InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Winds ❯ Caressed (lemon) ( Chapter 4 )

In the dark and the silence of a manor house at night, Kagura slid open screen after screen, padding with bare feet down the long hallways in front of her sister. Kanna's hands always held the chilly shine of her soul-stabbing mirror, and there were long days when Kagura was nothing more than hands for Kanna; opening her doors and turning her keys.

The wind was indeed the hand of the void, but not in a menial way - not like this! Naraku delighted in making her do things that bent and broke her dignity, but she tried not to let him see that she knew. Far too often, she suspected, she failed. Why else would he hold her heart so tightly, squeezing it for a summons, or just a reminder?

Kagura watched her sister move out of the corner of her eye, the small pale shape putting one foot in front of the other, eyes staring straight ahead, sallow, unblinking. There was a shine in Kanna's eyes, but it was a grey shine, a ghost shine, a dead shine. It made Kagura think of the dull gleam of lifeless fish scales; she shuddered. Behind her, the soft padding sound of feet did not stutter or diminish. The last door loomed in front of them; Kagura opened it quietly, and knelt just beyond the threshold.

Kanna's footsteps continued past Kagura, over the polished floorboards until she was standing by Naraku's side, and it was only then that the devil deigned to speak.

“Kagura. You will stay to watch this. Come here.”

The sickening swoop of nausea that dropped like a stone from her chest to her belly was familiar, and infuriating. She obeyed. The hot pulse of her heart faded out of her awareness, and despite the pain, she missed the sensation. When she was full of the hurt, at least she was not empty.

“Who are we watching now, Naraku? Are you just a voyeur?”

She was pushing the limits of what he allowed, but her nerves were still on fire.

 

He has no right!

 

Naraku ignored her, and settled his chin into one hand. He touched on Kanna with a flicker of red eyes, and the white child took one more step forward, holding up her mirror.

“Show me Inuyasha.”

Kagura's eyes flickered involuntarily towards the window, and she breathed a shallow sigh of relief. The moon was still waxing, barely past its half. She still did not know why she kept the secret, a secret that could have earned her greater freedoms, though not a pulse.

The image in the mirror kept her from questioning herself further; she was hard-pressed to keep a smug and taunting delight from shining across her face. The strange miko who resembled Kikyou was quite close to Inuyasha - quite close, and her clothing was half tatters, half hanging. Inuyasha's fangs lingered over the girl miko's throat, and then dragged. Abruptly the girl's head fell back, and the expression on her face - her expression was somehow both tight, and open, completely enraptured.

A drawing switch of arousal beat lightly in Kagura's blood, and she turned away from the mirror, studying Naraku instead.

 

Voyeurs, indeed. What are you going to do now, Naraku?

 

Naraku growled, and both lust and puzzlement were visible on his face. He was almost snarling, and snapped at Kanna.

“Kikyou! Where is Kikyou?”

Usually the mirror rebounded from the undead priestess, who was much more adept at hiding herself from magical probing than Inuyasha or his new miko. Now, the picture they had been watching merely expanded, opening itself from a wider angle. The edge of the forest beside the lovers dominated the picture, and behind one of those trees was Kikyou, hugging the shadows.

The mirror's image cleared, and focused on her. It was obvious that she was distraught. Her hair was unbound, and the hard points of her nipples stood out against the white of her parted robe.

“Closer…”

Naraku's voice ground out of him in a long, boiling hiss. Obliging without a word, Kanna's mirror drew closer. Wide-eyed, entranced, held against her own will, Kagura watched Kikyou's hands slide inside her clothes and the awakening expression of new pleasures that slipped onto her face.

Staring as though aware of her presence for the first time, Naraku's sudden glare cut through Kagura like a sword.

“Out. Now!”

She gathered her kimono in her fingers and ran down the hall, shutting the doors behind her.

 

In the dark trees, Kikyou ran her hands over her own body, feeling new sensations. Watching Inuyasha with the girl, she was filled less and less by bitterness, and more by a deep, drowning melancholy. Despite her heart, the mockery of her body could not help but respond. By themselves, her fingers knew where to go. She pulled her nipples gently, and let out a tiny gasp, feeling a hot tingle swoop down into her belly and rub warmly against the heat already nestled there.

Lower, and her eyes were locked on Inuyasha's slick skin, the flare of his hips down to his buttocks, the rhythmic motion of his hips that matched with the sighs and moans of the girl. Her own moans were also aligned, as her fingers moved over and over the round, hard nub that gave her so much pleasure.

Inuyasha let out a sudden howl, deeper than a wolf's. The arms and legs of the girl clenched around him, and the piercing tone of her own pleasure rose up and met him, scrabbling in the air. The sound relaxed for a moment, and Kikyou pulled her hands away from her body, and ran away into the trees.

 

What is wrong with me? I am a priestess…I am miko! If I lose myself in flesh, I cannot touch the spirit. But the girl…Kagome. She gives herself to him, and how will she be of use to him now, without her power?

 

Behind her, an explosion of violet light lit up the trees like a moon on earth. She turned back, creeping forward with cautious fingers to part the screen of brush that hid her now, and stopped, fascinated.

Kagome was full of light. Her eyes and mouth poured light like water down a fall, and the power of it undeniable. Inuyasha stood with one hand over his eyes, peering down at her, and the other wrapped around her waist, supporting her against his body The sight of him, naked and leanly muscled, stroked the dam of shivering desire living in Kikyou's skin, and she turned away into the forest again.

The trees were full of sounds and scurrying, but none of it was much distraction. She ached to sit down by a tree and strip off the garments that declared her curse and her patience, and bury herself in pleasure. How could the girl have Inuyasha, and power both? It was not fair. She had told Kagome - told Inuyasha - that the girl was no better than a copy, but in truth, was it not she, Kikyou, who was the copy?

The girl had life, and all she had to offer was a fragment of herself; literally. In a way that Kagome would never admit - and Kikyou smiled dully at the thought - she was, indeed, Kikyou. More of Kikyou than the walking remnant of her ashen flesh, held together by borrowed souls and animated by dark sorcery.

 

She will hold him with all the desire we both possess, though that does not help me…now…

 

She went on the alert without even noticing, and a few moments later located the source of her unease. A wolf, the leader of a tribe who aided Inuyasha. She had observed them well enough to know that the wolf sought Kagome, more than an alliance with Inuyasha.

Kouga stepped forward into her vision, and then ran forward and caught hold of her, pulling her haori back onto her shoulders and smoothing her hair.

“Where is Inu-baka, Kagome? How could he leave you like this, and why - why would you…be…”

She laughed, and pulled her clothes out of his fingers.

“You think I am Kagome, but your nose will tell you that is not true. Could you forget that I am not her? Is my face enough for you?

Kouga was confused, but she - whoever she was­ - was right. She could not be Kagome, this woman - she was cold, and she smelled very…very strange. But she was a likeness of his Kagome so exact it was frightening, and she was asking him strange questions. Without his hands to hold it closed, her haori had fallen open again, exposing one pale, perfect breast.

“You are…Kouga? For you, I am Kagome - take me. Take me, Kouga.”

He reached for her, and stole a hungry, needing kiss from her lips before his name had finished leaving them. He knew - he knew! - that she was not his Kagome, but she was so close, and half dressed, and begging him to take her, take her, take her. Kikyou spoke stronger words then, and reached with bold hands, still hesitant, to open his shirt.

“Pretend I am that girl. Pretend I am Kagome. I want to know - I want to know what it is like to be her. I want to remember how it feels…how it feels…”

 

How it feels to be alive.

 

Because it was obvious he did not know her nature, because she knew that to him she was only a copy of Kagome, she did not finish. It didn't matter - he was not concerned with her words, just the curve of her throat and the weight of her breasts and the soft, wet petals that writhed over his hands.

He felt the smooth contractions begin in her pelvis and move down in ecstatic waves to squeeze his fingers, buried in velvet. When she moaned, and lay her head against his shoulder, raising her leg to wrap around his hip, he slid deep inside of her with one swift and gentle motion.

Kikyou cried, and shuddered, and succumbed to Kouga, and when he looked down at the vulnerable closeness of her face, reaching, she was Kagome. She felt it, the change in him, and sighed, closing her eyes, holding onto the feeling. For a moment, she had remembered - being alive.

It was enough.

 

In the deepest part of the night, when Miroku knew that Inuyasha and Kagome would both be lodged together in an exhausted sleep, he crept to Sango's bedside and lifted her hand, squeezing gently. A dream flickered across her face, and he bent slowly, and pressed his lips to her forehead.

“I have to go now, Sango. Now, or I will never have a chance. Kagome will not leave you, and Inuyasha will not leave her. None of you deserve to die for me. I cannot promise I will be back. Good-bye, Sango.”

He shouldered the small package he had set aside, and hefted his staff, and slunk out into the night. Through the long night before, and the long day afterwards, he had been thinking. There was not much else to do. Kaede tended Sango from the moment they returned with her until she had to sleep, and then woke to tend her again. Inuyasha and Kagome disappeared for the long hours of the night, and the whole stretch of the day. He would have asked what they were doing, but it was too obvious even for jokes.

Inuyasha had come into the village in the morning with a dazedly happy expression, responding politely to the few villagers who greeted him. The source of the expression was asleep in his arms, securely wrapped not only in the fire-rat haori, but Inuyasha's kosode, and while before he had been reluctant even to allow her to examine his wounds, now her cheek was pressed against his naked chest, and he seemed quite pleased by the arrangement.

While everyone was distracted, he had come to his decision. Sango deserved a life, and while she was wounded she could not follow him. Inuyasha and Kagome could not lose what they had just found - it would not be fair. Despite their desire for vengeance, it was not their need that Naraku be defeated soon - only his. Five years, ten years from now, they could still be fighting. When the summer rolled the seasons around again, he might be dead.

He was going alone, and he would stay alone. Inuyasha could look for him, but would have no idea which direction he had traveled in. The night winds would aid him, and the heavy summer air was thick with moisture and the scents of flowers. Half his brain was berating him for bothering with the advice of an enemy, but as she had said, he could not afford not to risk it.

 

You are running out of time, Houshi.

The wind rose behind him, shaking the heads of the trees like rag dolls and sending a spiral of fresh green leaves down around his shoulders.

 

Do not waste this chance.

He shook his head, and continued on into the night.