Kagome was breathless.

Sesshoumaru gripped her arm tightly, angled upward so the cuff of her kimono slid down her elbow revealing her buttery smooth skin. "And you left despite my warning."

"I-i…I just went for a walk." She stuttered, staring into his favorably autumn-orange eyes. "I…wasn't going anywhere."

"Naïve human, parasites come out at night." He held her wrist harder, making her flinch. "Things that would only be too happy to find a vulnerable girl in a meadow by herself." He shook his head angrily, his lips moving just a pinky's length from her own.

"You're hurting my hand…" Kagome whispered, wriggling her fingers. The sun was disappearing, it's light caress gliding down Sesshoumaru's face and carrying on down his throat. She could see her hazy reflection in his eyes, her hair was pulled back messily with strands of onyx lazily wisping over her forehead.

"Disregard my rules again, and I'll do more." He paused in front of her, for a split second his icy eyes dropped to her lips, and with his head turned slightly to the right, he almost looked as if he would kiss her….but instead he threw her hand down and headed back towards the fire, which Jaken had miraculously made on his own.

"You see M'Lord! I told her to stay and sh—" Sesshoumaru smacked Jaken across the head and pushed him to the ground with the heel of his foot. "You did not keep an eye on her."

Jaken's skin turned an ugly shade of brown as he blushed and threw himself at Sesshoumaru's feet. "Please forgive m-me!" he wailed, writhing around in the dirt.

Kagome wrung her hands nervously, standing off to the side near Ah-Un's back legs. For the strangest reason she wanted to leave and see if Sesshoumaru would come after her. However , his warning still reverberated In her mind, echoing back and forth.

There was something else though, something that was calling her deep into the forest. Call it an instinct, but she felt as if there was something she needed to see. She decided that when Sesshoumaru left for his nightly walk, she would slip out of Jaken's sight and take her own walk through the woods. It would be a short one, she would make sure not to stray too far from the light of the fire or sound of Ah-Un grunting. Sesshoumaru had advised her not to be in the meadow at night, so the forest wouldn't be much better.

Without much thought, Kagome decided that if she did get in trouble, Sesshoumaru would save her.

But there were things Sesshoumaru could not do, too.

xXx

The trees were silent, when was the last time there had been no wind like this? There weren't even crickets out, or any other type of animal for that matter. Avoiding big bushes and keeping an eye for twigs was turning out to be a lot harder than though as Kagome hiked through the thick shrubbery. Ribbons of pale yellow moonlight pushed through the fat forest leaves that hung over her and lit up patches of ground before her. Without that, she would be completely blind.

Up ahead, Kagome saw the flicker of a tiny light. It looked like a candle flame, or perhaps the burning wick of a lantern hanging from a house. Sesshoumaru's voice repeated inside her head again, telling her not to go any further.

She ignored it.

The last thing she needed was for some guy to start being the conscience inside her head, telling her wrong from right. In fact, it would make her feel good just to go see what that light was, and break some more of his rules. If Sesshoumaru really could rape her and be able to take all her powers, then so be it. He could be a terrible person and do it. But somewhere in her heart, she knew he wouldn't…he couldn't.

Sesshoumaru was too….

Kagome slowed, taking tiny footsteps and wincing every time she stepped on a dry leave or stick. Could she be any noisier? In front of her were two giant oak trees, their mushroom like tops obscured anything past them and the thing she could see was the space in between both of them. She had been right, it was a lantern, but it wasn't hanging from any house. It was hanging from the limb of the left oak tree, suspended and totally still. With a couple lungfuls of air, Kagome held her breath and crept towards the lantern until she arrived at the oak's roots. Being careful not to make any noise, she leaned forward and pressed her hands against the tree's bark, then followed with her chest and finally her waist. The simple action that normally would have taken seconds had she not been trying to be quiet, left her panting.

It was people who had hung the lantern, and those people were on top of each other, moving soundlessly on a raggy blanket laid out over the rocky floor. Kagome could not see their faces, but she knew what they were doing.

I should be leaving…Kagome thought guiltily, blushing. But she was fascinated by this intimacy, the soft groans of the woman beneath were sticky with lust, and the man never ceased to give her more pleasure. Peeking farther around the tree, Kagome watched childishly as the woman whispered something in the man's ear, clutching his back and dragging her nails down his sides when he suddenly picked up a bit of speed. She watched the woman climax, her mouth, a tiny circle outlined with thin lips fell open as a single gasp left her body.

It was that that made Kagome stumble. Blushing and feeling abnormally hot, she'd leaned over too far and had to catch herself. This in turn, scraped a chunk of bark off the tree which fell to the ground. Any other day, this would not have mattered. But the man whipped his head to the side, and still inside the lady, growled in her direction. Kagome fell backwards in panic. She recognized the man now.

It was Inuyasha.

If there was one person on this earth she never wanted to meet again, it would have been him. Breath hitching in her throat, Kagome began to shy away but was stopped when the edges of her kimono betrayed her and caught on the bark of the tree.

"n-n-no…" she hiccupped, falling on her rear.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, his voice husky. He sounded hurt and surprised, two things that Kagome did not understand at all. Pulling out of the woman beneath him, Inuyasha quickly pulled on his pants and walked towards the gap between the trees. Kagome scrambled away, slitting her hands open on the sharp blades of grass.

"Stay a-away from me!" Kagome cried, holding up her hand in defense. The dog's front side was shadowed and she could only see the small glint in his eyes reflecting the little bit of moonlight.

"Kagome, I've been so worried about you! Where the hell have you been?" Inuyasha took a giant step towards her and hugged her stiff body.

"I don't know who you are!" Kagome squealed, "Go, go back to your woman!"

"Is that what this is about? Is it? I love you Kagome, It can work, it really can." Inuyasha took hold of her shoulders and pressed his lips against hers, pushing her to the ground. He forcefully explored her mouth and held her arms tight to the ground beside her. Kagome squirmed and bucked against his body. I love you Kagome.

When you loved someone, you did not do this, Kagome screamed inside her mind. So why did it affect her so? This cruel man's kiss was tearing her apart, making her feel an indescribable, unfathomable amount of sadness. It was as if he was pouring his grief and desire into her throat and forcing her to swallow it whole.

When you swallow too much water, you drown.

Kagome shoved Inuyasha off of her and ran, crashing through the leaves and cracking her shoulders and fingertips against tree stumps. Leaves sliced her cheeks open and stung her eyes, along with the salty tears that were already drying on her cheeks.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha was screaming, his voice full of pain. Why did he sound so destroyed? It was her that was destroyed, why did he cause her such terrible sensation and suffering? Why had watching him make love to someone affect her so much?

"P-please…" Kagome sobbed, seeing the Jaken's fire in the distance. "P-please h-help me…"

"Please…"

Black.

xXx

"Sesshoumaru?"

Kagome was in the lily meadow again, except not in the same spot. This was all Liam's doing. For what reason had she ever associated herself with him in the first place? Something pricked at the back of her mind and forced her to hold her head down until it passed. Well, Kagome thought, at least I'm safe.

Or was she? It was daylight now, except not really because there was a sea of fog smothering her down against the ground and she couldn't even see a foot in front of her. This was the first time she could remember ever having been in bad weather here since Sesshoumaru saved her from the waterfall.

"Sesshoumaru?"

The problem was, last time she'd gotten out of here with no trouble, but the fog was a setback. That, and she wasn't in the same spot she'd originally been. Getting to her feet turned out to be quiet the dilemma too with all her new injuries, couldn't she just be unharmed for once? Kagome answered her own question and picked her way through the field of grey lilies. She'd never had much of an imagination,( not that she could recall) but with every timid step she took, she expected a dark clothed figure to step forward and snicker at her. It was still daylight, though, right? Less scary things roamed around because they enjoyed the cover of darkness.

Or fog, fog could do it too.

"Jaken?"

Like the little green thing could help, but she called him anyways.

"You're not in the same meadow, Kagome." Liam said from behind her.

Kagome's heart jumped and sped forward when she turned around. A dog-whistle squeal left her mouth and stopped itself once she realized Liam wasn't the cloaked monster.

Well, he was half of that anyways.

"You're in the alternate one I've created in my mind." He tapped his head thoughtfully and smiled. "Hence all the mist around you." He indicated the cloudiness with a sweep of his arm, as if she hadn't already noticed.

He wore a black silk robe which blended in with the curls of his hair above it. His eyes though, his eyes weren't brilliantly green right now. They looked more like the murky brown you might find at the bottom of a lake. But the rest of him was the same, same olive skin, same unfortunately sculpted body.

"Why'd you take me…here?" Kagome questioned uneasily.

"You just can't seem to stay out of trouble." Liam said plainly, but in his voice there was a hitch of mischief. "But I also wanted a bit of you to myself." He turned to smoke then materialized next to her. "Since Sesshoumaru seems to think I can only….reside In water."

Liam was not forceful this time, not in any painful way. He wound his leg around the back of hers and tripped her backward so she'd fall into his arms. "I-I'm not ready for this…" she said shakily, in attempts to get him to stop.

Liam laughed as he pulled open the lapel of her kimono and pulled it apart just till you could see the roundness that her breasts made with him on top of her. "Ready for what?" He slowly undid the rope holding his robe together, and let the shiny fabric leave his shoulders to reveal his chest.

"What do you think I'm going to do, girl?"

He played with her thighs, letting her be certain of the stiffness she gave him, then spoke seductively in her ear of the things he wanted to do, and the reactions he wanted to see. This immediately turned Kagome hot from her place on the ground, both temperature wise and other ways…she was attracted to Liam, yes. But she also had a larger attachment to Sesshoumaru.

"Stop thinking about that useless dog!" Liam snapped, grabbing her chin and yanking it towards him. He kissed her surprisingly gentle, nibbling on her bottom lip and being only too grateful when she stuck her tongue back into his mouth without resisting. The next step seemed to be created just be Kagome dragging her fingers heatedly over the toned muscles of his shoulder blades. Liam groaned and moved the bottom parts of her kimono aside to touch her…

"N-no, Liam, stop." Kagome closed her thighs and turned to the side. "I can't do this, I can't."

Liam sat beside her, staring at her blankly instead of giving her an answer.

"It's because you saw them, making love." Liam whispered, "Isn't it."

Kagome sat up and turned to him quickly, "How did you know about that?"

"How can you still be affected by him? You shouldn't even feel a thing for him anymore."

"Wait, what?" Kagome prodded, eyes widening.

"Forget this happened, I'm sending you back."

Kagome reached out for his's shoulder, beginning to say, "Liam, wait…"

But he was gone, she was gone, and she woke up in the lilies only remembering his kiss and nothing else.