InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sword of Supreme Conquest ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Any normal woman would've considered him breathtakingly handsome. He was tall, lean and muscular, with olive-toned skin. The ebony hair that fell around his shoulders had a gentle wave to it that complimented the thick dark lashes framing his honey-coloured eyes.

 

 

Any other woman's heart would've been racing at the thought of being so close to such a beautiful male specimen. Kagome's breath stopped and her heart raced, but it was for an entirely different reason. This tall, sculpted, raven haired Adonis was no longer the little boy she'd left behind a few days ago. Everyone told her children grew up fast, but this was unbelievable.

 

 

She gulped audibly and took in a halting breath. She watched as his eyes trailed inquisitively over her body. His gaze was sharp and intelligent, just like Sesshomaru's, but it didn't seem nearly as cold or intimidating. His mouth pressed into a grim line as he studied her. If he was anything like his father he was already contemplating his next move, she just hoped it didn't involve his sword skewering her.

 

 

Ronin glared suspiciously at the woman in front of him. She'd vaulted through the window so quietly he hadn't heard her at first. He'd watched curious from his spot against the far wall as she crept purposefully towards the door. The fact that she seemed utterly oblivious to his presence told him a lot about her abilities - they were minimal at best. He was tempted to laugh at her audacity but quickly realized that unarmed or not she was still an intruder and had to be dealt with.

 

So, while she crept closer to the door he'd silently tied the sash at his waist. Her timing couldn't have been better really. Any earlier and she would've caught him mid-rut with one of the servants - a compromising position to say the least.

 

Now that he'd had a decent look at her he could tell she wasn't armed. The fact that she was human didn't help her cause much either. She was no match for him, or anyone else inside the palace for that matter, which led him to wonder just what the hell she was trying to accomplish by breaking into a palace owned by demons? It was possible she didn't know? If she was a nomad it may be so, but even that little bit of ignorance wouldn't be enough to spare her. In truth, he felt somewhat sorry for her.

 

 

“Woman. Who are you and what are you doing here?” he demanded again. His tone was laced with the same authority and impatience he used with the servants. They didn't dare evade his questions and if this woman knew what was good for her she wouldn't either.

 

 

Kagome gulped. Her chest burned from holding back tears and her breath felt ragged in her throat. How…how is this even possible? she asked herself miserably. And then, What the heck do I do now?

 

 

Her eyes scanned the room for possible exit points. The cold sweat along her brow worsened as she realized with a sense of foreboding that her only two options were the window she'd come through and the door at her back. A sword and an angry half demon stood in her way of the window and she was fairly sure he wasn't going to let her just waltz out the door without putting up a fight.

 

 

She cleared her throat nervously and swallowed again, cringing at the lump of fear stuck in it. Sure, she could use the whole `You wouldn't hurt your own mother would you?' line, but there was no telling how he'd react to that. She'd abandoned him after all, left him behind knowing she'd never see him again. There was every chance in the world he hated her and would run her through just for that reason. No, she decided seriously, regardless of what happened he could never find out who she was.

 

 

When the intruder refused to answer him a second time, Ronin narrowed his eyes at her. The way her large brown eyes darted around the room reminded him of a timid doe, cornered at the end of a hunt. Like the woman before him the deer always knew how things were going to turn out, but it didn't stop them from desperately looking for a way to escape. Until the very last moment they held out hope that freedom would once again be theirs.

 

 

He could sense this woman's futile thirst for freedom, could see it in her eyes. The bitter, intoxicating tang of fear was there as well, so strong now it seemed to emanate from her in waves. The whites of her eyes and the sweat on her brow were enough to tell him she was frightened, but the acidic tang of it in the air let him know it in full force. Interestingly though, it wasn't the sword she was afraid of - it was him. He could tell by the way her eyes widened when they caught his gaze only to quickly break away and look towards the window, the floor, or anywhere else his eyes weren't. She hadn't once bothered to look down at the sword he held levelled at her chest.

 

 

Strange. This woman perplexed him. There was something familiar in her eyes and in the way she smelled…yet he couldn't place it. Had they met before? Somewhere in a distant encounter he'd forgotten until now? He had a keen sense of smell but it was nowhere near that of his father's and he felt it now, more acutely than he would've liked. There were many reasons to curse his half-demon heritage, and that happened to be the one that irked him most often.

 

 

 

He regarded the woman in silence while he determined what his next move would be. He didn't want to kill her. He'd never taken to killing humans for fun. It didn't sit well with him to destroy something so inferior to himself, particularly when his blood also made him a part of that race. Whether he wanted it or not, he had a human mother. She'd been gone since he was little so he had very few real memories of her. Most of them were warm and inviting but one in particular stood out.

 

 

It haunted him even now, even after all those years had past. A memory or a nightmare…he wasn't sure what it was. There were only fragments left, disconnected pieces here and there that cropped up occasionally in dreams or when he least expected them to. They never made any sense and yet his reaction was the same every time - his heart would beat erratically inside his chest, his body would shake and he'd bow unwillingly to a terror unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

 

 

It always started with the sound of screams - haunting, sorrowful, pained - a woman's screams. Then there was the scent of tears. It drowned him like a sea, blocking out every other sense until they were all he could focus on. Tears…the woman screaming wept so many tears. He was never sure how he knew that it was the woman's tears he smelt but he never questioned it. It was those tears and the way her sadness clung to them that made his heart clench until he woke up with a pain in his chest so tight he was barely able to breathe.

 

 

He'd only asked his father once about the dreams. The icy response he'd received in return convinced him that it wasn't an issue to be brought up again. It was his father's reaction that convinced him that perhaps they weren't just nightmares after all. He didn't know the details of what'd happened between his parents prior to his mother's death. What he did know was that his father refused to speak of her to anyone. Those who were brave or stupid enough to broach the subject, if they were lucky, were met with an icy glare and stony silence.

 

 

It was hard growing up like that, not knowing or remembering what she'd been like. With his father remaining mute on the subject his only source of information about her had been the faint whispers and secretive rumours lingering throughout the palace halls. Every so often he caught the stories that slipped secretly from the servants' lips. Some described the former Lady of the West as a great priestess, a brave warrior, and a beauty beyond compare. Others called her a whore and a witch and said she'd enchanted the Lord of the West and conned him into mating with her.

 

 

He didn't know how many of the rumours were true, especially since they have an annoying tendency to wind up grossly exaggerated, but it wasn't long before he realized that they were irrelevant. Miko or whore, it didn't matter. It still didn't change the fact that she was gone or that he'd missed her every day since she left. Even when he tried to tell himself he hated her, the admission rang hollow in his ears and heart. He couldn't deny the truth of his own weakness, not even to himself

 

 

He pondered the woman before him with renewed interest and watched her hand snake behind her back towards the door. “I wouldn't do that if I were you,” he warned and lifted one dark eyebrow into his hairline.

 

 

Kagome's hand froze immediately and lifted off the door to drop at her side. She let out a defeated sigh. There was a hint of amusement on Ronin's face as he lowered his sword and rested the tip against the floor. He maintained his tight hold on the hilt, but appeared to relax, obviously confident in his abilities.

 

 

“You can't escape that way,” he pointed out and tilted his head towards the door. “You'd have to turn your back to me and then who knows where my sword might end up?” His tone was playful but tip of his sword was still deadly. He shrugged genially and tapped it purposefully against the floor. The sound of the soft metallic pings rang in the tense air between them.

 

 

Kagome scowled at him behind her mask. He'd made his point - if she ran he would skewer her. How nice. Well…at least he was giving her fair warning. For the first time her eyes travelled down to the blade. It was just your average sword - sharp, gleaming and deadly. It was the one resting at his hip still sheathed that drew her interest.

 

 

Tetsusaiga…She breathed out slowly as her mind processed the information. If Ronin has Tetsusaiga then that must mean Sesshomaru has the other sword alread in his possession. There's no other logical reason why he'd give the Tetsusaiga up!

 

 

The trickle of blood across the back of her fingers drew her gaze away from Tetsusaiga's sheath and down to her hands. She opened them slowly, gasping softly in pain as her fingernails pulled out of the flesh of her palm. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! She scolded herself and let out a tsk of disgust. If she'd been trying to be stealth this was the worst thing she could've done. Sesshomaru knew the scent of her blood better than anyone. All it would take was one hint of it to reach him and their entire mission would be ruined.

 

 

Feeling the urgency of the situation weighing on her now, she glanced around for something to use as a distraction, anything that could buy her enough time to escape. She caught sight of a table to her right. It was laid out with a small assortment of decorative bottles filled with perfumes and scented oils. The sunlight from outside glinted off the decorative glass stoppers, shining like a beacon of hope directly into her heart. An idea slowly began to form in her mind.

 

 

“So…you're a half demon right?” she asked sweetly, feigning ignorance. He seemed a little taken aback to hear a voice finally emerge from behind her silken mask. He shifted his weight to rest against the hilt of his blade and casually crossed one leg over the other at his ankles.

 

 

“I am. What of it?”

 

 

Kagome shrugged off his question and glanced up at his face to unabashedly stare at him. She took in his casual posture and slowly took one discrete step towards the table. The blood pooled in her palm and with an inward tsk of disgust she discreetly wiped it onto her pants.

 

 

Ronin blinked at the women and drew back in surprise. Nevermind how she knew he was a half demon, it was the fact that the timidity and fear were gone from her eyes that shocked him the most. They flashed with some new emotion now, something dark and dangerous. The scent of fear was gone as well. It'd been replaced by something richer and spicier, something he couldn't decipher. He watched her wipe the blood from her hands and discreetly drew the smell of her in.

 

 

This scent…her blood…I know this scent, he thought to himself. His mind reeled in a frantic search for the answer. His fingers tightened subconsciously around the hilt of his blade.

 

 

“Being half demon…doesn't that make all of your senses heightened? Like taste…touch…smell?” She punctuated each word with a pause and trailed her hand languidly along the edge of table next to her. She looked up at him from beneath her fringe of dark lashes at the word `smell' and blinked slowly while awaiting his response.

 

 

If he could've seen the wicked smile behind her mask he would've done something about it, but as it was he was more confused than anything. What kind of game was she trying to play? Was she trying to seduce him, distract him or make conversation? His eyebrows knit together as he caught the gleam in her eyes and tried to make sense of the expression in them. He could feel something coming…something was definitely going to happen but he just couldn't place his finger on it.

 

 

Despite his cautious nature, when she gasped aloud and fell back against the wall, her eyes trained on the window, he whirled around without hesitation. It only took a second for him realize he'd been tricked and another to curse her to Hell and back for making him look like a fool. He turned towards the troublesome woman and glared at her with eyes that burned like molten fire. He instantly noticed the rather large, decorative glass bottle in her hand and a sense of dread dropped his stomach to the floor. He didn't have time to raise his sword against her before she smashed it into a thousand pieces at his feet.

 

 

The strong perfume wafted instantly into his face in a thick, suffocating cloud that made his eyes water and his head spin. He coughed violently, feeling like he was going to wretch. For the first time in his life he regretted having ultra-sensitive demonic senses. It was blind anger that set his body in motion now as the rest of him was too disoriented to even think straight. He stepped in front of her just in time to block her escape through the open window. With his face twisted in anger he wiped at the tears pouring out of his bloodshot eyes.

 

 

An inhuman growl reverberated inside his throat as he stared her down and pointed his sword at her chest. He was angry at himself more than anything after falling for such a basic trick. He had to commend her intelligence though. She obviously had an intimate understanding of dog demons and their sensibilities and she'd used it to her full advantage. Unfortunately for her it hadn't gotten her very far.

 

 

“You know, I wasn't going to kill you,” he chided, his voice sounding strained, “but now you haven't given me a choice.” She was nothing more than a watery black blob standing in front of him now, but she didn't need to know that.

 

 

“Who are you?” he asked again, his tone filled with genuine curiosity. He might be a hair away from slicing her in two but he didn't want to dispatch her without first finding out who she was. That scent from before…he'd known that scent. It was so familiar, and yet…

 

 

Kagome smiled behind her mask as a familiar flash of red darted into view. With a soft groan, Ronin's eyes rolled backwards and he fell forward into Kagome's waiting arms. His sword clattered noisily to the floor and she skilfully kicked it beneath the bed before dragging his body away from the window.

 

 

Inuyasha leapt up into the sill, his body filling the tiny space, before he hopped silently onto the matted floor. He quickly covered his nose with his sleeve and his eyes watered from the lingering smell of perfume that hung in the air. “Eugh! Kagome! What the hell is that smell?” he demanded, and succumbed to a short burst of dry coughs.

 

 

Kagome rested her hand against Ronin's chest and mumbled an apology to him before turning her attention to her silver-haired saviour. “Sorry but I had to use the perfume. It was the only way to distract him long enough for me to get to the window so you could knock him out. Thanks by the way. For a moment there I thought I was done for!”

 

 

“Damn it Kagome! I could smell your blood from all the way back in the forest. I thought you'd gotten yourself killed ya stupid wench. What the heck happened anyway?”

 

He crouched next to her to hide the fact that his legs were ready to give out on him. They were still trembling and his heart continued to ricochet inside of his chest at an impossible rate. He'd smelled her blood from the branches of that tree and nothing could've stopped him after that. Swords, timelines and sit commands be damned! He'd promised himself and sworn to her that he'd always protect her. They weren't even ten minutes into their mission and he'd already thought he'd lost her. If this was how things were going to be he wasn't sure he could handle it.

 

 

Kagome lowered her mask and smiled at him appreciatively when he crouched next to her. Seeing the brooding frown on his face she held out her hands to him, palms up. He pulled one closer to his face and examined the four crescent-shaped puncture wounds in the center of her palm. All that worrying for this…

 

 

His heart steadily slowed to a normal rhythm and he was tempted to laugh at his own paranoia. Instead he dropped her hand with a disappointed `tsk' and turned his amber gaze to the body lying on the floor next to them. The perfume had eradicated his sense of smell, but even still, he had a sneaking suspicion he knew who it was.

 

 

“Is this…?”

 

 

“Yeah,” she replied softly as her brown eyes gave Ronin's body a once over. She double and triple checked that his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm just to reassure her conscience that he still alive. Inuyasha had a tendency to be a little rougher than necessary when it came to protecting her.

 

 

“I never thought I'd see him grow up to be a man,” she commented absently and brushed several loose strands of hair back from his face. Her hand lingered momentarily against his cheek before she pulled away. Without hesitating she slipped Tetsusaiga from the sash around his waist and handed it perfunctorily to Inuyasha. He was still staring down at it bewildered when she stood.

 

 

“Come on. Let's get out of here before the smell gets to us too!”

 

 

He nodded in agreement and stood, tucking Tetsusaiga into his waistband. He didn't thank her for it but he didn't feel he had to. The sword was his by right - they way he saw it, it was simply being returned to its rightful owner. Besides, one of them needed to be armed and given the circumstances it might as well be him.

 

 

Without a backwards glance they made their way out of the perfume-laden air of the guestroom and into the deserted hallway. After a quick scan or the empty corridor Kagome motioned silently and they took off in the direction of Sesshomaru's private quarters and prayed that they wouldn't run into any more trouble along the way.