A/N: Hello I hope you've all had a nice Halloween. Here is the awaited entry for wrath! Thank you for your reviews Ember Reverie and Kagura's #1 fan.

Part 7: Wrath: "I will murder you and play with your corpse"

One of the perks of having tons of money was access to space, Kagura thought to herself. Rich people didn't realize how nice it was to have a big bed where one could roll around without fear of falling. The wind sorceress remembered all too well how for the first half of her life she had never slept alone in a bed. First she had shared with her mom when they used to live in a tiny studio apartment. Then up until her mom's death she had had to share with at least one of the twins. In some places the four of them even had had to share one bed. That was in the past, now she got to luxuriate in Sesshoumaru's massive bed.

One time while snooping she had encountered his fluffy fur in a closet in his room. It had been a revelation. She knew that all inu youkai had a Mokomoko-sama, but since modern life was not quite compatible with carrying around a bunch of fur on one's shoulder, most dog demons kept them somewhere in their house. Somewhere safe, but readily accessible. Kagura found it such a shame to have this beauty locked up in a closet. She had not been able to help herself. Before she knew it, she had placed Mokomoko-sama on the floor and had rolled around in its softness; it had been heavenly. She had reluctantly placed the fur back in the closet with the promise to come visit it again soon. Sesshoumaru must have somehow found out about her little childish fun, but he had never said anything. However one day to Kagura's surprise she noticed that the snow-white fur had been taken out of storage and now adorned the dog demon's bed. To her delight Kagura nowadays spent a good chunk of her night snuggling Mokomoko-sama. She was not naturally a cuddler and she was glad that neither was Sesshoumaru. Thanks to his fur she got all the perks of sensing her lover's presence without the inconvenience of being the clingy girlfriend.

It was the night before Halloween. Rin had been so excited about the party at school the next day that she would not go to bed. She had kept Kagura awake late and the wind sorceress was tired. But, not tired enough to miss playtime with Sesshoumaru. Talking about lovemaking, how glorious their reconciliation had been. She felt more connected to her lover than ever as if they were both sharing how they felt and how they had missed each other during her absence. They both might be too prideful to say it with words, but their bodies did not lie.

That night, as had become her habit, Kagura had ditched the blanket in favor of Sesshoumaru's fur, so when her lover started moving, she felt it instinctively. That was surprising. Sesshoumaru was not a fitful sleeper; in fact she was not sure that he actually slept at all. She always fell asleep before him and woke up long after he did. Only once had she almost caught him. She had seen him lying down with his eyes closed, but the moment she had leaned over him, he had opened his eyes wide. It was creepy.

"Sesshou?" She poked her head out from under Mokomoko-sama. The room was a bit chilly as her lover never turned on the heat, so she was loathed to leave her warm cocoon. She suspected he did it on purpose to encourage her to seek the warmth of his fur. She had not quite figured out how he and his excess fur were connected, but more than once she was sure she had seen her lover shiver when she gently ran her hand over the white fur.

"Go back to sleep."

She would have listened to his whispered command if he had not done something unusual. He kissed her on the forehead. Sure they did tons of kissing when they were making love and he even sometimes initiated their lip-locks, but outside of that, he never did. Something was definitely amiss.

Kagura closed her eyes and pretended to go back to sleep. She waited until Sesshoumaru slipped into some clothes and left the room. She immediately followed after him without even bothering to change out of her nightgown. She followed him down the corridor and towards the front of the house.

A creaking door opened to her left. She whirled around and pursed her lips when she saw that it was only Jaken. When she had come back home, she had intended to murder the kappa, but was pleasantly surprised to see that Sesshoumaru had beat her to it, literally. Apparently he had taken his frustrations about her departure on the toad, who was still limping from a crushed spine. She still had been happy to add more bruises to his face. Now Jaken kept all his grumblings and scheming to himself. As soon as he realized it was her, he stepped back in search of shelter into his bedroom. Good for him, Kagura was already tempted to send another wind blade his way.

"Stupid toad."

After wasting some time cursing Jaken, the wind sorceress rushed down the stairs to catch up with her lover. She then came upon the most surprising sight.

A beautiful dark-haired petite human woman was crying on their doorstep. How odd.

"You stole her from me, you monster." The stranger pointed an accusatory finger at Sesshoumaru.

"Leave the premises, or I will have you arrested… or worse."

The woman was bold. She did not back down from Sesshoumaru's veiled threat. "How long do you think you'll be able to keep her away from me?"

"Do not keep trying my patience." Sesshoumaru had had enough. He was not the kind of man to have his time wasted with such foolish displays.

"I'll go for now, but you can be sure that I'll be back." With one last hateful glare, the woman turned on her heels and ran away.

"Rin's mother?" Kagura's guess was motivated by the strong resemblance between the woman and the little girl.

Sesshoumaru must have sensed her presence because he did not react when Kagura stepped next to him.

"Her human husband recently divorced her. He is a lawyer and had her sign an ironclad prenuptial agreement. She's now left with nothing."

Damn lawyers. Kagura hated them since one had manipulated her: the father of the teenager who killed her mother in a car accident almost two decades ago. No need to think back on old grudges.

"Now that she understood I will not give her satisfaction, she won't be back."

He sounded so sure, but Kagura was not. She had seen the desperation in the woman's eyes. One did not get to this state unless strongly motivated. Lack of money was one hell of a motivator, she should know.

"Jaken will call the security company straight away. They will change all the access codes and increase surveillance." He might dismiss the woman's threats, but clearly he had every intention to make sure his family was safe.

"Let us go back to sleep." He closed and locked the front door once they were back safely inside.

Kagura could tell that despite his dismissive tone, Sesshoumaru was worried. Time to work some of the tension outside of his body.

"I'm sure you can find a better way to occupy our time."

He arched an eyebrow at her challenge. All of her previous tiredness had gone away and she would be more than happy to use Sesshoumaru as stress management.

For days Kagura had been scanning job ads looking for something she would like to do. As she did not have to worry about keeping a roof over her head and food in her belly, she did not have to take the first job that would hire her. She could take some time to think about what she would like to do for once. She needed something that required just a high school diploma, wasn't too time consuming and enabled her to work in a field she found interesting and challenging. So far, she had found nothing, but she had not given up just yet.

She had been at it for hours, time for a break. She picked up her phone and was shocked to see she had lost track of time. She was running late on her dinner prep. She had promised Rin they would make a special pumpkin themed dinner in honor of Halloween. Talking about Rin, she was once again late. She had recently become friends with a fellow hanyou girl named Shiori at ballet class and Kagura guessed that the two little girls were busy chatting after class and comparing how much candy each had gathered so far. Knowing Jaken, he was probably uselessly flapping his gums and yelling at Rin to get in the car so he could drive her home while the girl ignored him. Right then Kagura regretted not going to pick up Rin herself.

Her phone rang and to her annoyance she saw that it was none other than Jaken.

"Lady Kagura, it is a calamity!"

She sighed. These days whenever he wanted to butter her up, he started with the 'Lady Kagura' business.

"What now? Stop squeaking and tell me what's wrong."

"Milady, Rin is missing."

"What did you just say?" Kagura growled angrily.

"One minute she was chatting with her hanyou friend and the next she was gone. I only turned around for one second… I would have called Master Sesshoumaru but he is at the Lady Mother's Sky Castle and cannot be reached…"

Shit. Right, Kagura remembered then that he had told her he was going to visit his mother and that his cell would not have reception. She recalled making a joke about visiting the mysterious castle right on Halloween. It was up to her to fix this situation. She needed back up. She hung up on Jaken and dialed another number.

"Have you heard from Rin?" She asked as soon as Inuyasha answered.

"No, why? Did you lose the kid?"

"Jaken was supposed to pick her up form ballet class, and managed to lose her." In this moment she regretted not killing the kappa.

"Don't know why Sesshoumaru keeps the imp around."

She could not agree more.

"Why'd you call? Do you think something bad happened to her?" All traces of humor had left Inuyasha's voice.

Fear seized Kagura's heart. She knew what he was alluding to. Had a member of the Tashio family taken Rin to harm her? No, they had been so careful not to let any information leak. However, talking about family, there was another option on the table. Someone who needed money and desperately.

"What do you know about Rin's biological mother?"

"Not much, but I know Sesshoumaru has had Miroku keep track of her since he paid her off. He's a pervert, but a great private investigator. The lecher should be able to give us info on her."

So that was how Sesshoumaru had known about her divorce and her need of money. Kagura wondered then if the human had also been the one to investigate her. Nope, she was not going down that train of thought, she had to focus on Rin, she was all that mattered.

"I just need an address."

"Miroku should be able to get that easily. I'll call him and let you know."

Miroku had come through and Kagura was on her way to the address he had shared. Inuyasha was on his way as well and had specifically requested that she refrain from acting until he got there. Her answer had been a big fat 'no' and she had jumped behind the wheel of her car. He lived in the middle of a freaking forest on the other side of town and by the time he made it, who knew what could happen to Rin. She did send a lengthy text message to Sesshoumaru and hoped he would get it soon and come join them.

The address Miroku had gotten led to a decent size house in a middle-class neighborhood. The place must have been nice once upon a time, but lack of upkeep had left it looking shabby. Kagura rounded the house and headed to the back door. She needed to do some reckon, so she called forth a light breeze to carry the sounds coming from inside the house to her pointy ears.

"I want Sesshoumaru-sama. I want Miss Kagura." Rin's whimpering broke Kagura's heart. She was glad she had found the kid, but the tears she could hear in her voice worried her.

"Just shut up!" An angry female voice snapped at Rin. "I've had enough of your whining. One more word out of your mouth and I'll smack you so hard you won't ever be able to speak again."

Alright, Kagura had heard enough. No one was going to lay a finger on her Rin and hope to get away with it. How dare the bitch threaten her kid like this? Kagura felt as if her blood was boiling. She was going to murder this woman. She kicked the wooden back door open, happy that she was wearing her favorite pair of sturdy boots. They were perfect for an ass-kicking.

"Who's there?"

"Your worst nightmare if you don't get the hell away from Rin."

In the blink of an eye, Kagura joined the party. It only took her a few powerful strides to make it to the living room where her little girl was being kept. Rin was sitting on the broken couch, crying silent tears, but the wind sorceress had her eyes trained on only one person: the dark-haired woman who had been yelling at Rin.

"Who are you?" Asked the woman Kagura recognized as their visitor from the previous evening.

"Miss Kagura!" The child shouted in joy.

"Don't worry Rin, we will be going home in just a minute." To punctuate her statement, Kagura fished her fan from her pocket and snapped it open.

"Did you come to drop off the money?" Rin's mother licked her dry lips. "I told Sesshoumaru he had to bring it himself."

Clearly the woman was either insane or had a death wish. Kagura could not believe she would be stupid enough to dare try to extort money out of Sesshoumaru.

"Rin, I want you to walk back towards where I came from. Go inside the kitchen and find a nice place to hide. I'll come get you soon."

Kagura needed her to get away as she did not want the kid to be witness to what she was about to do to the crazy lady. Thankfully Rin wasted no time and did as told. Kagura was proud, she was such a good kid.

"No, come back here you brat."

The woman launched herself towards Rin, but before she could make it, Kagura flicked her fan. Suddenly a thin blade of wind hit the hand the woman had outstretched in the hopes of catching Rin. The human screamed in outrage more than in pain as blood welled from the inflected wound. Kagura had kept the cut light. She liked to play with her prey before going for the kill. The woman needed to be taught a lesson and the wind sorceress was more than happy to school her.

"You bitch, what if this leaves a scar?!" She yelled cradling her injured limb to her chest.

Lovely. Kagura was quite incredulous that the woman was more worried about the appearance of her skin than blood loss. The wind sorceress wished she had severed the damn hand completely. How would that be for a scar?

"I know who you are. You're the witch Sesshoumaru is sleeping with. Do you think that you guys can get away with playing house with my kid?!"

"Your kid? From what I've heard you gave up all rights to call her yours for a fat check."

Kagura's reminder ticked her off.

"Doesn't matter. She still carries my blood. She's mine and she'll never be yours." She wiped the last of the blood from her palm on the fabric of her white shirt. "I can come back anytime. Maybe next time I'll grab her and run away from the country. We'd hide somewhere and only tell you where we were once you gave me the money I asked for."

How unfair life was Kagura pondered. How come a loving person like her mom who would have done anything to ensure a better life for her kids had to die when a soulless monster like this woman was still around? She did not care about Rin at all, and only saw her as her own personal ATM machine.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me."

Her words enraged Kagura beyond words. How dare this woman threaten their peace and happiness like this?! Well contrary to what she thought, there was a way to stop her. If the woman was not in their lives anymore, she would not be able to keep jeopardizing Rin and her well being. She was just a frail human woman. It would be so easy to shut her up for good. For the first time since she had heard Rin had disappeared, Kagura suddenly felt calm wash over her. She knew what to do.

Just as she raised the arm holding her fan, someone grabbed her wrist. What asshole was trying to prevent her from giving the woman her due? Rage flashing in her eyes, Kagura turned towards the interloper. She was startled to see it was none other than Sesshoumaru.

"How'd you get here so fast?" She gasped.

"I received her ransom note, so I cut my meeting short. I borrowed from mother a means of transportation to speed my travel."

Teleportation? Ok, now Kagura really wanted to go visit the Sky Castle. It must be full of the most amazing treasures.

"You cannot kill her." Sesshoumaru instructed his lover. His words were spoken harshly, but he gave her wrist a small caress with the pad of his thumb before letting go of her hand.

Kagura was surprised by his command. To her the equation was simple. The woman had kidnapped Rin and was threatening to harm her in the future. The best way to prevent that outcome was to make sure the woman was not around anymore. Sure, they were not in feudal times anymore, so youkai killing humans was highly frowned upon, but the woman deserved it. In fact Kagura was willing to stand in a court of law to explain why the killing was justified.

"An oath was taken."

His cryptic answer made Kagura pause. She then remembered that Sesshoumaru had mentioned something about his father's will mandating his sons made provisions about caring for Rin and her mother. Damn it.

"I told you there was nothing you could do about it."

Kagura wanted to slap the jubilant smile off the woman's face. Fuck it, she was asking for it, and Kagura could deal with the consequences of Sesshoumaru's anger later.

"I am not Sesshoumaru nor Inuyasha. I am not bound by the words in old man Tashio's will. So let me be clear, if I ever see you around our Rin, I will murder you in cold blood, reanimate your corpse, beat you up again then throw away your useless carcass." To emphasize that she meant ever word of her threat, Kagura decided to leave the lady a little gift to remember her by. In a heartbeat a wind blade formed and sliced open the woman's cheek. This time around the wind sorceress had put enough pressure to cut deep.

"You disfigured me!" The woman screeched holding on to her bloody cheek. "You crazy bitch."

"Crazy? Oh you haven't seen anything yet." Kagura threw her head back and laughed. "If you don't go away in the next thirty seconds, I will show you that there are fates worse than death."

Rin's biological mother got the message loud and clear. Her eyes burning hot with hatred she hurried out through the front of the house.

"If this is the part where you lecture me, don't waste your breath. I'm already regretting making just a cut on her cheek. I should've slashed her whole face open." Kagura turned to face her lover. She could have asked to have the woman arrested, but taking justice into her own hands was so much more satisfying.

"No lecture. Believe me you have done something I have wished to do for a very long time." His nostrils flared as he took in the lingering scent of blood in the air. Good. His reaction pleased her. "Let's go collect Rin and go home."

That was a plan Kagura could get behind. Their Halloween dinner plans were ruined, but ordering pizza and hanging out together sounded perfect.

The front door was banged opened when none other than Inuyasha stepped inside the house.

"Keh! Did I just miss the party?"

"Miss Kagura, the mean lady, she was my mom, right?"

Kagura had wondered when Rin would ask her about her ordeal. As she had planned they had spent the rest of the evening quietly at home. They ate pizza, watched kid friendly scary movies and kept Rin in their sight at all times. Sesshoumaru had not stepped foot into his study until Kagura had gone to put Rin to bed. Clearly he too had been shaken up.

Kagura carefully tucked the little girl in her bed as she thought about the best way to answer.

"She was the woman who gave birth to you." She did not deserve the title of mother and Kagura had no intention of bestowing it to her. "You don't have to worry about her though. She won't be back."

"So I can stay home with Sesshoumaru-sama, you and Jaken?" Rin asked quietly. What kind of nonsense had the woman tried to put in Rin's head? Nope her kid was going nowhere.

"Of course. You're going to stay home with all of us." Kagura would have happily kicked Jaken out, but Rin was for some unknown reason fond of the kappa.

"Miss Kagura, I'm happy you're not my nanny anymore, so you can be my new mommy."

Rin's words brought her pause. How the kid could make her heart overflow with so many emotions with only a few words was amazing. The mysterious power of love.

"You'd like that, huh?"

Rin nodded shyly.

"Alright then." Kagura spoke casually, her tone of voice hiding the overwhelming emotions coursing through her. "Mommy says you need to go to sleep now. You've stayed late enough."

"Okay mommy." Rin sat up to press a resounding kiss on Kagura's cheek before doing as she was told and lying down to finally go to sleep.

With one last look at the child Kagura turned the lights off and closed the door behind her. She almost ran into Sesshoumaru. That was unusual as he did not usually tuck Rin in at night, but she understood why he needed to stay close to the child after what had happened that afternoon.

"Mommy?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Yep, and I guess that makes you daddy now, so you better get used to it." She was not sure how he would take her announcement, but she did not care. She was doing what was best for Rin. Who was she kidding; she was doing what would make her happy too.

"That is agreeable."

She looped her arms around his neck and pressed a big kiss to his lips. Things were just going perfectly. Now that she was done with the ass whooping, she only needed to accomplish one thing: find a job.

To be continued…

A/N: So this chapter kind of took a life of its own and did not go as I initially planned, which explains the late update. To tie up some ends I decided to go beyond the planned chapters and add an epilogue, which I will post tomorrow.