Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any of the other characters.
Well, I hope you liked the start of my new story. It just kind of popped up in my head so yeah. I feel good about this new start, but please feel free to read and review. Tell me what you think! ^^ -Dee Zuki
Chapter One
Something called to me.
Cold amber eyes shifted to the east where the sensation turned from a nagging feeling at the back of my mind to something with substance. It felt like something was trying to grasp a hold of my soul, desperation and fear swarming me to the point that I was almost suffocating.
"Sesshomaru-sama. Is everything okay?" the softly voiced question pulled my attention away from the sinking feeling that sucked at me to the small child I saved next to me.
Rin looked up at me with concerned brown eyes, her small fingers twirling a strand of her black hair. I gave a curt nod and turned back to the darkening horizon. Normally such an event wouldn't draw me to it, but the urge to see what this...thing or being was grew by the moment.
Why would they choose me, Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, to plea upon? Do they not know who I am? Or was it just plea of desperation to anything that was near?
"Lord Sesshomaru, when do you think we're going back?" Rin asked, again pulling me from my thoughts.
Not moving my eyes from the direction of the plea, I called to Jaken. "Take her back to the Western Lands, Jaken. I must deal with a matter that's come to my attention."
With that, I left the concerned little one in the hands of my faithful demon that called out to me as I disappeared into the forest that surrounded us, heading towards the pull rather than away from it like I should have. I ran, dodging trees with ease, my stomach clenching the farther east I went. I could taste the fear on my tongue like it was blood coating it, thick and warm. My body moved quicker on its own accord, its only thought was getting to ... her.
I knew the moment the thought crossed my mind that it was a miko's power that was calling out to me. Recollections crossed my mind and the only two mikos that I knew of was the strange girl my bastard half-brother traveled with and the dead one he always ran to.
Which one was I running to? Racing to save?
Something glittered from the base of a nearby tree and I inhaled. Blood. It was the live girl with strange clothes, but by the amount of blood that littered the leaves on the ground and painted the trunks of trees debated on how long this one would live. From the degree of desperation that her soul cried out to me told me that her life was slipping away, she maybe had moments to live.
So why then did I still run to her even after I knew of who she was and who she traveled with? Why could I not pull back from this weak miko's call? Why was it I that she cried out to? Where was that half-breed brother of mine?
A blood churning scream cut out across the night making the blood in my veins turn cold. My beast swarm closer to the surface then it should have and I had to clench my jaw against the roar of fury that burned up my throat. The miko's pain sliced through me, staggering me, enraging my beast all the more.
The trees around me suddenly ended in a baron dirt field and another helpless scream came from a decaying small house sitting in the middle. Huffing from the amount of emotion the girl was weighing me down with, I quickly made my way to the small flaking wooden door that was being eaten away by termites and of years in the sun. A small bloody hand print marred the door's rotting surface, smelling heavily of the miko and a small sense of clay.
"STOP!" the miko's shriek made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My beast did not like that she was hurt and that itself puzzled me more than the draw the miko had on me.
Entering the decaying structure, I crept into the small front room that was littered with trash and molding broken furniture. The only light came from the holes in the ceiling and walls were pieces were missing or had been eaten away at. The smell alone coming from the place was almost enough to cover up the scent of the miko's blood, but her need became a living pulse that surrounded me, confirming that she was indeed here.
Silently, I made my way through the disgusting room down a short hallway where light flitted from underneath a partially closed door. I could hear her heartbeat, thready and quick. Stepping up to the gap, making sure that I was still in shadows, I looked upon the scene.
The girl lay bleeding over what looked like a stone alter, her face bruised and a deep cut marring her pale cheek, leaking crimson blood into her black hair. Her white blouse was soaked, the material sticking to her small frame, outlining her breasts and abdomen. The small green skirt was blotched with her blood, ripped and torn in places, leaving her long pale legs in view. Multiple deep cuts traveled down the length of those legs till the socks at her ankles hid anymore.
A soft chanting came to my ears and it was then that a woman in a white kimono came into view, stepping up to the end of the alter. She had her eyes closed, but I knew who it was even before she had stepped into my view. She was the reason the young miko's blood had a hint of clay to it on the door. Her death made her smell of dirt and clay and I abhorred the smell.
"Please, Kikyo," the girl whimpered, tears leaking out of the corner of her brown eyes as she looked down at the dead miko, "why are you doing this to me? You have InuYasha. Go be with him and leave me be," she beseeched.
The dead woman looked at her. "Yes, but I need your soul. I no longer want to walk between worlds. By taking your soul, I will become whole and be able to live a true life with InuYasha," with that, she pulled out a snaked dagger, taking a step around the alter towards the young dying one.
I could stay where I was no longer. Stepping into the room, I reached the dead miko even before I remember grabbing a hold of her and roughly took the dagger out of her hands. Her lifeless brown eyes widened before I crushed her windpipe and sunk the dagger she meant for the young one into her dead heart, giving it a violent twist. Satisfaction flowed through me when I heard the dead miko sigh her last breath, her eyes closing and her body growing limp in my grasp.
Dropping the woman onto the floor, I looked down at her a moment before I reluctantly turned to the dying one that's pull had resided to a tingling feeling underneath my skin. Her long black lashes rested against her pale cheeks and her chest barely rose with her shallow breathes. She was truly dying, slipping away before my very eyes.
Gathering the miko in my arms, panic suddenly gripped me. It was an emotion I wasn't used to nor liked. Still, I held her torso gently against mine and stroked her bloody cheek, not caring that she was in return covering me in her life-force. She didn't move and it made my heart jump into my throat, clogging it.
No. She cannot die!
Hesitating, I debated on whether my sword would help the girl or not. I felt no vibration or pulse coming from it, so it led me to believe that it would let her die. It would not save her. My beast roared in my head and I could only think of one solution.
Hugging her small form against my chest with her legs still resting on the stone alter, I gently moved her matted hair away from her pale white neck. Closing my amber eyes, I leaned closer, molding her form against me, I opened my mouth, hardly believing what I was about to do. I kissed the soft flesh before I pulled my lips back from my teeth and sank them into that soft thin flesh that gave way under my bite.
Warm sweet blood flowed into my mouth and her heart gave out a final beat before I could hear no more coming her chest. My eyes opened and I pushed what power was in me into her, pleading with her to breath, to make her heart beat for me. She could not die. Not now.
You cannot die on me, young miko! Live!
oOo
Well, that's it for my first chapter. I really hope you liked it. I know I left it at a cliff-hanger, but hey. I wanted to keep in suspense. ^^ Please feel free to tell me what you think and send me a review! Pretty please. I should have a new chapter out for you to read very soon! Thank so much!
-Dee Zuki