InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter Blood ❯ Chapter 3

Bitter Blood

Chapter 3

Rin awoke to a blinding light, Sesshomaru's chair by her bedside. The cups and the kettle from the tea they had shared last night were still on the night stand. She shielded her eyes and squinted through parted fingers. Someone seemed to be moving around the room. "My lord?" she asked.

"No, " a woman's voice replied. "I'm Dokumi, my lady."

"Dokumi?" she repeated. "Can you do something about all this light? Draw the curtains on the bed or something?"

"Of course, my lady," she sidled between the bed and the chair, and unfastened the top curtain from its poster. "Is this better?" she asked.

Rin sighed. "Much." She peered at the figure on the other side of the curtain; through the fabric, she could make out her silhouette. It was very clearly female. "Who did you say you were again?"

"I'm Dokumi, my lady, a friend of the family, so to speak. Lord Sesshomaru asked me to come and act as nursemaid."

"Really?" she asked. "So soon?"

"I arrived earlier this morning," she said. "My family sent me out as soon as they got word I was needed."

She pulled back the curtain to get a better look at her. "You don't LOOK like a nursemaid," she said.

Dokumi laughed. "Lord Sesshomaru said you were quite straight-forward."

She continued to study the woman before her. Not a wrinkle or a gray hair or an ounce of fat on her. She had long, bluish hair, silver eyes and was dressed entirely in black. She looked closer to Kagome's age than to hers . . . But, of course, you couldn't tell a demon's age by looking at it.

"Do I fascinate you, my lady?"

She looked away from her and down at her sleeping child. "Where is my lord?" she asked.

"About his business, I would assume, my lady. He doesn't confide such things in me."

"Why should he?" she asked. "I mean . . ." She hadn't meant to be so blunt. This woman was here to help her, after all.

She smiled at her. "You are everything he said and more."

She, again, regarded her. "You speak as if you know my husband quite well."

"Not at all," she laughed. "I'm more of an acquaintance. His father and my father were old 'war' buddies." She placed her hand on her forehead, checking for a fever, Rin assumed.

"War? What war?"

She shook her head. "I suppose it doesn't matter now. It was quite awhile ago." She moved her hand from her forehead to her neck, pressing the tips of her fingers between her ear and shoulder. "And how are you feeling today, my lady? Any pains or discomfort?"

"I'm a little groggy," she said. "And a little stiff. What was this war about?"

She removed her hand and reached into her left sleeve. "You are the inquisitive one, aren't you, my lady?"

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm being rude," she said. "I'm often told to shut up and mind my own business. I'm not quite so chatty as I was in my younger years, but I still have a tendency to ramble when uncomfortable." But, perhaps, she shouldn't have told her that. "Maybe I've said too much."

She pulled a small pouch from her sleeve and opened it. "Your kind needs not beg forgiveness from my kind," she said. "I'm from a family of bog demons. We're not nearly so noble as your kind, but we came by our power honestly, and we're well-respected in the demon world. Our specialties are herbs and healing . . . and poisons, of course, hence my name." She dropped some of the substance from the pouch into her teacup from last night.

"I meant no offense," Rin said.

"None taken," she added some hot water from the kettle to the cup. "But I would like you to drink this." She extended the cup and saucer.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's an herbal supplement," she said. "It's meant to rebuild the blood and promote healing."

She stared down at the cup. Some things that were perfectly normal for demons, were deadly to humans. "I'm not a demon," she said.

Dokumi laughed again. "I know that, my lady. It's perfectly safe. I would drink some to prove it to you, but as poisons have no effect on me, it would be a pointless demonstration."

Rin took the cup and saucer. The liquid inside was dark and putrid smelling.

"It doesn't taste good, but it's good for you. Trust me."

She raised the cup to her lips and took a sip. "Yech!" she stuck out her tongue and wiped it against the back of her hand. Not very lady-like, she knew, but . . .

"You'll drink it all if you want to be well for your lord," she said. "And it's probably time to change your dressings as well."

Those were the magic words-"for your lord." What wouldn't she give him?

She held her breath and forced down the rest of the vile liquid.

Dokumi took the cup when she was done and placed it back on the tea tray. "The war was over a century ago." She pulled back the sheets and examined her dressing. "Good, there's just a little seepage, and that's perfectly normal."

"A century ago? Seepage?" Rin repeated.

"Blood," she said. "You'll continue to bleed for awhile, then you'll return to your normal cycle." She picked a black satchel off the floor and placed it off to her side on the bed.

"Normal cycle? How do you know so much about humans?" she asked.

She opened the bag and pulled out some fresh gauze and a small knife. "I told you we're healers, my lady. We heal demons and humans alike, as long as they can pay our fee."

She raised an eyebrow. "So, you don't eat them?" she asked.

She laughed again. "As long as they pay our fees. Now, I'm going to change your dressing, so be still or I might accidentally cut you."

Rin nodded.

"My kind has walked the line between the demon world and the human world for several centuries, now. They have need of certain herbs only we can grow, and we have need of certain 'raw materials' only they possess."

"'Raw materials?'" she repeated.

"Human organs," she said.

Rin recoiled.

"Stay still," she warned.

"Sorry," she said. "What do you do with them? Their organs?"

"They're key ingredients in certain elixirs and potions."

"So they come to you for herbs, and you say, 'Give me your liver?'"

She laughed again. "You are the living end, my lady. It's nothing so vulgar as that. They give us their recently dead."

A shudder passed through her body.

"My lady . . ."

"Sorry," she said again.

"That thought is repugnant to you, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said bluntly.

"Well, my kind isn't really meant for killing," she said. "We're more scavengers than warriors. Battlegrounds are fertile soil for us."

She felt her stomach turn. Exactly, what had she given her to drink?

"So, we struck a deal with the humans. They'd give us their newly dead, and wouldn't chase us off our lands. And we'd provide them with medicinal herbs and treatment, if necessary. In that way they learned from us, and we learned from them."

"Oh?" she asked. "Humans learning from demons?"

"Yes. Have you ever heard of surgery?"

"Surgery?" she asked.

"Sedating the patient, cutting them open, repairing damaged organs and sewing them back up."

If she wasn't going to be sick before, she was certainly going to be now. "That's ghastly!"

"Of course," she smiled. "Do you think a human could think up such a thing?"

She continued to stare at her as she put the final touches on her dressing. "Why would anyone want to do such a thing? This 'surgery?'"

"Everyone wants to live, my lady. As happy and as whole as they can be. And if a small injury can cure a great injury, wouldn't you take that risk?" She cut the tie on her bandage. "All done," she smiled and pulled the covers back over her.

"You seem to know a great many things," Rin said.

"I've been studying for quite awhile," she said. "I have every ambition to become as great as my father."

Daichi cried.

"Oh . . ." Rin scooped him up and cradled him in her arms. "Mommy's here. Shhh . . ."

"He's probably hungry," Dokumi said. "You should feed him." She picked up her bag and set it beside her lord's chair. "I'll dispose of the old bandages and have Jakken bring your breakfast up."

She opened the top of her kimono and allowed Daichi to feed. Kagome had taught her that much. "Dokumi?"

She stopped at the door, and turned to face her. "Yes, my lady?"

"Thank you," she said.

She bowed her respects. "It is my duty, my lady." She opened the door, then disappeared from sight.