Chapter 12 – Sensations …

Sesshomaru grabbed the falling woman without meaning to do it. He looked down towards the woman and noticed that she was attempting to look at him. They stood like this for several minutes. To them, it seemed like several hours as the discomfort between them grew. He had his arm around the woman, thus pinning her arms and chest against his armor.

Sango's head fell back as she felt her strength to hold up her head leave her. This left her graceful neck dangerously exposed. She felt helpless, tired and most of all humiliated. She was mortified that she did not have the strength to push herself out of Sesshomaru's grasp, and ashamed that she found it comforting to be within that embrace. She slowly closed her eyes as she concentrated on summoning up her willpower. Her body refused to listen to her and continued to remain like a helpless rag-doll. Sango sighed in frustration.

Sesshomaru watched as Sango's head became too heavy for her to hold up. He could see her pulse along the lines of her neck and became spellbound watching the soft pulse. He found himself wanting to feel that point along her neck where her heartbeat revealed itself. It fluttered softly against her pale skin. He slowly lowered the woman onto the ground without realizing that he had done so. Her head tilted off to the side away from Sesshomaru leaving the pulsating point of fascination still exposed. He leaned in closer to examine more detail. His hand came toward Sango's neck slowly and silently, like a hunter closing in on it's prey. When the soft skin of his fingertips made contact with the softer texture of Sango's neck, he was almost shocked out of his trance. Almost. The texture of her skin became a wonder to him. It was very much unlike his, and yet it had it's own silkiness to it. He could almost feel soft electrical sparks along the tips of his fingers as he softly trailed the path of the pulsating vein along Sango's neck. Those sparks seemed to travel up along his arm and down towards the pit of his stomach. His breathing increased slightly. Sesshomaru's pupils dilated as he continued focusing his attention towards Sango's neckline. He had never bothered to wonder what a human's skin felt like when he dispatched them.

Sango felt herself lowered to the ground. She felt oddly colder when she felt the pressure of Sesshomaru's closeness leave. She kept her eyes closed. She did not want to see Sesshomaru, nor the expression of disgust that he probably had on his face. Her head moved away from Sesshomaru on it's own accord. She felt Sesshomaru move in closer. Sango found herself panicking; she felt inside herself that he was probably moving in for the kill, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Her body just didn't have any life energy beyond staying alive. She felt his hands make contact with the skin on her neck. 'He's going to strangle me!' She inwardly screamed hoping that would force her body to respond to the danger. It did not. She shut her eyes tighter and waited for the end to come upon her in the form of strangulation.

The end did not come. Instead, she felt fingertips stroking her neck softly, delicately. Sango felt confusion bubble forth. 'What the hell is he doing!' Sango inwardly screamed. She didn't know what to think. 'Does he always do this before killing … a … woman?' In all honesty, she did not know. She continued to fear for her life as she felt the softness of his touch explore the outline of her neck. The caress of Sesshomaru's fingers almost felt as though behind each stroke there was underlying gentleness. As Sesshomaru's fingers continued their delicate contact with Sango's flesh, she became more and more confused. She began to feel unsure about his wanting to kill her as he continued his ministrations.

The minutes continued to tick on, and despite that, Sesshomaru continued trailing the outline of Sango's pulse along her neckline. He followed it towards Sango's jaw line and then would follow it back down towards the hem of Sango's outfit. He found himself wanting to explore more of her neck. His fingers began caressing the exposed throat and traced the outline of Sango's jaw line. His breathing continued to increase, not that he was aware of it. In fact, he was not aware of anything other than the exposed skin on the neck of the incapacitated demonslayer. He could not hear the angry roaring inner voice inside himself telling him to stop and kill the woman for placing a spell on the Great Sesshomaru.

Her heart began to increase it's tempo. Unconsciously, she began to breathe harder. The sensations of Sesshomaru's touch sent electrical sparks down towards the center of her stomach. She bit the bottom of her lip as the sensations began to build. Sango arched her neck slightly; the motion gave Sesshomaru more access to her neck area. She had never felt anything like this before and it was confusing her. She did not know what to make of Sesshomaru's actions or of the resulting responses of her body to those actions. The only thing that her mind registered was the fact that Sesshomaru's fingers were creating very pleasurable and intense feelings within. If she had been herself, she would have found his touch revolting. On a subconscious level, she knew this fact and ignored it.

Sango found Sesshomaru's caresses growing bolder more urgent. 'Urgent for what?' She thought to herself as she could not ignore her resolution to not look at Sesshomaru. She needed to know. She turned her head slowly and opened her eyes. She gazed on Sesshomaru's face and focused on his amber eyes. The intensity within them drew her in and she found herself becoming lost within the endless depths of them. Sango felt as thought she could almost see pain and bitter loneliness hiding behind a mask of stone indifference that had been cultivated through out the years. Sango found herself wanting to know if this was true or just wishful thinking on her part. The longer she stared into Sesshomaru's eyes, the stronger the sensation of psychologically being pushed back became. However, she refused to break eye contact and withstood the barrage of the anger and rage of his inner soul that she, a lowly human had the audacity to delve into his soul without consent.

As Sango continued to gaze at Sesshomaru, his caresses stopped. He snapped back to the current situation as the intensity of her stare continued, from her attempts to delve into Sesshomaru's soul. He slowly moved his hand away from her throat back towards himself, and Tokijin. He did not break eye contact. Nor did he notice that Sango had sat up while he had focused on the sensations of her skin and was now in fact rather physically close to him.

Sango's breathing came out ragged. She did not realize that her body had found a reserve of strength and forced itself to sit up and lean toward the demon beside her. She continued to delve into the depths of Sesshomaru's eyes, oblivious to his current actions or her own. She did not notice that her arms were rising on their own willpower and that her hands were now moving to shorten the remaining space between the two beings. It did not even register in her brain the moment when her hands gently made contact along each side of Sesshomaru's face. Her heart ached in empathy for the creature before her. She could almost taste the pain that he was desperately trying to hide within his eyes. 'Had no-one ever thought to really get to know this man? Did anyone ever truly look within his eyes?' She doubted it. He was a creature that would never let anyone come physically close enough to see the ocean underneath the ice. 'Why?' She found herself asking.

She continued to lean in closer. Both beings failed to see it. Sesshomaru mentality fought to break eye contact with Sango, and she fought to maintain it.

Sango was jolted back into herself when her lips touched Sesshomaru's. Her eyes widened from the sensation of warm, soft, firm flesh encountering her own. Time seemed to stop. Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened. Subconsciously, she noted that Sesshomaru's eyes also widened. Both of them froze. This came unexpectedly to both of them. Sesshomaru's inner self roared in outrage. Sango felt fear wash over her entire body and she moved to look away since she found herself unable to move once again.

Sesshomaru went livid. His eyes grew intensely cold as he glared at the lowly human woman sitting before him. 'That pathetic human female had the audacity to touch him. Like that! And she has the nerve to remain in his presence and not run for her life?' Thoughts raced through Sesshomaru's mind as the anger continued to build. In a blur his hand moved again towards Sango's neck, however this time, it was bent on crushing her windpipe and killing her for her transgressions.

Sango's eyes widened in pure fear as she felt Sesshomaru's grip tighten on her throat. She looked back into Sesshomaru's face and noticed the expression on it. The expression of hatred and malice.

His grip faltered for a microsecond as his mind registered the look of pain, fear and sadness registered within Sango's eyes. He growled and tightened his grip. 'Since when do I care what lowly mortal humans think.' He grabbed the hilt of his Tokijin and withdrew it from it's sheath never taking his gaze away from Sango. With as much force as possible he plunged it into Sango's midsection. Sango's eyes widened as she felt the impact of the blade.

Confusion flooded Sango. She had expected to feel the blade slice into her and kill her. Instead she felt, nothing. The features on her face displayed her confusion.

Sesshomaru paused. Sango's expression confused him. That confusion was enough to halt the bloodlust that had entered his mind. He tore his gaze away from Sango's face and looked down, Sesshomaru's eyes widened in confusion.

In his hand was Tenseiga. As it registered within his mind which sword he had plunged into the woman, the sword came to life and gave a tremendous shattering pulse that went through both Sesshomaru and Sango.

Sango looked down to see where the pulse of energy came from. She saw the sword and suddenly everything around her seemed to glow. The glow intensified and then everything went dark.

End of Chapter 12.