"Wakey wakey..."A voice whispered before a harsh slap sounded through the air.
Yama felt his head swing to the side as he was forced awake and felt a massive sting erupt on his face. He barred his teeth as he tried attacking the person in front of him but he soon realized that he was tied to a chair by chains and ropes. His eyes were blindfolded too which would make it harder for him to use his abilities.
"You're a fiesty one, aren't ya', doctor?" The voice chuckled as Yama felt their hand push his head to the side.
He knew that voice. And it was starting to get on his last nerves.
"Where are we..?" Yama spoke, feeling how dry his throat was.
"Now why would I tell you that?" Xed amused. "You're the hostage, remember? Oh wait, I didn't tell you that before I clocked you. But yea, you're the hostage."
"What do you expect to get out of this?" Yama hissed as he heard Xed walking around. He tried to move his fingers but realized Xed had tied each one down too. He must have been planning this.
The wide-eyed demon smiled mischievously. "What I expect is to get my sweet back. And you are going to help me."
Like some sort of ransom? A negotiation? Yama rolled his eyes. "If you're thinking of a trade-"
"I'm not." Xed grinned. "I won't trade for what's mines. I'll simply take it."
Calling (Y/N) his made the doctor's blood boil. Xed could be doing it on purpose to get a reaction out of him or maybe he was being serious. Either way, Yama bit back his tongue but he wasn't going to forget.
He started to hear Xed rummaging through something. He could have his back turned. So Yama began wriggling his fingers around, trying to get them loose from the ropes and chains.
"My plan is to use you as a distraction. Or maybe, a trap. Still not sure which one I like more." Xed hummed. "But both will leave me with my sweet, you most likely dead and the rest of your buddies dead too. I would you all permanently gone than given a second chance at life by my humble mother."
"Sounds like a stupid plan." Yama grumbled and Xed glared at him before gaining his mischievous smile again. "Says the stupid hostage."
Yama ignored him and continued to try and get his fingers free. They were tied so tightly that the roughness of the ropes was scraping his skin. But just as he almost go his middle finger free, he felt a cold sharp tip of a knife pointed into his knuckle.
"You might want to rethink that." A feminine voice warned.
Yama cursed to himself. He didn't think to learn if there were others here.
The blade pulled away as the feminine voice walked off towards Xed. "You actually managed to catch him. Except there's no girl."
"I have a plan for that, Indi." Xed exclaimed. "A really good one too. But my dear friend heres doesn't need to know it."
"We're not friends." The doctor growled.
Xed put on a fake hurt tone and pretended to wipe his tears. "Oh, but I thought we were! How could you say that?"
All Xed got back was grumbles from him. Most of them being about how he wished to kill him. They made the wide-eyed demon smile.
"If you'll excuse me, sis, I have some stalking to do." Xed spoke. Yama listened to him start to walk away and a door was opened somewhere ahead of him. He took note of this.
"And what about him?" Indi questioned. "You're just going to leave him here?"
"No. He's coming back with us. I just need to check up on our little Zone buddies." Xed sweetly spoke and soon a door shut.
Yama deduced that it was ahead of him to the right. By the sound of it, it was steel. A back room maybe? The floor felt hard like tile and it smelt muggy in here. As if the room was damaged by water. That could only mean one thing. He was being kept in a back room somewhere near the river still. It was only a theory, but one he'll keep assuming until he gets some more information.
Until he can come up with an escape plan, he was stuck here. Bounded to a chair and blinded.
He tsked to himself. Karma's a bitch...
"So where's the girl?" The feminine voice, now known as Indi spoke up. She walked to stand in front of him and Yama could feel her stare at him.
"Where do you think?" His smart remark made the female demon grunt.
Indi leaned closer to him and jabbed her clawed finger against his cheek. "If you want to survive this, I suggest you do what's good for you."
"And that is?" Yama found her to be ridiculous. "I managed to avoid you for this long and held my own each time. I know exactly what's good for me."
"You're in our hands now." Indi hissed. "You don't get to decide what's good for you. But I'm not afraid to show you what happens when you test my patience."
"You're already testing mine-" Yama couldn't finish as he felt his right hand getting stabbed into and he bit back a scream of pain.
The blade went right through the back of his hand into the arm of the chair underneath. The knife was held there as Indi's face came closer. "What was that? I didn't hear you."
"You-" Yama hissed but soon the knife started to twist. His teeth gritted together as he grunted at the pain.
"I could do this all day, you know?" Indi deeply spoke. "Your hand will just heal, sure. But if I just kept going..."
The blade turned some more and Yama wanted to so desperately pull his hand away but couldn't. He couldn't move anything besides his head as his shoulders tensed and the wound begin to bleed.
"Maybe I can make sure this hand never heals right. Don't you think so, doctor?" Indi questioned, her tone ominous and so full of bad intent. Yama would've snapped back at her but his entire hand was already in so much excruciating pain.
Seeing him bite back his words from saying something that wasn't of use made the female lean back from her but she left the knife where it was. But her fingers tapped it mockingly as she watched the doctor. "I'll just leave this here. Just a simple reminder of what happens when enemies disobey."
He heard her walk away. He didn't hear her leave through a door but she entered a different room behind him and started talking to others. Despite his hand, he took note of this as well. Of course, there would be others...
He tried to keep his mind off of the pain and focused on how he was going to escape. Step one was to get these restraints off which would be harder with an entire knife pinning his right hand down to the chair. He was going to kill that demon. Somehow, someway, he was going to make she was dead before he gets out of here.
Then there was that Xed guy. He said he was going to do some stalking. That single word answered some of the questions Yama had. Particularly, why the Elitists haven't made another attempt on the Zone since the last one and how Xed knew about him and (Y/N).
He's been stalking them instead of attacking them. They must have realized that outright attacking the Zone wasn't going to work. Xed had a plan and he was going to use Yama for it.
The doctor let his head fall back and face the ceiling. Whatever purpose Xed had for him, Yama wasn't going to stick around and find out.
Xed hopped down from one building onto the roof of another and got low against a broken brick wall. He peaked his head over the hole in the wall and caught sight of the Zone camp below. He didn't care about the people, he was only searching for a special someone.
And when he saw her, he could feel himself melt but it wasn't due to the summer sun.
(Y/N) was leaning against some crate as she talked to the Outsider leader. Xed couldn't hear what she was saying but he felt upset from seeing how down she looked.
Her posture was sluggish, her beautiful milky (e/c) eyes had no light, even her mesmerizing lips were in a frown as she spoke.
It made Xed want to punch Yama all over again.
How could he hurt such a precious girl? Xed would never do such a terrible thing as playing with her heart. That is exactly why his sweet should've never left. She wouldn't have gotten the misfortune of meeting such a cold heartless creature who took her heart and crushed it like an old rusty can!
Xed had to hold back his anger and raging thoughts. His claws were gripping tightly on the large chain attached to his belt.
If only his sweet would have never left, then she wouldn't be going through this. She would be in his arms instead.
It seemed her talk with the Outsider leader finally ended as the man turned away to speak with the Chief. (Y/N) stayed where she was but her eyes glanced around a bit before she got up and started walking somewhere.
Xed's wide eyes followed every move. How she avoided certain individuals who would likely stop her and made her way outside of the vehicle wall and down a path toward the river. Where was his sweet going?
No one else seemed to notice her slip out so Xed got up as well.
(Y/N)'s boots stepped onto rocky mud as she found herself at the very edge of the river. It was just below a cliff that held the camp above so she wasn't too far from it. But she just wanted to be alone. She couldn't exactly do that with everyone's eyes on her...
She found a big enough rock to sit on and rested her elbows against her lap as she laid her head into her hands. She felt horrible. Like all of her energy was sucked out of her. If this is what being heartbroken feels like, she never wanted to experience this ever again.
She dropped her arms into her lap and stared at her now muddy boots.
'Yama...' She thought to herself and started to feel tears well up again.
"Well well well..."
A voice spoke behind her. She immediately jumped up and backed away. And when she saw those grey eyes, her arm instantly shot out.
Xed grinned widely as he held his hands up in surrender just as the vines sprouted from her hand but stopped. (Y/N) shook slightly as she kept backing away. 'Where did he come from?! Why is he here?!'
"You look so sad, my little monster. Did that man hurt you?" Xed kept his voice down as he sweetly spoke to her.
But she didn't reply. Her eyes glanced up at the cliff for any signs of trouble at camp before they moved back down onto him.
"I honestly don't know what you see in him. He doesn't deserve even a second of your time~." Xed spoke as he slowly started to approach.
"What do you want?" (Y/N) quickly questioned, a bit too loudly for his liking. She was ready to send her vines shooting into him but if she did, his blood could travel back to her. This made her nervous.
Xed gestured for her to keep her voice down with his hands. "I'm not going to kidnap you even though I so desperately want to~."
When she noticed him approaching, she made her vines grow thicker which made him halt for now. He started to snicker at her caution. "Do I always make you this nervous?"
She glared at him but her trembling hands gave her away. He smiled widely at them as he slowly started to approach again. "I just wanted to have a chat, then I'll be on my way."
"I don't trust you." She hissed.
"You don't have to, my sweet." He winked. "But just know that you'll be home soon enough. So enjoy your time with these humans while you can because Mother isn't going to want to wait any longer."
"I'm not going back!" Her vines grew some more as her anger spiked. "Just leave me alone!"
"But I don't want to." Xed took another step as she backed away some more. Her boot soon connected with the water of the river and she looked down quickly before moving her sights back onto him. She was growing anxious now.
Xed's wide grin ceased a bit as he watched her. His expression became so fond of her. Her beauty, her grace, even when she looked so scared and cornered like this. Oh, it was driving him wild! He'll have her soon enough. It was only a matter of time.
He continued to approach her as (Y/N) was forced to hold her ground. She wanted to make a commotion to get the Zone's attention but what if Xed had other Elitists around who'll attack if she did? He said he wasn't trying to kidnap her this time, but what if he was lying? A million questions through her mind and she couldn't keep up with any of them. Xed was able to get close enough to trail his fingers against her outstretched arm but stop just before he could touch her bloody vines. He gripped her arm and yanked her towards him, (Y/N) yelped as she was pulled into his chest and his other hand grasped her chin to make her look up at him.
His grey eyes were so full of love while hers were filled with fear.
"You're so pretty when you look like a cornered rabbit..." He whispered as he leaned down and rested his head against hers. He felt her try to pull away but his grip tightened.
(Y/N)'s breathing became quicker. She couldn't touch him. No matter what she did, if his blood came in contact with her she'll get infected. And he knew that.
He wasn't afraid to get this close to her. She may be Zankoku's successor, but she wasn't immune to him.
"I know Mother wants you, but I want you even more." He muttered. "I found you first. I had the fortune to watch you turn first. I took care of you. I watched you every day."
(Y/N) clenched her teeth as his grip on her arm tightened and his claws started to dig into her skin.
"I'm breaking my neck every day to bring you back home. I'm forced to watch you love another demon who ain't me!" His voice lost the fond tone he had and was soon replaced by anger, jealousy, and exhaustion. (Y/N) tried to get away again but his claws only dug deeper, enough to draw some blood that stung against him. But it was like he didn't even notice it.
When he started to think about it, he has more of a right to (Y/N) than the Elitists did. Not even Mother could come close to the amount of work he's out into this. It was his idea to attack the far-off community, he was the one to force (Y/N) to drink the last bit of Zankoku's blood they had, he was the one to watch her parents die and watch her successfully turn unlike them. He was the first to recognize her abilities, the only one who volunteered to watch her and take care of her during her transformation, and now he was the one constantly trying to return her to a demon who didn't appreciate her the way he did.
Zankora doesn't deserve her. He did.
He pulled her face closer to his. He could almost feel her shaky breath against his lips.
"You're going to make me do something very bad, my sweet..." He maliciously grinned. "You go have fun with the humans while you can. Just know that I'll be waiting~.
Once he loosened his grip on her, she yanked herself away and pushed past him towards the path back up to the camp. She glanced back and met his eyes which watched her like a predator. It made her heart sink as she rushed up toward camp.
But as she turned back around, she collided with someone and they both went tumbling to the ground.
"Ah- (Y/N)?!" The person shouted as they fell. When she looked up, she saw it was B. The Capturer rubbed her shoulder from where she collided with her friend and looked at her in shock. "Where were you?! You shouldn't wander off!"
"I- I-" (Y/N) stuttered as she whipped her head back to the river's edge. But he was gone. Only his boot prints were left in the rocky mud.
"What's wrong?" B asked as she got up and helped the frantic demon up as well.
But (Y/N) pushed past her to quickly head back to camp. Wanting to get as far away from the river's edge as possible.