The Binding Vow of Lazarus

Chapter 101

Tamamo took two delicate steps back, her gaze sweeping over Satoru with smug delight. "Much better," she purred, hands held up as if to prove her innocence, though every curve of her smile betrayed her infinite pleasure in his frustration.

She turned, giving him a sidelong glance that he could have mistaken for Sarah, before she put her fingers to her lips and blew. The sound hummed outward, and in a spark of fox fire whirled into the air. The golden flames twisted into a pillar, then unraveled into three blue shimmering lights. From those lights, stepped three forms.

All three wore white kimonos, fresh as snow and collars brushed high at their necks with white fur. Their faces were hidden behind painted fox masks with elongated snouts and shining bared teeth. One was a tall man with long white hair draped over his shoulders. Beside him were two girls, black hair spilling down their backs like silk, just the same as Tamamo.

All three bowed low, the smile on their unseen faces clear in their voices. "My lady."

Tamamo turned to Satoru and smiled with a careless shrug of one shoulder. "My own insurance," she said carelessly. Then she turned and lifted her left hand, palms down and fingers held delicately as if she were expecting a ring. She tilted her head, smiling softly at him with Sarah's eyes and her lips and asked, "Which finger do you wish to consume?"

Satoru cocked his head, blue eyes catching the lantern light. "Do you really care?"

"Not particularly," she said with a giggle, then her eyes narrowed. "Though I would like to see you choke on it."

Satoru rolled his eyes, then stepped closer. His palm brushed against her fingertips before she pulled it away suddenly. She smirked up at him and then fluttered her eyelashes — doe eyed in a mockery of innocence. "Won't you do it from down on your knee, Satoru darling?"

Satoru gave her a deadpan look. "You're really milking this, huh?"

"Sweetheart," she purred, "after you two share a body you may never be on one knee for her again. This could be your only chance!"

Satoru sighed with frustration, but obeyed. He knelt down on one knee sliding his hand beneath hers. As though he were some prince poised to kiss her hand, Satoru's eyes flicked up to hers and held. Slowly her ring finger brushed between his teeth, all the way down to the base.

The snap was muffled, but distinct.

Satoru swallowed without hesitation and the world tore sideways the instant she slipped in.

His vision was exploded behind his eyes, colors splitting and crashing. Her soul slammed against the wall of his cursed energy and the clash felt catastrophic. Her golden light was burning through his blackened current, each surge of his heart undoing her damage but more of it crumbling within her insistent presence.

Every breath inflated two sets of lungs, her gasping blending into his own. Through it all, he forced his eyes open, watching Tamamo in front him, his body posture dangerously calm despite his inner turmoil. The storm was gnawing at his spine, crackling through the circuits of his cursed energy with blinding golden heat.

"That's how it felt for me too," the fox murmured, taking a step closer.

Satoru had seen that storm — it was worse inside him. The positive energy was overflowing into his bones, into the very marrow, and scorching a path of its own. He gritted his teeth, forcing his shoulders back, refusing to let the trembling in his legs give way. He could feel her voice screaming for him to force her back out, his senses were pressed raw into hers and the threat of equalization pushed against his psyche. Breaths of his life, mere flashes of hers, they were trying to rise but he shoved them back down.