Chapter Nine:
The Haunting Of The Past:
It was an appropriate
setting, he thought. Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city with its
foul stench and polluted air. Far away from the pretentious smiles of humans
and their sickly or hypocritical tendencies. Far away from the rigors of a
stressful life and into the true beauty of nature and what it had to offer. It
was a great pity it was nighttime for the once glorious estate which had
belonged to the Nobles in the past was but a shadow of its former self now.
White marble columns which
had once stood proudly beneath the hot Mediterranean sun, were now either
broken to pieces or barely able to stand upright. Once lush and breathtaking
gardens, which had stretched out as far as the eye could see, was now nothing
but a jungle of tangled weeds and creeping vines. The lake, which had once been
a sparkling blend of blues and greens, looked black and murky beneath the pale
moonlight and where the grand castle had once stood, was now nothing more than
a jutting rock from the earth.
Time and decay had really
taken a toll on this place.
Darcia closed his eyes and
took a deep breath, his memories taking him to the many times he had been made
to visit this place with Jagara. He had listened to her wistful stories as she
walked through the ‘gardens’. And with her power of description, while reading
the Book of Wolves, Darcia had always managed to take himself back to a time
when Nobles ruled the land and this they had considered as their version of
A low groan broke him out of
his reverie and he opened his eyes, turning around slowly to eye the naked man
lying amongst the wild and rather long grass. Darcia smiled to himself,
allowing his eye to roam over the hard lines and planes of the young wolf’s
human form. He licked his lips slowly and fell to his knees beside the
beautiful creature, his gaze growing darker with lust with each rise and fall
of Kiba’s chest.
“Even your very breath
intoxicates me,” he murmured as he leaned closer to Kiba’s parted lips. “Do you
truly know how beautiful you are, Kiba?”
He raked long finger nails
across the broad chest, teasing the hardened nipples gently before pinching
them as hard as he could. He smirked at the soft gasp it elicited from his
captive, now aware that other parts of Kiba’s body were beginning to respond to
his touches.
“Oh, if Tsume could see you
now, my delicious pet,” he whispered huskily, his tongue tracing the outline of
Kiba’s jaw while his hand continued it’s journey down the lightly heaving torso
and to the obvious display of Kiba’s arousal. “How jealous would he be?”
__
I’m…so…pathetic. Why can’t I
move or stop him? It’s as if he’s taken my will to fight or to struggle.
The others would laugh at me if
I told them about this…and Tsume…what will Tsume do? Will he leave me? Won’t he
come rescue me? It’s not that I need him that much but…but…yet I do…because
he’s like me…and I’m like him…and I think I’m confusing myself. The way he’s
touching me, I can barely think.
Tsume! Where are you?!
But what…what is this place?
Why does it seem so familiar? I feel like I’ve been here before…sometime…a long
time ago. And all of us…we were…searching…for something. And there was this
smell. A special kind of smell…like a flower…so…sweet…and warm…and comforting…
Like Cheza.
Cheza!
“Cheza…” he whispered
thickly.
But who…who or what was this Cheza?
__
Darcia stiffened at the name
that slipped past Kiba’s lips. He lifted his head to pin a cold blue gaze on
the man below him. Kiba’s eyes were barely visible, his lashes still lowered as
if in sleep, but there was no denying that the younger man was more alert now.
“What did you say?”
Kiba could sense the tension
that seemed to roll off his captor in waves. He struggled to lift his head,
forcing his lax muscles to cooperate with him. There was something about
Darcia’s look that had Kiba wondering if the dark-haired man knew a whole lot
more than he was letting on.
“Che…za…Cheza,” he muttered,
eyes narrowing with determination. His head felt like it was being pounded upon
with a million hammers, but he had to know the truth about his past. Who was he
and where had he come from? Darcia knew and Kiba was sure of it now. “Who was
Cheza?!”
“What do you know about anything?”
came the cold hiss from the taller man. He growled and forced Kiba back to the
ground, his hands digging deep grooves into Kiba’s shoulders. There was now a
maniacal look in his eye and for a brief moment, Kiba was terrified to the
depths of his soul. He knew that he would really be killed at this point unless
he did something fast.
Darcia, for his part, wasn’t
sure of why he was getting upset. But
that name had sparked something deep within him that was frightening and rather
troubling. He didn’t want to think about it, but it still managed to come back
anyway. There was a deep feeling of loss, sorrow and helplessness. He had
suffered a humiliating defeat in the hands on this man below him but how? And
why? Was there something in his past that Jagara had failed to tell him?
“A flower…” he grit out
tightly between clenched teeth. “She was…a flower…and
she…she…aaaaaaaaaarrrghh!!”
He tore himself away from
Kiba, his hands going to either side of his head as he continued to give his
unearthly scream. It was filled with anguish, hatred and bitterness but it was
good enough to break the spell he had cast over his captive. Kiba staggered
weakly to his feet but crouched again in wariness and confusion as he watched
Darcia’s demented actions.
What in the world is wrong with him?
“YOU!” He suddenly thundered
as he spun around to face Kiba. The patch he had worn over his eye was now gone
to reveal the feral glare of a golden but undeniable wolf-like eye. “It was all
your fault! You were the one responsible for keeping us out of paradise! I
remember it all now…you…it was YOU!”
And then he moved, so fast
that Kiba barely had the time to dodge from the force of his blow. But somehow
he did and rolled away as several trees behind him suffered the consequences
instead. Kiba wasn’t given much time to recover as Darcia came charging after
him again, but he was slightly ready now. He braced himself and held his
ground, catching Darcia by the waist in a crushing embrace. This sent them
tumbling down a small slope with Darcia still trying to get his hands around
Kiba’s throat to choke the life out of him. Kiba could see that they were going
to fall into the lake and couldn’t stop them in time. The water was like a
million cold needles against his fevered flesh and the force of their fall
caused him to relinquish his hold on the deranged man. He dove as deep as he
could beneath the water and away from Darcia, but the dark figure of his
pursuer followed incessantly.
Darcia was determined to kill
him and there was nothing in the world to stop him now.
__
Tsume landed lithely upon the
jagged rocks, wild gray eyes staring at the landscape around him with mild
confusion.
Why did it feel as if he had
been here before?
It was a considerable
distance from the city and he was sure he had never been in this part of the
He sniffed the air again,
trying to catch the scents of Darcia and Kiba. For a while, it had been strong,
but now…it seemed to have faded away again.
“AAAARGGHH!!”
“What the fuck?!”
That scream of terror…no not
terror…more like anger…was coming from somewhere up ahead. Was that Kiba? It
couldn’t be but damn it! If it was, Tsume was never going to forgive Darcia for
hurting him!
With a low growl, he leapt
from his perch and began to run as fast as he could towards the sounds. He came
to a screeching halt as he finally reached his destination. At first he
couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but there was no denying it. Darcia and
Kiba were definitely in a fight.
But Kiba was naked! So who knew what that bastard had
done to his friend!
He opened up his mouth to
yell ‘Kiba watch out!’ but the words died on his lips as he watched them begin
to roll down the slope. Cursing beneath his breath at Kiba’s lack of tact, he began
to run towards them, barely reaching the lake as the duo fell into it with a
heavy splash.
Shit!
“Kiba!” he bellowed, trying
hard to make out their figures beneath the murky waters. “KIBA!! Can you hear
me?! Kiba!”
__
Tsume?!
Kiba felt his already
tightening lungs palpitate with excitement and pleasure at the thought of Tsume
actually being here. He didn’t want to hope for too much, but there was no
denying that gruff voice that seemed to be calling out to him.
Tsume! I’m down…argh!!
Darcia’s fingers had wrapped
itself around his ankle. Kiba formed a tight fist and struck out blindly, a
smirk of satisfaction coming to his visage as he felt it make contact with
Darcia’s cheek. The hold on his ankle was weakening and with a strong kick, he
lashed at Darcia again with success. He could barely see Darcia floating away
from him, obviously in pain, but Kiba knew he’d have to get out of the lake to
get some air. He could hardly breathe.
He kicked furiously, refusing
to give in to the wave of dizziness that was beginning to wash over him. He
could see the surface and was sure he could see Tsume’s concerned visage above
him.
Please don’t let it be my imagination. Please…let it
be him…
He burst through the surface with
a loud gasp, water streaming down his face as he sucked in huge gulps of much
needed air. Sure enough, staring down at him with an undisguised look of relief
on his handsome features was Tsume. It looked like he was about ready to jump
into the lake himself, but Kiba, too pleased to see his friend, leapt out of
the water and wrapped his arms around Tsume’s neck as tightly as he could.
“You…!” Tsume tried to
complain as he was thrown back to the ground with the force of Kiba’s embrace.
He blushed darkly, trying to will himself not to respond to the feel of that
naked body against his again. It seemed like anytime he had to rescue the
dark-haired man, he was always in this state. Not that he could blame his
captors, Kiba was a beautiful human being to look at.
“Hey now,” he muttered
thickly, his trembling hands holding on to Kiba’s waist lightly. He gasped as
Kiba’s lips sought and found his blindly. The kiss was clumsy, wet and heated –
both knowing that they didn’t really have the time to be doing this anyway.
“Come with me,” Kiba
whispered against Tsume’s lips. “We have to get away from here as fast as we
can. There is something I have to tell you.”
“Wha….?”
Not waiting for Tsume to
recover from the gamut of emotions that raced through him at this time, Kiba
rose to his feet, pulling Tsume after him.
“Not so fast, my young wolf,”
came the mocking voice that had both Tsume and Kiba spinning around quickly.
Darcia was walking out of the water with a cold smirk on his visage. Tsume
noticed the eye for the first time and hissed in a sharp breath.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
he asked in disbelief. “What the hell is this?! Just who the hell are you?!”
“Why don’t you ask your
friend there?” Darcia teased with a wicked grin forming on his features. He
stepped onto the bank and took off his soaked sweater, revealing a broad chest
to their gaze. “You remember everything now, don’t you, Kiba?”
“Kiba?” Tsume asked slowly,
eyeing the other man who was now looking away with his gaze lowered to the
ground. Tsume could feel Kiba’s hand trembling on his wrist and he frowned in
growing concern. Just what had Darcia done to him?! “Kiba…”
“We…we were once together…in
another time…another world,” Kiba began quietly, still not looking at the two
men watching him.
Tsume looked confused but
then he remembered the feeling of déjà vu he had experienced when he arrived
here. So where his suspicions confirmed? Had he really been here before?
“Bull shit,” he muttered
tightly. “What’s all this crap about being in another world and another time?
I’ve never seen you two before in my life!”
“But you don’t think it’s odd
that you all managed to find each other again so easily?” Darcia asked with a
raised brow. “I highly doubt it’s just a coincidence.”
Like how he had known where
Kiba was in the beginning. The scent that had rolled off Kiba…knowing he was
one of his kind.
Kiba’s grip tightened on
Tsume’s wrist. “We were…together….you, me, Toboe…Hige and Blue…we were being
hunted…the last wolves on earth at the time…and…Cheza…”
Cheza?!
“…the flower…maiden…”
Tsume’s eyes widened and he
tore his arm away from Kiba’s grip. His heartbeat quickened as he took a step
backward. For a brief moment, he had glimpsed an image of a flower – a
beautiful white flower with what seemed like a million tiny petals and a yellow
center. And there had been this girl.
“This girl…” he murmured and
held a hand to his temple. “You…you were so obsessed with her…it drove me
nuts.”
What? What am I saying?!
“Bullshit!” he bellowed again
in denial, shaking his head rapidly. He glared at Darcia. “This is all your
fault! I don’t know what kind of drug you gave to him, but I don’t remember a
goddamn thing! I was born and raised in this city! I don’t know my parents but
fuck if I know anything about some flower or wolf or just….Ki…Kiba?”
Kiba had moved closer to him
and now had his forehead pressed gently against Tsume’s.
“Close your eyes, Tsume,” he
whispered as their warm breaths mingled. His hand slid down to capture the
silver-haired man’s within his and he held on tightly. “Come with me, Tsume….I
have something to show you…”
Darcia, who was watching the
proceedings with great interest, gasped as the scenery seemed to change right
before his eyes.
What…what’s happening?
Tsume, who had obeyed Kiba’s
strange request, could feel the change in the air as well. What and who was
Kiba really? What kind of power did he have? Was he even stronger than Darcia
and they didn’t know it?
“Open your eyes,” Kiba
commanded softly and Tsume did…only to find himself fighting back a scream of
shock at the sight that met his gaze.
Me! It’s…me!
He, Kiba, Toboe and Hige to
be exact. The four of them were running across an empty expanse of land with what
seemed like nothing in sight for miles. What was even stranger was the fact
that they seemed to be changing into wolves right before his very eyes. Kiba
was a breathtaking white beast, he – a rich silver, Hige – a light brown while
Toboe was a richer shade of the same color.
He barely felt Kiba – his Kiba – pressing against him or the
softly spoken words that filled his ear.
“I remembered while I was in
the lake,” Kiba was saying. “It all came back to me even though I didn’t want
to. How we met – the fights we got into – my search for…”
“For paradise,” Tsume
whispered, his voice seeming to come from a million miles away. The scenes
changed before his eyes. There was the time he and Kiba had first met and even
then Tsume had known there was something between them – something so strong and
tangible it couldn’t be put into mere words. It wasn’t lust but a passion that
had been born from being able to fight with one of his own kind.
“I was always a loner,” he
continued as the scene changed again to show his first meeting with Toboe.
“That damn brat…and the fat one…” He watched as Hige came into the picture. All
four of them. It had been destined from the beginning. And then the girl.
Cheza.
“Do you know I hated her at
first?” Tsume murmured thickly. “I couldn’t stand the way she seemed to be the
only thing on your mind. You were such an asshole.”
Kiba had the grace to blush.
“I was determined to find
“But we didn’t quite make it,
did we?”
And just as he said that, the
scene became bleak and miserable. They were dying…all of them…Kiba had been
taken away and Tsume could feel the naked man tremble beside him at the memory.
There was the picture of Darcia killing Toboe and Quent and Tsume could feel
his blood boil again.
“Son of a bitch,” he growled.
But the scenes became even worse. They had reached the end of the world, it
seemed and they had all fought valiantly against Darcia, but none of them had
lasted besides Kiba. Kiba who had gone on, fighting even though his chances
were slim.
“You…” Tsume’s eyes widened
as he watched the final sequences. Darcia’s death. Cheza finally bleeding and
becoming a withered plant and Kiba…
Alone.
“I was the only one left…”
Kiba said quietly as he walked away from Tsume to hold out his hand towards the
image of his former self. “The only one left in the world it seemed. I had to…I
was the chosen one…left to create a whole new world for everyone to live in
again.”
“And this was the result?”
Tsume asked in awe.
Kiba nodded slowly. “When I opened
my eyes again….there was this. I knew there was something I had to finish but I
couldn’t remember what it was until he brought me back to this place.”
Kiba closed his eyes and just
as quickly the scenery changed to reveal the bleak remains of the ruins. The
effort seemed to weaken Kiba for he staggered a little, causing Tsume to wrap
his arms around him tightly.
“Are you all right?” he asked
in concern.
“Fine…I’m fine,” came the
soft reply, but it was Darcia’s mocking laughter that had both men eyeing him
warily.
“What’s so funny, you sick
fuck?” Tsume asked coldly, not relinquishing his hold on Kiba. “Give me one
reason why we shouldn’t kill you right now?”
Darcia stopped long enough to
look at Kiba. “So have you given up on your search for the flower, Kiba? That’s
what you’re here for, isn’t it? You came here to find them all again…to use
them to your gain, isn’t it? Just like you dragged them all to their demise in
your past life.”
“That….that’s not true,” Kiba
retorted heatedly. “I didn’t want them to come with me! I was fine on my own…!”
“Indeed,” Darcia smirked
coldly. “But you still dragged them along with you. With your promise for a
“But you wanted to go for it
too, didn’t you?” Tsume asked tightly. “Don’t make it seem like you weren’t
just as greedy!”
“So you do agree that Kiba
was being selfish! What makes you think he really cares for you now, Tsume?”
Kiba felt Tsume stiffen
against him and he began to shake his head softly, trying to convey the swirling
emotions within him properly. He wasn’t using Tsume or any of the others.
Things had taken its course and he was powerless to stop them, but there was
one thing he was sure of and that was his feelings for Tsume. He wanted to
remain with this man – in this lifetime – for as long as Tsume would let him.
It’s not true, Tsume. I would never use you.
“Well?” Darcia asked with a
raised brow. “Don’t you find it a bit odd that all of a sudden he’s being so
nice to you? He only wants to use you again, Tsume. Kiba is incapable of
feeling such a trivial emotion like love,
if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Both men had the grace to
flush at the word but Tsume refused to let Darcia get to him. Kiba couldn’t
possibly be using him again….could he?
“You’re wrong,” he replied.
“Kiba’s different now. We’re not as obsessed as you are with
“But you’ll always be a
wolf,” Darcia howled in laughter as he rose to his feet and began to walk
towards them, a feral glint now in his eyes. “No matter how much you try to run
away from it, you’ll always remain a beast and one day I’ll be the one to find
this elusive
The report had been so loud
that Kiba and Tsume had to cover their ears at the sound of it. Darcia
staggered forward, a shocked and almost baffled look in his eyes as if
wondering just what had happened to him. But as Kiba and Tsume watched the
trickle of blood flow from the corner of his mouth, they realized that Darcia
had indeed been shot.
“Who…what…?” he choked out
thickly, watching almost moronically at the dark spot that was beginning to
form somewhere below his chest.
He turned around slowly,
staggering weakly as he lifted his gaze to stare at the lonely figure standing
upon the cliffs. There was no denying the long shock of blond hair that
fluttered softly in the breeze or the black weapon that was still pointed
directly at him.
“Ja…Jagara…” he asked in
disbelief. He couldn’t believe it. How had she known? How long had she been
there? He really had to give her some credit. She wasn’t as gullible as she let
on. There had always been that shadow of a doubt in their relationship and
now…now he knew the truth or did he? He took a heavy step forward. “Why…?”
“I hate liars,” came the
simple reply and with no warning she fired again, this time sending Darcia
falling to the ground in a heap. The bullet had gone through his forehead and
some of his blood splashed upon Kiba and Tsume’s skin as they watched the
proceedings in stupefied disbelief.
“You are next, my precious
white wolf,” the woman said with a warm and almost deranged smile on her
features. “I’m so glad he led me to you. He thought he could take you away from
me, but I followed him and I watched and I knew I could have you to myself. And
as for you,” she pointed the gun towards Tsume. “I won’t be needing you
anymore.”
“You bitch!” Tsume bellowed
as he ran towards her with every intention of killing her right there and then.
But as Jagara fired the gun one last time, Tsume felt himself being pushed out
of the way by the force of Kiba’s embrace.
Kiba! No, you fool!!
He barely heard the gun’s
report, but could clearly see the whiff of smoke rolling off Kiba’s body and
the blood…oh dear god, the blood! It was just too much!
“Kiba,” he began in a
trembling whisper filled with fear, fury and anger as his arms tightened around
the heavy body in his arms. “Kiba…Kiba... KIBAAAAAA!!!”