InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stealing Heaven ❯ Justifiable Fears ( Chapter 29 )

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Justifiable Fears

The Thief tipped his head to one side as his narrowed gaze swept over the face of the sleeping human male. Nah Rah Ku did not like this angry, roiling feeling in the pit of his stomach. He understood from this Sesshomaru's thoughts that his little priestess was likely not interested in the attentions of this . . . creature that lay before him and yet . . . that this man, this Kouga, might be interested in her sent white hot pangs of jealousy piercing through his chest.

Faint though it was, he'd detected her scent, had followed it straight to Kouga. The temptation had been sore, indeed, to simply go straight to her and remind her of whom she belonged to, and yet such an act would serve no real purpose if his host's thoughts upon the situation held true. No, this was not the result of disobedience on her part. He disregarded that this notion, alone, should alarm him greatly. She was supposed to be a source of sustenance, nothing more.

If he allowed himself to twist that ideal enough, he could force it to make sense. This had nothing to do with her, specifically, it could not. He was . . . protecting himself by seeking to protect his sole means of keeping himself sustained. Yes, that was it. Finally finding a line of thinking that he considered justifiable, Nah Rah Ku had let tiny, ebbing bits of the darkness within him creep out, seeping and sinking into silver locks, muddying golden irises, obscuring the features and markings of his face just enough. Just until he was no more than a faceless stranger, a quick glimpse of crimson-threaded eyes and long black hair.

He felt a mere phantom of his original self this way; the glimmering slippery darkness turning him into something that would later be played off as a figment of one's imagination.

* * *

Kouga opened sleep-bleary eyes to see a silhouetted figure standing at the foot of his bed. The usual night-time darkness of the room made it difficult to determine if this was simply a trick of the light. As he tried to bring the image into focus, his brain still murky and bogged-down from interrupted slumber, he realized with a chill that sent a bolt of electricity up his spine that the being's long hair was being lifted by a breeze that was entering the room from the nearby window. A window that Kouga always kept locked, but was now wide open.

Instantly he was turning on his side, groping under his bed for his baseball bat. No sooner had he begun to slip his fingers around it than was the shadow thing on him, gripping a clawed hand painfully tight around his throat as he was lifted with great ease and slammed into the wall behind him. Letting out a startled breath he stared at what was before him, unable to utter any more sound than that at the inky, red-stained eyes glaring back at him.

Gods dammit! He was a man! He might be scared shitless right now, but he was damned if he was going to let this thing know it! Just barely refraining from forcing a gulp down his already constricted throat, he shot a split-second glance towards his dorm-mate's bed, wondering why the noise hadn't stirred him, only to find it empty. Shit! He'd forgotten that Bankotsu was out of town. People sure picked lousy times to have family emergencies.

Kouga squared his broad shoulders, trying- and only really caring if it appeared successful- to ignore that he was being held on the tips of his toes by this creature that had gone from the floor to standing on the bed in the blink of an eye and with no visible movement that he could detect. "What do you want?" He managed to grate out in a raspy, tough-sounding whisper.

The thing tipped its head to the side once more- as it had been doing when Kouga had first opened his eyes to see it- and, obscured though the features were, he could have sworn that it suddenly gave a smirk that was both malicious and quietly amused. Faster than Kouga could formulate a thought, the creature clamped its free hand over his mouth and yanked him from the wall. Pulling him with it as though he weighed nothing at all, the creature launched itself out of the open window at a speed that was downright mind-numbing.

By the time Kouga could scrape any words together in his mind at all- the fact that the only phrase he could mentally utter was Oh shit, notwithstanding- he was already falling. The creature had released him in the air, letting his body crash hard into the ground before it landed neatly on its feet beside him.

Coughing painfully at the raw, uncomfortable sensation of having the air knocked out of his lungs, Kouga scrambled backwards until he felt the rough bark of a tree at his back- they were at the far end of campus, where the carefully manicured greenery of the university's grounds began to give way to a lightly forested park-like sprawl. Pushing and edging himself upwards, Kouga got to his feet, but was not quite fool enough to try stepping away from the support of the tree just yet in case the drop had done more than merely force the wind out of him.

Pale blue eyes squeezed tightly shut for a moment as he tried to gain his bearings. It wasn't possible that they'd crossed this much distance in a hair's breadth of time, it simply wasn't. Was this a dream? A nightmare? A hallucination from some damage left over by his earlier head trauma?

Opening his eyes, he fixed his gaze on the thing before him again. It hadn't seemed to budge from its original place as he'd moved to get himself standing, but Kouga was too well aware already that this thing didn't need to come any closer to be on him in a heartbeat.

"What do you want?" He asked again, his voice coming out in a growl that was as much to cover fear as it was a sound of sheer anger and irritation.

Once more donning that difficult to decipher expression that Kouga could only guess was a wicked smirk the thing took measured steps towards him- and he didn't bother moving, since the creature's speed would make the attempt a wasted effort. Was it some kind of . . . demon or something?

In the time he had before the thing graced him with an answer, Kouga chided himself. Demons didn't exist; he only even stabbed at that thought because of the darkness, because of the barely-visible crimson-laced eyes. Tales of demons roaming the East went by the wayside with the passing of the Feudal Era. This had to be something rational . . . . He had to somehow be imagining this.

Kouga felt that thought confirmed as he found the creature suddenly beside him, the long, clawed fingers of one of its hands splayed over his face as it whispered in his ear. "I am nothing. I am a dream . . . I am something that tells you that Higurashi Kagome is not for you and the only way to keep yourself safe is to keep away from her."

A tiny flicker of surprise ran through his mind- his subconscious thought a girl like Kagome would be bad for him?- but before he could register anything beyond that, those inhumanly strong fingers were pulling his face forward and then-

* * *

Nah Rah Ku didn't slam the back of the man's head into the tree nearly as hard as he would have liked. Still, the feel of bone impacting the surface to reverberate through his hand was somewhat satisfying. He relinquished his hold and stepped back, watching with amusement as Kouga crumbled to the ground. It was moments like this that he wished he did not possess even the slightest shred of common sense. His baser instincts told him to tear the man's throat out and leave him for dead. His common sense- which was irritatingly helped along, and grounded in, Taisho Sesshomaru's ability to see reason nearly at all times- told him that were he to kill Ookami Kouga, there was the chance the action could be traced back to his host.

He would not allow such a slip up- this Sesshomaru's life was his to ruin if he pleased; he would not allow his anger to let another squander such ownership. In something of an effort to let his rage cool- though he knew himself well enough to understand that it would have only minimal effect by the time he reached her- The Thief turned on a heel and began making his way back across the campus grounds at a leisurely stroll.

* * *

Kagome stirred in a half-sleeping haze, not certain when it was that she'd begun to wake, only aware of the bizarre sensation of lips that weren't really there brushing against her ear. Of a voice she couldn't really hear murmuring for her to come find . . . someone. She was attempting to ignore it, but the longer she went without responding, the more insistent the impossible sensations became. The beckoning words thrummed and repeated urgently through her sleepy mind, the ghosting lips moving against the skin of her ear seeming to warm, to caress more gently with each repetition, sending a brief, flickering heat through her.

It wasn't until she felt herself squirming in her bed, as though her body was responding to some phantom lover, that she forced herself to sit up, even if it was only out of embarrassment and the shameful redness she knew was flooding her face. Rubbing her eyes, she reluctantly pulled herself out from under her blanket and stuffed her feet into her fuzzy slippers. Whatever was disturbing her sleep- she diligently ignored that she thought she had a pretty good idea what was responsible for this- was going to be sorry for messing with her at the wee hours of the night!

She trudged quietly passed Sango's bed, reflexively smoothing a hand over her sleep-rumbled hair as she opened the door with the other and stepped out into the painfully illuminated corridor. Grumbling as slid her hand from her hair to shield her eyes, she quietly pulled the door shut behind her and cast a squinty-eyed glance around.

It ran through her again- that odd sensation of being called for- and she waited a moment, tried to feel out a direction before allowing herself to follow it. Kagome let her body simply wander toward this sound that wasn't a sound, as though her limbs were being tugged along on some invisible string. She denied that her brain was still in a dull, sleep-fuzzed haze, adamantly told herself that she was simply saving her strength, bundling her agitated thoughts until she was face to face with him, then she'd give him what-for and be on her way back to her room.

She ignored the mocking tone of that naggy inner voice of hers as it reminded her that meetings with him- if this was him, if not she had no idea what she was in for or why she was going- never went as she planned, anyway. Why should she expect that to change now?

Kagome had already moved through at least four hallways and descended three flights of stairs before she found herself standing in the sub-basement of the women's dormitory. The entire time her mind was able to note in only a very distant fashion that no doors that should be locked barred her path, no one that might mistake her wandering for sleep walking and return her to her dorm room seemed to notice her. A breathless, panicky whisper trembled out from that dim corner in the back of her head- that seemed the only part of her brain to continue functioning properly- asking if he had somehow become more powerful . . . or if she'd simply never witnessed how far-reaching his powers were before.

She moved down the stairs with slow, oddly sure footsteps until her small slippered feet brought her to a stop on the dusty tiled floor.

"You certainly took your time, little priestess," she heard the familiar purring-murmur as he stepped out from the shadowed recess beneath the staircase.

It was dim here, the only real light entering the bleak, age-dulled white space that of lamp posts pouring in through narrow windows high up on the far walls, but even in this weak illumination she was surprised to see the darkness of the figure that stood there. He took a few measured strides to bring himself directly before her, letting a little of that rich, inky blackness slip away until it was gone entirely.

Kagome instantly opened her mouth to rail at him- proud of herself that she was keeping to that earlier mental declaration, questionable as it had been at the time- but was stopped just as quickly as she noticed the tiny veins of crimson twining through the gold of his irises, only visible enough that she understood they were receding; whatever had caused his wrath had already come and gone. She could still feel it, though . . . the dark emotions still floated off of him to hang in the air like puffy clouds of incense.

Though not entirely certain how she was able to pick up so much from him, she knew that something had happened. Something involving the source of his rage, something he had done to quell that rage . . . .

Before she could stop herself her hand was lifting until it was pressed gently against his face, her palm cupping his cheek, the tips of her fingers resting delicately against his temple. "What have you done?" she managed to force out in a hushed tone.

For a long time he didn't respond, simply staring back at her mutely. Slowly he lifted his hand to cover hers; clawed fingers placed over her smaller and so-fragile-seeming ones. Kagome didn't know what to make of this gesture, of the anger and confusion she could see just below the usual calm, cold expression he always wore.

The corners of his mouth curved downward ever so slightly and it was an unpleasant shock to realize how much such a tiny change could alter his expression. His fingers slid downward, locking around her slender wrist and all but tearing it away from him. Kagome barely had time to blink before he'd spun them both, whirling her with him to place them beneath the stairs.

The air rushed out of her as he pressed her body against the wall behind her with his own. Releasing her wrist he swept his hands down the length of her body, sweeping up the ends of her knee-length night shirt and scooping up her legs to rest them over his hips, supporting her weight entirely between himself and the wall.

He'd never been one to waste time, but this frenzied pace- combined with the savage emotions she'd felt from him- frightened her, yet no sooner could she say anything than he slammed his hips forward, grinding himself between her legs. Instantly she felt her body respond the way he'd taught it to, felt the damp warmth starting already despite the fact that his current state had renewed her seemingly long-forgotten fear of him.

The Thief felt oddly inebriated by the mingling scents swirling up from her skin. Pulling himself back just a little, he lowered his head, catching a nipple roughly between his teeth through the flimsy cotton-ish material of the garment she wore as he circled his hips, withdrawing and pressing himself into her, as deep as the restraining fabric of his bothersome clothing would let, again and again. The hiccupping, mewling whimpers that escaped her as he took more of her breast into his mouth, biting down, swirling his tongue over her flesh, was music to his ears . . . . .

But it was not enough.

She smelled absolutely delectable. Those scents she was giving off . . . fear and arousal were simply too tempting when combined. He had to taste this from her.

Kagome let out a strange moaning-yelp as he ground himself sharply against her once more, brought his teeth down on her nipple once more before it seemed he was pulling away. At one time she'd have thought she'd be grateful for such a reprieve, but now it only served to confuse her.

He looked at her for another moment, waited to see her expression. Only when it seemed she was about to ask him what he was doing did he begin lowering himself, sliding the length of his body against hers as he did so, slipping his arms beneath her thighs as he moved so that he continued supporting her weight. Glancing up at her, he found the look of dazed surprise on her face- that he was holding her up, still, with no more than his hands braced against the wall behind her- was exquisitely priceless.

Catching her gaze, he pointedly lowered his to the sleek, pleasantly dampened, but irritatingly obstructing material directly before his face and murmured, "You will move this for me."

She almost didn't want to, but before she could stop herself, she was already moving a hand, hooking fingers into the embarrassingly warm and moist elastic of her panties to pull them out of his way. Her eyes drifted closed, expecting to feel his mouth on her at any moment, yet still he held back.

"Your other hand . . . part yourself for me," he said, his voice dropping lower to reflect that purring-growl she heard from him sometimes.

Her eyes snapped immediately back open so that she might meet his gaze. His expression was utterly cold and unreadable to her. This wasn't a challenge, he wasn't daring her to defy him; this was a demand and she would comply. He was in control of their interactions, she was aware now that he was reminding her- and probably himself- of that fact.

This was good, Kagome told herself as closed her eyes again and let her head roll to one side against the wall. If he continued behaving in this way, she would never again forget what he really was, never feel another pang of guilt that she was relieved to think of each day as another day closer to being rid of him. Trying to keep her embarrassment in check, she lowered her other hand between her legs, feeling the soft flesh there and parted the folds gently, exposing herself to him.

"Good girl," he grated out in a primal-sounding whisper before closing the distance to begin feasting on her.

Kagome couldn't help crying out, but caught herself; sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. She- they, she reminded herself quickly, as any potential intruder would see her with Professor Taisho- didn't need some passion-fueled outburst catching the attention of the night security staff.

He swirled and flicked at the delicious little bead of flesh with the tip of his tongue before sealing his lips around it, drawing it gently between his teeth to suckle at it. The effort she was making to keep quiet, even as her hips started pushing themselves forward, to offer more of this moist, heated, perfect part of her to his mouth was amusing to him. He pulled back again, wanting to see the tiny bead swollen and glistening, enjoying every hint of the evidence that no matter how her mind and her rationale fought, her body wanted him each and every time.

As if in response to his musings, nearly as soon as he'd moved away- fractional though it was- she was straining, her hips rocking forward, as if presenting herself to him. He lapped the flat of his tongue over it once, twice, taking a moment to enjoy the way her entire body shivered after each stroke, to enjoy the muted sounds of her moans slipping out from deep in the back of her throat before he once more sealed his mouth against moist, slippery warmth.

This time it was to pull on that delicate bit of flesh almost savagely, to catch it between his teeth and keep her trapped there, suckling at it harder and harder. The more she trembled, the more fiercely her hips jerked beneath his ministrations, the more ravenous he seemed to become.

Kagome found herself already pushing her body towards an orgasm. He was being so rough that it bordered on painful, and yet, it added something to that sweet, aching pressure he was building. It simply felt so good that she couldn't deny wanting him to make her come. Distantly she heard a muttering voice, realizing with a dazed start, that it was her own.

"Please, please . . . oh gods," the murmured, breathless words met his ears and he responded instantly, nodding against her as he continued working over her, lapping and nibbling and suckling until she went completely taut beneath his mouth.

She gasped loudly, even as her body stilled, hearing the sounds he made as he feasted on her. Wet, slippery . . . hungry . . . he sounded like a starved beast gorging itself.

Nearly as soon as it began to ebb- as soon as he'd taken what he needed from her- he pulled away, giving her barely enough time to lower wobbly legs to the floor so she didn't fall, just a moment to glimpse the post-feed glow of those golden eyes. There was a brush of dust past her as he'd taken his hands from the walls, but now, in a blink, he was gone.

Drawing in a deep, shaky breath, she let herself slip down the wall to land hard on her butt, pressing a palm to her forehead. "Wh . . . what the hell was that?" she asked herself in a breathless whisper.

She made every effort to collect herself before putting her hands against the wall to lift herself carefully on her still shaky legs. Inconsiderate damned demons- he could have at least waited until her orgasm was completely finished. As her fingers brushed upwards she felt oddly damp holes in the concrete. Frowning, she spun on a heel and knelt down, examining the punctures in the dense stone. It was still dark, still very dim in here and she needed to squint, but it became clear quickly enough that these marks had been made by his claws.

Before she understood what was happening, her legs were carrying her right back out of that recess, up the stairs and back into corridors that would lead her to the imagined safety of her dorm room. He'd pierced concrete without even trying . . . . he'd pressed the tips of his fingers- of Taisho Sesshomaru's fingers- against the rough, unyielding stone so hard that he'd made himself bleed and he hadn't even noticed.

How very much had she been underestimating Nah Rah Ku all this time? He hadn't been intending to punish her, or he'd have pointed the injury out to her. This had only been an accidental example of his strength. Kagome was trembling by the time she reached her door way, blinking back tears as she worried over Professor Taisho awaking with more mystery wounds.

* * *

Kouga was dazed when he awoke, but what he opened his eyes to this time was vaguely familiar, and thus very comforting. White, sterile walls . . . antiseptic nothingness filled his nostrils. Hospital, the initial thought that this was safe was ripped from him as he realized he couldn't be very safe if he didn't remember how he'd gotten here, but then he listened to the doctor.

He didn't bother with arguing the physician's words, it didn't matter that he had never sleepwalked a day in his life. Beaten up by some vagrant in that vulnerable state? Sure, why not?

Hell, that made more sense than what he remembered, anyway. Maybe this was all a dream. Some conjuring of his own subconscious or not, he understood one thing for certain. He was going to steer clear of Higurashi Kagome.

* * *

Kagome fidgeted nervously in class as Professor Taisho was going on about his lesson, ignoring the blatant, inquiry-laden gawking by some of his students at the Band-Aids covering four of his fingertips. She could feel that Sango and Miroku's gaze kept sweeping in her general direction, the question of whether or not she knew how that had happened in their eyes, visible plainly to her despite how they were trying to hide it. But she was making a concerted effort to ignore that.

"Hey," she heard Shippo whispering to Ayame.

"Huh?"

"You heard about Kouga?"

Kagome whipped her head around in that instant, meeting Sango's wide-eyed gaze.

"What?" the auburn-haired girl nearly shrilled, earning her an unhappy glance from the front of the classroom.

Shippo dutifully waited until Professor Taisho turned his back on them to go back to something on the board and picked up his silky-voice, albeit booming lecture once more. "He's in the hospital. They're saying some mugger stumbled over him while he was sleepwalking at the other side of the campus!"

Immediately Ayame's scrawny arm shot up, her hand waving frantically in the air. "Professor?"

"Yes, Garou?"

"I'm sorry, I have to go!" Before he could respond one way or the other she was snatching up her things and bouncing out of her seat.

"Spontaneous emergency?" He inquired with a doubtful lift of his brow.

"Uh-huh," she replied in earnest, her head bobbing in an emphatic nod, "I'm sorry but my . . um . . . Kouga's in the hospital, I gotta go!"

He nodded briefly, waving toward the door. He oddly was able to put a face to the name now, even if he'd not when he'd seen the young man last night, holding onto Kagome like some kind of human anchor.

Kagome couldn't shake the feeling that he looked . . . like he was going to be sick. Certainly, the mild change would be lost on anyone else, but she knew Taisho Sesshomaru too well to miss what that expression meant. His gaze brushed over the bandaged fingers, but he shook this off almost instantly to return to his lesson.

She couldn't deny that she recognized, just as easily, just as quickly, the expression that had flickered across his features in that moment, as well. It sent an icy shot lancing through her chest to see that from him, to know she couldn't ease his confusion. But she understood now, somehow, The Thief's bitter, distancing emotions last night.

She could only sit and wonder how badly Nah Rah Ku had truly hurt Kouga as she watched Sesshomaru asking himself, What did I do?

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