InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust ❯ Hate Unfounded ( Chapter 34 )

Histaru stalked through thick tree-growth, downwind of a camp of dragon youkai who had entrenched themselves on the borders of the castle-front encampment of the army of the west. He held a long dagger tightly in his teeth, claws splayed in defensive posture, and he ran low to the ground, swift and silent. He counted quickly, closing in a circle around the group of guerrillas and numbering them at fifteen, exactly the same as the six other groups he had scouted out since midmorning. Spread in a rough semicircle, the small groups seemed to pose no threat, and did not even seem to be prepared for battle. He suspected witchery behind whatever plan they were forming, suspicion based on the magic camouflage that managed to hide the enemy youkai from all senses but sight and hearing. But Histaru had learned that a blade still bit their flesh as honestly as any other flesh. Catching a shift in the breeze, and with enough sense to report before he was scented out, Histaru scratched a small mark into a nearby tree, making sure of its location, and ran back the way he had come as fast as he was able.

He found his father poring over the illustration of one of his colleagues, an overlay of thin parchment over the scroll showing the movement of the dragon clans since the previous days scouts had reported in. From what he could see from the doorway where he stood awaiting permission to enter, it appeared that there had been no shift in position for the seven days since Lord Sesshomaru had left in search of the woman who was his mate. The rumor in the camp spoke of a miko youkai who incredible beauty and terrifying coldness, who had capture their lord with a spell of horrific proportions. His thoughts were cut short by his father's impatient gesture of summoning, and the youkai commander waved carelessly at the seat across from him. The charts and maps spread out on the table were covered in markings that looked recent and hurried.

"You don't look happy about the placement of their troops, milord. Can we not take it as a good sign that they are mustering for no further attack?"

Akira shook his head slowly, tracing a single red line with the tip of one claw.

"I would be quite pleased if it did not appear that some trickery was taking place. For seven days I have sent scouts after the position of troops, and for three days they have been in the same position. The problem appears to be that each of my scouts has seen a reduction in the number of youkai present in the battle lines each day they go."

Histaru grimaced and shook his head.

"I may have found where they have gone, but I can offer no explanation as to why they are there…"

Akira blinked, and pushed stylus and parchment across the low table to his youngest son.

"Show me."

Diligently, Histaru outlined the borders of the Western Lands on the scrap of parchment, and marked along it the location of the several small guerilla camps he had found.

"There are at least a hundred of them, spread out along the borders, and six of them are so close to the edges of our encampment that I'm surprised they haven't been stumbled upon by accident. Those are the six I scouted most recently. Each one holds exactly fifteen soldiers, and the magic that hides them from scent and spirit is still fully in effect, so I don't know if there are more camps like these than I have found spread beyond the range of my patrol."

Akira frowned, and his fists clenched tightly as he pushed away from the table and stared blankly at the canvas wall of the tent. He stood silent for so long that Histaru was about to stand and leave, when his father's voice spoke, softly and as though he spoke to himself.

"This war is no war, it is a mockery made of magic. Something must be done…all this speaks of is more sorcery, and none here among us can counter it. The Lady of the West chose a bad time to go missing."

Histaru spoke hesitantly, revealing campfire rumors and testing them on his father's perceptions.

"The rumor among the soldiers speaks of a powerful priestess who has enchanted Lord Sesshomaru to keep him in bondage to her will and destroy him, and that she uses her influence over him to draw him away when he will be needed most. What do you know of our Lady, Otousan?"

Akira shook his head slightly, and waved carelessly at the flap of the tent, towards the army that sat around them.

"I do not believe such thoughts, though I am not surprised they have begun to spread. Our Lady is miko-youkai, the priestess who defeated Naraku and who holds the power of the shikon no tama. There is no spell over Lord Sesshomaru but the spell of love, though considering who he is, that is no small feat. You would think that that would be enough for speculation without added rumor."

Histaru nodded, and his father walked across to grip his shoulder with a strong, clawed hand.

"You bring our family much honor, Histaru. Go back to your patrol, but say nothing to anyone of this. Instead of following patrol routine, I want you to watch one of these groups of dragon youkai on our doorstep, and report to me as soon as you discover even a hint of what they are up to."

His hand tightened slightly on Histaru's shoulder, and then he nodded shortly and dismissed him to prepare for the task he had been set. Akira's senses tingled a warning, and he sent a silent prayer for his Lord's return.

In a dream within a dream, Kagome felt a rush of aching, burning pain. The dreaming invaded the out thrust tendrils of her mind, stroking her senses with mild, shallow fingers. She was frozen in clear glass, watching herself as though she were merely a reflection. In the dream, she saw a familiar form sitting beside her dream - self, which reminded her in face and figure of InuYasha, full demon and grown to regal elegance. She could hear his voice, rippling through the dreamscape with humming, wood-beautiful resonance, and a smile crept across her features sleep slowly. The world outside her dreaming illusion heard `Sesshomaru' as a whisper, but trapped in her dream the name was a flicker of memory, out of reach and abruptly forgotten.

She watched from behind her wall of ice, seeing a memory, and the self of her dream flickered, a candle almost out and gusting in the wind of someone's breath. The someone whose name she had had only for a moment reached for her dream-self, and pulled her into a soul-searing kiss. Kagome felt each breath, distinct and softly separate, as time froze around her. The dream expanded, dilated, opening into a pupil in the eye of a god who stood in utter darkness.

With suddenness that made sound and motion nearly unbearable, glass and ice both shattered, and Kagome fell to her knees, felt the dissolution of her other-self in the dream, and then her eyes lit on fire with the light of memory behind her eyelids. The icy chill of the ground reached up into her heart in counter reaction, and the polar tug of opposites on her soul was precious agony like none she had ever known. When the pain subsided she felt the flushing return of memory, and names and moments flashed into her heart to fill the empty places she had not known were missing. Kagome opened her eyes and looked at the ground where she had fallen, and saw in front of her the shadow of Death. Her thoughts flickered redly, violent in an attempt to understand what was happening to her - but she knew that though she dreamt in some ensorcelled panic, Death had come for her true and waking soul. Slowly, she felt the life flowing free from her body, tense and uncoiling, serpentine, deep in her belly.

Desperate, she called out to the dream-vision of Sesshomaru, his name returned to her with the force of true lifetime's memories. The vision of him turned and became InuYasha, laughing and violent, turned again and disappeared. In the trial of the moment she managed to force one despairing `I love you!' from cold-caught lips, but her mind was in confusion and she did not know who she meant it for. Ice-hot fingers tilted up her chin, and it was then that she looked straight and unafraid into the face of Death. Kagome saw only the eyes, black and full of stars, the universe reflected in an empty, projected loneliness, unconquerable and eternal. She heard its voice, mist grating on darkness and perfume, and her soul was laughing with joy that her mind did not understand.

"You wish to stay, even so?"

The outline of Sesshomaru appeared again at its gesture, as full of stars as the eyes she had seen, and her heart battered helpless and blind in her chest when the outline drew Toukijin and pressed in deep into her body. The stars in eyes and form melted into the dreamscape, and she fell into forever, screaming.

Sesshomaru had learned how to wait. The tenseness of his coiled power churned in the deeps of his eyes, but he let slip enough hot youkai to flush them dripping and careful crimson. Kasuka ignored him, intent on the working of her painful and shattering illusions, angry that Kagome continued to pull free of them though some power that Kasuka could not understand. Again and again she forced the girl into illusions of old memories with Sesshomaru's dead brother, and again and again Kagome escaped them, changed them, dreaming dreams of power. One more time she crafted painful and shattering illusion, and she did not hear the cry of all beings that could love against the torture of a pure soul.

The slow buildup of Sesshomaru's power behind the constraints of Kasuka's binding spell did not completely escape her notice, as he had hoped, but her sneer in his direction conveyed complete disgust and a total lack of fear for his prowess.

"You have no chance of breaking my magic, dog. Perhaps if you are lucky I will let you free to…play…before I end your pathetic life. It would be more than you deserve."

She forced his attention back to the mirror, held between her deadly claws, and one last time Kagome's new-restored awareness battled against the pressure of ancient and evil spells.

Kagome lay pinned to the forest ground, the thick canopy of trees above her head scattering the sun-rays into distorted patterns. InuYasha looked down at her with laughing eyes, a new development since they had completed the jewel, and Kagome rolled her eyes.

"I know you win! It's not really fair to play tag with you, Inu-chan, considering as you can run ten times faster than me!"

"Ha! I win I win I win! So what's the prize, huh Kagome? What do I get?"

Kagome's brow wrinkled slightly.

"Prize? There's no prize for tag, silly."

InuYasha growled softly and nuzzled down her hairline to her neck, breathing the sweetness of her scent.

"Shippou always gets a reward…"

Kagome shivered when his hot breath moved across her skin, and tried to collect her thoughts enough to answer him.

"Sh-Sh-Shippou is a ch-child, Inu-chan. You are n-not…"

Her last words came out as more of a moan than words, and he looked down at her with hot, wicked eyes that had bled slightly crimson. She was used to the invasion of his youkai in such moments, lust opening the door that tetsusaiga usually kept shut, and with startled suddenness his mouth was on hers, greedily sucking lips and soft tongue probing. She groaned into his mouth, the long unfulfilled heat in her veins lifting her hips from the forest floor to press against his, and a new kind of wanton pleasure flushed her without guilt when she felt the hardness of him there. The throbbing pulse of hot pain was back at her throat again, but she ignored its insistent tremor when his teeth nipped at her shoulder, pleasure/pain combining to flush her skin a wanting pink.

She struggled against his hold on her wrists and he sat away from her, still straddling her hips, but the new wantonness in her would not be denied, and she pulled off her shirt and struggled with her bra in a laying position, until he made a half-laughing, growling noise and used one claw to slice through the bit of fabric that connected the two cups, and left her breasts bared to his view. She writhed, her hard nipples begging for his teeth and his tongue, and he obliged, nipping at them with sharp fangs. Once he was not gentle enough and tore her skin, small drops of blood running down her body into the band of her skirt, but she was too far gone to care and he licked them from her body with ill-concealed glee. Kagome heard the tearing of her skirt and panties, felt the coolness of a spring breeze on her naked skin, and his nipping, sucking bites continued down the smoothness of her stomach and the tops of her thighs. There was no warning when his tongue plunged into her, raping her, loving her, and she did not protest, opened her legs wider to admit him, moaned and screamed and whispered his name - and then he was over her, hovering, somehow nude and she did not care where his clothes were because his skin was hot against her skin and she wanted the completion that only he could give her. He looked down into her eyes, and then his head went back and he screamed - but the scream was the scream of a demoness consumed in rage, and Kagome shook her head when `Kasuka' floated into it from nowhere.

"Kagome! Remember! I am not who I am! I died, Kagome, I died and you never knew, but watch!"

She stared into InuYasha's face, shocked by his words, but more by his eyes that were totally black, and she felt that there was something she should remember but couldn't.

"This is illusion, Kagome, all of it and you know it. You escaped before but she can't let that happen, and so I am sent back to you to help. I wanted this with you, wanted it and couldn't have it because Kikyou had no heart and stole my mind. I didn't mean to hurt you, Kagome, I didn't mean to ever leave you….watch!"

In his eyes Kagome saw a scene she knew was the truth, and it tore her soul to watch it.

**Kikyou stood in a forest glade, and InuYasha in front of her had eyes that danced with anger.

"You can't kill her for yourself, Kikyou! I know I promised to protect you, but I promised to protect her too, and protecting you does NOT include killing her! You shouldn't even be alive any more!"

"I should have known you couldn't be trusted now any more than you could be fifty years ago, InuYasha!"

She reached into the folds of her hakama and pulled out a small vial, full of a green liquid that danced with evil menace, and her undead hand darted out and stole a few silver strands of hair. She dropped them into the vial, that hissed and spit and turned a glowing blue, and InuYasha backed away from her, horrified, but it wasn't fast enough, and she dashed the contents of the vial into his eyes.

"When you see me again, you will believe my words, all of them. When you see me again, you will hate the girl, Kagome. Do you understand?"

InuYasha's eyes were dull and blue.

"I understand."

Kikyou smiled, and her undead face held an expression of fiendish glee, eyes glittering with malice.

"Go now."**

"InuYasha! No!"

The figure of him began to fade with the rest of the illusion, lustful expression replaced by deepest grief.
"Forgive me, Kagome. Forgive me, but love him!"

"InuYasha!"

But the illusion shattered into a thousand splintered pieces of color, and she was pitched back into darkness once more.

Wooo! I told you the good part was coming! For everyone who was glad that I made InuYasha a bad guy ( I don't know if anyone was, but oh well) I really didn't, as you can see. After all, he's not that bad…he's just not as good as Sess-chan. Mwaha. More chapters soon! Please review!