Chapter Nineteen

Bolting upright in bed, Kagome’s fingers fisted in the blue silk comforter. The familiar tightening in her back had her leaping onto the floor. In true form, Sesshoumaru’s head rose from beside the bed just as she darted through the sliding doors that guarded the small bathroom. The faint, lingering scent of blood followed her to the bathroom.

With a roar, he forced his body into submission. “Kagome!” What had happened? It was almost morning, and she had fallen into a peaceful slumber after finishing dinner just hours ago. Had his youki done irreparable harm to her body? Damage that was only now becoming obvious?

“GO away!” she yelled through the closed doors.

Taken aback by the strident order, the Daiyoukai paused at the doors. “What is going on, Kagome?”

She was so embarrassed! Seated on the toilet, Kagome didn’t know what was worse. The fact that her monthly had come early, or that she was going to have to ask him to get her the necessaries to deal with it. Kagome groaned into her hands. Why me? she silently asked any deity that was listening. What did I do?

“Answer me now, woman, or I am coming in!” he demanded harshly. Prepared to do just that, he was stopped by a stifled sob from within the bathroom. Why was she now crying?

There was no help for it. She could either give in and accept the inevitable, or potentially humiliate herself further when he forced his way into the bathroom. “My period came early, Sesshoumaru,” she finally let out between sniffles. “Normally, I’m quite regular. I wasn’t expecting it for another two weeks.”

Immediately relaxing as the source of her blood became known, he was still confused as to why she was crying. While he hadn’t cared to learn about the problems that plagued females, he knew youkai females went into heat bi-yearly. His own mother never broke into tears when such happened. Though, he knew the process was different for humans than it was youkai. Youkai rejoiced in the opportunity to procreate. Humans bemoaned the occasion. “What is wrong, then?”

He was going to make her ask him outright. She’d hoped he would magically deduce what she needed. Evidently, youkai males were just as prone to obliviousness as human ones. “I, uh, didn’t bring anything with me. To take care of it, that is.”

The gist of her problem slammed into his brain with all the force of a spear. He cast about for a feasible, alternate solution to what he knew she was hoping for. “You may make use of the towels in there to stem the flow. I can then fly you to the store so that you may buy what you need.”

He wanted her to what? “I’m not going to walk around with a towel in my pants!” she shrieked semi-hysterically. “You were the one who didn’t want me to pack anything! And now you can’t even go to the store for me?”

Growling under his breath, he snatched her satchel from where it lay on the table. “Isn’t there something in here you can use?” It was certainly large enough to hide an abundance of female items.

“Don’t you dare go in my purse, Sesshoumaru!” she yelled before he could even get the clasp undone. “I know what’s in there, and I told you I don’t have anything! Kami, you are being so immature! Just go to the damn store! Now!” she snarled irritably.

“Stay inside,” he ordered sarcastically. “I’m putting up a barrier to guard you in my absence.” After calling a cloud of youki to form about his rooms, he called Ah-Un. His mount instantly complied and they flew to the Market.

Left behind in the bathroom, Kagome scrubbed her panties clean in the tap. She grumbled spitefully, “Like I’m going anywhere.”

Then the humor of the situation hit her, and she broke into a fit of giggles. Oh, poor, poor Sesshoumaru. It was somewhat reassuring that he had acted just like a man would have. If her brother was any indication, at least. Her Daiyoukai wasn’t entirely perfect, after all. The fact endeared him to her all the more. Even if she had to suffer the pains of embarrassment to learn such about him.

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Infuriating woman! Sesshoumaru snarled just as Ah-Un landed outside the largest store in the Market. Simply called the Pavilion, it was a grocer and a mercantile. He strode through the double doors and immediately eyed the signs for directions to the female needs section.

Five minutes later, he ignored the hushed giggles of the group of youkai adolescent females that occupied the rest of the aisle. Minutely-widened eyes took in the entire wall of colorful boxes and packages. Why did females feel the need to complicate such things with an overabundance of selections? If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew she’d berate him for it, he would simply fly home and insist she accompany him.

He wasn’t afraid of her. She couldn’t hurt a fly. But, she was embarrassed by the whole thing. Rather than compound her obvious humiliation, he would bear the brunt of his own ignorance. Selecting a package at random, he was unprepared for the fit of snorting laughter that exploded from the females.

“Excuse me, Sesshoumaru-san, but do you need help?” One of the young females, a short neko with brown hair and green eyes, smiled widely up at him.

“I am fine,” he stated bluntly.

Her gaze switched from him to the box he held. Her eyes danced with unconcealed mirth. “Please pardon my insistence, but everyone knows that you are courting a human woman. Are you, perchance, trying to purchase something for her bleeding time?”

Lips pinched slightly, he gave a short nod. Evidently, he had chosen the wrong item. He must now suffer the blow to his ego in accepting the assistance of the teen youkai.

Carefully restraining the urge to giggle like her friends, the neko gave him a small smile. “Oh, well, then that won’t do. Those kinds of pads are for old youkai. You know, adult diapers?”

He hadn’t known. The label had read that it was ‘Super Absorbent,’ and the picture on front had looked like all the other packages. Restraining the urge to strike the neko for being so familiar when she placed a smaller package in his hands, he replaced the larger one on the shelf.

“Here,” she explained patiently, “this is what she probably needs. It’s got all the absorbency levels, plus the wings to keep it in place. I hate it when mine slips.”

Unbending far enough to nod his head in thanks, he abruptly left the aisle and the pack of snickering females. The things he did for her, he later thought, as the kitsune youkai behind the counter stared at him oddly when he paid for his purchase.

Peeking around the corner of the aisle, the females sighed wistfully when the tall inuyoukai left the store. The fur was kinda freaky, but he was so sweet to do that for his female. Why couldn’t they get their boyfriends to be so considerate? Males their age were so immature!

Catching the eyes of the females, Shippo smiled disarmingly. Rather than bat their eyelashes at him like they had when the had entered the store, the contrary youkai simply huffed and left the store.

What was their problem? He wondered with a shrug. Then he smirked wickedly. Just wait until he saw Inuyasha!

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One shower later, and Kagome felt worlds better. Sometime while she was under the spray of piping hot water, she had heard him open the door. A pink bag sitting beside the sink drew her eye as she exited the stall. She smiled lovingly.

Clean and in a considerably better mood, Kagome donned the khaki capris and blue blouse. In return for the huge favor he’d done for her, she decided not to take issue with the package of skimpy, satin panties and bras she found in the clothing pile in lieu of the cotton ones she‘d selected.

She slid the door open to the bathroom and caught sight of him sitting on the couch. He stared at her with narrowed eyes and arms crossed over his broad chest. “Thank you,” she shyly said after joining him on the couch. She rubbed her neck nervously. “I’m sorry for jumping on you so harshly. I was embarrassed, and-”

Cutting her words off with a finger on her lips, he dropped an arm around her shoulders. “Your apology is accepted. Though, after reading the instructions to your sanitary items, I understand now why a towel would not be an acceptable option.”

“You actually read that?” she asked, surprised. No wonder the bag had been open. She’d attributed it to careless claws. She should have known better. He was never careless.

He nodded. “I have a few questions now, if you don’t mind.” He glanced at his watch. “In two hours we will leave to visit the Tokyo subway. I believe it is where Mother stored whatever she had hidden all these years. The key matches those used by the transportation authority for the lockers there. At this time, however, there will be too many people in the morning rush to manage to do with any level of privacy.”

“And in the meantime, you want to grill me?” She sucked on her bottom lip while she eyed him contemplatively. “About what, exactly?” she asked.

“Even among youkai,” he answered, “there are biological discrepancies. For this reason, only truly scholarly youkai, or even humans, attempt to understand what holds no meaning for them. In this regard, so too do many youkai view humans.”

Kagome giggled. “You know, you could have just said that you didn’t know anything about humans.” A wide smile bloomed on her delicate countenance. “Or our senses,” she added, recalling his comment the other day.

Stretching his legs, he crossed them at the ankles. “I do not care about humans in general, Kagome. What I want to know is what to expect with you. I understand the need for proper nourishment and sleep. And, apparently, your menses do not come at regular intervals.”

He was still irritated that he hadn’t immediately discerned what the distinctive scent of her blood heralded. Only the recent events and the fact that she had already told him she was not due for three weeks could be blamed for his lapse in good sense. That, and he had simply panicked at the scent of her blood.

Cheeks flushed pink, Kagome managed to maintain her smile. “Well, I already said that this isn’t the norm for me. Usually I am quite regular. Stress and other things can sometimes throw me off, though.”

“And your pain? Is it manageable?”

“You can detect that?”

Gently, he brushed her cheek with the edge of his knuckle. “You wince every so often and shift as if uncomfortable.”

“Oh, that. My back hurts sometimes, but it’s not too bad. I’m lucky. Some women have terrible cramps.”

He frowned in thought. “When bitches go into heat, they shed blood. It is a signal that her body is prepared to be pupped, however, not that they are currently infertile.”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome lightly punched him on the arm. “I know that’s the term for inuyoukai females, but still. And, you aren’t all the way right. Yuka, a friend from school, got pregnant during her period. Rather than playing guessing games on what you want to know, I still have all of my old school health books if you want them. They can explain better than I could, anyway.”

“I would.”

She snuggled into his hold, laying her head on his chest as his arm tightened around her. “If we drop by the shrine on the way to Tokyo, I can get those for you. Anything else?”

“You were slightly irrational. You yelled at me.“

Groaning, Kagome closed her eyes. “I already apologized for that. It happens sometimes. I’m more sleepy. Hormones go out of whack, and I tend to get snippy. Don’t worry though,” she winked up at him, “I always feel bad for it later.” Then, “Will you take off your shirt again?”

Startled, though he hid it well, the Daiyoukai asked, “What?”

Kagome forged on determinedly. “I just like the way it feels to lay against you. And, considering the past few days, I thought it would be nice to cuddle when we’re actually home.” Catching on to his hesitation and comprehending the reason behind it, she hastily reassured him, “No kissing or anything else, just like we were at the gala. That should be alright, shouldn’t it?”

Giving in, he was seduced by the realization that she found comfort in his arms. Sesshoumaru leaned forward and tugged his shirt over his head. Turning slightly, he shifted further to the side and pulled Kagome to lay across his chest. Soon, they were laying flat out on the couch.

Kagome sighed in bliss at the feeling of his soft fur on her bare arms and cheek. She nuzzled into the fine stuff, nosing his hard muscles through the silky texture. Heeding the prompting of his determined hands, she allowed her shirt to join his on the floor. Upper body covered only by the flimsy excuse for a bra he had bought, she relaxed in his hold. Utterly boneless, Kagome bit back a yawn. “In all the fuss, I forgot to ask about Kouga. Weren’t you supposed to spar him?“

He nuzzled her temple, taking in her fresh scent. “I called him to reschedule. We will meet tomorrow. Inuyasha will be there as well, Kagome, so you must be aware that there could be real violence.“

Mind fogged from the vibrations passing through his chest and into her ear, Kagome said, “Huh?” She knew Inuyasha was his brother. Tales of their none-too-pleasant sibling rivalry were also old news.

He chuckled, amused. “Just do not worry about the whelp‘s attempts to prove himself against me. Alright?”

“M’kay,” she agreed amiably. “Can you wake me up when it’s time to go?”

Caressing the smooth skin of her back, Sesshoumaru was careful to monitor his youki. “Sleep. I will watch the time.” Soon, her breathing evened out. Staring down upon her, the gold in his eyes shimmered affectionately before turning hard.

Oh yes, Kouga had been most adamant about allowing the hanyou to attend the match. Sesshoumaru was not blind to the wolf’s blatant attempts to bring them together by any means possible for his own amusement. Given that he was the one who had canceled, despite his valid reason for doing so, the Daiyoukai had been honor-bound to accept the addition.

One foul word or insult to Kagome, however, and the hanyou would be breathing out of a straw for the rest of his miserable life.

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Due to the intimidating presence at her side, Kagome was able to navigate her way through the crowds waiting for the bullet train. Not once was she jostled. That had to be some sort of record, too!

“So,” she asked, hefting the satchel higher on her shoulder, “How did you figure out that the key went to the lockers here?”

The Daiyoukai scanned the crowd for threats, uneasy in the midst of so many potential enemies. “I removed the plastic. Underneath it the name of this station was etched into the metal.”

“So obvious. Well, I guess that’s why I’m a museum worker instead of an investigator.” Rolling her eyes at the rowdy group of teenage boys hanging around the gaudy faux-panty machine, she nudged Sesshoumaru’s arm. “It takes all kinds.”

He snorted. “Of that, I already know.” The reasons that some would spend money on disgusting novelty items had always eluded him.

Catching sight of the lockers, Kagome exclaimed, “Look! There it is!” She pointed to the bright blue metal containers in an alcove situated away from the main crowd.

Almost ready to jump up and down in excitement, Kagome bounced in place at Sesshoumaru’s side when he stopped in front of the locker numbered to match the key. Carefully unlocking the door, the metal hinges protested shrilly when he pulled it open. He claimed the small box that had lain hidden inside.

Deciding to keep it for later, he slipped the rectangular box into Kagome’s satchel. “We’ll open it once we are back in the Realm,” he told her authoritatively when she opened her mouth to protest. She had an avid curiosity, but it would have to be satisfied when he would be sure the contents would stay private. He had no idea what his mother could have possibly discovered about his father.

Suddenly, he glimpsed a long metal object over her shoulder. “Down!” he ordered ferociously, pushing her to the ground with a heavy hand. A shot rang out, and a sharp pinch pricked his chest. Glancing down, he saw a needle protruding from his shirt. He knocked it off just as a strange lethargy began to over take his body.

What was happening? Immune to most toxins, nothing should have this effect on him! He sank to his knees before falling forward. Immobile, his mind began to shut down as well.

“Sesshoumaru!” Kagome screamed. “What is it, what happened?” Face pressed to the ground, she hadn’t seen anything. “Sesshoumaru!” she called again when it appeared that he hadn’t heard her.

Dull eyes blinked blindly into her own. “Kagome, run,” he demanded weakly. “Can’t…move.” He fell over onto his side, helplessly sprawled on the cold, tiled floor just as the first sounds of running footsteps penetrated her fear.

“Miss? What happened?” A strange man in a station uniform placed a hand on her shoulder. “Move aside, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Panicked, she reacted blindly to seeing Sesshoumaru so helpless. “No!” she yelled. “Get away!” She turned on the gathering crowd that whispered and pointed at him. “All of you, stay away!” Tears blurred her vision. Stupid, ignorant, cruel people! They would come to point, mocking him when he was helpless to defend himself?

He had been protecting her. Had been hit with what had been meant for her.

Bursting from her skin in holy judgment, pink light washed over the crowd. Panicked screams erupted, and the crowd stampeded away in all directions. A barrier, fed by her need to protect him, flared to life over the pair.

Carefully lifting his head, Kagome cradled it in her lap. She stroked his cheeks tenderly while her tears continued to fall. “Sesshoumaru, please be okay. Please. I need you.”

Chapter Twenty

“Move, I said!” Shoving aside a group of loitering kids, Miroku made his way to the forefront of the crowd surrounding the station. Off-duty, he had been about to call Kagura to confirm their date when the call came in that something had happened at the station. As it was on his way home, he’d decided to drop in.

Staring at the bright glow of a miko barrier, he cursed, “Damn.” He recognized that power. Kagome was in the station somewhere, and she was afraid. The officers on duty, three demons with spiked hair and bad attitudes, hissed as the holy energy threatened to burn their skin.

“Miroku!” Hiro, one of the demons, called out when they spotted the monk. “Can’t you do something about this? Traffic is backed up six blocks, and the train can’t start without loading up!” He turned away to push another human back from the improvised barrier of cars and signs they’d thrown up to keep curiosity seekers at bay.

Removing a sutra from his shirt pocket, Miroku laid it on the barrier. Instead of calming, the energy crackled angrily and ballooned out even further. What was going on? he wondered even as the dire straits Kagome was in stirred his worry. She was untrained. As such, she stood a more than decent chance of overtaxing herself or hurting an innocent bystander.

“What’s going on here?” came an unfamiliar voice from his side.

Turning to look at the youkai, Miroku catalogued the white hair and dog ears that sat atop the head of the hanyou. As he only knew of one with that description, he deduced that the stranger was the second son of the Tashio. “A miko put up a barrier. If you will step back, I will have it down shortly.”

Irritated, the hanyou’s ears flattened. “Don’t talk down to me, monk. I could see for myself that a miko did this. What I want to know is who and why.”

Given that he was the nominal heir, Miroku was unable to refuse to answer the hanyou’s questions. “The miko goes by the name of Higurashi, Kagome. She would have only done this, however, if she felt threatened,” he hurriedly explained in defense of his friend.

“My half-brother’s woman?” Inuyasha asked in disbelief. Shippo had called him earlier with an outlandish tale of his brother going to the store. He’d been on his way to the Realm to scope out the pair for himself. Despite his former disinterest, his own situation mirrored his brother’s much too closely for him to ignore the ramifications entirely. “What’s she doing here anyway? I thought they went to the Realm.”

Feigning casual interest, Miroku turned an intuitive ear towards the hanyou. “Oh? I was not aware that his plans were made public. How would you know about his movements? Do you often keep track of your brother’s whereabouts, Inuyasha-sama?”

“Hey! I’m not some criminal! Everyone knows about Sesshoumaru moving into his rooms there with the woman. Quit interrogating me as if I’m some thug, got it?” Huffing, Inuyasha crossed his arms.

“Hmmm…” Refusing to answer the male, Miroku eyed the barrier thoughtfully. He hadn’t truly thought Inuyasha was guilty of anything, but he had been taught to leave no stone unturned. Now, to get the barrier down so that he could get to Kagome.

Just as he was about to try to force the issue by subduing her energy with the, hopefully, greater power of his own, Miroku was interrupted by the arrival of Hiro.

“Here,” Hiro said while bringing a young human male to the front. “He said he saw it all.”

Intrigued, Miroku turned on the teenager. “Your name?”

“Jin, sir.” The youth turned troubled eyes on the monk. “Is Kagome going to be okay?”

Sharing a suddenly sharp look with Hiro, Miroku gave the boy his full attention. “You know her? What can you tell us about what happened here?”

Shuffling his feet nervously, Jin’s pale face tightened with worry. “Souta, Kagome’s brother, is my friend. I was just foolin’ around with the guys when they walked by. Then, some dude came up by us. Almost knocked me down, which is why I even noticed him. Then, he just points this pipe thing. I heard the youkai she was with yell out for her to get down. Next thing I know, he’s on the ground, and she’s freaking out and yelling. The pink stuff came, and then all hell broke loose.”

“The man,” Miroku asked excitedly, “can you describe him?”

Jin’s face screwed up in concentration. “I dunno. He was wearing some kind of jacket and a hat. They were both black,“ the youth added helpfully. “He was kinda short, though. I do know that. He only came up to here,“ he indicated his shoulders.

“That’s all?” Hiro asked, snapping the memo book he’d taken out to scribble notes on closed.

Jin shrugged apologetically. “Yeah, man. I’m sorry. I just didn’t think to take a second look.”

Hiro took the teen away. Inuyasha turned to the monk. “So, Sesshoumaru was protecting her and got hurt somehow. She’s protecting him,” he whispered to himself, though he knew the monk overheard.

“Unfortunately, your brother is a very powerful demon. Whatever it was that took him down must be absurdly strong. We need to get to him immediately to give first-aid.” Not to mention the fact that he could feel Kagome weakening. She was maintaining a barrier around two hundred yards. Given that it was proof against humans as well as demons-the process extremely draining even for the most powerful-he didn’t know how she had managed it this long.

Taking advantage of the flickering of her reiki, Miroku pulled out five of his strongest sutras and slapped them on the barrier. It fell under the crackling strength of his still-fresh power. Miroku immediately entered the station, conscious of the fact that Inuyasha was right by his side.

Both came to a dead halt at the sight of the crumpled woman and fallen Daiyoukai. The male’s chest barely rose and fell, as if even breathing took too much effort. Inuyasha gasped at the sight of some of Sesshoumaru’s fur covering the floor in great limp piles. He was losing his hair? Curled protectively over his body, Kagome was slumped over Sesshoumaru’s head.

Weakly, she lifted her head to warily watch the newcomers. Lines of fatigue pinched eyes that were red and swollen from crying. The exhausted woman relaxed when she recognized Miroku. “Please help him,” she begged pathetically. “He won’t wake up.”

Unable to hold off the dark mists threatening to engulf her any longer, Kagome fell into the waiting abyss of unconsciousness.

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Muffled whispers penetrated the fog holding Kagome hostage.

“Poor dear. He’ll be gone before she even wakes up.” Fluffing the pillow underneath her patient’s head, the brown-haired, huskily-built nurse watched her intern check the woman’s reflexes.

“Maybe it’s for the best,” the intern whispered back. “She wouldn’t want to see him as he is now. It would be a kinder fate for her to remember him as he was.”

“Was? Kira, I still don’t understand how she could have possibly been with him before. Even if it is an improvement from now,” the nurse rebutted callously.

Momentarily forgetting her place, the intern gasped. “Nurse Mia! What a thing to say! Don’t you read? National Youkai Weekly has been publishing everything about their dating. It was so romantic. Now, she’ll be all alone, the poor dear.”

Mia was not impressed. Her eyes turned hard. “Maybe now she’ll move on to a nice human boy her own age. I swear, some of these youkai are practically committing pedophilia! He’s at least 150 years older than her!”

Kira rolled her downcast eyes. “Nurse Mia, your notions are positively ancient. She’s a consenting adult, not a child.”

Interrupted from answering, Mia’s eyes swiftly flew to the heart rate machine. “I think she’s waking up, Kira.”

Angered by the insults, Kagome‘s mind cleared rapidly. “Sess…” Her eyes blinked open before closing immediately as the harsh glare of the overhead lights punched through her brain. Groaning, she struggled to sit up.

Mia held the struggling figure of her patient down. “Now, now, young lady. You must stay in bed. Doctor Takagawa insists that you need rest.” Taking advantage of the woman’s disorientation, the older nurse tied her to the bed using buckles and straps.

“Sesshoumaru,” she whispered around her parched throat. “I need to see him.” Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

Blinking back sympathetic tears, Kira ignored Mia’s hard glare when she stepped away from the bed. She couldn’t help but feel the nurse was being terribly cruel. The woman’s love was dying next door, and she wasn’t allowed to see him?

Disgusted, the nurse huffed at her intern once the patient was strapped in and unable to move. Ignoring her pleas to release her, Mia prepared to inject the sedative Dr. Takagawa had prescribed. She never saw the bedpan that cracked against her skull.

Hurrying with trembling fingers to undo all the straps, the intern bit back her sniffles. She’d done it now! No doubt she would be fired. Not to mention the possibility of arrest for assaulting the head nurse! Something about the pleading blue eyes of the patient moved her to action.

“Here now, we have to hurry. You have to be quiet though. They have your youkai under quarantine,“ Kira warned the woman.

Nodding to show she understood, Kagome rubbed the feeling back into her wrists from where the bands had bit into her flesh. “Where is he?” she asked. “Is he-” Unable to finish that train of thought, Kagome stifled a sob when the intern looked away rather than answer.

Falling to her knees, Kira began pulling at the nurse’s uniform. “Here, come help me. We’ve got to try to pass you off as a nurse to get you in that room. The guards posted won’t know it’s you rather than Nurse Mia.”

Swiftly undressing the nurse, Kagome soon donned the uniform. Grunting with the effort of lifting the heavy woman, both women worked to place the unconscious nurse in the bed. Viciously pleased with the end result, Kagome snapped the last buckle in place.

“Come on,” Kira urged, beckoning Kagome to the door with a finger. She peeked out of the door before turning back to the other woman. “Here, let me fix your hair.” Deftly putting it up in a twist, she fixed the nurse’s hat to hide it. “Just follow my lead, okay?”

“Yes, of course,” Kagome agreed. She grabbed the intern’s hand, smiling gratefully. “Thank you so much. For doing this for a complete stranger.”

Kira patted the hand before pulling away. “Hey, us romantics have to stick together, right? Just be prepared for what you’ll see. He’s not well,” she added gently.

Sucking in a deep breath, Kagome nodded decisively. Kira stepped out into the hall and motioned for Kagome to follow after discerning that it was clear of anyone that could recognize the ruse. Two doors down, the women stopped before a large red door. Emblazoned on the polished surface, a biohazard sign announced that the room was off limits to anyone but medical personnel.

Two human guards sat by a small table beside the door. They looked over the women disinterestedly. “What is your business here now?” one asked Kira. She’d already been there a few times today to clean up.

Grateful her voice didn’t squeak, Kira answered, “Nurse Mia sent us to check on his vitals again. You know how she is.”

The guard snorted. “A royal bitch is what she is.” The other guard didn’t even bother to look up from his hentai magazine when he snorted in agreement.

Pushing the log book forward, the guard ordered, “Sign in. Just hurry it up. The doc is coming back soon, and he didn’t want anyone in the way.”

Gulping, Kira nodded. “We’ll be right in and out, I promise.” She signed the book, and motioned for Kagome to do the same.

Unable to think of a better name, Kagome signed in as her co-worker Sango.

Catching sight of her pretty, if a bit drawn, features when she bent over to sign, the guard asked, “Hey, I haven’t seen you around here before. You new or something?”

Kagome forced a smile. “I just transferred from a private unit. I was tired of the extra duties. You know how wealthy people are.” She winked conspiratorially.

He chuckled. “Damn if I don’t. A hospital isn’t good enough for them. No, they’ve got to have their own doctors on call and all the nurses they need to ensure they haven’t even got to shit on their own.“ He waved her away. “Go on with you two. Hurry it up like I said, though.”

Nodding quickly, Kira and Kagome waited as the guard passed the keycard on his belt through the lock on the door. It swung open with a faint hissing sound. Kagome pushed aside her nervousness when it swung closed behind them. The lock engaged with a loud ‘pop.’

Kira gently nudged her forward. “I’ll wait here by the door. I don’t know how much time you’ll have before someone discovers Nurse Mia is in your bed.”

Biting her lip, Kagome gave the woman a hard hug. “Thank you again. So very much.”

Brown eyes sympathetically pitying, Kira didn’t reply. Kagome pulled away and walked through the opaque plastic surrounding the large room. Coming to a halt once she was inside, she almost fell to her knees at her first glance of Sesshoumaru.

Connected to an assorted array of machines with long, winding tubes while blinking monitors mocked his chances of recovery, he lay as pale as death upon the white sheets. Entirely denuded of his fur and hair, his skin was beaded with sweat.

Stumbling forward, Kagome grabbed his hand. “Sesshoumaru? Sesshoumaru, please wake up!” she begged. He didn’t answer. He didn’t even move.

Up close, the devastating effects of the attack were even more evident. Exhaustion lines grooved through the once smooth skin of his face. Veins, black with poison, pulsed just underneath the surface of his skin. Stroking his cheek with a shaking finger, Kagome leaned down to gently kiss his bald head. “Oh, Kami. What did they do to you?” Searching with her aura, she could barely detect the flickering of his youki. “Hold on, Sesshoumaru. I’ll think of something. Just fight, okay? Stay alive.”

By force of will alone, Kagome held herself together. She’d heard the women before they knew she was awake. Sesshoumaru had been given up for dead. Yet, something wasn’t right. She didn’t know how she knew, but she did. There was more to this than a poison dart.

Just then, an odd current passed by. Brushing against her aura, it induced a shiver. What was that? she wondered while moving closer to Sesshoumaru. The skin around his eyes tightened minutely.

Throwing herself forward over his body, Kagome flared her aura. An answering pulse of deadly magic threatened the purity. A dark miko! Having caught the trace of it, Kagome followed the needle-thin connection to Sesshoumaru’s left pectoral. She pushed the sheet down. A small puncture wound oozed grey pus.

Coughing on the stench, Kagome fought back the urge to vomit. That explained his weak youki! Someone was stealing it! How? she was forced to ask herself. He was too strong for it to work so simply.

Vague lessons from her mother surfaced. When she’d made the decision not to follow in her footsteps, her mother had warned against evil-doers who could try to steal her untapped power. In order to do so, however, they would first need blood and hair samples to personalize the spell to her specifically. Then, they would need to inject a bit of their own blood into the victim. The only way to counteract such a spell was to overpower the darkness or to turn it back on them.

Had that been the intent of the attacker? To steal her power? But, then, how was it working on Sesshoumaru? A blinding headache built up from all of the conjecture, but Kagome just rubbed her temples to clear her mind. Think! she commanded herself. Sesshoumaru couldn’t last long like this!

She glanced at the clock. Eight hours had passed since they went to the station. By all rights, he should have died within the first hour. Either something was wrong with the spell, or he was strong enough to counter the effects fractionally. Drawing out his suffering as he slowly lost ground to the spell.

Maybe it was both.

How could she stop it? she asked, reminding herself of the dire circumstances. A simple shield wouldn’t break the connection. It was one of the most powerful dark magic spells. Only a truly powerful or frightfully evil miko could have managed it. They would have no problem breaking through any barrier she, untrained as she was, could throw up. Especially given the fact that she was still so weak.

Maybe, if the spell was flawed in some way to begin with, messing it up further would work? She bit her lip. But how? The wound bubbled and popped. She swallowed her rising bile. Of course! Remove the last step of the spell. The blood of the attacker was anchoring the spell to him.

If she could somehow purge his body of it, the spell would collapse.

If he were a human, it would be a simple matter. She’d simply run a jolt of power through their system. She had been able to clean her brother of infections that way before. It was a parlor trick to most trained mikos. Simple and effective, but not terribly hard.

Sesshoumaru, as a youkai… Would she hurt him more than help him? Kagome chewed on her bottom lip indecisively. For once, she cursed her decision to not follow her mother’s path. If only she’d taken the training! She’d even accept the Vow if it would mean- Kagome gasped.

The Vow! Unlike ancient times, present miko took under their protection, and promised to give spiritual aid to, all of the human and youkai that lived within their territory. She’d even seen her mother help a youkai kitten with no ill effect. Her mother, she knew, was an exception as most miko still held distrust in their heart for youkai. Ingrained by society, no doubt.

Once given, the Vow was permanent. And what she contemplated had never been done before. Could it even be done? Another pulse of dark magic cut off her meandering thoughts. Sesshoumaru’s youki flickered, the sensation like the weak brush of a butterfly wing against her senses.

She threw out all of her doubts and fears. He was going to die if she didn’t do something. If he died, she couldn’t live with knowing she hadn’t done anything.

Taking a deep breath, Kagome called to Kira.

The intern walked to her side, nervously casting her eyes away from the wasted body on the bed. “Yes?

“I need you to leave the room. Tell them anything, but it’s time for you to go. There’s something I need to do.”

About to protest, Kira was stopped by the implacable resolve in the direct gaze of the woman. Gone were the tears and fears. In their place, determination burned bright and clear.

“Please, Kira. Just go. Run away from here, if you think you’ll get in trouble for your aid.”

Kira nodded. “Okay. Good luck. With whatever you’re going to do.” Without waiting for a reply, Kira turned and left. Punching the release button with her index finger, she prayed for the life of the youkai. Anyone who could inspire such love as she’d seen in the woman’s eyes had to be someone special.

Left behind, Kagome studied the lock pad. She’d broken enough of them at the museum by improperly inserting the cards that she should have no problem destroying this one. Feeling herself down, she discovered a pen in the side pocket of the nurse uniform. Perfect!

Cracking it open, she tapped the ink tube out and bit the metal nib off. Closing her lips around the tube, she blew the red ink into the lock. The electronic device hissed in protest before the light turned from green to red. Just barely, she could hear the sounds of scrambling feet and questions from outside the door. Based on how long it had taken the repair man to fix her office door lock, she had fifteen minutes.

Quickly moving to Sesshoumaru’s side, Kagome rifled in the metal drawers beside his bed. She removed a small scalpel and a felt tip pen, placing them beside him on the bed.

The sound of her labored breaths was muffled by the hissing of the machines working to keep Sesshoumaru alive even as they failed. Drawing the sheet down to his waist, Kagome climbed onto the bed to straddle his prone figure.

“Please work,” she whispered hopefully. Uncapping the pen, she began to draw the symbols that had been inscribed into her brain from the time she began to walk on his chest. During the Vow, a miko would be kneeling before the ground on the shrine. Using a branch or stone, she would write her promise to shelter and protect, heal and nurture, all that lived under the blanket of her Vow.

It was archaic, some had cited in recent years. The majority of people preferred to go to hospitals and the like nowadays, rather than trust in the spiritual powers of a simple woman. Those who lived under the Vow were healthier and happier, though, according to studies. They were protected from wars and disaster by their Taiyoukai, but were mothered by their miko. It was a symbiotic relationship, as it was their donations that fed and housed the miko and any family she had.

Working with what she could find, however, Kagome had to make do with a marker. Five minutes later, his chest was covered in Kanji and vague symbols only understood by her family. A metallic clanging threatened to draw her attention as the metal doors were hit with something, but she ignored it.

She took a deep, cleansing breath before slowly exhaling. She replaced the cap on the marker and picked up the scalpel. Thinking through the words of the Vow, she changed it slightly to suit the circumstances.

“My power, my life, my soul. This I promise to you. My power for your safety. My life for your life. My soul to serve yours. I take this Vow, and give it to you, Sesshoumaru,” she chanted softly, her words slowly gaining strength as her power surged to the surface of her skin. “Never from your side will I part. Forever entwined, your happiness shall be mine.” Pink light began to travel from her body and settled over the markings. His chest glowed garishly bright in the dim lighting.

Carelessly slicing her palm with the scalpel, she winced at the pain but continued. Laboriously tracing the markings with her bloody finger, Kagome repeated the Vow. At the last marking, fascinated eyes watched as her blood began to seep into his skin. It was just as she’d seen when her cousin had taken the Vow. Except, it had been the earth accepting her cousin’s offering on behalf of the people. Not a living being.

Sesshoumaru’s eyes shot open just as the last of the blood disappeared. His unseeing eyes blazed with crimson fire. He began to thrash underneath her in obvious pain. Throwing herself forward, Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck and completed the vow. “Into my care do I take thee!” she yelled over the wild howls that shook the walls and threatened to deafen her.

Gripping his body tightly with her arms and thighs, she managed to maintain contact even as his spasms threatened to buck her off. A lethargy similar to what she’d felt in the station after Miroku had dropped her barrier began to weigh her limbs down. At the same time, Sesshoumaru’s struggles quieted.

Soon, she was no longer able to hold her head up as her powers fed into his body with all the force of a tidal wave. Gasping for every breath, Kagome’s heart slowed. She hadn’t known what would happen. Hadn’t guessed that it would take so much of her.

With her ear resting on his chest, she could hear his heartbeat steadily growing stronger. The strong signal was a welcome reprieve from the sluggish staccato that had barely registered on the machine next to his head. The wound on his chest pulsed faintly and a thick, black liquid seeped from it until, finally, it closed completely.

The last bit of her decimated power left her and flowed into him. Like a tugboat, the whispered trail of power pulled her soul along with it.

A dead weight, Kagome’s teary eyes met Sesshoumaru’s feral gaze. It hurt in a way she’d never experienced before. As if her heart and lungs had simply collapsed. Just before she stopped breathing completely, a loud humming filled the air. The bed they were sprawled helplessly upon began to vibrate, rocking back and forth on the wheels.

A startled, maliciously enraged shriek cut viciously through the air. A black cloud that roiled with malevolent intentions formed next to the bed, but Kagome was helpless to do anything but watch. It moved to hover over them and disappeared from her line of sight. The brush of evil against her spine chilled her to the bone.

“You are nothing to me!“ it hissed. “I will not let some youkai slut defeat my purpose! The power will be mine!”

Tortuously slow, a sharp spine formed in front of the defenseless woman’s eyes. Kagome gasped as she twisted in helpless agony when it was pushed through the skin at her shoulder. The dark miko entity twisted it, chuckling gleefully. In the back of her mind, Kagome felt something shift. Something important, but she couldn’t concentrate on it to discover what it was. All she knew was that breathing was no longer impossible.

“You should have stayed out of it. You should have thanked me for killing that vile creature you lay so shamelessly against!” it taunted.

Harnessing the last smidgeon of her strength, Kagome hissed out, “Go to hell!”

It laughed. “You first, bitch.” It bore down on the spiny protrusion, slowly widening the wound before shooting it full of dark poisons from its own mists.

Air sucked out of her lungs, Kagome screamed soundlessly. It felt as if every nerve ending had been fried! Her fingers and toes curled spastically, and she began to shake uncontrollably as the oily substance moved through her body.

A loud snarl answered her silent plea for salvation. Unceremoniously flipped onto her back, Kagome’s pained gaze met Sesshoumaru’s clear golden one. Even as she watched, his fur began to grow back. “Sess…” she tried to whisper, but her throat burned too badly to allow her more than that one syllable.

Drawing back, the entity howled. “No!”

Sesshoumaru whirled around on the bed, flying to his feet as he yanked wires and tubes from his body with furious speed. Threatening to transform under the need to protect, he howled out his rage and turmoil at Kagome’s pain. He could feel it, as if it were his own.

He didn’t know what had happened. Waking up to see the vile creature about to stab his woman in the head with a deadly spine was all he needed to get him moving. Summoning his youki, he frowned at how weak it was. Instantly, another power answered his call in place of his absent one.

Kagome, he wondered in surprise, even as he readied to attack with the foreign energy. What had she done? No matter, he decided with firm resolve. He would use any means necessary to protect her.

Assuming the Daiyoukai was still weak, despite his rapid recovery thus far, the entity decided to push forward. Swiftly stabbing downward, intending to remark the target, its progress was halted by a glowing purple whip that lashed out and severed the protrusion.

“Bastard!” it shrieked in pain. “You will pay for that!”

“How unoriginal,” Sesshoumaru drawled sardonically in response. “I would expect no less from a lowlife who cannot even face me in person, but must hide behind illusions.”

Boiling angry now, enraged past the point of discretion and sane reason by the interference of the woman and now the mocking of the Daiyoukai, the cloud collapsed. In its place, an old crone stood. “I am Tsubaki, you insignificant scum! I am the greatest miko to ever walk this earth. When I am done with you, you will beg me for death!” she promised, gimlet eyes gleaming brutally. “And then, I will make you watch as I suck your little whore dry.”

Responding to the knee-jerk reaction of his instincts at the threat to Kagome, Sesshoumaru lashed out. Faster than her eyes could follow, his claws raked over Tsubuki’s ruined face.

She screamed, “Ahhhh!” Dropping to her knees, she spit at the ground before his feet. “You think I cannot withstand a puny attack like that?” she asked in a desperate attempt to regain face for her pained outburst. “Just watch this!”

Calling her magic to the surface, she attempted to retake her mist-like, nearly invulnerable form. She wasn’t fast enough. Leaping from the bed, Sesshoumaru felt the foreign power build up in his fist. It burned through his veins, but he breathed through the pain. Just as her head dematerialized, he punched his fisted hand through her ribcage.

Exploding on impact, the old miko’s powers swirled darkly around the room. Uncontrolled torrents of invisible winds buffeted him, and he leaped back to Kagome’s side to protect her from the debris of machines, needles, and other apparatus.

Suddenly, everything grew still. Abandoned by the winds that had carried it aloft, the remaining debris shattered as it crashed to the floor. Eyeing the spot where the old woman had stood, Sesshoumaru discovered a pile of ash covered by the grey robe she had worn. He turned back to Kagome.

Panting, she stared up at him and smiled. “I’m so glad,” she whispered weakly, “that you will live.” She knew now what it had been that she had felt while the dark miko was torturing her. He had accepted her Vow. She was tied to him now; her soul was in his keeping.

He stroked her cheek. Before the words that clogged his throat could be uttered, the doors to the room burst open. Guards filed in while a doctor in a white lab coat followed. All came to a stumbling halt when they caught sight of the Daiyoukai whole and well. Even as they watched, the last of his hair grew to its normal length.

“Wha-What,” the doctor sputtered in shock. “What happened?” He turned to the woman on the bed. “Is this the intruder?” he asked the guards.

Growling, Sesshoumaru placed his body between the males and Kagome. “This is my mate, and she has more right to be here than anyone else.” He turned his back on the insignificant humans to claim her hand. He squeezed gently and relaxed slightly as she returned the gesture.

He may not yet understand what had happened, but he knew, without a doubt, that they had both been irrevocably changed. Bonded. His youkai heart rejoiced in the knowledge.

Forcing himself to move aside in order to allow the doctor to attend to her wound, Sesshoumaru never left her side. At the pronouncement that the poison was dissipating, he breathed a sigh of relief. With the dark miko dead, her magics would thankfully fade.

He began to make plans to take her back to the Realm. She had made her choice, had claimed him as surely as he would her. He hadn’t thought it possible, but she had. And now, he would return the favor.

Chapter Twenty-One

At the sharp rap on the closed door, Sesshoumaru turned from rearranging the thin blanket protecting Kagome from the chill of the hospital room. “Enter,” he called out. He’d informed the hospital staff that no one was to be allowed entrance without his express permission.

Doctor Takagawa strode purposefully through the doorway. A raw-boned, human nurse dourly followed him into the room. him. “Sesshoumaru-san,” the doctor greeted amiably with a respectful nod. The catastrophe of the previous day fresh on his mind, Takagawa was determined to improve the Daiyoukai’s impression of the hospital.

“You are here to remove the IV?” Sesshoumaru asked from her bedside. Kagome had been asleep for almost a full day now. Once the doctor had finished sewing the gash in her shoulder closed, he’d reiterated the need for her to sleep. Sesshoumaru had then convinced Kagome to accept a sedative.

Takagawa nodded in the affirmative. “The nurse will take care of that after I’ve given Higurashi a clean bill of health.” Under the eagle eye of the protective male, the doctor proceeded to pull down the blanket to access her wound. Laying on her stomach, her gown was pushed aside to reveal the taped gauze.

“Here now,” the doctor whispered reassuringly when she stirred uneasily in her sleep as the tape was pulled off. “Relax. I’ll be done soon.” She stilled under his expert touch, and he refrained from glancing at the other male. After only a day of the inuyoukai, the hospital staff would be glad to see him gone. Exacting, picky, and entirely too easily roused to anger when he felt the woman was being mistreated or not receiving the best care, the male would not be missed.

Already, Takagawa had been forced, under threat of lawsuit, to fire Nurse Mia. She’d been livid and had vowed to sue Higurashi and the intern Kira for assault. After a few minutes alone with the Daiyoukai, however, she had left without another word. The intern had been elevated to an administrative position within the financial department. A nice raise came with the position, and that was that.

At least the doctor hoped so. Even disinherited, the Daiyoukai could rain ruin upon the hospital administrative heads, if he so chose.

Satisfied that the wound was healing nicely and looked to be clear of infection, Dr. Takagawa relaxed. He straightened and met the inquisitive gaze of the other male. “She will be released as planned, Sesshoumaru-san.” He took the chart from the nurse and began to sign off on the appropriate documentation. “The wound will need to stay dry for at least a week, so no showers. I have prescribed an antibiotic cream to help the healing process. I’ll also prescribe an oral antibiotic, just to be on the safe side.” He handed the sheath of papers back to the nurse before asking, “Do you have any questions?”

“When will the stitches need to come out?”

Takagawa did a swift mental calculation. “Around two weeks. The nurse will take care of the appointment. If there is any sign of infection, or if she experiences any dizziness or other odd symptoms, return immediately to the hospital to get it looked at.”

Nodding to show he understood, Sesshoumaru turned back to Kagome. Accepting the curt dismissal with an objective shrug, Takagawa added, “And, as a warning, the paparazzi have gotten wind of your stay here. They have swarmed the lobby and have also staked out the back entrance. Security have been called in to deal with the situation, but there is only so much that they can do.”

An irritated growl passed Sesshoumaru’s clenched jaw. “I will deal with reporters.”

Shivering slightly in the sudden chill of the room, Takagawa smiled apologetically. “Vultures, all of them. But, there is little I, or anyone else for that matter, can do about them.”

“I said that I will take care of it,” Sesshoumaru reiterated. The doctor’s obvious fawning was grating on his last nerve.

Detecting the male’s short temper, Takagawa bowed and left the room. He had no qualms about leaving the nurse to deal with the discharge.

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Thirty minutes later, Sesshoumaru carried Kagome toward the hospital lobby. The anxious nurse hovered behind him uselessly. At her insistence that all patients exiting the hospital must be pushed there in a wheelchair, he had merely scoffed. His strength was more than capable of handling the slight weight that rested so trustingly in his arms.

As soon as the elevator doors opened into the spacious entryway, a stream of flashes flared across his retinas. Composing his features into a façade of boredom, he proceeded to push his way through the crowd of humans. Youkai were conspicuously absent from the throng.

When one particularity daring human shoved a camera in Kagome’s face, Sesshoumaru snarled in outrage. His mask of indifference gone, the red-eyed Daiyoukai hissed warningly, “Step away, human, or suffer the consequence of your folly.”

His youki flared dangerously. On the scent of a big story, however, the intrepid reporters paid it no mind. They had been following the story of the inuyoukai since they were weaned on sensationalistic journalism in their cribs by parents who had spoken of his curse in excited whispers. Given the chance to add their own words to the legend surrounding him, they wouldn’t back down.

Smelling blood, the sharks moved in for the kill. They circled the Daiyoukai and his precious cargo. Pressing in on all sides, cameras and microphones manifested as if by magic. Questions issued in loud, ringing tones filled the lobby with a cacophony of voices.

Presented with the wall of humans blocking his way out, Sesshoumaru felt his control begin to slip. To the Daiyoukai, it felt as if his mate was being threatened. He snarled and snapped his fangs at the assailants as they continued to film, heedless of the danger he represented. They jostled closer; filthy bodies that stank of greed and dishonor defiled his superior sense of smell.

The reporter that had been threatened previously decided to up the ante. The woman was still asleep in Sesshoumaru’s arms. His sources had told him that she’d been sedated. How much better of a story would it be if he could get a shot of her first waking moments?

To that end, he slipped under the Daiyoukai’s attention while the inuyoukai continued to push forcefully through the crowd. After ensuring that he was undetected in the mob, he took careful aim and threw his spare camera.

Kagome shot upright in Sesshoumaru’s arms with a startled shriek when the small digital camera connected with her cheek. The camera dropped to the ground. The enraged roar of a feral Daiyoukai traveled over the assembled paparazzi.

In a moment that would be forever etched on the inner eyes of those watching, Sesshoumaru turned on the crowd with all the ferocious force of a crazed bull elephant. Electronic devices went flying along with those holding them. With no care for the frailty of the human bodies he mowed down, Sesshoumaru gave no mercy.

Finally detecting that he was unstoppable, the paparazzi scrambled for safety with the unerring instinct of rats on a sinking ship. Mere moments later, Sesshoumaru and Kagome were alone in the deserted lobby. Even the useless guards had run.

Giving a satisfied grunt, Sesshoumaru flicked his claws clean of vulture blood.

Wrapped safely in his arms, Kagome sniffed against his chest. “Can we go home now?” she asked softly.

“We will be there soon, Kagome,” he murmured gently in reply as he walked them out of the lobby and into the parking lot. The stray camera snaps he heard were ignored. He cared not about the pictures taken as long as he didn’t have to see the scum taking them.

Jaken met them at his car. He’d called the toad demon and ordered his Porshe brought around. Taking in the dark look his assistant slanted on the woman in his arms, Sesshoumaru scowled. “Is there something you want to say, Jaken?” he asked forbiddingly.

Shuddering, the toad swallowed thickly. “No, no, Sesshoumaru-sama. I was just, uh, bemoaning the chilly winds,” he lied. If his Lord wanted to mate a human, then he would simply have to accept it. After all, his Lord could do no wrong. If he wanted the woman, then there must be some good reason for it. Perhaps she came with a large enough dowry to wash away the stain of her humanity?

Carefully arranged on the passenger seat, Kagome smiled at Sesshoumaru before he walked around the car to slide behind the wheel. “Get back to work,” the Daiyoukai ordered the toad before closing the door.

While Kagome had been sleeping, he’d looked over Jaken’s report. His prospects were almost set up. As a consultant, the requirements of his business wouldn’t necessitate the manpower of a larger corporation but promised to be just as lucrative.

One hand on the wheel, Sesshoumaru started the engine. The car roared to life and was soon flying down the road to the shrine. The monk, Miroku, had claimed Kagome’s satchel and had delivered it to Mrs. Higurashi for safekeeping. Perhaps now some answers could be had.

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“What have you done, Kagome?” Taking a sip of her tea, Mrs. Higurashi stared across her cup at her daughter.

Startled, Kagome’s head cocked to the side. “What do you mean, Mama?”

Her mother picked up the magazine that laid innocently on the kitchen table beside her elbow. Opening it to the marked page, she slid it across the scarred, wooden surface.

Eyes widening, Kagome’s attention was immediately snared by the headline and the pictures that accompanied it.

Kagome sucked in a shocked breath. There, alongside the slanderous article, were pictures of Sesshoumaru and her. She hadn’t even taken notice of the fact that he had been naked! She’d been more worried about keeping him alive than to note something so unimportant at the time!

Tears sprang to her eyes as she reread the article. How could they assume something like that? That she had ‘ensnared’ him? He was going to die! If she’d waited to ask him, she would have been waiting forever!

Sesshoumaru chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. He’d been speaking with Hiten and Manten about the security measures around the shrine. They had been oddly quiet around him but had also been significantly more respectful. It was something to mull over later.

Once the scent of Kagome’s tears came to him, all thoughts of the Thunder Brothers and their odd behavior fled his mind. “What is wrong? What happened?” he demanded to know. “Did you pull your stitches?”

Unable to reply, Kagome silently handed him the magazine.

After reading the damning words, Sesshoumaru ripped the magazine in half. “Fools,” he hissed in outrage. It was bad enough that he was depicted as being weak-willed enough to be trapped unwillingly. For the insinuations slanted against Kagome they would pay, and pay dearly. He would see to it personally.

“Kagome,” Mrs. Higurashi interrupted the vicious thoughts of the Daiyoukai, “why did you do something like that?”

“Mama, it wasn’t anything like what they’re saying! Sesshoumaru, he-” Kagome’s whispered explanation was cut off by the Daiyoukai laying a restraining hand on her uninjured shoulder.

“I asked her to be my mate. As such, it was within her rights to protect and defend me by any means necessary. That is all the explanation anyone else deserves. Even you, if you insist on treating Kagome as if she was guilty of some crime,” he stated authoritatively. Though the reminder that he had been weak chafed his ego, a surge of pride enveloped him at the reminder of Kagome’s strength in his time of need.

Taking offense to the hard line he had drawn, Mrs. Higurashi frowned. “Her rights? What rights do you speak of? My daughter is human and is not yet your mate. She is still bound by the laws of humans. Those laws were created for a purpose. Especially,” she added with a sorrowful look for her daughter, “those that pertain to priestesses. Kagome, I accepted it when you decided to forgo your heritage. I embraced your decision to be courted by this Daiyoukai. How could you take something so sacred to our kind and pervert it into something so wrong?”

“Wrong? Perverted?” Sesshoumaru growled over Kagome’s shoulder. His normally extensive vocabulary failed him in that moment. “What idiocy do you speak of, old woman!”

The tea cup rattled as Mrs. Higurashi set it down on the saucer. She ignored the Taiyoukai, turning beseeching eyes on her daughter in the hopes of salvaging the situation. “Kagome, how do you think the people who depend upon this shrine for their spiritual needs will feel once they learn of your actions? You turned your back on their need, but gave the Vow to Sesshoumaru? A single entity means more to you than the entirety of the village this shrine serves?”

Sighing, Kagome refused to look away from her mother’s faintly condemning gaze. “I wasn’t thinking about anything but keeping Sesshoumaru alive, Mama. It was the only way I could do so. I thought you, of all people, would understand. I thought you said love was worth sacrificing everything for!”

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head. “No, Kagome. I only spoke of children and love. There are some things that must always take precedence. Even over love. Maintaining the sanctity of miko traditions is one of them. We are already under attack by naysayers, and now you have handed them yet another reason to abolish the Vow completely!”

“If the system is so flawed that her actions to save a life can topple it completely, then perhaps it is for the best,” Sesshoumaru snarled.

“Youkai know nothing of the value of what a miko can offer!” Mrs. Higurashi shouted in a rare show of temper. “You, with your powers and strengths, cannot comprehend what it means to us humans! You sleep soundlessly at night, assured of your superiority. We must go through each day knowing that there are those of your kind who would dispose of us as if we were refuse!”

“Mama!” Kagome admonished, shocked.

Sesshoumaru silenced her with a gentle shake. “No, Kagome. Let her speak. I would hear what she would say.”

“Do you see? Even in my own home, I am subjected to your will! For myself, I feel no animosity towards youkai. I will turn none away who seek my counsel or aid. But it is for the humans, our kind,” Mrs. Higurashi added in a pointed aside to Kagome, “that I strive to create equality. To do so, the power balance between the two races must be maintained! You have tipped the scale in youkai favor with your actions, and it is this that I do condemn, Kagome!”

Speechless, Kagome stared at her mother dumbly. Where had her mother hid this virulence all these years? If she felt such things, why had she been so supportive of their mating? she wondered.

Asking himself the same thing, Sesshoumaru glared at the older woman. “So your words of acceptance in regards to this Sesshoumaru mating your daughter were lies.”

Kagome’s mother gasped. She held a trembling hand to her chest. “I would never lie to my daughter! Had you accepted her as a human instead of trying to turn her into a youkai, this never would have happened!”

Prodded by the injustice of her mother’s accusation, Kagome was moved to defend Sesshoumaru. “He never once asked me to change, Mama. Not once! Compromise between two people is natural, not something to be looked down upon! If anything, he is the one who has forsaken his own beliefs on my behalf!”

Sensing Kagome’s upset escalating, Sesshoumaru began massaging her neck soothingly.

Kagome wearily closed her eyes before relaxing against his welcome presence. “I won’t have you disrespect him, Mama. He’s nothing like what you describe youkai to be. How could you be so like those that would condemn us for our feelings?” After everything her mother had revealed about her own past, how could she still be so blind?

Mrs. Higurashi took a deep, calming breath. “I will not apologize for my feelings. I do not hate youkai, and I never will. I hope for the day when humans and youkai will live in true equality. What I regret is the stain you have placed upon my vocation. For what you have done… Do you not realize that some would see it as an act of a dark miko?”

Shooting to sit upright, Kagome was saved from having to reply by Sesshoumaru’s fierce snarl.

“You speak blasphemy! She is no more a dark miko than I am! Any who would say otherwise will retract their words at the point of my sword!”

“Oh?” Mrs. Higurashi uttered coldly. “Do you speak your own mind, or has the power of my daughter’s Vow seduced you into protecting that which you have no right to hold?”

His hackles rose at the older woman’s brittle tone and hateful insinuation. “Kagome is my mate. Her life now lies within my care, not yours. Any doubts you may now harbor will serve no purpose but to estrange your daughter,” he finally said when he felt he was capable of speaking. His fingers tightened on Kagome’s shoulder.

For her part, Kagome’s eyes burned with unshed tears. She stared at her mother as if she were a stranger. And, indeed, in this moment, she felt as if the older woman seated across from her was no more than that.

“Mama,” Kagome finally whispered, “Why are you saying these things? I don’t understand. I’m still me. I’m still Kagome, your daughter. Nothing has changed about that. Sesshoumaru,” she said, a hand slipping up to cover the one that rested on her shoulder, “accepted my Vow. I didn’t force it on him. He won’t abuse it, I know that with absolute certainty. Souta has already said that he plans on following grandpa and studies to develop his budding spiritual powers. Surely the people will accept his protection in place of mine and be happy for it.”

Shaking her head sadly, Mrs. Higurashi’s shoulders slumped. “You are too headstrong to listen to what I am trying to tell you. You were always so stubborn! I allowed it because I love you, and because I saw so much of your father in you. Now, I can see that I should have stopped letting you go your own way, provided you with a more restrained upbringing. What you have done, I do not know if it can be rescinded. It is unprecedented, a Vow being wasted upon one person, be they youkai or human.”

“She will not take it back,” Sesshoumaru declared venomously. “What has been given was accepted. I will cherish your daughter. I will protect and care for her. Her soul and her power resides safely within my own soul. You will not condemn her for following her heart in this! You will accept her and her actions!”

The older woman stood on resolute legs. She looked down upon her daughter sadly. “I’m afraid that is something that I won’t do. If you cannot at least apologize for what you have done, Kagome, then I must ask you to leave and not come back until you see the error of your ways.”

At Kagome’s shocked inhalation, Mrs. Higurashi continued with false bravado, “I will always take you back, Kagome. But I cannot, in good conscience, give countenance to your actions. We can weather this storm together, my daughter. Please trust me that it would be best if you worked with me to end this travesty of what the Vow stands for,” she pleaded soulfully. “I know others, older miko who have knowledge of ancient texts. Perhaps, within them, we may find a solution. If it is only love for your youkai that you would hesitate, think on this: he was willing to take you without the Vow. Why won’t he support you sundering it when it would mean the difference between losing your own family or having your family and your love?”

Lowering her head, Kagome felt Sesshoumaru’s helpless rage beat against her aura in agitation. She knew he wanted to strike out physically, but he held back for her sake. Her honorable Daiyoukai.

“Sesshoumaru,” Kagome murmured softly. “Take me home, please.” Chapter Twenty-Two

“Sesshoumaru,” Hiten called out softly from just outside the slightly ajar bedroom window. Busily packing what little remained of her belongings into her satchel, Kagome didn’t pay attention to the summons. The Daiyoukai moved over to the window.

Taking it as a sign to continue, Hiten shifted on his perch beside the roof and quietly stated, “We heard the fight. Her mother also came out a minute ago and asked us to leave. What do you want us to do?”

Shifting minutely, Sesshoumaru considered the options available to him. As the shrine miko, Mrs. Higurashi would know the demons were still present if he were to order them to stay. Assuming he would actually care to do such a thing after the debacle in the kitchen.

“Just keep an eye on Kagome’s brother and grandfather when they are not on the shrine,” he ordered. Currently at school, Souta would be home shortly. Given their display of sibling affection in her apartment, he knew Kagome would be devastated should anything happen to him. He had yet to meet the elder male of the shrine, but knew Kagome harbored deep affection for him as well.

Mrs. Higurashi, by her words and actions, had taken herself out of his protection. Bound by her own Vow, she could not leave the twenty square mile shrine territory in any event.

His unease transmitting to her through the agitation of his aura, Kagome looked up at Sesshoumaru before closing her bag. Her mother wouldn’t allow Hiten and Manten to stay if they weren’t welcome, she realized. No matter how much it might ease her mind. In this way, her mother was attempting to guilt her into falling into line. It was underhanded, to use her fears for her family against her.

Kagome would have never believed her mother capable of such devious ploys. This was the woman who had deliberately gone behind her husband’s back to get pregnant because she felt she was losing him. Kagome didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Yet, even now, Kagome knew it was partly out of fear for her that her mother acted so desperately. If the rest of humanity viewed her split-second decision to give Sesshoumaru her Vow as the magazine author did…

She would become a pariah among her own species.

Kagome squared her shoulders stubbornly. Her mother was right about one thing. She was headstrong. And, if she wouldn’t let her own mother direct her life anymore, then she sure wasn’t going to let anyone else do so.

Her mother had made her choice. Just as Kagome had made hers.

Hiten nodded. “Sure thing.” Hesitating slightly when Kagome wiped her eyes clean with a spare shirt while resolutely stuffing another packet of photos into her bag, the thunder youkai added reassuringly, “It won’t be so bad for you in the Realm, Kagome. Maybe, in time, the humans will come around. Youkai already know that article was a crock of shit.”

Startled into meeting the elemental youkai’s gaze, Kagome asked, “What do you mean?”

Hiten rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. His eyes darted between Sesshoumaru and Kagome. “Well, the pictures told it all, in my mind. No offense, Sesshoumaru, but you looked like shit. If I could tell that you were just a breath away from death, then I should think it would be obvious that Kagome saved your life. The whole Vow thing, too, I mean, damn!” he exclaimed, forgetting his need to be quiet.

“You don’t think it was wrong?” Standing, Kagome walked over to join Sesshoumaru and Hiten at the window. She dragged her packed satchel with her.

Glancing oddly at the Daiyoukai, Hiten shook his head in the negative. Why hadn’t hadn’t Sesshoumaru told her yet? the confused youkai asked himself. “No way. I mean, from a youkai’s perspective, it just makes things that much easier. You know?” At her look of befuddlement, he recanted, “Or maybe you don’t know. I’ll leave the explanations to Sesshoumaru, though. That’s something you need to talk to your mate about. I can tell you that I’m excited to be alive to witness this!”

Gently nudging Kagome to get her moving away from the window, Sesshoumaru waved the thunder youkai away. “All explanations can wait for later. Your fee,” he told Hiten, “will stay the same. For now, Kagome and I will be in the Realm if you have any more questions or need to report any developments.”

“Will do,” Hiten said with a sexy smirk twisting his lips. Bounding from the roof, he disappeared into the canopy of the god tree. Far be it from him to keep the Daiyoukai from taking his woman home. He wondered how long it would take before Sesshoumaru claimed Kagome. Even if it did tickle his twisted sense of humor that the dog had been collared first.

--------------------------------

Clouds flew by as Kagome snuggled deeper into Sesshoumaru’s hold. Given that cars weren’t allowed within the Realm, in order to preserve the clean atmosphere, he’d left the Porshe in a private garage. After the fallout with his father, he’d rented the space to accommodate his pricey collection.

Blinking rapidly to clear her vision of the misty air fogging it, Kagome stared in bewilderment once the Youkai Realm came into view. “What’s going on?” she asked Sesshoumaru. Orientation made indistinguishable by the high altitude, a crowd of people were lined up outside the gates that guarded the entrance.

Appalled at the scene, the Daiyoukai growled angrily as his nose supplied what his eyes could not. “Humans.” Pests, he added silently.

Before Kagome, humans had been little more than a passing moment in his life. A secretary, or the one who prepared his supper in some café, or whatnot. Useful in their own way, one had been much like any other; small-minded and only concerned with their limited slice of mortality.

He could allow that there were a few that had managed to catch his attention over the years for being possessed of farsighted insights in regards to humanity on a whole and its flaws. Conservationists who attempted to halt the rape of the natural world. Philanthropists who reached out to those of poorer nations and tried to stem the needless deaths of the innocent...

Yet, to a one, none had ever cared to include youkai in their efforts. It was a divided world; youkai stood on one side and humans huddled on the other.

Youkai, as Kagome’s mother had so succinctly stated, were assumed content in their superiority. However much that may be so, Sesshoumaru cynically wondered why, with the growing number of scholarly human researchers delving into youkai nature and history, that none had discovered the truth behind a youkai’s disdain for interspecies relationships.

It was easier to assume that a youkai naturally disliked humans for their weaker bodies and abysmally short lifetimes. It was true that those traits did equate to the perception that humans were lesser beings to many youkai. Yet youkai did not treat humans as cattle, but as they would pups: unsteady in their movements, unable to defend themselves from a show of force, and intellectually inferior.

Yet, to maintain their air of wounded dignity, the vast majority of humans clung fast to their false beliefs rather than deducing the truth.

Sesshoumaru knew there were youkai who would kill a human without a thought. Those same youkai, however, would murder their own mothers if provoked. Humans however, were capable of dismissing youkai lives as insignificant. A youkai who is killed after many centuries of life is announced as ‘finally departed,’ rather than properly mourned as an individual of great experience who had much to impart to future generations.

Even in their laws, humans announced lesser sentences for a humans who would do injury to a youkai than to another human; citing the youkai’s ability to heal as negating the need for a longer sentence. To them, the indignity of the attack itself mattered not, as long as it was only a youkai who suffered.

It was the youkai who allowed the laws to stand. Who abided by the moral code of humans to protect the fragile peace between the two species, even when human practices were so unjustly executed.

And now, now that one human, Kagome, had placed her complete loyalty with him, above even the hallowed traditions of her family; indeed, of humans in general, humanity would rise to strike her down for her audacity.

Because she had shared her very soul with him after she had denied them.

A human could befriend a youkai. A human could even become the mate of a youkai. But when it came down to it, their loyalty was still owned by their species. Kagome, however, had crossed the line of human tolerance.

Despite what the fools contemplated, Sesshoumaru decided with frightfully keen insight as the placards the humans bore aloft on sticks came into view, she would not be made to pay for the perceived infraction. “They are showcasing their ignorance for the world to see, Kagome. They matter not.”

Subsiding into his arms, she clutched her satchel closer as the words that had been hastily scribbled onto cardboard and wood became clear. Traitor. Black-Hearted Miko. There were even a few that read: Youkai Oppressor. Slaver. Abomination.

Current resolve notwithstanding, Kagome felt her heart pinch in reaction to the pure hate that twisted the faces of the people that waited below with malice-darkened eyes. There were so many of them! As bad as the reporters had been, this crowd was easily three times as large. Would Sesshoumaru have to fight through them as he did the paparazzi?

Determinedly beginning their descent upon his youki cloud, Sesshoumaru willed his claws to fill with a poisonous mist. It would immediately put the foul humans to sleep. If he was lucky, perhaps it would prove to be a permanent condition. Such filth was undeserving of life.

Before he could deploy his poison, the gates to the Realm burst open. Leading the youkai that spilled forth from the depths of the wrought-iron tunnel, Kouga gleefully knocked two humans out by banging their heads together.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up,” he called out to the Daiyoukai. The humans had begun trickling in last night. Given that Kagome’s stay there was already old news, he’d been prepared for the onslaught of human pests. Around him, two dozen other youkai who had volunteered for clean-up duty dispatched the crowd without difficulty.

Kagome noted gratefully that the process was swift and bloodless for both youkai and humans. Some of the humans would wake up with a killer headache or would need some serious back re-alignment, but they were alive.

Catching sight of the woman’s pale features, Kouga didn’t speak further until Sesshoumaru had carried her through the tunnel.

Leaving the slumped figures of the dispatched mob behind, Sesshoumaru listened to the wolf mutter about idiot humans in an almost unintelligible voice.

Kouga cleared his throat once they were in the open Marketplace. “We heard about the shitty reception you got at the hospital,” he stated conversationally. The youkai community was abuzz with gossip about the insult to the Daiyoukai and his human mate.

The youkai in the Market made way for the trio, but then went about their business as if nothing of import had happened just outside the entrance.

Bewildered, Kagome looked to Sesshoumaru for an explanation. “Such things are easily dismissed,” he offered by way of explanation.

Striding purposefully through the crowd of youkai, he carried Kagome away from the heart of the Marketplace. Content to remain silent for now, Kouga trailed along.

When the small group reached the tree-line that demarcated the Market’s end, Kouga stopped. “We still on for that fight?” he asked hopefully. He had plans for the meeting between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. Plans that he’d had to forestall with the mess surrounding the inuyoukai.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes on the pushy wolf contemplatively. Something about Kouga’s insistence in meeting him in battle, even a mock one, hinted at hidden motives. “Tomorrow at noon is acceptable. However, we will meet at my rooms rather than the dojo. Kagome is still not healed entirely, and I will not move her about more than absolutely necessary.”

Kagome protested, “I’m not that hurt, Sesshoumaru. If you want to spar at the dojo, I can stay home while you go. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

Two identical looks of male condescension landed upon her. “Sure you are,” Kouga said patronizingly. He smirked at Sesshoumaru. “I’ve got a feeling she’s going to keep you quite busy.”

“Indeed.” That was something he had known from the beginning. It was a challenge he looked forward to engaging in.

“Hey!” she exclaimed irritably. “I’m still here!”

Suddenly serious, the wolf youkai ignored her protestations to glance over his shoulder at the walls of the Realm that loomed over the trees. “They will hold the crowds out, Sesshoumaru. They were not meant to guard, however, merely isolate. One or two stealthy ones might slip in. Even now, too, a youkai could be bought,” he warned.

Countering Kouga’s concerns, Sesshoumaru replied, “I already have connections in the youkai dredges. They will not be a concern.” And they wouldn’t. Hiten and Manten were well known in their element, and they had already placed Kagome under their protection. None of their competition would dare to cross them for fear of retribution. As for the humans… “All others will be dealt with,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Kagome shivered in reaction to the dark promise that coated each word in impenetrable ice.

-----------------------------

The next morning, Kagome groaned into the feather pillow. By the time they had arrived home last night, she had been bone weary and heart-sore. All questions, she had decided, could wait. After a light repast, Sesshoumaru had put her to bed with the last of the sedatives the nurse had slipped him.

Now, clad only in the loose, white pants of his fighting gi, he was bent over her prone position. “This may hurt,” he warned.

Groaning, currently topless and face down on the pillow, Kagome rolled her eyes. He’d done it twice just today, so she already knew to brace herself. “Just be quick about it, Sesshoumaru,” she groused.

She winced sharply when the tape holding the gauze in place was ripped off in one smooth movement. The bruised flesh tingled as fresh air hit the wound. “Ow!” she yelped.

Deeply masculine chuckles had her skin tingling for an entirely different reason. “You whimper like a pup,” Sesshoumaru teased while balling the gauze up. He threw it into the small trashcan beside the bed.

Gasping in mock outrage, Kagome stretched her arms above her head to ease the tension in her injured shoulder. “You are so mean. No sympathy for my pain.” Grimacing as the torn muscle protested, Kagome quickly pulled her arms back to her side.

Fingers expertly probed the stitches to test their strength. The Daiyoukai chided, “The wound will not heal if you pull on the stitches too soon, Kagome.” He may not know much about human biology or recovery periods, but after countless injuries from sparring his father, Sesshoumaru knew about wounds. Uncapping the ointment, he dabbed a generous amount on the tips of his fingers before gently applying it to the injury.

A pained hiss escaped from between clenched lips, and Kagome tightly gripped the bed sheets. After having Jaken fetch her medicines from the pharmacy outside the Realm yesterday, Sesshoumaru had been a bear about studiously following the doctor’s directions.

It was currently eleven in the morning, and she knew he was looking forward to the noon meeting with Kouga. He didn’t let it deter him from torturing her, however. Since she planned on using the time during which he was distracted to take a bath, Kagome didn’t complain. Too much.

Even if the horse pills the doctor had prescribed made her want to retch.

Finally, she saw him pick up the roll of fresh gauze from the corner of her eye. Swiftly cutting a swath with his claws, Sesshoumaru taped it over the stitches. He wiped his hand clean of the ointment on a spare towel, but Kagome caught his arm before he could move away. She tugged gently, and he complied to the silent entreaty in her soft blue eyes.

Sliding down, he laid on his back. To protect her injured shoulder, he guided her to rest upon him, her breasts pillowed against his chest. With steady hands on her lower back, he softly stroked her smooth skin.

Refusing to give in to the tranquility of the moment, Kagome sighed regretfully at the need to sully the peace with questions. But she’d put some off for too long; and right now, she needed answers more than another nap.

“Will you tell me about what Hiten meant?” she blurted out after deciding that there was no adequate lead-in for her inquiry.

His hands stilled upon her back for a moment before he resumed the massage. Carefully considering each word, Sesshoumaru replied, “Hiten spoke of the Vow. You wish to know why he, as a youkai, feels differently about it than the humans thus far?”

She nodded against his chest. Gliding through the fur that lay sleekly on his side, her fingers lightly scratched against his skin.

Repressing a shiver at the sensation, Sesshoumaru realized that his youki was strangely quiet. At rest. It was a telling observation. “In the simplest of terms, you mated me, Kagome.”

“Oh.” She mulled that over for a minute. “Is that why you now refer to me as your mate?” The fact had not escaped her, but the opportunity to ask him about it hadn’t come sooner. Then her brow scrunched up in confusion. “But we didn’t, um, do anything. How are we now mates?”

His chest shook with mirth. “A human misconception. Mating normally occurs during or after sexual intercourse. During such times, a youkai’s power is heightened to the point that it is easier to access without causing harm to the one being claimed.” He stroked a hand down her uninjured arm, twining his fingers with hers. “By giving me your Vow, you presented me with your power. I accepted it. This is the process of true mating. The ritual will be complete when I return the gesture.”

“I don’t regret it, but, Sesshoumaru, I hadn’t planned on this happening. How would we have been mated, if you say that a power exchange is what signifies the bond?” It was a conundrum of irritatingly important dimensions. Had he not meant mate in the way that she’d taken it? Or was there some other way that youkai mated humans?

He squeezed her hand, cutting off her wandering thoughts. Careful of her shoulder, Sesshoumaru pulled her closer and cradled her in his arms so that their eyes could meet. “I would have given you my power, thus marking you as mine. A mate’s youki serves as a signature of ownership. It resides within their partner, and even after death, the power will follow the deceased into the afterlife.”

Taken aback, Kagome questioned, “But, wouldn’t losing their power make them weaker?” She didn’t know much about youkai on whole, but one thing that had been drilled into her from a young age was that they craved power. Whether in body, politics, or something else entirely, it mattered not.

Smiling proudly that she had hit upon the main point, Sesshoumaru said, “That, Kagome, is why youki is shared during mating. It is also why mating is based more upon power than true affection. Youkai seek strength so that they will not be weakened after the mating. This is also why youkai disdain a mating between our species. It offends their most basic sensibilities.”

“I would have weakened you,” Kagome stated softly as the realization hit her hard. “With the Vow, you have my reiki. It isn’t youki, and it hurts you to do so, but you can use it. However, you were going to mate me without it.”

He sighed. “It is the way of all youkai who chose humans to mate, Kagome. I had accepted the potential loss of youki in favor of gaining you for my mate. Nothing else mattered.”

Following his words, shining blue eyes spoke to him of absolute adoration. Edging up, she kissed his chin before pulling back to smile cheekily. “A few more words like that and I may just have to keep you.”

He growled, nipping her lightly on the tip of her nose. “It is too late to change your mind. You claimed me, and I accepted. All that remains is for me,” he pulled her closer to nip her ear, “to claim you.” Smirking at her delightful shiver, his chest thrummed contentedly at the fact that it was not his youki inciting such a delicious reaction. Only the whisper of his voice across the delicate shell of her small, rounded ear, was needed to warm her blood. Wickedly, Sesshoumaru added in a husky murmur, “And you will accept, will you not?”

Aroused by the heat of his body and the way he spoke so arrogantly of his right to her, Kagome swallowed a moan threatening to escape. “How could I not?” she whispered back. Then, reveling in her newfound knowledge, she grew a sensual smirk all of her own. “I did claim you first, so I suppose it is only fair that I allow you to reciprocate. And, if you need any pointers on how it’s done, I’m here for you.”

Snorting, the Daiyoukai pressed a silencing kiss onto her impudent mouth. “Wench,” he mocked after pulling away to stare upon her moistened lips, “while it is not necessary to be intimate in order to mate, in order to handle what I have planned, you must heal. Do not think to press me. I can be most creative when challenged. Unless, of course, that was your objective?” If she was so eager to be mated, he would be more than willing to accommodate her.

Embarrassed, yet oddly intrigued by his insinuation, Kagome settled her head just under his chin. “Well, I am a tad bit curious. Just a little, mind you, as to what you have planned. But, I would also like to be in, uh, full-functioning form when it occurs.”

“‘Tad bit?’ he repeated, “‘Just a little,’ hmmm?” He snorted. “You are a terrible liar. Your body already sings for me. Two weeks, Kagome, and the stitches come out.” Even if he would spend the majority of the time pained by unrequited lust, it would be time well spent. She still had not yet accepted everything that had happened. It was perhaps a self-defensive move of her mind to hide away the full brunt of her changed reality. But he would be there to help her adjust.

Chapter Twenty-Three

She’d been wanting to meet Inuyasha for some time now. Even before she’d been approached by Sesshoumaru, in fact. The circumstances of his birth, along with everything that he had dealt with for being born a hanyou, had attracted her attention much like Sesshoumaru’s plight had. Except, for Sesshoumaru she felt a fierce attraction and now also devotion. For the hanyou, she was only moved by compassion.

Said compassion was currently taking a beating as yet more filth spilled from the male’s mouth. She had given up a bath for this? Kagome asked herself ruefully.

Sesshoumaru had taken matters into his own hands when she’d asked to remain indoors. After preparing a blanket in the little bit of shade offered by the imposing building, he’d carried her outside. She’d given in after he had tersely informed her that Kouga would see it as an insult to himself were she not present.

Not given to enjoying bloodsports of any kind, Kagome had swallowed her objections. Resigned to the inevitable, as she wouldn’t allow him to lose face if she could help it, Kagome had then been treated to a sweet kiss that had effectively stripped the pout off her lips.

Before anything else could happen, Kouga and Inuyasha had shown up. The wolf youkai, dressed in a fur ensemble that looked more appropriate for a prehistoric B-movie than a sparring match, stalked into the clearing as if he owned the place. Attired in a simple pair of jeans, a red t-shirt, and a fierce scowl, Inuyasha had followed at a slower pace.

The brothers had initially pretended the other wasn’t there. Then Kouga made the mistake of hopping over to Kagome’s side and introduced her to the hanyou. “This is Higurashi, Kagome. I’m sure you remember her.”

Inuyasha looked her over derisively. “Not much in the daylight, is she? Of course, I wouldn’t have expected more from any bitch of yours, Sesshoumaru,” he stated sarcastically. “The woman has to have some serious issues if she’s willing to put up with your frigid ass.”

Taken completely aback by his utter rudeness, Kagome wasn’t fast enough to dissuade Sesshoumaru from throwing a reprimanding punch at the hanyou’s jaw. Sneering, Sesshoumaru moved to stand protectively in front of Kagome’s seated position. “You will speak respectfully to my female, Inuyasha, or not at all,” the Daiyoukai ordered demandingly.

Refusing to give the older inuyoukai the pleasure of seeing how bad that hit had hurt, Inuyasha refrained from feeling up his jaw. “I didn’t come here to play nice, you bastard!” Inuyasha shouted coarsely. “Kouga said he knew something about Kikyo.” He glared balefully at the smiling wolf. “Then the asshole said I had to come here to find out what it was!”

Sesshoumaru’s irritated scrutiny switched to the ookami. He had known there was something deeper than a need to test his strength in the ookami’s machinations. “I do not take kindly to those who waste my time, wolf.” Itching for a fight, a reaction only Inuyasha seemed to engender within him so effortlessly, Sesshoumaru rolled his shoulders to ease the tension twisting the muscles there into formidable knots.

“Who is Kikyo?” came the soft question from beneath the glares of the three males. Softening his penetrating stare for her benefit, Sesshoumaru looked over his shoulder at Kagome. “The hanyou’s woman. She is a human miko, like yourself.”

“The hell there’s anything similar about my woman and yours!” Inuyasha protested stridently. “Besides, I found mine first!”

“Found yours first?” Kagome repeated in ominously stilted tones. “What is that supposed to mean?” Was he somehow implying what she thought he was?

Inuyasha sneered nastily after regaining his feet. “Exactly what I said.” Pointing an obnoxious finger at his half-brother, the hanyou assumed a superior pose. “I found Kikyo, and then, all of a sudden, he’s sniffing after you. It’s obvious he was just jealous of my woman and had to go hunting for one like her.” He looked her over carefully, taking note of her even, if only vaguely pretty, features. “You even kinda look like her. That’s some freaky shit, Sesshoumaru.”

Irritated at the imbecile’s false deductions, Sesshoumaru snorted regally. “I think not, baka. I have known Kagome for almost three months. You claimed your female a mere month ago.”

Sputtering, Inuyasha blurted out, “How the hell did you know that? I haven’t even told the old man yet!” He’d been waiting for the right moment to make itself known. So far, however, there hadn’t been a single minute that hadn’t been devoted to Kikyo or fulfilling the demands of being heir. Loath though he was to admit it, Inuyasha was amazed at how Sesshoumaru had managed for almost two hundred years under that kind of pressure. It had only been a few days, and he was ready to cut the traces and run.

Flicking an imaginary piece of lint off his sleeve, Sesshoumaru’s brow raised in amusement. “Father may turn a blind eye to your peccadilloes, but as the heir at the time, I was responsible for overseeing your activities. To ensure you brought no shame upon the bloodline, of course.”

Flabbergasted, Inuyasha’s amber gaze was clouded. Why didn’t his father know, if Sesshoumaru did? he silently questioned. For what purpose had his brother held silent on his mating Kikyo? For taking her to mate without his father’s permission, Inuyasha could have been ostracized. He’d told his mother, of course, but she had promised to remain quiet on that front.

“Problems, hanyou?” Sesshoumaru taunted at the male’s obvious confusion. He had better things to do than tattle on the brat. Evidently, the hanyou thought he lived to do just that. What did he care if his hanyou brother mated? As long as the female didn’t attempt to claim his time or press his patience, it was none of his affair.

“Keh.” Inuyasha crossed his arms. “Fuck you.” He turned to Kouga. “Tell me why the hell I’m here, so I can leave. My day is already shot to shit.”

Kouga’s air of amusement vanished. Uncharacteristically somber, he said, “Well, what I have to say won’t be an improvement on your temper.” Hence Sesshoumaru’s presence. It had been a risky move on his part, but he knew the hanyou’s volatile temperament. Add to that his unstable blood, and what Kouga had to reveal promised danger.

For Inuyasha, of course.

He wasn’t afraid of the younger male, not by a long shot. But when the hanyou lost control, and Inuyasha had done so repeatedly, only the Tashio had been capable of bringing him back to sanity. Kouga hoped Sesshoumaru would prove just as effective a dose of reality. He needed Inuyasha sane and alive.

Impatiently tapping his foot, Inuyasha scoffed, “Yeah? Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Kagome interrupted Kouga before he could begin. “Um, maybe I should go inside? This is obviously a private matter.” The last thing she wanted to do was overhear something embarrassing.

Shaking his head in denial, Sesshoumaru curtly replied, “No. You will stay where you are.” He knew she had plans, plans that would test her recovery should she pursue them alone. Not to mention the fact that he was looking forward to assisting her in her bath.

Kagome glowered. “No?” Since when did he come off talking to her like that? Especially in front of others! Ignoring the twinge in her shoulder, Kagome crossed her arms under her breasts mutinously. Something held her back from completely rebelling against his order, but she made it known with a hard glare that she was not happy with it.

Lips twitching, Inuyasha coughed to hide the telling gesture behind a fist. He may dislike the bastard with the burning intensity of a thousand suns, but he knew that look. Kikyo had been giving it to him often enough as of late.

Somebody was in deep shit, and for once, it wasn’t him.

Sesshoumaru knew he’d pricked her temper when her aura flared coldly against his own. Kagome did not do cold. Not unless she was truly peeved. Slanting her a suspicious glance to ensure she still obeyed him, the Daiyoukai wondered how long it would take for her to forget her anger.

“Okay-” Kouga glanced between the now-warring couple and the hanyou. Kami, the drama surrounding these three would be amusing or beyond amazing if he wasn’t involved. Especially considering the impossibility of the fact that Sesshoumaru truly looked wary of the woman. That was something he would take to his grave, of course, but was still a tasty tidbit of knowledge. “Inuyasha, concerning Kikyo. I was going to tell you the last time I saw you at the gym, but thought better of it. Now, however, with everything that has happened with your brother-”

“Half-brother,” Inuyasha interrupted petulantly. Sesshoumaru cut his eyes at the idiot, and Kagome sighed in exasperation. She’d only known Inuyasha for all of five minutes, and he was already grating on her nerves.

“Whatever, inu-baka. Just shut up and listen!” Kouga growled out in irritation. If it wasn’t for the sake of the Realm, he’d…

For once, Inuyasha didn’t take offense to the name. “Fine, fuck-face. Just go on,” he said finally.

All amusement gone, Kouga glared at Inuyasha. “I saw your precious mate with Kagura a few weeks ago. Just yesterday, I spotted her with Naraku and his little mistress Kaguya, as well.”

“Kagura?” Kagome interjected before Inuyasha could explode. “What is wrong with his mate being with her? I know you don’t like her, but she’s my friend too,” she stated defensively.

Surveying her flushed cheeks, Kouga looked beseechingly towards to Daiyoukai. Sesshoumaru only stared right back. Cursing the inu for forcing him to be the bearer of bad news, Kouga cleared his throat nervously. “Kagura has a bad history in the Realm,” he said as gently as possible. “I know you think that you are friends with her, but she would only have befriended you on her father’s orders.”

Incredulous, Kagome looked up at Sesshoumaru for him to deny the accusation. When he turned his face away instead, she scrambled to her feet to tug on his arm. The gala, she remembered. Kagura had said something about Naraku’s interference with friends at the gala. Had that been a belated warning? “Sesshoumaru? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sesshoumaru covered her hand with his calloused palm. “It didn’t matter, Kagome. After our meeting in the gala, I knew Kagura would stay away. You are under my protection, and as such, she knew you were off limits.” He hesitated slightly at the pain radiating from within the depths of her soulful eyes. “I wanted to save you the unnecessary anguish, Kagome.”

Gagging, Inuyasha scoffed, “Yeah, right. Since when did you become Mr. Sensitivity?” His brain hurt from trying to reconcile the time-tested picture of Sesshoumaru that he’d carried around for his entire twenty-five years with the wholly alien side of the Daiyoukai that was now coming forth in the presence of this woman.

“Would you be quiet for one minute?” Kagome snapped. Kami, he was so childish! Tense, she turned back to interrogating her mate. “You promised no more secrets, Sesshoumaru. So, tell me now, just what has she done that would warrant your low opinion?”

Giving in to the inevitable, Sesshoumaru explained, “A few years ago, Kagura was planted within the Realm as a spy by her father. Naraku had just been elected to office, and he was eager to prove himself. Within the Realm, there is no law other than youkai law. However, if a crime occurs against a human, and the perpetrator is apprehended outside the Realm, then the offense is punishable by human law.”

Catching on, Kagome asked, “And Kagura helped Naraku catch a youkai outside the Realm?”

Kouga further elaborated, his voice husky with emotion as he recounted the terrible day, “It was my pack that was hurt by her accusations, Kagome. I am the son of the Northern Lord, but I also have a very large pack. All wolves do. My cousin, Ginta, had been partying in one of the Market clubs called The Den. It’s a rowdy place, but some humans go there looking for a good time and a youkai bed partner. Ginta picked up a hot piece of ass. Only, when he got her home, she turned cold. He was pissed, and rightfully so in my mind, but he respected her wishes to return to the club. Sometime between his place and the club they were attacked. Ginta was knocked out cold. When he woke up, he was covered in blood. The woman, dead, was laying beside him.”

Paling, Kagome grasped Sesshoumaru’s fingers. He pulled her closer to his side with a comforting arm about her shoulders. Intrigued, since he hadn’t heard the story before, Inuyasha remained attentive.

Kouga continued, “Ginta came to me and told me everything. He was a good youkai. Nothing would have induced him to kill that woman. Especially not over an aborted lay! However, the human’s family demanded reparation for her death, and he was the only suspect. Yet, as I said, within the Realm, only youkai law rules. Here, we knew better than to assume he’d killed the woman. Kagura, however, seduced Ginta. She got him to meet her outside the Realm. He was then seized by human authorities under the direction of the new Sheriff, Naraku. After a one day trial and sentencing, Ginta was executed for her murder. We didn’t even know he’d been taken until his body was delivered for burial.”

Kagome felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. All this time she’d never imagined Kagura capable of something like that. “Are you sure,” she finally whispered in a last ditch effort to salvage the image she’d held of her university friend, “that it was her?”

“Oh, yes,” Kouga breathed out venomously. “I know damn well it was her. Ginta may have been foolish enough to fall for her lies, but I was his Alpha. He left me a note, telling me where he went and who he was with. I didn’t find it until it was too late. On top of that damning evidence, Kagura was given a fucking medal for honorable service for her efforts to ‘rid the Western Province of crime.’”

“Kami,” she breathed out sorrowfully, “I’m so, so sorry, Kouga.”

Head cocked to the side, the ookami regarded her steadily. “I think you really mean that.” It was a rare occasion for him. That a human would commiserate with him for his loss. If he didn’t have better faith in Sesshoumaru’s judgment of a person’s character, he’d almost think she was too good to be true.

Shrugging away the comment, Kagome leaned on Sesshoumaru‘s arm. “I do mean it. At least now I know why you were so abrasive towards her at the gala. But, I don’t understand. If Naraku executed your cousin unjustly, why haven’t you sought justice for him? I mean, if it was me, I’d have scratched his eyes out at the gala, not stood so calmly next to him. Or Kagura, for that matter.”

“There is more at stake than the life of my pack member, now, Kagome.” Kouga’s attention switched to Inuyasha. “That’s why you need to know about Kikyo. After I went over the various probabilities with my father, he’s convinced Kikyo was a plant.”

Rage flickered to life. Inuyasha snarled, “I don’t think so you asshole! Kikyo is my mate. She loves me and would never betray me!”

Startled by the wild pulsing of the hanyou’s aura, Kagome instinctively sought to sooth it. “Do you have anything other than a few meetings with Naraku and Kagura to prove that, Kouga?”

Glancing warily at Inuyasha, Kouga admitted, “I’ve had someone following her since the other day. Yesterday, she was seen with Naraku again. This time at a motel in downtown Tokyo. Alone.”

“You son-of-a-bitch! Kikyo would never cheat on me!” Inuyasha growled out fiercely before smiling victoriously. “I’ve never smelled him in her, so there’s the proof that she’s innocent!”

Kouga’s face twisted in pity as he looked to Sesshoumaru for help. Confused, Kagome wondered what was so important that Kouga would defame the absent Kikyo.

Bored with the dramatics, Sesshoumaru stepped into the impossible task of talking sense into the hanyou. He, too, was curious as to why the wolf needed Inuyasha to admit to Kikyo’s disloyalty. “Inuyasha.”

“No, you bastard! You stay out of it!” A clawed finger wavered angrily as it pointed at the Daiyoukai. “You don’t know nothing about Kikyo. None of you do!” She’d mated him, a hanyou, when other women snubbed him. She was shy, but polite. Nice, but with a temper to rival his. She would never do what they insinuated! She couldn’t!

Irritated with the entire scene, Sesshoumaru waved a hand at Kouga. “You will tell me what purpose you hope to serve with your revelations.” If this was simply yet another attempt to rile the hanyou and himself, he’d ensure the ookami never attempted such again.

“Father has reason to believe that Naraku has been the silent force behind the underground movement to abolish the Realm. Naraku has always been vocal about how ‘unfair’ to humans it was. Recently, with all of the human women being killed off, as it isn’t only within the Western Province that they are being murdered, tensions between the youkai and humans are high. The West has been able to hide the deaths so far, but the other Provinces have not. The humans within my territories blame youkai for the deaths. They also think the ones responsible are hiding within the Realm.”

Sesshoumaru’s eyes slitted thoughtfully. If that was true, and Naraku was the one responsible, his Father had more on his hands than a few rogue malcontents. Kouga spoke of insurrection. “And Kikyo?”

“She is a spy, to be used to gather information from within the Tashio’s household. At least, that’s what we assume without knowing more on it. We have, however, recovered documentation from Naraku’s household. In it, the blueprints for the Tashio’s estate were outlined. Along with plans to replace the Realm with a string of shrines. One of which Kikyo will be elected head Maiden.”

“Liar!” Roaring to life, Inuyasha’s tenuous grasp on sanity slipped away completely.

Reacting instantly to the threat, Kouga leaped away from the sloppy but potentially deadly swipe to his jugular. Sesshoumaru pushed Kagome behind him. “Inuyasha, control yourself,” he commanded.

Red-eyed, Inuyasha turned on his half-brother. He snarled while blue stripes flared to life on pale cheeks. Spittle and drool flew threw the air as he howled his outrage to the sky.

Disgusted with the display, Sesshoumaru calculated the chances that Inuyasha would recover. Having been lost to rage before, Inuyasha had never come back to his right frame of mind without assistance. Encumbered by Kagome’s presence, the Daiyoukai would also need to account for her vulnerability.

Damn it, he didn’t need this, he thought angrily. Now, for the sake of his female, he would actually have to stoop to helping the wild-blooded whelp.

Claws outstretched, Inuyasha leapt for Sesshoumaru’s throat. Grunting, Sesshoumaru caught the foolish male by the neck. Inuyasha snarled and spat at him like a neko, scratching his brother’s outstretched arm and laying open the flesh.

Irritated, the Daiyoukai shook the insane hanyou roughly. “Calm yourself, Inuyasha, before I do so for you.”

The hanyou howled again. Digging deeply with his claws, Inuyasha hit bone after swiping at the Daiyoukai’s face.

Snarling as pain ripped across his cheek, Sesshoumaru gave up attempting to use reason to reach the peanut brain of his brother. Twirling gracefully on his toes, he tossed Inuyasha over his shoulder.

Flying through the air, the male landed on his feet. Kouga jumped at him, kicking the hanyou in the back of the head. Stumbling, Inuyasha retaliated with a powerful punch to the ookami’s stomach. Snarling in instinctive outrage at the attack, Kouga lost a bit of his cool to the heat of his own rising blood.

Horrified by it all, Kagome stared from the dueling pair as they tore up the ground with feral outrage to where Sesshoumaru stood. “You’re bleeding,” she gasped out upon noticing the crimson staining his fur.

“Hn. It is nothing, Kagome. Do not worry yourself on my account.” Even as they spoke, his youki was knitting up the gash on his forearm while the slashes across his cheek were already healed.

“You idiot!” Kagome hissed. She stepped around his tall form to punch him in the stomach. It hurt just as much as the last time, but she felt immeasurably better.

Startled into looking away from the battle between the wolf and the hanyou, the Daiyoukai stared down upon his mate incredulously. He was not to be likened to the hanyou. By using the moniker he was most fond of applying to the half-breed, she had struck a frayed nerve. “Excuse me?” he asked coldly.

“You heard me!” she yelled back. “I can’t believe you just stood there and let him cut you up! What if he’d really hurt you, you arrogant jerk!”

As there were tears welling up in her eyes, Sesshoumaru decided not to take offense at the insinuation that the hanyou was even capable of truly harming him. She was reacting out of concern for him. For that, he would respect her feelings, even if he still did not like the tone she took with him. “I am youkai, Kagome. I will heal.”

Folding her arms across her breasts, Kagome tapped her foot irritably. “I don’t care if you are youkai! I don’t like seeing you hurt! Don’t do it again, okay?” she asked in a slightly softer voice. “It hurts me to see you in pain, even if you wouldn’t ever admit to feeling it.”

“Yo, Sesshoumaru, hope I’m not interrupting anything, but feel free to jump in here any minute now!” Kouga called out after dodging another swipe from the still feral hanyou.

Scowling, the Daiyoukai noticed that the ookami was slowing. Either he was attempting to draw in the hanyou for a closer attack, or Inuyasha’s blood, diluted it may be, was still stronger than the ookami’s. Given his previous experience sparring the ookami and knowing his own blood’s strength, Sesshoumaru was inclined to believe the latter.

Modern youkai, the Daiyoukai scoffed, really needed to work out more. Especially if they couldn’t handle a battle for more than five minutes at a time.

Leaping into the fray, Sesshoumaru’s form blurred as he sped towards his wild sibling. Slamming into him, Sesshoumaru knocked the breath out of the raging male. Carried into the sky on a giant leap, he waited until gravity began to work upon their bodies. Whirling around ferociously fast, he threw the hanyou forcefully toward the approaching ground.

Kagome stumbled as the ground shook beneath her feet upon impact with the hanyou-turned-meteor. “Wow,” she breathed out in awe as she sprinted to the crater formed by the body of the fallen male. Staring into the hole, she figured it was at least twenty feet deep. Face first in the dirt, only the rapid rise and fall of Inuyasha’s back assured her that he wasn’t dead.

“Why didn’t I think of that,” was Kouga’s only response to seeing the large crater and the one who occupied it after walking over to her side.

Sesshoumaru landed nimbly on Kagome’s other side. He stared dispassionately upon his handiwork. “He will wake. I assume, as Father has done this before, that the blow will have returned him to his natural idiotic self.”

Sighing, Kagome only shook her head at his lack of feeling for his brother. The Tashio had a lot to answer for, was all she could think as she began the short walk back to the rooms. For now, she needed a nice, hot cup of tea. All the testosterone had made her jittery.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Bracing herself for the impact, Kagome caught the teacup before it smashed on the stone floor. Six times. Six times, Sesshoumaru had been compelled to slam Inuyasha into the floor since Kouga had dragged the hanyou through the doors. Each time, the enraged male had risen with bloodlust burning brightly in his eyes.

Were it not for the fact that she could tell Sesshoumaru was as bored by the whole thing as she was, she’d have put a halt to it long ago. Her Daiyoukai wasn’t being cruel. He certainly couldn’t let Inuyasha run amok in the Realm. It was time, however, to take matters into her own hands.

“Sesshoumaru?” she called out from the couch. Crouched by the hanyou’s head, he looked up. “Can you use my powers right now?” she asked.

Curious as to where she was going with that line of questioning, Sesshoumaru nodded. “It is possible.” It would hurt, as her powers attempted to eat away at his youki once they were released from within his soul. Yet, due to inheriting a portion of his mother’s celestial heritage, he was naturally immune to the full brunt of spiritual energy. Even as powerful as Kagome’s was proving to be.

Sighing in relief, Kagome wondered why she hadn’t thought of this before. “Well, I’m not sure how she did it, but I’ve seen a miko force a hanyou back under control by slightly purifying the demonic side. They are human enough that it isn’t fatal, and he should recover in a few days.” Taking a last swallow of her tepid tea, Kagome set the cup on the table. “I don’t have the control it takes to do something like that, but maybe you can.”

Sesshoumaru glanced thoughtfully at the passed out hanyou. The wild aura still beat weakly against his youki. If this kept up for too long, Inuyasha’s tenuous grasp on his sanity would be severed permanently.

Kouga interjected, “Ah, Are you sure that’s a good idea?” The Vow aside, seeing a youkai actually use reiki would be odd to say the least. Assuming Sesshoumaru could even do such a thing.

“Kagome, come here,” Sesshoumaru ordered from Inuyasha’s side, ignoring the ookami’s doubts. Kagome complied easily enough and kneeled on the ground by his side. “If the power grows out of control, you should be able to call it back in line,” he informed her knowledgeably. “You cannot retrieve it, but as it is your essence, no matter the fact that I now possess it, it should obey you.”

Swallowing apprehensively, she gave a short nod of her head. “I’ll do my best.” It was a nerve-wracking thought, that she could be responsible for hurting him if she failed.

Wary, Kouga moved away from the trio to take up a place beside the doors. If this plan backfired, he wanted the fastest way out. He refused to go down in history as having been purified by a Daiyoukai!

Sesshoumaru called upon the reiki. It rose quietly, apologetic even, as the peaceful energy burned through his youkai body. Hissing, he held his own youki at bay as it howled to answer the unintended challenge.

Observing the battle, Kagome winced in sympathy for his pain. She shifted closer, wrapping her arms about his waist. Willing the youki within him to stay calm, she pressed her face into his neck as she asked it to embrace her power. Only to Sesshoumaru’s body could her reiki cause harm-his youki was much too powerful for even her to overcome-yet from that, she would protect him. An answering echo resounded from within Sesshoumaru’s essence, and Kagome gasped.

It was her own soul that had answered her plea. The pure energy shifted, coalescing and conforming to heed her. Hesitantly, his power receded from the battle; embraced in the warm, soothing strength, it trusted the honesty of her soul’s desire against even its primal instincts of self-preservation.

Kagome relaxed against the Daiyoukai’s body, unmindful of Kouga’s incredulous, gaping expression or the chill of the floor. Entranced by the sensation of completeness she felt in that moment, the woman sighed blissfully.

In Sesshoumaru’s hands, her reiki had found the purpose that she had denied it. She had never felt so relieved and needed.

Sesshoumaru carefully coiled the holy power about his hands in an invisible rope. Tendrils of pink interspersed with purple-the result of brief flickers of his power joining with hers-began to spark along his palms. The pain was negligible now, Kagome’s presence soothing it until it was nothing but an annoying twinge in his joints.

Once he thought he had enough power gathered, he slowly lowered his hand to the hanyou’s neck. The offending youki flared in protest, but to no avail. Inuyasha’s skin smoked. The scent of burnt flesh pervaded the air with its stench.

Kagome swallowed her bile at the horrendous smell, but was amazed to watch as, slowly, the white hair darkened with shadows until it was as black as night. The ears melted away, receding into his hairline as pink, human shells grew in their wake.

Not satisfied until there was only a sputtering flame of youki remaining, Sesshoumaru pulled back.

“Is he okay?” Kagome whispered once she felt his withdrawal.

Turning the hanyou-turned-human over, Sesshoumaru grunted at the sight of his half-brother‘s peaceful expression. “He will live.” And he would retain his sanity. What remained of it, that is, he added silently. Not all hanyou were plagued with the unsteady blood of his sibling. While there was the added danger of losing control, that was something all youkai had to deal with on some level. Inuyasha, as an individual, lacked the temperament necessary to control himself. Brash and foolhardy, he was his own worst enemy.

Given how far he had gone this time, Sesshoumaru was left to wonder if Inuyasha could survive another transformation. At that realization, an unwanted sense of understanding came over the Daiyoukai. Plagued as he was by his own internal demons, the thought that he would go insane had never bothered him. Betrayed by his body, he was in complete control of his mind. Inuyasha didn’t even have that.

Quietly taking in the telling expressions flitting through Sesshoumaru’s eyes, Kagome stroked his arm.

Interrupting the moment, Kouga loudly yawned. “Well, there isn’t much more for me to do here. Just let Inuyasha know that there’s going to be a meeting at my Father’s estate tomorrow. He needs to be there,” he added seriously, “to hear what evidence we have gathered. This is a threat to all of us. First the Realm, then what? Will we be forced to surrender even our rights as mates or pack?”

Flicking his gaze to the wolf, the Daiyoukai uttered, “He will be told. His cooperation cannot be guaranteed, however. This you know. Has my father been informed of the new developments?” That he, himself, had been unaware of a plot underneath his own nose was unacceptable.

Kouga wiped the back of his neck nervously. “Well, you see, about that-”

Narrowing his eyes, Sesshoumaru gripped Kagome’s arm to help her stand beside him as he rose. “What do you seek to hide, wolf?” he asked demandingly, cutting off the stem of excuses that had been sure to flow from Kouga‘s mouth.

The nervous hand dropped and Kouga groaned. His father was not going to like this, but he knew better than to lie to Sesshoumaru. If they wanted the inu’s cooperation, then it would take nothing less than the truth. “We aren’t sure, but we think he might, just might, be in on it.”

“Blasphemy,” Sesshoumaru growled out. His father working with that vile hanyou? Then, his mind conjured up the image of the fateful meeting at the gala. Naraku’s sly insinuations had been timed to perfection just prior to his father’s entrance. Naraku, the bastard, had even been nominated to his position by the Tashio as was dictated by tradition.

At the time of the debacle of Ginta’s execution, Sesshoumaru had simply assumed Naraku had worked without his father’s permission. Yet, it had been his father who had awarded Kagura the medal. His father who had known all along that Naraku worked to undermine the Realm’s stability. “Your evidence, it is solid?”

Kouga shook his head. “Not on your father, no. Just a few pieces here and there. Not to mention his attitude toward youkai in general. I know you don’t want to hear it, and as his heir, the discontent of those who feared his disdain was kept from your ears, but he is not well-liked among youkai. He, and the rest of the high-brow youkai who like to pretend they are better than those of us who are governed by our instincts, would demolish any link to their origins. They mimic humanity, and would force the rest of us to forgo our heritage for the sake of their sensibilities.”

“Why? Why would he do that?” Kagome asked in a bemused voice. “I don’t understand. I thought your father followed youkai traditions. That’s why he was upset with you, wasn’t it?”

Contemplative, Sesshoumaru absently answered, “Father has always touted that traditions are not the same as youkai instincts. To follow tradition is a conscious choice. Instinct can be an uncontrollable force for those not strong enough to overcome the pull of nature.” His sharp gaze cut into Kouga’s blue one. “Is there a time constraint?”

“Father believes he will make his move during the Competition.” The Grand General Competition was a lavish affair held within the Realm. During that time, the single gate that guarded the entrance to the Realm was open to everyone. It was the unspoken rule of the Realm that anyone entering had to cross through the gated tunnel; their presence to be noted by those in the Market. It kept the criminally inclined honest and lent the Realm a more civilized air than if it was simply an open area where one might enter anonymously.

However, during the competition, too many flocked to the Realm. All were allowed to access the Realm by any means available.

“Pardon me,” Kagome interrupted, “but you sound as if he will attack the Realm itself or something. And which ‘he’ are we talking about? Naraku or the Tashio?”

Somberly regarding Kagome, Kouga was silent briefly while he waged a private battle. One glance at the Daiyoukai, and he caved to the internal victor. “We are unsure who will spearhead the campaign. What I am about to tell you is not for anyone else’s ears.”

When she nodded in agreement, Kouga continued, “The Realm was formed five centuries ago. A terrible soul that had been unleashed upon an unknowing world, Sou’unga, seized control of over a million humans. In a last stand against the onslaught of his undead minions, two thousand youkai battled. Victorious in the end, only forty survived. To commemorate the victory, a victory which had stopped the horde from making it to Edo, the Realm was created. However, the land it is on is owned by a consortium of humans-the descendents of the ones who had granted land rights to the youkai to create the Realm. There is a clause, a loophole, if you will, in the original documentation granting land rights to the Realm inhabitants.”

Not liking where this was going, Kagome’s fingers tightened on Sesshoumaru’s sleeve.

“The barrier over this Realm was created by over twenty mikos and forty priests in thanks for the youkai sacrifice. It is not only for cleaning the air, however. Even though they were grateful, the humans wanted to ensure that the Realm was not entirely without some protection for humans. The land charter reads, ‘should more than sixty human souls cry out for justice within the embrace of their power, the barrier will fall and the Youkai Realm will cease to be.’”

Blinking rapidly, Kagome ventured, “So if sixty people die in the Realm, the Realm’s charter will be revoked?” Another thought occurred to her before the last one was uttered. “But, couldn’t you explain it to the consortium that it wasn’t you, but Naraku, if he somehow manages to get the barrier to fall?” She skimmed over the necessity of sixty deaths having to occur for that to happen, shying away from that possibility.

“The current body count that occurred on Realm lands, with the recent murders included, is over forty,” Kouga informed them both. “Father already approached the head of the consortium. The human said that the circumstances behind the charter’s breach would not constitute a reversal of the terms. In short, we’re shit out of luck on that end.”

“Who heads the charter?” Sesshoumaru asked sharply at the information.

Shrugging, Kouga replied, “Some guy named Ryoko. He’s also a priest, so he said he’s got a vested interest in ensuring that the will of his ancestors is respected.”

At the name, Kagome gasped. “I know him! He came to the museum!” Funny, she hadn’t recalled any holy energy about him at the time. Had he been masking it?

Immediately put on guard, Sesshoumaru scowled. “For what purpose did he go there, and why do you know of him?”

She rolled her eyes at his tone, but decided not to take offense. “He had called Mr. Miagi to ask for a tour. As the only one not occupied setting up for the gala, I was the one who walked him around. He was a bit pushy, but didn’t seem evil.”

“Huh.” Kouga frowned in thought. “That’s odd. No offense, but why would he care about that particular museum? It’s second-rate at best, and Ryoko is one of the wealthiest humans in all of Japan.”

“What do you mean by ‘pushy?’” Sesshoumaru asked at the same time. He recalled the day that she had been out of sorts.

Kagome groaned. Hope that she‘d managed to bypass that whole encounter deflated. “Look, it wasn’t a big deal. He just kinda not-so-subtly tried to maneuver me into a date even after I said I was seeing you.”

Both males glared at the implied insult to a youkai claim.

“Why did you not tell me this?” Sesshoumaru inquired coldly. Just the thought that some human male had dared tempt her was beyond irritating.

“Because,” she replied angrily, “you were already hot under the collar about the bruises. I wasn’t about to add to that! Now are you done interrogating me as if I did something wrong!”

Taken aback by the statement, the Daiyoukai backed down immediately. “I do not believe you did anything wrong with him, Kagome,” he said, puzzled by her distorted perception of the root of his anger. “I am disturbed by the male’s audacity and the fact that you hid it from me is what I find unacceptable.” Not to mention the reminder of the other attack on her that day. He still had to seek out that particular offender.

Scowling, she sniffed. “Fine. I won’t do it in future. Just for the record, at that time, I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets. So, we’ll just bury this one and forget about it. Okay?”

Forced by her logic to concede, Sesshoumaru gave a short nod. “What did he want from you? Did he ask any questions?” he inquired by way of moving the subject back along the original topic.

She considered the question before shrugging. “He did ask a little about me, where I was going in life, and where I was educated. Once things started getting personal, however, I distanced myself and didn’t give out anything.”

Only by force of will alone did Sesshoumaru hold to his present course and refrain from storming out of the building to seek this Ryoko out. The male had dared much by attempting to delve into the secrets of his female. Particularly after he’d been told who she was dating!

Sensing the Daiyoukai’s inner turmoil, and frankly admiring his fortitude in not reacting to what was a blatant insult, Kouga coughed into his hand. “Well, is it just me, or is it too much to believe that this whole meeting between Ryoko and my father being followed so closely by the impromptu tour is just a coincidence?”

“No. It is not just you,” Sesshoumaru stated in hard, unforgiving tones. “What do you know of this Ryoko?”

“Not much, to be honest. He’s kept a low profile. A priest, he was educated by his father, who was an unpresuming fellow. Their money comes from their family coffers, which have been replenished through the years by shrewd investments made on behalf of the family by an unknown source. There doesn’t appear to be any connection to Naraku, however. This new information about him meeting Kagome, however, has me wondering.”

“Why would he want to meet me?” Kagome inquired from Sesshoumaru’s side. “I’m nobody compared to someone like him.”

Growling, Sesshoumaru’s youki spiked. “He knew of my desire for you. That is the only reason. If he could have persuaded you to their cause, perhaps as Kikyo was, then there would have been two spies within the Western estate.”

Kagome chuckled before dryly stating, “He must not know you very well, then, to assume that. You are no Inuyasha, to be fooled so easily. Even if I had been stupid or mean enough to do something like that, you would have gotten rid of me as soon as that fact came to light.” Unlike Inuyasha, who even now remained unconscious from defending his woman from the charges levied against her. Despite her pity for his situation, she couldn’t help but to feel slightly envious of the devotion the faceless Kikyo received. Would Sesshoumaru believe in her so blindly?

Kouga stared at her blankly before allowing his eyes to flit back to Sesshoumaru. “She’s still got a lot to learn about youkai, doesn’t she?”

“Huh?” Kagome scowled at the patronization.

Momentarily forgetting the severity of the situation, Kouga laughed out loud while she looked on, non-plussed. He wiped the tears from his eyes before saying, “Don’t you get it? You belong to him. I saw it from the very first time you appeared in the gym with him. Granted, I didn’t believe it at first, but the gala cinched it for me. Even if you had been discovered as a spy, he wouldn’t have let you go. Punished you, yes, but not released you.”

She blushed hotly. Glancing up at the still Daiyoukai through her lashes, Kagome asked, “Is that true? Even then, you would have forgiven me something like that?”

He stared down into her eyes, entranced by their glowing depths.

Kouga took that as his cue to leave. “I’ll see you at the meeting, Sesshoumaru, Kagome.”

Ignoring the wolf’s departure, Sesshoumaru closed his arms about her fragile body. “You have belonged to me since our first meeting. My youki embraced you. Did you not feel it?” he whispered against her hair.

She wrapped her arms about his body, hugging him to her tightly. “I had never been so at peace as when I was with you. I didn’t know what that meant, but that I was attracted to you.”

His shoulders shook slightly as deep chuckles spilled into her ear. “There was more than desire there, Kagome. It is not something that happens often. When it does, when a youkai’s power calls out for another, it is not to be ignored. Why do you think my youki acted to draw you in? It had found something that it craved to bring it stability.”

“I needed you too, Sesshoumaru,” Kagome admitted softly. “My reiki has always been out of control. I wish I could say that training would have helped, but I don’t think it would have. I’ve always felt like I was missing something, some vital part that would make everything better. Now, here with you, I know I was wrong. So very wrong.”

Curious, he asked, “Wrong?”

She smiled after sighing into the hardness of his chest. “It wasn’t something that I needed to gain to make things right. Rather, I needed to find someone to give myself to. You, Sesshoumaru, have more of me than I do, and I’ve never been more at peace.”

----------------------------

Cursing, the Tashio smashed the phone within his grasp. Everything was threatening to fall apart. Even with everyone in his power, the infernal miko would bring chaos to his long-held plans.

It was all her fault. That damnable quasi-miko, Kagome. With her Vow, she had single-handedly managed to unite the youkai community behind her union with his thrice-bedamned son. He couldn’t even locate Noriko to use her to bring him back into line!

Throwing his form into the leather chair behind the desk, the Tashio cursed his decision to appoint Naraku in charge of the situation. He had been a gamble, and apparently, a foolhardy one. Now it was left to him to clean up the situation.Chapter Twenty-five

“Inuyasha, you are to report to the Northern Lord’s manor tomorrow,” Sesshoumaru commanded. The hanyou had woken mere minutes ago. Shocked by his behavior as well as the fact that he now appeared more human than hanyou, he had been oddly silent.

Not wanting to interfere, Kagome held her tongue as Inuyasha bent his head. Black hair hiding his eyes, he nodded before walking to the door. Unable to remain quiet, Kagome called out, “Inuyasha, if you truly feel that your Kikyo is innocent, then ask her. Give her a chance to defend herself, or if she is guilty, to make reparations.” Were she in the faceless woman’s shoes, that was what she’d hope Sesshoumaru would do for her.

He didn’t answer, and a moment later, he was gone. Sesshoumaru pulled her back to his side. “She has fooled him this long. On what premise do you believe he could discern the truth now?”

Sighing, Kagome pulled away from Sesshoumaru to look him in the eye. “If someone told me that you had betrayed me, I would never believe it. That he feels the same for her, I can only respect. If she did do what you and Kouga claim, then she has a lot to answer for. But it is to him that she owes an apology, if anyone.”

Accepting her logic, Sesshoumaru nodded before changing the subject. “Where is the satchel?”

Eyes brightening, Kagome fetched it from beside the bed. Instinctively knowing what he wanted, she withdrew the small box from the depths of her bag. The bed dipped under his weight, and Kagome handed the box to him from his side.

Unwilling to wait any longer, he crushed the small lock that held the box shut. Wrenching it open, his ears picked up the small, shocked gasp that escaped his companion once the contents were revealed.

“Is that-” Kagome’s fingers unconsciously reached for the small glowing bauble that laid atop a folded piece of parchment. The Shikon jewel, here in this box!!

Before she could touch it, Sesshoumaru snagged her wrist in an unbreakable grip. “No.”

Trusting him, Kagome withdrew her hand. He carefully reached into the box and withdrew the jewel. Up close, Kagome could feel the faint trace of youki upon the Shikon.

“Mother’s poison is bespelled upon this jewel. It is caustic enough to eat through your skin at contact.” Sesshoumaru calmly broke the thin spell protecting the jewel and dissolved the poison. Once it was safe, he dropped the jewel into her hand. He watched with interest as the grey crystal-like Shikon sparked to life at the contact and the smoky interior pulsed pink.

Dropping her hand into her lap, Kagome stared in awe at the jewel. All the legends she had read about, and she was holding it in her hand! It was incredible! Yet, with the revelation that the Shikon Jewel was, indeed, a reality, Kagome’s spirits grew troubled.

Sensing it, Sesshoumaru withdrew the parchment from the box. He discarded the empty container. “What is it that troubles you?” he asked, concerned at the small frown lines marring her brow. She had known that he had plans for the jewel. Surely she did not fear what he would use it for.

Kagome fingered the pink bauble. “Are you really going to do it?” She felt awful for the burning desire in her heart that he wouldn’t do it, that he would stay as he was. Everyone deserved to live without ridicule. Just because she loved him the way he was, didn’t mean he did.

Kagome felt tears gather in her eyes. She did love him.

When she began to blink back tears, Sesshoumaru grew disturbed. He placed the parchment beside him on the bed and drew her into his lap. “Kagome?” Tracing her cheek with a clawed finger, he drew her gaze to his. “Tell me.”

Her heart in her eyes, Kagome cupped his beautiful face with shaking hands. “I love you, Sesshoumaru. And, even if I love you the way you are, I will give you your wish.”

Startled by her pronouncement, he didn’t know how to react. She simply remained peacefully within his grasp, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs while looking at him with such burning devotion that it made his heart ache.

Gently claiming the jewel, he dropped it into the box. The dull clattering of stone upon metal echoed in the room. “I would wish for nothing but to please my mate,” he finally murmured into her ear.

Kagome shivered in reaction to the whisper of air across her sensitive neck and the heat that burned through her clothing. “Can’t you be careful?” she asked wistfully. “Do we really have to wait to be together?” Now that she knew just how much he held of hers, she needed… Needed to feel complete. He possessed her heart, body, and soul. She needed to hold him; to have that same bond with him.

Almost undone by her questions and the honest desire behind them, Sesshoumaru weighed his options. Could he? Did they? Having never been intimate with a female, he truly did not know if he would be capable of restraint during the final moments. He didn’t want to risk hurting her still healing body. But, looking into her adoring eyes, Sesshoumaru realized that there was another pain he needed to guard her against. He held within his grasp the ability to harm her with rejection, no matter how innocently it was handed out.

He tightened his arms about her body. “I am unsure if my control will hold, Kagome. I would not wish to hurt you.”

Snuggling into his hold, Kagome sighed resignedly. “I know you wouldn’t,” she said softly. Therefore, she was surprised when he set her aside to pull the top of his gi off. His undershirt followed swiftly and was carelessly dropped onto the floor. He hesitated slightly, scrutinizing her reactions as he untied the thin ribbon holding the waist of his pants closed.

Kagome felt a flush overtake her cheeks, spreading down to her breasts and even lower. Unable and unwilling to look away, however, she watched, enthralled, as he stood in front of her. Their changed positions placed her eye-level to his waist, while he looked down upon her.

He waited, and Kagome finally understood that he was waiting for her to take the next step. A fine tremor wracking her fingers, Kagome tentatively brushed them through the soft fur of his stomach. She questioned him with her deep blue eyes, and he answered by covering her hands with his larger ones.

Moving slowly but surely, Sesshoumaru slid their joined hands into the waistband of his pants. Inch by inch, they were inexorably lowered until caught on his stirring arousal. Kagome inhaled sharply, and her eyes abandoned his to stare at the bulge delineated beneath the thin fabric.

Fascinated by the blatant maleness, so alien to her sight and knowledge, Kagome needed no prompting to tug his pants free. Liberated from the obstacle, the material whooshed to the floor and piled about his ankles. He kicked himself free of the pants and waited for her to make the next move. Unable to help his body from reacting to her rapt attention, his arousal was further engorged with heated blood.

Tentative, unsure, Kagome had no idea of what he wanted from her. “Sesshoumaru, I don’t know what to do,” she admitted shyly.

Wryly smirking, Sesshoumaru huskily replied, “There is nothing that you could do that I would not appreciate. Learn my body, Kagome, as I will surely map yours.”

Biting her lip, Kagome lowered her head indecisively. This was the male she loved. They would be mates. But, despite his reassurances, she worried over pleasing him. Yet she loved him. And while he had not returned the words, she knew she was special to him. There was no room for doubts in love. He had, essentially, given her carte blanche over his body. Why not use it to assuage her want, if in turn, he would be pleased by it?

Toward that end, Kagome patted the bed behind her. “Will you lay down on your stomach for me?”

Holding in a groan of discomfort as he readjusted his jutting erection, Sesshoumaru complied readily enough. Anything that would ease her mind was, ultimately, his goal. He only hoped he would survive this encounter without being driven mad by the lust she inspired within him.

Giving him no chance to guess her intentions, Kagome pulled her shirt off and hastily shimmied out of her capris and underwear lest she loose her nerve. The bunching of the muscles beneath her thighs as she straddled his back told her quite clearly that he wasn’t as sanguine about the whole affair as he had acted. Good. She didn’t want him at ease. She wanted him as hot and as lost as she felt.

Muffling his snarl in the bedding, Sesshoumaru cursed his own stupidity in allowing her such liberties without knowing where she intended to take them. The brief glimpse of strong, sleek thighs and the thatch of dark, curly hair had him hard as a brick. And Kami above, her scent; her heady, earthly, womanly aroma enticed and clouded his mind beyond all reason.

He wanted to turn over, to unseat her from his back and press her into the mattress while he thrust his aching member into her welcoming body. And then she moved, leaned forward and slid her fingers through the thick fur of his back and shoulders. His muscles locked into place, and all rational thought ceased.

Digging her knees into his sides to maintain her balance, Kagome let out a breathy moan as her furled nipples came into contact with the silky fur beneath her. Sensually rubbing against him, undulating in an instinctive gesture of desire, Kagome slid her hands across his shoulders and down his arms. A faint tugging of the stitches, accompanied by a sharp pain in her shoulder, had her pulling back slightly. She sighed regretfully, but heeded her body’s demands that she respect her current limitations.

There was so much that she could do that she would not waste her time bemoaning that which she couldn’t.

Pulling back, Kagome slid down his buttocks and thighs. Sesshoumaru gritted his teeth at the loss of her sweetly curved body against his back. When her fingers dug into his backside, ruffling the fur and caressing the taut muscles there, his answering snarling growl escaped. Understanding that it was a good sign, Kagome repeated her actions, luxuriating in the anomaly of soft silky tendrils over oh-so-hard muscle and bone.

Kagome softly voiced her pleasure, “I love your fur, Sesshoumaru. It is so soft, so smooth.” Accompanying her words with actions, Kagome nuzzled into his lower back while her fingers sought out the tense muscles of his thighs, reaching until they dipped into the backs of his knees. “But you are so hard beneath, so strong…” moaning lightly, she daringly traced a path up his inner thigh. A patch of thicker fur met her questing touch.

He pressed his hips into the bed beneath him, scalded by her loving caresses and further maddened by her lusty utterances. Her next words escaped him, and she had to repeat her request.

“Will you turn over now?”

Reddened eyes met glazed blue ones and Sesshoumaru couldn’t think, couldn’t breath as he obeyed the plea and shifted onto his back. Still straddling him, having moved up his body to aid in the movement, Kagome’s womanly center now cradled his arousal. His hands shot to her hips, and he jack-knifed up to claim a turgid nipple between pulling lips before she could take the next breath.

“Sesshoumaru!” she cried out, breath hitching as his mouth created wondrous suction upon her flesh. Kneading the skin at her hips, calloused palms traveled along silky smooth skin to cup her backside. Sesshoumaru ground his erection into her warmth.

Panting now, crying for something she didn’t quite understand, Kagome’s legs trembled with the force of her arousal. Sensing her confusion, Sesshoumaru wrapped her legs tightly about his waist and abandoned her luscious breasts to claim her lips. Kneading her hip with one hand while the other slipped up to claim a breast in a possessive grasp, Sesshoumaru’s tongue invaded Kagome willing mouth. Tongues dueled for dominance, sliding against one another in shared passionate want.

Breaking away from his firm lips, Kagome mewled helplessly, “Please, Sesshoumaru, please!” Unsure what she was begging for, but unable to dismiss the call of her pulsing center, Kagome buried her face in his neck and rubbed against his hardness shamelessly. Igniting her body to an inferno of lust and need, her womanly folds wet and growing wetter from the stimulation that his arousal provided against her clitoris with every rolling movement of her hips, she panted into Sesshoumaru’s neck.

He could feel it building up within him, the need to release, to claim and conquer the body offered so freely to him by the passionate woman in his arms.

Unable to yet claim her fully, Sesshoumaru had to make do with pressing himself harder against her. Grinding into her heat with restrained strength when all he wanted was to bury himself to the root of his arousal and roar his release, Sesshoumaru reached between their bodies to lightly touch her.

The faintest brush of his knuckle against the nubbin wantonly jutting out from beneath its protective hood set her off. “Sess-” she hissed out, convulsing within his arms. Spots danced before her eyes, and Kagome squeezed them shut as little aftershocks shook her frame deliciously.

Snarling in reply, teeth gnashing while his head was thrown back in release, Sesshoumaru fell after her into bliss. Pulse after pulse of seed left his body to splash upon them both as he locked his arms about her body to forcefully slide his maleness against the slick folds of her heat.

Only after both had calmed, did he manage to nudge her face up to meet his gaze. The satiated languor that shone within her eyes twisted his lips into a masculine gesture of smug authority.

Catching it, Kagome didn’t take offense. That had been-Well, there weren’t enough words in the world to properly describe how she had felt. Would the true act of mating, of having him slid into her body as commandingly as he had against it, bring her to a higher level of euphoria?

Whatever the case, this had been special; would always remain in her heart as a reminder of just how quickly he could make her body sing for him. And that she could bring him to release just as easily.

-----------

One shower later, one that had been shared with soft touches and lazy kisses, and the pair sat down on the couch. Eased in a way that he had never experienced before, Sesshoumaru relaxed completely into the soft cushions while Kagome curled up to his side.

It hadn’t escaped him that control hadn’t been an issue. He had, in a sense, lost control, but not the extent that he had hurt her. He didn’t think, now, that he could ever hurt her, even accidentally. Rather than rise up howling, his youki had only flowed between them, her essence mingled within his soul had managed what centuries of training had not. He could hold his humanoid form, no matter how strained his thoughts became.

He told her as much, and Kagome winked at him. “I always knew I was good for you.”

Dropping a small kiss on her lips, Sesshoumaru rose from the couch to retrieve the parchment that had been crushed beneath the weight of their bodies. When he was again ensconced on the couch, the warm weight of his mate pressed against his side once more. Despite the dire tones of his mother’s letter to Kagome, Sesshoumaru had a gut feeling that, no matter what was revealed, he could handle it. He had his mate and their future. The past was nothing to him.

‘Lord?’ ‘Great’ general?’ Gasping, Kagome looked to the date. Exactly two hundred and fifty years ago. As old as Naraku. “Sesshoumaru??”

“It isn’t possible,” he snarled in disbelief, his relaxed attitude gone in the blink of an eye. “There is no familial scent to recognize him by.”

Swallowing her shock, Kagome asked, “Yes, but aren’t there potions now? And, look-” she pointed to the header, “It was addressed to a priest. I know some who can block scents. And, I hate to mention it,” she added while her mind whirled with this new information, “but with the problems involving Naraku and holy priests… It all fits. The motive, you see… I just couldn’t understand why Naraku would want to join with priests, or miko, for that matter, when most decry the practice of birthing hanyou.”

Sesshoumaru’s knuckles turned white and his poison flowed unheeded down his wrists to hiss upon the floor as he destroyed the parchment. “He cares not about the Realm, but seeks in some way to destroy Father.” Naraku was playing both sides. Working with his father to abolish the Realm while steadily pulling the oblivious Tashio into his web of deceit.

Pale-faced, Kagome nodded in agreement. “What are we going to do, Sesshoumaru?”

How damnably fitting.

Chapter Twenty-six

“Kagome?” Sesshoumaru prodded the slumbering woman’s shoulder. Her skin felt abnormally warm. Peering closely at her face, he noticed a flush upon her cheeks. “Kagome!” he yelled into her ear, recalling how sensitive her hearing was.

They had spent the remainder of the previous day simply. He had used his wireless connection to go over some figures for the business, and she had delved into one of the books that she had packed into her satchel. Later, she had handed over the promised health texts, and he had spent the night going over the fascinating world of her bodily functions.

She had been sleeping peacefully when he had crawled into bed with her. Luxuriating in the ability to curl his larger frame about hers without the pain of maintaining his humanoid form, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

Now, upon waking, Kagome appeared to be under the influence of a fever. Turning her over, he hissed at how hot her shoulder felt. Other than a flush from the fever, however, her wound appeared to be fine. She slept throughout his inspection. Sesshoumaru felt worry surge to the surface.

Throwing a pair of black slacks and a polo shirt on, he wrapped Kagome in the comforter and raced out the door. Her head flopped in his loose hold, and he curled her tightly to his body. Sesshoumaru whistled for Ah-Un. The mount appeared instantly, almost as if it had discerned his master’s agitation.

Thirty minutes later, amidst the screams accompanying the unprecedented occasion of a dragon landing in the middle of the hospital courtyard, Sesshoumaru barged into the lobby.

A gaping nurse immediately recognized the tall youkai. “Sesshoumaru-san? How can we help you?” Her eyes darted to the still figure in his arms.

“Where is the doctor? She won’t wake up,” he stated harshly, his agitation translating to an almost feral growl.

“If you will fill out this paperwork, I will page the doctor on call, Sesshoumaru-san.”

Eyes flashing dangerously, he sneered, “You will fetch the doctor now, or I will tear this building down about your ears and find him myself!”

Paling, she sputtered, “Dr. Takagawa has transferred to another hospital, Sesshoumaru-san! I will have to call another doctor!”

Wheels turning in his mind, he snarled, “Then do so! Now!” Within his grasp, he could feel Kagome’s body temperature climb dangerously high. Cursing his inability to resist her yesterday, guilt ate at his insides. She was hurting and it was his fault.

Before the nurse could finish dialing, a hard voice had her lowering the receiver in relief. “What is going on here?”

Glaring down upon the short, bespectacled woman in a surgeon’s smock, Sesshoumaru demanded, “Are you a doctor?”

“I am Dr. Takahashi,” she replied, refusing to be intimidated and having taken note of the reddened cheeks of the woman held within his arms. “Is this the woman that was treated here this weekend?” She had read the story and had gone over the medical files of her predecessor. Why the woman had taken a turn for the worse during what should have been a speedy recovery was worrying.

Whipping out her stethoscope at his nod, she was appalled at the elevated pulse rate. “Follow me and be quick about it,” she ordered, without regard to whom she was spoke as her training kicked into high gear.

After speed-walking through what seemed like an eternity of hallways, they entered a white, sterile room. “Nurse Kai,” Dr. Takahashi ordered the nervous woman who had entered after them, “retrieve my surgical tools, fetch the anesthesiologist and order blood work.” Then she turned to Sesshoumaru. “You’ll have to leave. I need to do a physical, and then if that fails to explain what is going on, I’ll need to reopen the wound to check for internal infection.”

“I am not going anywhere.” Staring resolutely into her brown eyes, Sesshoumaru remained an unmovable, determined force. “Do what you need to do, but I will be watching.”

About to argue the point, Takahashi was interrupted by a stream of people following the nurse. “Fine. Sit over there.” She indicated a chair in the corner. “Do not interrupt, or youkai or not, I will have you thrown out, even if I have to do it myself. Am I clear?”

For the sake of expediting Kagome’s care, Sesshoumaru took the seat without further arguing or taking umbrage. The woman could yell at him like a shrew six days out of seven if she could heal Kagome.

His claws dug into the chair’s metal armrests as Kagome was unrolled from the blanket and her clothing cut off. She was so still. Swarming the woman, the nurses obeyed the doctor as she set about doing what she did best.

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Seven hours later, exhausted but exultant at the successful operation, Dr. Takahashi laid a tray on the table that sat in front of Sesshoumaru. “I cannot be certain why, but there were bone splinters within the wound.”

He examined the black shards, recalling that the dark miko had been of a similar color when in her mist-like form. “You cannot be certain, but your theory is?” he asked in carefully modulated tones. Beside him, laying on her stomach on the bed, Kagome still yet slept.

Dr. Takahashi pulled a chair up to the inuyoukai before wearily claiming a seat. “I am new to this hospital, but I’ve already heard rumors that Dr. Takagawa was not always the most thorough of surgeons. If I were to guess, I would assume that he simply assumed the wound to be a clean one and sewed it up. Sometimes, while there would be faint feelings of discomfort, the wound will heal and the foreign material will eventually work itself out. In this instance, however, there were contaminants on the bone shards that caused an infection within her blood.”

Jaw set in a hard line, Sesshoumaru’s eyes never left Kagome. “I will deal with his ineptitude. For now, what is to be done for her?”

Personally appalled at her predecessor’s mistake, Takahashi felt no pity for the man. “Her blood pressure is too high, as is her pulse. I am attributing that to the infection, however, so as long as it reverts back to normal, or at least remains steady, I will not flood her system with drugs to treat the high BP. She needs antibiotics intravenously for the next few days. Infections within the blood are more tricky, and as you saw, the oral antibiotics and the topical cream were useless. I am treating it as an open wound, rather than sewing it up again. The infection needs to be dealt with directly. I’d say we are looking at in-hospital treatment on the upside of a week, since I’ll want her here for a day or two for observation once she goes off the antibiotics to ensure she doesn’t relapse. After that,” she shrugged, “Perhaps another two weeks or so of oral antibiotics. I want to get her off of them as soon as possible, but not too soon.” She stared at him hard. “Rest, Sesshoumaru-san. She will need rest above all else.”

“What about her pain?” he asked, by-passing the emphasis on the ‘rest.’ He would see to it that she did nothing but lay about, if that was what Kagome needed. Treating it as an open wound, as he understood it, however, meant that wads of cotton doused with antiseptic were packed into the wound and changed as needed. His heart clenched at the thought of her having to bear that unaided.

Takahashi sighed. “I am prescribing 800 mg of ibuprofen. At the moment, that is all she can have. They will administer a numbing shot with each wadding change. I have already spoken with the anesthesiologist, and given how her pulse and blood pressure reacted during the brief time that she was fully under, I hesitate to give her anything else until that changes.”

Unhappy with the prognosis, but trusting her knowledgeable, direct approach in comparison to the obsequious fawning of the fumbling Takagawa, he nodded. “You may do what must be done.”

She smiled wryly. “I would do so without the allowance, Sesshoumaru-san.” Brown eyes turned to take in the pale features of the woman. “For what it is worth, I will attempt to keep the curiosity-seekers at bay.”

Sesshoumaru didn’t reply. Claiming a listless hand, he took up watch over his mate’s bedside. Takahashi regained her feet with one last bow of her head to the male. They were an odd couple, she thought as she left to check up on her other patients. She would have pictured him with someone more refined, and the woman with, well, just anyone but him.

To each their own, she supposed before dismissing them completely from her mind.

----------------------

Gritting her teeth, Kagome dug her nails into the bed beneath her until her knuckles turned white. The nurse worked quickly, but it wasn’t fast enough. Even with the shoulder numbed, just the sensation of feeling someone digging into her was enough to make Kagome feel woozy.

At her side, Sesshoumaru quietly took in her scrunched features. Only when the nurse moved away after disposing of the used wadding in the proper receptacle did he speak, “You must rest.”

In the act of rolling onto her side, Kagome groaned. “I’m still a little groggy from whatever they gave me, Sesshoumaru, so I’m not up to a battle with you. I just want to watch some daytime television and forget how bad my shoulder hurts. That’s all.” She’d woken up a little under an hour ago. In that time he had done little more than hover and berate her every time she moved.

Irked, Sesshoumaru brushed aside Kagome’s bangs to look into her eyes. “Had I been more diligent in ensuring that you rested, you would not have been in such danger.” She still felt warm to the touch, but the doctor had assured him that the fever could be controlled with medicine and would break as soon as the antibiotics had a chance to work.[

]Sensing the guilt behind the words, Kagome sighed. “Oh, Sesshoumaru.” She took his hand between hers and kissed his knuckles. “This wasn’t your fault, or even mine. You told me yourself that there were bone pieces in me. That was what caused the infection. Not what we, ah,” glancing at the nurse, Kagome finished in a whisper, “did the other day.”“Regardless, I should have detected that something was wrong. What good is a mate that cannot protect you?”

Kagome chuckled weakly. “Protect me from what? My own body?” She patted the place beside her on the bed. “Come lay with me?”

Staring at the spot dubiously, Sesshoumaru shook his head. “You need to rest.”

“Please?” Pouting, she batted her lashes. “I feel better with you near. I promise to try to take a nap.”

Sold on the nap, the bed dipped beneath his weight, but Sesshoumaru anchored Kagome in place with a gentle hand while he sidled up to her side. “Sleep,” he ordered once he was situated.

Grinning happily, Kagome snuggled up to his solid warmth. Head on his shoulder, she drew his arm about her waist. “Now I can,” she murmured sleepily. Still loopy from the drugs, she did just that.

------------------------

Words uttered to her left had Kagome jerking her head slightly in her sleep. Disturbed for some reason, she tried to muffle the noise against the cloth-covered chest her cheek rested upon. When that failed, Kagome sighed and gave up.

Blinking rapidly to clear her vision, she was greeted with sudden quiet. “You know,” she slurred, her voice sleep-drugged, “the time to be silent was when I was sleeping.”

A voice she had never heard before answered, “My apologies to the mate of Sesshoumaru.”

Startled fully awake by that smooth utterance, Kagome’s blue eyes winked open fully. Kouga and Inuyasha stood by the single window in the large room. Beside her bed, the stranger loitered. Having somehow managed to roll on top of Sesshoumaru during her nap, Kagome felt him adjust her slightly to the left. Mindful of the wires and tubes running from arms to the machines that hummed quietly, he pulled the thin blanket about her closely.

“Sesshoumaru?” she cautiously asked in a small whisper, “Who is he?”

Made uneasy by her trepidation at being so helpless before a stranger, Sesshoumaru stroked the hair out of her eyes to introduce the stranger, “This is Taro. He is the Northern Lord.”

Lord Taro, a muscular ookami with chestnut hair and vivid blue eyes that gleamed with cunning intelligence, nodded his head at her. “Again, I render my apologies for disturbing your rest. With your condition, it was decided that, in order to meet, we would come here.” A wry twist curved his thin lips. “Sesshoumaru made it clear that he would not be attending anything that required him to leave your side.”

Kagome frowned sadly and glanced up to meet Sesshoumaru’s rueful gaze. “I’m sorry. I forgot about the Vow.” He wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without her, nor she without him. At least she didn’t think so. Her mother had tried to leave the shrine territory once, simply to see if she could, and had weakened only a few yards from the perimeter. She had almost died before she could be dragged back.

He smoothed her frown away. “I would not leave you unprotected, Kagome, regardless of any Vow,” he declared. Given how deeply his emotions were entangled with her, with how badly his instincts screamed at him to guard her from the world at large, Sesshoumaru could only be grateful for the Vow. This way, his instincts were eased without him having to deliberately infringe upon her liberty. He would not quibble with the occasional inconvenience, if it meant she would always be at his side.

Interrupting, Lord Taro smiled benignly upon the woman. “I would listen to your mate, young one, and not allow such things to worry you. You will find that the perceived limitations of your Vow are not viewed as such by your mate, nor those who lay claim to youkai blood.”

Intimidated by the presence of old wisdom that shone within the azure depths peering kindly upon her, Kagome nodded. “I won’t, Taro-sama.”

“Now,” Taro stated, “where were we?” His question was misleading, as he knew perfectly well where the discussion had ended, but he thrived on the social graces that so nicely complimented his predatory nature.

A wry grin lightening his tense features, Kouga spoke up, “Sesshoumaru had just told you about the origins of Naraku.”

Kagome shot an amazed look toward Sesshoumaru. “You told?”

“There was no other option. Without understanding the subtle nuances of the entire plot hatching in front of us, they cannot battle the opponents upon even ground,” he answered stoically. It had been a difficult decision. Pack loyalty had demanded that he maintain his silence on the matter. However, that instinct would hurt rather than help in this instance.

Even if it removed him from the Lordship entirely, he didn’t care. The little one who rested within his arms, his home within the Realm, those things mattered more to him than a throne darkened with misdeeds and dishonor.

Lord Taro interjected smoothly, “Do you fear the insinuations of the revelation?”

Befuddled momentarily by the question, it took a minute of silent contemplation for Kagome to understand what he was asking. She scowled. “No, I don’t,” she said curtly, refusing to elaborate. How dare he judge her! The Lordship could rot and she didn’t care if his brother was Attila the Hun; she loved Sesshoumaru!

Chuckling, Lord Taro shared an amused glance with the reclining Daiyoukai. “You need not worry for your honor with this one ready to show her claws in your defense, Sesshoumaru.”

Kagome flushed when Sesshoumaru smirked. She’d been baited and hadn’t even known it.

Inuyasha broke in, “I still don’t see what it matters. So what if Naraku is Dad’s bastard. I thought only legitimate kids could inherit.”

After sharing a look with his son and the Daiyoukai, Lord Taro explained gently, “It isn’t the son who is important in this matter, Inuyasha. This letter spoke of grievous crime against a fellow youkai. Infidelity with another’s mate is considered the height of dishonor. According to Sesshoumaru, Kana used the term mate when describing her male. Only one mated to a youkai would employ that word. If your father seduced her, taking advantage of the fact that, as a human, she would be susceptible to him without the protection of a true mating, such a crime would have been enough to strip him of his title. That she bore a child of the union, one which he ignored rather than nurturing as was his duty, only compounded the crime.”

“What are you going to do about it now?” Inuyasha inquired sharply.

Conversant on the laws regarding such, Sesshoumaru answered in Lord Taro’s stead, “It has been over a millennium since the last trial, but Father will be tried by his peers. If found guilty of the offense, he will be stripped of his territory.”

Inuyasha’s nose scrunched in confusion. “Who will it pass to?”

Lord Taro’s words were heavy with resignation. “Once a youkai is stripped of his territory, it is held in trust until the next worthy successor is found and awarded the land.”

“The Tournament,” Kouga added quietly when Inuyasha still appeared lost.

Finally gaining insight into the terrible mess the Tashio was in, Kagome’s pulse began to race. Naraku hadn’t counted on having his link to the Tashio found out so soon. “Can he win it back?” she asked.

Lord Taro shrugged, blue met gold in silent contemplation. “If another doesn’t defeat him, then yes. But, the insult to his name would stand. There would be rebellion the likes of what had never been seen as no youkai worth their blood would follow one with no respect for the laws.”

When the numbers on the blood pressure machine began to climb, Sesshoumaru ordered, “It is time to leave. Let me know when I must testify.”

Concerned, Lord Taro’s and Kouga’s brows furrowed identically. “She will be alright?” Kouga asked from the door while Inuyasha stayed behind by the window, slouched against the frame.

Sesshoumaru nodded, whispering soothingly into Kagome’s ear. Once the room was emptied of the visitors, Inuyasha walked over to the bedside. Ignoring the glare sent his way by Sesshoumaru, he hesitated before patting her arm awkwardly.

She looked at him in surprise, and he withdrew the hand. “Kikyo said I should thank you,” he said in reply to the question in her eyes. Running a hand along his neck, his hanyou ears twitched in remembrance of their disappearance. “And, just so you know, I talked to her. She said that he had approached her. Naraku, I mean. He had been hurt a couple of years ago while she was younger and an intern in Hokkaido, and she had been the one to heal him. When he offered her a shrine to Vow to, she had thought he was simply repaying that favor. She hadn’t known where it was to be, or that he was planning on destroying the Realm. I believe her.” The last was said with infinite confidence.

Oddly comforted by his quiet faith in his mate, Kagome smiled. “I’m glad you do.”

More reserved on the subject of the female in question, Sesshoumaru refrained from commenting. He had already set Jaken on following the woman. He would see if she was truly trustworthy.Chapter Twenty-seven

At the knock, Sesshoumaru set aside his laptop to walk over to the hospital door.

“Souta!” Kagome cried out happily once it was slid open to reveal the nervous face of her sibling. She had missed him dearly. It was funny, but she hadn’t seen him all that often in the past few months and hadn’t felt the loss except for a small twinge. Knowing she was no longer welcome home, however, had made a world of difference.

Coming to a stop beside her bed, her brother stared down on her worriedly. “Hey, sis. Are you okay?” He had gotten a call from the demon, Hiten, as soon as he had left school grounds. Hiten had said that Kagome was just fine, but that she would need to stay in the hospital for a week.

With school projects and everything going on, Souta had accepted the news gravely, but without alarm. Now, three days after the phone call, he’d finally made it down to the hospital. The wires and tubing leaving the too-slender frame of his sister alarmed him. He should have come sooner, he chastised himself. Why had Hiten lied to him?

She waved him to a seat at her right while Sesshoumaru reclaimed his position at left. The steady tapping of his clawed fingers on the laptop resumed. With a soft smile for her busy mate, Kagome held her arms open to Souta. “I’m fine,” she reassured him while accepting the tender hug.

“What happened?” he asked after leaning back in his seat. “I thought you were okay. So why all of this?” He gestured to the machines and wires.

Kagome shrugged. “It’s just precautionary, Souta. My injury was infected, so I need to be on antibiotics.” She pointed out the IV machine, where a bag slowly dripped the healing medicine into the line running to the crook of her arm. “The rest is for show, really.”

A disturbance of air to her left had Kagome rolling her eyes. “Sesshoumaru, don’t play devil’s advocate. You know I’m fine.”

He looked up upon being addressed and took in the pale face of the not-so-young boy. “You do your brother a disservice, Kagome.”

Blinking, she frowned. “He doesn’t need to worry, Sesshoumaru. There is-”

Souta cut her off. “Just tell me, Kagome! It’s bad enough that mom won’t even talk about you, don’t you keep me out too!” he yelled, the stress of the last week catching up to him. He felt terrible to have shouted at her, but she wasn’t the only one suffering here. Ever since she’d given the Vow to the male sitting so calmly across from him, he’d been inundated with trouble from the other kids.

There hadn’t been a day where he hadn’t heard rude whispers about her, his own sister. The bathrooms were covered in her likeness, all depicting her in various lewd positions. He was ostracized by people that he had assumed were his friends. Snide demands were made by both teachers and students for him to stay home, to show the proper humility that his sister denied them.

And none of it mattered. He went to school, closed his ears to the harshest of words, because he knew she would hate it if he were expelled for fighting over her, and plugged on.

She was his sister, and he would be damned before he’d hang his head in shame when he knew her. He didn’t need an explanation. He knew that she had acted on the whims of her heart. He was proud of her. Now she would keep the truth from him?

Sensing his withdrawal, Kagome gave in. “The infection is in my blood. There were bone shards from where the previous doctor hadn’t cleaned the wound entirely. There were some complications, namely a bad fever, high pulse rate and my blood pressure wasn’t too great either.”

He absorbed that. “So what are they doing?” He silently prayed he wouldn’t regret pushing for full disclosure.

Kagome patted her brother’s hand. “I’m fine, Souta. Really. The infection is the cause of the whole mess. It is receding, so the symptoms are leaving as well. My fever broke last night, as a matter of fact, and my pulse isn’t nearly so troubling. I predict that the doctor will be able to release me on schedule.”

Sighing in relief, he slumped in his chair. “Kami, Kagome. The messes you get into…”

She affected an injured air. “Messes? Me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” At her side, Sesshoumaru glanced up to gaze into her features, while the wry twist to his lips betrayed his opinion on the matter. “What?” she asked defensively.

Souta chuckled, heartened to see his sister whole and well mentally, even if her body needed more time to reach the same state.

The siblings fell into easy banter, both skirting the dark issues surrounding them in favor of light teasing over the various daytime shows she had been entertaining herself with. The afternoon passed too quickly for Souta and Kagome both. A rare interlude-guarded over by the silent male who was content to simply be a bystander to the moment-in which they had no worries.

As Souta reluctantly left the hospital that night, his feet guided him home. Mama, he told the absent parent, please end the feud soon.

He had seen the light within the youkai’s eyes. She was loved, and loved dearly, by that stoic male. And she loved him. If only his mother could see that, then she would understand that she was wrong. Even as young as he was, he knew without a doubt, that for that deep a bond, he would sacrifice everything and anything.

------------------------

Kagome hissed between her teeth as the IV was slowly drawn out of her arm. Finally, after six days stuck in the hospital, she was being released. Or, she would be released tomorrow morning. The doctor had decided to take the IV out the night before. If her condition remained stable, then this time tomorrow, she would be snuggled up in her own bed. Well, their bed.

She turned to look at the male tapping on his laptop keys while the nurse cleaned up the mess of gauze and tape. Seated by the bed, Sesshoumaru was absorbed in the numbers she could barely make out. He’d spent a lot of time occupied with business; if not his laptop, then his PDA or his cell phone were readily available.

A loving smile curved her lips. Kagome felt so happy just being around him, that she didn’t mind that she wasn’t the center of his attention all the time. To be perfectly honest, she didn’t think she could stand that for the rest of her life. He was so intense that she needed a break from his regard, just as she was honest enough to admit that her sometimes silly moments sent him running for his laptop.

The hairs on the back of his neck signaling that Kagome was staring at him, Sesshoumaru looked up. “Did you need something?” The nurse left the room.

Smoothing the sheet around her stomach, Kagome shook her head. “No, no. Go on with what you were doing. I didn’t meant to disturb you.”

He quirked a brow inquiringly. “You were staring at me.”

“I like to look at you,” she said simply with a helpless shrug.

Golden eyes softened, and he replaced the laptop into its carrying case after saving his work and powering it down. He slid over the railing and carefully pulled her to his side. The wires were still there, but the troubling needle and tube were not.

“I wasn’t trying to interrupt your work, Sesshoumaru,” Kagome softly stated. Her fingers glided through the hair that he had thrown over his shoulder.

Gently pressing his lips to hers, Sesshoumaru carefully rolled her to rest upon his chest. “You did not disturb me.” He had been busy this entire week working on projections and investment portfolios. Not once had she interrupted his work with a tantrum at his inattention. He shouldn’t be surprised, but he was honest enough with himself to admit that had he been the one injured, he might have been a bit miffed had she proven as inattentive. He had never left her side, but sometimes he knew it had felt like he was a thousand miles away.

Kagome giggled. “Oh, sometimes I want nothing more than to disturb you.” She punctuated her point by peppering his chin with little kisses. “But not now. I know you are trying to get your business off the ground. That will take time and a lot of work.” The faint tickle of memory stung her into recalling her mother’s revelations. The sad picture of her miserable father still had the power to tug painfully on her heart.

“You do not doubt my affections when I am unable to concentrate on you?” he asked curiously. His father’s wife, Izayoi, had needed constant reassurances that she still retained his father’s affections. During his time working for Jidai, Inc., he had also noted the furtive phone calls made to wives or lovers to explain absences or beg forgiveness for late hours. His feelings would not change, but she could be prone to insecurity.

Kagome propped herself on her good arm and leaned over to plant a hard kiss on his mouth. “Let’s make things simple here. I love you. You haven’t said it, but I know you love me.” She paused, waiting for an affirmation, but when none was forthcoming, she forged on with a wry smile. “You aren’t going anywhere, and neither am I. If, and only if, I feel you are beginning to neglect me, will I bother you about it.” A fierce glint he had never seen before entered her deep blue eyes. “In that case,” she elaborated, “you can expect me to nag, shout, scream, and yell until you make it better.”

Absorbing that, Sesshoumaru smirked. “Oh?” The image of her reprimanding him caused him, oddly enough, to smile. He was completely and utterly ensnared, to anticipate such a show, even if he would truly work toward ensuring such never happened.

“Yes.” Kagome laid her head on his chest, breaking eye contact. “Neither you nor I are the kind to simply slide into an abysmal co-existence. If I do something to make you doubt me, I expect you to come to me about it, as well. Deal?”

“Agreed.” He paused, stroking the soft ebony strands that fell over his arm, not minding the slightly greasy texture as she had been denied a bath. “Kagome?”

Yawning into a fisted hand, Kagome shifted her head to stare into his eyes. “Hmmm?”

“I do love you.”

She ignored the tear that slid out of the corner of her eye to smile widely. “I know, Sesshoumaru. I know.”

---------------------------

The Tashio stared down upon the letter that was crushed within his hand. No, his beleaguered mind screamed in disbelief. How had this happened? How had it come to light?

It had been so long. So very long ago. The only evidence of it was in his safe, a reminder of the folly of youth. Striding over to the safe built behind the portrait of himself in true form, he carefully punched in the code before swinging the door open.

The safe stood empty, robbed of its secrets. Even the Shikon no Tama was gone! Shoulders tense, jaw set in a hard line, the Tashio realized the extent of his betrayal. The only one who had any knowledge of the matter was Noriko. The Tashio snarled. He would repay that bitch for her temerity as soon as she slunk back home, as he knew she would. Pride would demand that she face him, if nothing else.

As for the matter at hand, enough time had passed to bury his secret beyond recovery except for that damning letter. Surely the pup had passed on without its mother. No priest would have taken in a bastard youkai pup, and even if they had, he would have been found by now.

He would know. He had spent the entirety of his eldest pup’s life until Inuyasha’s birth searching for the lost bastard. Even a bastard would have been better suited as the heir than the heinous creature Sesshoumaru appeared to be, especially considering his attitude on breeding. His hand shook, a fine tremor betraying the churning emotions eating his insides.

Had he not made reparations for his sins? Had he not repented for his actions night after night as he laid beside his human mate-the stand-in for the one whom he had wronged? Despite the stain upon his name, he had done right by her as he could not the long-dead woman he had seduced in his wild youth.

Izayoi looked so much like her, the nameless woman he had impregnated then abandoned. Her face had haunted him upon sighting it in a café, the ghosts of his past rising to mock him unmercifully. It wasn’t until he had saved Izayoi from the poverty she had been born into that he had felt a semblance of peace.

Inuyasha, his poor hanyou son, the replacement for the one he had snubbed just weeks out of the womb. And now, he would be repaid by losing his lands in a trial of his peers?

The Tashio sneered darkly, tossing the crushed paper into the trashcan. As if those buffoons could dare to call themselves his peers. None were his equal; therefore, none were worthy to stand in judgment of him.

He would ride out this indignity just as he had the ignoble birth of his cursed son, the mating of Izayoi, and the birth of his legitimate hanyou son. And when the dust cleared, the fools would see that he was the one in command. Always had been, and always would be.

--------------------

“What are we going to do, sir? The hospital is closed down tight. All week, we were unable to get in without proper identification. That damn doctor even refused entrance to new hires until Kagome is gone.”

Ryoko turned from the window that over looked the cityscape of Tokyo to glare at his minion. “You disappoint me, Kin. I had thought, in light of your recent experience with the Higurashi woman, that you would prove useful to me. Aside from the attack in the subway, you have been nothing but a drain on my resources.”

Kin swallowed heavily. After leaving the museum, he had wandered the streets. Heavily in debt to the underworld due to his gambling habits, habits that he was no longer able to support without a job, he had gotten roaring drunk in the hopes of forgetting his troubles.

Lost in the bottle, he had blabbed his woe to a fellow drunk. A stray passerby had overheard, and had persuaded him to come to Ryoko on the promise of a job.

Upon meeting the man, he had been persuaded to sign on. As Ryoko had smoothly explained, the woman known as Kagome needed to be taught a lesson for turning her back on her own kind, and who better than he to give it?

Now, however, as he stared into the placid amber of the man’s glassy eyes, Kin began to rethink his position on the matter. Something was going on here, something he wasn’t quite sure he wanted any part of. As a newbie, he was regarded with suspicion and wasn’t allowed to know anything of import beyond his assignment.

Maybe, he caught himself wondering, it would be better to go to the police and throw himself on their mercy rather than stay in this outfit. He hadn’t done anything, not really, and he knew they would offer him a deal for all he knew. Even if it wasn’t much more than a location and a name.

Ryoko crossed the richly appointed office to stand behind his desk. He pressed the intercom button before speaking into the piece, “Kagura, send in my visitors.”

Shifting uneasily in his scuffed boots, Kin asked, “Visitors?” He hadn’t been told that this would be a group conference. Assigned to watching the hospital, he had been told to report any chinks in the security directly to Ryoko himself.

Waving a hand reassuringly, Ryoko smoothed the lapels on his three-piece suit jacket before he claimed a seat. “Just some business acquaintances. Useful people, really, once you get past their rather unsavory hobbies.” White teeth flashed amusedly. “Hobbies I have found quite useful recently.”

The double doors the led into the office opened and in poured a motley group of teen-aged kids. At the head, Jin smiled predatorily. “Is this the one, Ryoko?”

“Kin,” Ryoko introduced, “These are my associates. They would like to have a word with you, especially Jin. You see, they take their hobbies very seriously. I am afraid that you poached on Jin’s territory.”

Paling, Kin’s head flew wildly side to side as he tried to comprehend the sick feeling in his gut. “Wha-What are you talking about?”

Jin stepped forward, his nose ring angrily sparkling in the light. “Kagome is my project, fuck-head. I’ve spent years putting up with her dippy brother just to get her to trust me. She’s mine, and you put your hands all over her.”

Ryoko clapped his hands. Kin swallowed heavily. “Now, I tried my best to protect you from this young man,” Ryoko stated apologetically, “But I’ve begun to sense that you are not properly appreciative of all the effort I’ve gone to on your part. And, well, your usefulness is simply at an end.”

“Wait!” Kin yelled as Jin smiled with maniacal glee. “I can get her, I promise! I’ll repay you everything!”

Shrugging, Ryoko nodded at Jin. “It is too late for promises, I’m afraid. I’ve already gifted you to this young man, and what kind of a role model would I be for the youth of Japan if I didn’t fulfill my end of the bargain?”

Screaming, Kin was dragged from the office by the teens while Jin followed after. Ryoko hated messes in his office. That was a lesson they had learned early on, ever since he had found them in the streets hunting rats and knocking off the other homeless to steal their meager possessions. He’d raised them up right and proper, and they would mind their manners.

Ryoko stood once more to stare out the window. Kagura entered the office. “It’s time for me to leave. Miroku called and wants to meet up at the restaurant we always do.”

His reflection in the plate glass window watched her cautiously. “You would never dream of betraying me for your little lover, now would you?”

She rolled her eyes. “As if I could. You would kill me before I would ever enjoy the fruits of my efforts.” She hated him, this she never tried to hide. For a brief, blissful time, she had dared to hope. To dream of freedom. But even now, so ensnared in his plans and her own culpability, even should he fail and she live through it, her life would be forfeit. She had no choice, for the sake of her own life, but to willingly follow his orders.

Ryoko laughed. “Such honesty. I think I keep you around for that more than your dubious charms that are so well-suited to being wasted upon that human.” He smirked at the glare she sent him. “Leave, then. We mustn’t keep your lover waiting. He might grow impatient and seek out another companion.”

Kagura turned on her heel and left the man to stare out over the vast web that stretched over the entirety of Western Japan and beyond. His spies had informed him of the impending trial. The Tashio had apparently not been told of his rather intimate connection to the hanyou known as Naraku. No, the other lords were saving that for the trial. Yet, he knew, just as he knew that Naraku would be absent from the scene from now on to avoid further complications to the messy scene about to commence. Perhaps an accident could be arranged.

Amber eyes flashed red behind the skillfully crafted contacts. “Naraku may have been thwarted, but Ryoko still works for your ultimate fall. Soon, Father, I will have it all and you will be nothing more than the dirt beneath my feet.”

.Chapter Twenty-eight

The Tashio swore violently. “What do you mean, you cannot find him?” he asked in a dangerously low voice when the person on the other end of the line went silent.

“He has disappeared, Tashio-sama,” the young man managed to get out. After this, he decided, he would find another job. With the news out about the Tashio, he couldn’t use him for a reference. But given the guy’s unleashed temper, he’d rather flip burgers at WacDonald’s than lose his head!

Without waiting for more, the phone was slammed down. All around him, servants scuttled to pack. He had been given a week to vacate the premises. Exactly the amount of time before the tournament, when his lands would be handed over to some upstart.

Izayoi had collapsed into tears at the news of his punishment, afraid that she would once more live among the dirty common people of her birth. He had consoled her with the knowledge that he was still wealthy and still had resources to call upon. Resources that had not been drained by the payment to Naraku.

Naraku, his bastard son.

Consigning him to the lowest layer of hell, the Tashio’s thoughts grew dark. The hanyou had certainly played him for a fool. Plotting behind his back for kami knew what purpose, Naraku had risen within his own territories, appointed by himself to a position of authority, even! Next to Sesshoumaru, Naraku was now regarded in the greatest of disdain.

He will not get away with this, the Tashio vowed. Whether or not it had been his intention, Naraku was responsible for his downfall. For now, however, revenge would wait. No doubt his other bastard son would have claimed the miko bitch and taken the wish. That left the tournament as the only avenue through which to reclaim that which was his.

If the gods truly worked in his favor, Sesshoumaru would hold to his plans. Then, and only then, could he face him in honorable combat and prove to the impudent pup just who was Alpha.

------------------------

“Have you considered the repercussions of the trial?” Carefully picking his way through the conversation, Kouga paced before the seated Daiyoukai. At Sesshoumaru’s side, Kagome watched the ookami with concerned eyes.

“What?” she finally asked when it appeared that Sesshoumaru had no intention of doing so. The trial had been speedily executed just yesterday. Naraku had disappeared shortly after her release from the hospital, but using hair samples that had been left behind, it had been determined through DNA tests that he was the offspring of the Tashio.

Ironclad evidence in place, the Tashio hadn’t stood a chance against the Lords’ tribunal. He had been stripped of his lands and ordered to pay a fine of over three million yen to the absent Naraku as recompense for his failure to act as a father to the hanyou.

Jidai, Inc., Sesshoumaru had later explained to Kagome, would be worthless as soon as the Tashio’s trial became public knowledge. Not only due to the scandal, but also the loss of yen. It was no secret that Naraku would be from paid from company funds. Stock prices would plummet and executives would be frantic to escape with their golden parachutes.

The only upside to the entire debacle of the trial was that Sesshoumaru hadn’t been forced to testify against his father. The DNA, coupled with the Northern Lord’s summary of the letter as told to him by Sesshoumaru, had sufficed. The Eastern and Southern Lords had been content to be led by Taro in the sentencing.

Kouga cut a clawed hand through the air as he continued to stare at the seated male. “She will be in danger from him now.”

“She will be safe,” Sesshoumaru stated sharply. The ookami treaded on thin ice by insinuating that he, Sesshoumaru, had not already weighed the issues surrounding his female’s protection.

A fairly impressive growl rumbled past Kagome’s lips. “Would someone tell me what all the double talk is about?”

“Calm yourself, Kagome,” Sesshoumaru said warningly. “You know what the doctor said.” She had only been released a little over a week ago. Her boss had allowed her vacation time to be extended to help in her healing. However, with everything that had happened, the doctor had warned that time off of work might not be enough to allow her to fully recuperate. She needed rest, and a completely stress-free lifestyle.

Huffing, Kagome sank in to the velvety cushion of the blue couch. “I wouldn’t get worked up if you would just tell me what is going on.”

Acknowledging the truth in that statement, Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to reply but was cut off.

“Father thinks he’ll go after you,” Kouga explained impatiently.

Kagome blinked. “Who?” She turned to Sesshoumaru. “Is he talking about your father?” A short nod answered her. “Why? What did I do to him?” Perplexed, she struggled to find a reason behind this new threat. Other than Sesshoumaru choosing her, she hadn’t done anything personally against the Tashio. At least, she didn’t think she had.

Having delivered the message and assured that the Daiyoukai was cognizant to the threat now levied against Kagome, Kouga decided to leave. “I know you worry for her health, Sesshoumaru, but it needs to be done. The sooner the better, for all concerned, in fact. Truly mated, she will hold no appeal to him, thusly ensuring that she and the jewel will be safe.”

Scowling, Sesshoumaru gave a short nod of his head in acknowledgement of the unwanted advice. “This I already know, wolf.”

“Then I will take my leave.” Kouga bowed to Kagome before nodding to Sesshoumaru.

Eyes following the departing youkai, Kagome digested the odd conversation that had flowed over her head. After the door shut behind the departing ookami, her heart clenched in realization. “He could want a wish. That’s what Kouga was worried about, wasn’t it? That your father would force me to make a wish on the jewel for him?”

Sesshoumaru sighed lowly. His temple began to pound in waning of an impending headache. “I will not allow it.” The last thing he wanted was to be pressed into taking her merely to protect her.

Voice slightly shrill, Kagome shot back, “How can you prevent it? You can’t be with me all the time, and going on what everyone has said about him, he’s not stupid. On top of that, he’s also insanely powerful.”

Stung into replying to the barb, he scowled. “Do you doubt me?”

She groaned before rolling her eyes. “It isn’t a matter of doubting you, Sesshoumaru, but of being realistic about the situation. One,” she began, ticking off on her fingers as she spoke, “we have the jewel. A jewel that is capable of granting any wish. Two: he happens to be in dire straits and could very possibly be desperate enough to want said wish for himself. And three: it takes a miko to make the wish; one who could be induced to, uh, join with the youkai to use it.” Daring him to refute her, she added, “As disgusting as it seems, according to you, he seems to think he’s the kamis gift to women. He could just think highly enough of himself to believe I could be seduced. Did I miss anything?”

Running a hand through his hair, Sesshoumaru’s jaw clenched in irritation. “What do you want me to say?” Grappling with his emotions, a dangerous mix of futile anger at his absent father and aggravation that she would press him on this, his eyes narrowed on the woman beside him.

“Don’t look at me like that, Sesshoumaru,” Kagome lectured. “This is not a mess of our making, and I don’t expect you to have all the answers. With this, though, even I know the perfect solution to the problem of your father. You are just too stubborn to admit it,” she admonished him.

Given her recent health scare, she understood his reticence in resuming physical relations with her. But, by Kami, she knew he was capable of being careful. They weren’t going to be running around doing cartwheels! It was either he mated her willingly, or she would take matters into her own hands.

Setting her features mulishly, Kagome crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you want him to try to force himself on me?” It was a low blow, but she was desperate to force him to acknowledge the error in waiting. “Because, I have a feeling that is what could happen. There aren’t very many mikos just laying around waiting to be plucked up to grant jewel wishes.”

Enraged by the question, Sesshoumaru leapt to his feet. “He will not touch you!” he roared.

Following him, Kagome stood before her male. “I know he wouldn’t, Sesshoumaru,” she placated. “You would protect me. But that won’t stop him from trying. You could get hurt, or any number of things could go wrong. I don’t want that to happen when it could be avoided.”

“Damn it, Kagome, I won’t have our mating be about some jewel!” he ground out. Breathing heavily with the effort of maintaining a semblance of calm, Sesshoumaru didn’t miss the widening of her eyes.

“Is that why you hesitate?” Not allowing him a chance to reply, Kagome chuckled. “You are being silly.” He scowled at the insult. She wrapped her arms about his waist, and the brewing irritation melted away. “Sesshoumaru, we are going to mate. We would have already if I hadn’t been injured. Right?”

Returning the embrace, Sesshoumaru gently lifted her into his arms. He carried her back to the couch. Settling her in his lap after claiming a seat, he sighed. “Kagome…”

Silencing him with a soft kiss, she smiled whimsically before murmuring, “I know the circumstances could be better. But don’t you dare think that a mating between us would ever be about a jewel. Granted, you will need to make the wish to prevent your father from using it, but I am more than willing to give you whatever you want. Can’t you think of it as a mating present from me to you, a bonus, rather than the reason behind the mating itself?”

Tilting his head to the side, he watched her warily. “You would give me whatever I want?” Something about her casual admission buried itself in his heart.

She bit her lip, blushing. “Surely you must know by now that I’d do anything for you. I love you,” she said simply. “Love doesn’t come with addendums or conditions. At least mine doesn’t.” She watched him with mysterious eyes. “Can’t you say the same?”

Thrown off track by the surge of warmth that accompanied her words, Sesshoumaru nodded soundlessly. He had known she was a loyal person; but, day by day, he had come to truly appreciate how unique she was. He could trust her in a way he had never thought to anticipate. The scorn of others had only pushed her closer to him His physical limitations were understood, even appreciated. He had saved her life and had been saved in turn. She had even given him her soul, her Vow, and he wanted to prove himself to her, just as she had him.

“Sesshoumaru?” Disturbed by the muted gold of his gaze, Kagome reached up to run her fingers through the soft fur of his neck.

“You were never just a wish to me,” he admitted, the words tripping from his mouth before he could call them back. Once they were out, however, and he saw the way her lips curved upwards in response while her eyes sparkled, Sesshoumaru wouldn’t take them back even if he could. “I had used my father’s demands as a reason to approach you, rather than admit to my personal interest in procuring you as my mate.”

She giggled. It was funny how he thought he was imparting a great secret. The truth had proclaimed itself when he had turned his back on his father’s demands to ditch her. Obviously, he had to have had ulterior motives, in this case masking his own interest rather than put himself out on a limb emotionally, to agree with the Tashio’s plan. One did not move Sesshoumaru to do anything unless he wanted it for his own reasons. Obscure or not.

Rather than point that out, Kagome settled for saying, “I know. And using the jewel won’t cheapen our mating, either. You did say that mating would endow me with some of your power; a protective embrace, as it were, of your essence. Using the jewel would be just another case of our mating protecting me,” she added, not above a little manipulation to prod him in the right direction.

He grinned wryly. “You think to manage me?” He was not above using sneaky tactics to get his way in terms of protecting her. It shouldn’t be surprising to find that trait shared between them. It was endearing, really. Even if it meant he would need to be on his guard in the future against his mate’s subtle maneuverings. Already willingly entangled with her, he had no desire to find himself submitting to her every whim. The woman needed a keeper, not a hapless pup.

Smiling winningly, Kagome hummed innocently. “I would never assume you could be so easily managed, my darling Daiyoukai.”

He smirked. “But it will not stop you from trying, I am sure,” he drawled.

She grinned, unabashedly unrepentant. “I’ll stop when you do.”

A slow grin spread across his features even as he attempted to remain serious. “Wench.”

“Stud,” she fired back.

He blinked. “Stud?”

She shrugged. “If you insist on calling me a wench, then I’ll call you a stud. I could use hunk, I suppose, but it doesn’t have that vaguely insulting tone that I’m trying to capture.”

“You are incorrigible.” He shifted, his hands settled about her hips and readjusted her until she straddled him. “What of your shoulder? Does it pain you?” Grasping at straws now, he threw out his last defense.

She sighed. “You know perfectly well that it doesn’t. The pain meds and the numbing cream have taken care of that.” Forestalling any more hurdles, she added, “Besides the wish, am I being too forward in admitting that I want you to make love to me?” Tantalizing memories of their joined release, so beautiful and wantonly glorious, had plagued her dreams. What would it feel like, she had then wondered, to feel him inside, stretching and filling that unbearably empty place within her? Even now, just thinking about it caused a low ache to make itself known in her nether regions.

Immediately reacting to her husky admission, Sesshoumaru’s already swollen member hardened painfully. He hissed between clenched teeth. “You tempt me beyond all imagining.” Grazing the soft skin of her neck with the deadly points of his fangs, he surrendered to her alluring revelation.

“The jewel,” she pointed out shakily when his hands drifted to the outer curve of her thigh.

He smiled against her skin, nipping her ear in reprimand for interrupting him. Calloused palms slid over the generous curve of her backside. “We will discuss it after our mating.”

Body heating at the suggestive movement of his finger as it traced the indent between her buttocks before sliding over her fabric-covered womanhood, Kagome licked her lips and squirmed. “After?”

“After,” he affirmed before claiming her mouth. He nibbled on the plump lower lip. Hard pants brushed against his cheek as she gave in to him completely. His tongue soothed the faintly bruised flesh.

“Here?” she managed to get out breathlessly, unable to keep the obvious excitement from the query. With everything seemingly against them, she needed this. She wanted to know him fully, to hold him deep within her. To touch him in ways that no one ever had, or ever would.

Growling softly under his breath, Sesshoumaru shifted and stood. Legs wrapped about his waist, Kagome clung to him, unwilling to lose contact with his hard warmth. Nipping at his chin, fingers delving into the fur of his neck, Kagome fairly purred in anticipation.

Hands on her bottom, Sesshoumaru supported her weight as he walked them to the bed. When she shifted, hands on his shoulders to lever herself up, and drew his bottom lip into her mouth to suckle upon, his knees threatened to buckle. Kagome chuckled huskily when he managed to land on the bed rather than the floor. “It’s only fair,” she said. “I get weak-kneed just by looking at you.”

His already formidable arousal twitched in burning admiration for her honesty. Shifting her to the side, he watched her for any sign of discomfort. “Have you no guile?”

Grinning shamelessly, Kagome asked, “Am I supposed to pretend I don’t like what I see?” He already knew what she had to offer and had proven he liked what he had seen. Was she to hold onto a feeling of shyness that she no longer felt around him, knowing that he loved her body as much as she delighted in his?

It would certainly make it easier on him to maintain control, Sesshoumaru mused. He should have known that she would prove as uninhibited in love as she did in life. Not that he objected. Far from it. He would simply have to grow accustomed to walking around in a state of semi-arousal.

Her fingers nimbly unbuttoned his shirt before impatiently tugging at the lapels to urge him to remove it. Moving to obey the silent demand, he watched with a dry mouth as she kneeled to pull her own shirt over her head and threw it on the floor. Unhooking her bra, that too followed the shirt to land sprawled on the floor. A flash of white caught his eye, and he frowned at the sight of the bandage.

This time, there were no rosy blushes as she moved closer, intending to make him forget about her injury. She smiled seductively, and an answering heat threatened to swallow him whole. Breasts bouncing, she then shimmied her pants down and over her hips, taking her underwear with it as she kicked the fabric off.

Shirt still half-way on, Sesshoumaru was brought back to reality by the pout on her full lips. “Do you need help?” she asked. He was taking a long time, and she was ready now!

At the goading, he narrowed his eyes. She was certainly ready, rushing even. The button-down shirt floated to land on top of her small pile of clothing to be followed by his undershirt. As he reached for the belt buckle, her small hands stopped him.

Kagome bit her bottom lip. “Let me.” He nodded, and she slowly unbuckled it before drawing the strip of leather from the loops. That out of the way, she dropped it over the side of the bed before turning back to him. Fingers traced the bulge made obvious beneath the khaki fabric as she popped the snap on the pants before lowering the zipper. A rumbling growl followed her actions. Her body answered in a rush of heated warmth that flowed to her womanly center.

“Do you like it when I touch you?” she asked, innocently eager to please him. Her fingers tingled deliciously with every tantalizing stroke, firing nerve endings in her entire body.

He snorted. As if she had to ask. “What do you think?”

Taking him seriously, Kagome eyed her lover’s groin. “I think you might like it as much as I do.” Without preamble, she tugged the pants and boxers down. Jutting proudly, his arousal seemed to swell further before her eyes.

Before he could shift to remove the clothing entirely, she wrapped her fingers about his hard girth. Stilling immediately, a snarl burst forth from deep within his chest. Ignoring it to explore this alien part of him, the flesh that had been made to pleasure her, Kagome tightened her fingers experimentally. The smooth skin, the only part of him that was without fur, beckoned her closer.

A large vein grew from the root of his groin and traveled the length of his arousal. She was astounded to feel the pulse of blood beneath the pads of her fingers, and she lightly followed its path to the heavy sac below. Curiously twining her fingers in the downy fur there, Kagome delighted in how soft it was. The pained grunt that followed her exploration had her attention diverted to his pinched features.

Awash in heat, Sesshoumaru trembled with the force of his need. Her fingers, those delicate digits, were torturing him to the point of embarrassing himself. “Enough,” he commanded when she looked up. He drew her hands away from him, knowing that if she continued, he wouldn’t last.

“But I-” she began, only to be cut off by his lips slamming onto her own. Tongue invading her mouth, Sesshoumaru swallowed her protestation. Both moaned into the kiss, knowing that, this time, there would be no interruptions. No more waiting.

Gripping her shoulders, careful of her old wound, Sesshoumaru guided her to lay back on the bed. He drew a pillow up to support her back and to keep the weight off her wound. Once he had her situated to his satisfaction, Sesshoumaru sat back on the balls of his feet to enjoy the sight of her flushed body sprawled in decadent surrender.

The dark curls at the apex of her thighs drew his eyes as they glistened wetly in the dim lighting. His nostrils flared with the force of the musky aroma of feminine arousal as she watched him with eyes filled with need.

Following his gaze, Kagome shifted her legs apart, baring herself to his eyes fully in invitation for him to fill her without an iota of hesitation. She wanted him and she would never waste time on false modesty. This was no stranger, but her mate and lover. That was all she cared about. “Sesshoumaru,” she begged in a broken whisper, “Please.”

He was lost, Sesshoumaru decided as his body clenched in response to her plea and the sight of the moist folds of her womanhood. Utterly and completely enthralled. Blood roared in his ears, muffling even the sound of his breathing as it grew into a steady growling pant.

She cried out in relief when he fell upon her, fingers wrapping about her hips to pull her closer. Latching onto a furled nipple, he suckled the flesh, drawing deeply, and elicited a loud moan as her fingers clenched in his hair.

Undulating beneath his weight, Kagome slid her legs up to cradle his large form between her soft thighs. Pressing her feet into the bedding for leverage, she rubbed against his arousal in an attempt at appeasing the ache of her need. The smooth skin of his erection as it teased her folds coupled with the way the fur of his body caressed her naked body soon had her mewling helplessly.

Pulling away from the puckered nipple, Sesshoumaru hungrily laved the neglected flesh of its twin. Fingers plucked at the nipple he had already worshipped into an almost painful bud. The power beneath his skin boiled in response to her overheated body with every brush of her wet folds against his straining arousal, begging to be released in order to finally return the mate claim of his female. Not yet, he told himself. He wanted to hold out as long as he could, to prolong their first mating until she would never forget it.

Kagome tossed her head to the side, ebony hair fanned wildly against the stark white of the pillow. She tugged on his hair, trying to urge him to move up, straining to tell him with each arch of her back that she was ready, that she wanted him now. He ignored her prompting, and she was moved to drastic measures.

Reaching between their bodies, Kagome grabbed hold of the swollen shaft as it rubbed against her and squeezed. Hard. “Now!” she hissed warningly.

Howling in the pleasure-pain of her demanding caress, Sesshoumaru lost complete control. Wildly surging forward, he sheathed himself in her body with one smooth stroke. She gasped at the pain of the breaching, muscles protesting the too-swift invasion.

“Damn it, Kagome,” Sesshoumaru cursed as he struggled to take in air and resist the need to move. He had known it would be painful and hadn’t wanted to hurt her. Her heat surrounded him, enticing him to nudge forward, to bury every inch within her body’s tight grip. Teeth gritted, he held back. Waiting for a sign to continue, his throbbing shaft begged for completion.

Panting into his chest, some of the mindless need cleared with the painful reality of his entrance, Kagome blinked back tears. “I didn’t think it would hurt that much,” she whispered in apology.

Sensing her upset, Sesshoumaru’s irritation faded. “Hush,” he admonished. Leaning down to nuzzle her cheek, he claimed her lips in a heady kiss. Softly nibbling her bottom lip, he entered her mouth as she opened for him. Twining their tongues together, stroking and delving in an imitation of what he longed to do within the paradise of her silky cavern, Sesshoumaru didn’t let up until her fingers eased their hold on his neck.

She was panting for another reason entirely when he broke it off to groan into her hair. She shifted minutely and was rewarded with a shaft of tingling pleasure that overrode the faint twinges of discomfort that yet remained. She would definitely be sore in the morning, she decided, but not now.

Instinctively pulling her thighs even higher, opening herself further to him as they fell open, Kagome gasped as the movement heralded a shiver-inducing caress against her swollen clitoris. Sesshoumaru tensed further, muscles bunching and locking beneath his skin. “Again,” he ordered huskily.

She complied, and soon he was pulling out slightly with each rub of her swollen pleasure bud against the taut flesh just above the root of his arousal. Both shuddered with the joint sensation. Fingers digging into his back, Kagome grabbed fistfuls of fur to stabilize herself as he began to pull out further, almost leaving her body entirely, before sliding home once more.

Mewling helplessly as he picked up the pace, trying desperately to keep up with him as her hips moved to the rhythm he set, Kagome felt her head swim as her body begged for more. Latching onto his shoulder as the sensations grew almost too intense for her to bear, dull teeth bit into flesh to hold in the screams begging to be let out.

Stiffening in response to the passionate assault, Sesshoumaru wondered hazily if she knew what that did to him. Surging forward, skin crawling with the need to release as the wet furnace of her body engulfed him in its vice-like grip once more, Sesshoumaru knew he wouldn’t last much longer.

Tilting her hips upward with his hands, they were both rewarded with a deeper penetration. He shuddered, muscles spasming with the effort it took to not release. Wrapping his arm under her hips to hold her in place, his free hand reached between their bodies and plucked at her clitoris. At the same time, he pulled out and surged back in with as much force as he dared.

She screeched into his fur and bit down even harder as she came apart in his arms. Snarling in pleasure, Sesshoumaru let go and spilled inside of her welcoming body as her muscles clenched and spasmed around his girth. Muscles shivered and locked alternately as the moment seemed to be stretched out indefinitely.

Staring up at him, Kagome was lost in admiration for the primal beauty of his release. She had done that, her body had given him this, she thought in pleasured pride as his release mixed with the fluids that he had so skillfully coaxed from her body to slide between her thighs.

Until, finally, he was released from the euphoria of their shared bliss. Dropping to the side, he pulled her to follow him rather than break their connection. His mate nestled against his side, without wasting a moment, he released the power surging sluggishly within his blood, the youki gathered yet also subdued by his release. Kagome stiffened as his youki invaded her still shivering body, but then relaxed as the heat of his power soothed her muscles and flowed over her mind and heart to permanently settle within her.

Minutes passed as he shared his power with her, content to simply lay there as the connection built and strengthened. When he determined that she had enough, the flow of youki was cut off. Kagome yawned sleepily into his chest, rubbing her nose in the thick fur there. He smiled tenderly at his mate. “Sleep, Kagome. The day can wait.”

Smiling up at him, she snuggled closer. “Will you stay with me?” she asked.

“There is no where else I would rather be,” he promised. Within minutes, both were soundly asleep.

-------------------------------

Humming while she washed the dinner dishes, Kagome was reminded of the activities of earlier that day by the faint twinge between her legs. It wasn’t painful; more of a simple discomfort.

It had been wonderful, she recalled while sighing dreamily. Just thinking about the moment of release, of the expression of complete bliss that had crossed Sesshoumaru’s face, had her shifting again as heat pooled in her stomach.

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that he was still busy at his laptop. Jaken had called, waking them up with the information that Jidai, Inc. had already taken a hit in the market. Many of the stockholders were running to Sesshoumaru to salvage their funds.

Given the fact that he felt a small bit of responsibility for their immediate financial problems, the Daiyoukai had flipped open his laptop and gone to work. After a fast shower, Kagome had amused herself with her own laptop, a gift that had been delivered yesterday from the store that Sesshoumaru had bought it from. Dinner time had rolled around, and he had been enticed into enjoying the simple meal of beef and rice that she had made.

Now, though, Kagome thought, she had been patient enough and wanted some of his time. Given her still recovering nether regions, she had something quite different in mind. The only question was whether or not he’d go along with it. She hoped so. She wanted to see him the way he had been earlier again.

Folding the towel she had used to dry the dishes, Kagome placed it on the counter before turning to cross the floor until she reached the couch. Seated upon it, Sesshoumaru looked up as she cleared her throat.

“Do you need something?” he asked. The scent of her arousal tickled his nose; he willed himself to ignore it as he had all his other urges throughout the day. The work had been a much needed distraction. She was still sore, and he was no beast to ravage her body. At least, not until she could take it without pain.

Biting her lip, Kagome kneeled between his feet. He moved the laptop so that he could see her more clearly, then she took it from him to set on the floor. Unsure how to voice her question, Kagome leaned forward and propped her elbows on his thighs. She played with the buckle of his belt nervously.

Swallowing a groan, Sesshoumaru pulled her hand away from its dangerous location. “You are still sore,” he reminded her lest he forget himself.

Nodding, Kagome latched onto the words. “I am. Couldn’t you-I mean, don’t you-” Frustrated with her inability to vocalize what she could so easily show physically, Kagome scowled.

Stroking the hair away from her neck, Sesshoumaru’s thumb slid across the smooth skin soothingly. Her next words shocked him so completely he froze in place.

“Could I give you release?” Smiling happily as she managed to get it out with only a minimum of blushing, Kagome elaborated, “I mean, I want you to show me everything you like. I did love seeing you when you, you know, and I like making you feel good.”

Heart beating irregularly, he croaked out, “This would please you?” Kami, where was the hesitation he had heard most females harbored about sex? She was, just Kagome. At least he would never be in doubt as to what she wanted.

“Oh yes,” she breathed out, as eager as a child promised an early birthday gift. “It would please me greatly. I want to know your body as well as I know my own.”

Shifting to lean against the couch back, Sesshoumaru regarded her steadily. There were many things which would please him, but he didn’t yet know where she would draw a line. What things were pleasing to her, and what would disgust her? He was working off his instincts as surely as she was. “Do what you would, you needn’t ask,” he said, giving her free rein to explore, yet avoiding the risk of suggesting something she might find repellant.

Biting her lip in indecision, Kagome tapped a finger against his belt. “Will you take this off, please?” She didn’t have first hand experience with love making, but there were some things that one couldn’t help but learn about. Whispers and health classes tended to take the mystery out of it. She only hoped some of her naiveté would melt away along with her innocence. It was a bother not to get innuendo when it was thrown right at her because she didn’t connect the allusion to its true meaning.

For right now, she wanted to know what it felt like to take him into her mouth. To taste that part of him. To see if she could give him release with nothing but her tongue, lips, and hands to stroke him. She wanted to bury her nose in the soft fur that cushioned his sac and breath deeply of his masculine odor, knowing that it was hers. That he was hers, and that only she would ever know him thusly.

Just thinking about it already had her uncomfortably moist, but she paid it no mind.

Manfully refraining from fumbling or moving in crass haste, he complied with her request. Sesshoumaru couldn’t deny that he was, indeed, eager to see what she had planned. He would make sure that he wasn’t the only one to receive pleasure, of course, but she needn’t know that yet. Her desire was something to be nurtured, though judging on the almost rabid way in which she watched his every movement in the removal of his belt, it would not be a hardship.

Without waiting for him to turn around from laying the belt across the couch back, Kagome went to work on the snap and zipper of his trousers. They had a lifetime to explore each other, but her burning attention was focused solely on his burgeoning arousal right now. Tugging, she managing to slide the trousers and boxers to his knees when Sesshoumaru lifted himself slightly from the couch to aid her.

Without preamble, her fingers wrapped around the revealed prize. Pushing his shirt up with the other hand, she leaned forward and sighed into the soft fur of his sac. Running her cheek along the hard length that had begun pulsing once more within her grasp, Kagome inhaled deeply of the musky aroma that would forever be engraved in her mind as being simply him.

A fine tremor overtaking his hands, Sesshoumaru bit back a crude oath when he consigned his shirt to the trash and ripped it down the middle rather than mess with the buttons. His view unimpeded now with the fabric pushed out of the way, a fierce snarl built up in his chest at the sight of her hedonistic enjoyment. Her chest rose and fell on a huge breath, and his heart pounded to know that, even with dulled human senses, she took pleasure in his scent as he did in hers.

Both hands now free, Kagome glanced up to see him watching her as she cupped his softness within her palms. Lids lowered to half-mast in response to the gentle massage of her fingers upon his tender flesh. Tugging experimentally, she was rewarded with a strangled moan. Kagome smiled shakily as her body reacted to his obvious pleasure.

“I like touching you, knowing that I am making you feel good. It pleases me,” she murmured huskily as her palms left his sac to stroke the hard length before her. “Will you taste as good as you smell?” she wondered out loud.

He jumped in her hands, growing impossibly hard with the softly uttered words. Kami, she could bring him to orgasm with only her voice if she kept it up. She was a truly sensual creature, unhindered by the taboos that seemed to plague most of humanity. His, he crowed mentally as his blood sang her name, she was all his. And then her soft lips closed over him and all thought fled before the sweet torment.

Rolling her tongue over the bulbous tip, she coaxed a few drops to fall upon her tongue. Slightly salty, yet, oh-so-deliciously male, was the best description Kagome could come up with for how he tasted. Unable to draw his entire length into her mouth, Kagome sighed around the hard flesh. On bent knees, she scooted closer and wrapped her fingers around the base of his arousal. Drawing back, she released him to study the way her fingers looked wrapped around his hardness. Smiling at the way his stomach muscles clenched with each movement of her hands, Kagome leaned forward to catch the traces of liquid that she had managed to milk from his taut body.

He was reduced to panting, unable to contain the way the muscles in his legs jerked and his skin itched in unrelieved tension. What she lacked in experience, his mate certainly made up for in sheer, hedonistic, enthusiasm. Pumping him between licking up each drop coaxed forth by her untutored if completely effective assault, Kagome began rocking on her knees, her body unconsciously seeking relief of her own arousal.

Lips swollen, cheeks flushed and eyes flared with newfound knowledge and pure wanton desire, Kagome’s gaze flitted upward and was ensnared by the nearly crimson one that had been waiting for her. She almost swooned from the lusty smirk that sprouted on his face as he pulled her hands away from him. “My turn,” he murmured in a voice roughened by desire.

She pouted sexily. “Who said I was done?” She wanted him to lose control, to give over to the sensations she could feel running beneath his skin. And she wanted to watch him tremble and shout, growl and snarl.

He paused, appearing to contemplate her disappointment before offering, “Then we can both have what we want.”

Willing to trust him in this, Kagome gripped his hard shaft and squeezed lovingly. “What do you want of me?” she asked, resuming pumping him as the addiction to his flesh took root in her.

Rather than answer, Sesshoumaru displaced her as he slid to lay back fully on the couch cushions. Urging her into place with his hands, he commanded, “Undress.”

Disrobing fully only took a minute, and soon Kagome stared down on him questioningly. He grinned wickedly. “Come here,” he beckoned with an outstretched hand. She obeyed instantly and gasped as he lifted her effortlessly and turned her in one smooth movement until she straddled his neck and stared down on his body. “Oh, Kami,” she whispered, shocked by her new position, but assuming correctly what he wanted. Glancing at him over her shoulder, barely able to see anything other than his eyes around the curve of her behind, she whispered, “You want to-While I?”

Amused at the reappearance of her shyness, Sesshoumaru answered by pulling her closer. Surrounded by her scent, he growled his pleasure before his tongue snaked out to taste the beckoning honey that had tempted him hours ago. Her thighs shivered within his grasp and her head fell back as she mewled helplessly at the lewdly tender kiss.

Appetite gnawing for more, his tongue delved into her heat to retrieve the breathless moans and pleasure-filled sighs.

“Sesshoumaru,” she whispered in wonder as her muscles clamped onto his tongue, attempting to draw him in deeper.

She began to shiver uncontrollably as he lapped at the wet petals of her feminine flower. Unable to hold herself up, Kagome fell forward, catching herself on his thighs. Panting as he continued to work her until a fine sheen of sweat began to break out all over her body, she watched in awe as the swollen head of his arousal began to seep the evidence of his enjoyment. Groaning, she stretched forward to take him into her mouth once more, to devour him as ravenously as he was her.

Lost in the taste of her, needing more, wanting more, Sesshoumaru reacted instantly to the thought that she was moving away. His arm slid around her waist and clamped her in place with an immovable grip. His tongue pressed into her folds even deeper, seeking the treasure hidden within, before withdrawing to tap against her swollen bud in little teasing patterns.

Groaning around his length, Kagome was rewarded with a surge of fluid that told her just how much he had liked it. Beneath her fingers, his thigh muscles twitched and danced uncontrollably; as uncontrollably as her own, in fact.

Helplessly grinding her hips into that wonderfully dexterous tongue, Kagome gasped as a finger joined it in stretching her wider, increasing the pressure as her entire lower body clenched in response to the welcome invasion. Uncontrollably undulating now, lips stretched almost painfully around his staff to encompass as much as she could in the wet heat of her mouth, her hands pumped him feverishly.

Snarling against her heat as she went wild above him, Sesshoumaru’s release burst upon him. He roared into her spasming woman flesh, and she released him to scream out his name. The muscles in his stomach jerked with each pulse of seed that left his body. A white haze fell over his vision, blinding him momentarily with the force of the sexual euphoria that engulfed him in its embrace.

Almost wheezing with the aftereffect, Kagome slid around to drop into his arms. Sweaty, chin and chest sticky from his seed and exhausted, she had never felt so good. Breathing heavily, she groaned as his arms wrapped around her tightly. “We need a shower.” She didn’t have the energy to get up, though, that was for certain.

He chuckled and decided to take pity on her. After kicking off his pants, making a mental note to remove them fully next time, he carried her into the bathroom and set her down. Yawning, Kagome roused herself enough to return to the living area while he readied the shower. After retrieving their scattered clothing, she dumped them in the laundry basket.

Chore complete, Kagome wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into his solid weight. “I love you,” she whispered into his back after nuzzling into his shoulder.

Eyes soft as he turned around to return the embrace, Sesshoumaru stroked a hand through her tangled hair. “And I you. Come, let us wash. Then I will get your pills and redress the wound.”

Groaning at the reminder, she gave in good-naturedly. The medicine and bandages were irritating, but he seemed to, oddly enough, enjoy playing nurse to her invalid patient. For that alone did she put up with the fuss.

Twenty minutes later, they emerged from the shower squeaky clean. Ignoring his command to rest in the living room while he dried his hair, Kagome picked up the spare hair dryer. “You do the front and I’ll get the back,” she decided after considering the quickest route.

Frowning slightly, he opened his mouth to argue, but his jaw snapped shut at the stern look she sent him. It was second nature for him to refuse aid in something so personal. His fur had been nothing but a badge of shame for so long that its grooming was something to be done alone and out of sight. At least, that was what he had thought.

Kagome wasn’t having any of it, however, he realized. Bent over to dry his hair, the second dryer turned on behind him and he allowed it. Gentle fingers moved through his fur to fluff it and aid the warm air in evaporating the remaining moisture.

With her help, he was done within a half an hour rather than the standard hour. Reaching for the brush, he was beat to it by Kagome. “Come on. I’ll brush your fur in the other room,” she coaxed with a pleading smile.

Willingly led from the bathroom, he followed her docilely to the bed. The scent of their lovemaking was still fresh upon the air, and he took it into his lungs appreciatively. Kagome pulled back the covers and patted the bed beside her. Sesshoumaru settled down where she had indicated. Replete from their strenuous activity of an hour ago, clean, content in the knowledge that his mate was safe, surrounded by the scent of their joining, and lulled by the soft brush strokes through his fur, Sesshoumaru had never felt so relaxed. It was with great reluctance that he pulled away. “Your wound, Kagome,” he reminded her as she protested.

She fell silent, and didn’t speak again until he was wrapping the bandages over the redressed shoulder. “Sesshoumaru, I’m not on anything,” she blurted out of the blue.

“On anything?” he queried while deftly tying off the bandage.

“To prevent getting pregnant,” she clarified. Her shoulders stiffened in anticipation of his reaction. She hadn’t even thought about it during their mating, but now, she could think of little else.

Stroking her back soothingly, Sesshoumaru lowered himself onto the bed beside her to draw her unresisting body into his arms. The covers were pulled over their nude bodies, and he kissed her brow. “One advantage to a youkai mate, Kagome. We control our potency. You will not get pregnant.”

Sighing in relief, she snuggled into him. This time, he fell asleep first. Still thinking on all that had happened that day, Kagome was drawn to look over at him when he nosed the pillow, snuffling as the cool fabric slowly warmed before settling. A faint snore escaped from between slightly parted lips. Her heart swelled. He looked so peaceful laying there. So content.

She hoped it could last forever.

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