InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bitter Blood ❯ Chapter 22

Bitter Blood

Chapter 22

In three days her lord had fully recovered, and Rin had paid a visit to the village, alerting InuYasha and Kagome to a possible invasion. Not that her lord wanted their help; he insisted that he could handle the matter all on his own. But after the injuries he'd received last time, Rin was unwilling to risk it, especially since Jakken had yet to return from patrolling the borders .

InuYasha, for his part, swore to come if he was needed--"Only to protect the old man's lands," he'd said. "Not because I owe Sesshomaru or anything." And for her part, Kagome gave her more wardings and a few binding scrolls. She'd thanked them and then made her way back to the castle.

"Are you not well, my lady?"

She turned at the sound of her lord's voice. "I am well," she nodded. She stood on the balcony, overlooking the hedge maze, staring down at Dokumi.

He came to her side. "Why do you watch her so closely?" he asked.

"I feel bad for her," she said. "Now that I know what's in the garden . . . I can't imagine such a horrible thing happening to anyone." She shook her head. "No wonder she is the way she is. Were I in her shoes, I might have done much the same thing." She turned to face him. "I wouldn't stand for someone harming my child. And if they did, I would hunt them to the ends of the earth till they had paid me what they owed."

"And what would they owe you?" he asked.

She thought for a moment, then laughed to herself. "I doubt anything they offered me could make up for it. I'd just want to make them suffer, I suppose."

He smiled down at her, as if amused. "That is not in your nature," he said. "You are too good of a person. Too kind, too forgiving." He put his hand atop her head. "You've forgiven me, have you not?"

"I have," she nodded.

"And you've forgiven Dokumi," he said.

"I have," she said.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because I'm no better than either of you," she said. "I can be just as cold, just calculating and just as vicious as either of you two."

"No," he said.

"Yes," she nodded. "It's easy to forget yourself sometimes. Especially when you're lost in pain or despair . . . It's so easy to strike out at the rest of the world than to keep it bottled up inside."

He stroked the back of her head. "You mistake yourself," he said. "If either Dokumi or myself had been in your shoes, one of us would have died that night. Or, perhaps, the both of us."

She stared down at her sitting in the grass before the entrance of the hedge maze. "Your brother is buried in the center of the hedge maze . . . Doesn't that bother you?"

He was unfazed. "I have always known one of my kin was buried in the center of that maze," he said. "I simply didn't know who, or how, and I thought it best not to ask too many questions . . . But it's an unmistakable scent. You can, indeed, smell fear." He turned away from her.

"Where does my lord go?" she asked.

"Back inside," he said. "I have no further wish to see that pathetic creature."

Rin gave her one final look then sighed. "I suppose I should go check on our son," she stepped down off the balcony and back onto the second floor landing.

He nodded. "I shall check in on the two of you later."

She bowed in reply. "I do hope Jakken returns soon."

His eyes narrowed, a grim expression crossing his visage. "Perhaps I should check up on Jakken first."

She shook her head. "I would not have you leave us unprotected, my lord."

He smiled at her and nodded. "Of course not," he said. "I won't leave from this castle. You have my word."

She laughed to herself, self-consciously. "I don't mean to order my lord about," she said.

"I look upon it as a request and not a command," he said.

They regarded on another.

"Very well, then." She bowed and smiled, then made her way to the nursery.

Her lord returned to the balcony, leapt down and made his way toward Dokumi.

When he reached her, she glanced around, suspiciously.

"Why do you stare?" he asked.

"Your lady is fearsome," she said. "I would not further provoke her anger."

He smiled to himself. "A wise choice." He held out a long, rectangular box in front of her.

"What is this?" she asked.

"It is what I owe," he said.

She laughed sardonically. "So, I'm a prostitute, now, am I? I'm to be paid for my services?"

He kept his face blank, the package extended.

She jerked it from his hands and sighed. "Why do you people always trouble me? Can you not just leave me in peace?"

He gave no reply.

She sighed again. "I suppose you want me to open it, then?"

He looked down at her.

"Feh, you and your silent treatment. How unlike your father you are." She cut the string on the box with her claws, then opened it. "This is . . ." She covered her mouth as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. "This is my doll," she finally said.

"It is a copy," he said.

She placed the box gently in the grass, then wiped her tear-stained face. "Why would you do such a thing?" she asked.

He smiled to himself at the thought of Rin's words. "We must forgive each other," he said. "I think it's best we not drudge up the past any further."

Dokumi stood and dusted herself off. "Agreed," she said.

They stared off into the hedge maze.

"Did he have a name?" he asked. "My brother?"

She smiled to herself. "He was to be called Toshi," she said. "He was his father's 'mirror image.'"

He nodded. "It is a good name."

She turned to face him. "There's something else you want," she said. "What is it?"

"My lady is ill," he said. "And I believe you have the means to cure her."

She laughed to herself. "So that's why you really came down here," she said. "You don't want to make amends. You want me to save your wife and child."

His eyes narrowed. "What would you have me do?" he asked. "You are mine. I could command, and you would have to obey."

She shook her head. "If you knew anything about what you were asking me to do, you would know that I must do it freely, of my own good will."

He focused in on her, then turned from her. "If you will not help her, I have no use for you." He walked toward the rear entrance of the estate.

She stared into the maze, then down at her new doll. "I want an apology," she called after him. "If you apologize, I will help her."

He turned to face her. "Me? Apologize? To you?"

"Yes," she said. "I think I deserve an apology . . . I think he deserves an apology."

He stared at her, unblinking. Calmly, cooly, his eyes sizing her up, testing her for weaknesses.

She looked away from him.

"I apologize for any harm my mother or myself may have caused you," he said. "It certainly was not my intention, though I cannot say the same for her . . . The way she behaved was utterly disgraceful and unbefitting a lady of her stature. She got exactly what she deserved." He turned from her and re-entered the castle.

She laughed, a little uneasily, bending over to scoop up the doll. "Did you hear that, Toshi? He's sorry," she said. She ran her hand over the doll's hair. "And I'm sorry, too, Toshi. Mommy is very sorry." She lingered a moment longer, hugging the doll to her chest, then went back inside.

"My lady," she walked into the nursery, her black bag in hand.

Rin sat on the floor, watching Daichi crawl around, trying to get into things he shouldn't. "What is it?" she asked.

She knelt down beside her and opened her bag. "I can cure you," she said. "Of your little blood disorder."

She laughed, startled by the news. "You can?"

"Give me your hand," she pulled a scalpel from her bag.

"What will you do?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"It's a blood transfusion, of sorts," she said. "Or rather, a blood infusion." She sliced open her wrist. "I'm going to infuse your blood with mine."

"What!"

"Give me your hand."

She tucked it inside her sleeve. "No."

"My lady, it's perfectly safe. It's the blood that gives us the power to heal. That is how I heal my patients when they are severely wounded. I feed them my blood."

"Then why do you have to cut ME?" she asked.

"Humans and demons are not the same thing. Humans get SICK when they ingest blood; demons get better. The only way to infuse my blood into yours is through an open wound." She grabbed her sleeve. "Now, give me your hand."

"But when you healed my lord, you just turned into a pretty, red cloud."

"That 'pretty, red cloud,' as you called it, is poisonous to humans. It is our blood in gaseous state, and it's full of powerful toxins. If you were to try and take the blood of a bog demon against its will, you'd only get the gas."

"Why is the gas bad? How does your blood go from liquid to gas?"

"Heat," she said. "Heat from a compassionate heart or heat from anger. It is how we are able to heal friend and foe alike. But that's just for demons . . . Humans need the liquid variety."

She winced as she made a small slash in the palm of her hand. "I thought humans only came to you for herbs."

"Herbs cannot cure everything," she said. "But our blood can." She held her palm open with one hand as she dripped in the blood from her wrist. "It will burn," she said. "And you'll likely be sick for the next day or two till your body adjusts to the new cells within it."

She closed her palm and held it close to her chest.

"Give me your hand again," she said. "I'll bandage it."

She did as Dokumi said. "So I'm cured now? My blood will clot the way it's supposed to?"

Dokumi nodded. "Better than that. You're now immune to every poison known to man."

Rin's eyes widened.

"You'll also live a little longer," she said. "I didn't give you that much, so it'll only be 50 years or so."

"Fifty years?" she repeated. "I'll live 50 years longer because of your blood?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"And I'm not sick any more?"

"No," she said.

"I can have babies?"

"Yes."

"As many as I want?"

"Yes."

"And I won't bleed to death?" she asked.

Dokumi shook her head. "No."

She laughed to herself. "My hair isn't going to change color or anything like that, is it?"

Dokumi laughed. "Why would it do that?" she asked.

"I dunno," she shrugged. She glanced down at Daichi.

"You're not a half-demon, if that's what you're thinking. My blood cells will bond with yours and whatever's unnecessary will be washed away in a couple of days . . . You don't get half-demons from mixing blood cells," she said. "It has to be in your genetic coding from the very beginning."

Rin smiled.

"Your lord loves you a great deal," she said. "Perhaps he is not so unlike his father, after all."

Her smile broadened. "Oh . . ." her face suddenly flushed. She felt as if her skin were on fire. Hot metal pins, jabbing every pore on her body. Sweat pouring down her face. Her breath coming in gasps and gulps. "Dokumi . . ."

She doubled over on the floor.

"It begins," Dokumi said.