InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Shed a Little Light ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

A/N: Thanks for your patience, everyone! This chapter underwent a major rewrite - hence the lateness. It is better for it, believe me, and I have thyme_cat to thank for the fabulous brainstorming session that got this chapter to where it is. Thanks also to dsm1980 who is also beta reading for me!

 

Plus, I'm way behind in answering reviews, so I'm going to do one big THANK YOU to all of you on FFnet, Single Spark, MMorg, and AFFnet who have taken the time to send me a note! I read and appreciate every single one of them! You brighten my days and my inbox (or review pages).

 

Warning: it's a bit lemony in the beginning and I didn't edit it. You have been warned.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 9

 

The light was muted, warm, a buttery color that flickered at the edges of her vision. She lay on pillowed softness that was smooth to her bare skin and supported her body but accommodated her as she shifted to roll onto her side and smile at the man next to her. Golden eyes glittered back, reflecting the oranges and yellows of the light around them; pale lips curved slightly and lent to the normally blank face a gentle serenity. Her breath caught in her throat and her chest tightened sweetly, blood rushing amazingly fast as he whispered something low and throaty into her ear, and then nibbled the lobe.

 

She giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck and curling her fingers in his silky silver hair as he nipped down her throat and across her collarbone to lap at the small wound that straddled the bone. The rough caress of his tongue over the punctures sent a frisson of delight through her limbs and an anticipatory burn at the apex of her thighs. Chuckling, a rich sound that rumbled through his chest like distant spring thunder, he grazed a path down her back to her buttocks with his claws, squeezing the pert flesh before traveling down her thighs. Already flushed and moaning, she dug her fingers into his scalp, arching her back to push her body against his, and slid a knee across one of his long legs to wrap around his waist.

 

He growled softly, rolling them over and holding himself above her to gaze down at her, eyes darkened with lust and need, the stripes and crescent moon markings vivid and bright against his pale skin.

 

“Sesshomaru,” she whispered his name, dragging her blunt nails over the muscles in his chest and abdomen, grinning when his stomach jumped and quivered under her fingertips. His erection was pressed between them, hard and heavy against her belly, the tip already moist and pushing through the foreskin. He flashed his fangs teasingly at her before applying those pearly points to her budded nipple hard enough to make her gasp his name again.

 

And then he was kissing her, ravaging her mouth with his lips and tongue, swallowing her breathy moans as he nudged her legs open with his knees, his hand massaging the breast that was still sore from his fangs' ministrations. His long tongue pushed into her as far as it could reach, tasting her thoroughly as the head of his shaft prodded through the gate to her body. Tilting her hips to help guide him, she broke the kiss and cried out as his thick phallus stretched-

 

Kagome snapped awake to tiny feet pounding into her side. Sweating heavily and breathing hard, she hissed to the kit, “Shippo, stop! I'm awake!”

 

“Kagome, are you okay?” Sango blinked sleepily at her from the other side of the campfire, her hand already clutching the hilt of her sword.

 

Ignoring the kit's irritated grumbling, she rolled onto her side as Shippo poked and prodded her to a more comfortable position. Kagome took several deep breaths as she willed her blood to start circulating instead of just puddling in her crotch. Making a quick scan of the campsite, the teen noted a distinct lack of hanyou lurking in the trees above. Relieved that a keen doggy nose wouldn't sniff her out, Kagome smiled shakily at the slayer. “Yeah! I'm fine! Shippo, um, just had a bad dream.”

 

“That must have been quite the dream,” Miroku remarked with that penetrating look in his eyes that he so often cast her way.

 

Sango, however, had a sympathetic frown on her face. “Poor little guy. It must have been about our fight with Naraku.”

 

Shippo snorted quietly under the covers and Kagome tried not to grin, “Probably.”

 

Nodding sagely, Sango lay back down in her bedroll and sighed. “Don't worry, Shippo, we won't let anything hurt you.”

 

`If she only knew that a demon was in my dreams and what he was actually doing to me…' Kagome thought with a despondent longing for the unfinished dream, curling up in her sleeping bag and cuddling Shippo to her chest. She knew she was in for a teasing later, but she thanked the kami for her little accomplice.

 

Her hand crept its way to the fading bite on her collarbone, rubbing the scar and letting the friction on the sensitive skin sooth her. Shippo had confirmed that it was, in fact, a scent-mark left to warn off other males and his confidence that Sesshomaru would come back for her remained firm even though the scar was fading and the youkai himself had failed to make an appearance. Kagome had felt him nearby several times but had not been able to catch a glimpse of him. His inattention hurt her deeply and she could only hope that forces beyond his control were keeping him from coming to her, not a stupid grudge.

 

She was actually somewhat surprised that she'd been dreaming about Sesshomaru instead of Naraku, especially considering their last few run-ins with the bastard. Why he hadn't yet come to torment her in her dreams as he did when she was awake was beyond her. She had dared to hope that the damage she'd done to him earlier could get him off her back. How could she have been so stupid as to try to kill him? She never hit her marks, she should've known better than to even try! But she'd had to do something…

 

Naraku had wanted something other than jewel shards that day: he'd wanted Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha's sword! He'd manipulated Sango into taking it by resurrecting her brother and keeping him alive with a shard in his back. Torn apart by the sight of her brother wiped clean of his memories and in the hands of the enemy, Sango stole the sword and brought it to Naraku, demanding her brother in return.

 

Panicky and confused, Kagome had simply gone along with the rest of the group in an effort to retrieve the sword. Naraku had given her no instructions! What did he want from her? What did he expect? It had been driving her insane! So really, she couldn't be held accountable for her actions at the castle when they finally met up with their enemy. The battle had raged around her and Inuyasha regained his sword, but Kagome had been appalled at what Naraku had done to Sango and Kohaku, her brother. As if bewitching the boy to kill his own family hadn't been bad enough, he'd enslaved him to use against his own sister!

 

Kagome had snapped and shot her arrow without a second thought, pushing into it all of her rage, pain, and sorrow so that it glowed with a brilliant pink corona. It had hit his body and dissolved it in a flash of purification but much to her dismay, his head had survived to throw her a furious glare before it made its escape in a great gushing of gasses.

 

She'd hoped that he had just burrowed into a hole somewhere and died, because he hadn't immediately tattled on her, but the sneaky bastard had found a way to rebuild his body! Some days later, they had come across a cave (and oh, had Kagome's imagination run wild!) in which great, bestial demons battled each other, the winner absorbing the loser and gaining their power. Inuyasha had jumped into the fight, despite Kikyou's warnings about being absorbed himself. The priestess had fired an arrow that broke up the fight but also seemed to trigger the regeneration of Naraku's body.

 

Kagome couldn't remember ever seeing something so horrible and grotesque: those red eyes searing her from a human head and a body of lesser-demon pieces. This was the creature that held her secret in his hands…

 

As their eyes met, a voice sounded in her head, blurred and broken as if many people were speaking at once: “I will give you one chance to redeem yourself. I will send someone for your shards…if you resist in any way, I will end this little farce.” Then, he'd grabbed Kikyou and flown off. No grand revelations to Inuyasha (who had shouted Kikyou's name as she disappeared in the demon's arms), no humiliations for herself. Well, no more so than usual.

 

Did she dare believe that he only wanted more shards? Was he giving her a false hope before he broke their deal and spilled everything to Inuyasha? Would he even let her live after taking their piece of the jewel? Kagome had a plethora of questions, no answers, and few options left open.

 

Flesh striking flesh made her jump, her arm spasmodically tightening around the kit as her heart bounced around the inside of her ribcage.

 

“Keep your hands to yourself, pervert,” Sango rapped out as she yanked her bedding off the ground and stalked to the side of the campfire exactly opposite a sheepishly grinning monk. Rubbing his cheek with his unbound hand, he leaned his back against the tree and winked conspiratorially at Kagome.

 

Rolling her eyes, the teen snuggled back into her bedding. `You have got to be kidding me. Sango packs a punch; he should've learned by now.' Stifling a giggle as she listened to Sango's muttered cursing, she closed her eyes and tried to recapture a wisp of her dream.

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

Kagome pressed a hand to her lower back, grimacing as she stretched the bunched, aching muscles. With a small sigh, she dropped her hand and flopped down on the rough, wooden stoop, mopping at her brow with a small hand towel from her bag as she stared out over the neatly planted field of herbs. Jinengi's hulking figure was still bent awkwardly over the tender shoots, his sausage fingers plucking weeds with precise, gentle care.

 

The epitome of the gentle giant, the hanyou Jinengi had a long, equine face and bulbous, yellow eyes that shone with an innate kindness and a quiet despondency. She couldn't understand how the locals could believe that he was the youkai who had been killing and eating humans.

 

“He ain't much to look at, but he's mine,” Jinengi's mother spoke behind her in a voice dry with years. Her proud, wrinkled smile belied her words as she handed Kagome a bamboo cup filled with cool well water.

 

“Uh…thanks,” she said, accepting the water gratefully and taking a long drink. She was right: he wasn't good looking (few people could wear orange fur) but that wasn't what really mattered, was it? To have weathered the curses and abuse of the villagers and still remain a peaceful creature took a steadfastness of character that one rarely encountered. Jinengi glanced up at her as if feeling her eyes on his back, then quickly looked back down at the soil underneath his fingers. Smiling softly, Kagome answered his mother, “He has a kind soul.”

 

The crone nodded as she seated herself next to Kagome, her bones cracking and popping in the symphony of old age. “That he does. Some would say that he has no soul because of his demon father, but I know better.”

 

Nodding, the teen leaned back on her forearms and enjoyed the caress of the breeze on her flushed skin as it ran its fingers through her hair. There really wasn't anything better than resting in the shade after a few hours of weeding.

 

“So, you and your hanyou…” the old woman nudged Kagome in the side with a bony finger and the teen's elbows almost gave out.

 

“What?”

 

“I see that mark, girl, even though you try to hide it. Do you think I was born yesterday?”

 

“Oh…” Kagome rubbed the tiny scars on her collarbone and tried to fight the color that was forcing its way up her neck and into her face. “Um…it isn't his…”

 

The old woman chuckled and Kagome was forcibly reminded of Miroku. Suddenly, a rest in the shade was not quite so relaxing. She was about to excuse herself and rejoin Jinengi when his mother made another comment. “So you've got another demon beau. Don't be shy, girl. I know how much fun they can be.” She issued another raspy laugh and gave Kagome a broad wink.

 

`Ew. Please don't let her elaborate.'

 

“Jinengi's father was quite the lover. Oh, the things he would do to me…” Her dark eyes glittered like obsidian as she leered at Kagome, who tried to draw her head between her shoulders like a turtle. `Ew ew ew ew'

 

“But if you're marked by a demon, why do you travel with the half-demon? Surely you haven't denied his suit?”

 

“Well, Inuyasha and I have a quest…wait, his what?”

 

“His suit, girl! He put his mark on you to show his interest and keep other demons away. He must be a predator youkai to leave a bite like that. Now, Jinengi's father would give me crowns of flowers from his garden while he was courting me…” her eyes lost focus as she gazed inward at her memories.

 

`Flowers would be nice,' Kagome thought wistfully, `and less painful.' “I don't know if he really wants me. Maybe the whole mark thing was an accident. He hasn't come back to me since he did it.”

 

“Eh?” The crone shook herself and fixed Kagome with a keen eye. “Accident? Could be. Have you accepted his suit?” she asked again.

 

“How would I do that?” `And how is it that I'm confiding in this woman who I've only just met?'

 

Jinengi's mother looked at her as if the teen were going a little soft in the skull, which Kagome found frightfully unfair. “Give him something in return, girl! If he accepts it, then you know it was no accident.”

 

`Give him something? How was I supposed to know that?' Kagome wondered irritably. `Sango and Shippo didn't say anything about a gift exchange. He better not have abandoned me because he was waiting for a present.' Out loud, she asked, “Like what?”

 

She shrugged, the joints in her shoulders popping like gunfire. “That's up to you, but it should be something of yourself that only you can give.”

 

“What did you give Jinengi's father?” Kagome couldn't help but ask.

 

Exploding in raucous cackles, the old woman clambered to her feet. “Wouldn't you like to know!”

 

`Maybe I wouldn't,' Kagome decided as she watched the old woman totter into the hut. Sighing, Kagome rested her head in her hands and pursed her lips, staring forlornly at the boards of the stoop. `What do I have to give that is of any value? Naraku has most of my shards. Sesshomaru hasn't shown much interest in them, anyway.' She wracked her brain, but nothing useful was forthcoming. With a final sigh and a frustrated scuff of her shoe in the dirt, she gave up and joined Jinengi and his herb garden.

 

XxxxxxxX

 

Frozen in place, Kagome stared at the tip of the arrow that was aimed at her and wondered why she'd never noticed how wicked sharp those things were. They were designed to slice through flesh as easily as they flew through air, and she had always carelessly tossed them in her quiver like a bouquet of daisies. `She wouldn't really hurt me, would she?'

 

Kagome's silent question was answered as the string of the bow twanged, loud in the twilight forest, and Kikyou's eyes glittered with smug satisfaction. A searing heat grazed her cheek and her hand flew up to touch it as the ground dropped out from under her feet. She shrieked, her cheek forgotten as she frantically grabbed for the vines that hung from the wall of the pit that had replaced once solid earth. Her hands snagged a vine and she clung to it, crying out as her shoulders were wrenched painfully and a fingernail was bent backward.

 

`I will never wish for the ground to open up and swallow me ever, ever again,' Kagome promised herself as her body bumped against the earthen wall of the pit, knocking loose dirt and debris that tumbled into the darkness below her. `She's trying to kill me! How deep is this thing?'

 

She snuck a quick glance over her shoulder, which did her absolutely no good. Shadows crowded the depths of the hole, roiling beneath the soles of her shoes. Squeezing her eyes shut, Kagome tightened her grasp on the roots and whispered a silent prayer to the kami. `I hope I put on a good pair of underwear this morning. I don't want my friends to find my body wearing that torn pair with the frayed waistband.'

 

Kikyou's head appeared over the bit, a bitter smile curving her lips and destroying the façade of the tragic priestess. “Naraku sends his regards,” Kikyou said politely, her tone sarcastically derisive. “But he has tired of your little game.”

 

Something cold and clammy wrapped around her wrists and ankles, slithering up her legs and supporting her weight as they dragged her out of the pit, the roots sliding out of her hands and leaving painful friction burns. Shuddering in disgust at the touch of Kikyou's soul collectors, Kagome had to wonder if her situation had improved when she met the malicious eyes of the undead priestess.

 

“You should not have tried to kill him, foolish girl. No one truly escapes his grasp. I am living,” the smile twisted into a self-mocking sneer, “proof.” She briefly touched her chest where a fragment of the Shikon jewel glimmered darkly, then reached for the large shard around Kagome's neck and yanked the jewel free with a metallic snap. The soul collectors unwound themselves as roots twisted out of the pit to curl around her ankles.

 

“No, Kikyou! Don't do this!” The roots began to pull her back into the pit when Inuyasha burst through the trees. He glanced from the grinning priestess standing on the lip of the pit to the girl being dragged into it, and then leapt toward Kagome. An arrow arched across his path and he twisted mid-leap to land heavily still several feet from the pit and Kagome's disappearing form.

 

“Kikyou! What are you doing?” he shouted, facing the priestess, his eyes finding the Shikon no Tama hanging from a chain wrapped around the hand that held her bow. “That's Kagome's shard!”

 

Kikyou nocked another arrow and aimed leisurely at the hanyou. “She will not need it in a moment.”

 

`Don't just stand there, Inuyasha!' Kagome thought with frantic exasperation as a root wrapped around her mouth and cut off her ability to scream. Arms pinned to her sides as the woody vines wrapped tighter around her body, all she could do was squirm and watch in horror, as Inuyasha seemed incapable of helping her or himself.

 

An arm suddenly wrapped around her waist, jerking her out of the grasp of the roots and against plate armor. As thick spikes dug into her back, she had an immeasurable rush of joy before she was unceremoniously dumped in a heap on the ground. She untangled her limbs in time to see a flutter of white silk descend on the cursed priestess, who had instantly changed her aim to the attacking demon. The arrow tore through an empty red-trimmed sleeve as pallid, spectral soul collectors surrounded the priestess and whisked her out of the path of his claws.

 

“Ha! See, Inuyasha? She does miss!” Kagome jeered as she clambered to her feet and brushed soil from her pleated green skirt.

 

“Shut up, Kagome!” The hanyou shot her a fulminating scowl as he drew Tetsusaiga, and then growled at his brother, “Bastard, if you lay a hand on Kikyou, I'll show you what this sword can really do!”

 

“Will you, now. A half-breed such as yourself can never hope to wield the true power of the Tetsusaiga,” Sesshomaru glared down his nose at his brother and flexed his claws, green poison bubbling up and over the tips to fall smoking in the forest undergrowth.

 

`Not the damn sword, again,' Kagome harrumphed to herself as the brotherly pissing contest escalated. Out loud, she yelled, “Kikyou is getting away with the jewel shard!”

 

In the blink of an eye, Sesshomaru vaulted toward the priestess who was rapidly climbing into the sky, held aloft by her soul collectors. Inuyasha swore and leapt after him, swinging the giant fang in a clumsy arc that still almost clipped the end of Sesshomaru's boa. Stifling a scream, Kagome cringed as Sesshomaru spun in the air and deflected the next blow with his claws in a deafening clang.

 

`Don't hurt him!' Kagome crammed her fist against her mouth as fear for the invincible Sesshomaru swept through her. Inuyasha could use the Windscar: she had seen him summon it in defense of Miroku, killing a swarm of lesser demons in a flash of brilliant youki. Granted, it had been the one and only time, but he would do anything for the clay priestess. She felt a subtle surge deep within her, as if she were in an elevator that had just stopped, and pressed a hand to her chest.

 

Inuyasha swung the sword again and in a flare of white light, it transformed back into its original form: that of a battered old katana. Shock written on his face, Inuyasha dropped from the sky like a stone and landed in a crouch, staring bewildered at the sword in his hand. He shook the pommel, and then swiped the air with it several times but the sword refused to respond.

 

Sesshomaru landed gracefully in front of him, the corners of his lips twitching slightly as he glanced out of the corners of his eyes at Kagome. Her heart skipped a beat as his eyes flashed over her, molten gold that seemed to meld with her bones. Blushing, she smiled and looked down, suddenly feeling exposed and terribly hot.

 

“Oi! You broke it!” Inuyasha gave the sword another experimental swing, but it stayed in its tattered, unassuming form. Pointing the chipped tip at his half-brother, he shouted, “What the fuck did you do to my Tetsusaiga?”

 

Sesshomaru straightened, a mask of cold indifference settling over his aristocratic features. “It is as I said: filth cannot realize the full potential of such a mighty sword. It does not choose you.”

 

`Oh kami, we're back to the sword,' Kagome though, though with much less rancor than before. The look that Sesshomaru had given her, just a brief caress of his eyes, had held an odd approval and she was certain that something significant occurred: if only she could figure out what.

 

“Well it sure as hell hasn't chosen you!” Inuyasha sheathed the sword and cracked his knuckles. “But I don't need no sword to kick your ass.”

 

“Perhaps it is not Tetsusaiga's choice that matters,” the demon lord said quietly, sending Kagome another scalding glance that boiled the blood in her veins, then turned and walked away. Inuyasha blinked several times, seemingly stunned that Sesshomaru had simply left instead of continuing the fight. Trying to remember how to breathe, Kagome stared after his graceful figure, his long hair shimmering in the moonlight, swaying behind him like a stream of mercury.

 

“What the fuck just happened, Kagome?”

 

“Huh?” the teen snapped back to an unpleasant reality as Inuyasha stomped toward her, storm clouds darkening his eyes to amber.

 

He stopped in front of her and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why did that bastard help you?”

 

Arms and legs akimbo, Kagome snapped back, “Hey! Just because you don't care about me doesn't mean nobody does!”

 

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, pushing his face into hers as he growled low in his throat, “Why would he care if you live or die?”

 

“I-I-I didn't say that he did…” Kagome floundered for a moment and almost thought all was lost until a rather important detail popped into her head. “And you let Kikyou take our shard!”

 

“I didn't-“

 

“You did! See?” Kagome gestured to the small clearing with an encompassing flourish of her arm. “She's gone and so is the shard!”

 

“Don't go blaming this on Kikyou-“

 

“Osuwari!” Kagome stamped her foot for emphasis and he hit the dirt with a thick crunch.

 

Inuyasha wailed from his sprawl in the bottom of a small crater and Kagome almost felt guilty until he said, “What the hell was that for?”

 

“For making no sense!” she hollered, stamping her foot again. Could anyone be more dense and insensitive than this hanyou? She chose to ignore the fact that he had good reason to be suspicious of Sesshomaru's actions.

 

“Friends!”, Miroku's voice broke through their shouting match moments before he stepped between the prostrate hanyou and fuming girl with a placating gesture. “We should be thankful that we are all uninjured, not fighting amongst ourselves!”

 

Sango grumbled unintelligibly behind him and the traces of a red mark on his cheek showed that it wasn't only Inuyasha who had recently felt a woman's wrath.

 

“Tell that to her!” Inuyasha peeled his face from the ground to bark at the monk.

 

Kagome glared at him but bit back the osuwari that threatened to tumble off of her tongue and said petulantly, “He's just mad because our shard was stolen.”

 

The monk's shoulders sagged a bit and Sango gasped. With a frustrated shake of his staff Miroku asked, “Naraku again?”

 

Kagome sighed heavily, her anger rushing out of her on the current of her breath. “No, it was Kikyou this time.” `But they'll end up in Naraku's hands eventually.'

 

“Kikyou?” Sango, Miroku, and Shippo asked in horrified unison. Recovering first, Sango said, “But…that doesn't make sense. Why would Kikyou want them?”

 

“You don't suppose she would give them to Naraku, do you?” Miroku mused, his gaze fixed on the hanyou's back.

 

Inuyasha pulled himself off of the ground to shout in his face, “Don't be fucking stupid! Kikyou would never do something like that!”

 

“But then-“ Sango started and was cut off by a fuming hanyou.

 

“I don't fucking know!”

 

`I know…and you're wrong, Inuyasha, she would do something like that,' Kagome thought to herself. It surprised her a little that the undead miko had gotten caught up in Naraku's web of manipulation, but then again…perhaps she had never broken free of it in the first place. After all, it was Naraku's plotting that had killed her and left Inuyasha sealed to a tree.

 

However, thoughts of Kikyou and Inuyasha were chased from her mind by a gigantic white dog that snapped at their heels until they disappeared. She could still feel his eyes on her, as if she'd stood downwind of a bonfire and had been dusted with glowing embers. Absently, she let her gaze stray to the path the demon lord had followed into the trees and rubbed the bite on her shoulder, feeling the ghostly prick of fangs on her skin. The bickering of her friends had become white noise in the background; so, she completely missed the piercing stare of the hanyou follow her hand.