Dangerous Bond

Chapter 18 : Arrogance in the way again

Bulma stared at the land around her. It was beautiful. Completely. Absolutely. Beautiful. Soft green grass covered the ground and huge old trees rose like great moss-covered skyscrapers from the earth. The light filtered through the green canopy above them and flashed rainbows in the crystaline water running from a large grey rock.

The blue haired woman went over to the edge of the pond where the water gathered beneath the waterfall and crouched beside it, dipping one slender finger into the clear liguid.

"Wow, Vegeta, are you sure this is the right place?" She asked as he came up behind her. "I mean, isn't it a bit too pretty for a bunch of revenge seeking harawotzits to be staying here?"

The prince shook his head. "I don't know where they are but I saw one when I came here last." He explained, "He might have left something behind that would help me get a lock on him."

"Oh, right." She looked up at him. "Hey, do you come here often?"

"Sometimes." He replied, starting his search through the undergrowth, "When I need to think. I can allways concentrate when I come here."

"I can see why." She nodded as she swept the glade with her gaze again. "Veggie?"

"What?"

"Can we come here again sometime, when all of this is over?"

He grunted and continued his search. "Gotcha."

"Huh?"

The prince held up a small strip of woven brown cloth, the same the corpses had worn when he murdered them. "I have what I'm looking for."

"Oh, okay, so... What do you do now?" Bulma inquired.

But he was already doing the first step. Very carefully the prince pulled one of the coarse threads from the material, held it up, and put it on his tongue.

"Ugh! Vegeta, that's dis-guust-ing!"

"How else am I supposed to get the taste?" He growled, running his tongue over the string in his mouth.

"Why do you even NEED the taste?!"

"To track them! Haven't you ever heard of 'tasting the air', onna?"

"I didn't think they meant it literally..." She mumbled quietly.

The string tasted like... well, string. Like hay, but more dirt like in flavour. But, as Vegeta concentrated on every taste in his mouth, the Saiya-jin's taste buds pulled out different taste-scents. Sweat, blood, skin, his own taste. And there it was; the taste of the Harathokin's soul. He smiled grimly and spat the thread to the ground, concentrating on smell scent.

Lifting the material by the corner to his nose Vegeta drank in the scent of the creature. Easier to do then taste-scent. Flaring his ki a little the prince caused the scents to glow. He let the strip go, fluttering on the light wind. He knew generally what this particular Harathokin's ki felt like.

Bulma, who had been watching the whole bizarre ritual, sensed that he was done. Stepping closer she let him lift her from the ground.

"So, where next?"

"We'll have to find out, won't we?"

After another fast but short flight they landed again, this time quite far out into the desert. Bulma looked around her in disbeleif at the mushroom-like rock formations that crowded her veiw.

"You've been here before." Vegeta noticed.

"Yeah. Did you hear that from my heartbeat? Or the way I'm breathing?"

He gave her a strange look. "No. Your mind told me, just now."

Bulma returned his gaze. "Vegeta, weird things have been happening recently, you know that, right?"

"We've bonded." He replied simply, "Not physically, but mentally. We're stuck now."

"What do you mean, 'stuck'?"

"I mean what I say. We're as good as mated."

"That's the Saiya-jin version of marriage, right?" He nodded. "So, can't we get a divorce if things don't work out?"

Vegegta barked out a laugh. "No. Saiya-jin are completely devoted to one another, meaning that you can't get rid of me now, onna, no matter what. We don't cheat on each other like your rat."

"Woah, serious 'until death do us part', huh?"

He gave her another 'oh you stupid ignorant creature' look. "Bonds continue on through death."

"Oh. All right then. I think I can live with that."

"Of course you can. The bond wouldn't have formed if either of us had any doubts."

He moved away through the rocky wasteland in search of the Harathokin that he had bumped into earlier. Raising his head to the wind Vegeta sniffed the air, letting his Saiya-jin instincts do the work for him. They were close, so close that he could almost see the little bastards.

The prince followed his senses, unaware of the smile plastering itself to Bulma's face. If neither of them had any doubts he didn't either! And he'd never cheat and he was DEVOTED to her. She was trying not to dance a victory jig just at the thought.

'Hey, I've hit gold! Sexy, strong AND madly in love with me! This is perfect stuff Bulma! Wait! Shut up mind! He can hear me...'

"I think you need to learn to control your thoughts." Vegeta commented, setting Bulma off blushing again.

"Humph! What about you?" She demanded.

He spun to face her. "What do you mean by that?"

"I've heard plenty of YOUR thoughts too and don't forget that, Veg-man."

"NANI?!!" He practically screamed as she sauntered past him in the direction he had been going. "Exactly how much have you intercepted?!" The prince demanded, a red blush creaping up to his ears.

"Oh, more than enough..." Ah, this was cruel, terribly, horribly cruel. She loved it.

"Onna." He warned.

"Hey, look, it's a free country, I can decide what to say and what not to."

"I'm not caring what you're thinking." He replied, voice calm. So calm it was beginning to get on Bulma's nerves.

"What?! What then? What are you demanding I do?!" She cried, spinning around to face him again.

There was a slight fluttering beside Bulma's head and she nearly screamed as Vegeta's palm leveled itself at what she was sure was her head. A rough skinned hand clamped onto her neck, hard, thick claws digging into her flesh. She froze, a scream bubbling up inside her. Another flutter, another hand on her other side. Both of Vegeta's palms were aimed at her now.

" Vegeta, help me!" She squeaked.

'~I'm working on that.~'

"Let go of her, Harathokin scum." He hissed.

The larger one shook its head. "No, murderer. She's with you, so she deserves to DIE!!"

"You move, you die."

"We don't think so."

Faster then Vegeta could react there was a sound like the beat of a bat's wings and the two Harathokins and their captive were gone in a puff of smoke.

"Bulma!" He yelled, cursing himself for his own forgetfulness.

Harathokins were in possesion of notoriously fast teleportation techniques, he shouldn't have thought that he could posibly power up and fire a ki wave blast in the time it took them to disapear.

'Vegeta, I'm scared...'

'~Don't worry, Bulma, I'll find you. No matter what, I'll find you.~'

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