InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Shed a Little Light ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: Lemon Alert!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Inuyasha.

 

Chapter 7

 

Slinking through the shadows of the twilit woods with a shaky hand wrapped around a small vial of Shikon no Kakera, Kagome wondered if the whole forest could hear her heart hammering in her chest or if it was deafening just to her. She knew that she should be thankful that she'd gotten out of a dreary date with Hojo and that Shippo had been at the bottom of the well just when she had tried to cross time. She also knew that she should be glad that the already injured Inuyasha hadn't been killed during the brief tussle with the jewel-crazed Royokan and his hounds of hell, and that tonight was his human night when he was too wrapped up in his own misery to realize that she had left. She definitely knew that what she was doing was dangerous, probably stupid, and potentially fatal. Unfortunately, Kagome's common sense had gone by the wayside since she'd been trapped in the cave and prudent, practical thinking had hopped a flight to Paris.

 

The plan was this: to sneak into the woods and away from the village in the hopes that her lover would take the opportunity to meet her. If he didn't…well, she would just have to sneak back to bed. However, Kagome was fairly certain that she'd felt the gentle tingle of his youki several times this evening and that he was as anxious to see her as she was to see him. And see him she would: that's where things got dangerous. Kagome refused to spend anymore time wondering whether or not she was doing the nasty with Sesshomaru.

 

A lurking tree root wrapped around her ankle and flung her into a prickly bush that rattled and creaked in protest. As she dragged herself out of it, detaching the hem of her skirt from a particularly tenacious twig, Kagome took it as a good omen for her upcoming encounter that the bush did not have any thorns. Not that she was superstitious, or anything stupid like that.

 

No, she was just plain stupid - stealing through the forest at night with nothing but a borrowed kitchen knife that she hoped she could charge like she could her arrows to meet a demon that may be the infamous Lord Sesshomaru; a kitchen knife that she intended to use against him if he seemed homicidal, which to Kagome, looked more and more likely. Hell, she was mad at herself for being such a twit. Only the card-carrying insane would continue an affair with an unknown demon and then plan to meet him alone and (if she was completely honest with herself) unarmed after finding out that he might be a psychopathic killer. No wonder she was seeing omens in the results of her clumsiness.

 

But did she turn back? No, of course not! To not see him, touch him, taste him, would kill her more surely than being torn apart by acid-dripping claws. Lips pursed tightly as she brushed dirt from her knees, knife tucked into her jacket pocket, penlight clipped to a belt loop of her skirt, the intrepid teen crept further into the darkling woods and wondered from which parent she inherited her foolish bravery and insatiable lust. She hoped that lust was all she felt for him, especially if he did turn out to be Sesshomaru; anything more would be disastrous, though how things could get worse was beyond her.

 

“Stupid!” pausing to smack her forehead with the palm of her hand, Kagome cursed herself for the jinx. “Things always get worse when you think that!”

 

With a huff and a mental slap, she continued her trek, finally stopping at a secluded, rocky spring that was choked with climbing vines and closed, trumpet-shaped flowers. Water trickled from between a crack in the rocks to tinkle in a shallow pool. Though barely large enough for one person to soak, it was lovely and inviting, and Kagome wasn't inclined to be picky. She was just too damn nervous and tired.

 

The fingers of his youki danced through her mind and she shivered, clutching the backs of her arms in the false chill. Taking several deep breaths against the quickening of her pulse, she tried to tell herself that nothing had changed; he was still her lord and her lover, come to worship her body as no one else could. Still, her muscles were tense and she knew that her fingers would shake if she let go of her arms. However, he remained hidden; his powerful aura belying his proximity but of the demon himself, she could neither see nor hear a sign. Settling on the bank of the spring with her legs folded to the side and her back against one of vine-covered boulders, Kagome resigned herself to the little game he chose to play. She would wait…but not forever.

 

An insistent poking of her butt woke her, and she quickly realized that she had dozed off alone by the spring sitting up, but now was lying in the undergrowth and had company; horny company, by the feel of it. Blinking the sleep-induced fog from her brain, she tried to twist around to face him, for she had no doubt that the person spooning her was her lord, but a gentle, immovable hand rested against her cheek and held her still. So he wanted to continue this charade…she would let him, for the moment.

 

Hot breath washed over her neck as he leaned over her, followed by a thick tongue that traced the line of her jaw. A lock of hair, shining bluish-silver in the wan light of the new moon, tumbled over her shoulder to tickle her chest and a shiver raced down her spine in spite of herself. Silver…it can't be him…

 

His hand released her cheek to cover her eyes and she turned her head to meet his mouth, gasping in delight when he licked the corner of her lips, then sealed them with a tender kiss. Memories of Sesshomaru's cold eyes and harsh words clashed with this demon's attentive affection and talented tongue, and Kagome whined softly in the back of her throat as her heart pounded and her body burned. Whoever he was, she would enjoy him in this moment and pick up the pieces of her fractured heart later.

 

Closing her eyes tightly and with an impressive wiggle, she tugged her jacket and blouse over her head and was rewarded by his clawed hand gliding down her neck and chest to cup her breast through her lace bra, massaging it with his palm as he pinched and twisting the nipple between his fingers. Arching her back, she rubbed her ass against his erection and his hand abandoned her breast to lift her skirt, his claws slicing through matching lace panties.

 

The prodding of his shaft became more insistent and she tilted her hips back and lifted a leg, granting him an easy entrance that he took with a groan. Thoughts of her plight scattered as he stretched her, pushing through the tight walls of muscles until he bumped something deep inside. He pulled out, gliding his head between her folds and over her swollen pearl before thrusting back in. Groaning into his mouth, she ground her behind against his pelvis, savoring the feel of his turgid member delving her body's secrets.

 

“Ohhhh…” her quiet moan seemed to be his undoing, and he answered with a warm growl, deepening the kiss until she thought that his tongue and cock would meet somewhere in the middle of her body. Slowly and deliberately he took her, paying homage to the silky skin of her belly and breasts with gentle strokes of his claws, exploring the sweet recesses of her mouth with his tongue. Each nip and graze of his fangs was unhurried and replete with a tender compassion that shook her to the core. She kept her eyes tightly closed, savoring the moment and the warmth that his ministrations stirred and trying not to cry at the sheer force of her emotional response. She was desperately happy and miserable all at once, and could think of nowhere or no one with whom she'd rather be. Names and faces lost their importance as Kagome surrendered herself to the bliss that he invoked and the spiraling wash of pleasure that rushed through her limbs.

 

Grasping her hip, he quickened his pace to a frenetic urgency, prolonging her orgasm until her toes curled and colors danced before her eyes. Arching her back and tilting her hips, she engulfed him entirely, drinking in the satisfied growl that vibrated the length of his body, down his shaft and into the sac that slapped against her clit. His frantic rhythm ceased abruptly with one final thrust, his length pulsing steadily within her as he emptied.

 

Breathing harshly as they lay on their sides, joined and satiated, Kagome finally lost the battle with her tears as they seeped from between her tightly closed lids. She wished that she could stay like this forever: wrapped in his embrace with his lips on her neck and phallus embedded in her holiest of holies. However, she couldn't continue to meet him like this, not without knowing who he was. It was taking a toll on her sanity and self-respect; she had found herself doing and thinking things that she would never, in a million years, have thought she would.

 

The gentle rise and fall of his chest against her back evened out and slowed, and Kagome carefully stretched a hand to the penlight attached to her skirt. He shifted slightly and she immediately stilled, waiting until she was sure that he was still sleeping before she searched with her fingertips for the plastic clip that connected the penlight to her belt loop. As an afterthought, she pulled the knife from her jacket pocket but let it lie in the vines beside her.

 

Why couldn't she have fallen for a normal guy, or at least one who didn't have identity issues? What did she hope would come of this if he were, indeed, Sesshomaru? More moisture leaked out of her eyes though she strained to repress the sob that was threatening to burst from her chest. The demon behind her rumbled softly, pulling out his now flaccid penis and leaning over her shoulder to lick at the salty tracks on her cheeks left by her tears. Hiccupping softly as she strengthened her will, Kagome rolled onto her back and opened her eyes, shining her meager penlight into his face.

 

He stared down at her, mild shock and poignant concern gleaming from golden eyes positioned under a noble brow decorated by a blue crescent moon. Magenta stripes slashed across high cheekbones in a face framed by glimmering silver-white hair. A white silk kimono with red floral embroidery at the shoulder hung open to reveal the marble planes of his chest and abs, chiseled, lean, and begging to be stroked. Here was Sesshomaru, as she'd never seen him before, open and vulnerable, and all the more beautiful because of it.

 

Struck dumb but not particularly surprised, Kagome lay still as her stomach did lazy rolls and her heart thundered in her ears. It was strange to see this creature so close without his claws oozing poison, though there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be in a moment. She wanted to touch the cheek that she now knew had caressed her own, to confirm its silky texture with the tip of her fingers as her eyes traced his stripes, but she was incapable of movement.

 

For a long moment they locked gazes, and then his golden eyes cooled to amber, hardening, narrowing, his pale lips pursing into a dissatisfied line. He slapped the tiny flashlight out of her hand and lowered his body until he was snarling, harsh and abrasive, in her face, crushing her with his weight and the force of his anger. His youki crackled over her skin, forcing her own spiritual powers to the surface in her defense, but she held them back, unwilling to hurt him. Yes, she'd brought the knife with that very intention, but the idea of hurting Sesshomaru who might be her lover was very different than the reality of hurting her lover who was Sesshomaru.

 

Blinded by the sudden absence of light, Kagome forced her limbs to go limp, flinching only when the points of his fangs pressed into the skin above her pulse. Logically, she knew that he was a dog, more or less, and that dogs went for the throat when establishing dominance…or maybe it was when making a kill? It didn't really matter to Kagome at the moment, for logic had never really played a large part in her body's reaction to stimuli. Spiders of heat crawled from the two pricks against her skin to congregate in her belly, spinning that tangled web of arousal and desire that bound her to him.

 

The claws of his only hand (and now she knew why her lover had touched her with one hand at a time and it was all her fault) tangled in her hair, dragging roughly on the scalp but not enough to hurt, pulling her head to the side to bare her throat.

 

“My lord!” she protested a little breathlessly. Sure, it felt good now, but she knew how cruel he could be. Teeth scraped down the skin of her neck, scoring it with fire that his tongue did not soothe. His fangs settled at the dip of her collarbone, where he growled and gave her hair another small tug.

 

“Sesshomaru, I-“

 

His menacing snarl silenced everything in the area that wanted to live to see another day. Frightened, but embarrassingly turned on, Kagome squeaked and shut up.

 

“Impudent, disobedient girl. Did I not tell you that you were not allowed to leave?”

 

“Hey! That wasn't my fault-“

 

“And did I not tell you not to look at me?”

 

`Wait a sec,' Kagome's distracted, flustered brain supplied. `Aren't you supposed to fight, and then have sex? Does that mean we get to do it again after we make up?' Her body sure thought so, what with all the tingling going on in her nether regions. Distantly, it amazed her that she could be so horny and angry at the same time. With a sick little twisting in her gut, she realized that she had, yet again, forgotten to bring condoms. Shit. “Come on! I saw you before I left-“

 

He bit down in the hollow of her collarbone and she shrieked in pain and surprise, a flood of adrenaline jolting her body as her human instincts rushed to the forefront to remind her that the creature with his teeth in her shoulder was a predator and that she might have cause for concern. Just the same, the treasured familiarity of his velvet voice and satin skin waylaid those instincts before she could fight him off, leaving her a trembling, panicky mess. By the time he withdrew his teeth, her eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough to see the rage, frustration, confusion, and an odd distress shining from his eyes through the shadows that obscured his face. She didn't know what to make of it, and apparently, neither did he, for in a swirling of wind and a rustle of silk, he was gone.

 

Kagome pushed her hair out of her face, heart-broken and incensed, and sat up, scanning the trees for his pale form and coming up frighteningly short.

 

“Coward! Always running away!” Kagome shouted after him, her voice muffled by the densely growing trees. “Did you think I'd never figure it out? Did you expect me to be happy not knowing who you were?”

 

Silence met her ranting with a disapproving tenseness, as if no creature wanted to be inadvertently blamed for her reckless words. The tingle of his youki diminished to the barest of caresses and hurt began to consume the anger in her chest. “What do you take me for, an idiot? Well, you're the stupid one!”

 

She hadn't realized she'd started crying again until a tear splashed on the back of her hand. What was it about this dangerous, domineering, emotionally stunted man - demon - that she now knew she couldn't live without?

 

“Don't leave me!” Kagome pleaded into the darkness. But the last vestiges of his youki were gone; her final entreaty had not been heard.

 

XxxxxxX

 

Wandering back to the village in a miserable daze, Kagome didn't even notice Shippo until he bounded into her arms, his jeweled eyes peering into her red, puffy ones as he patted her face with a tiny hand. She couldn't even dredge up a smile, and the effort to do so only made her start crying again.

 

Shippo's bottom lip trembled as he wrapped is arms around her neck. “Don't cry Kagome,” he mumbled against her neck. His nose brushed against a scratch on her neck and she winced, the pain enough to stop the current bought of tears. His little fingers toyed with the collar of her blouse, but she was too despondent to question his quick intake of breath.

 

“You peeked, didn't you.”

 

It was a statement, but Kagome answered it anyway. “Yeah, and he flew off, or whatever.”

 

“He'll be back,” Shippo snuffled quietly and pulled her collar a little higher on her neck.

 

“Maybe,” Kagome muttered, the image of his angry face rising in her mind. They didn't make up and they didn't have sex afterward; she hoped that he hadn't dismissed her as a worthless human and gone looking for another piece of ass. But if he was so angry about her impromptu trip back home, which hadn't been her fault anyway, then why had he curled up next to her while she slept and fucked her when she woke? She just didn't get it. Stupid demon.

 

Dark laughter oozed around the trees to puddle at their feet and Kagome had the distinct impression that slimy things were crawling on her skin. Moments later, a hunched figure in a white baboon pelt, the simian face covering the wearer's head, stepped out of the shadows and yet seeming to trail them like tail feathers.

 

“Did your lover fuck and run?” a poisoned voice spoke from behind the mask. “You must not have been very good…not surprising, since you are only a pale copy of your former self.”

 

Holding Shippo tightly to her chest, Kagome scowled, her bruised feelings and injured pride momentarily overriding her fear. “I'm not-“

 

“Oh, but you are, little miko.”

 

“I know who you are, Naraku! And I know that you play with people's minds, so you can just stop right now!” Kagome snapped with a lot more sharpness than she was feeling at the moment.

 

“I am but speaking the truth…and I know many truths…” he chuckled as she deflated, her mind making connections faster than she'd ever known possible, leaving her wondering why it took her so damned long to figure out the identity of her lover.

 

“You wouldn't tell Inuyasha…” Kagome trailed off, knowing that he would, indeed, tell him if he thought it would gain him some advantage, or at the very least, fun.

 

“That you screwed his despised half-brother behind his back?” Naraku finished her sentence for her with a twisted smile in his voice as Shippo gasped against her chest. “I don't think he would take the news very well.”

 

`And Understatement of the Year goes to…Naraku!' wild, silent applause crowded her head and Kagome recognized the first onset of hysteria. “But I didn't know…”

 

Naraku laughed again, giving Kagome a violent case of the creeps. “Do you think that will matter to him? He will cut you down or throw you out of the pack and claim those shards for himself,” he pointed at her neck with a fur-covered arm.

 

“He wouldn't…” but Kagome wasn't sure: was his hatred for his brother stronger than his friendship with her? He was brazen, rash, and often did things without thinking them through first, but would he really hurt or abandon her? Hadn't he just done that by taking her shards and pushing her into the well? Could she take the chance that he'd do it again? Staring fixedly at the ground and clinging to Shippo like a lifeline, she whispered, “What do you want?”

 

“Your shards of the Shikon Jewel, of course, and anything else I may desire in the future.” Her head snapped up, her protest already on her lips as he amended his statement. “You may keep one on you, but the rest you will replace with these,” he extended his arm and opened his hand to reveal several slivers of pink quartz.

 

“But-“

 

“Or, I will break the news to our dear Inuyasha that his sweet little miko is actually his brother's whore.”

 

Kagome stood in silent, hopeless contemplation, wondering how on earth her life had come down to being blackmailed by their arch-nemesis to hide her lover (who just so happened to be another nemesis) from their group's leader. And he wanted her shards, no less! Each fragment represented her grand failure as the jewel's protector, imbued with their blood and sweat, as they painstakingly fought for and gathered them. Now, she had to give them up to prevent her secret from becoming public scandal.

 

“Like, what else?” Kagome asked quietly.

 

Naraku chuckled, a wicked, ugly sound that set her teeth on edge. “Oh, you needn't worry about that, priestess, though you are hardly worthy to bear the title. I would not touch something as despoiled as you.”

 

Somehow, that statement didn't do much to make her feel better. Shoulders slumping, Kagome stared at the ground and said nothing. Where were her integrity, fiery spirit and bold words? Extinguished by lies and subterfuge, that's where. Ashamed of herself and her actions, she scuffed the toe of her shoe in the dirt and realized that she really didn't like herself at the moment but didn't know what to do about it.

 

Kagome was never one who could be accused of making good decisions. In fact, during her short years on earth, she had made several spectacularly bad ones, and they mobbed and jostled through her brain as she tried to figure out to do. Oh, she knew what she should do, but really, what should she do?

 

She had been dragged down a well by a centipede demon and after finally returning home (and in the middle of a delicious dinner), she had gone back down that same well to face more demons, all in the name of honor and to compensate for another bad decision she had made. Instead of guarding the jewel carefully as she'd been told, she had let a carrion crow run off with it, the end result being that the arrow she'd used to take it down shattered the jewel she'd been assigned to protect. She had known that the shard she'd tied to the bird's leg would draw it towards the jewel; it had been the crux of her plan! However, it had not occurred to her that the arrow would've broken it. To hear Inuyasha tell it, she'd done it on purpose with malice and forethought. And now she was faced with the consequences of her decision to continue her tawdry, exciting little affair, which had seemed like such a good idea at the time! Well, she actually hadn't thought about the wisdom of her actions, per se; she had let herself get swept away and the two most burning questions on her mind had been who he was and when was he going to come again.

 

The fact of the matter was that Kagome let her heart lead her and didn't really stop to consider the consequences until they were yelling at her, smacking her around, trying to kill her, or blackmailing her for jewel shards. And her heart did not want to give up on the lover for whom she had just acquired a face.

 

Should she give up the shards and buy herself a little time? Should she bite the bullet and tell Inuyasha before Naraku had a chance, taking whatever punishment he saw fit to give? Of course, she could always sit him…not that that would improve things any. It would also mean the end of her affair with Sesshomaru (assuming that he would come back to her like Shippo said), which was absolutely out of the question. Come what may, he had become as necessary to her as water or air or face moisturizer. It didn't look like she had much choice in the matter, and Naraku seemed to know that by the air of smugness that he exuded.

 

“Before I loose my patience, miko.”

 

Kagome sighed heavily and pulled the jewel shards out of her shirt, ignoring the trembling kit in her arms and his noisy snuffles. Unstopping the small vial, she shook all but one shard into his waiting hand, pinching the quartz out of his palm so that she had the least amount of skin-to-skin contact as possible. Trade finished, Naraku vanished into the forest, leaving a noxious stench and a melancholy, self-recriminating girl in his wake.

 

“You gave him our shards,” Shippo remarked incredulously as if waiting for her to dispute it.

 

“What else could I do? You heard him: he was going to tell Inuyasha!” Kagome implored him to understand even though she, herself, could hardly believe what she'd done. What she would do, when he came to her again.

 

Shippo leaned away from her neck and stared up at her with wide, frightened eyes. “You've been meeting Sesshomaru this whole time?”

 

Kagome nodded.

 

“You mean, Sesshomaru with the-“ he slashed the air with tiny claws, doing an impression of the demon lord that would have been funny in any other circumstance. “And the-“ he snapped an imaginary energy whip from his fingertips.

 

Kagome nodded again and bit her bottom lip.

 

“Inuyasha's half-brother, Sesshomaru?”

 

“Uh huh.”

 

“Jeez, Kagome, you sure know how to pick `em.”

 

“Thanks, Shippo.”

 

If she could just hold out until she saw Sesshomaru again or figured a way out of this mess, then maybe she could escape with a modicum of dignity intact (and hopefully a few of the shards). Naraku had said that he didn't want that, though kami knew that she had the market cornered on having sex with faceless demons, so at least she wasn't going to be passed around like last night's leftovers. However, the idea of having to deliver the jewel shards to their enemy left a bitter, vile taste in her mouth and her stomach roiling and queasy.

 

She didn't even understand why Sesshomaru had gotten so angry. It had to be more than her willfulness (she didn't like to think of it as disobedience because that implied that he had the right to tell her what to do, which he didn't!) or her tendency to mouth off. She'd done both before, and he'd always seduced her afterwards. She could only hope that what Shippo said was true, but was too depressed to ask why he thought so. He had acted like he'd cared for her, then left her without so much as a goodbye!

 

Perhaps he wanted to reveal himself in his own way or he was biding his time for something in particular? Did he think that she wouldn't be able to handle the truth? Was he ashamed to have a human lover and didn't want her telling people about his indiscretions? As if she could tell anyone who wouldn't blackmail her or try to maim her! And he had to have guessed that she would recognize his voice during the battle at the inn. Was it a test of her loyalty to him to not peek even though she suspected his identity?

 

`I guess that means I failed…like everything else,' Kagome turned the possibilities over in her mind and filed them away with all of the other unknowns about her lord. Face or no face, he was still as much of a mystery as ever and it seemed that her pre-conceived notions about Sesshomaru were wrong, as well.

 

 

A/N:  This is getting long, so I'll do it down here!

 

A big Thank You! to my beta who, despite the demands on her time, still corrects my gibberish! Thanks to all of my lovely reviewers on Single Spark who've emailed me!

 

And thanks to the reviewers on MMorg : Sar17 - Ha! Hope this was soon enough!; FEMALE_INUYASHA - thank you!; MysticAngelDust - I'm glad that you think they in character, I always try to aim for it; obese_a_tron5000 - now she knows!; Lost Star - thank you!; gretel_chan - thanks! When I started, I was a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to its predecessor…you know how sequels are; Rinseternalsoul - yes, things will get interesting. Hope you like it!; AW - so glad to hear it!; AngelsRebellion - no one knows how it will end except for ME!; earthangel102  - I'm flattered! Thanks so much!; White Luna - you could say that! ^_^; Mrs_Sesshomaru- oh, so many questions that you will have to read to find out!; brower47 - good, then I've done my job!; docbevculver- thanks so much! *blush*; its all good- but you'll have to!; golden_kitsune - no, not in these terms.