Raging Hearts. Amy Blankenship

eerie boy gazed into the mirror, watching Kyoko with eyes the color of death.

      Hyakuhei smiled a tainted smile. His unblemished, perfect body and face hid his malevolence. His long, dark hair cascaded around him in gleaming waves. He was very sensual, with slender muscles rippling under his skin with every movement. This priestess that the guardians protected held the likeness of the only one he had ever loved.

      He knew Kyoko was a reincarnation of the one he had lost so long ago… the one taken from him without mercy.

      His hand fisted as the memories tried to come back to him of another time. He pushed them away with a growl and focused back on the priestess before him. How could he make an untainted heart fall in love with him when he was pure evil? She had the power he’d given to her ancestor so long ago. This is what drew him to her, the thought of corrupting that kind of purity. First, he would have to ensnare her.

      "I will call upon the magic of Tenshi to cast a spell on the priestess and she will fall in love with me." Hyakuhei then began to laugh but the sound held no humor. Closing his dark eyes, he summoned forth the angelic figure of one of the inner demons he had consumed within his body and now controlled.

      This demon Tenshi could weave a spell around the girl, unknowingly making her fall in love with the one who has her in their possession. Also calling forth a demon of immense strength and a mass of flying evil spirits to keep Toya and the others at bay, Hyakuhei sent them to meet the group as he watched it all through the mirror of souls.

      *****

      As Toya and the group closed in on the sinister aura within the valley, Kyoko stopped. Malevolence… she could feel it all around them but she couldn’t see it. “Something is here with us,” Kyoko whispered as she took a frightened step back. Her wide emerald eyes lifted to a hill in front of them just as an enormous demon rose from the ground as if climbing out of some unmarked grave.

      Toya growled at the smaller demons also coming from the ground. It looked like someone had opened a gate from hell. The twin daggers quickly shimmered to life as Shinbe and Suki stood on each side of him. Kaen bared his fangs as Kamui darted over to Kyoko to stand in front of her incase some of the demons made it past the others.

      Toya sprang forward yelling. “Kyoko! Do you see a talisman in the main demon?"

      Kyoko looked at the demon hard and saw a soft glow coming from its forehead. "Forehead!" She yelled back at Toya while Suki started slashing at the wraiths that were flying toward them ahead of the main demon.

      Kyoko watched Shinbe start to unwind the amethyst beads from around his hand to open the cursed void Hyakuhei had gifted him with as a child, the same void that could swallow him whole if its powers ever became out of control. The vacuum of the void would suck the demons into its depths in waves, making it one of their best and most dangerous weapons in the battle against Hyakuhei and his minion.

      Kyoko saw a shadow fly past her and glanced above them. "Shinbe! Don’t do it! A changeling," She pointed and Shinbe glanced up, quickly closing the cursed void and nodded his thanks for the warning just as a swarm of demons came at them. The changelings were the voids solitary downfall.

      Shinbe had almost died the last time he’d accidentally sucked in one of Hyakuhei’s changelings. Their power reflected within the void, spinning it out of control and putting Shinbe’s own life in danger of being consumed by the cursed vacuum.

      Suki’s bayonet zoomed through the air at the last second, killing some of the advancing lowborn demons. Shinbe threw wards and cast spells at the rest that were attacking them.

      That’s when everything started happening all at once, Kyoko watched as the group fought off a large swarm of ground imps. Airborne demons attacked Toya with movements too quick to track, giving the mammoth demon an opening to attack. Toya was thrown across the field only to rise back up and come at it again.

      Kyoko raised her crossbow, intending to help as much as she could when something caught her attention… stilling her movements. An illumination descended around her, repelling Kamui as if he had been thrown away from her. It was so bright that Kyoko shut her eyes tight and threw her arm up in front of her to keep from being blinded.

      Toya saw the light sphere descend on Kyoko. His heart thudded in his chest… his attention on her instead of the fight with the demon as he picked himself up from the ground yet again.

      Finally opening her eyes, Kyoko gasped when she saw a man right in front of her. He was beautiful… with wings of light… just like in her literature books at school. They would have said he was an angel. This man was in no way an angel… she could feel it. She pulled back the string of her crossbow and a spirit dart formed as she remembered the story about the most beautiful angel being kicked out of heaven because he was evil.

      Kyoko steadied her aim as she looked into the crystals that were his eyes but was unable to shoot. How could she hurt something so precious? With his long, white hair flowing around him, she’d never seen anything so lovely in her life. He slowly approached her, whispering words that she couldn’t understand.

      Between Suki and Shinbe, they’d wiped out almost all of the free flying spirits and turned to help Toya with the enraged demon that was slamming him into the ground because he wasn’t paying attention to the fight. He was too busy trying to see what was happening to Kyoko.

      Suki threw her weapon and it slashed across the demon’s cheek, getting its attention fixed on her. Shinbe grabbed her out of the way just as the demon attacked, sending debris flying as its claws missed and swiped the ground. He yelled to Toya. "You go help Kyoko. We’ll deal with this thing!”

      Toya raced to the radiating light, seeing the image of a man with wings floating toward Kyoko inside the barrier. He ran to it but the barrier repelled him as it had Kamui. Small lightning bolts the color of black light sizzled across his skin. Flying backwards, he hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud. He lay there for a minute, stunned and trying to catch his breath.

      Kamui stood on the other side of the sphere, franticly casting every magic spell he could think of to destabilize the barrier but it wasn’t working. He growled in frustration as he again tried to breach the shield and get to Kyoko. Placing his hands together in front of him, he chanted his most powerful spell and released it, only for it to reflect off the wall of the barrier and slam back into him, sending him skidding across the grass in irritation.

      Kyoko was trying to fight the pull from the apparition-like form in front of her. She could hear him whispering enchantments and she could feel a strange sensation starting in her chest. It wasn’t painful… but still… it felt like it would burst. Not with pain… it was a loving feeling. She was still lucid enough to feel fear at the same time.

      She tried to step back as he drew even closer and that’s when it dawned on her exactly what he was doing. This mischievous demon was casting a spell on her… and now it was too late. Kyoko blinked slowly. She felt the overwhelming feeling of being in love. She would do anything for that person but she didn’t know who that person was. Who was it she loved so much that it hurt?

      She felt the ground shift under her feet and she began sinking into a void just as the alluring demon finally came within a hairsbreadth from her. His silky lips brushed across hers and her world turned black.

      *****

      Hyakuhei gazed through the mirror and witnessed the spell being placed on Kyoko. He knew when she awoke, the person before her would be the one she loved. His eyes glowed a faint, crimson light as he opened a portal under the barrier sphere she was trapped in and started pulling her to him.

      "Yes, come to me. I am the one you truly love.” His thoughts became distorted and he felt like she was finally coming home to him. “As it should be,” he whispered.

      Yuuhi watched Hyakuhei without a flicker of emotion crossing his pale, young face. "She will not come, for Toya will stop her.”

      Hyakuhei’s eyes narrowed on the boy before he turned back