Forbidden Love by BelovedStranger

The Fight of Our Lives

NOW EDITED!!

NOT EDITED!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

Prompt: 'He who rises late must not trot all day.'

A dilapidated building stood before him. Centuries ago, it must have been a magnificent sight to behold, a structure built to broadcast the owner’s wealth and power, to create envy in the hearts of other men, but now look at it. A crumbling ruin, a husk of its old glory. The prosperity it once conveyed by its mere presence snuffed out. Sesshomaru wondered how many men had snickered as it rotted, how many jested in glee that the once glorious manor had fallen to such decay—only now to be forgotten. Not even a memory remained of those who once lived within or those who envied from the outside.

Sesshomaru did not waste much time on irrelevant thoughts of what was or could have been for this once grandiose home now laid to waste, because what lay within was the true treasure he sought. Not lost wealth or station, but a woman—his woman.

With a blast of his telekinetic powers, he blasted the front doors open with a splintering crash. He refused to enter like a thief in the night or a rat scurrying upon the ground, but made his presence known with strength, the beast unlocked from its cage.

Long strides but casual steps, he trod past the doors he’d left in shambles, the marble floor cracked and stained, but not by his hand. Within the mansion, it was a hollow tomb, nothing within, no furniture or paintings, just floors and walls, and a grand staircase leading to the upper level. Doorways and halls led to other rooms on the first floor, but he did not have to go in search of his quarry, for there on the stairs before him was Hanako.

A crimson stain, left to dry crudely upon her chin, split and cracked as she offered him a smile. The beauty of that facial gesture was distorted by that small trail of blood, making it gruesome instead of becoming. At the sight, Sesshomaru’s stomach rolled sickeningly.

Was he too late? Was that Kagome’s—

“So you’ve finally decided to present yourself, Sesshomaru, dear?” A twinkling laugh fell from those too red lips. “A little late for dinner, I’m afraid, but you’ve arrived just in time for the party.”

Hanako’s words filled him with foreboding, but he strived to show none of his emotions, the unease that clawed at his gut.

“I do not have time for your games,” he said softly, warningly. “Return Kagome to me. Now.”

She pouted at him, her voice chastising. “Really, Sesshomaru. Where are your manners? You of all people should know how to treat a lady when accepting her invitation into her home.”

“My patience wears thin. Where. Is. She?”

“Safe.” A wicked grin split her lips. “For the most part.”

“Where is she? I will not ask again.” To show her just how serious he was, he allowed some of his demonic energy to flare around him, a sinister display of his growing wrath, a warning before the beast was unleashed.

Hanako shook her head at him as if displeased. “After all these years, one would think you’d have learned the necessity of patience. Very well.” With a careless wave of her hand, movement caught his attention from above. Three lumbering men converged from the upper floor, two in front as if guarding the one walking behind them, and in the third’s arms was a bundle. Kagome.

Sesshomaru had to will himself not to charge forward and take the girl into his arms. Hanako was closer, the minion’s arms capturing his woman. Either could kill her before he got to her. His hands were tied, and he did not relish the experience.

When Kagome was placed at Hanako’s feet, the witch spoke again. “So you see? Safe and sound.”

Kagome didn’t move, merely lay on the steps where she’d been placed. Was she…dead? He could not hear a heartbeat. He and Hanako were vampires, so their hearts made not a sound, and minions had no heartbeat either, as they were more dead than he—zombies.

At the realization that Kagome was dead, a beastly sound rumbled out of his chest and he was moving. Though minions were more than human strong and fast, they did not compare to his strength and speed. Brutally, he struck. Claws lengthening, he almost took the head clean off of the first. Even as the other two attacked, he was ready. Ignoring the stench of dead blood, he snapped the closest attacker’s spine, and punched a hole in the third’s chest. But they were still ‘alive’, twitching and moving on the floor, trying to get back up to attack him.

Calling up flames with just his will, he incinerated their bodies, watched them burn as if tossed into the pits of hell itself, and ignored their animalistic screams. In seconds, the unholy flames turned them to ash. Turning on his heel with a snarl, fangs bared in aggression, a blow to his chin snapped his head back, and he was falling, tumbling down the stairs.

Though he hit the floor, he continued to roll and regained his feet. He braced to charge the vile creature before him but her words kept him rooted in place.

“She’s not dead, Sesshomaru.” Then she dared laugh at him as if his violent outburst was something comical instead of terrifying. It was obvious she thought him nothing more than a joke, nothing to fear. How he wished to show her otherwise.

Wait…

“Not…dead..?”

His eyes lowered from his enemy to the bundle by her feet. With a small jab of her foot, Hanako prodded Kagome’s side, and the barest moan could be heard, and the bundle shifted ever so slightly.

“She’s not—”

Understanding made his eyes grow wide in an unaccustomed outward show of shock, before they narrowed on Hanako. Teeth once more bared, he snarled his accusation at her. “You turned her!” It was not a question, for the answer was obvious.

“Into a minion?” Another twinkling laugh. “You know she is not or the girl would already be up on her feet. No, the poor dear is recovering from the shock of the change.” She smiled at him. “You remember all too well, don’t you?”

The change. Yes, he remembered it well. In horrifying detail, and glancing at his precious girl, he knew what she was going through, and it pained him. Luckily, the strain on her body had forced her into unconsciousness—for now. 

“You had no right,” he whispered without realizing he spoke aloud.

She chided him. “Really, Sesshomaru. Can you honestly say you did not have similar thoughts of turning her?”  

“It was not your choice to make,” was his firm reply between clenched teeth.

“Of course it was my choice, silly boy.” She knelt beside Kagome and stroked the newly made vampire’s hair in a tender gesture. “I think she’ll make a suitable companion, don’t you?”

“What?”

She continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “To know that your heart’s desire lives but unable to bask in her presence.” Now she gifted him with a beautiful smile. “How tragic…”

A tick formed at his jaw, so tightly did he clamp his teeth together. Her fascination with him, with hurting him, confounded him.

“I offer you a trade,” he said as the thought formed in his mind. Though it pained him to utter the words, he knew there was no price he would not pay for Kagome’s well-being.

“There is nothing of worth that you possess that I desire, other than this girl, that is.”

“There is one thing. Me.” He had to swallow back bile before continuing. “In exchange for Kagome’s servitude, I offer up myself in her place. Whatever you desire, it will be yours.”

“You’d give up your freedom, everything, for this girl?” she asked him curiously.

How he hated seeing her touch his Kagome, but he forced restraint on the volatile emotions thrumming through his tense body, and merely nodded once.

She grinned at him, a sly look passing through those wolfish eyes of hers. “Interesting.”

“Do you accept?” he demanded more than asked.

“As intriguing as your proposal sounds, and believe me, it would give me great pleasure to command you in all things, I will not make a martyr out of you.” She frowned at him in displeasure. “If I accepted, you’d continue on through life with a kernel of hope in your heart that this girl is well, and that I cannot stand.” She stood quickly to confront him, her anger tangible. “Your heart, or what’s left of it, belongs to this girl, so I shall take her as mine.”

Sesshomaru took a threatening step closer, baring his fangs at her. “Why does it matter to you so much? You do not love me. You don’t even know how.” His frustration was getting the best of him, overriding his thinking.

“Because everything that you are belongs to me and no one else!” She screamed it at him, and along with her words, her powers surged forth. A preternatural wind rustled the debris on the floor and echoed around the room, while her long, black hair twirled around her.

She was insane!

“Then there is no longer a need to restrain myself,” Sesshomaru snarled.

He charged. Just as he appeared before Hanako and her hand lifted to stop him, he disappeared and reappeared at her back. She was already turning, as if she knew his intentions. But if she thought to stop him, she was too late. With a vicious backhand to her face, the sound of flesh smacking into flesh like a gunshot, he sent her flying away from him—away from Kagome.

He spared Kagome but a glance, wishing he could just hold her in his arms, before giving Hanako his full attention. She landed several feet away with a crash on the floor, but she did not stay down. She acted like she hadn’t felt the painful blow or landing.

“I have wanted to do this for a very long time,” he murmured in a deadly voice.

He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he went on the offensive. He had centuries worth of aggression bottled up within him, and he relished the chance to destroy the very thing that had stolen everything from him—his life, his future, and now she tried to take Kagome from him. She was a dead woman. She just didn’t realize it yet, and he would make sure she never rose from the grave again.  

A woman stood before him. It was a woman he raised his fist against. And it was a woman he punched in the face. But she was not just any woman. Hanako wasn’t a defenseless female, not fragile and innocent, and not what made the softer sex worth protecting. No, she was a monster in the truest sense. So as she went down from his brutal attack, he lifted his foot and drew back his leg and kicked the demon in her stomach so hard she all but flew across the floor, rolling and spinning, only to crash to a halt against the entryway wall.

Rough breathing, haggard coughs that were too wet, signifying blood in the lungs and possible broken ribs. Groans and twitching limbs, a veil of black hair and black fabric that made up her dress, and yet she got to her hands and knees. Sesshomaru did not allow her to regain her feet.

If any saw him rain down blow after blow on this female, they would hate him, despise him, curse him, and find him guilty, for a man was never supposed to lift a hand in anger towards a woman, but Hanako was no woman. What was more, no one but the two of them and an unconscious Kagome were here to bear witness to his violence. He could hurt Hanako to his heart’s content. And he planned to—and then he would end her.

Bones were so breakable, even a vampire’s. Flesh was weak, even a demon’s—when it was another monster tearing you limb from limb. Like the crumbling structure around them, Sesshomaru wanted to grind her bones into dust and make her a husk of the creature she once was.

All that changed when something penetrated his gut clean through to his back. He wasn’t sure why he stopped, because at first, there was no pain, just the realization that he’d been run through with…something. Looking down, her saw the top of Hanako’s dark head, her kneeling form, and for some reason, her arm caught his attention. He could only see her right arm from shoulder to elbow. The rest was the something that had jolted his entire body, halting him.

He was in shock, he realized belatedly. But the thought of her forearm encased inside his gut, her hand protruding from his back, was a sickening one, regardless that he had done something similar with one of her minions just moments before. This was different. This time, he was not the one dealing such a brutal blow. He remembered clearly the way his hand had pushed through flesh, meaty muscle, bones, and organs, the wet, crunching sounds—and now it was his body that was run through by another’s hand. Sickening.

Shock held him immobile for a second, two? A minute? Longer? He couldn’t say, but as Hanako slowly withdrew her arm, pain lanced through his body. So intense, he was barely aware of the sucking sound as her arm retreated, but he felt it. Her forearm slid against organs and muscles, her fingers caressing places no man—or woman—should ever be able to touch.

And he was falling back with a low sound of pain, like a wounded animal, wrapping his arms around his middle, as if that would stop the pain. Doubled over, he tried to breathe through the agony, not realizing that his legs had given out on him until the jarring landing upon his knees intensified the pain. Had he cried out? He wasn’t sure at this point.

Suddenly, a boot cracked against his jaw, and he was sent sliding across the floor. It hurt more than a little, but he had to get up! Danger—to him, to Kagome.

Blindly, he flung his arm out. A wave of demonic energy went outward in a wide arc, and he knew he’d hit his enemy when he heard a small, feminine cry of pain. Lifting himself with one forearm behind him, elevating himself even slightly made him grit his teeth. A few yards away was Hanako, already rising to her feet. Her face was battered, starting to bruise and swell, a spilt lip and he’d broken her nose. The way she held her arm around her waist let him know he had probably broken a few of her ribs, but unlike him, she was standing.

It was incentive enough to force him back on his own. Ungraceful, for sure. Silent, he was not, but he made it to his feet. And the battle was on. Arms raised, Hanako used her telekinetic powers to levitate rocks, boulders, broken wood and anything else on the ground and flung it towards him. Forcing his mind to calm and ignore the agony, he evaporated into vapor. The debris went through his cloud-like form harmlessly, but even in this form he bled.

Speeding away to a safe distance on the second floor landing, he rematerialized. The very foundation of the manor shook as Hanako’s powers grew. Dust and rubble rained down everywhere, and he began to fear for Kagome’s safety.

Before he could go to her, the roof collapsed above him. With a groan, the large chunk of marble and who knew what else came rushing down towards him. Tensing to flash away from the rubble, a blast of Hanako’s powers struck his chest as he flung himself forward. His momentum interrupted, he was sent backwards right as the ceiling crashed down on him. Flesh split, bones broke, and his blood pooled beneath him. If he had needed to breathe, his broken ribs and one punctured lung would have suffocated him.

As it was, blood pooled in his lungs. He cut off his breathing so as not to undergo the disconcerting feeling of drowning. A cloud of dust covered his face. He was pinned from head to toe, but if he thought he’d be left there to die, he was mistaken. The rubble lifted, but only from his face. Hanako stood before him, beaten and battered, her face showing her anger towards him for hurting her, for daring to attack her, but there was also satisfaction there.

She had won.

She knew it. He knew it.

He had failed, and the weight of that knowledge crushed him more effectively than the debris pinning him in place.

“You are powerful, Sesshomaru, but compared to me, you are but a fledgling,” she told him. Her voice was breathy and pain filled but that smirk of victory gracing her lips belied her injuries.

Getting down to her knees, that smile morphed into a grimace, and he couldn’t help but feel smug over the fact that he’d caused her some measure of pain. One hand still held protectively around her middle, the other was placed near his head, and she was leaning over him. Her long mass of hair veiled them in their own little world, and her breath brushing across his face. It angered him. She was too close, but she dared venture closer still.

A chaste kiss.

He wanted to snarl, to fling her away, to bite her offending lips for daring to touch his own, but like a helpless babe, he lay there unmoving.

And then it was over.

“Farewell, Sesshomaru.”

She stood and he tried to move, to get to her. To stop her from taking Kagome like he knew she would. Hanako must have seen his movement or saw a glimpse of the panic he tried to hide, for she smiled and tried to comfort him. “Fear not. The girl will not be harmed.” She waved her hand carelessly at his helpless form. “And don’t worry. If you have not extracted yourself from the floor before sunrise, I will send a minion or two to assist you. Wouldn’t want you to die…” Looking up at the hole in the ceiling she’d created, she smiled as she stared up at the stars before glancing down at him again. “… from frying in the sun.”

Then she turned her back on him.

No!

With an internal roar he was incapable of voicing aloud, Sesshomaru refused to let things end like this. Lips pulled back from lengthened fangs in a gruesome snarl, he called upon the heavens itself. Storm clouds converged in such speeds as to be abnormal. Lightning flashed overhead and loud booms of thunder shook the manor.

Die!

Using the very hole in the ceiling Hanako had created to crush him, Sesshomaru called forth the lightning. A bright flash of light struck through the opening, and just as Hanako turned to stare in horror at his latest attack, she was too late—to react or even to scream. The lightning struck her dead in the chest. Flesh burned, fire erupted, and in seconds, the vile demon who had created him turned into dust.

Exhausted, Sesshomaru released his influence over the elements, drained and badly wounded. His vision darkened; his mind grew fuzzy. Either he was about to lose consciousness or he was about to die for the last time, never to rise again.

His last thought, as always, was, Kagome.