InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter Blood ❯ Chapter 12

Bitter Blood

Chapter 12

"So, you've returned." Her lord sat before the fire in the great ball.

"Of course," Rin said.

"Come into the light. I wish to see your face."

She stepped into the great hall and knelt before his chair.

He placed his hand beneath her chin and turned her head to the left, then to the right. "Does it hurt?" he asked.

"The pain is bearable," she met his gaze head on.

"I'm afraid I'm rather clumsy when it comes to handling delicate things. They often end up broken in my care."

"I am not so delicate as you may think."

A smile played across his lips. "Perhaps not."

She pushed herself to her feet. "I must go see to our child. I neglected to feed him before I left."

He stood and drew Tenseiga. "I would not have him see you looking like this."

"My face displeases you?" she asked.

"It shames me," he said. "Only a weak man resorts to violence when things go beyond his control."

She again knelt before him. "Does my lord seek to control me?"

"Your lord seeks to control himself." He made a swipe with Tenseiga, healing Rin of her injury.

She stood and felt the side of her face. The swelling and tenderness had been replaced by a warm, tingling sensation. Not only on her cheek, but all over her body. She felt as if some injury deep within her had just been repaired.

"Are you well?" he re-sheathed Tenseiga.

She smiled up at him. "I feel better than I've felt in months. As if I've been rejuvenated."

He nodded his approval.

"I will go see to our son, now."

He grabbed her upper arm as she passed.

"My lord?" She glanced over her shoulder at him.

"I ask my lady's forgiveness," he said. "I forgot myself, and it will never happen again."

She nodded her acceptance. "I should not have provoked my lord's anger."

His grip on her arm tightened. "It was not anger you provoked."

She laughed gently to herself. "So, my lord cannot resist me . . ."

He released her arm. "I cannot. But I must."

"Why must you?"

Daichi's cry cut their conversation short.

"My lady, you've returned." Dokumi appeared with Daichi at the foot of the stairs.

"Yes," Rin said.

"I'll take my leave of you," Sesshomaru said.

"But, my lord--"

Daichi continued to cry.

"My lady," Dokumi interrupted, "our young lord is hungry. Do you intend to keep him waiting?"

"One moment, please." She glanced around the hall for her lord, but he had already disappeared. "Give him to me," she sighed. "You may go about your business for the rest of the day. I wish to spend some time alone with my son." She jostled him gently up and down, trying to quiet him.

"Is my lady sure?" she asked.

"Yes," she said. "Go play in the garden or get lost in the hedge maze or . . ." She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Dokumi gave her an odd look, then bowed. "I see, my lady. I won't trouble you any further today."

Rin sighed and carried her son upstairs to the nursery. "I know what troubles you, my little lord. Tonight is the new moon, and you don't feel quite yourself, do you?"

He continued to cry, his fists balled tightly, his fangs peaking out behind pursed lips.

"Don't cry, Daichi. Mommy's here, and she'll stay up with you all day and all night till morning." She entered the nursery and sat down in her chair. She then opened the top of her robes, allowing Daichi to feed. "It must be quite scary for you," she smoothed his hair as he fed. "Spending a night as a weak mortal like Mommy. No claws or fangs. Your vision isn't as clear; your hearing isn't as good. And your sense of smell all but disappears." She smiled down at him. "But Mommy lives every day of her life exactly like that, and she's perfectly fine. She has Daddy and Jakken to keep her safe, and you have them, too. Plus me, of course . . . Weak as I may seem, I won't let anybody harm you. And if they try . . .." She let her sentence trail off. "Well, if they're fool enough to try, they'll get what they deserve."

She stroked the side of his face. "No one may hurt those I love-human or demon." She put him over her shoulder to burp him. "You are mine, and I will protect you, my son." She patted his back as she rocked from side-to-side. "So, let the new moon come," she said. "We will face it together."

* * * * *

Day became afternoon, and afternoon became evening.

"My lady," Jakken appeared in the nursery door, "will you come down for dinner?"

She stroked Daichi's back as he lay face down in the cradle. The change had come over him, and his hair was now black as night. "I don't like to leave him," she said. "And I wouldn't like anyone else to see him like this."

Jakken came a little closer. "Like what, my lady? Is the little lord ill?"

"Not ill," she said. "Just not quite himself."

He gasped as he caught sight of the young lord's altered appearance. "What's happened to him?"

Rin laughed. "He's a HALF-demon," she said. "And in the life of every half-demon, there's a period of vulnerability that comes once a month."

"I know that," he scoffed.

"Then why do you look so surprised?"

"Has this been going on every month since his birth?" he asked.

"Of course," she said. "And I've done my best to keep it a secret from everyone, Dokumi included. The first night he changed, I kept him bundled up in blankets and burned tons of incense. I didn't let her anywhere near him." She ran her fingers through his fine strands of black hair. "And for the subsequent months, I simply gave her the night off. But I give her several nights off a month, so as not to arouse suspicion."

"You don't trust her?" Jakken asked.

"Not with this I don't. This could be used, not only to hurt him now, but in the future, as well."

Jakken raised an eyebrow. "How did you know it would be the night of the new moon?"

"I didn't," she shook her head. "Kagome simply told me to be mindful of his appearance and any seeming changes in his behavior. She said she couldn't predict WHEN it would happen; she just knew that it WOULD happen . . . She told me this when I first became pregnant. Both she and InuYasha gave me stern advice on the matter."

He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?" Rin asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Does our lord know about his 'little condition?'"

She nodded. "He knows. He just doesn't like to see his son like this." She put on a sad smile. "I think sometimes our lord would like to forget that Daichi is half mine. I think given the opportunity, he'd like to expunge him of his humanity altogether." She laughed to herself. "I don't know what that would say about me, though . . . To expunge the humanity from a half-human child . . . to deny half its heritage . . ." She shook her head. "That doesn't sound fair to me; does it to you?"

"Who am I to judge?" he asked.

She continued to comfort Daichi as she carried on her conversation with Jakken. "I think my lord is ashamed of me."

"What!"

"I don't know," she shook her head. "There's something going on with him. Like some personal battle or something. Something he keeps from me, hides away to himself . . . perhaps out of fear."

"Our lord fears no one," he scoffed.

"I think he fears himself, sometimes."

Jakken folded his arms and gave her a disapproving glance.

"Will you tell me more about his mother?"

"Why?" he asked.

"Call it curiosity, if you must. Do you think his parents would've approved of me?"

Jakken sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Our lord's father would've adored you," he said. "He had great compassion towards humans and saw them as valuable allies . . ."

"And his mother?" she asked. "What would she have thought of me?"

"She wouldn't have given you any thought," he said. "She would've killed you on the spot and feasted on your entrails."

She gave a nervous laugh. "I see."

"That woman despised humans and demons alike. I told you before, she thought more of herself than anyone on the face of the earth . . . She felt she was born to rule, and everyone else was born to serve--either as food or fodder."

"Our lord included?"

"As I said, I haven't much direct knowledge on that subject. I only know what I've been told."

Rin nodded. "And you were told she was quite cruel to him."

"To everyone," he said. "It's impolite to speak ill of the dead, but a more loathsome creature you'd never find."

"And what type of demon was she? His mother?"

"A bog demon," he said.

Her head swam with information. "But Dokumi said bog demons and humans were great allies . . ."

"They are," Jakken said. "Our lord's mother was an oddity among their kind. I've heard said that she was a sub-par healer, but if you needed poisons, she was the demon to go to. Our lord inherited his immunity from her." He smiled proudly. "There's not a poison around that can bring down our Lord Sesshomaru."

"But bog demons like to live outdoors," she said. "Dokumi said they can't stand enclosed areas."

"They can't," Jakken agreed. "But like I said, she was an oddity among their kind."

Daichi began to stir.

"Mommy's here," she picked him up, and laid him against her shoulder. "I'm quite confused, Jakken."

"My lady?"

"I know how you said she was false, and she deceived his father into mating with her, but I just don't see how that's possible . . . If she so openly hated humans, and he was so obviously enamored with them . . . How could such a relationship work?"

"You know that it didn't," he said. "I told you as much. Our lord's father discovered her deception and turned from her. He later took up with a human woman, and InuYasha was the result."

She rocked back and forth. "Who do you think our lord takes more after? His father or his mother?"

Jakken put on a thoughtful expression and scratched beneath his chin. "He is the spitting image of his father," he said. "But you also know of his past hatred of humans and his current loathing of any ONE or any THING that stands in his way."

"So, he's taken after them both, in a fashion."

Jakken nodded. "I think you could safely say that, my lady."

She smiled to herself. "Well, to be quite honest with you, Jakken, saying that doesn't make me feel very safe at all."

"My lady?"

"I'd like you to leave me, now," she said.

"Shall I bring your dinner up?" he asked.

Rin nodded. "I would appreciate that."

"Then consider it done." He bowed his respects, then left Rin alone with her thoughts, Daichi whimpering softly on her shoulder.