InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Fifty-Three: Price ( Chapter 54 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: On S'Spark, mm.org, and aff.net *blah* means thoughts, ~blah~ means thoughts heard from others, ::blah:: means vocal inu speech, and :blah: means mental inu speech. On ff.net, `blah' means thoughts, ...blah... means thoughts heard from others, and inu speech designations remain the same. Enough blah-blah, on to the chapter. ;P

WARNING: A bit o' Lime and Language. No one under 17, please. (Word edit on ff.net)

Chapter Fifty-Three (Price)

The wind was icy and biting this high in the mountains. The sky was sullen and grey---no sunlight penetrated the thick cloud-cover that hung heavy on the mountains that surrounded the castle. The jagged peaks were hidden by a thick, creeping haze, and he could feel the cold moisture that hovered, waiting to be unleashed sometime later in the day.

Closing the golden light of his eyes against the sullen scene, he allowed his awareness to stretch outward across his domain. The slow beat of the kochou's summoning call was as slow and regular as a heartbeat, and like a heart, it was pulling in the very blood of the Western Lands to its center. He could feel the stirring of massive armies coming to his call, both ningen and youkai allies were bestirring themselves and readying for war. There would be no turning back.

Underneath it all, he could feel the restless stirring of the earth itself. The youki of the Western Lands, inheritance of his blood, was being evoked as well. The raising of his inu anger was gathering strength, and the drawing call of the kochou, inevitably liked to nature, was affecting the forces and energies around them. The summoning was calling even to the the earth beneath. If he chose, he could follow the magnetic lines of power outward, swirling in like a cyclic hurricane with the castle as its center, even tapping into the stormy straights of the Sea of Japan that seperated them from the mainland. Faintly, he could trace the aerial lines that summoned the heavy clouds that lay gathered over his domain, heavy with water and snow.

Even the weather currents were disturbed by the summoning of his strength to his side...

Drawing in his awareness, he ignored the spiralling power that drew in around him. He waited calmly until everything outside of him, and inside of him was stilled into silence, the placid waters of his mind laying without a ripple to mar their surface. Once he had achieved the intense focus he needed for this summoning, so that even the inu within him was silent and respectful---if tense and irritated---he allowed his awareness to expand once more, but this time only inside of his mind.

*There.*

A thin thread, no thicker than spider's silk, the delicacy of which hid the sinewy strength that lay within. It stretched from his "body", though the ethereal image was distorted in this plane. Swirling grey clouds, his own idea of the "overworld"---the empty nothingness that was where dreams and visions were sought, where men and fools traveled, knowing and unknowing, in a place where they might touch another's mind, or seek the gods to touch theirs in prayer or meditation, where thoughts and mental pictures solidified at the merest flicker of thought---the dreamer's idyll.

He pictured the thread as it would seem to him, and gave it more strength---a mere seeming, he understood, but one that had some strange basis in reality. Without thought, his own form took on substance, the image of how he saw himself.

Flexing both hands---for in this "overworld" plane of thought and mental imagining, he was not maimed in the left one, but had both arms, and for a moment was distracted as his eyes streaked red over the claws that were no more but here were curling across and twining around the spider's silk. He knew that his own body was standing statue-still on the uppermost Tower of his castle, with unseeing eyes and awareness turned inward, unfeeling of the icy kiss of the rising wind that howled and moaned around the Tower.

Focusing once more, he pulled his awareness to that delicate thread that tied him to the miko, Kagome. Feeling its sinewy texture between his claws and knowing it was but a mental acknowledgment of what he WOULD feel if he had had such a thread in his true hands, he allowed the doubled awareness to dissolve and focused on why he had come to this plane.

*Miko...*

The inu seethed, but was silent.

He tugged slightly on the thread that bound him to her, and sent a shred of thought skittering across it like a rippling tremor, twinging it like a note plucked from a guitar or lute. In a breath's moment, he could feel the faint essence of her, and the inu within him stirred in recognition of what it thought was his...

He touched on something that was confusing to him...joy and sadness, acceptance and denial, resignation and defiance. There was there also a bit of the overwhelming, an aura whose strength was almost breathtaking in its beauty and purity. For a moment, he allowed it to enfold him, swaying over him like a tsunami, and he felt a single second of joyous recognition, to where his soul had found a missing part of it and felt completed and whole, and the exquisite harmony of it was almost painful in its sense-shattering perfection.

But his mind was still in denial, and he withdrew himself into a colder awareness, more comforting to him in its familiarity, and if he felt a slight regret over dissolving that incredible union, the remorse was buried and ignored under the more logical side of his mind that refused to acknowledge it or what it might mean to him.

With a mental voice that did not pass sound through his lips, but which he pictured in this overworld plane as speech, he called out her name, demanding her attention.

"KAGOME."

There was a slight, tentative touch of awareness, a feather's brush, a questing and a seeking, across his. He seized on that mental confusion, and drew it closer in curving claws, picturing the thread that lay between his hands as a leash to draw her closer.

She was suddenly there, her confusion plain, a touch of fear vibrating along the rippling purity of her aura-wrapped mind before she recognized him, or his soul's touch on hers.

The disturbed image solidified into the beautiful young miko who had captivated his senses, and the inu within him snarled with recognition.

:Mine!:

With amusement, he noticed that the girl Kagome saw herself clothed in the green and white outfit that he now recognised as coming from her time, but that he had always thought too revealing and showed the status of her as his brother InuYasha's whore. He disliked the shortness of her fuku, and a growl spread through him, making his golden eyes bleed for a moment. His claws curled over her shoulders, the tips tangling in the thick brush of her midnight hair.

Her brown eyes, as deep and intense as he remembered, widened upon recognizing him, and her whisper curled between them as she put name to him.

"SesshouMaru..."

The inu reared up and his fangs gleamed. ::Mine.::

Mental thought was physical action on this plane, and she suddenly broke away from him, putting distance between them. He dropped his claws to his sides, the cooler side of his mind taking over so that the gold of his eyes chilled once more into a remote detachment.

He looked at her, waiting. She had her hands fisted at her sides and her head bowed, so that the whorls of her black bangs hid her expression from him. When she did, finally, look up and glare at him with an intensity of emotion in the dark depths of her brown eyes, he was taken aback by her words.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?"

The anger and pain were intense, and he was momentarily stunned by the power of the emotion behind it. For a mere ningen to have such strength was unknown---

*Not unknown. For Kagome has power that she does not even comprehend.*

"What are you talking about?" She glared at him. He was mildly surprised that she had heard his thoughts as words, but it was not unknown. And in the overworld, where thought was action, even more so.

"I am here now." He replied coldly.

She looked---astonished. Then annoyed. He had forgotten how easily her emotions were read, and how amusing she was.

"That doesn't exactly tell me where you've been, now does it?" She snapped at him, her annoyance fanned to anger by the amused glint in his golden eyes. She stirred uncomfortably when his eyes glowed over her biting sarcasm, but she crossed her arms over her white shirt and set her jaw stubbornly.

*The wench is surprising.* He was not overly angry at her stubborn pride, in fact, he felt a smidgen of admiration for the little miko who dared to stand up to him, even though he could read her fear in the trembling of her small body. Ningen emotions were so easily sensed.

"I am not a wench." She tossed her head, brown eyes narrowed. The rustle of her black tresses across her cheek distracted him, and his golden eyes arrowed on the flaring crescent mark of his claiming. It pulsed with a darkly pink and fuchsia light in time with her heartbeat, and there was something in it that called to him, desired him, sought him...

Eyes narrowing in calculation, he deliberately relaxed his proud stance. He allowed a certain softness to glide over his cold features. The aura of seductive command brightened around him as he deliberately pulled his aura into one of coaxing desire. The youki around him shimmered, and he focused all of his devastating beauty and blatantly sexual appeal on the young woman before him. Her eyes widened, and her lips trembled as she felt that powerful pull toward him, felt the blood singing in her ears...

He would not be denied.

The crescent mark on her neck flared with new fire, and he bent his considerable energies to it, calling out for her to come to him. An unseen wind fluttered the long silk of his hair, and his mouth curved sensuously as he bent that demand to her like a lover's whisper of promise, a Siren's summons to enfold the girl's senses and capture her in incontestable desire. His powerful body spoke of a promise, of a need, of desire realized and thirst quenched, but the golden eyes above the sensual promise of his lips were cold and hard.

Manipulative.

Her small frame trembled, and he could see the goose bumps chasing across her white skin. She was losing the battle, and longing filled her soul. She took a single step closer, the small step dragged as if through honey. Her eyes were wide, her breathing light and fast, her heartbeat a fluttered quickening. That step was all he needed to know that he had her...

:MINE.: The inu suddenly reared up, howling within him, and he was there, before her, with the speedy suddenness of thought, his claws curling over her shoulders, his tail coming about and around to wrap around the small curve of her back so that she could not flee his embrace. She raised her soft lips up to him, and he studied her delicate face for the merest moment---the flush on her pale cheek, the delicate fan of her curling lashes as her eyes closed, the trembling pink petals of her trembling lips and the delicate curve of her jaw, the midnight curl of her bangs that kissed along her forehead. Her body was slight, the curve of her small fingers as they tightened in his haori were a warmth he could not deny, either. Passion sprang from her, melting her resistance, and his own desire tightened in answer. Gold glinted across his hard eyes and he bent his head, to claim her lips with his own in a fierce demand of surrender.

The inu roared inside of him, spurning his blood to a boiling crash of heated desire. She was HIS, his female, his woman, his mate...

The golden lure of his eyes turned to a fire of wanting, and Kagome shivered in his arms, feeling it's hot torch across her mind. His claws tightened possessively, and his tail drew her closer, so that her heated core was dragged against the fierce need in his loins. Her hands tightened against the curve of his arms, clutching the white fabric of his haori's sleeves as if an anchor to the whirling spin of desire that whirled and tunneled through both of them.

::MINE.:: The inu snarled, and he bent to brand his claim across her mouth.

But Kagome's eyes sprang open from that primitive snarl, and the spell of desire that he had woven around her was broken by that summary appellation. Her hands tightened, but not in a desire to pull him closer, but in order to push him away. A cry escaped her, like the small cry of a cornered animal, and she turned her head as his lips sought hers. His mouth grazed fire against her pale cheek, and the breath hissed out of him as his golden eyes flashed crimson with the denial.

*MIKO!* He growled at her, and she struggled in the tight clench of his claws as they dug into her arms. A pained mew escaped her at the fierce grip, and he immediately loosened his hold the merest bit, so that she might not feel the piercing sting of his claws on her delicate skin. Her hands pushed feebly at him, and the demonic blood thundered in his ears, demanding release, possession, fulfillment.

"No..." She breathed, her smaller body shuddering against his, the unshed tears washing her brown eyes brilliant.

~Not like this!~ Her mind was open before him as if she had made that whisper of anguished thought aloud as speech. His heart clenched in answer to the pain that wreathed her mental "voice", and he snarled, the inu uncaring. He would MAKE her care, MAKE her bow to him, her Lord, her Master, her Mate...

He had no right.

His claws uncurled as his tail slipped from around her gasping waist. The cooler side of his nature surged forth to collar the raging inu, and he stepped back, away from her, away from the intoxicating feel of her, the call of her, the scent of her, the nearness and closeness and intense NEED of her...

A small sob broke from the girl as he pushed her away from him, to stagger back and bend her head and curl her right fist to her breast, the other to knead the green fabric of her fuku in poignant distress. A flicker of remorse skimmed across the golden splendor of his eyes and was gone as the more familiar and natural reserve of emotional withdrawal seeped into them. Coldly, he collared the screaming fury of his inu blood, stamping it ruthlessly down, so that he resembled the cold statue of a beautifully remote and cruel angel once more.

~How could he do that again?~

SesshouMaru's frozen features showed none of the chaotic reactions that were churning through him at her stabbing thought. How could the miko see him as anything other than cold and heartless, manipulating her to his will, inflaming her desire so that he could gain a paltry revenge on his hanyou brother? A revenge that seemed as pointless, in light of the revelation of their shared inu blood, as his contempt for the half-breed bastard had been.

His eyes reddened for a mere moment as the inu howled defiantly.

*But she is MINE...*

Could she deny the tie between them? A bond that called to him, whispered in his deepest sleep and made the inu within him restless? The mark of the half-moon on her neck was more than just a mere talisman of his claiming. They were linked somehow, and for all of his searching in dusty parchment and moldy tombs he had not been able to define it.

He had begun a calculated plan of ruthless vengeance; the girl had only been a pawn in the game. But she had touched upon some hidden part of him, and he had not taken into account how much SHE would affect him...

And yet, she loved his brother, he could not deny it---or the pain the memory of her calling out InuYasha's name caused him. The memory was branded across his mind...her fragile softness held embraced against him as the steam gently wafted through the heated bath around them, the rippling swirls of water surrounding their joined bodies, his claws tracing the delicate line of her cheek as he bent his head over her so that his white hair, heavy with the damp drag of the water that touched the ends, curtained her beautiful face, a dawning amazement of the treasure he had held so close and who had betrayed the first cracks in his icy armor to touch the very emotional heart of him...

He buried the knowledge deep---where other, older, pains had been buried beneath a veneer of cold and untouchable indifference.

He disdained emotion. It was for the weak, and he was not weak. He was inu.

Taiyoukai.

Disturbing emotion withdrawn, he gazed at his betrayer coolly. Whatever there was between them must be ignored for the sake of the child the girl carried. Any other paltry concerns or unresolved issues between them paled in consideration to a child of his blood.

"Miko." He said, commanding her attention.

He expected her tears, he could sense them unshed and sparkling her deep brown eyes. he did not expect her glare---or her bitter words.

"You have yet to answer my question." She bit out, nerves raw and on the breaking point.

A single silver brow rose in mild inquiry, and the anger seethed through her, making her fist her hands at her side as she repeated it between clenched teeth, unaware of the fiery flash of her eyes or the raw beauty she presented thus angered.

"Where have you been?"

"It is no concern of yours." He replied coolly.

"The hell it isn't." She snapped, the slim rein she held on her anger broken by his rank unconcern with it. The fury exploded, warming her, and she forgot her fear and sadness. With snapping dry eyes, she turned on him all the pent up rage and loss of the last five months. She was shaking with the raw emotion of it, and he could feel the flaring pulse of the energy aura that surrounded her flare and heat about her as she found a focus for her fury.

"You have GOT to be joking! You MUST be joking---because you CAN'T be serious! Not my concern? You conceited, arrogant DOG! You kidnaped me---took me from my friends---held me captive with no reason WHY!---bite my NECK---which STILL hasn't healed!---you could have given me RABIES---"

He stiffened, outraged at her insults. But he was no mere ningen to lose control, so he remained still, his expression cold and remote, but the gold in his eyes darkened the smallest bit in obvious warning.

Kagome was beyond caring, her indignation and anger fueling the fire of her justifiable wrath. "Rabies! You ARE rabid! And CRAZY! You get me drunk and make me...make me..." She faltered over the words, her flushed cheeks glowing brighter in a blush. She dropped her eyes from the golden glow of his and took an unconscious step backwards before grabbing up the thread of her anger once more.

"You---we---I---and then you...you..." Her voice hitched in raw pain. "You HURT me, and called me a whore---INUYASHA'S whore---when it was YOU who I...I...and then you LEFT. You send that ugly little toad---that nasty, smelly, stinking little bug-eyed TOAD to call me names and DISMISS me like I was---like what we shared wasn't something precious, but like it was DIRTY. 'Poor mighty Taiyoukai, dirtied himself with a filthy human girl'...YOU JERK! I was a VIRGIN! How could you take something like THAT from me and then SPIT on it?"

SesshouMaru's composure cracked the tiniest bit, but Kagome did not see the flicker of anger and regret that crossed the yellow gold of his eyes. To her, he remained a cold statue that continued to simply stare at her, no emotion crossing his angelically cruel, perfect face.

"Why should I expect anything less?" She wilted suddenly, the flash of her anger dissolving. Her thin shoulders dropped, and her head bowed as the tears ran down her face, unheeded. She trembled with the anger of betrayal, but his lack of reaction made it seem pointless to continue screaming at him. The black tangles of her hair curled over her pale cheeks, and she hid her clenched fists in the green fabric of her fuku.

SesshouMaru stood frozen for a moment, and then with the next, was directly in front of her, the claws of his left hand curling over her shoulder while the fingers of the right, claw tips flashing white in the swirling energies that now surrounded them in tumultuous grey storms of disturbance, went to touch across the wet cheek and nudge her chin up so that he could stare into her eyes.

Kagome refused to raise her head, and his fingers became hard and unrelenting, forcing the pale oval of her face to lift so that he could stare down at her. His tail once again curved across the arch of her back, caressing her spine in a soft but firm support. Her eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. She shivered at the golden intensity that was burning into her eyes.

~SesshouMaru...~

His name was a whispered caress from her mind, and he could feel the sudden arousal that flooded her. He was pleased by it, but he damped down his own desires to brush the tears off of her wet cheek almost tenderly. "I regret my behavior."

It was the only apology he would ever utter to her. She was, after all, still only a ningen. But he did regret having hurt her, how deeply, he had not realized. But she had hurt him as well, and there was too much and too many between them for there to be anything other than respect. And he had always respected her, even if she was a mere onna.

And for the sake of the child she carried, be it hanyou or not, it was still of his blood, and he would do his duty and see to her care and comfort. He recognised, now, that even if the child was only half-bred, it was still his---

There was a spark in her eyes. "You cannot understand---"

The golden eyes held hers, and he said firmly. "I do understand."

Her eyes widened and she breathed in surprised pain, "You know..."

He nodded once, his eyes unreadable, but the claws curled over the curve of her cheek in a firm caress.

"How long?" Confusion and fear, and strangely, hurt, flickered across the sparkling brown eyes. The whisper was hoarse to his delicate hearing.

"That does not matter." He said, voice firm.

She stilled in his close, supporting embrace, but he heeded it not. He told her what he intended, now that he knew the frail onna carried his pup. "You will come to the Western Lands, where I can protect you. I will personally guarentee your care and comfort in the castle that is my home. You will want for nothing, and I promise that your child, be it son or daughter, will hold a place equal to its rank and station in life as a child of my blood, and that you will be taken care of for the remainder of your days, however long they are. There is that which comes which you will not understand, my armies move against the dark hanyou, and I will not have you endangered by the coming battle. I insist you ready yourself, for the journey will be hard ardrous this late in the season, but I will be sending an escort to retrieve you from the village of the Goshinboku to take you to my home in comfort and safety."

Her mouth had fallen open in shock at his announcement, and he waited to hear her capitulation. Her small hands firmed once more on his chest, and his golden eyes narrowed as he sensed the incredulity and annoyance---surely not, it could not be, the girl should be grateful that he would take her in and offer her his protection and his home, rather than sitting in squalor in a hovel at the edge of nowhere, but she was actually annoyed at his high-handed manner, and his eyes streaked faintly red when she blurted out,

"You can't be serious."

She was not amusing.

A growl escaped him, and her eyes widened, a flush staining her pale cheeks.

"You ARE serious."

Of course he was serious. She was being unexpectedly difficult. He should have foreseen it, she had always been a strange woman, defiant and difficult, even in circumstances that should have had her backing away in fear. He did not have InuYasha's love of ningen or patience with the frail creatures, he would not put up with her unorthodox behavior. She should be falling down on her knees in gratitude, instead she was staring at him as if he had two heads.

He slid his arms from around her and stepped back, the better able to glare down at her and emphasize his point of her lower status. She might be the mother of his forthcoming child, and a powerful miko, but she was still only an onna, and a foolish and young one at that. He knew what was best for her, and she would obey him. He was Taiyoukai.

He gazed at her coldly, his voice icy and commanding. "You will be ready in a week's time. I will not tolerate disobedience, even in the mother of my child." His eyes glowed faintly with blood, to better emphasize his dominance over her.

She gave him an incredulous look. "You're deranged."

He bit back a growl. "Miko, you try my patience. I assure you, that is not a good start."

She actually tossed her head, the black hair spilling in a feathery fall over her other shoulder. "If you think I'm going to leave my friends---"

He had been brought up to date on the status of her "friends". She actually flinched when he replied coldly, "Your friends have scattered. My brother and the taijiya have disappeared, with no word of their whereabouts or welfare. You cannot believe that a young fox kit, a perverted monk, and an old miko of limited ability could protect you if Naraku decides suddenly that my pup would better be dead than born. It is surprising that he has not taken an interest in the matter before, but I assure you, that his disinterest will not remain buried for much longer."

She flinched at the dark hanyou's name, and her hands went instinctively to curve over the flat plain of her belly. Here is the overworld, she wore only the semblance of how she saw herself, and not how she was in the physical world. He wondered, suddenly, how far along she was or how her slim curves had altered with the rigors of child-bearing. An inu-youkai bitch would whelp her pups in three months, but a ningen female took thrice that long to birth her babe. As an onna, she would bear for nine moons, or forty weeks. He could allow her a leisure journey to his castle, but for not much longer would she be able to travel, humans being such a frail species...

Her chin thrust out stubbornly, and her eyes flashed at the disdain that had dripped from his words. Her pale cheeks were flushed with high color, and the depths of her brown eyes glittered with a feverish light. A tendril of curling midnight shifted on the curve of her neck where it met her shoulder, and the crescent mark glittered with a smouldering fuchsia light.

Her words were bit out sharply. "I don't care what you `demand'. I am staying with my friends, where I know I am wanted. I refuse---" She shook with the fury that enwrapped her, "---REFUSE to be carted off willy-nilly to the Western Lands just so your stupid honor can be soothed that you have done your DUTY." She spat that word out with a loathing he could feel snapping at him like the poison whip he struck at his enemies.

"You are foolish, miko." He growled.

"And you're a jerk." Kagome's eyes glittered with a fevered light as she snapped back.

He was at her in a flash, his claws curling over her thin shoulders to grip them fiercely and shake her---gently, for she was frail, this stubborn wench---to make her see sense, to make her submit. The inu was growling in the back of his mind, demanding her obeisance. He was Alpha!

Kagome's eyes flashed as the blood seeped into his. He bared his fangs, the growl heating him. *Damn her, she will obey me!*

"No." Her lips were white, and her fevered eyes wild. Her defiance flared at him, making him tighten his claws just as she crumpled in a dead faint.

Her weight dragged at him, but he braced her body up. *What in all the hells?* He was taken aback, and swept her small form up into his arms. His tail curled over and around her back, and with a flicker of casual thought, firmed the grey-clouded matter beneath them so that he might sit down with her cradled in his arms. Her mind was opened to him, but was a whirling chaos of flaring emotions that he could not sort through right now. He closed the barrier between that chaos and focused his concentration on finding what, exactly, had happened.

The grey-clouded world that surrounded them turned dark and ominous, swirling storm-heads that reflected the blazing chaos of the miko's mind, and his own surprise and consternation. The inu howled eerily inside of him, and he pushed it back, so that he could concentrate more fully.

Pulling in his aura, he formed it into a soft light to surround them both, using it as a shield to keep the stormy ambience of the overworld from disturbing him. There were flashes and flares of deep rose and fuchsia lightening across the roiling grey clouds, making a wild and fragmented pattern. The miko's dissolved conscience was reaching out to the netherworld around them, and sending it into a turmoil and chaos that reflected her own. As the greenly-yellow light extended around them, the disturbing energies were cut off and silenced, although they still raged beyond the fragile glow of his shielding barrier.

She slumped in his arms, her fevered cheek coming to rest against his armored breast-plate. It would be uncomfortable for her, and he mentally dissolved it with a flicker of thought, so that she nestled against the white fabric of his haori. He could feel the heat that rose from her, or what he sensed as heat. Supporting her head and shoulders in his right arm, he untangled his left from under her legs and pushed the tangled weave of her black hair from her forehead. Her breath was light and fast, as was the heartbeat that called to him. He had forgotten how much her nearness could affect him, and he ruthlessly stamped down the sudden arousal that had the inu growling again.

Her forehead was almost searing to the touch, a magnified reaction of the fever that must be claiming her sleeping body in the physical world. He could feel her consciousness slipping away, and the image of her in this grey world of dreams and thoughts flickered and weakened, slowly paling.

*NO.* He snarled and tightened his hold on her. He pictured her mind as her body in this reality, holding tightly to it and refusing to let go. There was something there that was not right. He could feel the sluggish surging of her angry aura as if it were the slow-moving blood that pumped through her body and into her limbs, giving her life. He must seek the heart of it, must see why the fever gripped her, and the chaos surrounded her spirit in a tight embrace.

He could not, right now, consider if it was the work of a malignant mind, or if it came from the foul manipulations of the Jewel-bearing hanyou Naraku, that were twisting the girl's aura into a slow poison that was consuming her mind and was forcing her frail body into the fevered insomnia and constant weariness that he now recognized within her. All of his concentration was needed in locating the cause of the disturbing power of her aura and dissolving it before it would ultimately lead to her death, her fragile body unable to stand the driving energies that would consume it.

He shifted her body in his arms, so that her cheek now rested against the sleeve of his haori, exposing her neck and the sign of his claiming. His golden eyes arrowed on the flaring pulse of the crescent mark on her neck. It pulsed and burned with a fierce light, a swollen fuchsia streaked with magenta and dull rose. Her pure aura, the power of a miko, should have made it pulse with the pale pink and searing white of that pure power. Instead, it seemed to glitter and pulsate with a burning energy, like a malevolent Shikon shard.

Without pause, he bared his fangs and plunged them into the swollen ends of his crescent mark. He shuddered at the sudden, blinding chaos that swamped over him. His vision filled with a reddened haze, as his youkai blood surged to fight against the power that threatened to overwhelm and drown him. Grasping his aura with blind claws, he pulled it around him like a shielding cloak. The glow of his own power as a youkai pulsed to life, brightening and sending back the whirling chaos of pure miko energy that surrounded him.

He was thunderstruck with the very presence of such raw power...such all-consuming, pulsating, blinding POWER. It was a live thing, ever growing and filling, it did not lay still, awaiting a call for use, but simmered and swelled if not used and drained. The girl had kept her miko energy tightly contained, refusing to acknowledge or use it, and it had grown and grown until it threatened to overflow and kill her with the instability of it. Like an over-filled vessel, it would, eventually, split its sides and spill out.

Why had the miko not recognized the danger? Why had she not drained the seething power that had continued to expand within her? If she were unable to release it herself safely, then why had she not sought out one who could? One who could deplete the growing power out of her without harming her or the child she bore---

He pushed the thoughts away, realizing that there was one very important reason that snapped all the others into the background. The ningen girl was pregnant with his pup, a youkai child. The purification powers of a miko would be death to the unprotected and defenseless babe---no, BABES---in her womb.

He would be a fool to try and drain that immense power himself. He was youkai, she was miko. There was no way that their auras, seperated by a gulf of purpose of no small magnitude, could combine and---

He stilled, cursing his distracted thoughts. He could feel his own aura growing and filling, and he froze at the vulnerability he had left himself in. But what was this? He expected the pain of refusal, as the miko energies rejected his youkai blood and tried to purify it out of him. He was too strong to be purified, he was a Taiyoukai and of an ancient blood that could easily shield his demonic aura from attacks of that nature. But the fierce green light that he had shielded and surrounded both of them with was slowly expanding and softening, feeding on the surging power that extended in glowering waves all around them.

Closing his reddened eyes, he traced the crescent mark on her neck with the edge of his tongue, before biting his fangs deeper into the ends. He could feel the surge of her power, and like a dream within a dream, he saw both the fuchsia-tinted haze of Kagome's mind and the overworld dream-image that contained him, holding her in his arms and surrounded by his barrier. The inu within him roared, and he opened himself fully to the energy that had threatened to drown him and overwhelm the frail miko he held so tightly to.

He quickly filled himself with the raw power that was hers, and still there was more than he could need or use. As cold and calmly as a surgeon, he deftly diverted the flow of energy into the surrounding world, seeking out the essence of the earth to feed off the excess that neither he nor the girl Kagome could contain. He became merely a gate for that power to flood from the little miko and out into the earth from whence it came, his aura burning with the awesome power that was tingling across and over him. But even as it passed through him and beyond, he felt it comforting and burgeoning him, and he chilled at the PURITY that surrounded and flooded him in an endless torrent that seemed to trap him forever in its embrace.

Fear and doubt disappeared, and for a moment his inner self was bared so that he could stare at the inner demons that plagued him and not shrink from them as he had in the past. That pure energy seemed to swamp out all of the dark secrets of his soul and he felt vulnerable, but not disturbed or apprehensive as he would normally. The comfort and perfect purity of that breathtaking aura, of the joy-filled soul that slowly emerged as the power receded bit by bit and dissolved from around it made his blood surge within him in recognition, and for one brief instant that seemed to last forever and was gone in a mere blink of awareness, there was acceptance and joy and comfort and harmony that was so intense and loving and open in union between his soul and hers that he could not acknowledge it with the more limited understanding of his mind, and must later doubt that it had even taken place.

For one, brief, shining moment, they were One.

And then they were not, and his fangs gently withdrew from the half-moon mark on her neck. The crescent flared with a blinding white light of purity and then dissolved into a slow and steady pulse of pale rose. He licked the pierced ends, though there would be no physical wounds in the real world from this mental sojourn in the overworld of dreams and visions, and allowed his healing saliva to seal the small incisions. The girl stirred in his arms, and although he should feel drained and tired, he felt burgeoned with a new energy and strength.

::Mine...:: The inu, which was now closer than ever to his soul, whispered a soft growl over the unconscious girl, who now lay sleeping peacefully, the fevers of her body broken.

~SesshouMaru...~ Her mind whispered to him, and he was pleased that she now dreamed of him.

She was not what he had ever expected to find, and he realized now that he could never let her go. But he also realized, with a faint snarl at his own bungling of the affair, that he could not smother that precious spirit, that fire that filled her and had---he could now admit---attracted him from the first time he had seen her, outfitted in strange clothes, her legs shamelessly bared to mid-thigh and her dark-blue shirt encircled by stars, so that he had, in a part of his mind he had refused to acknowledge at the time, thought she was a tennyo or faerie-witch sent from the night to tempt and taunt him, proud fool that he was.

"Kagome." He curled his claws along her cheek and allowed his lips to touch hers in a mere breath of a kiss. His eyes were a molten gold that glowed with an inner conviction of spirit and recognition that she, this preposterous miko from the future, was his mate, and not just his pawn.

She stirred restlessly, and sunk deeper into slumber, a healing, restful sleep that would mend the rigors of her body. He could not follow her into the absorbing darkness as she went deeper than dreams followed, and her form was dissolving into a pale blur of awareness as she dropped from their linked minds and he allowed her departure.

He would allow her to stay where she was, she felt the safest there among the known and normal, her friends around her and the familiar easing her worries. He had his own pressing issues to resolve. His allies were gathering and his armies would soon march, to stamp out the dark hanyou who had dared touch one of his. It would take him from her side, and he needed all of the ruthless control and icy determination that the forthcoming battle of revenge would exact of him.

And then he would return for her. He would not allow her to leave his side again. She would stay in her village, with her friends. He would not leave her defenseless, though. He would send chosen youkai to guard her---she would be too tempting a target for Naraku if the dark hanyou should find out just how much he, the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands, now cared for the little miko Kagome.

He let her spirit go, to wander into healing slumber, and he felt his own awareness fading from the grey nothingness of the overworld as he let his fierce concentration falter. Suddenly, he became aware once more of the icy kiss of the wind on his body, and his limbs felt stiff and leaden from having stood frozen in the upper parapets of the Western Tower. He blinked the aching dryness from his golden eyes and looked up into the blanketing clouds. Small, fat flakes fell lazily from the hovering blanket, and he felt their chilling touch on his skin.

Flexing the claws of his one good hand, for a moment he felt as if he flexed the claws of the other, a mocking phantom of feeling from the one that had been cut from him with the Tetsusaiga. The ghostly feel of an limb and hand that were not there reminded him sharply of the snarling rage he had felt that his weaker, half-bastard brother could take THIS from him as well.

His thirst for vengeance against the insult InuYasha had given him had fueled the cold calculation with which he had set about in avenging the slight to his honor and the bitterness of defeat at his half-brother's claws. He had not calculated on how the girl Kagome would affect him, would come to him as the only one who could ever fill the cold void in his heart. He had tried to deny it, tried to ignore and dismiss it. He even, if he was harshly honest, ran from it.

Vengeance had not dealt the satisfaction he had expected. Instead, it left him with a scar in his heart and a dread-filled fear that his ruthless use of the girl as a mere tool for his smarting pride might have turned her away from him forever. He knew, now, how much she was to him, but she could not know to what depths she had affected him. She might never forgive him for the way he had manipulated and used her, and he did not know if he could bear the dull ache of emptiness, of endlessly dusty and lonely years that would stretch before him if he could not summon from her what his brother InuYasha had had so easily: her heart.

The knowledge that he might have torn away any chance of joy and fulfillment filled him with a cold bitterness that bit icier than the snow-laiden wind that howled around him. He knew, now, what he had paid for his revenge.

He loved her, and knew not if she could ever love him.

This, then, was the price of vengeance.

***********************

A/N: No, I didn't fall off the face of the planet, though I might as well have. Between computer problems and work stress and typing gabbledy-gook that made no sense whatsoever, it has taken me weeks to finally write, edit and post these chapters. The next ones are coming together right now, and there should be a lemon in the near future. XD Hope you liked the two I just posted, and I need to give special thanks to quite a few people and answer some questions posed by email. AOL deleted a whole bunch of my unanswered mail when my monitor was down, so if I forgot you on the mailing list or did not answer your question, please email me again at Inufanasha(atsign)aol(dot)com. If you hate long author notes, completely ignore this. If you like `em, I promise a funny bit at the very end from one of my reviewers.

Thanks go to George Strait, who helped me write this chapter with his song "Nobody in His Right Mind" (First verse included, love the words!)

I burn with desire,

Each time my heart

Fans the fire

Through that old flame

That burns inside of me.

She cried when I left her,

Now I try to forget her.

Oh how foolish I was

To ever want to leave...

Further thanks go to Fairia13 and Vyncent, who kept encouraging, suggesting, and inspiring me when I was harassed by an uncooperative Sessy. Fairia13 has written an awesome Sess/Rin fic called "Stronger", which can be found on aff.net. (Her OC Raidon, Lord of the Southern Lands, has displaced my darling Sessy in sexy hotness. *Pant, Pant* Want more of my darling lion, Fair-chan!) Vyncent has also written a great story, of Sess/Kag that has an awesomely unique way of dealing with lemony goodness, it's called "The Beast Awakens" and can be found on A Single Spark. Other inspirations include Kilala81's "Secrets of the Shinju", AmyFushigiyugi's "Defy Not the Heart", Richonyx's "Tasting Amber", Terri Botta's "The Lucky Ones", and Numisma's "Movie House Hanyou". Further inspiration is drawn from some sexy fan-art, my fav can be found on A Single Spark, done by Sake no Miko. Hot Kag/Sess, not hentai, but inspired this story from the beginning.

I want to thank all of the reviewers who have kept pace with Vengeance, and sent me requests and death threats to update. (Ducking under desk.) A few people had some questions, and I'll try to answer them here. Cassie, Kagome is now five months pregnant. Artemis, Sess will not let me define him as good or bad. I'm email you a better answer to your question tomorrow, I want to post this up tonight. Another reviewer (I apologize, your email and name were deleted by AOL before my monitor was back up) asked me where I had gotten the charms/customs in Chapter 49 (Dreams) about Kag's and Koharu's pregnancies. I did some research into traditional customs on pregnancy and came across stories of beliefs passed down by Japanese parents to their Hawaiian-born children. Adopting many of these to Vengeance, the others (like gaining weight to be gifted with twins) came from my own twisted psyche, though in many ancient cultures, fertility goddesses were depicted rather heftily. Hope that answers your questions, and if you have any others, please let me know.

I have a request for Tom & Patricia, who I continue to thank for their reviews, please send me the title and author name of you fic on aff.net. I lost the email where I had earmarked it for future reading. I'm really wanting to check it out, so please let me know where I can find your story.

Now for a bit of nonsense, sent to me by Demon Wicca, who made me howl over this. Thanks, Wicca, and hope to hear from you soon!

Inuyasha walks up to the group. Everyone raises their heads. Kikiyo appears out of nowhere, and walks to where Kagome's at. the girls lock gazes and then turn to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha gulps...
"I've decided...I've got some good news" he says...each girl have a glint of hope in their eyes, and stand up...

"You chose me?" they said at the same time...

Inuyasha simply shakes his head. "No, but I just saved a whole bunch of money on my sword insurance by switching to GEICO.."