InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Source of Solace ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: YoukaiFate 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.15.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.3K | Visits: 287 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.15.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.3K | Visits: 287 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi has that singular privilege. This story is for entertainment purposes only.
THE SOURCE OF SOLACE
WARNING! Dark imagery and lime, adult situations and issues. Foul language omitted on ff dot net.
CHAPTER FOUR
The brown-haired man watched the two women from a distant table. He had ordered a cup of flavored tea, which cooled un-tasted on the table in front of him. The tea was more of an excuse than a desire for that rare blend of leaves that few planets could produce as well as Sakura in the fourth galaxy.
The two women were engrossed in conversation, taking little notice of their surroundings. Both were black-haired and fair of skin, but one was full of animation, the other quiet and concentrating. A faint smile hovered over the quiet one's lips, and the handsomely unassuming man took it as a cue that he would like to know more.
Standing up, he made his way around the various tables and stepped purposely up to the pretty pair, his blue eyes warm, his smile tentative.
"...and he's been investing in some merchant lines, from what little I understand, and hates it. Inuyasha will be so much happier when we go on to Kyouko."
Hojo cleared his throat and two pairs of brown eyes turned to stare at him in surprise.
"Pardon me, ladies." He coughed slightly. "I couldn't help but see that you were...ahem...alone. I hope I am not intruding, but please allow me to introduce myself."
"Hello." The animated girl smiled back at him with welcome, while the quiet one eyed him warily. "I'm Kagome, and this is Sango."
Hojo offered a graceful bow. "I am Hojo. Hojo Gentry. Again, I hope I am not intruding---"
"You are."
Hojo jerked up in surprise, his blue eyes meeting the narrowed amber ones of an irate hanyou.
"Inuyasha!" The girl Kagome jumped up and hugged the silver-haired hanyou with easy familiarity. "It can't be that late, could it?"
"It is." The hanyou snapped testily, his golden eyes steady on Hojo, who cleared his throat nervously.
"Inuyasha, this is Hojo Gentry. We just met him." Kagome said, blithely ignorant of the hard look her hanyou mate was giving the brown-haired man dressed in midnight blue.
Kagome's brown eyes lit up with sudden inspiration. "Hey. I have an idea. Sango is going to dinner with us, Inuyasha. Perhaps Mr. Gentry would like to join...?"
The other girl---Sango---looked startled at the invitation. Hojo hesitated, but Inuyasha decided the matter for him.
Bluntly.
"No, he would not."
Kagome blinked, and Sango looked suddenly relieved. Hojo coughed, trying to cover up the awkward moment of silence that filled the air between them.
"Um...yes...er...very well, then." He made a gallant bow under Inuyasha's hard gaze. "Maybe some other time." His dark blue eyes flicked to Sango with silent question. Inuyasha snorted, while his mate gave him a dark glare for his rudeness.
The girl Sango slid out of her seat, and without saying another word, the three of them turned and left the small cafe. Hojo stood there watching their departure, his dark blue eyes resting thoughtfully on the silent, black-haired girl.
*~*~*~*~*
"You're such a jerk." Kagome's face was a thundercloud.
"Whatever." Inuyasha growled back.
Sango was a silent shadow behind them until Kagome recalled her presence, and stopped long enough to grab one pale hand in hers. "Come on, Sango-chan." She smiled brightly, even as she rolled her eyes at her mate. "Inuyasha's just a brat."
Sango paused, her eyes wary. "I don't want to intrude..."
"Nonsense! We still have SO much to catch up on." Kagome insisted. "I've been doing all the talking, and haven't given you a chance to say ANYTHING."
~Including some questions I have regarding your past!~ Kagome thought silently to herself. ‘Seven’ was hardly the place to share secrets, but maybe Sango's reticence would thaw a little after she had a few drinks in her.
Looping one arm in Sango's, Kagome kept the other around Inuyasha's waist. She would pretend to ignore his rude behavior---for now---but she wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. Imagine, a nice guy coming up to them and introducing himself and Inuyasha had to go and act the Possessive Tyrant. Why, Hojo had been cute in a wistful way, and he had made eyeballs over Sango. He might just be what the girl needed---a nice, decent, ordinary guy to cut through the barriers the girl erected against the world for who knows WHAT reasons---though Kagome was more than determined to find out!
Too bad it didn't work out that way---at least, not in the way Kagome had imagined it would.
Everything had been fine at first. Seven's dance floor was empty, and the music was muted and soothing. Pale, overhead lights were on so that early diners could eat in comfort. Sango had looked mildly perturbed when Kagome ordered some rather potent, fruity concoctions. But the other girl's first, tentative sip had turned into surprised delight. The fruity mixture hid the strong alcohol that lingered in the glass, and Kagome was certain Sango would open up even more as she drank.
Already, the girl's uneasiness had relaxed under the influence of fruit and friends. She had unbent enough to even smile faintly at one of Inuyasha's rather crude jokes, and to offer a couple comments and questions of her own in her soft, shy voice.
Kagome kept up a hazy monologue of nonsensical chatter even as she watched Inuyasha out of the corner of her eyes. She was amused to see his protective instincts kicking in, even for Sango. He was glaring away the speculative looks cast their way, and even growled when some man sent Sango a free drink.
Sango herself seemed oblivious to any attention, and Kagome was almost grateful as more and more people started coming in as the hour grew late. The lights began to dim, and their busty waitress came by to remove their plates and order more drinks. Tables were being pushed back to form a ring around the opening dance floor, and she could almost feel the tangible excitement in the air as the nightclub came to life.
Kagome asked Sango a pointed question, and was surprised when she received no answer. She stared at the girl, who seemed suddenly tense. The thin hands were fidgeting with her straw, while ignoring her drink. Inuyasha abruptly left, with a muttered "There's that stinking wolf." in explanation, and Kagome stared after his retreating back with a puzzled look. But she was more concerned over Sango, who was stirring uneasily, her brown eyes opaque in the dimming light.
"Sango-chan?" Kagome asked, truly worried when the girl didn't respond, but merely sat stiffly erect in her seat. The two-tiered room went black as night, and Kagome couldn't even see Sango’s blurred form in front of her. A loud vibration of sound filled the darkened nightclub, and the crowds cheered in response. An explosion of lights and sound erupted across the dance floor, spraying flashes of green and blue and fuchsia rays across jostling bodies. Throbbing noise echoed out into sonic dance, and the nightclub suddenly burst into life.
~What was that?~
Kagome's mouth fell open as she heard it again. A distinctive sound, one she would never expect from the girl across from her. Another hoarse sob, and in a dazzle of purple flashes, Kagome saw Sango's dark eyes widen into deep black pools in her pale, white face before the girl abruptly bolted from her seat.
"Sango!" Kagome called, jumping out of her chair to hurry after the crazy girl.
"Kagome!" Claws wrapped around her waist, and Kagome could not jerk them free. She stamped her foot in fury.
"Inuyasha! There's something the matter with Sango---she just got up and ran, and I know she was crying. I don't know what's---"
There was a muffled cry, and Kagome squinted in the dazzling spray of lights as another tall form was revealed, his long hair inky in the green and white flickers, his light blue eyes slightly amused. Clawed hands were curved around Sango's upper arms, keeping her prisoner with almost careless ease.
"This her?" Kouga called out, fangs bared in a grin.
Kagome ran forward, dragging Inuyasha after her. In another burst of dazzling radiance, she saw Sango freeze, her faint whisper coming back to them as almost a hiss of pure terror.
"Youkai..."
"Not that shit again." Kagome heard Inuyasha mutter impatiently under his breath, and Kouga was turning his head down to frown at the woman caught in his grip, growling slightly in reaction.
Sango's eyes were wild, her lips bloodless. Kagome drew in a sharp breath as the girl tensed.
And then began to fight in deadly earnest.
*~*~*~*~*
Blood.
There was blood all around her, rising up to drown her in waves of fevered terror so potent she could barely break the surface to gasp breath before the bloody waves swamped over her mind to drown her sinking world anew…
~Kohaku!~
Dead, and dying. DEAD.
The grinning, laughing, screaming skulls pranced around her, jeering and taunting and relishing her pain. They danced on, heedless of the wrenching twist of betrayal that swelled bitter in her mouth, mixing with the metallic taste of her own blood, bitten through her lips as she screamed an unending litany of anguished terror and unremitting agony…
Never ending pain...
Never…
Ending...
YOUKAI...
Betrayal...blood...madness...must escape...must…escape…
She would never escape, and the dark demon whom she had been sent to kill and who had found her out and forced her poor, innocent brother to betray her, betray them all…into death, and not clean death, but agonized, bitter, terror-filled hours of pain and tortured torment…
The never-ending throb of music, each agonized breath thundering in her chest, each heart-beat shattering into anguished agony as the dissonant sounds washed away the whisper of her screams of sadistic torture into silence that no one could hear but her in her own frenzied, trapped mind….
Trapped...
No! Never again....NO!
She fought with all that was in her, as blue eyes flashed from startled surprise to red anger, as inky shadows of hair whipped away as she clawed for his face. Hips moved aside instinctively as she kicked out for his groin, and he released a hissed breath as she jammed her foot into his knee. He shook her like a rag, until she saw stars, but even then she fought for freedom, for escape.
~Kohaku!~
Something brushed her temple, just above her right ear, and a sharp pain followed the disorientation. She could feel the embrace of soothing blackness rushing up to greet her, and she welcomed it as temporary escape from the bloody waves of madness that rushed up to drown her world in unimagined betrayal and unrelenting pain...
*~*~*~*~*
"You hit her!" Kagome's voice rose, shrill with accusation.
Kouga scowled down at the indignant, black-haired girl. Bad enough he still held the other girl limp in his arms. People were backing away from them, casting startled eyes and fearful glances their way even as others danced on, heedless of what had just occurred.
Kouga jerked his head at Hakkaku and Ginta, who were already making the rounds, soothing people with short explanations of a ‘bar fight’ already broken up. Kouga tossed the unconscious onna over his shoulder and marched grimly toward the back entrance, not caring who saw him or wondered why he stalked past with a girl slung over his shoulder. Inuyasha and his mate followed in his wake, leaving Hakkaku and Ginta to deal with the curious.
He slapped open the lock and the door slid open to reveal a private stairway up to his rooms above. He trudged up the steps, his mouth set in a hard line, his expression grim.
He muttered a curse when he had to slap the lock on his own door twice to get the panel to slide open. He stalked inside the expanded sitting room, and tumbled the unconscious girl down onto the nearest sopha.
Ignoring her for the moment, he stalked to the bar and pulled out a rare bottle of Glenfiddich. Snapping a glass to the counter, he poured himself a stiff drink and threw back the rare whiskey as if it were rotgut.
Kagome darted over to the unconscious girl's side and fell to her knees beside the sopha. She pushed back curling black tangles and desperately tried to feel for a pulse.
"She's fine." Kouga bit out, pouring a second drink and knocking it back just as quickly as the first.
"Are you?" Inuyasha eyed him with rare respect as Kouga poured a third glass.
"Yes. No. Damn it." Kouga growled, crimson washing over his blue eyes for a moment before receding. "I've never had to hit a woman before. Damn it."
"She got you pretty good there." Inuyasha smirked, helping himself to the Glenfiddich.
Kouga touched his smarting cheek with disgust. Four jagged lines marred his skin, and a dot of blood trickled down his chin. He wiped it impatiently away with the cuff of his black leather jacket, not really giving a shit if he ruined the expensive coat.
"Who is that damn hell-cat anyway?" He demanded testily, turning to look at the girl sprawled across his sopha, Kagome beside her on the floor.
He limped over---the girl had given him a good kick in the knee, and it was now smarting as much as the scratches on his cheek. Idly licking his fingers, he smeared the healing properties of his saliva across the wounds. Already, his youkai body was recovering, and the throb of pain in his leg and thigh were receding.
"She's not a hell-cat!" Kagome shot him a glare full of wrath-filled indignation. "Did you have to knock her out cold?"
"Yes." Kouga snapped back, angry with her, with himself, with the whole damn mess. "What the hell got into her?"
"Told ya she's a wacko." Inuyasha said, swilling the golden whiskey in his glass before taking a measured sip.
Kagome bristled at her mate. "Sango is NOT a wacko!"
"Then what the hell was that all about?" Inuyasha demanded with a growl.
Kagome scowled back, even as her hands gently smoothed the girl's dark hair away from her temple. "I don't know." She bit out, her brown eyes turning troubled. "She's going to have a bruise. And a killer head-ache."
"Damn." Kouga cursed softly, his blue eyes narrowed on the unconscious girl collapsed across his buff-colored sopha. She wasn't much to look at---a pale, thin, little thing. Black hair tumbled in tangles across her shoulders and cheek, and her slight frame was swathed in an ugly green coverall from chin to ankle.
He couldn't connect this defenseless-seeming twig of a girl with the wild-eyed hell-cat who had fought him with such strength and ability. She had had some dirty moves he hadn't seen outside the back streets of the poor quarters, and if she hadn't been so crazed with fury, she might have been able to actually do him some real damage.
The name finally clicked, and his blue eyes narrowed. "This is the girl you befriended on the Eminence. The one who went through Alteration."
"Yes." Kagome said, somewhat reluctantly.
"No wonder she went through Alteration." Inuyasha growled out, coming to join Kouga in his study of the unconscious woman. "She's crazy as a loon."
"No, she's not!" Kagome jumped up, arms on her hips. "She's been hurt, and hurt deeply, but she's not crazy!"
"How the hell do you know that?" Inuyasha scoffed at his mate.
"I know." Kagome said mulishly. "Sango's a sweet girl---"
"Sweet, huh?" Inuyasha cast a significant glance at Kouga, who remained silently impassive.
"Inuyasha, you can be such a---" Kagome's words were abruptly cut off as her attention was caught by faint movement from the sopha.
"Sango?" Kagome sank to her knees, one hand coming to touch the girl's forehead. Dark lashes fluttered underneath the scarlet tattoo that looked like a line of seeping blood against the stark contrast of her pallid, white skin. Kouga watched as brown eyes blinked open, and then squinted against the light. A hiss of a moan passed through the white lips, and he abruptly turned away to get a glass of water.
"Sango-chan?" Kagome asked softly.
Kouga leaned over the back of the sopha to offer Kagome the water in silence. Brown eyes focused on him, and widened in fear. The girl shrank back against the cushions, her body trembling. Blue eyes misted with crimson, and he bit out, "Stop looking at me like that. I'm not a damn monster, I'm a youkai. Damn it."
"Sango-chan! This is Kouga. He's a friend. A friend!" Kagome said urgently as Inuyasha scowled.
"Come on, Kouga. That girl doesn't like youkai-kind." His look was bitter, disappointed almost. He had started feeling some ease toward the strange girl, but if she proved to be a prejudiced twit, he hated to see the disappointment and hurt his wife would experience.
"Kagome-chan?" The girl breathed, her brown eyes focusing on the girl in front of her.
"I'm here, Sango. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. It's okay."
"I'm...sorry..." The girl said, closing her eyes as a tear slipped out.
*~*~*~*~*
"There was an unprovoked attack." The voice was low, muted---as muted as the dark clothing the man wore, which helped him blend into the shadows of the deserted store-room.
"It was not by our command." The other voice at the end of the comm-unit was sharp.
"I wondered. It seemed...untimely. Rushed." The man in the shadows almost made that a question.
"All will happen in the precise time." The voice answered. "As long as the tool is still ours to use."
"There should be no problem."
"Yes. There should BE no problem." The emphasis on the fourth word was not lost on the stealthy shadow. He remained silent, indifferent.
"You should strive for contact." The voice commanded.
"Yes." He agreed ironically.
"Again, there should BE no problems. Of any kind. Failure is not an option. Is that understood, 3-G?"
"Yes. I understand. Failure is NOT an option." The man said, tonelessly, his voice as cold as the shadows in which he hid.
*~*~*~*~*
"What happened, Sango-chan? Why did you..." Kagome's voice fell off, as if hesitant to say more.
Sango wanted to close her eyes, to hide from the hurt question in Kagome's words, but the terror waited for her…waited to rise up and engulf her once more in unremitting darkness. She wished, suddenly, fiercely, for the tranquilizing, untouched and untouchable division of Alteration.
But the bonds of her psychological re-programming had been broken, and she could not regain it. And even as she yearned for that emotionless denial, she loathed the weakness of her spirit that would seek it. She had hidden behind a mask of denial long enough. Scraps of her memory, which had been buried and repressed, were returning, and she welcomed their sense of identity, even as she flinched from the raw, aching pain of them.
"I..." She began, but her voice cracked.
~Kohaku. Oh, Kohaku. I am so sorry my weakness betrayed you!~
How could she have forgotten him? How could she have denied the memory of his existence, which brought both the sweet tang of happiness, and the bitterest sense of remorse?
"Here." The command was blunt. Amber eyes and silver hair---Inuyasha.
A glass was pressed against her dry lips, and Sango nearly choked as fire ran down her throat. Not water this time, but raw spirits.
She blinked back a sudden film of tears at the sharp potency of it, but it dulled into comfortable warmth as it pooled in her belly. Her head swam, and she knew---somehow and from whence that shard of memory came she knew not---that alcohol was not good for a head-wound or possible concussion.
"No...more..." She waved a second glass away, and sat up gingerly, her head throbbing. She touched the bruise on her right temple with tender fingers. "Eh..."
"Sango-chan..." Kagome cautioned, pulling her hand away.
"You...deserve...an explanation." Sango said, her throat catching. Never had she spoken of it aloud, though she thought that some of the psy-medics, like Dr. Higurashi, who had overseen her Identity Alteration, might have guessed at some of it. She herself did not know the whole story, and she felt the tattered remnants of her memory were poor things indeed.
Like she knew she had had a father…a strong, imposingly stern man. And a brother...Kohaku...a sweet, vital little boy who was made to be a man too young. Why this was so, she did not know, but she knew that it was. Demands had been made, of shoulders too young to bear the burden, and sacrifice and betrayal and pain and torture had been the result...
Abandoned, and betrayed.
~Left to die.~
Her expression turned fierce, her brown eyes darkening with emotion. Kagome sat back on her heels, surprised at the pain hidden in those dark depths. This...THIS was more the Sango in the data-link photograph than the half-wisp of shadow whom she had befriended and come to know.
Sango's eyes flicked from the silver-haired hanyou who stood cross-armed beside her sopha to the black-haired youkai who leaned against the wall, his blue eyes icy-hard. He was nothing like her dark tormentor---except for the color of his hair and eyes, though his were more blue than colorless, as the dark lord's had been. His skin was planet-side tanned, and there was no cruel lines bracketing the hard set of his mouth. He was handsome, as all youkai were, but in a raw, vital, earthy sense...not at all like the dark youkai who haunted her nightmares.
"I...apologize." She met those ice-blue eyes, and dropped hers from the intensity of his.
"Sango?" One of Kagome's hands curled around hers, and Sango squeezed back in appreciation of the girl's unquestioning comfort. Kagome could not realize what she had come to mean to Sango, how she had been a guide to bring her out of the forced denial of Alteration and take back some small piece of herself, Sango, as she truly was.
She owed them all somewhat of an explanation, and she battled with a sense of warning that she must never tell, must never admit, must never reveal. She fought it, and started in a hoarse whisper that became a litany of painful remembrance.
"I was Altered. On Station Nine. Not for any crime or punishment, but for my own sanity. Or so they told me, explained to me. I was..." She paused, digging and searching, to find only empty, frustratingly empty space. There were holes in her memories, holes that might be filled or explained in time, but were not there now for her calling.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know why, or how, or when. But I was taken, betrayed. My brother..." She stopped again, a hitch in her voice. There was silence around her, and she was grateful for that.
"I had a brother. Kohaku. He was my life. My family. My heart. He was too young to go, too young to...I don't know. I can't remember!" Bowing her head, she battled sharp resentment before gathering the strength to continue.
"He was twisted, turned. Used. HE used him. HE used my poor, innocent little brother to betray us all." A tear seeped unnoticed from the turbulent brown eyes, and Kagome squeezed her hand in compassion that hurt almost as much as Kohaku's broken memory. "He---Kohaku---killed...he tried to kill..." The arch in her spine flinched, as if she could feel the echo of Kohaku's weapon once again in her back, where the deep, ugly scar remained to tell forever the story she had forgotten.
"He tried to kill you?" Inuyasha asked, for once, almost gentle.
"Yes." Sango closed her eyes on the pain of that knowledge. "He was ordered...mind-controlled. He killed our father, and those others I cannot remember. HE made him do it, made my poor, innocent little brother into a perverted murderer, and then HE killed him...but not swiftly. No, HE kept him alive, tortured him and used him in every way HIS sick mind could conceive, before death took him by slow inches..."
~And I was too weak to stop it!~
There was a long silence, before Kagome's breath hitched in sympathetic horror. Crimson filmed both hanyou and youkai eyes, and it was Kouga who demanded harshly, "Who was HE?"
Sango kept her head bowed, her voice a whisper. "Naraku."
She felt the bitter taste of his name on her tongue, knew again the angry revulsion and dark hate that filled her. The demon, black of hair and beautiful to behold, the cruel lines deepening around his sensuous mouth, the taunting mockery of his laughter at her pitiful attempts for freedom or death for her and her brother---or the dead-eyed THING that had become her brother. The pale blue eyes, almost colorless, crimsoning into red delight when he beheld pain, deriving sadistic pleasure from another's torment.
Hanyou and youkai froze. Kouga's words were flat, final. "Naraku is dead."
Sango's head whipped up, and her brown eyes startled into cinnamon. "Dead?" She whispered in soft pain.
"Dead." Inuyasha answered just as flatly.
Something moved in the girl's eyes, something dark and vengeful.
"Good." She almost smiled…a cold, chillingly predacious smile.
Kagome shivered, and squeezed her hand again, seeking comforting reassurance now for herself. "You escaped, then, Sango? And Station Nine put you through psychological repression to save your sanity?"
"So they explained. I can't remember...all..." Sango sank wearily back against the sopha's arm, suddenly drained and feeling somehow transparent. Emotional overload, her mind supplied, and she wanted to laugh like a crazy person over the thought.
Perhaps the psy-medics on Station Nine had been right.
*~*~*~*~*
The lights were dim, casting veiled shadows across his sitting room. Inuyasha had finally dragged a protesting Kagome off to their own quarters, and the black-haired girl, Sango, now slept. She had been too exhausted to move, and Kouga had refused when the girl had tried to insist wearily that she was fine. Exhaustion had finally won the argument, and her eyes had closed as she lay hugged in Kagome's arms.
Sleep eluded Kouga though, and he had wandered aimlessly around the other rooms of his apartment. The girl's words had sparked memories that still left him edgy and restless, even after all this time.
~Naraku.~
The hatred for the youkai's very name could still fill him with the bitter taste of deeply-seated anger, and he could not expel it. He needed a drink, a stiff drink, and if he moved with ookami-silence and speed, he would not wake the girl. Few youkai could track an ookami bent on stealth, never mind a mere human.
He ignored her presence, striding swiftly over to the well-stocked cabinet behind his bar. With hardly a whisper or betrayal of sound, he pushed the door back and filched an upturned glass from the tray. He pulled a bottle free at random, not too choosy over his toxin, and abruptly stood up, his ears twitching.
Another rustle, the merest murmur, of fabric, and his head turned sharply to the left, where the girl laid, a muffled shadow against the blurred outline of his sopha. Her eyes were dark pools in the shadowed white pallor of her face, but he relaxed---deliberately.
"Sorry to wake you." He muttered an apology, not taking any care now that she was awake to dampen his noise. The bottle clinked against the rim of his glass, and liquid splashed into the waiting vessel.
She made a faint movement, one he read as dismissive negation. Arching a black brow in her direction, Kouga swiped another glass from the tray, and poured a second drink for her. "Can't sleep?" He asked mildly, to fill the tense silence between them.
A second slight shake of her head.
"Kagome?" Her voice was soft, tentative.
"Inuyasha took her off to bed---against her protest, I might add." Amusement laced his deep voice.
Setting the opened bottle aside, he took up the twin glasses, and brought one over to her.
"This should help." He said, offering her one. She struggled a moment to free one of her hands from the blankets that swathed her slight form from shoulder to foot, and her fingers brushed his with the faintest touch as she accepted his offer. His ookami-enhanced night-vision was coming into focus, and he studied the pale oval of her face as she bent her head.
"Thank you." She said simply, not drinking. There were dark circles under the thick lashes of her eyes, Kouga noted, and her black hair was tangled around her thinned features. She might have been beautiful, perhaps, if she didn't look so worn out.
Taking a deep taste of the dark brandy in his own glass, Kouga casually settled one hip against the back of the sopha. He continued to study her in silence.
"Tell me...how it happened. Naraku." She asked, her voice whisper-soft but fervent in question.
Kouga growled faintly, but stopped when he saw how she tensed up again. Damn, but she was coiled tighter than a spring, her strained nerves frayed to the edge but held together by pure steel.
He could admire that, and decided he could allow her to know his motivation for seeking the dark lord's death with his own two hands.
"I killed him. With Inuyasha's help. But it was I who choked the life of him with my bare hands." His claws curled around his glass, the points sharp as his eyes bled faintly with crimson recall.
She did not flinch back as he had half-expected. Instead, she asked softly, "Why?"
The night was no place for secrets, but he made short answer, not wanting to dwell on his reasons. Honor had been fulfilled, and the blood of his brothers had been cleansed with the death of the traitorous oni.
"He killed men of my Clan." Kouga's words were almost negligent, but he wondered how deeply the girl understood. Ties of blood among the ookami Clan were some of the strongest. "I merely repaid him in kind."
He was surprised that he had revealed even that much, and stared down at her, his blue eyes thoughtful.
"Thank you." She said again, her head bowed. There was a wealth of dark emotion in that simple phrase, and Kouga's hand shot out to grasp hold of her chin and pull her face up. Her breath hissed in with surprise, but she did not flee his penetrating gaze. Her shadowed eyes stared up into his, and his voice was harsh with sudden revelation.
"He used you as well." He said, blue eyes piercing her. "As he did your brother."
She froze, and then jerked her chin away from his claws. "That does not matter." She said harshly, looking away from that penetratingly blue gaze, and taking a deep drink from her untouched brandy. Her fingers tightened on the cup as the warmth sprang through her trembling body. He could smell the fear on her...the fear and the anger, and something more subtle he refused to name, but which drew him nonetheless.
~Protective alpha-male stirrings, nothing more.~ He was only feeling sorry for her.
A dangerous prospect.
"Perhaps you are right. It doesn't matter. He's dead now." He abruptly went and splashed more brandy into his empty glass, and threw it back with one swallow. He had wasted more fine liquor this evening than he could ever remember, and truly didn't give a good damn.
"Dead." She mulled over the word, drinking the rest of her glass as her eyes blinked wearily under the strong influence of raw alcohol. He turned to stare at her, and noticed that her dark eyes were already closing. Her hold on her glass was slipping as her fingers went soft, and he was back at her side in a single breath to pull it away from eminent descent. She gave him a sleepy half-smile, a mere curving of her lips under the influence of the brandy, even as she snuggled back into the covers. Her lashes curled against her pale cheek, and her bangs feathered across her skin in whorling disarray. Her words were slurred as she fell back into the embrace of sleep. "Thank you..."
He stared at her for a long, silent moment before turning away and leaving the room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Thank you for all of the supportive reviews! It spurred me on to write more of Solace, ignoring poor Vengeance in favor of seeing how this little scenario plays out between Sango and Kouga. I want to give special thanks to Elisa (mm.org), Faira (of course!), Silent Roamer (ff.net) and Megan Consoer---your persistence has paid off, and I thank you deeply for your continued support of all my fics. Charging Handles Forward (aff.net)…You made my day with your review, and kept me at the keyboard for a straight twelve hours! XD EatAPeach (aff.net)…Wow. Thank you very much! Ur one rose (ff.net)…Hints of romace in this chappie, hope it helps! Raven-999 (ff.net)…How sweet! Thank you! ShikuKihaku (ff.net)…Evil PINK monkeys?!?! ACK! Hope this update holds them off for a small while…
More to come, and soon!
Fate
THE SOURCE OF SOLACE
WARNING! Dark imagery and lime, adult situations and issues. Foul language omitted on ff dot net.
CHAPTER FOUR
The brown-haired man watched the two women from a distant table. He had ordered a cup of flavored tea, which cooled un-tasted on the table in front of him. The tea was more of an excuse than a desire for that rare blend of leaves that few planets could produce as well as Sakura in the fourth galaxy.
The two women were engrossed in conversation, taking little notice of their surroundings. Both were black-haired and fair of skin, but one was full of animation, the other quiet and concentrating. A faint smile hovered over the quiet one's lips, and the handsomely unassuming man took it as a cue that he would like to know more.
Standing up, he made his way around the various tables and stepped purposely up to the pretty pair, his blue eyes warm, his smile tentative.
"...and he's been investing in some merchant lines, from what little I understand, and hates it. Inuyasha will be so much happier when we go on to Kyouko."
Hojo cleared his throat and two pairs of brown eyes turned to stare at him in surprise.
"Pardon me, ladies." He coughed slightly. "I couldn't help but see that you were...ahem...alone. I hope I am not intruding, but please allow me to introduce myself."
"Hello." The animated girl smiled back at him with welcome, while the quiet one eyed him warily. "I'm Kagome, and this is Sango."
Hojo offered a graceful bow. "I am Hojo. Hojo Gentry. Again, I hope I am not intruding---"
"You are."
Hojo jerked up in surprise, his blue eyes meeting the narrowed amber ones of an irate hanyou.
"Inuyasha!" The girl Kagome jumped up and hugged the silver-haired hanyou with easy familiarity. "It can't be that late, could it?"
"It is." The hanyou snapped testily, his golden eyes steady on Hojo, who cleared his throat nervously.
"Inuyasha, this is Hojo Gentry. We just met him." Kagome said, blithely ignorant of the hard look her hanyou mate was giving the brown-haired man dressed in midnight blue.
Kagome's brown eyes lit up with sudden inspiration. "Hey. I have an idea. Sango is going to dinner with us, Inuyasha. Perhaps Mr. Gentry would like to join...?"
The other girl---Sango---looked startled at the invitation. Hojo hesitated, but Inuyasha decided the matter for him.
Bluntly.
"No, he would not."
Kagome blinked, and Sango looked suddenly relieved. Hojo coughed, trying to cover up the awkward moment of silence that filled the air between them.
"Um...yes...er...very well, then." He made a gallant bow under Inuyasha's hard gaze. "Maybe some other time." His dark blue eyes flicked to Sango with silent question. Inuyasha snorted, while his mate gave him a dark glare for his rudeness.
The girl Sango slid out of her seat, and without saying another word, the three of them turned and left the small cafe. Hojo stood there watching their departure, his dark blue eyes resting thoughtfully on the silent, black-haired girl.
*~*~*~*~*
"You're such a jerk." Kagome's face was a thundercloud.
"Whatever." Inuyasha growled back.
Sango was a silent shadow behind them until Kagome recalled her presence, and stopped long enough to grab one pale hand in hers. "Come on, Sango-chan." She smiled brightly, even as she rolled her eyes at her mate. "Inuyasha's just a brat."
Sango paused, her eyes wary. "I don't want to intrude..."
"Nonsense! We still have SO much to catch up on." Kagome insisted. "I've been doing all the talking, and haven't given you a chance to say ANYTHING."
~Including some questions I have regarding your past!~ Kagome thought silently to herself. ‘Seven’ was hardly the place to share secrets, but maybe Sango's reticence would thaw a little after she had a few drinks in her.
Looping one arm in Sango's, Kagome kept the other around Inuyasha's waist. She would pretend to ignore his rude behavior---for now---but she wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. Imagine, a nice guy coming up to them and introducing himself and Inuyasha had to go and act the Possessive Tyrant. Why, Hojo had been cute in a wistful way, and he had made eyeballs over Sango. He might just be what the girl needed---a nice, decent, ordinary guy to cut through the barriers the girl erected against the world for who knows WHAT reasons---though Kagome was more than determined to find out!
Too bad it didn't work out that way---at least, not in the way Kagome had imagined it would.
Everything had been fine at first. Seven's dance floor was empty, and the music was muted and soothing. Pale, overhead lights were on so that early diners could eat in comfort. Sango had looked mildly perturbed when Kagome ordered some rather potent, fruity concoctions. But the other girl's first, tentative sip had turned into surprised delight. The fruity mixture hid the strong alcohol that lingered in the glass, and Kagome was certain Sango would open up even more as she drank.
Already, the girl's uneasiness had relaxed under the influence of fruit and friends. She had unbent enough to even smile faintly at one of Inuyasha's rather crude jokes, and to offer a couple comments and questions of her own in her soft, shy voice.
Kagome kept up a hazy monologue of nonsensical chatter even as she watched Inuyasha out of the corner of her eyes. She was amused to see his protective instincts kicking in, even for Sango. He was glaring away the speculative looks cast their way, and even growled when some man sent Sango a free drink.
Sango herself seemed oblivious to any attention, and Kagome was almost grateful as more and more people started coming in as the hour grew late. The lights began to dim, and their busty waitress came by to remove their plates and order more drinks. Tables were being pushed back to form a ring around the opening dance floor, and she could almost feel the tangible excitement in the air as the nightclub came to life.
Kagome asked Sango a pointed question, and was surprised when she received no answer. She stared at the girl, who seemed suddenly tense. The thin hands were fidgeting with her straw, while ignoring her drink. Inuyasha abruptly left, with a muttered "There's that stinking wolf." in explanation, and Kagome stared after his retreating back with a puzzled look. But she was more concerned over Sango, who was stirring uneasily, her brown eyes opaque in the dimming light.
"Sango-chan?" Kagome asked, truly worried when the girl didn't respond, but merely sat stiffly erect in her seat. The two-tiered room went black as night, and Kagome couldn't even see Sango’s blurred form in front of her. A loud vibration of sound filled the darkened nightclub, and the crowds cheered in response. An explosion of lights and sound erupted across the dance floor, spraying flashes of green and blue and fuchsia rays across jostling bodies. Throbbing noise echoed out into sonic dance, and the nightclub suddenly burst into life.
~What was that?~
Kagome's mouth fell open as she heard it again. A distinctive sound, one she would never expect from the girl across from her. Another hoarse sob, and in a dazzle of purple flashes, Kagome saw Sango's dark eyes widen into deep black pools in her pale, white face before the girl abruptly bolted from her seat.
"Sango!" Kagome called, jumping out of her chair to hurry after the crazy girl.
"Kagome!" Claws wrapped around her waist, and Kagome could not jerk them free. She stamped her foot in fury.
"Inuyasha! There's something the matter with Sango---she just got up and ran, and I know she was crying. I don't know what's---"
There was a muffled cry, and Kagome squinted in the dazzling spray of lights as another tall form was revealed, his long hair inky in the green and white flickers, his light blue eyes slightly amused. Clawed hands were curved around Sango's upper arms, keeping her prisoner with almost careless ease.
"This her?" Kouga called out, fangs bared in a grin.
Kagome ran forward, dragging Inuyasha after her. In another burst of dazzling radiance, she saw Sango freeze, her faint whisper coming back to them as almost a hiss of pure terror.
"Youkai..."
"Not that shit again." Kagome heard Inuyasha mutter impatiently under his breath, and Kouga was turning his head down to frown at the woman caught in his grip, growling slightly in reaction.
Sango's eyes were wild, her lips bloodless. Kagome drew in a sharp breath as the girl tensed.
And then began to fight in deadly earnest.
*~*~*~*~*
Blood.
There was blood all around her, rising up to drown her in waves of fevered terror so potent she could barely break the surface to gasp breath before the bloody waves swamped over her mind to drown her sinking world anew…
~Kohaku!~
Dead, and dying. DEAD.
The grinning, laughing, screaming skulls pranced around her, jeering and taunting and relishing her pain. They danced on, heedless of the wrenching twist of betrayal that swelled bitter in her mouth, mixing with the metallic taste of her own blood, bitten through her lips as she screamed an unending litany of anguished terror and unremitting agony…
Never ending pain...
Never…
Ending...
YOUKAI...
Betrayal...blood...madness...must escape...must…escape…
She would never escape, and the dark demon whom she had been sent to kill and who had found her out and forced her poor, innocent brother to betray her, betray them all…into death, and not clean death, but agonized, bitter, terror-filled hours of pain and tortured torment…
The never-ending throb of music, each agonized breath thundering in her chest, each heart-beat shattering into anguished agony as the dissonant sounds washed away the whisper of her screams of sadistic torture into silence that no one could hear but her in her own frenzied, trapped mind….
Trapped...
No! Never again....NO!
She fought with all that was in her, as blue eyes flashed from startled surprise to red anger, as inky shadows of hair whipped away as she clawed for his face. Hips moved aside instinctively as she kicked out for his groin, and he released a hissed breath as she jammed her foot into his knee. He shook her like a rag, until she saw stars, but even then she fought for freedom, for escape.
~Kohaku!~
Something brushed her temple, just above her right ear, and a sharp pain followed the disorientation. She could feel the embrace of soothing blackness rushing up to greet her, and she welcomed it as temporary escape from the bloody waves of madness that rushed up to drown her world in unimagined betrayal and unrelenting pain...
*~*~*~*~*
"You hit her!" Kagome's voice rose, shrill with accusation.
Kouga scowled down at the indignant, black-haired girl. Bad enough he still held the other girl limp in his arms. People were backing away from them, casting startled eyes and fearful glances their way even as others danced on, heedless of what had just occurred.
Kouga jerked his head at Hakkaku and Ginta, who were already making the rounds, soothing people with short explanations of a ‘bar fight’ already broken up. Kouga tossed the unconscious onna over his shoulder and marched grimly toward the back entrance, not caring who saw him or wondered why he stalked past with a girl slung over his shoulder. Inuyasha and his mate followed in his wake, leaving Hakkaku and Ginta to deal with the curious.
He slapped open the lock and the door slid open to reveal a private stairway up to his rooms above. He trudged up the steps, his mouth set in a hard line, his expression grim.
He muttered a curse when he had to slap the lock on his own door twice to get the panel to slide open. He stalked inside the expanded sitting room, and tumbled the unconscious girl down onto the nearest sopha.
Ignoring her for the moment, he stalked to the bar and pulled out a rare bottle of Glenfiddich. Snapping a glass to the counter, he poured himself a stiff drink and threw back the rare whiskey as if it were rotgut.
Kagome darted over to the unconscious girl's side and fell to her knees beside the sopha. She pushed back curling black tangles and desperately tried to feel for a pulse.
"She's fine." Kouga bit out, pouring a second drink and knocking it back just as quickly as the first.
"Are you?" Inuyasha eyed him with rare respect as Kouga poured a third glass.
"Yes. No. Damn it." Kouga growled, crimson washing over his blue eyes for a moment before receding. "I've never had to hit a woman before. Damn it."
"She got you pretty good there." Inuyasha smirked, helping himself to the Glenfiddich.
Kouga touched his smarting cheek with disgust. Four jagged lines marred his skin, and a dot of blood trickled down his chin. He wiped it impatiently away with the cuff of his black leather jacket, not really giving a shit if he ruined the expensive coat.
"Who is that damn hell-cat anyway?" He demanded testily, turning to look at the girl sprawled across his sopha, Kagome beside her on the floor.
He limped over---the girl had given him a good kick in the knee, and it was now smarting as much as the scratches on his cheek. Idly licking his fingers, he smeared the healing properties of his saliva across the wounds. Already, his youkai body was recovering, and the throb of pain in his leg and thigh were receding.
"She's not a hell-cat!" Kagome shot him a glare full of wrath-filled indignation. "Did you have to knock her out cold?"
"Yes." Kouga snapped back, angry with her, with himself, with the whole damn mess. "What the hell got into her?"
"Told ya she's a wacko." Inuyasha said, swilling the golden whiskey in his glass before taking a measured sip.
Kagome bristled at her mate. "Sango is NOT a wacko!"
"Then what the hell was that all about?" Inuyasha demanded with a growl.
Kagome scowled back, even as her hands gently smoothed the girl's dark hair away from her temple. "I don't know." She bit out, her brown eyes turning troubled. "She's going to have a bruise. And a killer head-ache."
"Damn." Kouga cursed softly, his blue eyes narrowed on the unconscious girl collapsed across his buff-colored sopha. She wasn't much to look at---a pale, thin, little thing. Black hair tumbled in tangles across her shoulders and cheek, and her slight frame was swathed in an ugly green coverall from chin to ankle.
He couldn't connect this defenseless-seeming twig of a girl with the wild-eyed hell-cat who had fought him with such strength and ability. She had had some dirty moves he hadn't seen outside the back streets of the poor quarters, and if she hadn't been so crazed with fury, she might have been able to actually do him some real damage.
The name finally clicked, and his blue eyes narrowed. "This is the girl you befriended on the Eminence. The one who went through Alteration."
"Yes." Kagome said, somewhat reluctantly.
"No wonder she went through Alteration." Inuyasha growled out, coming to join Kouga in his study of the unconscious woman. "She's crazy as a loon."
"No, she's not!" Kagome jumped up, arms on her hips. "She's been hurt, and hurt deeply, but she's not crazy!"
"How the hell do you know that?" Inuyasha scoffed at his mate.
"I know." Kagome said mulishly. "Sango's a sweet girl---"
"Sweet, huh?" Inuyasha cast a significant glance at Kouga, who remained silently impassive.
"Inuyasha, you can be such a---" Kagome's words were abruptly cut off as her attention was caught by faint movement from the sopha.
"Sango?" Kagome sank to her knees, one hand coming to touch the girl's forehead. Dark lashes fluttered underneath the scarlet tattoo that looked like a line of seeping blood against the stark contrast of her pallid, white skin. Kouga watched as brown eyes blinked open, and then squinted against the light. A hiss of a moan passed through the white lips, and he abruptly turned away to get a glass of water.
"Sango-chan?" Kagome asked softly.
Kouga leaned over the back of the sopha to offer Kagome the water in silence. Brown eyes focused on him, and widened in fear. The girl shrank back against the cushions, her body trembling. Blue eyes misted with crimson, and he bit out, "Stop looking at me like that. I'm not a damn monster, I'm a youkai. Damn it."
"Sango-chan! This is Kouga. He's a friend. A friend!" Kagome said urgently as Inuyasha scowled.
"Come on, Kouga. That girl doesn't like youkai-kind." His look was bitter, disappointed almost. He had started feeling some ease toward the strange girl, but if she proved to be a prejudiced twit, he hated to see the disappointment and hurt his wife would experience.
"Kagome-chan?" The girl breathed, her brown eyes focusing on the girl in front of her.
"I'm here, Sango. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. It's okay."
"I'm...sorry..." The girl said, closing her eyes as a tear slipped out.
*~*~*~*~*
"There was an unprovoked attack." The voice was low, muted---as muted as the dark clothing the man wore, which helped him blend into the shadows of the deserted store-room.
"It was not by our command." The other voice at the end of the comm-unit was sharp.
"I wondered. It seemed...untimely. Rushed." The man in the shadows almost made that a question.
"All will happen in the precise time." The voice answered. "As long as the tool is still ours to use."
"There should be no problem."
"Yes. There should BE no problem." The emphasis on the fourth word was not lost on the stealthy shadow. He remained silent, indifferent.
"You should strive for contact." The voice commanded.
"Yes." He agreed ironically.
"Again, there should BE no problems. Of any kind. Failure is not an option. Is that understood, 3-G?"
"Yes. I understand. Failure is NOT an option." The man said, tonelessly, his voice as cold as the shadows in which he hid.
*~*~*~*~*
"What happened, Sango-chan? Why did you..." Kagome's voice fell off, as if hesitant to say more.
Sango wanted to close her eyes, to hide from the hurt question in Kagome's words, but the terror waited for her…waited to rise up and engulf her once more in unremitting darkness. She wished, suddenly, fiercely, for the tranquilizing, untouched and untouchable division of Alteration.
But the bonds of her psychological re-programming had been broken, and she could not regain it. And even as she yearned for that emotionless denial, she loathed the weakness of her spirit that would seek it. She had hidden behind a mask of denial long enough. Scraps of her memory, which had been buried and repressed, were returning, and she welcomed their sense of identity, even as she flinched from the raw, aching pain of them.
"I..." She began, but her voice cracked.
~Kohaku. Oh, Kohaku. I am so sorry my weakness betrayed you!~
How could she have forgotten him? How could she have denied the memory of his existence, which brought both the sweet tang of happiness, and the bitterest sense of remorse?
"Here." The command was blunt. Amber eyes and silver hair---Inuyasha.
A glass was pressed against her dry lips, and Sango nearly choked as fire ran down her throat. Not water this time, but raw spirits.
She blinked back a sudden film of tears at the sharp potency of it, but it dulled into comfortable warmth as it pooled in her belly. Her head swam, and she knew---somehow and from whence that shard of memory came she knew not---that alcohol was not good for a head-wound or possible concussion.
"No...more..." She waved a second glass away, and sat up gingerly, her head throbbing. She touched the bruise on her right temple with tender fingers. "Eh..."
"Sango-chan..." Kagome cautioned, pulling her hand away.
"You...deserve...an explanation." Sango said, her throat catching. Never had she spoken of it aloud, though she thought that some of the psy-medics, like Dr. Higurashi, who had overseen her Identity Alteration, might have guessed at some of it. She herself did not know the whole story, and she felt the tattered remnants of her memory were poor things indeed.
Like she knew she had had a father…a strong, imposingly stern man. And a brother...Kohaku...a sweet, vital little boy who was made to be a man too young. Why this was so, she did not know, but she knew that it was. Demands had been made, of shoulders too young to bear the burden, and sacrifice and betrayal and pain and torture had been the result...
Abandoned, and betrayed.
~Left to die.~
Her expression turned fierce, her brown eyes darkening with emotion. Kagome sat back on her heels, surprised at the pain hidden in those dark depths. This...THIS was more the Sango in the data-link photograph than the half-wisp of shadow whom she had befriended and come to know.
Sango's eyes flicked from the silver-haired hanyou who stood cross-armed beside her sopha to the black-haired youkai who leaned against the wall, his blue eyes icy-hard. He was nothing like her dark tormentor---except for the color of his hair and eyes, though his were more blue than colorless, as the dark lord's had been. His skin was planet-side tanned, and there was no cruel lines bracketing the hard set of his mouth. He was handsome, as all youkai were, but in a raw, vital, earthy sense...not at all like the dark youkai who haunted her nightmares.
"I...apologize." She met those ice-blue eyes, and dropped hers from the intensity of his.
"Sango?" One of Kagome's hands curled around hers, and Sango squeezed back in appreciation of the girl's unquestioning comfort. Kagome could not realize what she had come to mean to Sango, how she had been a guide to bring her out of the forced denial of Alteration and take back some small piece of herself, Sango, as she truly was.
She owed them all somewhat of an explanation, and she battled with a sense of warning that she must never tell, must never admit, must never reveal. She fought it, and started in a hoarse whisper that became a litany of painful remembrance.
"I was Altered. On Station Nine. Not for any crime or punishment, but for my own sanity. Or so they told me, explained to me. I was..." She paused, digging and searching, to find only empty, frustratingly empty space. There were holes in her memories, holes that might be filled or explained in time, but were not there now for her calling.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know why, or how, or when. But I was taken, betrayed. My brother..." She stopped again, a hitch in her voice. There was silence around her, and she was grateful for that.
"I had a brother. Kohaku. He was my life. My family. My heart. He was too young to go, too young to...I don't know. I can't remember!" Bowing her head, she battled sharp resentment before gathering the strength to continue.
"He was twisted, turned. Used. HE used him. HE used my poor, innocent little brother to betray us all." A tear seeped unnoticed from the turbulent brown eyes, and Kagome squeezed her hand in compassion that hurt almost as much as Kohaku's broken memory. "He---Kohaku---killed...he tried to kill..." The arch in her spine flinched, as if she could feel the echo of Kohaku's weapon once again in her back, where the deep, ugly scar remained to tell forever the story she had forgotten.
"He tried to kill you?" Inuyasha asked, for once, almost gentle.
"Yes." Sango closed her eyes on the pain of that knowledge. "He was ordered...mind-controlled. He killed our father, and those others I cannot remember. HE made him do it, made my poor, innocent little brother into a perverted murderer, and then HE killed him...but not swiftly. No, HE kept him alive, tortured him and used him in every way HIS sick mind could conceive, before death took him by slow inches..."
~And I was too weak to stop it!~
There was a long silence, before Kagome's breath hitched in sympathetic horror. Crimson filmed both hanyou and youkai eyes, and it was Kouga who demanded harshly, "Who was HE?"
Sango kept her head bowed, her voice a whisper. "Naraku."
She felt the bitter taste of his name on her tongue, knew again the angry revulsion and dark hate that filled her. The demon, black of hair and beautiful to behold, the cruel lines deepening around his sensuous mouth, the taunting mockery of his laughter at her pitiful attempts for freedom or death for her and her brother---or the dead-eyed THING that had become her brother. The pale blue eyes, almost colorless, crimsoning into red delight when he beheld pain, deriving sadistic pleasure from another's torment.
Hanyou and youkai froze. Kouga's words were flat, final. "Naraku is dead."
Sango's head whipped up, and her brown eyes startled into cinnamon. "Dead?" She whispered in soft pain.
"Dead." Inuyasha answered just as flatly.
Something moved in the girl's eyes, something dark and vengeful.
"Good." She almost smiled…a cold, chillingly predacious smile.
Kagome shivered, and squeezed her hand again, seeking comforting reassurance now for herself. "You escaped, then, Sango? And Station Nine put you through psychological repression to save your sanity?"
"So they explained. I can't remember...all..." Sango sank wearily back against the sopha's arm, suddenly drained and feeling somehow transparent. Emotional overload, her mind supplied, and she wanted to laugh like a crazy person over the thought.
Perhaps the psy-medics on Station Nine had been right.
*~*~*~*~*
The lights were dim, casting veiled shadows across his sitting room. Inuyasha had finally dragged a protesting Kagome off to their own quarters, and the black-haired girl, Sango, now slept. She had been too exhausted to move, and Kouga had refused when the girl had tried to insist wearily that she was fine. Exhaustion had finally won the argument, and her eyes had closed as she lay hugged in Kagome's arms.
Sleep eluded Kouga though, and he had wandered aimlessly around the other rooms of his apartment. The girl's words had sparked memories that still left him edgy and restless, even after all this time.
~Naraku.~
The hatred for the youkai's very name could still fill him with the bitter taste of deeply-seated anger, and he could not expel it. He needed a drink, a stiff drink, and if he moved with ookami-silence and speed, he would not wake the girl. Few youkai could track an ookami bent on stealth, never mind a mere human.
He ignored her presence, striding swiftly over to the well-stocked cabinet behind his bar. With hardly a whisper or betrayal of sound, he pushed the door back and filched an upturned glass from the tray. He pulled a bottle free at random, not too choosy over his toxin, and abruptly stood up, his ears twitching.
Another rustle, the merest murmur, of fabric, and his head turned sharply to the left, where the girl laid, a muffled shadow against the blurred outline of his sopha. Her eyes were dark pools in the shadowed white pallor of her face, but he relaxed---deliberately.
"Sorry to wake you." He muttered an apology, not taking any care now that she was awake to dampen his noise. The bottle clinked against the rim of his glass, and liquid splashed into the waiting vessel.
She made a faint movement, one he read as dismissive negation. Arching a black brow in her direction, Kouga swiped another glass from the tray, and poured a second drink for her. "Can't sleep?" He asked mildly, to fill the tense silence between them.
A second slight shake of her head.
"Kagome?" Her voice was soft, tentative.
"Inuyasha took her off to bed---against her protest, I might add." Amusement laced his deep voice.
Setting the opened bottle aside, he took up the twin glasses, and brought one over to her.
"This should help." He said, offering her one. She struggled a moment to free one of her hands from the blankets that swathed her slight form from shoulder to foot, and her fingers brushed his with the faintest touch as she accepted his offer. His ookami-enhanced night-vision was coming into focus, and he studied the pale oval of her face as she bent her head.
"Thank you." She said simply, not drinking. There were dark circles under the thick lashes of her eyes, Kouga noted, and her black hair was tangled around her thinned features. She might have been beautiful, perhaps, if she didn't look so worn out.
Taking a deep taste of the dark brandy in his own glass, Kouga casually settled one hip against the back of the sopha. He continued to study her in silence.
"Tell me...how it happened. Naraku." She asked, her voice whisper-soft but fervent in question.
Kouga growled faintly, but stopped when he saw how she tensed up again. Damn, but she was coiled tighter than a spring, her strained nerves frayed to the edge but held together by pure steel.
He could admire that, and decided he could allow her to know his motivation for seeking the dark lord's death with his own two hands.
"I killed him. With Inuyasha's help. But it was I who choked the life of him with my bare hands." His claws curled around his glass, the points sharp as his eyes bled faintly with crimson recall.
She did not flinch back as he had half-expected. Instead, she asked softly, "Why?"
The night was no place for secrets, but he made short answer, not wanting to dwell on his reasons. Honor had been fulfilled, and the blood of his brothers had been cleansed with the death of the traitorous oni.
"He killed men of my Clan." Kouga's words were almost negligent, but he wondered how deeply the girl understood. Ties of blood among the ookami Clan were some of the strongest. "I merely repaid him in kind."
He was surprised that he had revealed even that much, and stared down at her, his blue eyes thoughtful.
"Thank you." She said again, her head bowed. There was a wealth of dark emotion in that simple phrase, and Kouga's hand shot out to grasp hold of her chin and pull her face up. Her breath hissed in with surprise, but she did not flee his penetrating gaze. Her shadowed eyes stared up into his, and his voice was harsh with sudden revelation.
"He used you as well." He said, blue eyes piercing her. "As he did your brother."
She froze, and then jerked her chin away from his claws. "That does not matter." She said harshly, looking away from that penetratingly blue gaze, and taking a deep drink from her untouched brandy. Her fingers tightened on the cup as the warmth sprang through her trembling body. He could smell the fear on her...the fear and the anger, and something more subtle he refused to name, but which drew him nonetheless.
~Protective alpha-male stirrings, nothing more.~ He was only feeling sorry for her.
A dangerous prospect.
"Perhaps you are right. It doesn't matter. He's dead now." He abruptly went and splashed more brandy into his empty glass, and threw it back with one swallow. He had wasted more fine liquor this evening than he could ever remember, and truly didn't give a good damn.
"Dead." She mulled over the word, drinking the rest of her glass as her eyes blinked wearily under the strong influence of raw alcohol. He turned to stare at her, and noticed that her dark eyes were already closing. Her hold on her glass was slipping as her fingers went soft, and he was back at her side in a single breath to pull it away from eminent descent. She gave him a sleepy half-smile, a mere curving of her lips under the influence of the brandy, even as she snuggled back into the covers. Her lashes curled against her pale cheek, and her bangs feathered across her skin in whorling disarray. Her words were slurred as she fell back into the embrace of sleep. "Thank you..."
He stared at her for a long, silent moment before turning away and leaving the room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Thank you for all of the supportive reviews! It spurred me on to write more of Solace, ignoring poor Vengeance in favor of seeing how this little scenario plays out between Sango and Kouga. I want to give special thanks to Elisa (mm.org), Faira (of course!), Silent Roamer (ff.net) and Megan Consoer---your persistence has paid off, and I thank you deeply for your continued support of all my fics. Charging Handles Forward (aff.net)…You made my day with your review, and kept me at the keyboard for a straight twelve hours! XD EatAPeach (aff.net)…Wow. Thank you very much! Ur one rose (ff.net)…Hints of romace in this chappie, hope it helps! Raven-999 (ff.net)…How sweet! Thank you! ShikuKihaku (ff.net)…Evil PINK monkeys?!?! ACK! Hope this update holds them off for a small while…
More to come, and soon!
Fate