~xxoxx~

Viaticum

by Yui Shunrei Ryuzaki

Disclaimer applies

~xxoxx~

He could still remember. He spent the remainder of the night in a cathedral, huddled in a shadowy place. He hungered for the blood he'd lost, and each time a mortal drew near, he felt a strong pulling where the wounds had been.

But he waited.

And when a young beggar woman with a little girl approached, he knew that the moment had come. She noticed the dried blood, and became frantic to get him to the nearby hospital. Her face was thin with hunger but she tried to lift him herself. He looked into her hazel colored eyes until he saw them glaze over. He felt her heat against her breasts swelling beneath her dirty clothes. Her soft, succulent body tumbled against him, enticing him as he nestled in her arms. He pushed the obstructive dirty cloth away from her throat, and bent for the drink skillfully that the sleepy young girl never saw it happened to her unfortunate mother. Then he carefully opened with trembling fingers the child's ragged shirt. A pleading voice halted him to consume the child.

"Please...not my child... Spare her life... She's too young to die." The dying mother pleaded with glassy eyes. He, with a smear of blood on his lips, amber eyes sharpened, turned his gaze to the innocent face of the child. He felt a strange attraction between them. A bond that so strong he couldn't dare to kill her. But her blood. Her blood summons him to claim it.

It was the night when he claimed her as his. The night when he took her in in his life.

~xxoxx~

With her eyes on the fire, she barely saw him climb up and sink down into the mattress beside her. Silence. Just the crakling of the fire, and her deep respiration echoed within her room. Then he glanced at her, and was vaguely startled. She'd been ill throughout the winter with a cough and looked very sickly. Her health, which was always very important to him, seemed vulnerable. He didn't like it. He could give her anything that she needs, yet there are things that he couldn't control or manipulate with his vampiric powers and extreme wealth.

Her face was angular and her cheekbones perfect but delicate. Her jawline was strong yet exquisitely feminine. She had very beautiful hazel eyes like her deceased mother, fringed with thick eyelashes.

She looked like a young girl despite of her twenty five years of age. Her features were too small, it made her more delicate and fragile in his arms. Her eyes became even smaller when she was angry with him. Her mouth was sweet. It was like a little rose petal on her face. Cheeks were very smooth and her face narrow when she looked very serious and sometimes looked mean for some reason.

Now she was sunken but still looked beautiful. She still was beautiful. He liked looking at her. Her hair was full and black. You can see her sense of humor in her expression, her capacity for mischievousness which she always had no matter how unhappy she was. She laugh frequently. She could look cold often nevertheless she had always been a sweet little girl.

He looked at her as they sat on her bed.

"I know how it is," he said to her. "You hate them. Because of what you've suffered and what they don't know."

She felt delight in his words. She gave him the silent acknowledgement that he understood it well.

"Yes, that's it." she answered with a shaken voice.

He didn't respond. She would've been surprised if he had. Having said what he'd come to say, she knew he wasn't going to converse actually. But he did lay his cold hand in her shoulder which was very unusual for her to do that. She was silent for awhile. And as she sat there, looking past him at the fire, she wanted to tell him things that she couldn't convey to him, and mingled with her love was a strong resentment for them.

All her time being with him, she'd watched him silently from a far. She'd always admired him for everything. He looked so perfect yet she knew that something lack on him. Something he couldn't ever have. In some way, she hated the fact that only her bitterness in her could wring from him the slightest interest. He rarely spoke to her which makes her sad sometimes. Yet he'd always been her savior and there's no one to her but him. She was so tired of being alone, perhaps, as a young mortal human. She knew he wasn't like her. He was someone he wouldn't reveal to her.

He was here with her now and very attentive. Finally, she was convinced that he wouldn't get up and leave her alone, and found herself talking to him.

"Am I really that bad? They despise me because of my look and status. They envy me a lot that they could hurt me with words as if I'm a lowly creature on this world." There was no change in his expression. "Sometimes, I had this urge to kill them all to let everyone know that I'm not perfect the way they look at me. I'm not an angel. Because in truth, I'm just like them that has a wicked side."

He nodded with an understanding look.

"I felt like someone different from myself when I look at them, concealing my hatred so that they'll not notice it in my eyes. In truth, I want to avenge. Torture them slowly until they found their untimely death. I don't know who is here with you- your loyal friend Rin, or that other wicked Rin, the witch."

"No," he said finally. "It was you who thought the same wickedness. You're a serene angel and at the same time, a cunning demoness. You are the most beautiful lady in here and that's your tragedy."

She shook her head for it was true, but didn't matter. It couldn't account for her bitterness so what was the use of saying it?

He looked away for a moment, then back to her.

"You're the both opposite. Don't give in to the demoness in you just because you hate them. You don't have to take upon yourself the madness. Surely there must be other ways to be free. Do you want me to take over this revenge?"

"No. For they would only think that I'm truly a demon's whore."

He flinched on what she'd said. Rumours spread say she was a lover of a man that only show up on the darkness of the night. She didn't entertain her human suitors because of him. She remained pure and loyal for the sake of being with him. She denied her chances to be someone's wife and to bore children that the usual mortal women have in her age. She pulled the pin out of her hair and let it tumble down to her shoulders. They sat quietly for some time. No more talk, just the fire blazing, and near to each other. There seemed an uncommon intimacy even for them. She was looking at the fire. Her profile was beautiful to look at. Then she looked back at him and in her shaken voice, she told him:

"There wouldn't be any ways. I am dying now."

Those two sentences struck him hard. She had gone to the core. And the implications shook him so badly. Was he gone for so long, he didn't see death coming to her? He was stunned by great shock. There was nothing to compare what worser than this.

"I'll live through spring and summer. But I know I won't survive another cold winter. My health is failing."

He made a faint anguished sound. He leaned forward and cupped her chin with his hand so she could look at him.

"Don't say it any more, my Lord." she whispered. "I just wanted to inform you so you wouldn't be surprised if you comeback and I'm no longer here to be found. I'm horrified by the thought of it. I'm so afraid yet I knew my forthcoming death is inevitable."

He looked broken in her gaze. They held each other thru their glances. Her eyes were filled with tears. "I only have one wish, Sesshomaru-sama." She slowly rose from her seat and face him. With trembling fingers, she shred the white sleeping yukata that covered her feminine figure. Her naked form served before him. He was surprised by her sudden action. Was this her dying wish? To submit her entire self to him? Did she know what she was doing?

"Claim me, my Lord. I want to die knowing that I'm truly a woman. If there's anyone who has the right to touch me, it is only you, Sesshomaru-sama."

He didn't respond. He remained silent as if he couldn't make the words come. His eyes set upon her with confusion. He didn't want to believe that the child he took care and protect for the long time will finally come to her end. She lowered her body to him, touching his face with both of her hands.

"Sesshomaru-sama." she called with a broken voice.

"Rin." he said with his usual stoic voice. He put his hands in her shoulders and pulled her closer to him catching her parted lips with his. He couldn't deny her. He needed her more than ever. At that moment, he can't deny that he loved her and there was no man can satisfy her except him. He made her his wife, his mortal mate. A forbidden union in their different worlds.

They both shared the night feeling each others body, groans and moans of pleasure echoed within her dark room. He kept his fangs away from her heated skin trying his best not to feed on her.

~xxoxx~

He began to feel a little fear. He couldn't stop thinking about her. She was perfectly horrified that she was dying and there was no denying it. After twenty years of being with her, this was the end for her. He determined to be strong enough if it would make her feel better, but when he tried, he couldn't. The thought of her dying was unbearable and there was no way in hell he'll allow her to become like him. He'll not make her a vampire. Not a monster like him. During all this misery, he kept away from her. He wasn't going to say that he's a monster that feeds on humans like her and about her death. He left her in her own for three months not wanting to see her body deteriorating. But when the news came to him that she was pregnant with his child, he ran hundred miles to reach her. He sneaked peek in her window and saw her state. Her whole manner was tenderness. She was frail in her beautiful blue kimono, and her hair was undone. He couldn't stand to see her nearly on her death. She looked like in a tremendous pain. It was true, she was carrying his monster child.

At once, he sent a messenger to her to tell her to abort the child for it would only cause pain and trouble to her. Half vampires that were born from a human mortal woman rarely survive and he knew it'll broke her heart if she delivered a dead child. But she declined. She said it doesn't matter as long as she knew she became a good mother to their child. She wanted to keep it hoping it'll survive and live in place of her. She loved this unborn child so much.

He let himself to meet her once again. She sweetly smiled at him, welcoming him with warm gazes. He didn't know what he should tell her. He cannot convey what was the frame of his mind. He was still raw, trembling inside. He didn't want to think the fact that this young beautiful woman that bears his child was going to stop living and breathing and start to rot away.

He took her in his arms and buried his face in her raven hair, inhaling her intoxicating scent that he didn't want to forget. She stiffened at first but then he felt her weaken and melted against him, and gave herself over so completely to him in that moment. Somehow, he understood why she had always been so restrained to others except him. She cried unto him, which she rarely do. He wouldn't let her go instead he held her tightly and kissed her several times. And then she grew calm. She seemed to settle and slowly she released herself and pushed him away. She talked for a long time. She said things about her dreams for their unborn child. She spoke in an almost eerie way that shook his entirety.

"Please Sesshomaru-sama, if I died after giving birth and Yuki survived, please take care of him." Rin was certain that the child is a boy and will live even though she knew that her time was running out.

~xxoxx~

He reminisced the days when she was still in good health and he was planning to arrange her marriage to some mortal men. He did his best to stay away from her, giving her different excuses. Though nothing could stop him thinking about her, could make his ache and longing for her dissolve. It was not that she suspected anything however. She just smiled and believed his simple stupid excuses and asked for nothing. Who knows what she'd really thought of him. She just kept her words to herself but declined every marriage proposals served to her. "Money doesn't mean very much to the young lady, my Lord." His loyal human servant said. "The young lady has had plenty of money thru her different business that she'd opened with the money you bestowed to her. She says things that disturb me, my Lord."

"What does she say?" He demanded.

"She talks about why she couldn't marry anyone, my Lord. She says she only belong to her Dark Prince that possess unusual powers. It seems to me that she's enchanted."

~xxoxx~

It was near dawn of the night when he finally wandered up to his human servant's door. He answered sooner than he expected looking anxious and befuddled.

"My Lord, something quite unexpected happened-"

"What is it?"

"She's laboring earlier than her due, my Lord."

And there it was, her image again, her face, drawn and white, and all vivid for him to stand it. He saw her image to his servant's mind. He was too stunned to answer. She was in pain and he knew that she was very near to her death. His servant came close to him, reached out as if he wanted to touch his master.

"My Lord, you go ahead. You must go at once."

He looked up at him stupidly. He was undecided to what he must do. When he didn't answer, his servant grabbed hold of him and tried to shake him. "She'd gotten all her needs," he said. "But they can't keep her alive any longer. You are keeping her alive, my Lord. She must be waiting for you before she closes her eyes. Even if she has a strong will, it can't work miracles."

He couldn't answer. He couldn't form any coherent thought. There was less than an hour before sunrise. There was no way he could come to her in an instant. He stood up and went to the door. He was angry and disgusted to himself. His precious Rin was waiting for him, yet his weaknesses halted him to reach out for her. "Go to her now," He said, " and tell her I'll be there tomorrow night. Sit with her all day, if you have to, see to it that she waits-that she waits for me to come. Don't let her die before I get there!"

~xxoxx~

As a vampire, he was an early riser. He rise when the sun has just sunk below through the sky still bled red. He didn't think about what should he say in her final moments. He wondered if their son Yuki, survived. What does he looked like? Did he has the same eyes with his human mother? Or was he like himself, a beautiful monster. He knew he had to see her and hold her and be with her while here was still ime. He couldn't truly think abott her death.

Dusk was just bleeding the light away when he arrived in her house across the wide meadow. It was a large mansion. Everything has been done well, and the servants were at the door waiting to direct him to the young lady's location. A maid and a nurse were in the hallway when he came in.

"My Lord, she's still waiting for you to come. The child is alive." the nurse told him. He didn't respond and just gave her a nod.

His loyal servant came out from Rin's private chamber at once.

"The Young Lady is a little stronger now, my Lord. But she's bleeding so badly. The doctor says she will not-"

He stopped and gave a glance back at the chamber. Sesshomaru got it clear from his mind. She won't last through the night.

He went to the hall and stared towards the chamber. She was in there. He couldn't move or speak. She was in there and was really dying. He heard a sweet sound of hum. He tried to imagine what she could see from inside. The luxury he gave to her before her body fail, he wondered if it maddened her or made her laugh for his stupidity.

He heard a thought and realized it belonged to his beloved mortal wife. Her bones aching in her flesh and inspite that she sat at the window even in the soft velvet chair didn't ease her pain. But she was happy. Happy for the last time, she was a mother to his son. It was the only one who gave her comfort in her uneasiness.

There was no turning back. She was waiting with his child on the other side of the door. He knew that if he didn't come in now, she would get up with the sleeping child in her arms, no matter how painful it was for her, and come to him. Finally, he went into the room and closed the doors.

Blood scent. It was undeniably the scent of her blood.

In a pale white light of the window she sat, beautifully dressed in dark blue kimono and purple obi, her arms cradle a sleeping baby boy, her long jet black hair gathered behind her ears so that the tresses spilled over her shoulders from the red ribbons. There was a faint blush on her cheeks.

For one moment, she looked to him as she had been when he first appeared to her ten years ago. She was fifteen years old, full of life, full of joy. So pretty. The symmetry of her face was unchanged by time. A heartbreaking irony came over him, a delusion that he was a mortal, being with her, and everything was all right, really all right.

He'd come closer to her, and she was crying as she looked down to Yuki. The baby has the same silvery white locks like him. And when he smelt the scent of his child, Sesshomaru was certain that he was like himself. A vampire. He could also smell death on Rin and he didn't like it.

Yet she was radiant, and she was his Rin was always been his, and he told her that she was lovely without realizing that he'd let her heard his own thoughts as she answered him that she'd always loved him since the day she first met him on the forest. It was the answer to his unspoken question. He didn't have to doubt her love for him.

Did she realized the oddity of this conversation, that they could talk to each other without uttering any words? Surely she didn't understand it fully.

"Sesshomaru-sama, come here so you can see our adorable son." she said.

The only candle that lighten the room was by her arm on the windowsill. The soft breeze passed pinching out the flame. She frown and clutched Yuki closer to her bossom.

"Don't you want to see him?" she asked. "Don't you like Yuki?" But there was no reprimand in the words. He was there with her and that was enough for him.

He knelt down before her. Telling her that he didn't despise his son and that she should stay alive for the sake of their child.

"I wish I could. I've come this far enough and this is the end for me."

She started to cough painfully, trying her best not wake up her little angel. She tried to hide the pain from him, and made face as if everything was fine. Again, he smelt the sickness in her, the death which soon to claim her.

Her thoughts were full with fear. She wanted to scream out loud for she was afraid. Afraid that she was going to die very soon. She wanted to beg to him to hold her tight and stay with her until it was finished. But she couldn't say this, and to his astonishment, it seeemed that she thought he would decline her.

This was a great agony for the both of them.

"Please Sesshomaru-sama, take Yuki with you and leave if you can't stand seeing me dying." she said softly. Even talking with him hurt her.

Her words had completely died away, she was terribly afraid and in pain again. In spite of being in pain, she rose from her seat. She was coming towards him. He knew he should stop her, but didn't do it. Her hands reached out for him, and gently, she passed the sleeping child in his care.

Suddenly, she had scuffed backwards and fallen on the floor. Bead of sweats started to form in her pale white skin and she strarted to cough tremendously. He came towards her just as steadily as she had come to him. Watching every reaction she made, he drew closer until they were near to each other with the half vampire baby between them. He watched her close as he revealed his true vampire form in front of her. She was staring at his skin and amber eyes, and quite slowly she reached out again and touched his stoic face.

"Vampire..." she whispered.

He nodded back at her. She was right. He sent torrent of images to her, a procession of glimpses of what happened since the day he consumed her mother, took her in his care and how he fell inlove with her.

With a hiss, she let out her breath in the cold night. The pain became worser. She swallowed and bit her lower lip, and shut her eyes.

"I always knew, Sesshomaru-sama." she said. "Even though, I still love you that I didn't care what you are. I knew you aren't like me."

He let her see some parts of his dark life. How he crave for blood. What does it taste and feel. His desires for blood. His love for her.

The pain ate her entirety and she became immobile in her position. Her eyes were all that was left on her as she stared on him. Without noticing, he knelt on her front and gently touched her face. Suddenly, she slipped backards again and away from him and cough in her right sleeve of her kimono staining it with blood that came up out of her mouth. He stood up as he watched her struggling unto her pain, wiping her mouth as if she was a vomitting drunk as she sank in her position unable to support herself.

"Do you want to come with me? Do you want to live in an eternal damnation with us?" he asked.

With her whole being, she affirmed "Yes".

"Yes! If it's the only way I could live so I can be with you and Yuki... Please made me one." she said drunkenly. She close her eyes and tightened every muscles in her body.

He moved towards the bed and silently lay their child on the warm silky sheets. He walked back at her, leant forard and kissed the blood smeared on her parted lips. His strong arms slipped around her light form and lifted her up pressing her closer to him until he was standing with her against the nearest wall, her long black tresses were cascading down behind her, her body weakening every second passed.

All his desires, love and angst for her mixed up wìthin him but didn't matter anymore. She was his lover, his mate (not his soulmate for he didn't have a soul), his everything. He drove his teeth in her bare neck, feeling her stiffen and gasped, and felt his mouth grew wide the catch the warm blood coming from her.

She opened up. The death was leaving her. Age had stopped running on her. Human essence flowing out from her body giving up to the much awaited immortality coming from her undead lover. No pain, no worries. She was simple who she was. She was his Rin.

He was holding her off her feet, arms crossed behind her back. His hand cradling her head as he groan out loud against her, feeling the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her death as a human was coming. He stopped the moment the last urge of blood thirst subsided.

Her eyes were open and lifeless. For a moment, she as in some other place beyond her pain and suffering. Then he heard her calling his name.

He gashed his own throat with his nails and pushed it against her lips. She didn't move as the blood spilled over her parted lips.

"My Rin, drink." he said frantically and pushed her harder for he knew she was suffering by now from great thirst. Her lips quivered, her mouth locked to his wound. Her thirst seemed to hiss aloud. Tongue licked at the blood and a great pleasurable sensation caught her. She felt the blood coursing down on her throat satisfying her thirst, quenching and dissolving it.

She tensed on his arms, her left hand rising to grasp his shoulder lovingly. She pulled, sucked and took his blood obssessively. She was standing then on her feet, her head barely leaning against his chest. Moments later, he thrust her backwards away. She stumbled and stood before him, her long fingers pressed against her open mouth.

The Vampire Lord looked at his newborn mate. The cursed blood was starting to do its darkest trick on her body. In no time, she'll have an exquisitely impossible beauty like every vampire had. Lifting his right hand to reach out for her, he called her and said.

"Welcome to the Dark World, my angel."

~xxoxx~

A/n: Er, what should I say. I guess it's a bit lame but anyway, never mind. I'm really struck with fascination to vampire stories and I couldn't help but to write one for my favorite pairing. This story was one of the products of my extreme writer's block and LAZINESS to my other stories. Well, if you want to read more, I want to tell you I intended this to be a one shot fic but I could publish an epilogue since I didn't included it on this story. Just tell me if you want to read it and I'll publish it sooner.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated.

P.S. I do have another long SesshoRin one shot entitled "Tamashii no Tomo", and it would be my christmas gift to my InuYasha fanfic readers. I just hope to publish it before the year ends.

Ja!

Lazy as always,

Yui Shunrei Ryuzaki