'Your words still serenade me. Your lullabies won't let me sleep; - I've never heard such a haunting melody - oh, it's killing me - !'

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They had tied her frenzied hands behind her back, and restrained her cries - the belief of the mass of onlookers had been decided as they all re gathered in the main hall, trembling and whispering as the darkness outside was thrilling with menace, yet now devoid of hellborn cries and gone eerily silent.

'The Lord Sesshomaru is but an imposter!' Muttered one official.

Another nodded her head in agreement 'that was no noble lord indeed. A lowlife mindless demon, no more'

'Is it not unlawful for creatures of that sort to marry our kind?'

'Indeed it is' interjected Kohaku, who held Rin tight against him.

He pulled out a mini recorder from his pocket.

'Fear not. I have evidence of his real nature and we will be using this in court to force a final seperation of the abominable alliance'

'Thank God' was the collective sigh, as they all looked at the mess of a woman beside Kohaku, whose hair was stuck to her tear drenched eyelashes.

'Curse all - curse all of you!' She mumbled in a wretched, exhausted voice. 'You do not understand - he is under a curse!'

'She is delirious. She doesn't know what she is saying' Kohaku explained. 'No curse could have that sort of affect on such power. Sesshomaru is a brutish beast, that is all.'

'What the HELL is going on?'

Rin's mother came barging through and when she saw her daughter she ran to her and tried to gather her in her arms, but to no avail.

'Away old maid! Lord Sesshomaru is not who we thought he was. It is best for us to have nothing to do with him'

The older lady looked in aghast disbelief as all the people around her added their own confirmation of the statements Kohaku was making.

'Rin will be in my care as she is my childhood friend. You may stay with us if you like' Kohaku offered to Rin's parent.

'Mother, mother - please find him, go to him, they will not let me - ' Rin begged with swimming eyes that shimmered like shattered glass.

Her mother was torn between saving her daughter, or finding her son-in-law. She was about to stay when the expression in her daughter's eyes bade her otherwise with a namelessly profound emotion. She turned, facing the darkness outside.

'No lady, do not go, he will tear you to shreds!' Some tried to grab on to the lady but she had torn away in to the night.

Rin tried changing their minds till her voice was hoarse; but alas such was the immediate superstition surrounding a supernatural creature that was now fanned in to a fearful hatred by what they had just seen, that her words fell on deaf ears. She had invited all these officials and businessman to show off her husband, yet what it had really turned in to was an infallible hoarde of illustrious witnesses to champion her divorce to her beloved.

She was utterly sick to her stomach, and all the while she twisted and scratched at the bonds at her wrists, using all her adrenalin fuelled strength to get them off. She could not have only realised the depth of overwhelming love her Lord had for her - for it to only be torn away in such a degrading and soul ruinous fashion! A film of sweat had covered her body and she flinched heavily at Kohaku's touch as he put his hand on her shoulder to guide her out of the house.

'You will live a hell if you dare take me from him!' She spat at her captor. 'Hate is too soft a word to describe what I feel towards you' she constantly squirmed to get away from his grasp.

'Such a fiesty little thing. We used to be such friends! Don't worry. I will make sure you are - looked after, sweet Rin'

She laughed slightly maniacally. 'Lay a finger on me. And you'll have no arms left. Disgusting creep!'

He pushed her down in to the back seat of his chauffered car and he locked it before going to his side. He let down the window to exchange a few words with two men who had come up to him, and they handed their business cards to him. One of them bent their head down to look at Rin.

'Believe us for your own good, my dear. There is no dealing with an evil being like that. You will get over your fancy for him in a month or so then a human, a rightful partner, will give you a much happier life.'

Rin had no time to respond as Kohaku wound up the window and the car took off. She felt as though she were lost in a mass deception and no words she had could penetrate the unfathomable curtain around her. Golden eyes, the dark form - mourning for her - Rin retched and gasping tears fell from her eyes - her very soul was stretched further behind her as the car went along, and she felt thin and stretched out; such was her throbbing pain that her head became a mire of nonsense and panic, and she began hyperventilating, her face deathly pale - before a darkness took her.

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'He will find her!'

'No. He won't'

'How are you so sure?' This voice seemed to shudder; 'nothing can stop him, not even the state military. And if you're thinking of a spell deception - he will see right through it. He possesses the most powerful magic, noble or not'

There was a dull thud sound, as though someone was being held up against the wall.

'There are ways and means, my man, ways and means'

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Rin fell back in to unconsciousness.

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While she was in a thoughtless dungeon of darkness, Rin's body was being worked on. Kohaku knew he had to work quickly at keeping Rin for himself - and knew Sesshomaru would see through a spell. But Rin would not. He had gathered and consorted with many magicians and priests to wind a long and powerful illusion within Rin's mind, reinforcing it day by day and night by night - one so subtle and ingrained that Rin would hardly be privy to her own thoughts. Kohaku had thought this through long ago, and he had planned the entire evening ever since finding out about the night of the party falling fatefully on the night of Sesshomaru's curse. Of course Kohaku knew Sesshomaru was really a noble lord, and not a lowly demon, but he knew others did not know of or believe in a noble demon being able to suffer a curse so strongly.

He had set it up and it had gone very well.

He had brought in the priests to enforce an unnaturally long sleep on Rin as she was bound by the subtlest of arts, and he knew that after the spells were complete just one more encounter between Rin and Sesshomaru would be the utter desolation of their love. The spells were also mixed with very strong hypnotism, which would reinforce Rin's behavior if the spells were broken. Keep Sesshomaru away - Kohaku could not - but damage his spirit beyond belief via the source of his love - he may just manage.

Rin finally woke 24 hours or so later. At around the same time her dear Sesshomaru was also regaining his true form. Rin's mother had stayed by her son-in-law's side the entire time, but as Sesshomaru came to his senses, and the black hound form faded as his long hair and beauty returned, he saw that his wife's mother was asleep beside him. He carried her in to the house and made sure she was comfortable in her room. But his eyes were a horrifying ruby red, and his claws could not stay short - his teeth grew as he pulled the covers over Rin's mother, and in a flash he was gone.

His rage surpassed all he had felt before - and woe to anyone who even so much as glanced at him. Snatched away like a little butterfly, he would chase her to the ends of the earth, whether her wings were free or bound she was his, and the one who bound her would suffer a fate so intense it was not worth imagining but in the mind of the Demon.

He could conjure the smell of her desire in his mouth and the sound of her voice in his ears, he could feel her warm little body in his hands and her soft, sweet, seductive voice speaking of love for him; then her last desperate screams as he had faded under the cursed night. She was his, yet he had not yet claimed her - she was his, yet she was out there, unmarked by him. His spirit was whipped up in fury of fanatic rage and ardour - pulled toward her as she was his very pillar of existence.