Night Terrors by MomoDesu

Night Terrors

Originally published in September of 2007. Definitely not my best, just something that needed to be archived here with the rest of my Sess/Kag stories!

This was something that kept bugging me until I wrote it. Thanks Steven for the suggestions on the original so I could do some editing to make it work.

Also, even though it is called Night Terrors, you will notice that I didn't use it in the clinical sense; Night Terrors just sounded a hell of a lot better than Nightmares.

- Momo

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Blood. Everywhere. He knew he was covered in it, the ground was soaked with it, the air held the coppery aroma of it. Looking down at his bloodstained hand he flexed his clawed fingers. This was his first kill in ages, and damn it all it felt great.

Slowly he circled the limp body that lay at his feet, kicking it every once in a while for good measure. Why did he kill the girl? He didn't have to answer that. He was the taiyoukai of these lands, he didn't have to justify his actions to anyone. The girl crossed him wrong and he doled out what he considered the proper punishment in the situation, and that was that.

The entire night had been extraordinarily good for him. The hunt that led to this point was the best by far. From the moment she stood up to him he knew she was special. Even though fear rolled off of her in thick waves the girl still had a fierce will to live, much like he had seen in seasoned battle hardened soldiers, and did she ever put up a fight. She had no weapon, but that didn't make her any less dangerous. Given the right conditions she would be a force to be reckoned with on a battlefield, and surely would have brought victory to any side she was on. Her will to live had made ending that life much sweeter, dare say it even aroused him in a strange way. Her screams and pleas for his mercy did not make him want to stop. In fact it had the opposite effect and urged him on, made him press his claws deeper into her flesh and his smile grow wider in pleasure. Now she lay at his feet broken and bloody, and he was quite satisfied.

Easily he could have taken advantage of her, broken her body and spirit, but he considered himself a demon of honor. There were demon bitches by the dozens that would kill to be in his bed, he wasn't going to be swayed by the mediocre body of one human onna. She disgusted him in more ways than he could count, from her fragile human body that could be so easily broken to all of the strange human smells and constant filth. What his father saw in these miserable creatures he could not understand, especially his taste for bedding them.

Leaning down he roughly picked her up by her long hair and began the journey back to her home village, her limp body dragging behind him and catching on roots and rocks on the forest floor adding to the damage that he had already done with his claws. This would be a warning to anyone that would dare to anger him; he was gracious enough to let them live on his lands and with one swipe of his claws he could revoke that offered protection. It was his father that had the love affair with humans, on the other hand he had no issues with demolishing all of the human villages in the vicinity but didn't do so out of respect for his late taiyoukai.

She was nearly unrecognizable save for her robes that marked her a shrine maiden and the scent that was unique to her, though it took the keen nose of a demon or animal to recognize the scent. The village that she called home was close. The smoke from their fires rose high in the crisp early morning air, faint sounds of babies crying for their mothers graced his ears, and the stench of their livestock burned his nose. If he ever wanted to be reminded of the greatness of youkai heritage all he had to do was come to a human village for instant gratification.

Calmly he strode toward the center of the village, the girl held high in the air for all to see. "For any of you," he boomed, " that decide that my ruling is not suitable, take heed of my warning."

One by one people began to filter out of their homes to see what had brought the blood stained lord to their humble village so early. The angered growls of the men and frightened gasps of the women fed his fury and accomplishment. "This silly woman crossed me one time too many," he yelled, giving the body he gripped by the hair a hearty shake before dropping it to the ground. "Let this be a lesson."

Without looking back at the villagers weeping over their beloved fallen priestess, he calmly walked in the direction of his home where a nice warm bath and a nice warm bitch awaited him.

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Sesshoumaru woke with a gasp, shooting straight up in bed. His body and the surrounding blankets were soaked in sweat and tears, his chest contracting painfully. Still shaking he ran his hand through his matted hair, cursing lightly. A soft sigh and light stirring to his left caught his attention. Even though the atrocities he had just committed had only been a dream he wasn't sure he would be able to look her in the eye without feeling like a monster.

"Sesshoumaru, what's wrong," she mumbled, her words slightly obscured by sleep.

He shook his head and lay back down next to her and pulled her tightly to his body, burying his nose into her hair and letting her scent wash over him and soothe his weary nerves. "It's nothing. Go back to sleep, Kagome."