Hopefully, here's chapter 7! I hope that I have gained a few people that enjoy this story. I really enjoy your comments and I hope to get more feedback from my readers. =]
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Last time:
Blood splattered everywhere and Sesshomaru's head bounced as it hit the ground. Inuyasha howled in victory as his oldest enemy was dead. He turned towards Kagome, dropping his sword carelessly on the ground as he stalked toward her like prey.
He could see the tears running from her eyes. Tears of joy, he surmised. As he reached her, she backed up as far as she could until her back hit a tree. He grinned. She would be his now, and there was nothing Sesshomaru could do about it.
Suddenly he dropped to the ground and pain swallowed him whole. As his world grew dark, he could have sworn that he heard the sound of his brothers' voice in his ear saying "First blood, brother? No. In exchange for the life you thought you took, I will take yours."
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Darkness swirled around him in waves. He floated endlessly in darkness. He could feel the breath escape his lips but he could not stop it. He felt his lungs collapse and his heartbeat slow and he was peaceful. He could see the tunnel of light and knew that he would be going to heaven and leave Kikyou and Kagome behind. How he managed to get to heaven was beyond him, but he would not question what the gods had in store for him.
As he walked toward the light, a shadow moved to block his view. He shied away from it, afraid of what it would mean. He wanted to see his mother once more, but here was something blocking his way. He couldn't stop his body from moving toward it, however, and he found the figure nearing in the stillness.
As he reached this figure, it stretched out one dark arm and caressed his face. Inuyasha looked closer and saw the blazing eyes of Kikyou staring back at him. He tried to scream but no sound could exit, and instead he sucked in the being that was Kikyou's soul.
Suddenly he felt himself falling, tumbling through the darkness away from the light, crying out for help through silent words that flew from his dead eyes. He reached out a hand just in time to grasp a part of the shadow that was forcing him back toward earth and as he neared his voice suddenly returned to him and in a last effort he cried out, "MOTHER!"
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Kagome watched as Sesshomaru's decapitated head hit the ground and bounced almost like a ball. Although she knew that Sesshomaru could easily have dodged that blow, she had seen the sword slice through him. Tears welled up in her eyes and flowed easily like a waterfall.
In the past days she had been sure that she would finally see a hidden side of Sesshomaru. She felt that, given a long enough amount of time, she would be able to really connect with the demon lord and may even grow to love him. Now all of that was taken away from her.
She glared through blurry eyes at Inuyasha, the man she never thought she would come to hate. The look in his eyes would have scared her before, but now she felt nothing but hatred for him. She wouldn't care if he died right now. He had just taken away a possible friend and a definite ally.
Sesshomaru would have dodged that, she was sure. Inuyasha was steadily heading towards her and she knew he had lost himself to the demon within. Suddenly she felt afraid again. There was no one that could defend her from this Inuyasha. She feared the possibilities that would arise.
Glancing back at the corpse, Kagome suddenly noticed that there was no corpse. No blood anywhere to be found. The entire grassy area was clean. Shocked and confused, Kagome began backing away from the crazed Inuyasha and reached out her aura. She flew through the treetops and finally located Sesshomaru in a tree directly above her.
"Careless," he stated simply, and jumped down from the tree right behind Inuyasha. "Brother, was it truly your aim to take first blood, or was there more to this battle than we had intended?" He seemed to ponder this thought for a while and finally decided, "First blood, brother? No. In exchange for the life you thought you took, I will take yours."
The resounding 'crack' of his back breaking shocked Kagome almost as much as Inuyasha hitting the ground at her feet, staring blankly up at her. He slowly lost the red tint to his eyes and Kikyou rushed to his side.
"You monster! What have you done! He can't leave without me! He just can't-" She was cut off immediately when her body turned to dust and the blue orb that was her collection of souls flew into Inuyasha. A few silent, stunned moments passed and Inuyasha gasped.
Terrified, Kagome jumped back, accidentally burning his arms with her pure Miko magic. She had been sure, she had felt his heart stop through his aura. Kikyou had saved his life…
Although none of them would forgive him, Kagome convinced them all that, to beat Naraku, they would need his help. They decided to prop him up against a tree and allow him to heal. Meanwhile, they decided to train extremely hard so that they would not be helpless when the battle finally came.
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By the third week of training, Kagome could barely move. Sesshomaru however, wouldn't let her stop. Her legs ached and throbbed and she was on the verge of tears all day. She felt that she would never forgive Sesshomaru for being such an awful slave driver, although she knew she would forgive him just about anything at this point.
When lunch time finally arrived, Kagome was feeling so ill that she was no longer hungry. Sesshomaru forced her to eat anyway and she felt sick for the rest of the day because of it. He kept telling her, "Push through the worst of it because the ability to do so will save your life many times." She knew he was right, but for now while she was not in danger, she felt like she could easily stop caring.
Her movements were slow and sluggish and he was extremely patient with her, but finally her body gave out and she collapsed. Inuyasha attempted to rise to save her, however, before he could even get to his feet, Sesshomaru had already caught Kagome and lifted her into his arm. He watched as she was carried away by his brother…his alpha.
Songo smiled at his tenderness as Sesshomaru laid Kagome on top of her sleeping bag. The entire group had moved over to Sesshomaru's large rock camp while they left Inuyasha a good distance away. They would not trust him to be inside of the group for the time being.
Miroku turned to Sesshomaru and demanded to know why he had pushed her so hard when she was obviously so exhausted that she fainted. He replied, "This Sesshomaru is extremely impressed that she lasted so long. We were expecting her to faint hours ago. She has much more stamina than we expected." At this, Miroku grinned with a knowing look and Songo smacked him on the head.
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You will not let them exile you. Do you understand me? You will re join the group and kill Kagome yourself when no one else is looking. Then you must slay your brother.
Inuyasha looked around. "What?" he had just heard…but it couldn't be. When he woke up, he had immediately asked for Kikyou. The rest of the group told him that she had simply turned to ash in front of their eyes and that she was gone now. How was it, if she was gone, that he could hear his voice in his head now?
Obviously I fused my soul with your body so that I could bring you back. You were not ready to die and we both have unfinished business to attend. You promised me that you would follow me to hell and I fully intend on bringing you with me.
He shook his head violently. He wasn't hearing this-it was impossible. He knew that he shouldn't be hearing voices in his head and he was even more concerned that he felt comforted by this particular voice. He knew that he should feel awful for what he had done to Sesshomaru and that he should be an obedient lower party in this pack, but he couldn't help but feel no remorse. The only remorse he felt was that Sesshomaru had not actually died.
Don't worry, Love, we'll get them all back yet. Just you wait.
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A month passed in relative calm while Inuyasha healed and Kagome trained. She had already gotten pretty good at grappling and was beginning to get better at standing combat. She could easily defend herself against any normal human man at this point, and she could take on a few very minor demons. She was proud of how far she had come in so little time and was excited that she and Sesshomaru were starting to get closer. She was a little uncomfortable, though, because she didn't know if it was real attraction or just due to the deal they had made.
Finally the big day came. The day her period started. It was always embarrassing, what with Inuyasha sniffing around and knowing what was going on with her, but now it seemed there were three more demons present who could also smell the blood. Upon waking the morning of her period, Kagome found all three of them staring at her hungrily. She shrunk back into her sleeping bag and tried to hide her embarrassment as she grabbed a change of clothes from one of the three bags she had around her.
Luckily Kagome had been ready for the occasion so there was no blood on her bed, but it was still horribly embarrassing to wake up to so many people staring at her. At least the humans of the group were more or less clueless.
Kagome, Songo, Shippou and Rin decided to take an early morning bath so that she could hopefully cover up some of the scent. Rin had never seen a woman bleed before and was slightly terrified until Shippou informed her that it happened every month and it was nothing to worry about. Kagome blushed and Songo hid her laugh under the glassy top of the murky water.
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After an extremely relaxing bath, Kagome attempted a spell she had been trying to learn from Kaede some time ago. It never seemed to come in handy before because their small group had been so normal, however she hoped that she would be able to do it so that she wouldn't have to worry about the men in the group following her with their eyes all day.
Kagome attempted to mask her scent through a purifying bathe in the water and then chanting a prayer. She couldn't tell if it had worked or not, but she hoped with all her body and soul that it had, otherwise Songo would never let her live it down.
From her three years in the Sengoku Jidai, Kagome had learned a lot about demon lore and mythology and it seemed that a feast on the blood of a virgin was irresistible (which was probably how the modern day came up with vampires).She feared the bloodshed that would happen if one of those demons in the group decided to bleed her out…
The group awaited her return and she could still see a tint of red in Sesshomaru's eyes before she looked away from him. She really hoped that he would not break their truce now, just when they were becoming friendly…
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Two days passed without a hitch. Her period was almost over and she was very glad she only had two days left. She had realized that the spell she used to conceal her scent worked rather well and had used it again that morning. Training was particularly difficult but she managed to work through the pain. She knew that wimping out now would lower her in the eyes of the men in the group and she was not willing to give up her status as alpha female. She would rather give her life than loose footing as an equal to the alpha male.
Sesshomaru was particularly easy on her that day, letting her relax if a cramp hit her and waiting patiently for her to gather her breath before continuing. She worked the best she could and was exhausted by the end of the day. Completely covered in sweat, Kagome insisted on resting before venturing off to take her nightly bath. Songo made the dinner that night while Kagome slept and eventually the camp fell silent.
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In the dead of night a pair of cocoa eyes shot open. It was too dark. She had over slept. She wriggled her way out of the sleeping bag that had kept her warm and safe. As she wandered off with her sleeping clothes in hand, a change of underwear and a towel, amber eyes followed her through the dark night.
A figure with long, silvery hair stood silently and walked after the lone girl. The girl walked toward the hot spring and disrobed. As she walked toward the water, the figure grabbed her wrist and thrust her around to face him. Their lips met and the girl could not scream. He grabbed her head and pulled her deeper into the kiss as her arms rose to protect herself. She managed to wrench herself away from his mouth and cried out, "why? Why are you doing this?"
Crimson eyes stared back and the response was growled out, "You are mine now."
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A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was fun to write. I enjoy reading all of your comments and I hope you all find this cliff hanger entertaining. Until next time.
Elvenarcher516
