InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Double Vision ❯ Chapter 57 ( Chapter 56 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I don’t own “Inuyasha” and I don’t own “The Shining”.

“Amaya! Amaya!” His voice echoed through the Eastern Mountains, disturbing the many birds that made their homes in the glade surrounding Amaya’s waterfall. They scattered to the skies in an explosion of bright colors. Inutaisho was getting very angry. He had been looking for the wench all day. Usually, he would only have to say her name once, and she would appear. His little lover was obviously defying him. What of her vaunted loyalty? Had women been placed on this earth for the sole purpose of driving him mad? “Enough!” he roared. He reached over his shoulder and ripped his great sword from its sheath. “S’ounga!” His deep voice thundered across the land. Gigantic slabs of dark basalt that had been slowly rounded and polished by the action of water over countless springs and summers and falls and winters were suddenly shattered into jagged shards, which thrust their way up through the ruined, rocky soil like agonized fingers. Peace and serenity had governed over the waterfall and pool for millennia. He felt a pang of regret as chaos overtook the sacred glade. This was the place he had first come upon Amaya, bathing in the tranquil pool. He had been an inexperienced youth, awestruck by her beauty, and could not believe his good fortune when she called him to her. She had run her pointed fingers through his hair, allowed him to kiss her petal pink lips, and finally taken him between her plump, rounded white thighs on this very spot, so many years ago.

Amaya appeared in a flash of light. She folded her arms across her bounteous chest and glared at him. “That sword has a bad influence on your temper, Inu. Maybe someone should take it away from you.”

He mimicked her gesture, crossing his own arms inside his billowing sleeves. His usually deep and powerful voice took on a sarcastic tone. “Who’s going to do that? You, Amaya?”

“Don’t try my patience, little boy!” She scolded. “If you push me too far, you may not be happy with the results!”

“Where were you? I called and called! You told me you would always be here for me!”

“You are such a child, Inutaisho! Just tell me what you want.”

“The other day you spoke to me of betrayal.”

“And you did not want to listen.”

“I’m listening now.”

Inutaisho stormed into his palace, ignoring the toadies and retainers who attempted to claim his attention, and made his way to the apartments of his wife. When he swept through the door to the audience chamber where she spent her days, he found her laying on her back in a trance, her belly big and round with his pup. He slapped her sharply across her face.

Ai woke with a gasp. “Inu! What’s wrong?”

“Tell me what you are Ai!”

“I’m your wife, Inu! The mother of your pup!”

Inu stalked around her dais, his white hair and silk garments blowing about in the ominous wind generated by his outrage. “I saved you, made you my mate, the Lady of the Western Lands, and what have you given me in return?” He glared at her, his chest heaving. “Lies! Deceit! Betrayal!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You are no mortal woman, are you, Ai? When you lived on, for year after year, far exceeding a proper human lifespan, I credited it to your holy powers. But I was wrong, wasn’t I. You are not a priestess, Ai. You are an abomination! Not a human, nor yet a demon. I ask you again, Ai, What are you?”

When she didn’t answer, he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her through long winding halls and down wide, elegant stairways, past the public places made of polished white marble, and beyond the kitchens and armories and storerooms, where the halls became narrower and the steps steep and treacherous. Deep down into the depths of the fortress into the harsh gray foundations that housed the dungeons and torture chambers of his palace. Inutaisho kicked open a heavy wooden door and tossed Ai inside, sending her sprawling on the cold stone floor. He followed her into the room and slammed the door shut. The mate who had once shown her so much love and patience now loomed over her like some kind of living nightmare. She tossed her head from side to side. “Please, Inu! Please, don’t hurt me!”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Ai, I’m going to fucking kill you!” He yanked her up by her hair and tore the silken robes from her body. He twisted her arm in one hand, shoving her onto massive wooden table. He tied down her wrists and ankles with thick leather cuffs. When he unsheathed S’ounga and laid the sword beside her on the table, Ai suddenly realized that it had been her own future she had seen in the pool under the shade of the willow tree.

Ai sobbed as her mate grabbed a whip from a hook on the wall. He stared into her eyes as he caressed the supple, well-oiled leather. The whip cracked, leaving a stinging welt across one tender thigh. “Don’t hurt the pup!” Ai pleaded.

“It is best if it dies. It will surely be a monster, like its mother.”

“I promise you, the pup will be of pure demon blood. It is your pup, your son, and he will be an Inu, just as you are. I beg of you, Inutaisho, spare your son’s life and you will see that what I say is true.”

Inutaisho could not afford to ignore his mate’s claims. Inutaisho was the last of his bloodline. With no hope of finding a female Inu to breed with, he had resolved himself to being the last dog demon on the planet. Although he had little interest in producing an heir to his throne, if Ai could produce pure Inu offspring, it would mean the redemption of his whole species. He returned the whip to its place on the wall.

He kept his back turned to her. “Tell me what you know of the priestess Midoriko.”

Ai knew it would be a mistake to deny any knowledge of Midoriko. It was obvious that her mate knew she had met with the priestess. She did not know whether he knew what they had spoken of. She decided to exercise extreme caution in her answers.

“She is the warrior-priestess who is the current guardian of the demon slayers’ village in the Eastern Mountains.”

Inutaisho spun around and stepped closer to his mate. His eyes were cold and hard as he looked down into her face. “Fascinating. Now tell me what interest the Lady of the Western Lands could have in the affairs of the priestess of the demon slayers?”

“There has been talk in the palace that it is the Lord of the Western Lands who has an interest in the priestess. I merely wanted to find out if the rumors were true.”

“You were jealous, Ai? How touching.” He smirked. “I will make sure that you do not need to suffer such an indignity again.”

“You’ll stop seeing her, then?” Ai asked hopefully.

“I’ll kill her.”

“No!” Gasped Ai.

“Why do you care, Ai? She’s just a human. I’m beginning to suspect that you care more for this priestess than you let on. Are the two of you perhaps plotting some form of treason against your Lord?”

Inutaisho smiled wickedly, exposing his long fangs. Ai shuddered. She realized in that moment that he knew everything. The demon lord returned his sword to its sheath, and used his sharp claws to cut through the leather straps that bound her hands and feet to the table. Sweeping his mate into his arms, he exited the dungeons, climbing the steep stairs to the main part of the palace.

“Where are you taking me?” Ai was in a panic. She had no idea what he was planning as he launched himself into the sky, still carrying her in his arms.