InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hate ❯ Hate 07 ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: Heyyyy…long time no update. What can I say, I'm a busy girl. But I haven't given up on this one yet.

 

 

Hate 07

 

 

Darkness surrounded her, enveloped her, and became her. As the weeks wore on, Izayoi's body began to change, and like the child within her womb, her hatred had no choice except to grow. It pained her, left her wracked with nausea for most of the hours and too exhausted to sleep. She told herself that he had lied; that it was not a baby he'd planted deep inside her body.

 

It was a demon…and therefore it must be every bit as malignant as its father.

 

And if this demon were also half human, it would be born as weak and corrupted with hatred as its mother.

 

After that night, he stopped touching her, for which she was grateful. However, he kept her close to him, within the walls of his own tent and within easy reach. At night she would curl as small as her burgeoning body would allow, fearful of the demon that slept fitfully and rarely at all.

 

The army moved often now, rarely camping for longer than a night, always on the move. Izayoi grew even more exhausted, her face pale and thin. She was kept relatively comfortable, the youkai lord's favorite pet, and spent her evenings with downcast eyes and a burning, silent hatred as her only companion.

 

Save one…the dragon was the only one that cared to speak to her.

 

Izayoi did not often answer him with words of her own, and certainly did not think of him as a friend. She understood that Ryuukossei was there at her lord's request, to watch over her, or perhaps to make sure that she didn't go mad from fear of the unknown. He informed her when the army was about to move, or about to make war, or simply asked if she needed anything.

 

“Why?” she murmured, fingers twisting together like pale and angry snakes. “I need to know why he's doing this to me.”

 

“I can't tell you that,” the dragon said quietly. “You shouldn't ask.”

 

“But it's my body,” Izayoi said, her voice breaking. She pressed her palms against her swollen belly and winced. Her shoulders shook as she worked to keep the sobs from starting, not wanting to show weakness to this demon, this dragon that was not her friend. He was just another prisoner, and they shared their mutual hatred like a warm cup of wine between strangers.

 

She didn't ask Ryuukossei why he'd been killed the first time, or why their dark master had brought him back in servitude. It was too intimate a question, and Izayoi wanted nothing intimate between herself and another youkai.

 

She'd had about as much intimacy as she could stand.

 

“He doesn't take you anymore,” Ryuukossei said quietly. “Not since the night you conceived, not since the night when…he saw you as someone else.”

 

Curiosity was the bane of her hatred, and even in defeat and despair her mind turned circles and wanted answers. She wasn't used to thinking this much about her circumstances. Since she'd been enslaved, first by soldiers and then sold to a brothel, there had always been someone who ruled over her existence.

 

Passive obedience was the bread of her survival and now, no longer asked to submit to his desires; Izayoi found herself at a loss to determine what was wanted from her.

 

“Who was she?” she ventured to ask the dragon, not expecting an answer. “Who was she to him, that silver lady?”

 

Ryuukossei glanced away. “It does not concern you.”

 

“Did he love her?”

 

The dragon stayed silent, his long hair hanging in his face like a veil, but she could see his jaw clench with a grimace of pain. Izayoi crept towards him until she was kneeling at his feet. Tentatively, she reached out with her pale fingers and brushed his sleeve, startling Ryuukossei into looking at her. His dark eyes were like pools of pain, simmering with the banked flames of hatred.

 

She should know such an expression, she'd worn it often enough herself.

 

“Did you love her?” she whispered. A shudder ran through him and she caught her breath, tasting secrets in his silence until he reached out and touched her cheek with fingers cold as ice.

 

“Such was my mistake,” he said, each word sounding like bitterness on his lips. “In the end, he forced me to betray her.”

 

“Did…did he kill her?” Izayoi needed to know. “She was his enemy?”

 

“She was his wife.”

 

“As a matter of fact,” a deep voice drawled, startling both Izayoi and Ryuukossei with its menace, “she is still my wife.”

 

Looming over them with a darkness that seemed so absolute it felt like a physical force, the Inu no Taishou entered the tent. Behind him, several of his most trusted lieutenants glared down at them, their eyes lit with malice. Izayoi felt Ryuukossei's fingers slide from her cheek as he dropped to his knees and bowed to his lord.

 

“Forgive me,” he husked, staring at the ground. “For speaking of what I should not.”

 

Smiling unpleasantly, the Inu no Taishou twitched his fingers at his dragon. “Take him,” he said to the men standing nearest to him. “Make sure he regrets his loose tongue, but take care not to let him die…this time.”

 

Izayoi couldn't move, she was caught by her own fear and distress, and would have started screaming right then if she hadn't already learned many times that it was pointless to beg. Instead she trembled when he came closer and felt hard fingers stroke her hair.

 

“As for you, my sweet girl,” he said, his words brushing over her skin like the caress of a fallen lover, “tonight you will learn why you were so foolish to make me angry.” He stooped close and touched her cheek with his lips, right where Ryuukossei's fingers had rested.

 

“You will do your best to make me forget what you heard.”