Living With Loss by Pendragon

Of Nightmares and Dreamscapes ~part two~

Written For Skye's Seven Deadly Sins Challenge

Prompt: Wrath

Of Nightmares and Dreamscapes

~Part Two~

“The limit of every pain is an even greater pain.”

Emile M. Cioran

            “Would you mind telling me what’s going on?” Kagome more than less commanded as Sesshomaru dragged her down the steps of the opera house. “Sesshomaru, stop!” She yelled, wrenching her hand from his when they reached the bottom of the granite staircase.

            Sesshomaru reached for her hand again. “Once we’re in the car.”

            “No, now Sesshomaru.”

            “Kagome, please.” She saw something flick behind his eyes and it was enough to stop her protests. Knowing Sesshomaru, it was always better to do what he said.

            Completely ignoring the valet, Sesshomaru took off toward the parking lot, shoving down anyone and thing in his path. Once they reached the car, Sesshomaru lifted Kagome into the passenger seat and before she even had her door closed he was in his seat, jamming the key into the ignition. He was tearing down the street by the time she was buckled.

            “Spill, now.” Kagome turned to her husband, who was swerving in and out of traffic effortlessly.

            “I’m being chased. We are.” Sesshomaru gave, slamming through another red light.

            Kagome’s eyes drifted to the rearview mirror. “This isn’t the first time. You can handle them, right?” She saw Sesshomaru swallow hard out of the corner of her eye.

            “Of course i can. Sit back,” he ordered, swerving onto a road with much less congestion. Kagome watched as the speedometer steadily rose.

            Lights flashed though the back window. Kagome saw two sleek-looking black cars flying down the road behind them. “Who is it?”

            “They are tatsu-yokai. From the scent, they are seed of Ryukotsusei.”

            “The dragon? Didn’t you say he was the one who killed your father?”

            Sesshomaru gripped down a bit tighter on the steering wheel. “He only injured him. My father would not be slain by a mere ryu-daiyoukai.”

            “But he’s dead now, isn’t he?”

            “My father? Of course he is.”

            “No, I mean, Ryukotsusei,” corrected Kagome.

            Sesshomaru nodded. “Yes. My father sealed him away for over two-hundred years. Inuyasha slayed him with the Tetsusaiga.”

            “So he had children,” Kagome thought aloud, looking back at the cars.

            “Apparently so.” Kagome tried to look through the tinted black windshield as Sesshomaru rounded a steep bend. “I thought I told you to sit back, Kagome.”

            “Sorry, sorry,” she said, turning back in her seat and pulling on the seatbelt. “Where are we?” Kagome asked when she saw the speedometer that was holding just past one hundred and ten.

            “I couldn’t risk the interstate. This is a good back route. We just have to loop around the-“ Sesshomaru stopped suddenly, eyes flicking from the driver’s side mirror and back to the road. “Damn it!” He yelled, bashing his fist into the dashboard, leaving a sizable dent. “Kagome, hold on.”

            “What’s wrong?”

            “Another car. They’ve cut us off ahead.”

            “But why are they after you? Inuyasha killed their fahhh!” Kagome screamed as one of the cars behind them bashed into the bumper. She felt Sesshomaru’s arm go across her torso just as a second hit came from the back left-side, sending them spinning.

            “Sesshomaru!” And just as she screamed a third hit came from the passenger side, shattering the window and making Kagome fall against Sesshomaru, the seatbelt cutting into her. Their car was pressed against the railing of the road, and compiled with the force of the latest hit, was sent over the edge, tumbling down the incline. The windshield blasted out on the second flip.

            Kagome was vaguely aware that Sesshomaru had his arms around her. By the time the car had come to rest, upside-down, on the fourth flip, all Kagome heard was laughing.

            Laughing was coming from above, like a chorus of sadistic angels, all laughing at what they had done. Kagome could see out from where her window had once been at the seven men atop the hill, all laughing down at them. Quickly they began there decent, each pulling there own unique weapon as they enclosed on the car.

            “Kagome.” Sesshomaru breathed as they both hung in the car, suspended by their seatbelts. “Kagome are you alright?”

            Kagome couldn’t find the will to turn her head to her husband. She couldn’t move at all. She felt aware of something, something vitally important. It’s itched at the back of her mind, crawling like some dark beast, squirming inside her skull, burrowing down to her heart.

            “Kagome, let me get you out of here.” She could still here their laughing. “Take a breath, Kagome. Everything is alright.” By the time she exhaled she was out of the car, having been unbuckled and carried through the destroyed windshield. Glass cuts burned at her.

            “Look here brothers, it seems another dog has taken a mortal bitch to bed,” said the largest of the group around them. He was white as a sheet and had long raven-black hair. Facial marks like writhing serpents coiled on his high forehead, forming a crude circlet. He balanced a large gray-blue blade on his shoulder.

            After Sesshomaru had placed Kagome on the ground he stood, facing the seven gathered.

            “Sesshomaru of the West? We’re come to take revenge for our father and appease is wrath. We’ve waited a long time for this.” The seven smiled, each raising a weapon to the taiyoukai.

            Sesshomaru gave out a feral growl. Reaching into his shirt, he snapped the chain of the necklace there. Tossing it lightly into the air, the miniature little samurai swords on the chain transformed to their life-size counterparts, with Bakusaiga and Tensaiga respectfully landing in each of Sesshomaru’s arms.

            “This will be great fun,” chirped on the tatsu-yokai, twirling a naginata. Kagome recognized him as the man who had watched her during the opera.

            “Yes, it shall,” agreed the first brother, hoisting his sword and taking a stance. “Now, die Sesshomaru!” With one leap he’d enclosed Sesshomaru, sweeping his blade down hard. Sesshomaru blocked it with Tensaiga, slicing back with Bakusaiga. Before the blow landed, the blade was hooked with a kasarigama, the chain tethering it between Sesshomaru’s grip and chain-sickle’s wielder.

 When the brother with the naginata approached, Sesshomaru sideswiped him with his leg, sending the brother to the ground. Twirling his sword out of the chain’s hold, Sesshomaru used the Tensaiga to thrust upward, sending the first attacker back. Then, with the released Bakusaiga, and turned to the yokai he’d kicked to the ground, and before the dragon knew what had happened, Sesshomaru sliced down with his sword, decapitating him.

“Tatsuya!” One brother cried, enraged over his brother’s death. In blind anger, he swung his sword haphazardly at Sesshomaru, and in his state, the inu-taiyoukai made short work of him. As Sesshomaru dealt the killing blow, one brother to the back of the carnage, loosed an arrow, which embedded itself in Sesshomaru’s side.

Backpedaling, the Western Lord once again stood by Kagome who watched in dazed horror at the events before her, unable to focus herself enough to help her husband. Sesshomaru breathed sharply, stabbing Tensaiga into the ground. “Kagome, are you alright?” Gripping at the arrow in his side, he let out a howling snarl, ripping the shaft from him.

With a roaring battle cry, he launched forward, shifting into his true form. His jaw retracted, his teeth ripping forth, canine and murderous. His silken fur traversed his body, leaving him in the form of a fearsome hound. The towering inu roared down at the tatsu, launching into them with furor. Each of them took on their own forms, shifting into grotesque dragons the color of the sky on overcast.

They took on Sesshomaru, coiling around him, tearing and biting at him as he spasmed in their grip.

As one began to coil around his neck, Sesshomaru tore into its side, black blood gushing from the mutilated arteries. In its death struggle, the dragon wrenched itself from his grip, leaving jagged rakes of canine cuts down its body.

Another dragon bit and clawed into his haunches, tearing at the muscle and bone while still another began to squeeze the life from him like a constrictor.

Blood soaked Sesshomaru’s ivory coat, and most of it his own. As the dragons bled him out, one tried again to coil the taiyoukai’s neck, succeeding where its brother had failed. Once it began to suffocate him, the dragons began hurling blue bullets of demonic energy from their mouths, blasting the dog-demon as he began to still in their grip.

The dragon ripped apart the great taiyoukai, snapping bones in their jaws and devouring flesh and marrow. Kagome let out a scream as she watch her husband helplessly. One dragon succeeded in tearing off the inu’s great tail, torn muscle and blood splayed across its grinning face. Two others ripped into Sesshomaru’s leg, chewing and scraping at the muscle and bone until the limp hung by only thin sinews.

Kagome rushed toward Sesshomaru when he let out a great howl. He wined as the tatsu lacerated his body. The dragons laughed as they dismembered hin, happily destroying perfection.

One by one the demons uncurled from the inu, the human faces on their dragon heads laughing as the dog collapsed to the earth. Spiraling up and out, the surviving tatsu flew away from the site, leaving their slaughtered brothers and the dying Western Lord.

For Kagome, all the sound seemed to empty from the world. All thought. All color. All reasonable meaning. Everything in the world drained away at once.

And all came back with one bloodied scream.

“SESSHOMARU!”

E/N: Please tell me what you thought of this. I am so uncertain of it and not sure if I did it justice at all. I'd love to here what you think, good, bad, or otherwise.