A Guardian's Possession

Losing his patience with her, he turned to leave the room. Why didn't she understand? Why didn't she see that he wanted to know her? He couldn’t release her now… unprotected from Hyakuhei. The enemy had gotten so close to her that he was now haunting her dreams… he would not allow it.

Kyoko screamed at him. "I want to leave! Let me go! If I don't know what you want from me, then I can't help you!" She watched as he stopped, his back stiffened but he didn't turn to face her.

Kyou knew what he wanted from her but for now, this would have to do. "I want you to teach me your human emotions." He walked toward the door. "Maybe then… I will understand why I am bothered with protecting one."

He left, firmly closing the door behind him. Once in the hallway outside the room, he leaned back against the wood of the door. ‘That was … strange,’ he thought with a raised eyebrow. He quickly straightened up and looked around him to make sure no one had witnessed his moment of weakness.

Kyou stood there for a moment, thinking. If he could get her to stay… even if it was only for a while, he would have time to try to get her to love him. It was time to admit what he was up to… at least admitting it to himself. He wanted to keep her. For once in his long life, he wanted something his brother Toya possessed.

He wanted the priestess for his own… wanted to be the one to protect her. Was this what they call love? His eyes darkened attractively. Deep down inside… he knew emotions, but only he was aware of that fact. He just hadn’t had a reason to tap into them in so long that they had become dormant. He smiled secretly. If she wanted to leave him… then first, she would have to get to know the real him.

First, he wanted to know what human love was and she would be the one to show him. In order to do that … she would have to fall in love with him. His highborn blood had already chosen her as his mate and he could not change that. No matter how hard she fought him… he would only fight harder.

Kyou’s eyes grew brighter with the thought of her coming to him willingly. He wanted to feel all those emotions. He knew why his father and brothers thought humans where so interesting… worth protecting. They thought each and every one of them were different and in some way intriguing. He found it easy to ignore most humans… but not the priestess. She was the enigma among the humans.

It had been a long time since the lord of the guardian realm looked forward to anything…. But this was a battle he did not intend on losing.

Chapter 4 “Double Trouble”

Kyoko sat up on the pillows staring at the door that had slammed only a few seconds before. Her thoughts were frozen on the reason he said she was there. Kyou wanted her to teach him human emotions? Why would the prince of ice want to know human emotions? And why would he want to learn them from her?

She raised her hand to her lips still feeling the tingling sensation his kiss had caused. Kyoko's eyes narrowed as she lowered her hand thinking. 'One thing is for sure! Kyou knows two emotions already… anger and conceit.'

*****

Hiroki and Hiraru opened the door peeking in, looking for the pretty girl. There had never been a girl in the castle or at least one that they had ever seen. It had been a long time since they had even seen another human among them. They were so used to only seeing Kyou that it had never dawned on them that they were missing out on anything till now. Now they couldn’t keep their curiosity at bay.

Looking at each other when they didn’t see anything straight away, they leaned forward a bit more to fully see the pillow the girl had been lying on. Seeing that she was still there, they scrambled in almost falling over each other in the process.

Kyoko’s eyes brightened considerably when she saw the twin boys. They were so adorable and again she wondered how someone like Kyou could have these two beautiful children in his company. It just didn’t fit his cold personality.

In their rush to her side, one of them tripped but luckily landed on the edge of the pillow instead of the unforgiving marble floor. Kyoko couldn’t help it and laughed, taking him up in her arms and placing him back on his feet. She watched the other twin run up and hug his brother. Their cheeks were pressed together looking at her with identical smiles. They were so adorable and reminded her of her little brother when he was small.’

“Be careful,” Kyoko admonished. “You shouldn’t run across such slick floors. My name’s Kyoko.”

"Hiya Kyoko. He is my brother Hiroki…” “And he is my brother Hiraru.” They finished each other’s sentences.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Kyoko nodded.

“You’re very pretty,” Hiraru said quietly.

Kyoko mentally squealed at their cuteness but held it in. “Thank you Hiraru, I must say you two are very handsome too.”

They both blushed sweetly and Kyoko was finding it harder to keep from hugging the life out of them. She glanced toward the door then back at them. “Do you know where Kyou is?”

Hiroki and Hiraru gave each other a knowing look. “I think she likes him,” Hiroki whispered.

Kyoko's lips parted but nothing came out and she blushed.

“Her cheeks are red,” Hiraru said. “Mommy’s cheeks always turned red when Daddy would hug her. Do you think Kyou’s hugged Kyoko?”

Kyoko resisted the urge to fall over and bury her face in the pillow. ‘He’s done more than hug me,’ the thought steamrolled through her head. Trying to distract herself she noted the smudges of dirt on the boy’s hands and grinned. Boys would be boys and it looked like these two had been playing outside.

Kyoko reached out and lifted Hiroki's hand turning it palm side up. “Been playing in the dirt have we?” she winked.

“We need to take a bath now,” Hiraru informed her knowing Kyou never had dirty hands. The twins looked up to him and wanted to be just like their hero. “Will you come take a bath with us?"

Kyoko shook her head, “I don’t think that would be a very good idea.” She faltered when the twins each took a hand and attempted to pull her to her feet.

“Kyou won’t mind,” Hiroki said. “Once he sees how pretty you are when you’re clean maybe he’ll hug you.”

Kyoko’s eyes widened again and she groaned mentally. She didn’t want Kyou to hug her… she wanted Kyou to let her go. That’s when it truly dawned on her… the children didn’t know she was being kept against her will.

The little twins smiled innocently at her, pulling her toward the door. Her resolve to stay right where she was shattered when she saw their dirty bare feet. She wondered who bathed and took care of them. All the little things her mother used to do for her, that she took for granted, had not been given to these beautiful boys.

Kyoko didn’t know what to do so she just nodded and followed the children out the door and down the hall. At the moment it was a plus just to get out of that room. There were large tapestries and paintings lining the walls… more than a few Kyoko wouldn’t have minded taking a closer look at but she wasn’t about to make an appointment. She had an ulterior motive… find a way out of the castle and back to Toya.

The tiny hands holding hers continued to pull her down the hall to a set of white marble spiral steps. The stairway was so steep Kyoko tightened her grip on the children’s hands not wanting to see them trip and fall in their haste. At the bottom they led her through a set of double doors. Kyoko felt the change in temperature and humidity… she blinked in surprise and looked around with her lips parted in awe.

The room was enormous with a tantalizing hot spring bubbling comfortably in the center of the stone floor. The stone stretched all the way to the walls where it was lined with soft fluffy cushions creating a very comfortable setting. Under the right circumstances… it could have been considered romantic.

Following the wall, she craned her neck noticing it went all the way up through the center of the castle, leading to different wings and letting in the breeze and sunshine. If it were raining, she’d be wet right about now.

“Well, at least this is closer to being outside than I was,” she glanced down and smiled when both the boys looked up at her curiously. “It’s beautiful,” She nodded not wanting to worry them with her own ramblings.

Kyoko remembered Toya once telling her that Kyou lived in a luxurious setting… this alone confirmed it. She couldn’t tell just how big the castle was, and she wasn’t really sure she wanted to find out. It was bad enough she was having trouble remembering how she got to this room.

Following her line of vision back down to the spring, she noticed there where soft materials for drying and steam rising off the heated water. She had come to absolutely love the small hot springs they often ran into in this world but this was … the best thing since sliced bread. In ways, it was even better than what she had in her modern world.

It seemed almost too good for just general use and she wondered if this were someone’s personal bathing area. She shivered when the idea that this could be Kyou’s private bath entered her mind. Taking a quick look around to be sure, she breathed a sigh of relief upon determining he was nowhere around.

Kyoko looked down at Hiroki and Hiraru nervously. "Are we supposed to be here?"

They smiled, jumping up and down with excitement. "We wanted Kyoko to come with us like Mommy used to do!" With that… the twins preceded in stripping and running into the water, giggling in delight.

Kyoko’s jaw dropped. ‘Like mommy used to do?’ She blinked several times wondering how two children so sweet and innocent had survived without their mommy and how it was that they had wound up living with the prince of ice.

*****

Kyou paced back and forth within the walls of his room wondering what he was going to do with Kyoko. He wasn’t worried about Toya and the others, but the fact that Hyakuhei had gotten so close to her didn’t make him happy. If he hadn’t gotten to her first, what would have happened?

Shaking his head he growled at the question. He knew exactly what would have happened. Hyakuhei would have seduced her and then used her to gather the talisman and open a portal into her world. He could still remember the softness within her voice as she said Hyakuhei’s name in her sleep. That thought alone was enough to make him want to fly into a rage. His uncle did not deserve to touch… would NEVER touch what was his.

He stopped pacing and stared into space. His… he very much liked the sound of that. The only problem he faced at the moment was gaining more of her trust and making her see that he was the only one that would ever have the ability to protect her the way she was meant to be protected. In order for him to accomplish this, he needed to keep her beside him and make sure she remained so.

He knew he could force her to stay but he also realized that would only make her hate him. He had worked most of his life at keeping humans at a distance, but Kyoko… he didn’t want her distant at all. If she never left the castle, then evil could never reach her. He wanted her to want to stay willingly, like the twins.

A very brief smile graced his lips thinking of the human children he had accommodated within his home. The expression vanished when his mind flashed back to the past… keeping the twins had been an accident.