InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Animus ❯ Bait the line ( Chapter 1 )

Animus

 

A/N: to counteract the fluffy-ness of my humor fic, Reversal, my muse thought this up. WARNING: Dark, angsty, and very, very lemony. This is rated M for a reason.

 

 

Chapter One: Bait the line

 

 

 

Kagome let Sango grip her hands one last time and met her friend's pleading gaze, even if her mind was made up.

 

“Don't do this, please! Please, Kagome!” Sango's voice was a low, hoarse whisper, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

 

Jerking her hands away, Kagome felt a stab of jealousy. Sango had Miroku. Sango could cry, she could feel. Kagome couldn't. Not anymore.

 

“You know it won't make you feel better,” her friend added, before leaving Kagome alone by the edge of the forest.

 

Kagome shivered as the autumn wind howled through the trees. “I know,” she said, but Sango was gone.

 

She cast one final look behind her, hoping her friends would forgive her, and slung her bag over her shoulder, heading into the dark woods.

 

Sango had not been forthcoming with the information that Kagome sought. It had taken many late night talks, begging, and promises Kagome never intended keeping, for the demon slayer to acquiesce. She did not dare tell her friend the truth, of what she really intended. Let Sango think it is mere revenge, Kagome thought. It was that and more. So much more.

 

Kagome did not know how long it would take for her plan to work, if it would at all, but she was stubborn if nothing else, and she could not go home and leave Inuyasha…not as he was now.

 

The thought of him made her gasp, and stopped her dead in her tracks. Desperately, Kagome tried not to picture his face as she had last seen it. She shook her head hard enough to rattle her teeth, determined to loose the image from her brain.

 

“No,” she whispered. She could not give in to her despair. Not while there was still hope.

 

Another face took Inuyasha's place and her breath hissed through her teeth. “What if I can't do it?” She asked herself.

 

It was a legitimate question. What if she couldn't? What if he killed her? Or refused her? Kagome shrugged. It was of no consequence. If she could not, for whatever reason, complete the task she set out to… She could not bear to finish her line of thought, so she set her mouth in a hard, thin line and continued on.

 

As she neared the witch's hut, Kagome began to tremble. What if Sango is right? Maybe I should just go back and take care of Inuyasha. She shook her head. No, fate had been too unkind, and things were not acceptable as they were. Sango had told her she should feel thankful that Inuyasha was even alive, but Kagome did not. The way he was now…that was no kind of life at all.

 

There had been all the things she had longed for. Tender kisses under pale moonlight, whispered words of forever, but it had all been taken from her with cruel, cold, efficiency. Kagome thought that even having a taste of what she wanted was far worse than never having it at all. At least before she did not know what she was missing.

 

She had been good for the first few weeks. Kagome had even hung onto the hope that with healing and time Inuyasha would get better. But as the weeks passed, she found she could no longer look into his vacant eyes, or at his spittle soaked chin…his slack, open mouth. Everything she loved about him was gone, and only his shell remained.

 

Then Sango and Miroku married, and Kagome let jealousy twist her heart and make it bitter. Her lips would curl into a sneer whenever they would pass her way, she would catch herself and feel guilty for having such terrible thoughts about her dear friends.

 

The guilt never lessened. She would wipe Inuyasha's chin, her hand trembling with her disgust. She was disgusted by his state, and angry. Then, during the long, dark watches of the night, guilt would creep in, a cold mantle on her shoulders, a bitter pill. If only she could cry, but she doubted she could anymore. All of her pain, grief…all of her rage had burned away to nothing more than a single, solitary spark. And that spark was for one burning hatred alone.

 

Kagome focused her mind's eye on the face of the one she hated, and it gave her courage. With slow, purposeful steps, she made her way over the small, rocky path that led to the witch's hut. She wondered if she should wait until morning, if the old woman was asleep, but she could not wait, not for one more second. Inaction had been making her feel as brittle as thin glass, and if she did not do something to keep her thoughts at bay, she was certain she would break.

 

Her hand hovered by the bamboo mat that covered the opening to the hut. A small, sad smile spread over her face. What I'm about to do is so cruel, she thought, but he should suffer as I have. He should have everything taken from him. He has to pay. Otherwise, it just isn't fair. And that was how Kagome justified it to herself. So many emotions, so much guilt about so many different things…she did not have room to feel anything but a strange, tingly numbness when she thought of him.

 

Drawing in a tremulous breath, Kagome pulled aside the curtain and peered into the dark hut.

 

After several moments of silence with Kagome straining to hear over the heavy drumming of her heart in her ears, someone spoke.

 

“Well, don't just stand there gaping, girl. Come in.” The voice was raspy and thin. A small lantern lit the interior of the small hut.

 

A stooped old woman with brown skin as wrinkled and thin as ancient parchment sat cross-legged on the floor, looking up at Kagome as if she had been expecting her. Maybe she had.

 

Kagome entered the hut, leaving her bag at the door and sat across from the woman on the grass mat, curling her aching legs under her.

 

“I'm sorry to disturb you at so late an hour,” Kagome began, “But I have heard that you can make-“

 

The old woman waved a gnarled hand, silencing her. “Yes, I can, girl.” She smiled, revealing rows of yellowed, broken teeth.

 

“I don't have much to give you for payment,” Kagome said.

 

The old woman shrugged. “Never you mind. It does my old heart good to see young people still a twitter over impossible love. And you do know it is impossible, right girl? Oh, it will work well enough, he will want you, but after he's had his fill, he'll leave you, maybe even kill you. Years ago, I tried telling the young ones this, but I know now that a heart set on something cannot be dissuaded.”

 

Kagome looked away, hiding the lie that was surely in her eyes. She just could not bear to tell this kindly soul what she was really using this for.

 

“What type of demon is it?” The old woman asked.

 

“Dog, and very, very powerful.”

 

The old woman chuckled. “Dog is good, they rely so much on their sense of smell. Powerful you say? Is he dangerous?”

 

Kagome winced, closing her eyes. “Most assuredly.”

 

She felt the witch's dry, soft hand on hers suddenly. The hand was warm, comforting, like a grandmother's touch. Kagome blinked at the tears that stung her eyes.

 

“Child…the act itself might kill you.”

 

She swallowed hard. “I know.”

The hand gave hers a light squeeze. “Is this love truly worth the risk?”

 

Kagome saw Inuyasha's face, as it had been before…handsome, smiling, full of love, love for her! She turned and faced the old woman with a soft, sad smile. “Absolutely.”

 

The old woman's soft brown eyes twinkled and she cracked another near toothless grin. “Very well, child, and no payment other than your happiness is necessary. Now, I will need a small bit of your blood, and a large amount of your patience.”

 

 

Kagome chose not to sleep in the witch's hut, even though it was offered to her. Instead, she slept outside, curled in her sleeping bag, eyes on the stars.

 

She dreaded sleep, for with it came the nightmares. So, she would wait for exhaustion to claim her, and hopefully bring a dreamless sleep.

 

As she lay there, she thought back to the final confrontation with Naruku. It had been so much easier than everyone thought it would be. No one had died, no one had been grievously wounded. HE had even come to their aide. How were they to know what he would do next?

 

She pictured Naraku's last moment as her arrow streaked through the sky toward him. Her mind replaced Naruku's face with his face. If only she had known…

 

No sense in thinking that, she chided herself. Besides, soon I will make it all right again.

 

 

Morning came too early, and Kagome groaned as the old woman gave her shoulder a hard shake.

 

“I need your blood now, child. Just a little prick of the finger,” the witch said as she took Kagome's finger and drew a small drop of blood with a long, silver needle. The witch caught the bead of crimson in a glass vial and then went about her business.

 

Kagome waited for her to finish, mind carefully blank. She knew that if she thought too long or hard about all of this, she would likely turn tail and run home, as she was often tempted to do. But Inuyasha…his fate demanded vengeance, and she could not let go of the tiny grain of hope that said she might, just might be able to save him. Otherwise, she would put him out of his misery.

 

By midday, the witch presented Kagome with a vial of thick, viscous, yellow liquid. She reached for it eagerly, but the old woman pulled back.

 

“Child, this is potent. Just a tiny drop should do. It will only draw inu youkai, but you should be wary for I cannot guarantee it will draw the one you wish it to.”

 

Kagome nodded and took the vial and put it carefully into her pack. She patted the old woman on the arm and forced a thin-lipped smile. “Thank you.”

 

The witch nodded and then scuffled back into her hut.

 

Kagome was not sure where to find him. She took out a compass from her bag and decided the only direction she could head was west. She knew that she could not be far from his territories, Sango had drawn her a small map, and if anyone knew about such things, it was Sango. Kagome only hoped that her friend had not deliberately led her astray.

 

She frowned at that thought. Since when did I become so suspicious, she wondered. But she knew the answer.

 

Kagome pulled the vial out of her bag and held it up to the sun. There was still time to turn back, to abandon this. She uncorked the bottle and dabbed a tiny amount of the greasy fluid on each wrist and between her breasts. As much as she would have liked to forget all of this, go home and chalk the whole experience up to one long nightmare, she could not.

 

Just hang on, Inuyasha, came her silent prayer as she trudged onward.