InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cerulean Skies ❯ Cerulean ( Chapter 1 )

 

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

Cerulean

 

 

~Dedication~

 

(This story is dedicated to my good friend Koga's Hentai Luver who threatened to torture MY Sesshoumaru if I didn't please HER Kouga in every way. Thanks for your help and encouragement. And, for helping me to overcome my embarrassment at writing with some purely smutty language. You truly are a perv, girl. LOL)

 

 

 

 

The blue, luminescent, purifying arrow ripped through the air toward its target, the enemy, Sesshoumaru, proud arrogant Lord of the Western Lands. To say that he is dangerous would be an understatement. He is the most powerful, full-blooded dog demon in the land, one badass ruler, assassin of any who would intrude upon his territory. Nevertheless, his beauty is stunning. Even with the green energy ribbons whipping from the palms of his long, elegant, and powerful fingers, slicing through his enemies, or the green acidic poison dripping from his clawed fingers slaying challengers to his throne, he is elegant, regal; simply put, flat out gorgeous.

 

Though his countenance is more often than not, colder than the north winds of winter, it cannot hide those amber eyes that belie the fierce fire beneath that forced facade. The carefully controlled strength exuding from his tall slender frame is not lessened by the silky silver mane flowing nearly to his ankles, or by the nearly androgynous facial features adorned with two lavender stripes on each cheek and a blue crescent moon on his forehead, or even by the aristocratic white billowing clothing trimmed in red and gold and held by the overly large obi tied into a large bow decorated in blue and yellow across his mid-section.

 

Let's not forget that white fluffy pelt draped over his right shoulder. Oh, it looks so soft and inviting. That is, until it whips out and squeezes the entrails out of you. Nevertheless, with his spiked armor, impressive sword, lightening fast speed, demon powers, and unmatched strength, few dare to challenge him. He has a right to his arrogance. And yet, he does not abuse it, has not been cruel to anyone, though his half brother, Inuyasha, might argue that point. He may kill with ease and impunity, but never tortures.

 

Kouga, the bronze-skinned demon wolf prince, stood atop the steep cliff observing the battle between Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, the mongrel half-brother of the great lord. How does one describe the wolf prince? Ah, those cerulean blue eyes that sparkle with his deep laughter and pierce like a steel blade in his anger. Those eyes peer out over high cheekbones and a strong jaw line accentuated by long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, a leather headband keeping wild untamed bangs from getting in his line of sight.

 

Raw power pours from his corded muscular physique. No, he isn't bulky, but just right. About five foot nine, not an inch of him isn't lean, even his thighs; those beautiful thighs, always peeking out from beneath the fur wrap that is just long enough to cover the essentials. And, those thighs lead to the most beautiful well tapered legs ever seen on a man, well, demon. Perhaps their beauty is enhanced by the shards of the Shikon jewel that he embedded in them to improve his speed. Nah. Even with fur wrapped around his lower legs, the bone structure gives away the fact that he was born to graceful strength, moving like no human could ever manage.

 

His arms are just as well proportioned, the right sporting a furred wristband, the other an entire wrap around the forearm. His black and silver armor hangs by straps connected at matching fur shoulder pads. The formfitting armor only adds to the air of strength, despite leaving his collarbone exposed. Unlike Sesshoumaru, he does not wear shoes, but white bindings, leaving his toes free for the balance he needs in his jaunts through the forest.

 

A wolf belongs to the earth, and his heart is as wild as the life that surrounds him. Kouga's aura simply screams `freedom'. Earthy, free and wild, power in motion. One hot and steamy wet dream.

 

At this moment, Kouga's steely gaze, locked on the movements of the powerful Sesshoumaru, noticed the blue streak. Too late. The woman he chose for his mate let a purifying arrow fly, determination written in the stance of her body and in the expression of her face.

 

“Shit, Kagome,” gasped Kouga as he jumped from the cliff's edge, skating on a rockslide toward the battle.

 

`She is only human, yet she tempts fate, constantly risks her life, and for what? Inuyasha, that mongrel half-breed. Why doesn't she let me protect her while she looks for the jewel shards? I can protect her better than dog boy. Sesshoumaru will kill her for interfering.'

 

“You dare to attack the Lord of the Western Lands? How impudent. You will die with your tainted hanyou,” stated Sesshoumaru with that annoying, characteristic flat voice of his.

 

“Kagome, you stupid wench!” yelled Inuyasha as he became a blur of red and white.

 

All three males rushed toward her, Kouga reaching her first. Scooping her up into his arms, Kouga jumped away with no time to spare. He deposited Kagome behind a boulder hoping it was far enough away from the two battling brothers.

 

“Take this, Kagome. Stay here.”

 

Kouga lifted her right hand and set a dagger in the palm while his words came out softly. He palmed her hand between his. Kagome gazed up eyes still startled wide, not yet having taken a breath since the three demons had rushed her. The chocolate abyss of her eyes always seemed to swallow him and he could never get those full luscious lips out of his mind.

 

Ah, Kagome. A strange girl. She always wears a short pleated green skirt. There's not much left to the imagination where the skirt is concerned. Her sailor styled white blouse however, is none too revealing. She's an odd one for Kouga's day and age. How little he knew of this black-haired, dark-eyed beauty.

 

Everyone says that she is the reincarnation of a dead miko, Kikyou. Inuyasha once believed he was in love with Kikyou. But, through deception, they were turned against one another. Kikyou died and Inuyasha ended up pinned to a tree for fifty years by one of her arrows. But, Kagome somehow managed to release Inuyasha from the bespelled arrow.

 

Now they both search for the shards of the Shikon no Tama. Poor Kagome. In her efforts to be of help, she had accidentally shattered the jewel in a fashion that left its shards scattered across the lands. That is how she came to be here. She feels it's her responsibility to find the shards and make this very powerful jewel whole again.

 

Kouga ran his finger along the line of her lips before disappearing over the boulder. From the frying pan of his lust into the fire of battle.

 

No sooner had Kouga vaulted over the boulder than he found himself trapped against it. The length of Sesshoumaru's body was pressed up against his, his throat squeezed by fingers tipped with poisonous talons. A low resonating growl rumbled against his chest as the demon lord stared him down with amber eyes.

 

“Wolf prince, why do you endanger yourself to interfere with something that is clearly none of your concern? Only you keep your pack from being anyone's meat. You would risk that for a human?”

 

“She is my woman,” Kouga choked out through the pressure of Sesshoumaru's hand squeezing his throat. “You dishonor the male sex by attacking a woman.”

 

Sesshoumaru could have said, `But she started it'. How childish. Instead, he tightened his grip in frustration. Too many counted on the damn wolf for their safety. Killing him would do more damage than good. Not that he really cared. Really.

 

`Almost there,' thought Kouga as his fingers felt the hilt of his sword.

 

“Sesshoumaru, you bastard!”

 

Inuyasha, in his flaming red fire rat robe, stood with his sword, Tetsusaiga, dropped to the ground, obviously injured as he held onto his sword arm. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. Kouga's fingers wrapped around the hilt of his sword just as Sesshoumaru loosened his grip. The talons came away from Kouga's skin leaving small rivulets of blood trailing down his neck. Kouga gazed at Sesshoumaru baffled as the demon lord caressed the imprints then lapped at the blood.

 

“Cerulean blue,” murmured Sesshoumaru before vanishing.

 

`What the hell was that all about?'

 

Kouga didn't have time to ask. The demon lord was gone, gone to put his brother in his place. What did Kouga care as long as Kagome was safe? How could she be when he turned around to jump back over the boulder only to see her standing atop it drawing back the string of her bow ready to let loose another arrow?

 

“No!”

 

Quicker than the eye could see, Kouga lit beside her, grabbing the bow and arrow.

 

“Kagome! I told you to stay behind the boulder.”

 

He barely contained a grin when her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.

 

`She is just lovely, especially when she's annoyed or angry. Her boldness will make her a mate that will easily intimidate enemies and assert her dominance over the pack.'

 

“Nobody tells me what to do, Kouga,” growled the fiery little miko, her left brow twitching.

 

Dark eyes set in pale skin framed by raven hair blazed with independence. Kouga couldn't help but smile at her words.

 

“Not even your mate?”

 

Kagome's eyes widened as she sputtered.

 

“I…I'm no one's mate, Kouga.”

 

She gasped staring over Kouga's shoulder, her face frozen in horror. He turned his head to see what was happening with the two idiots. Sesshoumaru had his hand through Inuyasha's abdomen. That should not have been possible.

 

`Who would have thought that Sesshoumaru's hand could break through that cursed red fire rat robe of Inuyasha's? Damn thing is tougher than the blade of a sword. Yes! Sesshoumaru may kill my rival for me and I will never have to worry about Kagome finding out that I killed him. She couldn't hate me. Oh yeah, she'll be all mine now,' thought Kouga with a smirk.

 

“Inuyasha!” screamed Kagome as Sesshoumaru took Tetsusaiga from his hand.

 

`Damn. Humans just don't know how loud their noise is to the keen hearing of a youkai. Kagome's scream nearly blew my right ear to the other side of my head!'

 

The sword crackled as a barrier singed Sesshoumaru's hand. Sesshoumaru removed his other hand from Inuyasha's gut using it to grasp the sword and the barrier receded.

 

“You can't…touch Tetsusaiga. Father made it for me. How…” Inuyasha trailed off as he sank to his knees, chin resting on his chest as his white mane flowed into his eyes.

 

“A shard, in his arm. It can't be his arm, Kouga. Inuyasha cut it off,” whispered a dumbfounded Kagome.

 

Nevertheless, a shard held a human arm to the stub left by Inuyasha. Kouga and Kagome watched as Sesshoumaru lifted the sword high studying it.

 

“Father was a fool. Your tainted blood could not possibly wield the full power of Tetsusaiga,” Sesshoumaru informed Inuyasha as he swung the sword, transformed into its mammoth fang.

 

Thunderous flames split the ground and incinerated everything in its path for yards.

 

“You will never master Tetsusaiga,” scowled Sesshoumaru at his bloody half brother.

 

Kouga was too wrapped up in the power of the sight before him. Through the vibration of the ground and howl of the wind created by Tetsusaiga, he never felt or heard Kagome take the bow and arrow from him. The arrow split the air with its electrifying aura of purity. This time, even Sesshoumaru was too absorbed to notice what she had done. The arrow struck Sesshoumaru's human arm causing him to drop the sword. Not a sound exited his lips as he narrowed those flaming amber eyes at Kagome.

 

`We're in deep shit now. Or…maybe not.'

 

“Another time, Miko,” growled Sesshoumaru as he transformed into a white ball of energy and disappeared.

 

“Inuyasha,” she called with urgency dropping from the boulder nearly falling in her attempt to run to Inuyasha's side while he toppled face first into a lake of his own blood.

 

Kagome joined Inuyasha sinking into the hot dirt-thickened oozing blood as she fell to her knees. Kouga followed hoping to hell that the thorn in his side was well and truly dead.

 

“Inuyasha, Inuyasha,” sobbed Kagome as she put her fingers to his neck.

 

It was there, a pulse, but thready at best.

 

“Help me, Kouga” she pleaded. “Help me get him to Kaede.”

 

How could he not give in to her pleas as tears streaked her face? Kouga leaned down and turned Inuyasha onto his back before lifting him from the ground.

 

`Damn it. Now I have to save his sorry ass. What is it with her and this dog?'

 

Kouga shook his head as he headed toward Kagome's encampment and friends where a fire neko could carry Inuyasha over the forest in relative ease. Kagome walked by his side, stroking Inuyasha's long white mane as it rocked to and fro.

 

“Do you think he's…gonna…die,” asked Kagome staring up into Kouga's eyes with hope.

 

“He'll live,” Kouga replied softly, though underneath he could have howled in rage at his misfortune.

 

After arriving at camp, Kagome pulled various medicines and bandages from her backpack and treated Inuyasha's wounds while her friends, the monk and demon exterminator, packed all their belongings. Kagome sat at Inuyasha's side stroking his face and hair while Kouga looked on.

 

“Kagome,” said Kouga, tapping her on her shoulder.

 

She rose to meet his gaze.

 

“Come with me. My pack already considers you one of their own. We can take care of you while you hunt for the shards. You will never have to deal with Inuyasha and his brother again. You are a strong woman with Miko powers and the ability to see the jewel shards. We can make the jewel whole all on our own. The pack would protect you with their lives, and their power to protect will only grow with the jewel.”

 

Of course, Kouga had no way of knowing that Kagome was not from his time. She had fallen into the sacred well in her family's shrine, the jewel within her body opening a time portal, taking her five hundred years into the past. She was simply a teenage school girl who, after the jewel shards were collected, would return to her own time. She was only there because she was responsible for shattering the jewel. Hopefully, she would still be able to travel back to see her friends after the jewel was complete. But that was not a certainty.

 

“Kouga.” Kagome looked at him with pain in her eyes. `How can I hurt his feelings? He's devoted to me. And, he is right about the pack. But, I will never leave Inuyasha's side.'

 

“I promised him, Kouga. I promised to never leave his side. He needs me. I…” she trailed off. “I love him,” she whispered.

 

That was something that Kouga just could not bring himself to fathom or accept. Kagome was his woman, his chosen. One day she would see that, promise or no.

 

“I will change your mind, Kagome. One day you will come to me,” smiled Kouga, reaching down to gather her hands into his own. “You are my woman.”

 

He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek then left her standing there, blushing.

 

`I will prove to her that I am strong enough to be her mate. She'll come around. I've just got to kill mutt face.'

 

`What? Demon blood? I recognize that scent.'

 

Kouga sniffed as his feet carried him deeper into the forest. The blood smelled heavy. It was burning, leaving a metallic taste in the back of his throat. Not that he'd ever eaten a sword, but he had licked blood from a blade. He lifted the cuffed wrist to his nose hoping to filter out some of the stench of charred flesh before he retched.

 

`Well, isn't this a sight. The great lord has fallen at the hands of my woman,' he mused with pride.

 

There against a tree lay the Lord of the Western Lands, Sesshoumaru, in all his glory, unconscious.

 

`Maybe I should put him out of his misery,' Kouga chuckled at the thought. `Still, he might kill Inuyasha for me.'

 

Kouga leaned against a tree pondering what he should do as he studied the unconscious demon. Without the use of his right hand, Sesshoumaru had been unable to pull the arrow from his left arm. Wisps of smoke snaked their way up from the wound, encircling the pale regal face bringing to Kouga's mind the actions of Sesshoumaru on the battle field.

 

`'Cerulean' he said. Odd. And, he licked my wounds. What was all that about?' the wolf questioned. `He seemed concerned about the fate of my pack. Why?'

 

Kouga watched the slight rise and fall of Sesshoumaru's chest.

 

`That arrow will eventually kill him. What a waste of magnificence. He has nothing against me. I guess I should help him. What would be the harm? I'd have to get too close to him though, close enough that he could take me out in one strike. Naw, he's totally helpless.'

 

Kouga crept toward the assassin with as much stealth as possible.

 

`How am I gonna get this arrow out without purifying myself?'

 

He looked around for something to use as a barrier and finally settled on his wristband. Grasping the arrow he gave it a quick firm yank. It came free without a hitch. Searing pain shot through his abdomen as he started to toss the arrow away. Gazing down in shock, his vision beginning to blur, he could make out an arm imbedded deep inside his stomach. The blur became grey while his gaze turned up to peer into two ruby eyes that were as startled as his own.

 

“Cerulean…” was the last thing he heard as he slipped into the darkness.

 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Thanks For Reading, Rating,and Reviewing!

 

Hanyou Slave aka Snowfall

 

 

*Disclaimer*

 

Inuyasha and all associated characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I make no profit from this story, nor do I intend to. My only goal is to occupy my demented mind with delusions of actually owning a life-sized, anatomically correct Sesshoumaru.

 

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