Beside You in Time: 1824

1824: Vienna, Austria


The twelve years since Moscow had been fraught with secrecy. Not from each other - if anything, Sesshoumaru more readily told her of their plans and their goals. In being left out of her life for so long, he had learned to include her in his. But they were a lonely pair; they were separated from the world by their mission against the Order, which required discretion and subtlety - two things at which Kagome was never particularly gifted. The world of Napoleon crumbled, and Europe began to rebuild itself, taking scraps of what the French Emperor left behind, but Kagome and Sesshoumaru saw little of it. They moved too fast these days. They struck down their enemies quickly and retreated to small hamlets, where no one cared about much except the next planting season. It didn't leave a lot of room to witness the upheavals of history in the making.

So, she was especially thrilled to be here tonight - a premiere to end all premieres.

She gripped Sesshoumaru's arm when the bass began to sing, filling the hall on the strength of his voice alone, rising over every tenor and bass that joined him moments later. The music swelled, and the women began their powerful harmonies, weaving in and over the two male leads.

"Are you alright?" he murmured, needlessly quiet as the orchestra charged on through the score.

"Yes," she breathed.

She knew that the taiyoukai was giving her a questioning look, but she found it was impossible to explain. Kagome hadn't even listened to classical music that much when she was young and mortal, and although Ode to Joy was instantly recognizable, she had had even less occasion to listen to a classical piece that had traditionally been used as a Christian hymn. And yet, her heart felt as if it was about to burst within her chest. It felt like coming one step closer to home - a concert like this would be just as much at home in her modern times as it was here.

With one notable exception, of course. Her eyes flickered to where Ludwig van Beethoven stood, conducting with sweeping movements that made his wild hair grow even more untamed. On one side, the four soloists faced the overflowing hall's audience, belting out their parts with all the gusto of their conductor and composer. On the other side, a second conductor demurely directed the orchestra in the correct tempo - noticeably different from where Beethoven was in his score. "Do you think he hears it in his head the same way it's played?" she asked, nodding at the completely deaf composer.

"He wrote it," Sesshoumaru replied softly. "I would imagine it is similar."

"I hope so. I can't imagine it being any better than this," she said, glancing at him. "I think we might just have the best seats in the house."

Sesshoumaru glanced down at where her legs dangled over the edge of the catwalk suspended some thirty feet above the stage. They were hidden from sight - vaulted panels of scenery hid the choir and the back of the percussion section from them, while the thick, velvet curtains and scrim hid most of the audience. The musicians didn't think to look up into the darkness above their heads. "Just make certain that you keep your shoes on," he warned. "That would probably give our position away."

She laughed silently and nodded, tucking her feet beneath her and setting her long, wooden case across her lap before returning her attention to the concert. She let its fleeting pleasure wash over her, pushing aside the worries of after.

The job would be easy, of course. Sesshoumaru did most of the heavy lifting, although she still wasn't certain if that was out of an attention to her well-being or because he lacked faith in her abilities. She had a difficult time believing it to be the latter, even on the most trying of days with Sesshoumaru - her marksmanship was proficient and often practiced. He had never complained. Either way, she didn't have to concern herself overly much about the actual work. But Kagome did wonder, as she frequently did, if the result would improve anything. The Order multiplied even as the Alliance plummeted into nothing more than a loose network of despondent youkai.

After all, when the Alliance called on a miko, of all people, to help create the last line of defense, things were not going well for the demons in the world.

Below her feet, the melody swirled in a controlled frenzy as it climbed towards the finale. The chorus fought back and forth between men and women for dominance, trading off their interlocked phrases in German, and the soloists' voices pierced through the wave of sound. Kagome's heart swelled painfully within her chest as every instrument and voice was raised as one, tumbling up to its grand crescendo and end. The final note rang through the hall for a several seconds before the awed crowd jumped to its feet.

Kagome applauded so enthusiastically that Sesshoumaru's hand came to rest on her back to stop her from falling backwards off the catwalk. "Careful, woman!" he admonished as he steadied her, rolling his eyes when all she spared him was a smile in the midst of her cheers.

Beethoven put his arms down, having finished conducting several beats after the symphony had reached its pinnacle, and stood still, looking out over his orchestra. In his cocoon of silence, he couldn't hear the yells and whistling of the audience behind him - only when the contralto physically took hold of his arms and turned him around could he see the exuberance of the crowd. Kagome found that she was crying along with the composer as he clutched his hands to his chest and bowed.

"We must go," said Sesshoumaru, standing up and taking her wooden case to sling over his shoulder.

She reluctantly grasped his arm and allowed him to pull her to her feet and down the length of the catwalk to the rope ladder hidden in the wings. "We have time," she insisted. "In my era, hermits in the Yukon know Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. They're going to take ages to stop cheering for him."

"Then, we may rest for a few minutes after we get into position," Sesshoumaru said, descending to the floor.

Kagome admitted defeat and climbed down to the stage after him, but stopped before she took another step - Beethoven himself had appeared beside the ladder, stepping into the wings to bring a handkerchief to his eyes. The streaks of the tears that that had flowed down his face mirrored her own, and they stared at one another for a breathless moment. Behind him, the audience still cheered, calling out for his return to the stage.

He took in her outfit - a pair of men's trousers and a waistcoat, worn for ease of movement in the imminent hunt - without batting an eye, and she shook herself out of her awed stupor. "It was beautiful. Like coming home at last," she said in German, speaking deliberately for the sake of lipreading.

The composer shook his head - it was dark in the wings, and she had said too much to be accurately interpreted. Drawing a small conversation book - his weapon against his deafness - out of his pocket, he offered it to her with a piece of charcoal that left smudged his fingertips.

"Kagome," Sesshoumaru called from the stage door.

She put her hands over Beethoven's and shook her head. "Thank you," she said instead, before she bent towards him to press a kiss to the old man's cheek.

"You are most welcome, my dear," he said. He shared a bright, understanding smile with her before she was gone, running after Sesshoumaru as the composer turned back to the stage to receive another standing ovation.

The door clicked closed behind her when she reached the alley. "Don't give me that look. It was worth it," she said, taking her wooden case from the taiyoukai.

"He will remember you."

"Maybe as a boy," she said, gesturing to her clothing.

Sesshoumaru watched as she crouched down to open the case. "No one would believe that you are a boy, no matter how you are dressed," he muttered.

She removed the long-barreled rifle, propping it up on one knee as she glanced back at him. "I think I might have heard almost a compliment under all that," she said with a smirk. "Are you saying that I'm shapely?"

Sesshoumaru snorted, rather indelicately. "You are shaped as a female, I suppose."

Kagome stood up and approached him. "It's alright, you know. You can admit it without seeming as if you've ever looked closely. I am actually female."

"I am aware of that," he murmured. He pulled her body closer to his, wrapping an arm around her waist, and rolled his gray eyes up to the sky.

"Making extra sure?" she asked with a raised eyebrow as he hesitated.

His head snapped back to glare at her before he catapulted the both of them to the roof of the Carinthian Gate Theater, where he released her immediately. "Remember what we discussed. Do not engage these two. We do not know what training they have received, except that he is a murderer," he said. "Remember, only shoot if absolutely necessary."

"You've said that for the past twelve years," Kagome said, pushing away the flutter in her stomach for weary resignation to fill its place. She shouldn't have teased him, she knew. It was such a sure-fire way to put him in a rigid, business-like mode. If she was very lucky, it would only last until the completion of their assignment. "I've never fired at your targets. I know that I'm strictly back-up," she added as she scaled the roof to get to her predetermined post.

She sat cross-legged on the edge of the roof with her rifle across her lap, and the alley stretched out below her - obviously not the most likely exit for a couple going to a premiere performance in their finest clothing. They had seen the targets enter the concert hall, and the woman had worn a deep red gown that would look black in this light. Kagome wouldn't be able to tell this couple apart from a pair of musicians or stagehands. Sesshoumaru had the nose - he would be the one to find their quarry, no matter what side of the theater they exited. He could easily handle these fights on his own. He wanted to handle these fights on his own.

She peeked at the snowy-haired taiyoukai out of the corner of her eye. He was perched like a bird of prey, prepared to fly after their targets as soon as they appeared in the street below them. As predatory as he looked, her heart softened. The only reason he took her along for these missions was to make her feel important, as something more than his cover story and his default, immortal companion. The reason he didn't want her there - the reason he gave her the same admonition as he had for more than a decade - was to protect the innocence he still believed she possessed.

"You have taken lives when it was necessary to save yourself or others," he had once explained, immediately after he received the name of the first Order member to be assassinated. "Never out of hatred or revenge. Never in cold blood."

Kagome didn't want to kill anyone either. She didn't have the stomach for it, righteously or not - Tortuga proved that. If she had actually murdered anyone, it would have been there. Still, she rebelled against Sesshoumaru's constant urge to shield her from the world when she had seen so much of it already. There was purpose in her presence here, beyond what his concessions for his own peace of mind. He wasn't just protecting her - she had to protect him, even if it was from himself. He was all that she had these days. Every one of these missions scared her, despite the ease of cutting down a mortal human.

"There."

She blinked and moved to his side in a moment. "They always look so ordinary," she murmured, watching the soberly-dressed couple move through the crowd.

"If they did not, they would not be very good at their jobs," he replied.

"The woman, too?" she asked. The wife wore the puffed sleeves and high neck of the emerging fashion - a fashion that seemed to be both puritanical and clownish all at once. Kagome was thankful that she often moved around in men's clothing these days.

Sesshoumaru shot her a sideways glance. "Yes," he said. "Do you believe a woman incapable of such vile acts?"

He was still cross with her for her teasing. "You know that I don't," Kagome said, shouldering her rifle. "I just like making sure. How many wives have we widowed that knew nothing of what their husbands really did?"

"Ignorance of their sins saved their lives, but I still have no regrets of taking their husbands," he said. "This one, however, is neither ignorant nor innocent."

She nodded. "Then, she dies. I'm not opposed to saving an entire race at the expense of a few killers, Sesshoumaru."

The taiyoukai's jaw clenched. "Are you ready?" he muttered. Their targets were moving away from the theater.

Kagome got to her feet again. "Let's go," she said, taking off at a run.

They had perfected the art of rooftop surfing. It would have been more sensible, perhaps, if Kagome had simply ridden on Sesshoumaru's back, the way she used to withInuyasha , but she had shot that idea down early. If she was to be the sharpshooter, she needed to be free to shoot whenever possible, and that included their pursuit. She quickly grew to enjoy this part of their jobs together - they ran up and down the tiled roofs like cat burglars, and Sesshoumaru would curl his arm around her waist to lift her for a moment of flight as they leaped over an alley or a street. Every bit of it was silent, but spent in close proximity with one another as they communicated with looks and gestures, so as not to alert their targets below them. It was as exhilarating as it was intimate - it was the only time she felt the taiyoukai's hands linger on her hips and back as he quietly worried over her safety.

The couple below them hurried along the streets, skirting around the lantern lighters and those less savory types that came out at dusk. They didn't look up - not even when the shadow of two flying figures danced at the periphery of their vision. The smooth stone faces of the Viennese buildings rising around them made their footsteps echo. To follow two oblivious humans meant an easy hunt for Kagome and Sesshoumaru, and his grip softened as he held her close.

Their prey turned into a three-story brick house at the end of a wide lane, and Sesshoumaru dropped into an alley across the way. "They share a wall with the neighbors," he observed, nodding towards the row of identical homes on the other side of the street. In one of the rooms on the top level, a light was lit behind thick curtains.

Kagome interpreted his sidelong glance to mean that he didn't wish her to go inside with him, but she ignored it and put her rifle on her back again. "So I will not fire at all tonight," she said with a shrug. "Unless it's absolutely necessary."

A frown hovered at the corners of his mouth. "When would it ever be necessary for us?" he asked before he stepped into the lantern-lined avenue.

She kept on his heels and watched for anyone at the neighbors' windows. Everything seemed clear, and Kagome drew out picks to deal with the door. Lock-picking used to be something she had a great deal of trouble with - Sesshoumaru had often been obliged to bust open the door and risk the noise - but she had trained herself over the past dozen years. She saw, however, that this lock would be trouble. "There's something stuck inside," she whispered. "It feels like glass."

Sesshoumaru grabbed her hands and drew her away as soon as she had given this opinion. "Do not touch it."

It was a needless warning - Kagome had seen the booby-traps important members of the Order set on their doors before. She gestured wordlessly to a dark window close to them, and Sesshoumaru pried it open with minimal creaking of wood. As soon as the taiyoukai had lifted her inside, however, her indifference to continuing with the mission failed. "We should go," she murmured, subtly wiping her sweaty palms on her waistcoat. "Something feels wrong."

"Yes," he agreed without argument, surprising her. "But I will not leave until I discover their purpose here."

"What good could it possibly do?" Kagome asked. "Except, perhaps, hurt us somehow."

"But we will kill them, as well," answered Sesshoumaru.

"Why do I get the feeling that there are more of 'them' than just the couple we followed in here?" she muttered, looking around and letting her eyes adjust to the low light. They stood in the middle of a scantly furnished parlor with hardly enough seating to receive any guests. "I smell phosphorous."

Sesshoumaru nodded, bending down to sweep the tip of a finger along a baseboard. "The house is set to go up in flames, if they so choose," he said. "We must not create any sparks."

She sighed. "My rifle just got downgraded from a useful standby weapon to an unwieldy stick," she said. "Are we actually going to go through what is quickly becoming a house of horrors?"

"If it gives us even one answer, we must," he replied. "Do you have a knife?"

"Always," she said, twirling the six inch blade once as she transferred it from her boot to her belt.

"You will need it soon," Sesshoumaru said, cocking his head towards the door to the hall.

She caught the sound of shuffling feet out in the hallway and exchanged an understanding glance with the taiyoukai before they moved apart. As she silently walked to the door at the back of the room, Kagome grabbed the one ornament that the parlor could boast - a clumsily-made porcelain pitcher. At the entrance to the hallway, Sesshoumaru hovered with his claws glowing green. Kagome almost pitied the men creeping up on Sesshoumaru - they wouldn't be fighting just his claws and his poison, but his anger that he had been drawn into this house at all. Playing a trick on the taiyoukai was usually the last thing you did.

At least three men were breathing on the other side of the wall from her position, and they smelled of sweat and phosphorous - even with her human senses, Kagome found mortals remarkably clumsy in their attempts at stealth. A creaky floorboard announced the first man's entrance into the room, and she brought the pitcher up and into his face. There was a crunch of bone and a spurt of blood - his nose would never be straight again, even if he did survive the night. He fell down, straight over the threshold and clasped his hands over his mouth, his eyes watering.

The injured assassin's cry of pain defeated any other attempts at silence, and the rest of them poured into the room at both ends. Kagome was not the only one that was incapacitated without use of her firearm - the two remaining men that came at her had knives, not guns. Her swift kick to the first one's knee successfully floored him, making him drop his blade out of instinct as he covered his vulnerable joint. Her body felt alive with power as he went down - her skin crackled, and she broke out into an adrenalin-fueled sweat as she prepared for a successful fight.

The second man was quick - he came at her before she could draw her own knife. But she wasn't unprepared. Her wrist blocked his downward stroke, and she brought the heel of the palm of her free hand up to his chin, snapping back his head in a rough movement that jarred his teeth inside his head.

"Not so easy, huh?" she muttered, smashing her foot into the temple of the assassin with the injured knee before she stooped to take away his knife, too. She could hear Sesshoumaru still fighting behind her - it wasn't a surprise that they would send more after the imposing taiyoukai than her - but when she turned around, she saw that she was the only one having it easy tonight.

She let out a wordless cry when she saw him wavering on his feet. The power she had felt only seconds earlier had not been from her or her own sense of accomplishment - it came from the holy men that surrounded the taiyoukai, covering him inwhat looked like sutras . Four men already had crumpled to the ground in pools of their own blood, but Sesshoumaru seemed to be moving through a fog. His swings were wide and slow, and his poison had dissipated.

Kagome rushed to him, slicing across the back of a monk in the middle of a chant. The paper he had been holding fluttered to the floor and stopped glowing its menacing red. "Get off of him!" she yelled, her next blow glancing off the arm of another assassin.

Hands grabbed at her from behind, and she gave their owners' noses and sternums a few powerful strikes of her elbow before she could pull away again. Sesshoumaru had managed to kill another one, but it seemed that they were multiplying - whoever had sprung this trap knew who to concentrate their forces upon.

Sweeping her knife wildly towards those that tried to grapple with her again, she lunged forward to meet the taiyoukai in the middle. His golden eyes seemed drugged. "Shoulder," he murmured.

She raked her nails over his shoulders, tearing at the paper sealed onto his clothing. The cloud of magic sputtered around them, and she felt asutra hit her own back, although it could do nothing to her. Sesshoumaru was dragging himself to his feet again, reaching out and ripping a monk's throat out before the holy man could complete his next spell.

Someone was clawing at her again, pulling her back from the taiyoukai, just as another sutra adhered itself to his bicep. Only when she felt something rough and thick loop around her neck - a rope, she guessed, as she grasped at it - did she cry out again. "Sesshoumaru!" she gasped, as she was thrown off-balance and dragged backwards.

His roar of frustration was almost animal - she could see the way his eyes glowed red in frustration, but he kept his shape. He tried to break through to get to her, but a line had been drawn, quite literally. An iridescent ring on the floor began to shine as he reached for her, trapping him without a cage. Kagome twisted, plunging a knife into the thigh of one of her captors, but there were more than just two or three now - hands tightened around her limbs, tearing away her blade and almost tearing her arms out of their sockets in the process as she was dragged into the next room.

Heavy doors were closed after her, cutting off her line of sight as soon as possible. She struggled viciously, not caring how deeply the rope chafed into her neck - she didn't need air, and her skin would heal quickly. She couldn't allow them to subdue the taiyoukai though. This evening was supposed to be simple. An hour ago, she had been listening to music conducted by its master. She wouldn't permit anything to color that feeling of pure elation that she had when she sat beside Sesshoumaru and listened to the birth of a masterpiece.

They were pushing her to the floor, now. As strong as she had become - by human standards, at least - she could not fight off several, trained assassins. For a moment, she had the hideous sensation of being back on a ship - she could smell salt water and rum and the breath of pirates as they chuckled about the good luck of their captain.

"Get the axe!" shouted one of the men in German. "Chop the bitch's head off!"

Another roar came from the next room, and Kagome snapped out of her moment of panic, trying to wrench her body up from the floorboards. The gun that she was not supposed to fire was still on her back, digging into her spine, but the knives were gone. "But," started another voice.

"Do it!"

It was a mistake on their part - as soon as one lessened the pressure on her arm, she ripped it away and grabbed for the short blade on the assassin's belt. She drew it up, out of its sheath, and along the soft flesh of the man's throat. The others reflexively shrank away from the gush of blood, and she tightened her grip on the hilt of the blade so it wouldn't slip from her hand as she drew it across their wrists, where they held her. A kick from both legs freed her there as well, and she got to her feet.

There were seven of them in total - seven assassins who had become so soft in their deadly arts that they could release one girl from an entirely prone position. Compared to her sparring sessions with Sesshoumaru, her work in what once was the dining room was almost too easy. They fought back, but they could not defeat the woman who became stronger with every shout from the room that still held the taiyoukai. Soon, all seven were unconscious or, if they were very lucky, dead.

"Sesshoumaru!" she cried, heaving her shoulder against the door to the front parlor and forcing it to give way. She ran to the bodies on the threshold of the corridor, turning over each one in quick succession, although she could see with a glance that none of them were the taiyoukai.

Shreds of paper lay scattered about the area, drifting one way or another as she moved. Sesshoumaru had survived, of course - she always knew that she would feel a dimming in her heart if they were ever separated by death - but she wondered if he had gone on his own power or with the Order.

Creeping into the dark hallway, she cursed the lack of light. Sesshoumaru would be able to see everything and smell where each and every living assassin stood waiting for them. Separated from him, despite the training she had accumulated over the years, left her bereft of the best protection she could have.

She considered the possibility of lighting the house on fire - the idea of healing from severe burns wasn't the most pleasant, but it would destroy the remnants of the resistance in the house. But, she realized, if Sesshoumaru was incapacitated in some way, he could easily suffer more than any of them. She had nursed him back from near death once, and she wasn't keen on doing it again. The only thing worse than dying of third degree burns was probably living with them.

Pausing at the bottom of the stairwell, Kagome remembered the light they had seen on the third floor - a light that should not have been lit if there was any of the flammable phosphorous up there. Sesshoumaru would have noticed that, and, sure enough, when she reached out with her miko senses, she could feel him somewhere above her head.

She grabbed one of the knives on the corpse of a priest and crept up the steps, listening every other moment for a sign of other inhabitants. A small pool of blood glistened on the landing of the second floor, although she couldn't see a body. She had to hold herself back from calling the taiyoukai's name again - he wouldn't answer, and he would not appreciate that she willingly gave up her position to the enemy. It would only be for her comfort, anyway - his name always made her feel safe.

The smell of phosphorous was not so strong on this floor, and she felt at the seams between the floor and the wall for the white powder. It was only bending down to this new angle that allowed Kagome to see the glint of the blade coming towards her. She grabbed at it, wrestling the arm back up with the strength of her legs pushing back against the floor. The attack was silent, and the counterattack was nearly so - a hard headbutt to the assassin's nose and chin made him crumple under his own weight. As she lowered him to the ground as quietly as she could, there was a strangled gasp for air to her left and another body joined her own victim.

"Se-," she began, before his hand slid over her mouth.

He was shaking. "Take them off of me," he whispered. "There are more."

Kagome wasn't sure if he meant there were more assassins as well, but she could see the sutras still clinging to his body. The smoky smell of burning cotton filled her nose as her fingers clutched at the strips of paper - several of them had burned through his clothing and into his skin. To her, they were ineffectual bits of parchment, but even such a powerful taiyoukai as Sesshoumaru quivered under the weight of so many. She worked quickly, peeling them away from him and tucking a few into her sleeve for later study.

She ran her hands over his body lightly to make sure she had cleared away every spell and tried not to blush as she did so. "Clear," she murmured, touching his shoulder. It was steady under her touch.

He held her to her place with a gesture and moved away, leaving her to take a few moments to catch her breath for what would surely be a cataclysmic confrontation on the third floor. She heard a few thumps and moans in the other rooms where Sesshoumaru had gone, but her imagination was captured by the monster that must be orchestrating this savagery. The couple they had followed home from the concert, she was sure, would be the culprits. And for all this trouble, she was not feeling particularly charitable towards either of them.

Her rifle was in her hands by the time the taiyoukai returned to her side. "Two more," he murmured, confirming her suspicions in an instant.

They mounted the stairs to the third floor together - he only moved ahead when they reached the bedroom door. It was open already - the small oil lamp cast a square of light onto the top stair.

Sesshoumaru paused and frowned just outside of the door. "What?" Kagome mouthed at him.

He pointed to his ears, and she leaned forward, straining to distinguish a faint, rhythmic sound. It was the sound of muffled sobbing.

Kagome peeked around the doorjamb to see a bedroom just as sparse as the rest of the house - only a bed without linens stood in the middle of the room. The couple - their original targets - were huddled in the corner, partially obscured by the one piece of furniture. The woman's head was buried in the crook of the husband's neck. Their eyes were shut as they breathed together, clutching at one another. They hardly looked the part she had cast for them - if these two were head honchos and murderers for the Order, she would eat her hat.

Still, just in case, she kept a firm grip on her rifle as she stepped into the room. "Show me your hands," she ordered the mousy pair.

They started, stretching out their arms in a clumsy frenzy of movement. "Please!" cried the man as he bowed his head and his wife whimpered beside him. "Please, don't hurt us, Lord and Lady Demon!"

Kagome looked back at Sesshoumaru, who was wearing his most surprised expression - two raised eyebrows. "Right. So, you're definitely not with the Order?"

"Are those the monsters that forced us in here?" asked the woman. "To be bait? No!"

She lowered her gun, and Sesshoumaru stepped forward. "Then, who are you?" he asked with his low, dangerous voice.

"No one of importance," the man muttered. He slowly moved his arm around his wife's shoulders, hugging her tightly to him. "I amDierderich, and this is Gerda. We are both servants in the household of Emperor Francis the Second."

She blinked. "The Emperor of Austria? King of Bohemia, Croatia and Hungary?" she asked. "That Francis the Second?"

Gerda nodded. "We're not important. I was fortunate enough to bow to His Majesty once a day," she murmured. She smoothed her hands over her finely made clothing. "Those men had to give us these. We could never afford something so beautiful."

Kagome sighed lightly, frowning at the sad woman. "Why were you used as bait?" she asked gently.

"They were expendable," Sesshoumaru answered for them as he paced, "and they didn't know anything."

The miko saw the flash of guilt that passed over the man's face. "But servants always know more than they should. They hear things," she murmured, shouldering her rifle and bending down to look at the couple. "So? Did you hear something?"

Sesshoumaru stopped in his restless fidgeting. "I do," he said, turning towards the doorway. "Someone has come inside the house. Probably to start a fire."

"He can hear all the way down to there?" murmured Dierderich in awe.

"You'll be able to hear it, too," Kagome said, "when they light that white phosphorous downstairs." She reached her hands towards the couple. "Come on, we have to get out of here."

"Not down the stairs," muttered Sesshoumaru, closing the door. He crossed to the window in two steps and pushed it open. A bullet almost immediately ricocheted off the brick, covering the taiyoukai's sleeve in dust. He pulled back. "And not out the window," he added with a scowl.

Just as the taiyoukai drew the curtains, the entire house rattled with a concussive, booming noise like a million matches being stricken at once. Gerda shrieked and grabbed at Kagome's hand. "And there we go," said Kagome, wincing at how the servant had wrenched her arm.

Sesshoumaru ran a hand over the windowless, back wall. "We should take a chance," he said in Japanese. "They will certainly have someone watching the alley as well."

"We need to get them out to ask any questions, Sesshoumaru," she replied, trying to ignore the smell of smoke already creeping up through the floorboards. "We can stand up to a few bullets, but they certainly can't."

He shook his head. "Step back," he said, some annoyance in his voice.

His poison whip made quick work of the wall - the double layers of brick and plaster rotted away in a few seconds - but phosphorous burned hot and fast. The floor was beginning to whine with the strain of their weight, and it grew too warm to touch. "Take them first," Kagome said, pushing the human couple towards the taiyoukai.

"I can take you, too," he insisted, reaching for her.

"You'll be faster this way," she answered. A crash of crumbling wood rose from the lower floors. She smiled. "I'll be here when you get back."

He sent her a look that told the miko that they would be discussing this incident later, but he obediently stepped out of the opening he had made and flew up, through the darkness of the alley. Kagome let out the breath she had been holding as soon as he disappeared and disregarded the flutter of apprehension within her breast as she went to the windows. "It'll just take a few seconds," she muttered to herself as she extinguished the oil lamp and peeked out the curtains.

An identical, brick house stood on the other side of the street, looking lonely and dark, despite the way the fire was lighting up the street below. Neighbors were beginning to pour into the avenue, crying out for the fire brigade and yelling loudly for the sake of their own homes. They screamed as one when the glass shattered in the windows downstairs, and thebackdraft shook the building as the oxygen swept inside, glutting the fire with fuel.

Kagome kept standing where she was, looking for a whisper of movement in the house opposite. She could imagine the engineer of this 'house of horrors' sitting at one of those dark windows and watching the destruction of the building that he had rigged to kill a dangerous demon and his eternal, human companion. It wasn't hard to believe that he was watching this window as intently as she was searching those across the street. He couldn't shoot again - not with the people in the street.

"Kagome." The floor trembled with the added weight of the taiyoukai.

She realized how thick the smoke had become when she turned and did not see him. She was sweating, too - it was hotter than Hades, and she hadn't noticed. "They're watching us," she said, inching out with her foot and testing the hot boards before stepping onto them.

"Of course," he muttered. "They shot at me."

Kagome coughed thickly and shook her head. "Not just a guard. The man who planned this. I can feel it."

He materialized at her side as she was tapping at the floor with her foot again. "We do not have time for this," he said, pulling her towards the other side of the room with no small amount of quickness in his pace. "I did not leave those two servants in the most comfortable of places. Not to mention that this house is falling apart."

She pulled him close as he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Do they know who we are?" she whispered.

He paused for a moment at the opening at the back of the building. "Yes, I believe they do," he said. He held her tightly against his body and launched them from the back of the building. Cool, evening air wrapped itself around her body and swept away some of the smoky, phosphorous smell, but it also caused her to begin shivering in the taiyoukai's arms. "Kagome?"

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I'm not scared. I shouldn't be, anyway. They can't hurt us. It must be the adrenaline wearing off." She lifted her head from his shoulder. "But what could we have done wrong? After twelve years, I can understand that they might be suspicious of why their members keep dropping off like flies, but we were careful. You were careful. We weren't seen. We didn't touch anything. You even killed them differently, to disguise any pattern."

"Which might be a pattern in and of itself," suggested Sesshoumaru. "We will find out. I am hoping the servants know more than what little they have told us so far."

Kagome took a deep breath of the air rushing by - it wouldn't do much good to look frightened in front of Dierderich and Gerda. It would only make them worry. "Where did you put them?"

"There."

The silhouette of St. Stephen's Cathedral rose up against the night sky with its two, uneven towers - one, spiked and Gothic, and the other, smooth and stumped. Sesshoumaru landed lightly on the brightly colored, tiled roof, between the gables, and jumped again, up to the belfry of the shorter, north tower. The pigeons ruffled their feathers at the intrusion, but the giant bell remained silent and still.

"My lady?" came Dierderich's voice, just as Sesshoumaru set Kagome down on the ledge.

The pair of servants were tucked inside the tower walls, their feet swinging out over the shaft below the bell. Everything smelled of pigeon droppings, but Kagome couldn't fault the choice of temporary hiding place otherwise. "Are you two alright?"

"Fine," Gerda said, her eyes wide. "My lord can fly."

Kagome gave a broad smile, despite herself. "One of his many talents," she said, glancing at the taiyoukai as he leaned against one of the wooden braces inside the tower. She gingerly nestled herself into a nook next to the pair. "He's going to take you outside the city, too. The price of surviving that fire is that you're going to have to leave Vienna, you know."

"We talked of that when your lord husband went to get you," said Dierderich. The label he had placed on Sesshoumaru made her want to look anywhere but at the taiyoukai - it was a ludicrous sense of embarrassment, since they had often pretended to be husband and wife in their recent travels. She had been accused of much worse than being married to the demon, after all. "My mother's brother has a small farm a few days' ride from the city. We can go there for awhile."

She didn't know if they would be safe anywhere aside from Antarctica - it was possible that the Order wouldn't care less about a pair of servants that escaped a trap for demons, or they could guess she and Sesshoumaru had helped them, consider it treason to humanity and hunt them down to the ends of the earth. Out loud, however, she said, "Sounds like a great idea."

Gerda gave her a weak smile. "We never should have listened to the men that came. They said that they needed us. That we could help His Majesty. And all we had to do was dress in beautiful clothing, attend a concert with so many important people and go home to a real house. Of course, we agreed."

"But soon, we heard the men talking," Dierderich continued. "They were gloating, saying that this was just the second emperor they had under their control, but that there would be more."

"His Majesty grew restless and angry, and we knew something wasn't right," Gerda said.

Kagome arched an eyebrow. "You overhead him talking about it?" she said, wondering if they had hit upon the world's perfect servants - observant and willing to talk, but only in truths.

"Napoleon took away so much from His Majesty," the other woman said, the ubiquitous, patriotic bitterness at the crushing defeat at Austerlitz creeping into her voice. "They promised they would return everything he had lost during the wars against France. They promised that the Holy Roman Empire would be resurrected, and he would regain that title that he lost."

The miko shared a look with Sesshoumaru - his contempt of human greed was plain upon his face. But she couldn't quite share his feelings - the Holy Roman Empire had survived for amillennium , since Charlemagne, and Napoleon had crushed it. She could understand why Francis II would be anguished over failing his predecessors, despite the vast swaths of land he had left. She also had a suspicion that it was only half the story. "What would happen if he rejected the Order's plans?" she asked.

"They said that the Holy Roman Empire wasn't the only one he could lose," muttered Dierderich.

"He has several, living children, including two sons. What could they have done?" asked Sesshoumaru.

The servant shrugged. "I don't think he wanted to contemplate the possibilities, Lord Demon, but I think they can do anything they wish."

"They're devils," whispered Gerda, not recognizing the irony of her words.

Kagome frowned in the taiyoukai's direction. "What I don't get is, why?" she murmured. "This isn't like it was with Napoleon. What advantage do they have here? How does supporting or not supporting the Austrian emperor have any bearing on their mission?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "It doesn't," he said. "But it didn't in France, either."

"But Napoleon's child..."

"Was the reason that he allowed them to get close," he interrupted, straightening his back. "They did not use it against him, because they did not know."

Kagome's head was already swimming - she pinched at the top of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. "The Order obviously withdrew its support of France," she murmured. "Napoleon lost. Twice."

Sesshoumaru transitioned into Japanese. "It is possible that the trap they set for us tonight in that house was not one of recent design. They could have known we've been alive since Moscow. That could be the reason Napoleon never recovered. They would never support a man that harbored youkai."

"I still don't understand their game, then," she answered in kind. They both ignored the wide-eyed looks of Dierderich and Gerda as they spoke in their native tongue. "Ruling France or Austria from the shadows can't help with hunting down demons that much. There aren't many of you left here in Europe."

The taiyoukai was silent for a few moments. "Perhaps it has nothing to do with us," he murmured.

"Tonight certainly did," she pointed out. "They were ready for us."

"Yes, but the Order will seek to destroy all demons until they succeed or until we destroy them." He shook his head. "But you are right, Kagome. There are so few of us here. They know that, as well. They might be looking to shift their priorities. An organization without a goal is not much of an organization at all."

She blinked. "So, they decided on world domination as a good back-up plan? Who does that?"

He arched an eyebrow at her that she could see even in the low light. "Attempting to gain power is not an uncommon goal."

"Right," she murmured, trying not to blush at her gaffe. "But you just wanted to be the most powerful demon ever, not rule the world. Who wants that kind of pressure? Think of the paperwork!"

He almost looked amused. "True."

Kagome leaned back against the stone wall. "A secret society trying to take over the globe. The conspiracy theorists in my time would have a field day with this." She sighed. "And the problem is that we would never really know, would we? I mean, that's the point of having a shadowy figure behind the curtain, right? No one knows it's there. They could have Europe completely under its power already."

"The key to destroying secret societies is to reveal their secrets," murmured the dog demon.

"They're not just supporting empires, Sesshoumaru. They're shaping them," she said. "They have more power than we thought."

"Which means they have more secrets than we thought, as well," he answered.

She frowned down into the blackness beneath her feet. "Where are most of the youkai these days?" she asked.

"Japan. The more remote parts of South America. Africa."

Kagome covered her mouth to keep from crying out in dismay. "Africa? Sesshoumaru, it's imperialism," she said. "Europe is about to start carving up that entire continent in earnest. France, Germany and Britain are going to use it as their own, personal playground."

"Clever," muttered Sesshoumaru. "Rule the world. Hunt all the demons down while you're at it. It is efficient to marry the two purposes together."

She rolled her head back against the stone. "I wish I didn't know this stuff, sometimes," she said. "Oh, and I forgot Belgium. They take a sizable chunk of Africa and do hideously awful things with it. There are a few others involved, too."

"Belgium?"

Kagome nodded. "Not a separate country yet, I know, but it will be. Soon, I think."

In the pause, they both remembered Dierderich and Gerda, who were still listening, mesmerized, to the language they couldn't understand. "Is something wrong?" Gerda asked.

"Nothing that you have to worry about," said the miko, trying to give her a comforting smile. The idea of having the Order playing around with nation-building, however, prevented her from the bright, false cheerfulness she could usually manage in times like these. "You guys were a lot of help. Thank you. We'll hold up our end of the bargain, now, and take you someplace safer than this."

The pair nodded. "Was that, ah, your language?" Dierderich questioned, looking back and forth between them.

It was true amusement that now made the corner of Kagome's mouth twitch upwards. "You mean, a language for us demons?" she asked, sending a sidelong glance at Sesshoumaru, who rolled his eyes. "Yes, it was our language, but not of all demons," she continued, trying to lie by omission only.

"They said you would be cruel and heartless," Gerda said, "but you have warm voices."

Kagome smiled for real at that - she had hardly ever heard the Japanese language referred to as 'warm'. "Perhaps the Order would have had better luck if they had not chosen such discriminating bait," she observed, making the pair of servants blush. She stood up, teetering carefully on the ledge. "Sesshoumaru, are you ready?"

The taiyoukai pushed himself up straight again with a preoccupied listlessness - she was not the only one so affected by the news of the Order's global plans. Sometimes, it helped to know that he worried, too. "I will take them," he muttered, "if they have told us everything."

"What else could there be?" she asked.

"Names," Sesshoumaru said, his eyes sliding over the two servants. "Places. Dates."

Just as Dierderich began to shake his head, Gerda said, "There was a name, my lord. Lucas."

Cautious interest sparked within his eyes again. "Was he one of the men that brought you to the house?" he asked.

Gerda shook her head. "I don't think so. I only heard the emperor say that name once, after the men left. I have never known anyone to frighten His Majesty, but when this man was named, it was with a whisper. I don't think he was actually with the party that visited the palace."

Sesshoumaru turned to Kagome, his gaze now entirely alight with intrigue. "Lucas. That is a British name, is it not?" he asked, speaking in Japanese again.

"I think so, if it's a last name," she answered. "But, come on, do we have to? Aren't you sick to death of England?"

"Very much so," the dog demon said, "but I will go, if it means destroying just one of their leaders."

Kagome gave him the exasperated, tender smile that only a long-time companion could manage, knowing that the other wouldn't budge. "Alright," she said. "But if we go, you have to take me someplace nice after that. Someplace of my choosing. A vacation? Or maybe a trip home?"

Sesshoumaru considered her for a moment. "If you have been waiting for an opportune time to make a deal like this, you should know that you only needed to ask."

"I wasn't going to ask you to give up your mission here," she said with a shake of her head.  

"You speak of greater communication between us," he said, turning his head away. "You should know that you can ask anything of me, although I may not be able to give it."

She could almost touch the earnestness of what he was saying to her. The miko smiled softly and felt the heaviness of her wedding ring and in her heart. "I know," she said at last.

He took a breath. "So, we will go where you wish, when this is done," he said.

"When Lucas is dead," she agreed, trying not to flush under the intensity of his gaze. She looked away, back to the servants, who were once again watching with interest. Gerda winked at her, and the blush Kagome had been holding back took hold of her body, from head to toe. "Um, you should take them to the city gates and come back for me. I'll wait."

He agreed with a slow nod and crossed the belfry to take on his two passengers. Soon, he was flying from the top of the church steeple like a silver owl in the dark. Kagome watched him until he disappeared, knowing he would return for her as soon as he could.