ever do that again.” Toya dropped him non-to gently.

Shinbe pushed himself off the floor with a knowing smirk. “And you call me a pervert. No wonder Spiderman wanted you so bad. You have Kyoko’s scent all over you.” His amethyst eyes narrowed as his humor vanished. “Why is that?”

“Speaking of Kyoko,” Kyou’s voice caused the temperature in the room to drop several degrees. “If we are all here… then who is watching her?”

***** When Kyoko asked Tasuki if she could use his cell phone to call a cab, he had quickly offered her a ride anywhere she wanted to go. Kyoko gratefully accepted, not really wanting to venture out for the first time in a strange town all alone.

“The mall? Sure. Hey, if you want, I can help you pick out a costume for the masquerade ball.” Tasuki started picturing all kinds of things he would pick out for her. Then he quickly backpedaled, realizing he wouldn't want others to see her in half of those costumes. “Is that the reason we’re going to the mall? A Halloween costume?”

Kyoko sighed and looked out the car window debating on whether to tell him the truth or not. As they passed in front of the school in the slow traffic, she noticed that same guy from this morning was once again standing alone on the sidewalk. She wondered what it was about him that kept drawing her attention.

As she gazed at him, she realized that all the other students milled around him… yet he was the stillness in the middle of a raging storm, and he was looking right at her with eyes as black as sin. It saddened her seeing she was wrong about them being green.

She leaned closer to the glass to get a better look at him as they drove closer and slowly passed. He was watching her with such hunger in his eyes that Kyoko felt it clear down to her soul. It made her want to reach out to him. He turned his head slowly as they passed; keeping his eyes on her and Kyoko saw his lips move.

“What?” Kyoko whispered trying to understand then she felt Tasuki’s hand on her shoulder.

“Do you know him?” Tasuki asked still glaring in the rear view mirror. Something about that guy was just wrong. He knew everyone at the school, but he’d never seen that guy around until today. “He’s not a student.”

Kyoko sat back in her seat but quickly glanced over her shoulder unable to help herself. Luckily, Tasuki turned the corner at the stop sign and the stranger was lost in the distance. “No.” Kyoko shook her head wanting to drop the subject, “I’m just nervous because I’ve never been to a mall… or any other kind of store really.”

“What?” Tasuki said a little too loudly. “You’re kidding… right?”

“I wish.” Kyoko smiled at the look on his face. “I’m going to tell you a secret, but you have to promise to keep it to yourself.”

Tasuki nodded gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. “I would never do anything to hurt you Kyoko, so if you want to trust me with anything… you’re safe.”

“Thanks.” Kyoko settled back in her seat looking straight ahead and slowly told him the whole story… leaving nothing out. “So the first thing I need is a new wardrobe.”

Tasuki had been parked at the mall for the last ten minutes listening to her. It was the saddest thing he’d ever heard. “You mean you have never even been kissed?” When she looked at him strangely, he smiled and closed the distance between them.

Kyoko’s eyes widened as his lips caught her bottom one between his and he kissed her. He then moved to do the same to her top lip. She was at a loss for words when he pulled an inch away and inhaled as he watched her reaction to her first kiss. He must have liked what he saw because the corners of his lips hinted in a satisfied smile as he returned to his seat to stare at the mall in front of them.

“You know what Kyoko?” Tasuki glanced over at her as if he hadn’t done anything. “We are about to give a new meaning to the words… shop till you drop.”

***** Tama stood in the doorway of the abandoned gym watching the guardians leave the auditorium. They had killed the spider demon that had gone in search for them just as they’d planned. It had only been a test and they had failed miserably.

“The guardians are easily distracted thinking they are keeping her safe.” Hyakuhei was not worried about the demon they’d lost. Before he entered this world, he’d hidden many of his most powerful demons away were no one could find them… deep within his own soul. For now, he would use the weakest demons as cannon fodder and lure the guardians into a false sense of victory. “Let them think that they are protecting her to the best of their ability.”

‘Can I go to her now?’ Tama glared at the guardian known as Toya. While they’d fought the shadow demon inside the school, Hyakuhei had linked with the demon's mind, letting Tama view the battle through the eyes of the demon. He knew Toya had Kyoko’s scent on him more than the other guardians. Hate burned in his eyes as jealousy entered his wounded heart.

“Only fools rush in dear boy,” Hyakuhei warned him. It was hard for Tama to share her with the enemy, but what Tama didn’t understand was that it would be even harder for the guardians to share her among themselves. The closer bond she has to them… the more possessive they will become until they are at each other’s throats. It would only be a short amount of time before the brothers started to self-destruct. They were no different from him and Tadamichi.

‘Will you let me talk to her soon?’ Tama asked remembering the way she had looked at him from the car window. ‘She wants to.’

“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.