Well, hey there, everybody!I hope you're all ready for the next chapter of 'Inferno'!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Inferno
The more you fight it, the bright it burns.
Chapter 14: Burning Hearts
It was like having the fire pour through her very veins!
Every fiber of her being was alive and awake and burning. Each breath she took caused her to inhale sweet smoke, that curled around inside her and danced through her until her mind was hot and hazy, and all she could see were blurry images of the dancing flames that she so loved. Her throat was scorched from the fires and her brown eyes were blank and dark. She wasn't their Kagome anymore, oh no. She was herself, she was who she was meant to be, she was KAGOME, for the first time in years. Her fears and anger vanished as if burned away, and all she knew was the roar of the flame and the scarlet dancing before her vision.
' More.' Her mind murmured, dangerously fuzzy and unfocused. ' More, oh please, Kami, more!'
She was addicted, intoxicated, and unbelievably aroused as the fire flew at her request, dancing faster and faster until it wasn't even a separate entity anymore, until it was her! It was inside of her, all over her, all-consuming and she was loosing her mind to it. But she didn't give a damn, because this was Paradise in her blank eyes.
But why now? Why here? What was the reason that now, of all times, that this tsunami of an inferno had come to her aid, why not other times when she called for it? What was so special about this time-
" I trust you've met my latest incarnation, Moeru-shi?"
It was pain. Brutal, unthinkable, damn near unbearable pain.
Each breath was another stab at her heart, which beat with a dull, aching thud. Her entire being seized up in a spasm of horror.
Liar.
Liar!
LIAR!
It felt like she was being torn up from the inside out, like the pain was slowly manifesting itself as knives in her organs. She gripped herself tightly, trying not to scream, not to loose herself as her mind teetered dangerously close to the edge.
Liar, liar LIAR!
Rage, hot and thick, bled from her trembling form into the fires around her. The ribbons of heat fed off the emotion, growing stronger, hotter, dancing faster inside her now until the pain was burned away and all that remain was the hard, burning rage.
LiarliarliarliarLIAR!
For the first time since that fateful encounter with the bully, Kagome Higurashi felt the urge to kill.
He'd tricked her, the bastard, he'd made her think that he was her savior, the ONE goddmannit! When all this time, all the kisses and half whispered secrets and torn and maimed innocence, he had been working for her enemy! He'd made her believe that there was maybe some hope, her made her think there was a chance for her! He'd made her believe in herself, for God's sake! And it was all a lie, every kiss, every secret, every half mumbled declaration he'd given her in between swift lips and questioning tongues. It was a lie! He'd hurt her, hurt her all over again, just when she was getting over Inuyasha, just when she thought she could let go of her false savior, it all turned out to be a lie, a deception.
Just when she had thought she could love him…
>
Miroku tore through the forest, his pace steady but his breathing anything but calm.
He'd lost her, goddamnnit, he'd lost her!
Sango was good, he'd give her that. She was crafty and tricky, and he was suddenly very glad she was on their side, and not Naraku's. Though the above should have told him that Sango was capable of looking after herself, it only made Miroku more determined to find her.
He couldn't explain why he followed her. He'd done it before and he'd do it again, because it was probably the closest thing he could get to 'alone time' as Kagome called it, with her. Miroku followed Sango because the temptation to was just too great. Following the woman you wanted more than anything in this world or the next, into a thick, dense green forest, where the sunlight made uneven patterns on tan skin where it shifted in through the foliage above, and made those hazel eyes sparkle and glimmer, and cast shadows off well developed curves…
How could her not follow?
She was like a wood nymph, a sprite, the daughter of a demi-god who roamed the country-side at will and did as she pleased. Miroku had long since discovered how enchanting Sango looked when she went on her walks, when he followed her the first time.
Flash
The demon had been tough. A bear youkai of sorts, a great grizzly with long claws and sharp teeth. Of course, neither had faired well against Sango, who knew of such demons and had defeated them before. True, the Tetsusaiga may have ended the battle much quicker, but the wielder was off sulking by a well, waiting for a time traveler to return, though it was most likely he would grow impatient, and dive down after her himself, when no one was watching. So the slayer, the monk, and the fox kit were left to fend for themselves. The bear came upon them, thinking it had found easy prey, and attacked. It just hadn't counted on a taijiya being there. The youkai had been toast before it knew what had happened.
Mrioku mumbled a few prayers to help the departed soul on its way and turned around, only to notice Sango, still garbed in her taijiya wear walking slowly off into the forest, a wistful expression on her face. Muttering about the idiocies of women and their need to disrupt everything, he took off after he, determined to bring her back.
He lost her for a moment, but caught a flash of pink through the trees and followed it. What he came upon he did not expect.
Sango was twirling about through the tree, giggling like a little girl and enjoying nature. The sun, through the leaves overhead, danced in her hair and made it sparkle. Her eyes were alive as he had never before seen them, and her cheeks were rosy, as though sakura in full bloom had been captured and painted upon them. She was a creature of nature and sunlight and gentle breezes, and she stole the breath of the watching monk away.
' Kami.' He thought. ' Imagine waking up to that every morning.'
Flash
He fell in love with her that instant, he knew. Never had his heart gone so fast, never had his breath been so hard to catch. He had fallen so utterly, so dangerously, so devisatingly in love with the warrior woman, he was surprised he didn't tumble over his own feet. Since that day on, he followed her on her walks, if only to catch a glimpse of her enchanting pleasure of nature that made his knees go weak.
But now he had lost her, and the blind panic only a man in love can feel over the object of his affections was settling in, and he was lost as to what to do.
Then he felt it.
Like a wave breaking over rocks, he felt a surge of power descend upon the forest, eminating from a point farther off to the west. The power radiated over him, and swept passed in a rolling wave of heat and the scent of burning wood and something hard and broken. It left him, Miroku, kneeling on the forest floor, trembling and frightened. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it was deadly. With a jolt, he felt and recognized the under current power, soft and kind, and purifying. His eyes wide and his heartbeat erratic, he took off like a streak of purple through the forest.
' Kagome!'
>
He could do nothing but stare.
She should have been unconscious, fallen on the ground, huddle up in his arms as he kept her from the clash of the halflings, not even near the waking world.
But she stood, tall and proud, fire dancing hi her hands and her eyes.
He had never witnessed anything so beautiful in all his life.
She had sprung from his arms where he was going to lay her, eyes flashing crimson and her dark hair whipping about her face in a wind that wasn't there. She took one look at the battle field, and catch sight of her red clad friend encased in the clutches of his creator. Then, with a calm she shouldn't have had, with a flash of rage in those brown eyes that turned them red once more, she raised her hand. He had watched, in anticipation and wonder, as the center of her palm began to glow. It glowed, growing brighter and brighter and shifted, dancing over her skin, dancing out from within her very flesh. And then it grew red, and orange, and gold, and then it was fire.
And she released it upon Naraku, scorching his side and turning it black.
Her expression did not change as the wounded baboon turned to her and spat discouraging words. Her only response was the beginnings of a second fireball and her warning.
" Leave Inuyasha alone."
Moeru-shi sat, stunned beyond speech, staring at his little miko. She was alive, burning and awake as he had never seen her. Her very aura tingled with heat, her very skin seemed to glow with the fires he dared to predict were under her skin. She stood against the backdrop of a blue sky, her eyes hard and sparking and her very being commanding the flames. He felt short of breath as he stared at her.
" Kago-" He began, but she walked forward, ignoring him.
" Leave, Naraku." She hissed, her voice dangerously low. Her burning eyes were focused solely upon her enemy and his prey, her tone promising a painful death should the with fur covered hanyou oppose her. He looked at her with red eyes, calculating and surprised.
" Well, well." Naraku said, his tone almost delighted. " Looks like poor helpless Kagome isn't so helpless after all."
He barely dodged the second fireball, and was struck in the shoulder by the third.
Hissing and cringing, Naraku brought a hand up to touch the now tender and pink charred flesh, flinching when he ran his hand along it. He looked up at her, and Moeru-shi saw a flicker of something akin to pride dance through Naraku's eyes.
' You can't have her!' The fireling thought desperately. ' You can't have her!'
" I thought I was a conniving little bitch." Kagome's voice was cold and hard, her expression grim.
" A mere slip of the tongue." Naraku whispered as he looked at Kagome, his tone lathered in dark lust. " I apologize for such vulgar language before a lady like you."
He bowed mockingly, never once taking those red eyes from her form, garbed in the short skirt and now half charred white sweater that exposed her stomach and long arms. She was perfect, a goddess sent to earth and Moeru-shi found himself unable to take his gaze from her even as she stared down Naraku.
" I told you to leave." She snarled, another fireball forming in her palm. Naraku fell into another mocking bow, his voice oily when he next spoke. But his red eyes burned as hers did, and he locked gazes with her. Moeru-shi saw, with revulsion, the desperate, hard wanting in those red orbs.
" As milady commands."
And he was gone.
Kagome sank gently to her knees with a sigh of relief, those fireballs clearly having put a huge strain on her. Moeru-shi tentavely stepped forward to help her up, but jumped back in alarm when she whipped around to face him, flames in her hand and her eyes as cold as ice.
" Leave, Moeru-shi. Before I decide you're too dangerous of an enemy to live."
Moeru-shi looked in her eyes, all hard and cold. It might have been a trick of the light, but he swore he saw tears glittering in those brown orbs, and the heart broken look she had given him when they first met only a few days ago rose up once more. He felt himself tremble, and leaned forward to brush a stray strand of hair from her face. She backed away from the touch, pale and shaking.
" Kagome…" He whispered and saw her whole form shake with a violent tremor. She averted her eyes, which displayed her heartbreak to him, to stare at the ground. Then, in the smallest voice he had ever heard, she whispered her request.
" Stop breaking my heart. Leave."
He vanished in a whirl of flames, seeing the hanyou run up to catch her as she fell away in a dead faint, her last sight his own burning coal eyes.
' Kagome…'
' You're breaking my heart too.'
>
Breathing hard she collapsed to the floor, sweat shining on her face and the room around her in complete disarray. The cards she had so carefully lay out in midst of the shuffling were scattered all about, one stuck in the nick of her bed post, two feet from the ground. Other lay around her, some even just floating down to settle on her prone form as it lay motionless. One could have mistaken her for dead, had it not been for the steady rise and fall of her chest beneath the black hoodie. What little of her face showed was pale and sweating, her cheeks, what could be seen, flushed and rosy with effort. Her legs were tangled behind her, and it seemed she had no energy left to move.
The glowing water spun rapidly, trying to catch her attention.
With a groan of pain, she slowly raised her head to see the water jumping up over the edge of the bowl to get to her. Her vision was blurry and she swept in front of them, knocking the hoodie from her head. Auburn hair tumbled down over her shoulders in wavy strands, and she forced herself to sit up.
" What is it?" She croaked, her voice hoarse. The water jumped up high, touch the ceiling of her room.
" What?" She asked once more, breathing heavily. Knowing she must look in the bowl to see, she placed her hands out in front of her and proceeded to drag herself over to the window.
" Damn water." She cursed beneath her breath. " What the hell are you thinking, making me move like this after an alteration like that." With a massive effort, she pulled herself to a kneeling position before the bowl and looked into it.
" You know it zaps my strength to do that." She tilted her head in the direction of the clearing in the room, then flinched and dropped her head, clearly in pain. The water only flicked up impatiently.
" You'd think…" She paused, and looked down at the water in disdain, prepared to scream at it, " …that you of all…er…things would realize how much this takes outta me." Hear she paused to cough into her hand, and winced when she pulled back.
" Great, better not do that in front of Mom." She muttered, looking at her blood stained palm. Finally, the water shot up and slapped her on the cheek, causing her head to twist to the right.
" Oh, you're his creation alright." She snarled, but looked down into the bowl. "What is it?"
The water spun quickly, shifting into the image of the black haired girl being carried into a hut by the red clad boy. She scowled.
" When I said I didn't want her near the fireling, I didn't mean the Protector should be sent in!"
Swearing violently, she pushed away from the widow and stood up shakily. Stumbling and half blinded by her bangs falling into her eyes and sticking to her skin, she managed to trip and walk over to her bed, where she promptly collapsed from pure exhaustion and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
All the while, The Tower was clutched in her left hand.
Separation.
Just not the way she had wanted.
>
Well, there's another chapter done. I'm really tired, so I have nothign to say except I have a really good chapter planned for chapter 15, so be ready. R&R, please.
MoS