Chapter 3: Bitter Water
Goddamn, her hand hurt. Were his abs made of granite or something?
Kagome flapped her throbbing hand as she ran, as though she could shake off the pain in her knuckles, and made a beeline for her car. She could see it now, the little gray Honda Fit that had essentially become her home. She was maybe a hundred feet away from it.
Willing her legs to move faster in a final burst of speed, Kagome didn't even try to swerve around the people standing in her path: she clipped several shoulders and nearly shoved a man over without breaking her stride. Seventy feet became thirty feet became fifteen feet… Fumbling with the key fob in the pocket of her jeans, she felt a fluttering hope in the pit of her stomach. She was going to make it!
The headlights flashed twice as the car unlocked. Kagome stretched her arm forward, her fingers wrapping around the handle of the driver's side door…
Just as the door started to swing open, a clawed hand shot out from behind her and slammed it closed again.
She yelped as she was none-too-gently shoved against the side of her car, her cheek pressed flat against the warm metal. A body pressed in behind her, and warm breath fanned the side of her face.
"Fucking hell," the man snarled as his hands gripped both her wrists, pulling her arms behind her back. He wrestled the key fob from her clenched fingers, pocketed it in his jeans.
"I was wrong, you are stupid," he grunted as he started lashing her wrists together with some kind of rope—it felt thick and almost elastic, like a bungee cord.
She tried to shove away from the car, tried to wrench her hands free. But he was so strong, it was like trying to muscle through a brick wall. His body kept her effortlessly pinned as he finished knotting the rope around her wrists.
Frustration and the sour bite of panic rose in her throat. Her stomach clenched hard. Her wrists were tied back-to-back, the knuckles of each hand pressed together, palms facing outward; the position twisted her forearms and elbows at an uncomfortable angle, limiting her arms' range of motion as effectively as the rope itself. Tears pricked at her eyes, and she grit her teeth.
"Right, how stupid of me," she seethed, "to run away from a kidnapper."
She felt him step back. His hand gripped her shoulder and he tugged her around to face him.
The silver of his hair nearly glowed in the afternoon light. His ears twitched, shifting atop his head as though analyzing every sound around them. His jaw—sharp and defined—looked tense, like he was trying not to grind his teeth. Those golden eyes were narrowed on her face.
But what struck Kagome instantly was the expression on his face. He didn't look triumphant or sneering, wasn't gloating down at her the way she'd expected. The way Naraku's other hunters had looked at her when they'd caught her in the past. No, he was scowling at her as though he was considering a difficult crossword puzzle, sussing out a complicated riddle for which he was rapidly losing patience.
"Tch," he snorted, "I'm the least of your problems. And that dumb fucking stunt you just pulled was as good as waving a neon sign at a couple of your bigger problems."
He was yanking on her arm before she could think to respond, dragging her around to the passenger side of the car. He opened the passenger door and forced her inside, taking an extra spare moment to buckle her into the seat. In the time it took her to blink, he'd slammed the door and was already sliding into the driver's seat, turning the key in the ignition.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she breathed out, tone curiously flat.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he said, craning his head to look over his shoulder as he backed the car out into the street. In a matter of moments they were zipping down the road.
Sitting there, arms tied behind her back, watching a strange man drive her car—the only thing resembling a safe place left in her life—Kagome struggled to absorb the reality of the situation. She felt strangely detached from herself. The panic and anger she'd felt moments before were peripheral now—still present, but somehow remote, just on the fringes of her awareness—an odd numbness spreading through her in their wake.
So it surprised her—and him, judging by the way his body jolted in his seat—when a bark of laughter erupted from her throat, hollow and bitter. She said with hoarse resignation, "Why don't you just kill me now?"
His eyes flicked to her, then back to the road in front of him. His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. He said nothing.
Her left shoulder slumped against the car door, and she rested her temple on the window, staring listlessly at the passing buildings. "Honestly, you'd be doing me a favor at this point."
"I'm not going to kill you," he said, tone clipped and terse.
She laughed again. "Sure, that's why you threatened to slice my throat."
She kept her gaze on the window, but it sounded to her like he was scowling again when he replied, "I had to get us both out of there fast, and without drawing attention. Fear is a good motivator." He paused, then added with unmistakable irritation, "You shot all that to hell, though. We'll be lucky if we make it to the next town without trouble."
Kagome lifted her head and turned to stare at him. Anger started bleeding through the numbness smothering her brain. "Oh, a thousand apologies for giving you trouble."
"You gave yourself trouble, idiot." A growl rumbled up from his chest, and he glared at the windshield in front of him. "Forget the people on the street—do you know how many goddamn cameras there are in public places? It won't be hard for the right people to find footage of that spectacle you made. You think it'll be hard for them to track you once they have it?"
She couldn't do anything but stare at him in disbelief. "Spectacle I made? You abducted me! You tied me up! You—" She stopped, unable to speak around the anger brewing in her chest. Finally she growled low in her throat, "You're the trouble! Stop with the damn act now. It's insulting. I know you're taking me to Naraku."
He stiffened, arms noticeably tensing. The look he shot her could've pierced steel. "I don't work for that fucking bastard."
There came the hollow laugh from her throat again, raw and pained. "Right. Never heard that one before." She felt a tear slide down her cheek, and couldn't bring herself to care about the weakness it showed.
A beat passed. His voice was still rough, but it had an almost thoughtful quality when he said, "Been tricked by Naraku's lackeys one too many times, huh?"
When she didn't respond, he sighed and then said quietly, "Look, I don't expect you to believe me. But I'm not taking you to Naraku. I swear it."
They sat in silence for some time. She watched him carefully. His arms were still stiff, his grip on the steering wheel still tight. His eyes kept flicking up to the rearview mirror, despite the fact that traffic had thinned considerably when they reached the more rural outskirts of the suburbs. He certainly looked like someone expecting to be followed.
Why the hell would a hunter working for Naraku act so on edge? And after he'd already captured his quarry?
She didn't believe him, not really... but eyeing him thoughtfully, she found herself saying, "Let's pretend I believe you. If you're not taking me to Naraku, then where are you taking me?"
Golden eyes met and held hers. "Somewhere safe."