InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Vying for Dominance ❯ Go ( Chapter 10 )

Go

 

 

She was numb. Watching him walk away, the image of him stolen from her sight, the burn of his presence washed away from senses; she couldn't think, couldn't feel. There was only the numbness, the heavy weight settled in her chest that blocked out everything else.

 

In a daze, she turned towards the water. Not for it to cleanse her, not to wash away the evidence; just to feel the cold wash of it over her skin, a cold apart from that which had taken hold of her heart and soul. She stepped down from the banks of the river, still wearing the soft silk of the kimono she had donned after waking. Another priceless garment ruined, bur it didn't matter. It was just another reminder of what she had but lost, of what she could never have again. The water would destroy its beauty, but still it didn't matter. The water would wash away all evidence of their time together, until all that she had left of him was a memory.

 

The cold surrounded her, the chill of the water a welcome relief that she could feel something besides the heavy numbness. She let it wash over her, let the currents of the river carry away all scents and evidence of the night. With every brush of the water against her, the cold spread. It wasn't just settled upon her skin, but deep within her, taking away more than just scent and substance.

 

She was trembling, but she would rather her body be shaking from the cold than from the emotions that threatened to break past the blockade of numbing heaviness. She didn't want to feel, didn't want to think. Her eyes remained staring ahead, not seeing anything; not the brightness of the dawn, not the beginning of the new day, nothing.

 

But even though she saw nothing, felt nothing but the cold; still her cheeks were cut by the hot path of her tears.

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

Her scent wouldn't leave him. Even when he had tried to block it out, shove it away, forget that it even existed; still there was a part of him that remained focused on it, that broke just a little when he caught the scent of salt marring the beauty of it. The salt of her tears a bitter reminder of the sins he had committed.

 

But he wouldn't allow himself to be snared by the trappings of her mortal emotions. He couldn't. He hardened himself against it, wrapped himself in layers of impenetrable ice; unbreakable, unyielding, uncaring, unfeeling. She was too soft, and he had no choice but to be hard. So her tears wouldn't reach him, wouldn't affect him, wouldn't make him ache to be the one to wipe them away.

 

His pace quickened. He had to leave it all behind. Once this place was gone from his senses, then she would begin to fade as well. Soon she would nothing more than a memory, something not quite real that would only be indulged in the dark of night where reality and reason were skewed and misplaced.

 

But in the waking dawn, where he had no choice but to be hard, she would be to him as she always was: an enemy.

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

The first rays of morning's light began to seep through the canopy of the trees overhead, breaking through the shadows of the night with glittering streamers of golden light. But the beauty of the new day was lost on the one watching it break into vision.

 

Inuyasha scowled. He didn't have time for this shit.

 

Turning his head against where it was propped up on his hands, he glanced to his side. She was still sleeping. Her back was turned to him, leaving him only with the sight of her raven tresses as they spilled out over the ground beneath her. Still, he could remember her soft features; the gentle curves of her face, the fullness of her lips that always seemed to be drawn into a faint pout, and her doe eyes that were always bright, even the faintest light catching and reflecting off the dark surfaces.

 

In a way, he almost felt sorry for her. She just seemed too sweet, too fragile to live the life of carnage and bloodshed to which she had been born. And the knowledge of what was to come next for her, that she would be nothing more than a prize in their barbaric game; it disgusted him.

 

Still, he knew that he had saved her from an even worse fate. Had she followed the summons as the others had, if he had not blocked her path and forced her to submit to his will; she would have walked into that deathtrap set up by the bastard that would use these bitches for his own perversity before discarding them like wasted meat. Her soft beauty would have meant nothing, her gentle nature destroyed by the battle, and her life wasted just because her instincts told her that such a power as was being offered would make her pups strong.

 

He hated it. He always had. It didn't matter that that was the way of things. It didn't matter that these females were risking their lives with full knowledge of the danger. It didn't matter, because he knew that to place their lives in His hands was a one-way ticket to their deaths. Sesshomaru didn't care about them, didn't care how many lives were lost so long as he found his prize bitch to present at his sick and twisted gatherings. He would use them and throw them away, just like everything else in his life. Nothing touched him, nothing mattered to him. He would forsake his own blood, turn his back on his family just to keep up appearances, just to stuff his own ego.

 

Inuyasha hated it, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was hanyou, something to be shunned, hated, and despised. Nothing would ever change that. But this he could change; the fate of this gentle bitch, this raven beauty. He could save her as he had so many others over the years, pull them away from the battle, keep them safe from what Sesshomaru would do to them just because they had been drawn in by his power and presence.

 

He would come. He always did. And he would take the bitch away. They had no place being with a hanyou, after all. But with the passing of the night, the danger had passed as well. Strangely enough, the one in whose hands their fate would have been sealed only hours before, now became the one in whose hands they were the safest, the one from whom they could gain the most once the night came again and their kind would gather for their ritual.

 

He wouldn't take her for his own. He never did, and after nearly nine centuries, it was beginning to look like he never would. The female would be a prize, a thing awarded to the winner of the contests. And though Inuyasha thought such practices were disgusting, it was the human in him that thought these things. For them, for the Inu, the youkai, to be joined with the most powerful of their kind was an honor. The bitches to bear the pups of the contest winner, and they would be happy to do so because they would know beyond all doubts that their mate was capable of protecting and providing for the litter that would come from their mating.

 

As barbaric as it may seem to his half-human eyes; that was the way things were, the way they had been for countless centuries.

 

A gentle breeze carried into the small clearing, but upon it was a scent that made every one of his senses scream out in warning. He was on his feet in seconds, setting himself hard and ready for the coming battle. He would loose. He always did. But that wasn't the point. He didn't want the bitch. He had enough females to worry about. But it was the fight that made them realize that whatever he had done for them, whatever fate he had saved them from; that he was still hanyou, still weaker than a pure blooded youkai like Sesshomaru.

 

Tetsusaiga had changed things for him, given him strength that he would never have known without it. In arms, now he could hold his own against Sesshomaru. But again, that wasn't the point. When it really came down to it, neither would strike the killing blow. He had taken his brother's arm, but he could have just as easily aimed his strike at the heart of the beast. Sesshomaru had pierced his gut with his claws, but he could have just as easily taken his throat. It was a game, something not quite meant to take life, but not quite meant for it to be lived in health. One would always come out on top, and the only way for that to happen was for one to suffer a severe injury.

 

But during this time, when the days were at their longest, things were different. The first time he had stumbled upon Sesshomaru's summons he had only been a child, no more than fifty years old. He had nearly been killed by one of the bitches, but it was Sesshomaru that had stopped her. Strange, it was during that time that he had been most forthcoming with any information; about himself, about their family, about what a real Inuyoukai did and how they acted. Maybe it was because of the high run of his instincts; maybe that was the only way he would ever acknowledge him as his brother.

 

But then, maybe he just wanted him to do what his hanyou heart would have him do: save the ones he could from the fate that awaited them with the Inu Lord.

 

The wind blew again, but this time it had been in no way natural. Sesshomaru had caused it, his power drawing up and sending the air around him into a turbulent dance. Inuyasha stood his ground. The bitch behind him stirred, being pulled into wakefulness by the change in the currents of air. Good. Let her wake. Let her see this.

 

When Sesshomaru finally revealed himself, however, Inuyasha nearly faltered. The Inu was always so cold, like a block of ice layered in winter snow. Nothing affected him. Nothing broke past his defenses. Every emotion, every reaction, was carefully concealed behind the barriers of ice. But looking at him now, seeing the fury that burned in his crimson eyes; Inuyasha knew that something was terribly wrong.

 

“Leave, hanyou.” Sesshomaru's order was frigid, something not to be disputed.

 

Inuyasha, however, was never one to take to his brother's orders so easily. “Keh,” he huffed. “What's your problem? Have a bad fuck or something?”

 

The furious snarl released by Sesshomaru met his ears only a fraction of a second before he felt the impact. There had been no warning, no posturing, no taunts. There was only the fury and the devastating impact.

 

Inuyasha was sent hurtling by the blow, the only thing to stop him being the solid trunk of one of the nearby trees. Even so, the giant of the forest cracked and splintered under the weight of the force against it. And Inuyasha could feel his own body giving way under the force. Three ribs, maybe four cracked by the impact, his spine shifted out of alignment; and where Sesshomaru's fist had collided with his jaw, he could feel the loss of the joint and at least four teeth.

 

Sesshomaru paid no more heed to the hanyou. Seeing him was only another reminder of what he had done, of the depravity he had allowed himself to indulge in, and how horridly wrong it had been, how disgraceful. Or maybe it was just that he knew that Inuyasha would return to his companions, and that his days and nights would be graced by her presence. Either way, it was unbearable.

 

He turned his attention to the bitch on the ground. She was whimpering to him for leniency, bearing her neck in submission. The very sight of her made him angry. It had to be a raven. Of course the hanyou would choose a raven.

 

“Come,” he bit out his order, hating that he even had to go through any of this. “A hanyou is not worthy of a true bitch.”

 

“Yes, my Lord.”

 

She immediately complied with his order, gaining her feet and prepared to follow him anywhere he would lead her. Sesshomaru's lip lifted in resentment. It was her place to be submissive, but he hated it. They were all like this. They would all do whatever he told them, all whimper and whine and submit themselves if they believed they had angered him. All of them. It was no wonder the only place he could find any real sport was outside of his kind.

 

A low growl broke out of him. He was doing it again, justifying his reasons for being with her, allowing her to cloud his thoughts, letting her get to him even though she had been left behind. He needed to get away from this place, needed to put her from his mind, needed to forget her and everything they had shared.

 

But it could never be so easy.

 

In the distance, rising upon the still morning air, a scream broke the silence of the new day. Shrill and piercing, it made the blood in his veins run cold.

 

Inuyasha had heard it as well, and fighting through his injuries, he lifted himself from the ground.

 

Kagome.

 

Both brothers knew it without a doubt. But while Inuyasha knew he would go to her the second he got the chance, Sesshomaru was fighting with every one of his instinct to prevent himself from doing the very same.

 

“Go.”

 

Inuyasha had heard Sesshomaru's order, but his words had been muffled by the ripping growls of the beast. Sesshomaru was fighting something, something so powerful it nearly had him doubled over in pain. His features were shifting sharply, his fangs already drawn out in accommodation for the change. He was teetering on the edge of it, held back only by the iron bindings of his will.

 

Inuyasha was caught by indecision. He had seen Sesshomaru transform before, but never like this. This was not a willful act. There was nothing natural about how he was fighting with himself for control. And, surprisingly enough, even for the brother that had shown him no love in his life, he still felt concern.

 

“Sesshomaru…”

 

“GO!!”

 

The crimson-bled eyes fixated on him as he howled out his order. The sound of his voice lifted around him and carried in the violent surging of his powerful aura. The searing burn was too much, the heat of the flames driving his blood to boil with their own. Inuyasha stumbled back. He knew that he could not disobey this time.

 

Turning quickly, he took to the trees to follow Kagome's voice.

 

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That girl has a knack for finding trouble for herself. How wonderful XD It always makes things interesting. Oh, and this one is going good places, my muses tell me so. Heh, actually, they have already outlined the rest of the story…and being that I never really have an outline to follow, I'm pretty impressed ;P

 

So, I guess I'll continue fiddling with this story for a bit. With ASS down, it seems pretty silly to work on SotF since half of my reviews usually come from that site. Though, perhaps I'll work a bit on Twilight if I feel the need. -*Shrugs*- Who knows.

 

Anyways, that's all I've got for tonight.

 

Later all

 

Shadow