DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi / the television series are produced by Sunrise.
It had been weeks since he had shown up at her doorstep, only to find that she was having dinner with his half-brother of all people! He would've been less upset if it had been the wolf boy! His half-brother, whom swore up and down he hated humans, regardless of their social status. He looked down upon them and had killed them before without hesitation. Why would things be any different now?
Who the hell does he think he is!? Trying to take Kagome from me! Feh! Everything is coming along quite nicely. At this rate, I will be able to have her in my arms before sun rise!
He cracked his knuckles, every muscle in his body aching to be able to hold her in his arms once more. To have her where she belonged, where she would have been if she hadn't disappeared when she wished away the jewel. Looking at the clock, he decided he would wait no longer and slung the grey duffel bag over his shoulder. Picking up his keys, he locked the door to his apartment and walked over to the black rental car parked just out front.
As he got into the car, he tossed the duffel bag onto the passenger seat and turned the key in the ignition. The car purred quietly to life, he needed something that wasn't super noisy in case he needed a quick getaway. The car pulled away from the curb as he began to make his way towards the shrine, his fingers impatiently drumming against the steering wheel. After what seemed like hours but was only mere minutes, he parked the car next to the curb around the corner from the shrine.
He grabbed the duffel bag in one hand and locked the car, walking his way towards the familiar flight of stairs once more. His heart was practically pounding in his ears as his blood rushed through his veins with anticipation. He forced his steps to be slow, his feet padding against the floor silently as he climbed the cold, cement stairs. The wind blew gently, sending small strands of his silvery white tresses floating behind him.
When the house came into view of his golden eyes, he sniffed the air to make sure that the daiyōkai wasn't anywhere on the premises. After coming to the conclusion that the daiyōkai wasn't currently present, he cleared the distance from the floor to the miko's bedroom window that happened to be cracked open. He slid it the rest of the way open quietly, and got inside of her bedroom. Though she was asleep, her ear twitched imperceptibly to the hanyō who as pulling out a cloth and pouring clear liquid onto it.
The strong, sweet aroma hit her nostrils and woke her up, but he was quick and covered her mouth and nostril with the soaked cloth. After a minute of struggling her body went limp in his hands, he tied rope around her ankles and wrists before picking her and slinging her over his shoulder. The hanyō picked up the duffel bag in his other hand and jumped out the window, practically flying down the flights of stairs back to the street. A few minutes later, the miko and the duffel bag are in the trunk of the rental car.
It purrs quietly to life after the key turns into the ignition, and the hanyō pulls away from the curb. Passing several streets, it takes only minutes before he reaches an old, abandoned house that he had been watching the last few weeks. Turning the car off once in the driveway, thehanyō opens the trunk and throws the unconscious miko over his shoulder and grabs the duffel with with his other hand. Heading around back, he pulls open the cellar door and heads down into the basement.
When he was sure the place wasn't cared for or looked after, he had begun setting up the basement the way he would need it to be. There was a decently comfy queen sized bed, a small couch, a mahogany wooden table with two matching chairs, several lanterns were placed around the room, and he had even gone as far as getting a generator, surge protector, small fridge, and a heater to accommodate the miko. He had wanted everything just right for when she was finally his.
Gently, he placed her on the bed and tossed the duffel bag onto the couch next to the bed. He climbed into the bed and laid behind her, pulling her close against his body and inhaling her scent. It smelled different than he remembered, but it had been too long since the last time he had been this close to her. It was almost too much for him to be able to control himself, yet he forced himself to keep control. He would not take her while she was asleep like this. He wanted her to remember their first time together, so he would wait until she woke.
It seemed like hours passed until the miko stirred from unconsciousness, and when her eyes opened they were not the brown eyes he expected to stare into. The eyes staring back at him were angry, sapphire blue eyes that definitely did not belong to the miko he came to love. A warning growl came from her throat, and immediately she sat up.
"From her memories, I know your scent and who you are half breed." she jeered, even her voice sounded completely different from the miko's.
His golden eyes narrowed, "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Kagome!?"
"My name is Keon and I pity you, fool. Is your half breed nose not strong enough to have noticed the yōkai scent this body carries? You are too quick to act than to think rationally. Where have you taken us?" she questioned disdainfully.
He pinned her body onto the bed, claws threatening to come out of his hands with anger, "WHERE IS KAGOME!"
"She is present in this body, but as her yōkai, I took over when she awoke to make sure she wasn't in any danger. Where. Have. You. Taken. Us?"
Without realizing it, his claws had come out and began to sink into the miko's arms and were drawing crimson from the skin, "I wouldn't hurt her! I love her! Give her back to me DAMN IT!"
"If that were true, you would not have done any of this in the first place hanyō. Did you really think kidnapping her against her will would not harm her? Even now, you are harming her body and making it bleed as you say you would not hurt her. As you claim you love her. We both know you only loved the idea of who she represented, who she reminded you of. You have no right to try to stake a claim as her mate, you gave up that right long ago when you pushed her away constantly."
In seconds, Keon had removed herself from the hanyō's grasp and was quick to transform to her wolf. Though she had to admit the room was slightly cramped now, that meant there wasn't anywhere for him to run from her. She snarled at the hanyō, her brilliant white teeth bared at him as he tried to step closer to her. He sneered back at her, cracking his knuckles and wiping the blood onto his pants. He refused to give up on the miko, and would not stop until she was his.
He turned his nose haughtily at her, "I never pushed her away! I have a hard time trying to convey emotions. She knows that, that's why she was always there for me when I needed her. I have every right to stake a claim as her mate, you don't know me!"
"Oh but I do, half breed. I know that you had 'secret' trips to see the dead priestess whenever you saw her soul collectors and thought everyone was asleep. I know that the moment you first opened your eyes and saw Kagome, you called her by the dead priestess's name. You refused to believe she was anybody but the dead priestess until it was proven. I know that you have referred to her as nothing but a shard collector so that you could make the jewel whole again to become a full yōkai. You cared about her only because of who you saw in her, not because you love her. This foolishness and arrogance will be the end of you."
~~~~ Sesshōmaru ~~~~~
Though the daiyōkai could not explain why, there was an odd feeling in his gut that something wasn't right. The feeling woke him from his slumber, and the first thing that came to mind was the miko. Immediately, he was dressed and out of his room, making his way to the elevator. Time seemed to crawl by incredibly and indescribably slow, so much so that instead of driving he decided to call his yōkai cloud beneath his feet and took off in the direction of the shrine.
He cared not if any of the ningen saw him in the sky, what mattered was the safety of his mate. The cool wind whipped his silvery tresses behind his person as he soared across the city, and before he knew it he was hovering beside her window. A guttural growl sounded from his throat as he smelled the hanyō had been there, and saw that her window was left open and she was not in her bed. Quickly, he searched the house and the grounds to see if they were still there, but when it turned up void of the two he began to sniff around the entrance to the shrine.
He followed their scent to where the car had been parked, and saw the skid marks from when the hanyō peeled from the curb. From there the scent was faint but he was still able to follow it through town, cursing the entire way that he should never have left her alone. He should have known the hanyō would attempt something stupid like this, after all, the hanyō only knew how to do stupid and reckless things. He just hoped he would make it in time before anything severe happened to his mate, kami help him, he would do horrible things should any harm come to her.
The town blurred in his sight, he wanted to be by her side as quickly as possible. Forever seemed to pass until he found himself in one of the poorer neighborhoods of the city, where a rental car was parking in the driveway of what looked like a house that had seen better days. There were no lights on in the house, so he walked around back to look around, fortunately spotting the cellar door. He opened it and barreled down the stairs, only stopping to watch the scene unfold before him.
The hanyō was currently in the middle of lunging at the raven colored wolf that took up nearly the entire room even as it was crouched. The wolf did not hesitate to snap its jaws at the hanyō, catching his air bound body effortlessly in it's teeth. The hanyō defiantly snarled, trying to claw at his captor, but to no avail. The wolf bit down hard, and a sickening crunch heard as the hanyō stopped flailing in it's mouth. The wolf spit the crumpled body at the floor, before resuming the miko's human form. Blue eyes stared over at the daiyōkai, and he closed the distance between them.
"Are you both okay, Keon?" he inquired, his brows knit as his golden eyes scanned her body and found the crescents on her arms that had already scabbed over.
With a slight nod, she responded, "She will not feel well when she wakes, he used some chemical to knock her out, and I am not sure what concentration it was or how much he used. Other than the scratches he made on the arms, everything is okay."
"Alright. Let's go home, this Sesshōmaru is sure she will want to shower when comes to." he gestured towards the steps and followed her out.
Once outside, he held an arm out to her and she stepped close to him, leaning her head against his chest. The daiyōkai called his yōkai cloud beneath their feet and took off towards the shrine, as much as he would like to take her back to the apartment he knew he would have to clean up any trace of the half breed so that her mother would not worry. He also did not want her freaking out when she woke up and found she was no longer in her room.
When they reached the shrine, he lowered them to her bedroom window and let Keon climb into the window first and sit down on the bed before he followed suit. He went through the house to get cleaning supplies before he came back and began to clean up the puddle the half breed had left of the chloroform he had used. Once the floor was cleaned, he began covering up the scent of the hanyō from the shrine grounds. While he was cleaning, Keon had crawled under the blanket on the bed and rested her head on the soft pillow. In moments, her eyes closed and she drifted to sleep.
After the daiyōkai had finished cleaning, he returned to the miko's room and laid next to her sleeping form. He wrapped an alabaster arm around her protectively and pulled her close against his body. He did not dare fall asleep, for fear that something would happen to her if he did. Never again would he let her sleep alone, even if it meant staying at the shrine with her until she was ready to move in with him. She was too precious to him, he would do everything in his power to keep her safe now that she was his, he would give his life for hers if it came down to it.
Hours crawled by until the soft orange rays of the sun crept in the window and illuminated the room. Only then did the miko stir from her sleep, her chocolate brown eyes opening to the wall. It took a few seconds for her mind to register that the warmth surrounding her body was not because of the morning sun, but because the body that was pressed against hers. She quickly turned around and her chocolate brown eyes were met with kind golden ones staring back at her. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, only to be replaced by a frown as her head began to ache.
Reflexively, her hand went to her head, "I don't remember you being here when I went to sleep last night, Sesshō. Is everything okay?"
"You do not recall the events of last night?" his brows knit in confusion.
She looked lost in thought for a moment, "Not exactly? I remember waking up because a strong smell was in my room, but I don't remember much of anything else."
Little one, I was unsure if you would want to remember the events that happened, so I kept them with me after I gave you back control. If you wish, I will give the memory back to you. Keon's voice whispered in her mind.
Without realizing she was doing it, she nodded her head in response to Keon. Immediately, her mind was flooded with images of waking up in a foreign room last night, glimpses of the hanyō and the conversation that happened. Her chocolate eyes widened as everything played through her head, and almost bugged out of their sockets when she saw the body of the hanyō on the floor. She was torn between feeling relieved and upset that she would no longer have to deal with the arrogant bastard.
"Mate?" he asked tentatively, his hand caressing her cheek softly.
That one word was all it took to ground her thoughts, "Keon was showing me what events transpired. Is he really...?"
"Hnn. This Sesshōmaru took care of everything so that you could rest, when you are feeling up to it we can go get something to eat."
She cuddled close to him, her face buried in his chest as he wrapped both of his arms around her. She wanted to continue laying like that for a little while longer, allowing everything to have time to completely sink in. It never occurred to her that the hanyō would ever do something so extreme, but she was glad to have Keon and Sesshōmaru by her side. It felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders with the knowledge of the hanyō's death, but it also felt like a part of her died with him. He had taken a good part of her life from her, an insignificant bit of her confidence with him, but it mattered not.
What mattered was that she was safe, that she was wanted and truly loved by someone. Someone who currently made her feel safe just by being in the same room with him, who made her feel loved just by the way he looked at her. It was something she never thought she would have, and something she would never take for granted for the rest of their lives together. She silently vowed to herself that she would cherish every moment, make every moment together a memorable one from here on out. She would start with her decision to move in after she got cleaned up and they had something to eat.
A/N: Annnnnd that's a wrap for this chapter and for the story. I hope you guys truly enjoyed this story, and that the ending wasn't so bad. I honestly just spent the last 3 hours editing this chapter while I'm sitting at work. You guys get first dibs on looking at it before my Wattpad readers because you guys are more interactive and I appreciate it. Don't worry! When I come back I will have the sequel already started and you won't have to wait long to find out what happens next! As always, thank you for taking the time of your day to read my story, you guys are wonderful. I love all of you and hope you have a great day!
P.s. : You guys have no idea how much you mean to me. This story has almost 10k views, in less than a month. In the first week alone you guys topped the views the entire story has on Wattpad. Because of this, I am determined and inspired to have already started the first chapter of the sequel!
