InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Moving Pictures ❯ Disaster ( Chapter 17 )

A/N: Lemon warning. This is the full version of this chapter. You can read the full version on Fanfiction(dot)net, same title, same user id.

 

FFnet: gothic-ember

 

Mmorg: Kaneasami, rage2velvet - thanks so much! I'm glad that you got from Charlotte the impression that I was trying to portray.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 17 - Disaster

 

Sesshomaru approached the door cautiously, keen ears listening for any sign of their enemy. Charlotte's brother lay in the chamber beyond, he knew for certain, but this situation was beginning to look more and more like a trap.

 

He stopped abruptly, staggering back a step as he hit what felt like a solid wall, though he was still an arm's length from the door. “A barrier,” he intoned.

 

Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga and elbowed his brother aside. “Outta my way,” he snapped as the fang-like blade turned an iridescent red. With a mighty swing, the barrier flared a deep purple, then dissolved.

 

“And now for that door.” Snorting in satisfaction, he raised the sword again, slamming it into the floor. “Kaze no kizu!” Bolts of energy shot from Inuyasha's sword, carving paths in the stone floor and blasting into the door, blowing it off its hinges.

 

Charlotte stared at the shower of splinters that had once been the formidable door. “Well, so much for sneaking in and sneaking out.”

 

The group picked its way through the rubble, weapons held at the ready, trying to peer through the thick smoke that choked the doorway and blocked their view of the room's contents. The sulfuric smell of brimstone clogged the air, burning the nostrils of the cats and humans and sending Inuyasha into sneezing fit. Sesshomaru covered his delicate nose with his sleeve, awkwardly holding his sword to the side and trying not to gag.

 

Warily, Charlotte extended her senses, searching for her brother's youkai, but she seemed to be surrounded by cotton, muffling and bulky. For a moment, only the gun, cold and heavy in her hand, seemed to have any substance. Supporting the butt with her palm, she raised it to point into the haze, nagged by the feeling that she was forgetting something important.

 

Kirara growled a warning, fire flaring around her as she assumed her large form. Charlotte growled back, “I don't like it either.”

 

A heavy swishing sound rolled through the smoke, roiling it in great clouds that surged towards them. Almost appearing to coalesce from the haze, a gaping mouth crammed with teeth lunged forward, propelled by leathery black wings.

 

Charlotte shrieked and pulled the trigger, bracing herself against the kickback of the gun. The bat-thing reared back, screaming as the bullet tore a large hole in its wing. Another shot and its head burst in a wet explosion, the body dropping to the floor with a heavy thud.

 

“I'm using the gun, Sesshomaru,” she called out to the taiyoukai's hunched form. Inuyasha was cowering with his arms wrapped around his head, Tetsusaiga in its rusty form at his feet.

 

Sesshomaru turned red eyes on her, blazing with fury. “I said BEFORE you use it.”

 

“Sorry, my bad,” she shrugged sheepishly, shaking a little with adrenaline and shock. Three bullets left; she had better improve her aim, fast.

 

A rich, velvety chuckle floated out of the noisome smoke, blowing it away like a freshening wind. Lord Yukio lounged on a pile of black silk cushions near a low table crowded with trays of strange food. Most of it was meat, very raw, but Charlotte could swear that the contents of one bowl were still moving. Behind him was a larger version of her painting, though it looked more like a time-lapse movie than a painting. The tree in the foreground quaked, leaves shimmering and blossoms opening and closing. Blue sky bloomed into the pinks and oranges of sunset, faded into deep black-purple, lightened into dawn, then cycled back into daylight. Days passed in minutes, or one day repeated over again, it was impossible to tell.

 

Reclining next to the demon lord, Charlie stared forward with blank, heavy-lidded eyes. Other than a thin scar running across his forehead, he seemed to be unhurt. Charlotte started forward but was stopped in her tracks by Sesshomaru's terse bark.

 

Popping a morsel of flesh into his mouth, Yukio chewed and smiled smugly at them. “So you've figured out my little toy. How clever of you. No matter, it simply saves me the trouble of going to get you.”

 

Inuyasha picked up Tetsusaiga and the sword flared to life. “Get who?”

 

Yukio dismissed him with a flick of his claws. “Why, the channeler, of course. My seer told me that an energy channeler had reappeared and that she would be in the hands of the Western Lord. I had simply to set my trap and the channeler would be mine, along with the West.”

 

“The channelers were destroyed a century ago,” Sesshomaru speared Yukio with scathing glare.

 

Yukio leered at Charlotte, “Not all, apparently.”

 

Charlotte's heart hammered in her chest as she took an involuntary step backward. Destroyed? Her mother was right: even here, her power should have been kept secret. She felt the heat of Sesshomaru's eyes on her and glanced at him.

 

“Is this true?”

 

“Uh, well…”

 

“How dare you keep this from me.”

 

She met his simmering gaze with a cold stare, “I had to.”

 

“Dirty blooded vermin. I should have killed you the moment I set eyes on you.” He turned and stalked away, thrusting Tokijin into his sash.

 

“Which is exactly why I kept it a secret,” she ground out, but he had already turned his back on her in rejection. Pain lanced her heart but she smothered it with a ragged breath. She could not break down, not in front of him. Steeling herself against the emptiness that filled her, she raised her head proudly. She had no idea how much his opinion of her meant to her, but it didn't matter in the long run. She'd found Charlie, now to get him and go home.

 

Yukio laughed at the hurt shining in her eyes. “You see? You're better off with me. I would nurture your power, not seek to extinguish it.”

 

“I don't think so.”

 

“Ah, but you forget: I have your brother,” he ran a hand over Charlie's golden hair, freeing it from the tie that had bound it into a ponytail. Charlie's expression didn't change, nor did he respond to the fire demon's touch.

 

“What's wrong with him?” she whispered, the barrel of the gun slowly lowering toward the floor.

 

Yukio pushed gracefully to his feet. “That is up to you.” With a long claw, he touched the surface of the painting over the mansion, tearing a small hole that quickly closed up again. “Since you're here, we won't be needing the other portal. Now, my pet, go collect your sister,” Yukio finished in the youkai language.

 

Charlie jerked to life, his listless eyes snapping to Charlotte's. Almost immediately, she felt the draw of his power on her: he absorbed, she channeled. The more she resisted, the harder he pulled.

 

“Charlie, stop!” she gasped, her knees weakening and her vision beginning to gray at the edges. She'd asked her mother why it was so much worse to be a channeler than an absorber. Her mother had regarded her with sad eyes, `You can fight off an absorber's powers, and, like a sponge, an absorber can only hold so much before he is full. But a channeler can move energy until there isn't any left and there is nothing anyone can do against it.'

 

Charlotte's mind raced as she considered her options. She could move energy out of him until he was exhausted or she could pump him so full that it knocked him out. Neither option was good, but the latter might break whatever hold Yukio had over him.

 

Inuyasha glared at his half-brother, impassively watching the struggle. Heartless bastard wouldn't lift a finger to help his own lover. “Stand aside, wench,” Inuyasha growled as he stomped forward, his pulsing blade brandished in front of him. “If that bastard brother of mine won't stop this, then I will.”

 

“No!” Charlotte made her decision and opened a channel, sucking into herself the energy around her and pushing it out in a thin, piercing stream at her brother. It struck him square in the chest, knocking him backward into the cushions with a hoarse shout. Yukio danced backward, his handsome face twisted in surprise.

 

She opened the channel again, gathering up more energy from her companions, but instead of releasing it as pure energy, she let it keep it's own form. Bolts of acidic power cut through the stone floor, tearing toward the fire demon. Leaping high into the air, Yukio cleared the hybrid windscar-acid attack that melted his cushions and incinerated his dinner.

 

At the snap of Yukio's long fingers, three bat creatures dropped from the rafters and glided down on leathery black wings. Screaming, its maw craned open to display rows of razor-sharp teeth, one of the creatures dive-bombed Charlotte, who threw herself to the floor. Wheeling around for another pass, it narrowly missed getting hit by an arrow surrounded by a corona of pink energy. The other two bat creatures flew straight at the humans and the source of spiritual power that they hated.

 

As the battle raged in front of him, Sesshomaru barely managed to maintain his icy veneer. Immobilized by the anger, hurt, and betrayal that ripped at him, he could only stand and watch. Not even Rin's quiet entreaty could move him. How could she have kept this from him? Didn't she trust him? And now that he knew, what should he do? Channelers had been systematically hunted down and killed because the power they held over others posed too great a risk to the demon lords. He had personally dispatched several at his father's request. But he knew that he couldn't kill her. Maybe once he would have been able to still her heart, see her bright green eyes fade and glaze over, but that time had passed.

 

Yukio lunged at her as she picked herself up off the floor, fire flaring at his fingertips, and Sesshomaru's body jerked in an instinctual urge to protect her. He fought it back, even as he felt his own youkai energy being pulled from his body to flow from hers, striking Yukio a glancing blow, his shoulder sizzling and smoking. Powerful but untrained, she fought well, but Yukio held the advantage.

 

“Hiraikotsu!” A bat creature exploded into dust as the enormous bone boomerang hit it broadside. Catching her boomerang with an expert twist of her wrist, Sango had fleeting moment of satisfaction before another creature swooped down at her. With a wracking cough, it spat a row of teeth at her. Lifting the boomerang as a shield, she braced herself as the teeth imbedded in the polished bone, hissing as they dissolved into a poisonous miasma.

 

She yanked her mask over her face as she shouted a warning to the others. “Watch out! Their teeth are poisonous!”

 

Miroku paled and quickly wrapped the prayer beads around his cursed hand, sealing the wind tunnel before he could draw in any of the noxious fumes or teeth. “Thank you, Sango!”

 

Inuyasha only grunted and released the windscar, crisping a bat in mid-flight. “Useless humans.”

 

Groaning, Charlie shook his head and sat up, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. He felt like he'd just been woken from a heavy sleep, wasn't even sure if he was actually awake. His brain was having trouble with the melee unfolding around him. Charlotte and a man with a red ponytail were brawling in front of him, and her love interest stood near the back of the room, staring at nothing as a little girl and a toad cowered at his feet. The strange group of people he had met after coming through the painting was fending off two monsters that vaguely resembled pterodactyls. `Now there's a hot little tamale, showing off her goods with a skin-tight body suit. Packs a good punch, though,” he remembered with a wince the blow he'd received for hitting on her.

 

A flaming pink arrow whizzed by his head and rebounded off the stone wall. He stared open-mouthed at the girl who had shot it. She shouted something at him, then grinned and shrugged apologetically.

 

“Charlotte, what the fuck is going on?” he hollered as he staggered to his feet and walked unsteadily to the group of humans, wincing as his sister was knocked to the ground by a swift kick from the ponytail guy.

 

“We're rescuing you!” she shouted back, rolling to the side and firing a small handgun. The bullet went wide but all of the demons in the room cringed. Bringing the gun to shoulder level, she fired the second to last bullet, hitting the fire demon at his right shoulder joint and blowing off his arm in a shower of hot blood. He collapsed to the floor, clutching at his shoulder and moaning.

 

“Shit, Charlotte, your aim sucks. And what are you doing without earplugs?”

 

`I knew I was forgetting something. That's why it didn't hurt so much before.' Charlotte used Yukio's temporary preoccupation with his ringing ears and missing limb to scramble to her feet and away from the fire demon. She hurried toward the humans, plugging another bat creature in the belly as it dove at Kagome, spraying them all with steaming entrails. Gurgling as hit the stone floor, it shuddered once and lay still.

 

“At least you didn't miss that time,” Charlie said as he eyed the nightmarish monster on the ground.

 

Charlotte frowned and planted her hands on her hips, still holding the gun in one of them. “Shut it. No one asked you.”

 

“Are you okay?” Kagome asked the tall, blonde man in heavily accented English.

 

“Sure am, doll,” he grinned at her, raising an eyebrow suggestively. “Wanna check me out? See for yourself?”

 

“She's barely legal, you perverted tomcat,” Charlotte rolled her eyes in disgust and glanced at Yukio, who was still lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. He wasn't moving anymore but she was sure he wasn't dead. “We need to go. I think we can use this painting like we did the other one.”

 

“Don't I have time for a little fun first?” He'd sidled up to Sango and now gave her bottom a sharp smack. Sango, who hadn't understood the words but more than understood the intent, rewarded him with an elbow in his solar plexus.

 

“Not very bright, is he?” Sango commented to his mortified sister.

 

“Not when he thinks with his little head.”

 

“That's not fair,” Charlie wheezed in the youkai language, clutching his stomach. “You got to screw your Frigidaire.”

 

Ignoring Inuyasha's strangled gasp, Charlotte stole a glance at Sesshomaru, who was still standing motionless and silent, staring at the floor. Though he must have sensed her gaze, he made no sign. Her heart ached and tears pricked at the backs of her eyes as sadness coiled inside her stomach. She'd know it wouldn't last, but she would never have thought that they'd part like this. Rin, standing close to her lord, gave her a mournful look and a small wave. Charlotte forced a weak smile and waved back. She'd really liked Rin, had cherished the time they'd spent together and regretted not being able to tell her what a lovely young lady she was.

 

Sighing, she turned back to the group. “Thanks, you guys. Couldn't have done it without you.”

 

“Take care of yourselves,” Kagome said, sympathy shining in her soulful brown eyes. Sango nodded, but shot Charlie a dark look.

 

Miroku also nodded, stiffly but piously. “Go with the blessings of Buddha.” Inuyasha just looked traumatized as Shippo patted him gently on the head.

 

`Must be a virgin, to have smelled sex and not recognized it,' Charlotte thought. She supposed she ought to be grateful that the humans didn't understand Charlie's comment, but just couldn't muster it through the hole where her heart should have been.

 

“We will. You too.” She grabbed her wheezing brother's arm, guiding him around Yukio's still form and toward the painting.

 

`She's leaving,' Sesshomaru's youkai whispered to him, stirring restlessly. He pushed the thought away, forcing himself to stare at the floor instead of watch her. If he looked at her, he wouldn't be able to let her go. He felt her eyes boring into his back, could almost taste her sorrow, but refused to meet her eyes. He shut out the sound of her voice, saying goodbye to those miserable humans that his brother called friends. He turned to Rin, whose chin was starting to quiver. He didn't want the girl to watch another loved one leave. “Jaken, take Rin from the tower and meet me outside the gates.”

 

“Yes, my lord,” the imp squawked. “Come, Rin.” He marched her out of the chamber, grumbling to himself.

 

`She's leaving,' the voice was louder, more insistent. She was moving now, toward the painting and the last portal to her world. His youkai railed inside him, furious at being muzzled and chained down. Despite his firm control, his eyes were being dragged up. `She's mine and she's LEAVING!'

 

Eyes bleeding red, face elongating to reflect the beast that had taken over, his eyes locked onto her as Yukio's remaining hand shot out and curled around her ankle. “MINE!” With a roar, he sprang forward as she fell on her stomach, pushing her brother toward the painting.

 

“Go home!” she shouted at him. “I'll follow in a second!”

 

Charlie spun around, ready to defend her from the demon on the floor, but Sesshomaru was almost on him. Charlie nodded, sure that the dog demon was coming to her aide, and lunged toward the painting with an outstretched hand.

 

Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief as he disappeared in flash of blue light. Now that he was safely gone, Charlotte unleashed the floodgate of power that filled the room, letting it fill her then burst out in a torrent of destructive energy through the leg that Yukio held in his hot claws. Shrieks pierced the air but the hand tightened, digging claws into her skin and crushing muscle against bone. Panicking, she sucked up all the energy around her, then blasted him again with everything she had, youkai energy flying wild in her haste to get away. A blinding light lit up the room as screams echoed off the walls and faded away. The hand at her ankle was gone.

 

Blinking as her eyes readjusted to the relative darkness of the room, Charlotte sat up. Greasy ashes were all that were left of Lord Yukio and near him, Sesshomaru lay in a crumpled heap.

 

“Oh no,” she gasped, crawling toward him. How had he gotten there? Why wasn't he on the other side of the room, where he'd been the entire fight? She gently touched his face with her fingertips, flinching at the clamminess of his skin. Though he seemed to be sleeping, his breath was shallow and his pulse thready. He was lucky that he hadn't been cremated like Yukio. She pulled his head on her lap, brushing damp bangs from his face.

 

“Umm, Charlotte,” Kagome knelt in front of her, her face strained with concern.

 

“I did this,” she moaned as her hands began to shake.

 

“Charlotte, the painting…”

 

Glancing over her shoulder, Charlotte saw what had the teenager so worried. What had once been a vibrant, beautiful moving picture was now blank, as if paint had never touched its surface. Stunned, Charlotte sat there, the unconscious head of her man resting on her thighs, her only way home closed forever.

 

Keening deep in her throat, Charlotte began to sway back and forth, wringing her hands and glancing between Sesshomaru's rumpled form and the ruined painting. Her twin was gone, beyond her reach, and she could only hope that the painting had taken him home. Her own life was just as unreachable, her apartment, job, friends, and all the creature comforts with which she surrounded herself. Gone.

 

Kagome settled a hand on her shoulder, her peaceful aura calming the hysteria that was building inside her. Taking a shuddering breath, Charlotte patted Kagome's hand in thanks.

 

“Do you really think he'll try to kill me?” she asked, staring down at Sesshomaru's pale face.

 

Inuyasha stomped over as he sheathed his sword. “He ain't known for being a cold-hearted bastard for nothing.”

 

“Is that a yes?” she didn't want to believe it, but Sesshomaru had all but said it himself. And now that she had turned her despised power against him, however inadvertently, she had probably sealed her fate. “But I can't just leave him here.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because… what if there are other demons in this tower? They'll kill him! He's close to dying now.”

 

“I don't got any objections.”

 

“What am I going to do?” her voice almost a whisper. She was trapped here and not even able to stay with Sesshomaru.

 

“You'll come with us,” Kagome said decisively. “Maybe the Bone Eater's Well will let you through. If not, well, we'll figure it out when we get there.”

 

Charlotte sighed heavily, not daring to hope that the well would accept her as she caressed the maroon stripes on Sesshomaru's cheek. “He doesn't know that I didn't go home. I'll get him out of the tower and leave him where Jaken and Rin can find him.”

 

“What if he wakes up?” Sango asked from over her shoulder.

 

“He won't, not for a while.”

 

“Take Kirara. She'll help you get him out of the here without being seen by Sesshomaru's servant and bring you back to us when you're done.”

 

Charlotte nodded, gathering up his long body in her arms as Kirara sauntered to over to her. Clambering awkwardly onto her back, for Sesshomaru was every bit as heavy as he looked, Charlotte spared a last glance at the clean canvas that had so drastically altered her life. She couldn't help the tear that escaped her eye to roll down her face and fall into Sesshomaru's silver hair. “Goodbye, Charlie.”

 

XxxxxxxxxxX

 

Kirara glided down through the forest canopy, landing softly on the ground, thick with ferns and creepers that gleamed with tiny drops of dew. Gray trunks were widely spaced and had few lower limbs, saving their energy to reach high into the sky to spread wide green leaves to the sunlight. Though morning, the branches above were so numerous that the light was still dim and murky.

 

Charlotte slipped off of the firecat's back, still holding Sesshomaru closely to her. He hadn't stirred during the entire flight and his condition seemed the same. They had successfully out-maneuvered Jaken and Rin, though it had been a close thing for a moment when they'd heard his grating voice chastising Rin for dawdling. The rest of the tower had been deserted and when they had finally found their way out, she had realized that it was exactly that - a tower, carved out of a high cliff rising out of this dense, overgrown forest. It certainly wasn't his mansion; just a little hideaway for doing dastardly deeds.

 

Despite what she'd told the others, she couldn't leave him here, defenseless in the woods. His grasp on life was too weak. Even if she could never see him again, she would feel better knowing that he was alive and well.

 

Propping his back against the rough bark of a tree, she straightened his legs and arranged his arm by his side so that he looked fairly comfortable. Straddling his legs, she ran her fingers through his hair, savoring the sensation of the silky strands on her skin. She kissed him lightly on the forehead, both eyelids, and on his cold lips. Finally, she rested her cheek against his, breathing in his scent and committing it to memory.

 

After one last deep breath, she was ready. She didn't know if what she was going to do would work or if she could even do it right. Her mother had only done it that one time when she'd lost her paw, and Charlotte had never done it, but she had to try, despite any possible consequences. It was her fault he was like this; so helpless and frail. She would do her best to fix it.

 

She stripped him of his armor, laying it carefully to the side. Pulling apart his outer and inner haori, she bared his smooth chest to his waist. Closing her eyes against the stirring in her loins, she placed both hands on his chest, concentrating on his youkai. Faint and feeble, it was buried deep inside of him. Extending her own youkai into him, she brushed against it, teasing it out of hiding, and then gently tugged it toward her. Again and again, she reached into him and pulled on his beast until it began to respond and they found a rhythm where both youkai traveled through both bodies at the same time. Pulsing through them on a circuit, she let his youkai take the energy it needed to restore his body. She wasn't healing him, she was simply encouraging him to heal himself.

 

She relaxed against his chest, letting the channel take care of itself as her body tingled with the warmth that was now radiating from his skin. Distantly, she knew that she should stop, that he'd be okay now, but it felt too good to touch him, to smell him, to feel his youkai in and around her.

 

Suddenly, he bucked under her, almost dislodging her hands from his chest. His body jerked again and he barked hoarsely in pain. Alert again, Charlotte strengthened the channel and pressed his struggling form against the tree with firm hands. He was healing something uncomfortable and she couldn't let him break the channel until he was restored.

 

His youkai surged into her, echoing the roar that ripped from his lips, protesting her perceived dominance. A strong hand wrapped around her upper arm, its grip tightening as she sped up the pulsing of the channel, fighting against his beast's attempts to subdue her and stop the pain. His eyes snapped open, fully red and holding nothing of the icy control he usually maintained. She was looking into the eyes of his youkai, angry, hurting, and driven by ancient instinct. Face slightly elongated, he snarled at her with sharply pointed teeth.

 

Another spasm wracked his body and he broke eye contact to howl in torment, then crush her against him and bite down into the junction of her neck and shoulder. She screamed as fire flared in her neck and blood began to flow down her blouse and between her breasts. Howling with triumph now, he rolled them away from the tree and pinned her to the ground, his teeth still buried in her neck. Still, she kept the circuit moving, pushing and pulling at the struggling energies, knowing that whatever was healing was almost done.

 

He pressed his body against her, hard and lean, tense as a taught wire, demanding her submission. She ground her hips against him, trying to assuage the tightening in her core as he lapped the blood from her neck with long strokes of his tongue. Digging blunt, human nails into the flesh of his chest, she writhed as he bit her again in a soft spot under her collarbone. He growled deep in his throat as the scent of her arousal hit his nostrils. Never had his youkai been given such free reign and despite the pain he was in, he intended to make the most of it.

 

The channel broke and she went limp, shocked by the void left by his youkai, now in full control of his body. Claws grazed up her thigh, pushing her skirt around her waist and brushing against her cotton panties. Tremors ran through her as his claws cut through the fabric and combed through her curls, but through the haze of lust that crept through her mind, she was confused. Something was different about this…

 

Sesshomaru's youkai barked in approval. Finally, the female had stopped the pain and submitted to him. With a last lick of her blood, he crawled down her body to where her scent was the strongest. Tossing away the shreds of the barrier that had stood between him and his desire, he bent to taste her, flicking his tongue over her folds and into her passage, nipping at the pearl that throbbed in time with her heartbeat. Yowling and moaning, she pushed at him with her hips. Satisfied that she was ready for him, he sank his teeth into her inner thigh, gently, but enough to draw blood, and was rewarded with another scream.

 

Hands on her hips, he turned her over so that she was on her hands and knees. Rising up quickly, she tugged off her sweater and skirt, throwing them in the bushes, then went back down on her hands and arched her back down. Wet and glistening, she invited him in with a twitch of her hips and it was all he could do to remove his cumbersome hakama and haori.

 

Grasping her hips again, he plunged into her up to the hilt, rocking her forward with the force of his entrance. She gasped, tightening around him and wiggling her hips as he partially withdrew. Growling, he nudged her knees further apart and pushed into her again, slicing through her braw with his claws and reaching around to grasp a full breast in one hand, pinching the apex of her flower in the other. Teasing and tormenting her, he pumped into her slick passage, gaining speed as she quivered around him.

 

Stretched to breaking but wanting more, Charlotte panted in time with his thrusts. His fingers worked magic on that little bundle of nerves as he hit the spot inside of her that sent shockwaves of pleasure through her body. He pounded against her and she tilted her hips to receive more of him, crying out as the slammed against her womb. But she still couldn't get enough, the ache and need in her building until she was dizzy. With no warning, the dam burst and she screamed her release, her elbows buckling and her face falling into the soft groundcover. He howled, his hips press against her ass as he pulsed inside of her.

 

Expended and pleased, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him, curling up in the soft undergrowth. Within moments, he was breathing slowly, sound asleep.

 

Charlotte gently freed herself from the cocoon of his limbs, only now realizing why the channeling had been so painful and what had been different about their coupling. His arm had re-grown, good as new. Around where his arm had been cut off was a thick scar, deep red, almost purple, and heavily bruised.

 

With the largest piece of her panties she could find and a little water from a nearby creek, she cleaned him up as best as she could and dressed them both. He slept through it all, not even stirring when she lugged him to a tree, positioning him against it as she had before.

 

His youkai had been in complete control earlier and he probably wouldn't remember much, if anything, of what they had just done. He should have no doubt that his brother's group had left him here, unconscious but otherwise unhurt. There wouldn't be any reason for him to suspect that she hadn't followed Charlie into the painting. Yes, her scent was all over him, but that would be expected. She would have Kirara roll on the ground around them, obscuring her scent from forest floor. The arm would certainly raise a few questions, but no one could connect that with her.

 

Sighing bitterly, she knelt next to him, gazing at his tranquil expression. Not impassive, nor cold, just… calm, content even. The breeze fluttered his bangs and she smoothed them away from his face, brushing the moon crest on his forehead.

 

“Rest easy. Rin and Jaken will be here soon. I…” she bit her lip against the words. They were useless at this point: he was not awake to hear them. With a last caress of his cheek, she stood, back straight and head held high, and called Kirara to her.