Kagome heard Naraku's words to Sesshomaru and she saw the dangerous fires that overtook the Taiyoukai's eyes as he lifted his sights to the dark cloud escaping into the night's sky. Her body convulsed with the searing reminder that the vile hanyou's words could not have been more true. The fire in her blood, heated so fiercely to burn so feverously, had broken down every barrier within her. Her wild powers surged with uncontrollable waves of light, drawing from her being so much power that it had begun to feed on her very soul.

She could no longer contain it. She had no way to stop it. And when she had seen the red bleed into Sesshomaru's eyes and she knew it to be his fury, his hunger for the hunt, his primal need to see his prey brought down, she did the only thing she could do.

She laughed.

The light, mindless chimes of her laughter poured out of her. Her arms came up around her stomach, holding back against the shaking of her body as her laughter poured forth and the torturous throb of fires burning in her core. Tears split from her eyes, trailing hot paths down her cheeks in their flow. She gave up on the idea of standing, it was a ridiculously impossible task anyways, and she sunk to her knees.

When Sesshomaru turned towards her, the crimson fires in his eyes slipping away behind a slow draw of his eyelids and focusing on her again with molten gold, Kagome managed to still her laughter long enough to speak one last time.

"It's a little…cold out," she told him, her voice still trembling from the shaking of her body. Her arms came up to wrap protectively about her chest to emphasize her point as she continued, "Maybe you should…get dressed before…you chase after…him."

Sesshomaru lifted an eyebrow in curiosity as he looked upon the miko. She was trembling, but he knew that it had nothing to do with the chill of the night. And though he wasn't terribly impressed with the idea of fighting in such an unprepared state, he also knew that her mirth had nothing to do with his apparel, or lack there of. Tears were streaming down her face, tears shed for the agony that was pulsing through her body. The pure light surrounding her, the powers that had been her defense and her weapon against the dark one, were still burning hotly, unable to pause in their maddened dance; and they were taking her with them.

"What makes you think, miko," Sesshomaru asked as he stepped towards the crouching girl, facing down more of the waves of power radiating from her, "That this Sesshomaru would lower himself to chasing that wretched hanyou?" He stepped forward again, again pushing through the burning waves of energy that danced across his skin in searing bolts of pure power. A low growl started building in his chest over the painful sting of her wild powers, but still he restrained the dark fires within him. "Miko," his tone had grown hard, demanding compliance, "Cease this."

"I can't, you baka!" she exclaimed as another wave of hysteria stole her over, wracking her body with more painful laughter. "What…what do you care…anyways?" Her voice was broken by her delirium, and her hot tears still spilled freely to cut deep paths down her face. Her body was trembling so fiercely that even the hot fires running through her could not keep the chill on her skin from turning her deathly pale.

"This Sesshomaru cares not that your weak human fortitude can not withstand such power," he replied as he took yet another step towards her. He was right beside her, standing in the centre of the wild burn of her restless powers, and still he would not turn away. He was fighting against his own rising energies, sealing them behind leaden walls of restraint, refusing to allow the wild fires to add to her heat. "However, you still have a service to perform, and I shall not allow you to renege on such a debt."

"Still…thinking…with the wrong…head," she managed to choke out through her delirious mirth and the shaking of her petite form as it convulsed with wave after wave of untamed power. "It's…too late…for me." More tears fell from her eyes as she lifted them to him, but the heat of her energies was burning them away before they could fall to the ground. "Get away…while you can." When he still showed no sign of movement, a deep sob of confusion and frustration managed to break her maddened laughter, turning the mirthful sound to one of regret and remorse. "Please," she begged him to go, to save himself from the burn of the inferno that would soon tear forth from her being with no way to stop it.

"You would attempt to order this Sesshomaru even now, miko?" he asked her quietly as he knelt beside her. His tail wrapped around her shivering body gently, pulling her trembling form into the secure hold of the silken fur. The violent tremors running through the girl did not lessen in their severity as she fell willingly into his embrace, and with each new burning wave of her powers flowing across his entire body he was forced again to fight back against the rising of his own energies in challenge. But he would not make her fight against him when she could not even fight against herself. "Such weakness, human," though his words were hash, his tone was not, a soft drone of gentle warmth to wrap around her clouded mind. "You are not worthy of such powers."

"I…know," she choked out as another wave of mindless laughter broke out of her. Without thinking, she reached out to him, wrapping her arms around the strength of his body in need. She didn't want him there, she didn't want to expose him to the pain of the fires, she didn't want for him to see her this way, so weak that she could not control the powers given to her by a curse of fate; but she could not help herself. She needed to know that she wasn't alone when she could feel the end so near. She needed to feel one last time the power that he had over her, the soothing wash against the hot fires that only his touch could bring.

"I…think…" she whispered quietly against him as her body began to stiffen. Her eyes closed against the coming of the inevitable, drawing the last of her tears to fall upon his skin. "…That I could…have loved you."

"No, priestess," he corrected as his hand came to rest on the heated skin of her thigh. He followed along the inviting curves, his fingers trailing hot paths once again along the smoothness of her skin as he pushed away the final barrier of her garments. Here the heat pulsed the strongest; here the burn of her power was the hottest. He could feel it in the sting of purity against his skin and in the slick moisture under his fingers. Even now, when she had been all but lost to the fires, when her body had grown rigid against the ferocity of the coming storm, he could still draw out slight tremors from her with light rakings of his claws against her flesh. His sight traveled once more to her face, watching as she drew in weak, uneven breaths through her parted lips that were now touched with the cold, blue and trembling lightly. He leaned into her, the heat of his mouth brushing over her skin once more as he made his way to her ear. "Love…" he whispered to her quietly, fighting to keep his voice from taking on the dark undertones of the beast that trashed wildly within, demanding its freedom. "Has nothing to do with this."

She whimpered quietly against him as his words broke through the madness of her torment, but hearing such from the little female and feeling the way she used what little strength she had to cling to him, was enough to let the beast break free of its restraints. Crimson waves bleed into his vision once more, and all around him rose up the hot fires of his spirit to crash against hers in a chaotic dance of hungry power. He pulled her close, pressing her against himself tightly, allowing his strength to be hers as he claimed her lips, at the same time thrusting his fingers deeply and forcefully into the burning heat of her core.

Her scream was consumed by the actions of his mouth against hers, the beast hungry for her pain and her pleasure. All around her the searing light of her spirit ignited the darkness, crashing wildly against the dark fires that held her stilled. The light was blinding, the power it carried immense. It continued building, fueling towards its ultimate cadence. When it came, as it was inevitable that it would, the magnitude of the blast shook the very foundations of the land. It spread out in a sweeping wave of white light, consuming everything in its brilliance, wrapping its warmth even around the chill of the night.

Never before had he felt such pain, never had his body been subjected to such heat, to such pure and raw power. The fires of his spirit surged wildly around him, fighting fiercely against the burning caress of the light. Such power! It took every ounce of his strength, every part of his will, to continue fighting, to keep holding the madness of the light from consuming him.

But even then, even when the very heart of his power rose up in challenge, he could feel the wash of judgment as the light passed over him.

His head lifted to the sky to howl out his fury. Even in her death she had held back from him. Even as the last of her power had been stolen from her to fuel the building light, she had stayed its fury with her gentle hand. Even when she had nothing left, no fight to save herself; even then she had reached out to him, called from a place free of the bindings of her flesh to keep from him the touch of purity.

She had stolen from him the chance to face against her strength, but it had not been for fear that he would not win. She had calmed the burn of the light because in her heart she could not pass on knowing that it had been for her that he would stand against it. And it was with this knowledge, that she held for him no contempt but only love, that she had left with him as she departed from this world to the one beyond.

And it was this knowledge that left him wanting for more than her touch could give him, for more than the promise she had left unfulfilled.

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HAHA! And now I get to make a special note for readers on FFN. I posted this story on A Single Spark initially due to its perceived sexual content; however, being that there never really was any actual sexual intercourse, I figured I would be safe with the slightly lower rating level of the FFN site.

This ending did not go over so well with ASS (lol ass) readers, and I can completely understand why. It is troubling, disturbing; a tease of all teases. It seems unfinished. It leaves you wanting. It completely alters the mood and flow of the story and leaves you wondering just what the hell Shadow was thinking. Would you like to know?

When I asked the question of whether or not it was possible for Kagome to die of her sexual frustrations, I got to thinking…and that, dear readers, is a dangerous thing. Why? Because the answer in my imagination is that anything is possible. So, yes, Kagome could die of something so simple as loosing herself in sensation, giving herself over to her hungry desires.

But don't think I didn't consider you readers in all of this. I asked myself for a long time if I were reading such a thing, what my reaction would be. I would be in shock, I would think, with maybe a little twinge of sadness for the death being written. But then would come the anger. Why would it end like that? What a shitty, shitty ending! And then I would grumble about it for a while, how unfair that I spent so much time reading with but one expectation without ever being satisfied.

Well, life's a bitch eh?

LOL and THIS reaction, I believe, was why I wanted to write it. Because to cause any emotion in the reader is a good thing, and since, as humans, we are capable of empathy towards others and can transfer such to even the characters we read about. But to experience the emotions yourself because of what was written….is beautiful….no matter how ugly the feeling. Besides, I'm a sucker for angst ;P

However, if it will help to keep from my door the hoards of torch bearing, pitchfork wielding, readers who have been left wanting; I do have an idea of how to continue this piece. BUT I'm afraid that a continuation will have to wait for a bit. My itch has been scratched, and the hentai within has been appeased for the moment…though, of course, left wanting more.

So, for the time being at least, I'm off to other adventures.

Cheers

Shadow