InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Winds ❯ Shatter ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 12

Shatter

 

Awakening in darkness, feeling cool earth under her hips, Kikyou clutched a warmth that lay next to her and did not allow the memory of why she lay there to overcome her. When she could not hold it off any longer, memory was a silhouette of her own sounds, the sensations of wetness, Kouga's straining face, the enfleshed memory of a tight, new pleasure that made her body squeeze him motionless.

 

*What am I trying to do? Why do I continue to succumb to this demon? I should purify him…*

 

Her eyes dragged across the clearing, focused through the darkness until she found her bow. Silent, she pulled away and lost his warmth. Her eyes caught on his skin as if on hooks, the angles of his relaxation. His hair straggled across his shoulders, unbound. His disarray was sensual; a fresh bolt of panicked desire sprang through her veins. Desire, for his flesh, and panic, for the constriction of her need.

She forgot that she had been reaching for her bow, drawn to the warmth of him like a moth to flame. His skin was smooth and darker than her own.

 

*That tail…*

 

The smooth length of his tail curled across his buttocks and over his hip. The outflung curve of his arm beckoned her, and this reminded her that the first time, she had suffered no pause when she turned to leave.

 

*This is the demon spell of seduction that we humans are so susceptible to? Why do I feel no power, no darkness?*

 

She leaned forward, her face serious, her eyes intent, studying Kouga's sleeping face. One who slept could hold no secrets, could not lie. Many intentions were revealed in a dreamer's expression, and many desires. Kouga's face told her that he was content; he did not stir from her breath on his cheek, or when she relaxed the arm that had held her and sank back down behind him.

Silk wrapped around her leg; his tail, holding her close.

“I have not been sleeping, Kikyou.”

In a moment she was standing, brushing away his hands, that clinging silkiness, stepping across to the little bundle of her clothes, damp with mist from the stream that ran along beside them. She only just had time to step into her hakama. Soft skin touched her, his arms beneath her arms, against her heartbeat, his nose in the crook of her neck.

“You think you can leave me again, just like that?”

She tensed, and remained still. Her fingers were tight on the band of her trousers.

“You are my woman, Kikyou. You will not run off into the night.”

That was it, her way out. She remembered, when he did not…or did not choose to.

“That was what you said to Kagome. Now she is for Inuyasha, and so you will take me - and for what? For vengeance? For the pleasure of my face? I am not any of the things that girl is!”

His face was dark, for a moment wrathful, and then he only looked hurt. It stung her. She had not wanted him hurt…she had not wanted…

 

*What do I want? I can't…I don't know! What is it that this wolf wants from me? I am not even `woman' any more. Even if …I desire him.*

 

“I belong to no one, wolf. I did not belong to Inuyasha, and I will not belong to you. I should…I should destroy you!”

There was something touching in her manner, something desperate that calmed the moment of anger hot in Kouga's chest.

“I will not deny that when I found you, I thought you to be Kagome…for a moment. And I will not deny that it was Kagome I was…suffering from, when I found you. But it is not Kagome who I want. She was…never for me. And you - I do not know who you are, except…”

He smiled, and she could feel it, and turned. His expression was a shiver that lay cool hands on her spine and leaned close.

“Kikyou.”

A concord of flesh moved them together, the collision that she could not deny, his hands seeking the firm curve of her breasts, a hot tongue that touched her ear and the long line of her throat, skipped down to tease the point of her nipple. The hard swiftness of his desire prodded her, and she touched him with soft hands. A low noise of pleasure escaped his mouth. A moment passed between them, thick with desires undone again, and then Kouga stepped back, his face wrinkled, his eyes scanning a distance she could not penetrate.

“Someone…something is coming.”

Kikyou placed a hand where her heart should be, and closed her eyes. In such distress, it was difficult to focus, but the presence loomed large and close. She could not guess how it had snuck up on her.

“There is a strong presence of shikon…very strong. Perhaps it is related to our uninvited guest.”

Kouga's eyes had dilated to a pearly focus. He looked black to her, his fingers twitching, claws tensing and relaxing in readiness.

“It is not Naraku, nor one of those who is of Naraku. This is a scent I recognize but…I have no face for it. I do not remember…I know it from somewhere.”

 

*Somewhere that is close to Kagome, I have found this scent. Not on her, but near her. The scent of…*

 

He could not place it, and growled in frustration.

“Whoever it may be, he's coming quickly. Dress, Kikyou.”

She smiled at his concern, and stepped back towards her clothes, began pulling them over her limbs.

“You are slow, Kikyou. I will help you.”

His hands were sure, sliding cloth into place, folding, tying, tucking. She was annoyed only for a moment; she could turn now, and watch him dress, the elaborate arrangement of furs and leather that seemed so simple beneath his armor. In her fingers she held the one thing he would miss, and stifled a warm urge to laugh.

 

*I have not laughed since…*

 

“Kuso!”

Her eyes had drifted down, thick with thoughts, but his exclamation jerked her head up. She held out her left hand, and showed the thin leather thong that dangled from her fingers.

“Looking for this, wolf?”

He pulled the tie from her fingers, and leaned in close, pressed his cheek against her cheek.

“Already I see differences, Kikyou. Kagome is not impudent.”

He tied his hair, and then the headband, and fixed her with a warning glance.

“You are my woman.”

She smiled, and her face was an amused denial, but she did not spare a moment to retort.

“Our visitor is come.”

She spoke quietly, leaned forward just enough to indicate which direction they were approached from, and Kouga stepped in front of her, guarding. Bushes rustled and parted across from them. A trio of saimyoshou first, humming ominously, and then a dark shape, the shadow of a boy.

“Kikyou. I have come for Kikyou.”

She took a step backwards, unobtrusive, and reached for her bow. With the other hand she readied an arrow, and gave the tiniest nod when Kouga caught her eye. To her eyes, a vast darkness perched on the shoulder of this boy, spoke through his mouth and saw through his eyes. The shikon shard was implanted there, larger than any she had seen in many long months, pulsing with a palpable aura of corruption.

Like black lesions beneath his skin, the evil power writhed along his veins, darkening them to purple-poison lines, giving his face a demonic cast. He lifted a black something from his waist, a shape that gleamed with a dark point, defying the eyes, refusing to be identified.

Kouga felt an internal tug, as though something that slept on a leash was suddenly awake.

“Kikyou - “

Vivid and blue, the tight round spheres of souls were slipping from her, leaving only a pale essence in the air behind them. They sped to the boy, illuminating his face from below with a blank blue light, but when they reached whatever it was he was holding, they disappeared.

“Kikyou!”

Her eyes were closed, her hair whipped in a wind not of this world. A pause came on everything but the movement of light and wind, and then a new voice was sloughed from the boy's throat, a voice like metal cutting stone.

“This is the power of the jishaku no tamashi! Ah, my pretty Kikyou, you chose this mangy wolf over me? How sad of you, and how very poor indeed this shows your taste to be. Your time is up, Kikyou.”

She could not move, or blink, or think. Only one thing was left to her, a sensation of blistering loss, the emptiness that was left when all else was taken.

 

*And so it will all end?*

 

~-~

Kagome stood at the edge of the trees, feeling somewhat discarded, and watched the conversation pass between the two brothers. Something had looked different in Sesshomaru's face, something changed in the way he stood, or spoke, or…something. She couldn't tell. It was just a feeling, but then when had Sesshomaru ever wanted to talk to Inuyasha?

 

*Better than a bloody slaughter, I suppose, but it could still end that way. Even with nothing but talk…Inuyasha's mouth gets him into more trouble than his sword.*

 

From what she could see through the dimness, it looked like Inuyasha was not doing most of the talking, and she found herself wishing that she had his hearing, or at least some way to listen in. There was suddenly a tickle at the edge of her consciousness, a flutter of something that pressed to be recognized, and then faded. She pushed it away, stared forward harder.

 

*Inuyasha…*

 

 

“What is it you want, Sesshomaru? Why did you come here?”

His brother looked down at him, and Inuyasha fumed silently, wishing that he had been born taller, so that at least the infuriating look of superiority would be eye-level.

“Not to question you about your love life, certainly.”

Inuyasha growled; Sesshomaru continued to stare down at him, and then finally looked away, out across the fields to where the moon was slipping up over the horizon.

“I have been visited, Inuyasha. I have been harassed, and annoyed, and I am tired of it.”

Inuyasha smirked.

“Well isn't that just so awful for you. Everyone must want to kill you, not just me, you're such a bastard-“

“It seems that the free tribes of the south and west are seeking you out, Inuyasha. All of them. They sent more than a hundred emissaries, all begging and groveling, to ask me to find you, because they are afraid and think you will kill them.”

Again, that smirk, but this time there was a certain uneasiness in Inuyasha's manner.

“What do they want, then?”

It was hard to be sure, but Inuyasha thought he saw something like amazement flicker for a moment behind Sesshomaru's stone features.

“You have no idea, do you? How like a half-breed, to know nothing of youkai tradition.”

Inuyasha was snarling now, up on his toes, every bit of his posture screaming hostility, his desire for battle, but Sesshomaru took one step back, contemptuous.

“These youkai desire you for their lord, Inuyasha, though I cannot imagine why. Through right of combat, by slaying their lords and those eligible for leadership, you have become lord to them all.”

He fixed Inuyasha with a scathing look, and held him spellbound with words.

“All this time, traveling the countryside, seeking the shikon no tama, and not once did you stop to think of what you were doing! Slaying the strongest, and taking their power, leaving leaderless tribes in your wake, creating chaos! And you had no idea.”

Inuyasha finally turned away from his brother's face, forced a shrug out of himself.

“I don't know what they want me for. I am concerned with Naraku, and the shikon no tama, not some mob of youkai in the south.”

“You should be concerned, Inuyasha, very concerned. They are coming north, these youkai and all of their kin. They are coming into the reach of Naraku's influence, and they will remain there because the south is polluted by a holy aura which is growing day by day.”

A horrified look crept across Inuyasha's face.

 

*Coming north? All the villages, all the people…they will be like leaves in the wind if this horde comes seeking me out.*

 

“I have told them to stay where they are, that I will bring you to them.”

Sesshomaru's eyes were piercing.

“In three days, I will come back here, and you will either come with me, or I will kill you and take your place. Think hard, Inuyasha.”

Sesshomaru turned and swept away, as untouchable and dignified as ever. Inuyasha stood, staring at the ground, hearing nothing. His thoughts were confused, but he was mostly irritated that Sesshomaru would have come with such a pronouncement.

The sound of running footsteps finally shook him out of it, and Kagome's fingers tight on his arm. There was a scent wafting near them, a mélange of scents…who?

“Inuyasha, there's a shikon shard, I'm sure of it! Inuyasha?”

His face was distracted; she was not sure he had heard her.

 

*Kikyou…and Kouga…and Kohaku? Kohaku!*

 

“Shikon? Where, Kagome?”

He pulled her up onto his back, and gripped her legs tightly. He could follow the urging of her particular distinction, until he was close enough that the scents could lead him.

“It's Kohaku's scent, Kagome, I`m sure of it, and that has to be the shikon shard you're sensing.”

He could feel her shaking her head against his shoulder, her face turned out of the wind so she could talk.

“Kohaku only has the one shard, doesn't he? This feels much stronger…much, much stronger.”

“But then who? It is Kikyou, and Kouga, and Kohaku.”

All the heat drained from Kagome's body. Despite the humid clinginess of summer nights, the air suddenly tasted dry and flat.

 

*Kikyou…and Kouga. If Inuyasha finds out!*

 

She wondered about Kohaku's significance, thinking of the warning that had come from Miroku, through Kouga.

 

*If Naraku finds out, he will be more vengeful than before, that was his message…and is this the outcome of that vengeance?*

 

She shuddered. They had all feared for a long time that a day might come when Kohaku would have to die. Who among them would be able to watch Sango's grief then?

 

*Where are you, Sango? Where have you been all day?*

 

~-~

*Very soon, priestess Kikyou, you will be nothing more than a discarded shell, an empty vessel. I can fill that shell with anything I want, Kikyou. Anything…*

 

Naraku watched through Kohaku's eyes. Pity did not occur to him. Mercy was a flaw of mortality. He moved his lips, and the words came out of Kohaku's mouth, twisted by distance and darkness.

“Do you see the gate of hell yet, Kikyou? I have waited for a long time, to watch you die.”

“Kohaku! Kohaku, don't do it. Please, Kohaku, can't you fight him yet?”

 

*That woman!*

 

There was a shudder in his control over the boy. The hand holding the jishaku wavered, and then fell. Kikyou suffered a long shudder, and then dropped, to be caught by the wolf.

 

*That woman! How did she come to be here? She is always getting in the way.*

 

Sango stared at her brother, her face pale, her eyes wide and horrified. The changes in him were not to be believed; an evil pulse beat from him, and taunted her. Kilala had come to her, agitated in that certain way, and she known that it was Kohaku, Kohaku, near her again. The voice she had been hearing, just as she came - surely that could not be Kohaku's voice!

“Kohaku?”

She was pleading, and now Naraku's hold was disrupted enough that he could no longer see the scene in front of the boy's eyes. How could his feeling be strong enough to disrupt the power?

“I am…I have come for Kikyou. You…you…run away!”

There was a tremble in Kohaku's returned voice, a flash of brown in his flat, black eyes. Sango turned, and suddenly took in the other accomplices to this drama.

 

*Kikyou…and Kouga? What on earth…*

 

It was Kikyou who turned, her head cocked at a strange angle in Kouga's grasp, and spoke softly.

“What will you do with this boy? It is obvious you care for him.”

The miko closed her eyes, obviously weak for a reason Sango could not see. A grim thought came to her.

 

*Perhaps not enough young maidens have died this season.*

 

Despite Inuyasha's feelings and the wishes Kagome had expressed, Sango did not approve of the undead miko. Even youkai belonged to the natural world, but Kikyou…everything about Kikyou was wrong. She saw Kouga holding her solicitously, a skewed moment that slid through her thoughts with nothing to cling to.

Behind her, there was a splash of noise and a rush of red, and then Inuyasha deposited Kagome beside her.

“Sango, how did you get here before us, and what…”

Inuyasha's question trailed into silence. He could see Kikyou, looking lifeless, and Kouga, holding her, touching her, peering into her face with concern.

“Wolf, what did you do to Kikyou?”

There was only a laugh, a strangled, startled noise, and it was Sango's.

“Inuyasha, you idiot. It was Kohaku, Kohaku who killed her.”

Kagome moved forward quickly to touch Inuyasha's arm, spoke lowly.

“She is not dead. She is not dead, Inuyasha, I would know, I would be…whole.”

By a slant of her eyes, she watched Kouga's face, saw the cool relief creep over him, and then anger.

“This boy is serving Naraku! Why stand around talking? I will kill him!”

He lay Kikyou gently on the grass, and then he was a streak of claws, aimed for a killing blow. He struck, or thought he did - Sango's high scream split his skull, and then he saw the light that was gathering around his claws, a blackness that was a light. His fingers felt as though they were being melted, and then his hand, up along to his arm.

Cursing, he pulled back, and Sango's scream turned into a sob. Suddenly she had a desire to be done with the damning reality of her world. She could not kill her own brother, but how many had he killed? Was it not only because of her, her desire to save him, to free him, that he had been allowed to continue on, causing so much harm? As though she were behind a glass wall, Sango watched Kouga moved forward again, his face intent, flushed dark in his battle lust, his rage. The sounds were dulled, but while she watched she did not know what she wanted.

Kouga drew blood with his renewed attack, felt it burn, laced with miasma, and wondered how the flesh of a human boy could take such distortion. There was suddenly a dart of presence in among them, a white flash that shoved Kouga aside, plucked up Kohaku by the throat, and shook him.

 

*Sesshomaru.*

 

Sango was dazed. Kikyou, through fluttering eyelids, watched and smiled to herself.

 

*So, all the players have assembled. I do not think Naraku expected such a thing. But does he know that it is for the sake of the boy, and not for me?*

 

With a deft, curling motion of claws Sesshomaru reached into Kohaku's flesh, and pulled out the tainted shard of jewel. The power of the blackened shard did not interest him, except as an item of distrust. Instantly, Kohaku went limp, pale and ghostly, and Sesshomaru tossed the shard onto the ground at Kagome's feet.

“You are the one who can purify the taint, so do it. This boy will not be killed. Rin desires it.”

Imperious, he reached out, pointing at Sango.

“You, his sister. Come and take him from me.”

In something of a daze, Sango stepped forward, and accepted the solid weight of her brother, heavy in her arms. She had to say something, didn't she? Suddenly her thoughts were numb with the memory of his daylight words.

 

*You are dying, woman.*

 

“Sesshomaru…thank you…”

Like that sharpness found only in a well-used sword, he turned away from her, cold.

“I did not do it for you, woman. You are going to die - the boy will not. This is for Rin.”

Inuyasha stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“You won't hurt Sango, Sesshomaru. You have nothing to do with any of them!”

Blankly compassionless, Sesshomaru calmly stepped away, back the way he had come.

“I harm no one. The woman is already dying.”

Inuyasha stared after him, his face an open question, but it was Kouga who answered him, turning away from Kikyou on the ground, his eyes still dark on Kohaku in his sister's arms.

“It's true. She does smell like death. I thought it was your village before, when I came to bring the Houshi's message, but it isn't. It is just this woman.”

Sango felt their eyes on her, the unspoken questions, and an unexpected anger struggled up inside her. She held Kohaku tighter, and turned her own face away from their scrutiny. Suddenly, she felt as though she were less than human.