Bad Blood
Chapter One
In the darkness of a moonless night, an incantation is being uttered. The speaker's words echo through time and space, causing everything around it to tremble. Finally, the chanting stops, and there is dead silence. For a moment it seemed as though even nature itself was holding its breath, then an ear-splitting crack of thunder came, and winds blew wildly across the land, centering on the spot where the incantation was said. And from amidst the roar of the wind, another roar was heard; the angered roar of a dog youkai, freshly awakened from sleep……………….
Inu-Yasha grumbled as he awoke the morning following the moonless night. Sure, the night had been uneventful, but he'd felt unusual all night. No, unusual was not the word for it; downright miserable was more like it. Inu-Yasha remembered with a wince what had happened almost immediately after sunset the previous day; the usual change, and then the intense pain and nausea. Then there had been a soaring fever, and violent chills, that left him weak and shaking. Kagome, Miroku, Sango and even Shippou had taken turns keeping an eye on him during the night and, even though Inu-Yasha pretended that it annoyed the hell out of him, he was glad they did.
"Are you sure you're all right, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine." Inu-Yasha replied, shortly, as he hauled himself to his feet, swaying a little before Kagome helped steady him.
"I'm glad to hear it." Kagome said, letting the subject drop.
"What do you think caused your illness last night, Inu-Yasha?" Miroku asked, as he retrieved his shakujou from where he'd placed it the night before.
"I don't know. " Inu-Yasha muttered, as at a loss to explain it as his friends were.
"But I do." A familiar voice said, from the clearing adjacent. Almost instantly Inu-Yasha knew who it was and had Tetsusaiga out, ready for a fight.
"Where are you, Sesshomaru? Answer me!" Inu-Yasha demanded. There was no immediate answer, but even Kagome could hear harsh, raspy breathing from the direction the voice had come.
"This way." Kagome said, as she headed in that direction. What they came upon was not a pretty sight; blood was smeared in almost every direction, and a severely hurt Sesshomaru lay in the middle of it. The Lord of the Western Lands looked as though he'd almost been beaten to death, and had barely escaped with his life.
"What happened?!" Kagome asked, stunned by what she saw. The wounded youkai coughed painfully, bringing up blood from a collapsed lung, then looked up at Inu-Yasha, his eyes having nothing but a haunted look in them.
"Naraku's resurrected Father." Sesshomaru muttered, before the pain of his wounds and emotional trauma took their toll and he passed out, falling forward into Kagome's arms as he did so. Inu-Yasha stood frozen; his father?! Resurrected by Naraku?!? But how?!
"We need to get him back to Kaede's village. He'll die if he's left out here." Kagome said, as she started to lift the wounded youkai lord onto her shoulders. Reluctantly, Miroku and Sango agreed to help carry Inu-Yasha's elder brother back to the village. To their surprise, Inu-Yasha didn't even utter one complaint about the decision. Instead he spent the entire walk back to the village in stunned silence. What did this mean? Why had Sesshomaru been so bloodied up? Had Sesshomaru come all this way to find him and warn him? As these questions whirled around in Inu-Yasha's mind, another, more pressing question remained; would Sesshomaru live to tell them more?