OMG guys! It's been about a month but I've seriously been just dead and busy and honestly, working through this story. I don't like to give anything short of my best, so I try to have everything worked out before I take the story in any certain direction. I'm really excited for where this is heading. So much more to go on it. haha

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That being said, please enjoy!

Chapter 37: Your Every Need


The life looked to have been sucked clean from the girl's eyes. Her countenance was organically spiritual, a radiating glow surrounded her—one that was as stunning opalescent as it was maleficent... as if she were the angel of death herself; the spiriter to the afterlife.

"What are you?" Rin managed a whisper.

"I am Kanna."

"But… what are you?" Rin asked a second time. "A demon?"

"Of course not," Kanna smiled. "I have been sent by the Kami, themselves… to relieve you of your anguish."

Rin's face ran cold as she tried to understand.

"Do not mistake my intent, for I have not come to take your soul to the other realms," Kanna said, "Rather, consider my presence as that of a... miracle."

This was all too much for Rin to comprehend. Even if it were true then— "How? How can you relieve me?"

The girl lifted her crisp mirror. "With this, I can take you to wherever you choose. You will be free. Free from the life of a geisha. Free from him."

Had the gods truly taken pity on her?

Rin curled and uncurled her toes, letting the satin lift and then fall lightly back over her feet. The concept was one she would die for—kill for, maybe. A life that was her own. One that she would be free to indulge however she wanted. Unbound. Perhaps less safe, but she could manage. She lived on her own once, she could do it again.

Where she thought her first objection would be the faces of her housesisters back at Kodachi, maybe even the servants beneath her that relied on the income that she brought in, instead… it was that of Kohaku.

Kohaku, the one whom loved her first, and she loved back. The same one that tried to kill her months ago… that Sesshoumaru had managed to save her from… all because of Naraku.

Sesshoumaru's face burned in her mind, brighter than Kohaku's, and guilt struck her gut.

Rin's face fell at the thought of following this girl that she just met. She already knew she couldn't trust anyone, and she would never be able to. At least here, under Sesshoumaru-sama's care, she knew what she was dealing with. A demon that could sense when she let drop a single tear, or when she—in fact—dropped while getting out of a bath. Her eyes flicked toward the door.

How had he not noticed anything?

"I am of the void," Kanna whispered, drawing back the geisha's attention. "I have no scent, no aura. But even if I did, I have cast around us a small barrier. No one outside can see you, hear you, or even... scent your fear."

A chill slithered up Rin's spine. Something nagged at her; a bit of intuition, maybe, that begged her to sprint through the hallway, away from this girl. Still, she stayed in place, near immobile, watching the glint of the mirror catch the moonlight—or rather—steal it.

Nausea pricked her stomach.

"No, I'm fine as I am. Please leave," Rin's voice shook.

Kanna smiled again. This one was a long smile, detrimentally silent and foreboding until she breathed. "As you wish. Do not hesitate to call upon me if you should change your mind."

Rin just stared at her.

Kanna seemed to mold into the silence, a scentless smoke engulfing her. "I can give you a life worth living. Until then, enjoy your rude interruptions."

What?

Within an instant, she was gone, and the room around Rin fell to only a moment of silence before the door at the front slid open.

"S-Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin gasped as he stood in all his regal glory within the door frame.

His bronze irises scanned the room with mild interest before he let them fall to rest on Rin.

"Why are you awake?" he asked, his voice saturated with curiosity, and a bit of haste.

Rin wondered for a split second. Had he assumed her asleep because he couldn't sense anything before? Because of that Kanna's barrier? More worrisome was that he was entering her room expecting her to be asleep.

What were his intentions?

"It was… I just had a bad dream," Rin quickly fibbed, and Sesshoumaru tilted his head at her—a blatant analyzation of her performance. But she held fast to her story. Would he believe her, anyway?

And, if she were honest... if she did choose to call on Kanna again, the one person to whom she wouldn't want to give a lead is most definitely the temperamental and cruel lord, Sesshoumaru.

Her mouth hardened into a tight line as she let her eyes trail over his delicate, yet ferocious face markings, the four tips leading to high-placed cheek bones and sinister, almond-shaped eyes. Even now, his probing gaze wrested hers with silent determination.

No, he could never find out if she decided to leave. Afterall, the only reason why he was bearable now is because she was submitting to his will. If she were to leave with the intent to escape his jurisdiction, no doubt she would witness his wrath again. She tried to flee him once, and he near let her die for it.

"Did you come here hoping I would be asleep?" Her question was accusatory, and barely audible, but it shouldn't matter for a demon of his caliber. He could hear her even at her quietest, that much she was sure of by now.

"I suppose I am destined to forever suffer your crude insinuations." He smirked. "Do you think of my touch so often?"

Blood rushed to Rin's face. She couldn't even think. That he would openly suggest that of her...

"You alone have something that no one else in this world has," he responded to her shock in such a way that flushed her cheeks even more. "Do you know what that is?"

Rin shook her head slightly.

Just his will and aura alone shut the door behind him, and in the mere blink of an eye he was at her side. She gasped.

He bared his fangs. "My apology. It is a thing I am rarely willing to give… and you have it."

Rin didn't dare speak, even as he leaned across her body in challenge, holding his weight upon a hand, splayed adjacent to her hip.

"Therefore, I expect the insults that derive from those trespasses to cease," he demanded with every aspect of his being. His body language was anything but receptive. If anything, he was repressing a deeper anger. Yet, Rin refused to submit.

"As long as I am trying to heal from that night, I cannot so easily separate you from what you did," she replied quietly, yet firmly.

Sesshoumaru's posture eased somewhat. His eyes trailed her arms and exposed clavicles for a moment before Rin pointed to the side of her head. "The wounds in here..."

His expression remained unchanged.

"...and here." She could feel her voice waver as she moved her hand to the left side of her chest—over her heart. Lingering tears would not fall, despite their urge, and that alone gathered her a self-awareness that she hadn't considered for a long time. How calloused had she become since she first laid eyes on this demon? Since she realized her true purpose in this world as a covetous geisha? Since she realized that no promise "for the better" was as good as it seemed?

Had she merely signed her miserable life over to more misery?

"I don't even know who I am anymore," she murmured. "Sometimes I feel like the only freedom this world offers is death."

Sesshoumaru didn't immediately respond. The chilling atmosphere continued to peck at her skin in the form of goosebumps, and idle discomfort.

Finally, he spoke.

"A life's worth is never for its bearer to judge. However, if such things are haunting you…" his tone softened, "...you should know that I would not so easily overcome your absence."

Rin's eyes widened and her heart soared to her throat, skipping beats and threatening her carefully crafted world. Surely, he was toying with her.

"And yet… you've stated more than once how much you want to kill me," Rin challenged.

Sesshoumaru smirked. "Neither of us are so dull to believe that, any longer… as you have so recklessly pointed out in the past."

Rin struggled to breathe as she recalled both of the times she recognized this truth and called him on it. The first was right after she told him she loved him. The second, he was in the middle of abusing her, just nights ago.

She gulped down the horrid reminder.

"As much as I want to rid myself of any and all weaknesses, I cannot seem to rid myself of you," he stated. "Circumstances beyond my control have led me to this conclusion."

Confusion swelled in Rin's chest. "What… what are you saying?"

He lifted his hand to the crook of her neck and pulled her mouth inches from his. After a second of of fierce eye contact and an apparent fight raging behind his eyes, he parted his lips to speak.

"Be warned. While what I am about to say is a truth, it is one I will not tolerate to ever leave this space between us."

It took everything in Rin's being to blink her understanding, every muscle tense; everything on edge.

Rin's hands shook as she lifted her dark gaze to his amber.

With great restraint, the Lord of the West stated, "From here on, I will take care of your every need. In return, I want you to be mine, and mine alone."


I know this might seem sudden... but there is a reason for ittttt... I mean. We all know that Sesshoumaru loves her, but right now he's just being possessive.

Next chapter will include Naraku... and Sango... and Kohaku may not be too far behind that.

Love you guys! Thanks for all the reads and reviews! :)