AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Word Count: 3,699
“YOU DO NOT seem pleased to see me. Will you not greet me properly?” The miko’s arms spread wide in welcome, ready to embrace him. “How I have longed to be reunited with you.”
When Sesshomaru did not move to take her into his arms, her enticing smile took on a hint of a pout, but there was a hard glint reflecting in the obsidian of her eyes. “What, no kiss? Am I too lowly for even a simple embrace? The merest smile? You’re breaking my heart, nushi.”
Sesshomaru didn’t speak—couldn’t, as she taunted him with the very endearment he’d once told her to use when addressing to him that first day they’d met. Of course, she’d refused. That she was using it now…tainted it.
Kagome lowered her arms a few degrees, her stance beseeching as she continued to reach for him. “Surely you sense it, the darkness.” She took a small step towards him. “You’ve always known it was there.” Another step. “Inside me.” A third step. “Waiting to be set free.” Her arms spread wide as before. “Well, here I am. No longer a bird in a cage. It’s what you wanted, right?” The seductress vanished, leaving behind the vulnerability of a little girl seeking approval.
Not finding it when Sesshomaru remained silent, her face twisted into a bitter sneer, her arms dropping to her sides. “You’re cruel, Sesshomaru.”
He allowed her to approach, didn’t stop her when she stood before him and lifted her hand to trail a delicate finger along his chest. She circled him, that finger never leaving his body, moving from his chest to his shoulder, to stop at the center of his back. He didn’t turn to keep her in sight, not even when he felt a pulsation of power, a dark surge of energy that brushed along his senses. He felt it, an unnatural air current. The press of her finger on his back drew up his spine, and he knew she was levitating.
He felt the warmth of her body along his back at her nearness, her scent enveloping him. In the span of a heartbeat, he catalogued the smells clinging to her. He would recognize their repugnant stench anywhere, vermin who did not know when to stay dead. And something else, a subtle difference to Kagome’s natural sweetness. Noxious.
Hot breath bathed his ear as she leaned close without touching him, save for the small press of a single finger between his shoulder blades.
“Tell me, is this not what you wanted?” she insisted on a hard whisper, enunciating each word with a cold detachment that was uncommon for the passionate nature he was accustomed from her, whether she was angry or grief stricken, hopeful or curious. Even weary, she possessed a certain liveliness about her he had not noticed was so much a part of her until it was missing.
Dread weighted upon him, sinking deep.
Is this not what you wanted?
Yes. Once. But no longer.
“No.”
“No?” She sounded mildly surprised. “My, what a liar you are. And here I thought you were always—if not forthright—unapologetic about your intensions.” Her left arm snaked around him, fingertips grazing across his chest and up his neck, until she could stroke the right side of his cheek. At the same time, she pressed the side of face against the left side of his, but the point of her finger never left his back, touch light, barely there.
“You’ve been a very bad man, Sesshomaru. I know all your lies. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”
She tensed the barest hint, her dark aura flaring. His only warning.
Sesshomaru vanished from her arms in a cloud of black vapor a second before a beam of energy zapped from her finger, where it shot across the air, to burn hole into the far wall rather than pierce his back, to his heart. He rematerialized, taking form within arms distance of her, conveying his lack of intimidation for her newfound abilities.
Their eyes locked, hers black and unconcerned that he’d escaped death, his gold and regarding her coolly, concealing the plummeting of his heart as the reality of her plight truly began to sink in.
A grin touched her lips. She appeared happy that he’d eluded her attack, eager to prolong the fight he knew was coming. She floated higher, hovering four feet above the ground, a feat impossible for a ningen. Dark magic pulsated from her in gentle waves, the sort that could only be harnessed by a youkai—unless gifted to her.
Tatsuo.
Sesshomaru sensed the other inugami’s youki underlying the malevolent flare of her energy. No longer did her reiki emanate from her, but rather, a spiritual energy that oozed corruption. Her pure light had been defiled. Was there any turning back? Could this dark version of herself be cleansed?
The irony that he—a youkai—sought to purify a priestess was not lost on him, yet he felt no humor, only a sinking resolve that could not wholly mask the regret that was slowly consuming him. He could not sense even a hint of the woman she’d once been.
His fault.
He’d let this happen, hadn’t protected her as he’d promised. He’d failed her.
No. Fierce denial.
Surely, she was not so far gone to be past all salvation. He saw everything so clearly now. He’d been wrong, from the very beginning. Seeing her, sensing the wrongness of her, he knew he’d made a grievous mistake. Kagome was not a creature of the dark—like him. She was all that was light and goodness, and without her spark, the world was a little less bright.
He had to reach her. “You are being manipulated, miko. Remember who you are. Tatsuo cannot be trusted.”
“Trust.” A twinkling laugh, perverted by spite. “You are one to speak of another’s manipulations. Shall we remember a few of yours?”
Her dark hair, unbound, lifted like a coil of snakes around her body. He sensed the rage inside her, increasing, lashing him like poison darts. “You lied about my village.” As she named his sins, she flung her arm out, sending dark energy surging towards him in the form of a curled blade.
Sesshomaru mirrored her by swinging his arm in a wide arc, striking the deadly blade of energy with his forearm, batted it aside effortlessly. The dark blade hurdled across the room before cutting into the wall, smoke rising from the edges as it burned the wood paneling.
“You were there when the bandits came—and you did nothing.” Another wave of her arm. Another curved blade. Again, he swiped his arm through the air, deflected the charged weapon as before. Another cut marred the pristine wall, this time, destroying a canvas beautifully depicting a raging waterfall.
“You wanted them to die, for me to feel the pain of their loss.” She didn’t seem to be aware that he continued to deflect her energy blasts, for each one she sent hurdling towards him, he deflected with a negligent backhand.
“You wanted me to lose everything, to thirst for vengeance.”
“Kagome, listen to me—” But what could he say? She didn’t give him the chance to try.
“Was our contract even real?” Her voice had become shrill. “There is no contract, is there?”
“Kagome—”
“Is there?!”
“Allow me to explain. I dissolved our contract. You are free—”
“Lair! I know exactly what you’ve done!” She yanked on her collar, revealing the torque he’d given her, but that wasn’t what she was referring to, but the bruising between her neck and shoulder. The red, raw pinpricks of his fangs. “You marked me!”
“Calm down—”
Her shriek was piercing, like a spike to his sensitive ears. He felt blood drip from his left ear.
“I willingly contracted with you. Only for you to steal my free will. You made me a bird in a cage!”
She wasn’t letting him speak, to explain what she’d come to mean to him; though, truthfully he wasn’t at all certain himself, but he had to try, to make her understand. “You are more than a possession—”
She pointed her index finger at him. Black electricity pulsated down her arm and sparked from the digit. Sesshomaru acted, trying to catch the bolt of lightning in the palm of his hand to fling it aside; instead, the bolt discharged on contact with his palm, where it zapped him, sizzling up his arm. Every nerve from his fingertips to his shoulder screamed, the muscles spasming agonizingly, but Sesshomaru merely grit his teeth, allowing the pain to wash through him without uttering a sound.
He deserved her wrath, but he refused to be a pawn in Tatsuo’s games. “You object to what I have done, yet you accept Tatsuo’s aim to clip your wings. Don’t let him win. Fight him, Kagome. You can rile at me later.”
A possession was not powerless to fight her master, especially not one infused with a powerful youkai’s magic.
“Tatsuo didn’t take my wings,” she refuted, “he gave them to me. Let me show you.” She attacked him mercilessly, firing another beam of lightning at him. Unwilling to feel the wrath of her blast, he was forced to dodge, where it slammed into the wall with a crash.
Her attacks came swifter, her arm moving faster than was possible for a ningen, her aim never wavering. Each time Sesshomaru stepped aside or jumped to evade, another beam was there, following him. It singed his garments, his hair, before he felt it strike his hip. Pain wracked him, skating up his torso and down his leg. His knee nearly buckled when he landed, and was forced to jump aside or be struck when another blast arched towards his chest.
Kagome was screaming at him, a shriek filled with unbearable pain and consuming rage. She wasn’t holding back now. She was trying to kill him, and Sesshomaru couldn’t blame her. He’d lied to her, manipulated her emotions for his own aims. How could she not despise him?
Looking at her twisted, tortured face, Sesshomaru knew. He—not Tatsuo—was the darkness inside her, the poison infecting her light, tainting her. If he hadn’t been preoccupied, summersaulting and spinning to evade her righteous wrath, he wouldn’t have been able to look at her, let alone meet the accusation staring back at him from the void of her eyes.
A pair of lightning bolts came hurdling towards him, and Sesshomaru back flipped to land on the wall, where he pushed off from the surface to avoid yet another attack. He was only partially successful. He felt the dark bolt strike his ankle, pain arching up his entire leg, sending the muscle into uncontrollable spasms. He stumbled when he touched the ground on a crouch, when suddenly, Kagome was just there. Appearing before him on her knees, gaze penetrating.
“But do you want to know the worst of your crimes?” Her tiny palms settled over his chest. His muscles stiffened, turning to ice. He couldn’t move, and when he tried to draw in breath, shards of ice cut deep before freezing the air in his lungs. Where her hands touched him, they burned with a cold so glacier, it seared his flesh.
Even as she leaned in to whisper next to his ear, Sesshomaru tried to fight the hold she had on him, but not a muscle twitched, his body no longer his own. He could only crouch there as she scorched his flesh with the bitter bite of frost.
“You made me care for you, and that I cannot forgive.” Kagome’s voice was calm, no longer screaming, before a blast so powerful shot out of her hands and nailed him right in the chest.
Sesshomaru went flying back at such speeds and with such force, he crashed through the wall to another room. Debris fell around him, dust choking him as he landed hard on his back, sliding across the floor. Before he came to a stop, he back flipped, regaining his feet with his body once more under his control. His chest was an inferno of agony, but he didn’t have the luxury of registering his injuries. Kagome came for him through the rubble so fast she was nothing but a blur.
But he was faster still. Twisting his body, Sesshomaru maneuvered a roundabout kick, his heel catching Kagome in the face, and sent her flying. She bounced off a far wall before landing in a heap on the floor. Before she could recover, he was on her, sword drawn, but when he lifted the demonic blade over her prone form, he hesitated.
There was no spell or power freezing him in place.
He stared down at the miko who spat blood, her mouth bleeding. Because of him. For a moment, he couldn’t take his eyes off the crimson dripping down her chin to splatter onto the ground. When he did, his gaze moved up her body. She still wore the garments he’d gifted her, white hakama, black haori, but her long hair was unbound, framing her face. The tresses made her seem paler, highlighting the blood painting her lips a garish hue.
Then his gaze fixated on her open collar, catching another glimpse of white gold, a sparkle of diamond. His heartbeat quickened. Even as his thoughts raced with new calculations, the voice of reason whispered in the back of his mind, telling him that he should kill her now and be done with it. The miko was more trouble than she was worth. She was human. Weak.
She made him weak.
From the beginning, she’d dared make him question, to doubt. Without even trying to manipulate him, she—not he—had successfully altered their relationship by just being herself, making him want to keep her. From contractor to pet, the miko had risen in his esteem, until he was obsessed with owning her. Utterly. Completely.
She didn’t comprehend the power she had over him—he couldn’t let her know.
Somehow, she’d buried herself so deeply inside of him that she made him want to be owned in turn, by her. Exclusively. Mutually.
And that, he could not forgive.
Gritting his teeth, he lifted his blade higher. Resolved. To cut the tie that bound them.
The ties he had created. Was it any wonder he found himself entangled?
Kagome blinked up at him. For a moment, her black eyes were brown. When she blinked again and all he saw was obsidian, his heart panged upon the realization that he’d imagined it. That he missed the color of her eyes. The way she used to look at him. Relief when he’d come for her, when she’d almost been stoned to death. Hope when he’d promised to find her sister. Passion when she took his cock deep inside herself.
They were bound—because of him. Was she to die because of his bad judgement? He hesitated. She made him waver.
Hope flickered, a trick. A lie. Deceptively enticing. Could he change her back? Doubts returned. Did he even want to?
Traitorous thought! Of course, he did.
No! The pragmatic part of his brain tried to reassert itself. If he didn’t put her down now, she would never stop trying to kill him.
His gaze returned to her torque, her collar.
Five heartbeats passed as he stood over her in indecision. Kagome opened her mouth. To speak? No. With a banshee’s scream that shattered the windows, a great force slammed into his burned chest, sending him through the air for a second time in so many minutes. He felt a few ribs crack under the pressure but didn’t break. He hit the wall but was able to keep his feet without falling to the ground.
Male laughter erupted, echoing harshly. From behind Kagome, Sesshomaru saw Tatsuo materialize from smoke, where he pulled her against his chest with an arm around her waist. His other hand wrapped around her neck. Sesshomaru stiffened, until he realized Tatsuo wasn’t hurting her, merely holding her far too closely. They stared back at him. Tatsuo with a glimmer of malevolence, and Kagome, her face suffused with hatred—for him.
“Isn’t she magnificent, Sesshomaru? I see now why you wanted to possess her.” With a taunting smirk, Tatsuo leaned down, licking the blood from the corner of Kagome’s mouth, ice blue eyes watching Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction; though, anger simmered beneath the surface that Tatsuo dared defile his miko. “But is it more than possessiveness? Onigumo is under the impression that you care for this girl. That you might love her.”
Sesshomaru sneered. “You are a bigger fool than he to believe such nonsense.”
Tatsuo eyed him steadily before nodding slowly. “Conviction drips from your tongue like acid. I believe you are sincere. And yet, you did not kill her. You had the perfect opportunity. I had no intention of interfering in a lover’s qual. If not for love, why hesitate?”
“She is my possession.”
Tatsuo chuckled, understanding. “Yes, we inugami certainly are possessive of our toys; though, you surprise me. You still want her even after I have spoiled her?”
“She is mine.” The words sprang from his chest in a deep snarl.
Tatsuo blinked in surprise even as everything within Sesshomaru stilled. Realization struck him. He had feelings for the miko. Not just as a possession.
Love was a foreign concept to a youkai such as he, but this… When had he ever cared for anyone other than himself? Or felt such…fondness towards another?
A self-deprecating smile nearly formed his lips as certainty pierced him. Kagome had been correct. He was a liar. He’d lied to her, and he’d been lying to himself. He’d though she hadn’t mattered to him, that he’d be able to discard her once he tired of her, or even kill her without a shred of remorse.
But he’d been wrong.
She did matter. A great deal. Too much.
I am truly pitiful, he inwardly mocked himself.
Fresh resolve tightened his muscles as he prepared to take back what was his. It didn’t matter that Kagome was saturated in Tatsuo’s magic, that her light had been tainted. Perhaps if he killed Tatsuo, she would revert to her original state. And if she did not? He’d find another way.
And if there was no turning back?
His resolve didn’t falter. Kagome was his.
As if sensing the change in his demeanor, Tatsuo kissed the top of Kagome’s head before released her without another word. She rushed him the moment she was released, as though she’d been waiting for the moment Tatsuo dropped his arms. Her feet left the floor as she flew straight for Sesshomaru, her hair and clothes rustling wildly behind her.
Even as he danced around her, his sword still drawn, Sesshomaru flung his arm out, acid darts flying from his claws, but Tatsuo was already gone, bleeding into the shadows. But Sesshomaru felt his presence, knew Tatsuo was watching.
His attention was off of Kagome for a mere fraction of a second when his eyes widened, his shoulder jerking forward. He heard a second thwank, and the air screaming as another missile was launched at his back.
Even as the dark energy infusing the arrow that jutted from the back of his shoulder zapped him with excruciating intensity, he turned and caught the next projectile between two fingers. With a flare of youki, he incinerated the shaft with his acid.
Kagome stood clear across the room, holding a bow with an arrow notched.
Where had she—?
Thwank!
Sesshomaru stepped to the side and felt a brush of wind across his cheek as the arrow flew passed his face from inches away. Sesshomaru swung his sword, and released the hilt. The point caught the edge of Kagome’s wide sleeve and pinned her arm to the wall.
The arrow she’d notched fell from her fingers as her shriek of rage rang in his ringing ears. Reaching across his body and behind him, Sesshomaru yanked out the arrow imbedded in his flesh, ignoring the flare of pain.
Kagome grabbed for the hilt of his sword, but the daemonic blade sparked angrily, refusing her touch. She cried out, pain and rage.
Sesshomaru appeared before her and she turned with a shout, “Why won’t you just die?!” But her face was twisted in anguish, her eyes filled with tears. Gone was her hatred, her malice.
His heart clenched. He’d done this to her.
She began to cry, silent tears that cut into him like knives.
“Kagome, you don’t need to fight anymore.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb whipping away the next tear that spilled down her face. “Return to me.”
“We can’t go back to the way we were.” Her voice was harsh, but she did not reject his touch. But she continued to cry. Her eyes held him captive. They appeared to reach for him, speaking in a whisper he could almost hear if he just—
Pain flared. Sesshomaru took a step towards Kagome. His gaze dropped, and he saw the point of a blade inched away from Kagome’s chest. She was unhurt, yet crimson droplets fell from the sharp edge to splatter across the ground. Then he saw the wall of his chest, where the sword pierced him. Another shard of pain sliced deep as the blade retracted, slowly. Tortuously. Until the length disappeared from sight as it was pulled from his back. The dot of red spread across the front of his white haori quickly as his knees buckled.
He didn’t feel the impact. Only tilted his head back to stare up at the miko, where he knelt at her feet.
Her obsidian eyes were wide, mouth parted in silent shock as she stared back at him. There was such sadness and pain etched in her expression, wiping away the last visages of spite and bitterness.
Don’t look at me like that, he silently bade her.
“Die, Sesshomaru,” Tatsuo said from behind him, and Sesshomaru knew the next blow would kill him.