InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust ❯ Cryptos ( Chapter 33 )

Sesshomaru felt the moment in which the spell was enacted, and stood on the battlements drenched in enemy blood. Disemboweled and shredded corpses of dragon youkai littered the high wall and the ground beneath, and the shuddering of his rage cooled slightly, washed away on the crimson course of stolen life. The presence of Kagome in his thoughts was static and unchanging, different than the fluctuations he had grown used to. The draining pressure of his magic to protect her pulled on his consciousness, but he refused to allow it to dull the edges of his thoughts, feeling the nicking presence of fear press close against his heart.

It reminded him of why he had scorned love as weakness, but a flickering image, the memory of a smile and a scent of crushed summer strawberries and wild jasmine cancelled the thought in the moment of its conception. He followed shallow stairs down from the height of the wall, and stopped at their foot beside a mass of bloody flesh that had been a dragon youkai when it still breathed. Scornfully, he drew Tensaiga, and the sword responded to his need when he plunged it deep into its heart, and the otherworld collectors of souls scattered from the brilliant blue flash of the healing sword's blade. He stared down in disgust as the thing drew a choked, hissing breath, and exploded in fear-scent at the glimmer in his eyes.

"Do not mistake me - you will die again, but I require information."

He flexed his claws and the dragon flinched back against the wall, refusing to meet his eyes again.

"I know nothing that will help you, Lord of the West. I do not think it can be done."

Sesshomaru's expression darkened by degrees, and he pulled the odd-stilled spark of Kagome close to his soul-self.

"You will tell me everything you know about Kasuka, everything you know about the secret dark places of this castle."

"I will lead you to her. The miko assists us, but she will betray us."

Its face darkened with a cold smile.

"She is not the only one who can foretell with magic."

The dragon stalked off, braving the pain of unhealed wounds without comment or complaint, as though some change had taken over his soul between the moment of his awakening from death and the now.

"She has taken your mate into darkness from which she may never return or awake, a dream that is your worst nightmare, that will haunt your memories when you seek to save her. Remember, in the other-world everything is inside-out, twisted backwards. The enemy will be obvious; the enemy will hide in the reflection of that which matters most. Remember that you cannot only save life."

The dragon stopped at the doors to a long hallway, open into darkness, and Sesshomaru stepped beside it, noting a cryptic smile to fit cryptic words.

"I will not further approach this hall of mirrors. Your circle of fire is not mine, Lord of the West."

Sesshomaru stared as the dragon disappeared, and the hallway contracted around him, pulled at his body and lengthened in his eyes, searing with flashing white light. His eyes adjusted quickly, and then the mysterious words were not so mysterious after all. The hall he stood in was a maze of mirrors, and they all held a reflection of the woman he sought, smiling cruelly at the sport of her illusory magic. Her words twisted and whined in dead air, preventing him from locating her through the echoes of her speech.

"You come deeper and deeper into my domain, and yet you fear nothing still. How admirable. There have been few who have done as much."

Her reflection lifted a bloody dagger, and the instant and insistent sweetness of Kagome's blood scent assaulted him. A sinuous weight dipped down his spine when she spoke, writhing in a hundred mirrors for the sake of disturbing the peace in his mind, and the laughter left her voice, pounding against him intensely in less than a whisper.

"I know what it is that haunts your fears, I know what it is that shakes your conviction in love. Witness a nightmare, the soul throbbing pain that will destroy your mate and pup if you cannot break the mirror. You have strength and power you say, the strongest of the four Great Lords, kin to the Gods themselves…"

Her tone turned swiftly mocking.

"I will trade your life for hers - or his. You cannot defeat me otherwise. Even the power of the shikon jewel could not save her from the abyss, and here, in my illusion, your mate magic cannot protect her. Watch the world your mate has come from, watch the robbery you fear above all else."

The mirror in front of him cleared and shimmered, and he saw within Kagome's still features. Bloody scratch marks crossed her cheek, and he could see the line of thin blood that marked where Kasuka had torn smooth skin with gleaming metal. The image shifted again, faded, and he saw her as he had first seen her, human and angry, passionate in fearless defiance, dressed in the short skirted uniform and clinging to his dead half-brother's arm with fragile fingers.

Kagome cried out in her head with the vehemence she wished she could give to her voice, silent and restrained. In the back of her mind she felt the pressure of a real lifetime lived, but the memories were hidden and she saw in front of her as if for the first time the new-formed body of the undead priestess Kikyou and the awestruck and pained expression on InuYasha's face.

She recognized the moment, knew without knowing that he would speak Kikyou's name and steal her soul, the tiny and empty ache that pressed at her emotions making itself abundantly clear for no reason that was sane. But the hanyou she did not remember getting to know turned to where she lay enchanted, and his eyes were full of softness and pain, flickers of wise understanding and an ageless youth that screamed conflict. Golden bands made of his eyes constricted around her heart when he opened his mouth to speak, but the word was not the same.

"Kagome…"

The spell shattered, and she felt her missing pieces return, a surge of strength that seemed unfamiliar with the return of her soul to her body, and she watched as the clay body of her old incarnation crumbled in slow motion, back into the dust and bone-ash from which it was formed. Kagome crumpled to the ground where she had been bound, and the vision of InuYasha destroying the witch who had given second life to the dead was a blur before her eyes. Something did not mesh with events as they should be, and the part of her soul that was awake and brilliant shook its bars, but Kagome was deaf to the scream of her self, and she shook away a burning of unease.

Afterward InuYasha avoided her eyes, washing blood from his claws along with old memories, and she smiled slightly. All the days after that were a stumbling; falling over in love with her hanyou, and this time there was no undead miko for a distraction or destruction. She was constantly aware of his presence, his protection, and her history changed in the illusion-world of her memory, events shifting and tumbling like a small child's play blocks, building a castle from mist and poison.

There came a day when he knew poison of his own, slept with his head in her lap and wreathed in the comfort of her scent, weak in a human form this one day of the month when the sky was darkest, and Kagome worried herself in prayer that he would survive the night. She felt him change in the morning, saw the flash of dawn-light as hair that had been black turned suddenly silver and swirled in a phantom wind. Violet eyes flashed gold, and the beauty of watching that most private moment of transformation filled deep places in her heart as the swift slash of steel-tightened claws shredded spider youkai and swept her out of the path of danger. His bangs hid his eyes when he set her back on the ground, and she could sense the blush in the tones of his voice.

"You….should have escaped, Kagome, not stayed with me. I'm no good when I'm human, I can't protect you."

She grinned.

"You'll protect me, InuYasha?"

"Feh. You can't do it yourself."

Blushing vividly, she leaned forward and pressed the rose blush of her lips against his skin, and felt his cheek warm under the gentle pressure. Instantly there was a pang of sharp pain at the joint of her shoulder, and a hot wave of pained dizziness tossed her away from the inviolate kiss. For a time she floated in darkness, and her heart grew dim.

Sesshomaru's eyes flashed vibrant red and he howled his rage and leapt for the mirror. He felt pain in the mark of his mating, a betrayal of the love that had formed it, but the pain was tempered by a grasping at his soul that he felt with such frantic longing that he knew his heart would burst with the pressure of it. He pressed forward with all his considerable strength, reaching to shatter the mirror that reflected his pain, and found himself bound in tightly in place with restraints that were only visible to the sense of his magic. Hot poison burned in his claws, searching for flesh to tear, and Kasuka's laughter rang violently in his ears.

"The great Taiyoukai of the West locked in place like a human in chains. Even if you could free yourself from your bondage, could you find me? Rescue your mate from an illusion that has destroyed her memory of you? You cannot...but the story is not complete. The moment she loves him, when he lays his claim to her as you did, it will destroy her mind. What youkai can have two mates? And what will happen to you, Lord of the West, when the woman you love lies in the arms of your brother? I did not know until I searched her mind that you had been second choice. Will you bargain for her life?"

Sesshomaru watched her approach him from the confines of the mirror, and her hands stroked the skin of his face. His eyes burned with his silent answer and she watched them, licking her lips, and a mocking smile was his only prelude to a continuation of torture.

The darkness swirled tight around Kagome's thoughts, and in a spasm of clarity she fought against it, pulling on her own power, on the knowledge of her spirit that the beautiful things she had experienced were the reflection in light of a time that had been permeated by darkness. The spell choked her breath and pinned her clawing hands, forced her soul back under bonds of forgetfulness and constricted her memory of the demon she loved.

"Kagome? Kagome!"

She blinked slowly and bright light poured into her pained eyes, yellow and fluorescent. She felt beneath her the soft mattress of her own bed and pillows, the smooth nylon cover of her comforter and the familiar city odors of her own future era. For a moment her thoughts were consumed with panicked confusion, but it was washed away when her eyes lit on rough red fabric.

"Inu…Yasha?"

The artificial light over her head gave way to equally golden and glowing eyes, filled with worry and poised barely two inches above her face. Kagome squealed and sat bolt upright. InuYasha went flying back off her bead onto the floor and landed in a fire-rat pile of undignified hanyou.

"Oi! Wench! I've been watching you for THREE days and the first thing you do is send me flying across the room!"

Kagome's startled look disappeared immediately and was replaced with a quiet blush.

"You've been watching me? Why?"

He shrugged and sat cross-legged on the floor next to her bed.

"After we found that last shard you fell and wouldn't get up. Kaede didn't know what was wrong with you, so I brought you back here. You've been in bed for three days and your mother didn't want me to stay, but she can't make me leave."

He folded his arms across his chest with a smug smile, and Kagome shook her head slightly, grinning.

"InuYasha, my mother might not be able to `make' you leave…but she does buy the ramen."

His smile dissolved into a look of horror, and he leapt out of the room. Kagome heard him leaping down the stairs and crashing into the kitchen, and she silently wondered whether he would find all the ramen and hide it, or prostrate himself at her mother's feet. She giggled slightly and shook her head to clear it of the image of InuYasha abasing himself before her mother, and climbed unsteadily out of bed, half-angry at the weakness in her legs. Before she could take ten steps InuYasha was standing in her doorway with an angry scowl playing across his features, and then a flash darted across her room and scooped her into its arms and looked down at her surprised face.

"You haven't been up for three days, stupid girl! You can't walk yet!"

"I can too!"

"Can't!"

"Can!"

"Can't!"

"InuYasha if you don't put me down I'll say IT!"

He was silent for a moment, but then he smirked at her again.

"If you say it then you'll fall too. You better not, I don't need to waste more shard-hunting days watching you because you hurt yourself falling from the spell."

Kagome flushed an angry pink, and surprised even herself with her vehemence.

"Sit! Sit Sit Sit! Stupid hanyou better put me down! SIT!"

InuYasha crashed into the floor with Kagome still in his arms, and she was pinned to his body by the force of the spell. The heat of his skin where his haori had slipped off his chest met the heat of her blushing cheek, and she made small mewling noises in an attempt to pull away. A growl built in InuYasha's chest and she felt it rumble against the side of her body, pressed against his chest. She could just barely see into his face, and there was a hungry, needing look in his eyes that expanded with the growl, until Kagome felt the lessening of the spell pressure against them. Instead of the spell, she felt InuYasha's arms tighten around her body, one caught under her thighs and the other pressed tightly around her back. He stood carefully, blinking back hot youkai, but much to her surprise he did not put her down, and she felt a tingling where the tips of his claws brushed against her skin.

"You can sit me into the netherworld but you still aren't walking. Why don't you let me protect you?"

Kagome laughed, glad to break the tension that had somehow gathered thick between them, and he looked faintly insulted.

"There isn't anything in my house you have to protect me from, InuYasha! Especially not my bathtub!"

Rather than argue with her, for once InuYasha was surprisingly mature, and walked down the hallway and into her bathroom and set her on the edge of the tub.

"InuYasha?"

He stalked to the corner of the bathroom and sat facing the door with his back to her, studiously avoiding even the slightest glimpse in her direction.

"Take your bath, wench; I still don't trust the youkai you keep downstairs."

Kagome slid gratefully into a tubful of steaming water, and decided that she would never forget the look on InuYasha's face when she had tried to convince him that the television wasn't a youkai. She had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason the box was still intact was because it had yet to threaten her life.

The water cooled too quickly for her liking, and Kagome dragged herself out of the tub with a reluctant groan, wrapping a soft terry-cloth towel around her body. She ran a brush through her damp hair, and InuYasha cracked an eye her way at the noise of the bristles. When he had decided she had brushed it long enough, he picked her up again and walked into the hallway and down to her room. Kagome let the brush dangle limply from one hand, and stared at the ceiling with a resigned expression, no matter how secretly pleased she was at his constant attention.

Her thoughts changed slightly when he dropped her onto the center of her bed, and she saw then the long silver strands of his hair and was possessed suddenly with a terrible burning desire to brush them. She tugged on the back of his haori, and he turned to face her with a slightly annoyed expression.

"What now?"

She blushed.

"Can I brush your hair?"

He cringed.

"What?!"

She smiled.

"It will be nice, I promise."

Kagome pulled him onto the end of her bed, and he sat cross-legged in front of her, and slowly, being careful of the satin smoothness of his ears, she began to work out the tangles in the long silver mass. She was surprised at first by its texture - despite its smooth appearance the individual hairs were coarse, with a feel to them more of fur than of human hair, and she experienced a moment of mental fore-head slapping at her recognition of another dog-demon trait.

It took her nearly a half hour to untangle it enough so she could run her brush through it, and then she began to hear a purr. She looked around for Buyo, but didn't find the fat cat, and then she felt vibrations through the brush. She leaned over InuYasha's shoulder from behind, and discovered that she was right - the mighty hunter was purring. She couldn't stop the bubble of laughter that formed in her throat, and she fell backwards onto her pillows, giggling madly and gasping for breath. InuYasha turned to look at her, peacefully dazed expression on his face, and Kagome could have sworn he was drunk.

"Whaddya laughing at?"

His voice only made her laugh harder, and InuYasha stopped looking so peaceful and started scowling.

"What?!"

Kagome managed to gasp out words between giggles.

"You…were…purring…"

InuYasha blushed furiously, and crossed his arms in his standard defensive posture.

"I was not. InuYoukai don't purr, we growl."

Kagome got up on to her knees in front of him and apologized swiftly, but then she noticed the twitching of his nose in her general direction. As she leaned back, he leaned forward, until she fell backwards on to the pillows again, and then he was sniffing her all over.

"InuYasha!"

"What? You smell funny."

Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Gee thanks. Listen, I just took a bath buster, so you had better keep your mouth shut!"

"I'm InuYasha, not Buster, and you had better not take any more baths. You smell like your mother…its weird."

Kagome blinked and sniffed at her hair, and her expression cleared .

"Oh! I used her shampoo. I always forget how sensitive your nose is."

InuYasha grumbled at her and continued his sniffing, settling at the pulse-point in her neck. Some sort of quick decision making process went on in his head then, and he licked rough-gently at where he had been sniffing, trying to clear away the artificial scents. Kagome blushed scarlet and felt another pulse being low in her belly, catching at the bottom of her breath. He frowned and pressed his nose against her skin, and pulled away with an almost petulant expression on his face.

"I still can't smell you right. Stupid wench, why do you have to use so many smelly things? I can't tell you're mine if you don't smell right!"

Kagome's thoughts froze.

*His?!*

In a corner of her mind that was unaffected by his words, Kagome recognized what he said, knew that for him scent determined identity more than physical appearance. The restored rasp of his tongue on the pulse of her neck shut off her mind completely, and a breathy moan told her arousal to the air around her, already thickly scented by her body's betrayal. InuYasha breathed the finally clean fragrance of her crushed - berry scent from the patch of skin he had cleared of extraneous odors, and lifted his head briefly. He was hit immediately with a wave of her lust, and noticed then with keener than youkai focus the trembling of her limbs and her body beneath him, the odd shuttered haziness in her eyes, and without even thinking about it he pressed his lips against hers and drank her gasps as though he were a man dying of thirst.

Kagome felt a stabbing pain at her throat, and a pressure grew in her heart as she kissed InuYasha for the first time, and slowly she pulled away from the questing softness of his tongue and pressed a hand against the side of her neck, feeling a hot pulse of strangely familiar youkai against her palm. The smallest of impatience-laced whines escaped InuYasha's throat, and Kagome shook off the strangeness and pulled him back down to her mouth, greedy and wanting, feeding the slow fire in her belly.

A knock on Kagome's door shook them back into awareness of where and who they were, and InuYasha stood instantly and bolted out the window. Kagome shook her head, dazed, and opened the door to her mother, pulling her mostly disarrayed towel back tightly around her body, hoping she wasn't blushing too much.

"Its good to see you up, dear. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with you, so I assumed you were just completely exhausted. All this time-travel can't be good for you…but where did InuYasha go?"

Kagome attempted an unconcerned shrug.

"Back down the well."

"Oh. Well get dressed and come down to dinner dear, and then we'll see what you need before you go back to Sengoku Jidai."

Kagome nodded and turned back into her room and sat on the edge of her bed, her head a whirl of confused thoughts. Somewhere in her head an invisible voice was crying, but she could not tell who it belonged to.

Eeeeeee! This humble author begs pardon! I have had NO internet for a month and a half, and so I haven't been able to post anything at all. I haven't forgotten the story or gotten bored - in FACT I've got two more chapters all done which should be up in the next day or so - and I promise we're getting to the good part!