Wolf
Part Twelve: "Dreamwalk"
by Vega
With my hands shoved in the pockets of my duster, they remained safe from the cutting chill of the late autumn wind. My heart, however, had no such protection.
How could Amphitrion say such horrible things? Worse than that, I could see by the look in his eyes that he believed them, too. What happened in the ten years since I last saw the pup on that sidewalk?
Did he resent me for kicking him like that?
No, I had physically hurt him many times before that, and he had always forgiven me before.
I had given Amphitrion over to the Shinto Shrine in his youth, after I had found him on the streets in Greece, and he had he had grown into a powerful young houshin before I had even come back to visit him a year later. I admit, if I had not waited as long, perhaps the hold the elder houshin had on him wouldn't have been so strong, but I am a wanderer by nature, and a Shinto Shrine is not place that a full blooded youkai is prone to wander by often.
When I had arrived, I found Amphirion armed with holy rosaries and ofuda, being encouraged by the houshin leader to purify and essentially destroy me. I had laughed at his efforts and beaten the boy back instantly. In an earlier day, I would have killed the child to spite the master, but it was the 20th century, and I had seen enough bloodshed over the past fifty decades to want to cause any more.
Besides, I LIKED the child.
Instead I pinned Ampitrion to the stone of the Shrine's courtyard, nipped at his nose playfully, and said, "You're gonna have to be stronger than that if you intend to kill the Prince of the Wolves, little friend."
He struggled and spat at me, and I sat on his stomach deliberately, too keep him from getting up. He squirmed more and I just laughed.
"Get off me, monster!" he screamed, and I shook my head.
"Monster?" I repeated. "I gave you my watch and you call me monster? Tut tut, what ungrateful words. Did the weakling old Houshin teach them to you?"
He flicked his gaze to the old man, who stood there, standing stock still, confused and scared.
"Well... he said..." Amphitrion faltered and I sighed.
"I want to tell you something that was once told to me," I said, and reached out to take the useless rosary from his left hand. As I spoke, I wrapped it around his right, so the beads crossed the palm. "It is a person's actions that make them good or evil... not their genetics."
The boy stared in awe at his right hand, then said, without dragging his eyes away, "Who said that?"
"You did."
His gaze flicked up to me, and I got off him and grabbed the front of his indigo houshin robes in a
great handful and hauled him to his feet.
He looked more like Miroku now than ever, and it made my heart twist strangely. I didn't recall ever having had any special affection for the perverted monk, but looking back at my memories of him now, I remember how nice it was just to spend time in the company of another male who understood what I had been through, the wars, Naraku, the death... and had not been a rival.
Although Inu Yasha and I had ceased to fight, there was still a bit of the territorialism that came of two canines more or less sharing the same pack and land. With Miroku, on the other hand, there was no pissing contest. There was just the simple companionship, where the atmosphere was relaxed and the conversation fascinating.
I learned more about the powers and responsibilities of a houshin in our talks than I ever would have in a fight with him, and he in turn began to revolutionize the way the mystical arts approached youkai by sending off scrolls of what he had learned about friendly youkai from Inu Yasha and me to other temples.
Eventually, the temples surrounding the Bone Eater's Well learned to accept the help and existence of those youkai and hanyou with no evil in their hearts, which made it easier for Inu Yasha and Kagome's offspring to get by in the world.
I had mourned deeply when his own mortality had finally caught up to the old monk and he had passed away.
And yet, here he was again, my friend, a child as I had never known him. I reached out and patted Amphitrion's head - "Miroku-sama was a wise and good friend," I said, then deliberately turned to look at the old Houshin. "And some people around here would be wise to dig up his scrolls and take a glance at them!"
I crouched before the boy once more and said, "Amp-kun, you've gotten very strong, but you have a lot more to learn. Be careful that you are taught the proper things."
With one more head rub, I was up over the wall of the Shrine and gone, satisfied that his training would now include a more tolerant methodology.
And yet... my old friend Amphitrion had told me that I could not have my mate, and that he hated me for the very blood that he had sought to protect from the old houshin whenever I went back to visit him at the Shrine.
I stopped briefly, and shook my head. Around me were all sorts of early morning pedestrians. A young lady rushing home from a night shift at a fast food restaurant. An older man on the way to catch a subway. Children walking to school, bags clutched under their arms. A woman on a cell phone, walking her dog.
I looked around me at all these people and frowned.
Five hundred years ago I would have killed them for just daring to be near me. Perhaps that did justify the insults that Amp had thrown. What was I, if not a murderer bastard? But I had given that way of life up with the death of my comrades. No longer was I a Prince, although I maintained the title to intimidate.
I had no right any longer to decide the fate of those within my realms. It made me wonder - did I have a right before? In the past, my rule had been absolute. I had been the leader, the one whose word was law - if I wanted to kill someone for spitting an insult at me, I had the authority. But now, in the twenty first century, where the children were taught that all life is precious and race means nothing... how could someone with that knowledge, that understanding and acceptance, trust me or love me at all?
Amphitrion had every right to call me a monster - there was more innocent blood on my hands than I would like to admit.
And yet, I had worked to erase that blood, hadn't I? I had fought Naraku, vowed never to kill an innocent human for food again, fought those youkai with evil hearts just as Kagome had... and I had protected my mate.
But somehow, when I was still a killer, Kagome had seen the good in me. And so had my Aisilin.
It confused me. What was I then? Could I have been a monster if I had held the affection of two human (more or less) women?
I sighed again and continued to walk.
I was just about to turn back to the hospital, hoping Amp had cooled down enough to speak rationally with me, and hoping I had done the same, when a voice called to me from a near-by alley:
"Hey! Kouga!"
I turned and walked into it in one smooth motion, smelling the caller before I could hear him. It was Amphitrion.
"Amp," I said cautiously, slowing to a halt before him. "What do you want?"
"I just want to talk," he said, coming out of the shadows of the back of the alley. It was blocked off by a fence, and there was the predictable piles of garbage strew about, casting large and vaguely ominous shadows. His palms were open and turned upwards.
"I wanted to talk too," I admitted, smiling. I looked down to kick a can. "Although I was hoping it would be somewhere cleaner." I wrinkled my nose to prove my point. "Maybe somewhere with coffee?"
"Here's just fine for what I have planned," Amphitrion said, and I looked up, sharply.
I didn't have time to ask what he meant before the black lightning bolts that erupted from his fingertips slammed into my body, throwing me into a brick wall and unconsciousness.
~~~
The Hospital
~~~
I opened my eyes slowly, aware of the sleep crusting my eyelashes together, and wondered how long I had been out. I remembered immediately where I was and what had sent me crashing to the floor - I had smelled that dreaded sandalwood aroma.
And yet I'd had no dreams of my former captor, the evil Naraku. I was half relieved and half frightened. Relieved because it meant that it hadn't been him. Frightened because it meant someone else had learned the potion that sent me into dizzying blackness and nightmares. Whoever this person was, I was going to be sure to sic Kouga on them.
Thinking of Kouga...
I tried to turn my face to the side, where the chair he liked best was, only to be stopped by the wires and masks tugging at my face. Annoyed I reached up and pulled off the oxygen mask and tugged at the wires up my nose until the tape gave way and I was able to pull the disgusting thing out of my sinus cavity.
The motion of the plastic tube passing through my nostrils made me sneeze, and I sat up to wipe my nose on my sleeve. That caused more tugging at my arms and with a snarl I pulled all of the sticky pads and needles away from my flesh. It made some of the more annoying machines beep and whine in protest, so I reached down to the giant plug by my bedside and yanked that out too.
Ah, blissful silence.
Once again I turned to the chair that Kouga would be in, only to find it depressingly empty.
"Kouga?" I said, wondering if he was just in the washroom, or if he had stepped out to grab something to eat. I knew he wouldn't just LEAVE, especially after the last thing I had said before I had passed out in his arms.
"He left," another, unexpected voice said, on the other side of me, and I whirled around in the bed to find my mother seated on a chair to my left.
"M-mom...?" I stuttered. A thousand emotions flashed through my mind in an instant. Hate for her hatred of my family; betrayal for her leaving me to them alone; suspicions as to why she was here; relief to see her; a swelling of love; confusion; anger... in the end, the need to just be a little girl enfolded in the arms of her mother won out, and I flung myself at her, sobbing.
She grabbed me and I could feel the hope and desperation in her that reflected my own. "MOM!" I cried and pressed my face to her neck, heaving.
"Shhh, shhh, baby," she said softly, petting my head and squeezing me close, "I'm here now, baby, I'm here..."
"I... I was s-so s-scared, M-Mom..." admitted in great hiccoughs, "I missed you s-so m-much..."
"I'm here now," she said again, and right then I think those were the most soothing words I'd ever heard in my life. "I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."
My sobs turned to laughed and I sat back, wiping my eyes on my sleeves. "I think Kouga-kun may have a thing or two about who gets to protect me..."
The relief that had previously adorned my mother's face crumbled and gave way to anger. "That horrid man with the ponytail?"
"Horrid?" I said, settling back into the pillow. "What do you mean, 'horrid'?"
Mom sat on the edge of my bed and leaned forward to press her palm to my cheek. "I met that Kouga! He's a demon! His eyes were glowing and he had fangs and he yelled at us and wouldn't let us in to see you!"
I drew my eyebrows down in confusion. "I'm sure he was just worried. I passed out, and the doctors probably told him to keep any visitors away. He was probably just distracted with worry."
"He's a DEMON, Aisilin. He's one of THEM."
I pushed my mother's hand away, agahst. "He's not a 'them', Mom! There's nothing WRONG with the youkai in our family!"
As her face got redder, I felt my heart sinking further. Oh, Mom... why couldn't you understand?
"They are NOT part of our family! WE are not monsters!"
"I am a HANYOU, MOTHER!" I screamed, unable to hold it back any longer. Mom jerked backwards and her face turned completely white. "Why can't you accept that!? Look at these eyes! These teeth! Look at my nails, mom! They're too long and sharp to be natural! Why can't you accept the fact that I am NOT HUMAN!"
I didn't see the slap coming.
The implied motivation behind it stung more than the actual blow.
I could hear my mother shuddering and sobbing, but I kept my eyes closed, and my head turned to the side, where the force of the strike had sent it.
I took a deep breath and held it, forcing the tears that stung the back of my eyes back down my throat. The room was deathly silent.
"I love him."
I heard her sharp intake of breath, but she didn't say anything.
Slowly, I turned my face back to hers, then opened my eyes, glaring at my mother from under my hair. I could feel the blood throbbing in my cheek where mom had hit me.
"I love him," I said again, realizing that it was true, "and he saved my life. Kouga is NOT 'horrid'."
"Oh, honey," she whispered, "I thought that way about your father too, but he was just a betraying sonofa--"
"Don't you DARE insult my father!" I snapped and she immediately pressed her lips together. "My father gave up EVERYTHING to be with you! He gave up friends, family, and his homeland to move to the United States with you. He even denounced his HERITAGE and pretended to be HUMAN for you. Papa was a good man and he LOVED us."
"But he was a DEMON," she protested, and I could see that she had spent a long time building up these beliefs within herself. She couldn't admit that Papa had meant anything to her, or she would have also to admit that she had been wrong all these years. It would drive her insane.
"Papa wasn't evil," I reached out and grasped her hands in mine. "And Kouga isn't either. Evil Youkai exist, Mom, I've seen them. One of them put me in this hospital." She gasped in horror, but I plowed forward, "But the youkai in our family are GOOD. They're descended from a priestess warrior and a hanyou who destroyed the youkai that hurt me. They're all GOOD PEOPLE."
"Sesshoumaru..." she hesitated, and I jumped in with:
"Is good too!"
"He... he threatened me!" she hissed back and moved her head aside to bare the hand-shaped bruises on her neck. I stared at them for a long time, unable to respond. She turned her eyes back to me, and they were narrowed slits.
"You provoked him," I said softly, "Otherwise he wouldn't have done that."
"And I'm supposed to leave my baby with people who are inclined to kill if 'provoked'?!"
"Anyone can kill if properly provoked!" I rebutted, thinking of the viciousness with which I had attacked Kohaku when he had tried to rape me. "Human or otherwise!"
"I refuse!" Mom shouted, and stood up. I couldn't tell what she was refusing - to believe what I said? That people could be evil? That demons could be good? To accept the situation? To allow me to love Kouga? All of the above?
Something inside me pinged to life. I don't know what it was but for a moment I could feel the familiar flare of warmth in my abdomen, the one that indicated that the Shikon Shard was powering up. Which didn't make sense to me for the Shard was in a glass vial in a safe in Uncle Sess' house.
"You have to believe me," I snarled, and we were both shocked by the intensity in my voice, "Kouga saved my life."
"He was probably the one who put you in the hospital!" she countered, deaf and disbelieving as ever.
"You want to see who put me in the hospital?" I snapped, and I felt the warm pulsing in my stomach flare outwards, "FINE!"
~~~
When next I opened my eyes, I was standing in a familiar little chamber made up on polished tropical woo and rice paper screen doors. I saw my mother kneeling before a person asleep under a sky-blue robe on a futon, reddish hair spread out over the fabric of the head-rest. The right arm of the sleeper was bandaged in blood-spotted linens.
The sleeper was me.
Mom put out her hands and tried to touch my face, which was bruised and swollen from the youkai attack I had suffered, but her hands passed right through. With a startled gasp she yanked her hands back to her chest and held herself, crying.
"It's okay, Mom," I said and she turned to face me, her knees skidding on the hard wooden floor. Her eyes were huge. "We can't touch anything here, I don't think. I don't think we're here for real."
"Where are we!?" she screamed, "what's going on?!"
"I think it's the Shikon no Tama," I said softly. "I don't have any of the shards, but I think it left behind some... I don't know..." I folded my hands over my womb. "Some residue of power, or something. I just wished that I could make you understand, and here we are."
"Where... where's here?"
I looked around me, and saw Kagewaki crouched in the corner by the brazier, his hands folded inside of his haori and his eyes closed. His head was bent forward and I could tell that he was asleep. By the grin on his face, I'd say he was invading my nightmares.
There was a sharp cry behind me, and Mom and I both turned to watch as my sleeping self jerked and spasmed, crying out in pain. Kagewaki abruptly stood and walked towards my sleeping self, and drew a knife from his belt.
"Stop it!" Mom cried and lunged for him, but she only passed right through, unable to affect the demon lord.
I watched, rivetted, as Kagewaki knelt and lifted my bad arm, sliced away some of the bandages on my wrist, then lifted the appendage to his face and bit down. My sleeping self screamed in pain, and I wanted nothing more than to slam the back of this jackass' head with a well-placed kick. But I knew I would be no more effective than my Mother.
"What's he DOING?" Mom asked, panicking.
"It's okay, Mom," I said, walking around Kagewaki to grab her hand. I turned and led her to the rice paper screen that separated the chamber from the courtyard and took a deep breath. Then I walked forward and we passed through it, finding ourselves on the porch. "This has already happened, and as you can see, I'm okay."
I looked down at myself, and marvelled silently that my dream-self's right arm was perfectly fine. Mom noticed too and reached out to touch me. Her hand was warm and soft, and very solid. "Your arm is okay..."
"He did it," I said, jerking my head to indicate the demon lord we had left behind. "His name is Naraku, and he's as evil as they come. I was his prisoner for weeks, and he toyed with me and tortured me mercilessly. Whatever demon it was that bit me, I'll be that he set it on me."
Mom made as if to turn and run back into the room, but I grabbed her arms in both of mine. "There's nothing you can do! This has already happened!"
"But I have to save you!"
I jerked her backwards and sent us both tumbling off the porch. We stumbled but both managed to land on our feet. "Don't you think I want to do something too?!" I shouted and she finally stopped struggling and stared me in the face. "Don't you think I wouldn't love to take that knife he has and plunge it into his black little heart! I'd kill him if I had half a chance!" Mom's eyes went wide and she blanched. I think this aggressive bloodthirsty side of me scared her. Truth be told, it scared me too.
"But I can't," I pressed, "I can't. This has already happened, and if you go in there, you'll just be more disturbed."
"Why?" Mom insisted, grabbing my shoulders and pushing her face close to mine. "What is he DOING?"
"I can't remember everything," I said softly, "But I think he's raping me."
There was a long and stunned silence. Then the tears pooled up in my Mother's eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
I reached up and took my mom's hands and said, "Come on. I'm going to see if I can fast-forward this thing." I closed my eyes and concentrated on the moment on the mountain path when Naraku had dumped my half-dead body in wolf territory.
There was a meaty slapping sound and I opened my eyes to follow my mother's line of sight. Behind me was Naraku, laughing at Kohaku in his full warrior's regalia, holding my other self up by the collar of her filthy and torn robe.
We were standing in the middle of a dense brush of forest, and could just make out the other three people by the pathway through the foiliage.
My other self's face was already swelling with the black eye, and there was blood all over my right arm and dripping from my temple. My hands were dangling loosely and my ankles bent in a way that showed I was no supporting my own weight. My lip was split, and the blue of the robe was almost entirely red, the cloth soaking up the blood from the long gashes that I knew crisscrossed my torso.
Kohaku flung me down and I could hear the sharp snap of my ribs breaking. Beside me, Mom jumped and flinched.
Naraku reached down and grabbed a great handful of my hair and I watched as I jerked myself away. Naraku was left with a handful of hair which he snarled at and tossed into the wind. His hand shot out and he wrapped it around my throat, his nails digging in.
Mom began to move, but I grabbed her tightly and whispered, "Don't bother. This has already happened."
Her only answer was a shuddering sob.
"You're pathetic and worthless and do not merit the waste of poison it would take to kill you," Naraku's hissing voice floated across the courtyard to where we were standing, and I shuddered again to hear it. It made me cold all over. I saw my other self burst into fits of hysterics-induced laughter. "Do you find that amusing? I am going to leave you here. Right here. The wolf youkai roam these lands, Ashirinu. Vicious killers. Perhaps they are your ancestors, hm? You're going to be ripped apart by your own kin."
With that he reached down and ripped the Shikon Shard earring off my ear, slammed me face-down into the dirt, then gave me a kick hard enough to flip me over onto my back, my upper body half concealed in the bushes and thick wild grass, my legs sprawled awkwardly on the path in just such a way as to command curiosity from a passer by.
With another spine-shuddering laugh, Naraku and Kohaku vanished into a swirling vortex of darkness, and were gone.
The moment they left, Mom lunged at my other self. She tried to grab her, to pull her onto the road, but again her hands passed through her. "You look dead!" she wailed to me as I approached behind her.
"I almost was," I said softly. "I would have been if it weren't for Kouga."
"Kouga? The man who yelled at us in the hospital?"
As if on cue the scene shifted and time passed faster than I thought possible - the sun set in a matter of seconds and then I heard a wolf howling.
"That's Kouga," I answered, gesturing to indicate the melody that was raised to the moon.
There was a crashing sound and a scared looking wolf youkai - a fatter one than I ever remember seeing - clad in a strange grey kimono and fur over-vest, dashed past my mangled corpse and ran away, in the direction I knew a village to be.
Well, that was odd. I didn't remember that happening. Of course, by the look on my other-self's face, I was too close to death to have noticed.
A pack of wolves came springing out of the brush beside us, in pursuit of the youkai, and Mom screamed and fell back against me. I grabbed her and we took a few steps backwards. I recognized Kabau among the throng of panting and snarling animals.
Kabau stopped the pursuit while the others ran on, and turned to my broken body. He approached carefully and started to snuffle at the dried blood on my legs. He then stepped over me to look down at my face, and licked it experimentally. He made a face that said he wasn't pleased with the taste and backed away, then threw back his head and howled.
Leaning against me, my mother shuddered and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, he's a friend," I said softly. "That's Kabau... he looked after me when I was staying with the wolves."
Kabau stopped howling, one ear swivelling in our direction ,and I held my breath. No, the wolf hadn't HEARD me, had it?
"Kabau?" I said again, experimentally, and the wolf turned to face us entirely. There was no mistaking that he was seeing us, for there was nothing and no one behind me of interest when I checked. "You can see me?"
He closed and opened his eyes in an approximation of a wolfy nod. I heard the distinctive howling wind that announced Kouga was approaching and hastily said, "Don't tell Kouga! I'm that girl down there, I'm a friend, but don't say you've seen me!"
Obviously confused, but willing to believe me, the wolf nodded again and turned his attention to the approach of his prince.
"Thank you, old friend," I whispered, and saw his ear twitch.
Then the tornado of dust was upon us, and Kouga came skidding to a halt by my broken feet.
"What's this?" he asked, flicking his bright blue gaze between my other self and Kabau. "D'you guys kill another one?"
Kabau shook his ruff and whined and yipped for a moment. Then Kouga nodded. "Found her, eh? And you say she tastes like poison?"
The wolf yipped and barked a bit more, and again Kouga nodded. "Yeah, okay, if she's part wolf like you say she is, then I guess she's our responsibility. You go help the rest of the guys track down that Shard Thief, and I'll get her back to the Den. Call me when you get him."
Kabau turned and was off faster than I could see him go, and Kouga crouched down beside my broken form. Mom tensed, but I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. He pulled me upright and let me rest back on one of his thighs, he used one hand to steady my limp body, while the other cupped my face and studied it.
"Hm," he snorted after a long while. "You're not half as ugly as a part human should be."
Startling both my mother and I, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to my other self's slack and split ones, and held them there. I could tell by the working of his jaw that his tongue was inside my other self's mouth.
For a second I was filled with righteous indignation. Beside me, Mom was sputtering obscenities.
But when Kouga pulled away, his lips and tongue were covered with my blood, which he quickly slurped up and licked away. "Kabau is right, you do taste like a canine hanyou." I allowed myself to relax and hope that the only reason he had kissed me so throughly while I was unable to defend myself was that he wanted to taste my blood and that was the place where it was flowing freshest and fastest.
He stood abruptly, cradling me in his arms, and started at me face again, his eyes lingering on my lips. Slowly, he closed his eyes and leaned down and gently kissed me again, this time far more hesitantly and chastely. "Not half so ugly at all..." he murmured, pulling away, then flung me up over his shoulder and was off, leaving my Mother and I breathing in the dust he kicked up.
"Where is he going?" Mom asked in a whisper, and I let her go. She walked a few steps up the path, then turned back to me and said, "Where is he going?"
"Back to the Wolf Den," I said, still slightly disturbed by the witnessing of Kouga and I's first kiss. I hadn't even been awake for it! "I'll stay there for a few weeks, before learning that Naraku was using me to spy on Kouga and his kin. They'll all be slaughtered, except for Kouga himself, his henchmen Ginta and Hakkaku, the wolf Kabau, and three or four of the other wolves. After that," I shrugged, "I'll figure out how to use the power of the Shikon Shard I have left and wish myself home."
Mom was silent and I stared in the direction that Kouga had disappeared in. He looked older in the future, I realized. But only slightly. Here he looked like a teenager, and in my time, he appeared to be in his early twenties. So youkai DO age.
"Come on, Mom," I said, and reached out and took her hand. "I'm not in the mood to re-live anything else."
With a bright flash of magenta light, Mom and I were back in the lavish hospital room, I laying in my bed, and Mom asleep on top of me. I pushed her gently and she sat up abruptly.
"Az!" she yelped, "What just happened?"
"I don't know," I smiled, "But I think it was good. I'm just surprised... I didn't think... I mean, whatever power I might have had, I thought it would have left my body with the Shard."
"The shard...?" she echoed, then her eyes widened. "Is it a pink piece of glass?"
"Yeah," I nodded, wondering how much about this whole situation Kouga and Uncle Sess had told her. "But it's gone. The Doctor's removed it."
Mom twisted her hands nervously. "Where did they put it?"
Her nervousness set off alarm bells in my head. "Why?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"Well, there's a man here, sweetie... a buddhist monk. I brought him here to get rid of the demons..." he face flushed momentarily, and I couldn't tell why. Perhaps she had finally realized that the demons around us did not mean to hurt me? I could only pray. "He told me that he needed that glass to help you."
"Why on earth would he need a piece of the Shikon no Tama?" I wondered out loud. "How did he even know there was still one around?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the Shikon no Tama, except for the piece that was inside me, was absorbed by my ancestor Inu Yasha hundreds of years ago, and ceased to exist when he died." I rubbed my hands across my eyes and the bridge of my nose, frustrated. "I don't like the sound of this."
"We could ask him," Mom said and before I could tell her that I was suspicions of this guy's motivation, she opened the door and leaned out in the hall. "He's not there," she said and came back inside, letting the door fall closed behind her. "I wonder where he went?"
The door slammed back open and thankfully Mom was far enough inside the room to avoid getting hit. Kouga strode in, looking a mess, hair wild and mussed, clothing torn and dirty, blood all down his chin and on his lips. His finger tips were stained as well, and I noticed with wide horrified eyes that he was deliberately trailing smears all over the door and walls.
"Looking for Amphitrion?" he grinned, and I shuddered. His teeth were stained crimson as well. He did not sound like my Kouga. He sounded... colder.
"Where is he?" Mom demanded, and I shrunk back wards in the bed, praying my mother would get the sense to dodge past him and run away. Something was WRONG.
Kouga's grin got wider and his arm snapped out and grabbed my mother by her collar. He dragged her forward and pressed his bloody lips to her ear. But his eyes remained on me.
"I killed him," he whispered, before tossing her hard into the air. Mom flew across the room and slammed into the wall beside my bed, falling, slumping face-down onto the floor. There was blood on the back of her head, and I screamed.
Kouga leapt up and landed on all fours on my bed. He yanked the blanket taught, effectively lashing me down, and leaned over to hover above me, the blood on his face dripping down onto me.
"Give us a kiss, honey," he hissed, and I barely had time to take a breath before he shoved his tongue down my throat.
~~~
Author's note:
dun dun dun....
Well, I just have one more chapter to write, then I can post the whole ending at once. (I write out of order and they're all finished already). Hopefully it can get done tonight. I'm actually surprised I wrote this much today!
Also, go back and re-read chapter 11, because I re-posted it and added some info.
And, if someone could tell me which chapter it popped up in, I realized that somewhere I wrote that Kouga was the Prince ofthe NORTHERN wolf tribes instead of the WESTERN. Eep. I need to fix that.
Reviews:
Pallas Athena1: Thank you. *bows* And he will... trust me.
Kataionna: I'm glad you like it. Naraku is hard to love, isn't he? Originally this story was going to be a Naraku romance, but when it got right down to it, he was just too unloveable. But Az did have a crush on Kagewaki, so I guess that's close enough. So yes, it's safe to like Amp. As for the picture, it's a pity you can't draw the duster too, 'cause he likes it so much, but I won't complain. FANART! YAY! I LOVE FANART! And what was the something that you understand that was bugging you for a while?
Lavender Valentine : My carpel tunnel isn't bad enough to warrent surgery yet, but that you for the confidence booster. I"m happy that you enjoyed "Spider", and that you found "Wolf".
sashlea: Oh, it will be one heck of a fight! And I can't be rid of Naraku THAT easily. He's too good of a villain. As for Amphitrion's name... I'm a classics major and was reading a text book at the time. Amphitrion you see was the soldier-husband of Alcemene, the mother of Hercules. The night he perished on the battlefield, Zeus stole his form (some say his body, too), and visited Alcemene. The result of this "visit" being Hercules and his twin brother Iphecles. So, what better name to give to a character who his possesed by a powerful spirit?
Skitzoflame: Yay for spelling Az right! And you're right, her mom is slap worthy. Hopefully this chapter both gives her the slap she needs, and proves that she's not all THAT bad, just blind and bigoted.
InuyashazFukaiMori: ...and he just keeps getting sicker and more twisted. I'm actually really enjoying writing this sadistic bastard, just because he HAS no limitations! I think the "peeling of flesh" proves it, eh? I wonder how a fanartist would tackle that scene... and try cussing him out all you like - if you live long enough for the words to escape your throat.
Part Twelve: "Dreamwalk"
by Vega
With my hands shoved in the pockets of my duster, they remained safe from the cutting chill of the late autumn wind. My heart, however, had no such protection.
How could Amphitrion say such horrible things? Worse than that, I could see by the look in his eyes that he believed them, too. What happened in the ten years since I last saw the pup on that sidewalk?
Did he resent me for kicking him like that?
No, I had physically hurt him many times before that, and he had always forgiven me before.
I had given Amphitrion over to the Shinto Shrine in his youth, after I had found him on the streets in Greece, and he had he had grown into a powerful young houshin before I had even come back to visit him a year later. I admit, if I had not waited as long, perhaps the hold the elder houshin had on him wouldn't have been so strong, but I am a wanderer by nature, and a Shinto Shrine is not place that a full blooded youkai is prone to wander by often.
When I had arrived, I found Amphirion armed with holy rosaries and ofuda, being encouraged by the houshin leader to purify and essentially destroy me. I had laughed at his efforts and beaten the boy back instantly. In an earlier day, I would have killed the child to spite the master, but it was the 20th century, and I had seen enough bloodshed over the past fifty decades to want to cause any more.
Besides, I LIKED the child.
Instead I pinned Ampitrion to the stone of the Shrine's courtyard, nipped at his nose playfully, and said, "You're gonna have to be stronger than that if you intend to kill the Prince of the Wolves, little friend."
He struggled and spat at me, and I sat on his stomach deliberately, too keep him from getting up. He squirmed more and I just laughed.
"Get off me, monster!" he screamed, and I shook my head.
"Monster?" I repeated. "I gave you my watch and you call me monster? Tut tut, what ungrateful words. Did the weakling old Houshin teach them to you?"
He flicked his gaze to the old man, who stood there, standing stock still, confused and scared.
"Well... he said..." Amphitrion faltered and I sighed.
"I want to tell you something that was once told to me," I said, and reached out to take the useless rosary from his left hand. As I spoke, I wrapped it around his right, so the beads crossed the palm. "It is a person's actions that make them good or evil... not their genetics."
The boy stared in awe at his right hand, then said, without dragging his eyes away, "Who said that?"
"You did."
His gaze flicked up to me, and I got off him and grabbed the front of his indigo houshin robes in a
great handful and hauled him to his feet.
He looked more like Miroku now than ever, and it made my heart twist strangely. I didn't recall ever having had any special affection for the perverted monk, but looking back at my memories of him now, I remember how nice it was just to spend time in the company of another male who understood what I had been through, the wars, Naraku, the death... and had not been a rival.
Although Inu Yasha and I had ceased to fight, there was still a bit of the territorialism that came of two canines more or less sharing the same pack and land. With Miroku, on the other hand, there was no pissing contest. There was just the simple companionship, where the atmosphere was relaxed and the conversation fascinating.
I learned more about the powers and responsibilities of a houshin in our talks than I ever would have in a fight with him, and he in turn began to revolutionize the way the mystical arts approached youkai by sending off scrolls of what he had learned about friendly youkai from Inu Yasha and me to other temples.
Eventually, the temples surrounding the Bone Eater's Well learned to accept the help and existence of those youkai and hanyou with no evil in their hearts, which made it easier for Inu Yasha and Kagome's offspring to get by in the world.
I had mourned deeply when his own mortality had finally caught up to the old monk and he had passed away.
And yet, here he was again, my friend, a child as I had never known him. I reached out and patted Amphitrion's head - "Miroku-sama was a wise and good friend," I said, then deliberately turned to look at the old Houshin. "And some people around here would be wise to dig up his scrolls and take a glance at them!"
I crouched before the boy once more and said, "Amp-kun, you've gotten very strong, but you have a lot more to learn. Be careful that you are taught the proper things."
With one more head rub, I was up over the wall of the Shrine and gone, satisfied that his training would now include a more tolerant methodology.
And yet... my old friend Amphitrion had told me that I could not have my mate, and that he hated me for the very blood that he had sought to protect from the old houshin whenever I went back to visit him at the Shrine.
I stopped briefly, and shook my head. Around me were all sorts of early morning pedestrians. A young lady rushing home from a night shift at a fast food restaurant. An older man on the way to catch a subway. Children walking to school, bags clutched under their arms. A woman on a cell phone, walking her dog.
I looked around me at all these people and frowned.
Five hundred years ago I would have killed them for just daring to be near me. Perhaps that did justify the insults that Amp had thrown. What was I, if not a murderer bastard? But I had given that way of life up with the death of my comrades. No longer was I a Prince, although I maintained the title to intimidate.
I had no right any longer to decide the fate of those within my realms. It made me wonder - did I have a right before? In the past, my rule had been absolute. I had been the leader, the one whose word was law - if I wanted to kill someone for spitting an insult at me, I had the authority. But now, in the twenty first century, where the children were taught that all life is precious and race means nothing... how could someone with that knowledge, that understanding and acceptance, trust me or love me at all?
Amphitrion had every right to call me a monster - there was more innocent blood on my hands than I would like to admit.
And yet, I had worked to erase that blood, hadn't I? I had fought Naraku, vowed never to kill an innocent human for food again, fought those youkai with evil hearts just as Kagome had... and I had protected my mate.
But somehow, when I was still a killer, Kagome had seen the good in me. And so had my Aisilin.
It confused me. What was I then? Could I have been a monster if I had held the affection of two human (more or less) women?
I sighed again and continued to walk.
I was just about to turn back to the hospital, hoping Amp had cooled down enough to speak rationally with me, and hoping I had done the same, when a voice called to me from a near-by alley:
"Hey! Kouga!"
I turned and walked into it in one smooth motion, smelling the caller before I could hear him. It was Amphitrion.
"Amp," I said cautiously, slowing to a halt before him. "What do you want?"
"I just want to talk," he said, coming out of the shadows of the back of the alley. It was blocked off by a fence, and there was the predictable piles of garbage strew about, casting large and vaguely ominous shadows. His palms were open and turned upwards.
"I wanted to talk too," I admitted, smiling. I looked down to kick a can. "Although I was hoping it would be somewhere cleaner." I wrinkled my nose to prove my point. "Maybe somewhere with coffee?"
"Here's just fine for what I have planned," Amphitrion said, and I looked up, sharply.
I didn't have time to ask what he meant before the black lightning bolts that erupted from his fingertips slammed into my body, throwing me into a brick wall and unconsciousness.
~~~
The Hospital
~~~
I opened my eyes slowly, aware of the sleep crusting my eyelashes together, and wondered how long I had been out. I remembered immediately where I was and what had sent me crashing to the floor - I had smelled that dreaded sandalwood aroma.
And yet I'd had no dreams of my former captor, the evil Naraku. I was half relieved and half frightened. Relieved because it meant that it hadn't been him. Frightened because it meant someone else had learned the potion that sent me into dizzying blackness and nightmares. Whoever this person was, I was going to be sure to sic Kouga on them.
Thinking of Kouga...
I tried to turn my face to the side, where the chair he liked best was, only to be stopped by the wires and masks tugging at my face. Annoyed I reached up and pulled off the oxygen mask and tugged at the wires up my nose until the tape gave way and I was able to pull the disgusting thing out of my sinus cavity.
The motion of the plastic tube passing through my nostrils made me sneeze, and I sat up to wipe my nose on my sleeve. That caused more tugging at my arms and with a snarl I pulled all of the sticky pads and needles away from my flesh. It made some of the more annoying machines beep and whine in protest, so I reached down to the giant plug by my bedside and yanked that out too.
Ah, blissful silence.
Once again I turned to the chair that Kouga would be in, only to find it depressingly empty.
"Kouga?" I said, wondering if he was just in the washroom, or if he had stepped out to grab something to eat. I knew he wouldn't just LEAVE, especially after the last thing I had said before I had passed out in his arms.
"He left," another, unexpected voice said, on the other side of me, and I whirled around in the bed to find my mother seated on a chair to my left.
"M-mom...?" I stuttered. A thousand emotions flashed through my mind in an instant. Hate for her hatred of my family; betrayal for her leaving me to them alone; suspicions as to why she was here; relief to see her; a swelling of love; confusion; anger... in the end, the need to just be a little girl enfolded in the arms of her mother won out, and I flung myself at her, sobbing.
She grabbed me and I could feel the hope and desperation in her that reflected my own. "MOM!" I cried and pressed my face to her neck, heaving.
"Shhh, shhh, baby," she said softly, petting my head and squeezing me close, "I'm here now, baby, I'm here..."
"I... I was s-so s-scared, M-Mom..." admitted in great hiccoughs, "I missed you s-so m-much..."
"I'm here now," she said again, and right then I think those were the most soothing words I'd ever heard in my life. "I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."
My sobs turned to laughed and I sat back, wiping my eyes on my sleeves. "I think Kouga-kun may have a thing or two about who gets to protect me..."
The relief that had previously adorned my mother's face crumbled and gave way to anger. "That horrid man with the ponytail?"
"Horrid?" I said, settling back into the pillow. "What do you mean, 'horrid'?"
Mom sat on the edge of my bed and leaned forward to press her palm to my cheek. "I met that Kouga! He's a demon! His eyes were glowing and he had fangs and he yelled at us and wouldn't let us in to see you!"
I drew my eyebrows down in confusion. "I'm sure he was just worried. I passed out, and the doctors probably told him to keep any visitors away. He was probably just distracted with worry."
"He's a DEMON, Aisilin. He's one of THEM."
I pushed my mother's hand away, agahst. "He's not a 'them', Mom! There's nothing WRONG with the youkai in our family!"
As her face got redder, I felt my heart sinking further. Oh, Mom... why couldn't you understand?
"They are NOT part of our family! WE are not monsters!"
"I am a HANYOU, MOTHER!" I screamed, unable to hold it back any longer. Mom jerked backwards and her face turned completely white. "Why can't you accept that!? Look at these eyes! These teeth! Look at my nails, mom! They're too long and sharp to be natural! Why can't you accept the fact that I am NOT HUMAN!"
I didn't see the slap coming.
The implied motivation behind it stung more than the actual blow.
I could hear my mother shuddering and sobbing, but I kept my eyes closed, and my head turned to the side, where the force of the strike had sent it.
I took a deep breath and held it, forcing the tears that stung the back of my eyes back down my throat. The room was deathly silent.
"I love him."
I heard her sharp intake of breath, but she didn't say anything.
Slowly, I turned my face back to hers, then opened my eyes, glaring at my mother from under my hair. I could feel the blood throbbing in my cheek where mom had hit me.
"I love him," I said again, realizing that it was true, "and he saved my life. Kouga is NOT 'horrid'."
"Oh, honey," she whispered, "I thought that way about your father too, but he was just a betraying sonofa--"
"Don't you DARE insult my father!" I snapped and she immediately pressed her lips together. "My father gave up EVERYTHING to be with you! He gave up friends, family, and his homeland to move to the United States with you. He even denounced his HERITAGE and pretended to be HUMAN for you. Papa was a good man and he LOVED us."
"But he was a DEMON," she protested, and I could see that she had spent a long time building up these beliefs within herself. She couldn't admit that Papa had meant anything to her, or she would have also to admit that she had been wrong all these years. It would drive her insane.
"Papa wasn't evil," I reached out and grasped her hands in mine. "And Kouga isn't either. Evil Youkai exist, Mom, I've seen them. One of them put me in this hospital." She gasped in horror, but I plowed forward, "But the youkai in our family are GOOD. They're descended from a priestess warrior and a hanyou who destroyed the youkai that hurt me. They're all GOOD PEOPLE."
"Sesshoumaru..." she hesitated, and I jumped in with:
"Is good too!"
"He... he threatened me!" she hissed back and moved her head aside to bare the hand-shaped bruises on her neck. I stared at them for a long time, unable to respond. She turned her eyes back to me, and they were narrowed slits.
"You provoked him," I said softly, "Otherwise he wouldn't have done that."
"And I'm supposed to leave my baby with people who are inclined to kill if 'provoked'?!"
"Anyone can kill if properly provoked!" I rebutted, thinking of the viciousness with which I had attacked Kohaku when he had tried to rape me. "Human or otherwise!"
"I refuse!" Mom shouted, and stood up. I couldn't tell what she was refusing - to believe what I said? That people could be evil? That demons could be good? To accept the situation? To allow me to love Kouga? All of the above?
Something inside me pinged to life. I don't know what it was but for a moment I could feel the familiar flare of warmth in my abdomen, the one that indicated that the Shikon Shard was powering up. Which didn't make sense to me for the Shard was in a glass vial in a safe in Uncle Sess' house.
"You have to believe me," I snarled, and we were both shocked by the intensity in my voice, "Kouga saved my life."
"He was probably the one who put you in the hospital!" she countered, deaf and disbelieving as ever.
"You want to see who put me in the hospital?" I snapped, and I felt the warm pulsing in my stomach flare outwards, "FINE!"
~~~
When next I opened my eyes, I was standing in a familiar little chamber made up on polished tropical woo and rice paper screen doors. I saw my mother kneeling before a person asleep under a sky-blue robe on a futon, reddish hair spread out over the fabric of the head-rest. The right arm of the sleeper was bandaged in blood-spotted linens.
The sleeper was me.
Mom put out her hands and tried to touch my face, which was bruised and swollen from the youkai attack I had suffered, but her hands passed right through. With a startled gasp she yanked her hands back to her chest and held herself, crying.
"It's okay, Mom," I said and she turned to face me, her knees skidding on the hard wooden floor. Her eyes were huge. "We can't touch anything here, I don't think. I don't think we're here for real."
"Where are we!?" she screamed, "what's going on?!"
"I think it's the Shikon no Tama," I said softly. "I don't have any of the shards, but I think it left behind some... I don't know..." I folded my hands over my womb. "Some residue of power, or something. I just wished that I could make you understand, and here we are."
"Where... where's here?"
I looked around me, and saw Kagewaki crouched in the corner by the brazier, his hands folded inside of his haori and his eyes closed. His head was bent forward and I could tell that he was asleep. By the grin on his face, I'd say he was invading my nightmares.
There was a sharp cry behind me, and Mom and I both turned to watch as my sleeping self jerked and spasmed, crying out in pain. Kagewaki abruptly stood and walked towards my sleeping self, and drew a knife from his belt.
"Stop it!" Mom cried and lunged for him, but she only passed right through, unable to affect the demon lord.
I watched, rivetted, as Kagewaki knelt and lifted my bad arm, sliced away some of the bandages on my wrist, then lifted the appendage to his face and bit down. My sleeping self screamed in pain, and I wanted nothing more than to slam the back of this jackass' head with a well-placed kick. But I knew I would be no more effective than my Mother.
"What's he DOING?" Mom asked, panicking.
"It's okay, Mom," I said, walking around Kagewaki to grab her hand. I turned and led her to the rice paper screen that separated the chamber from the courtyard and took a deep breath. Then I walked forward and we passed through it, finding ourselves on the porch. "This has already happened, and as you can see, I'm okay."
I looked down at myself, and marvelled silently that my dream-self's right arm was perfectly fine. Mom noticed too and reached out to touch me. Her hand was warm and soft, and very solid. "Your arm is okay..."
"He did it," I said, jerking my head to indicate the demon lord we had left behind. "His name is Naraku, and he's as evil as they come. I was his prisoner for weeks, and he toyed with me and tortured me mercilessly. Whatever demon it was that bit me, I'll be that he set it on me."
Mom made as if to turn and run back into the room, but I grabbed her arms in both of mine. "There's nothing you can do! This has already happened!"
"But I have to save you!"
I jerked her backwards and sent us both tumbling off the porch. We stumbled but both managed to land on our feet. "Don't you think I want to do something too?!" I shouted and she finally stopped struggling and stared me in the face. "Don't you think I wouldn't love to take that knife he has and plunge it into his black little heart! I'd kill him if I had half a chance!" Mom's eyes went wide and she blanched. I think this aggressive bloodthirsty side of me scared her. Truth be told, it scared me too.
"But I can't," I pressed, "I can't. This has already happened, and if you go in there, you'll just be more disturbed."
"Why?" Mom insisted, grabbing my shoulders and pushing her face close to mine. "What is he DOING?"
"I can't remember everything," I said softly, "But I think he's raping me."
There was a long and stunned silence. Then the tears pooled up in my Mother's eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
I reached up and took my mom's hands and said, "Come on. I'm going to see if I can fast-forward this thing." I closed my eyes and concentrated on the moment on the mountain path when Naraku had dumped my half-dead body in wolf territory.
There was a meaty slapping sound and I opened my eyes to follow my mother's line of sight. Behind me was Naraku, laughing at Kohaku in his full warrior's regalia, holding my other self up by the collar of her filthy and torn robe.
We were standing in the middle of a dense brush of forest, and could just make out the other three people by the pathway through the foiliage.
My other self's face was already swelling with the black eye, and there was blood all over my right arm and dripping from my temple. My hands were dangling loosely and my ankles bent in a way that showed I was no supporting my own weight. My lip was split, and the blue of the robe was almost entirely red, the cloth soaking up the blood from the long gashes that I knew crisscrossed my torso.
Kohaku flung me down and I could hear the sharp snap of my ribs breaking. Beside me, Mom jumped and flinched.
Naraku reached down and grabbed a great handful of my hair and I watched as I jerked myself away. Naraku was left with a handful of hair which he snarled at and tossed into the wind. His hand shot out and he wrapped it around my throat, his nails digging in.
Mom began to move, but I grabbed her tightly and whispered, "Don't bother. This has already happened."
Her only answer was a shuddering sob.
"You're pathetic and worthless and do not merit the waste of poison it would take to kill you," Naraku's hissing voice floated across the courtyard to where we were standing, and I shuddered again to hear it. It made me cold all over. I saw my other self burst into fits of hysterics-induced laughter. "Do you find that amusing? I am going to leave you here. Right here. The wolf youkai roam these lands, Ashirinu. Vicious killers. Perhaps they are your ancestors, hm? You're going to be ripped apart by your own kin."
With that he reached down and ripped the Shikon Shard earring off my ear, slammed me face-down into the dirt, then gave me a kick hard enough to flip me over onto my back, my upper body half concealed in the bushes and thick wild grass, my legs sprawled awkwardly on the path in just such a way as to command curiosity from a passer by.
With another spine-shuddering laugh, Naraku and Kohaku vanished into a swirling vortex of darkness, and were gone.
The moment they left, Mom lunged at my other self. She tried to grab her, to pull her onto the road, but again her hands passed through her. "You look dead!" she wailed to me as I approached behind her.
"I almost was," I said softly. "I would have been if it weren't for Kouga."
"Kouga? The man who yelled at us in the hospital?"
As if on cue the scene shifted and time passed faster than I thought possible - the sun set in a matter of seconds and then I heard a wolf howling.
"That's Kouga," I answered, gesturing to indicate the melody that was raised to the moon.
There was a crashing sound and a scared looking wolf youkai - a fatter one than I ever remember seeing - clad in a strange grey kimono and fur over-vest, dashed past my mangled corpse and ran away, in the direction I knew a village to be.
Well, that was odd. I didn't remember that happening. Of course, by the look on my other-self's face, I was too close to death to have noticed.
A pack of wolves came springing out of the brush beside us, in pursuit of the youkai, and Mom screamed and fell back against me. I grabbed her and we took a few steps backwards. I recognized Kabau among the throng of panting and snarling animals.
Kabau stopped the pursuit while the others ran on, and turned to my broken body. He approached carefully and started to snuffle at the dried blood on my legs. He then stepped over me to look down at my face, and licked it experimentally. He made a face that said he wasn't pleased with the taste and backed away, then threw back his head and howled.
Leaning against me, my mother shuddered and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, he's a friend," I said softly. "That's Kabau... he looked after me when I was staying with the wolves."
Kabau stopped howling, one ear swivelling in our direction ,and I held my breath. No, the wolf hadn't HEARD me, had it?
"Kabau?" I said again, experimentally, and the wolf turned to face us entirely. There was no mistaking that he was seeing us, for there was nothing and no one behind me of interest when I checked. "You can see me?"
He closed and opened his eyes in an approximation of a wolfy nod. I heard the distinctive howling wind that announced Kouga was approaching and hastily said, "Don't tell Kouga! I'm that girl down there, I'm a friend, but don't say you've seen me!"
Obviously confused, but willing to believe me, the wolf nodded again and turned his attention to the approach of his prince.
"Thank you, old friend," I whispered, and saw his ear twitch.
Then the tornado of dust was upon us, and Kouga came skidding to a halt by my broken feet.
"What's this?" he asked, flicking his bright blue gaze between my other self and Kabau. "D'you guys kill another one?"
Kabau shook his ruff and whined and yipped for a moment. Then Kouga nodded. "Found her, eh? And you say she tastes like poison?"
The wolf yipped and barked a bit more, and again Kouga nodded. "Yeah, okay, if she's part wolf like you say she is, then I guess she's our responsibility. You go help the rest of the guys track down that Shard Thief, and I'll get her back to the Den. Call me when you get him."
Kabau turned and was off faster than I could see him go, and Kouga crouched down beside my broken form. Mom tensed, but I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. He pulled me upright and let me rest back on one of his thighs, he used one hand to steady my limp body, while the other cupped my face and studied it.
"Hm," he snorted after a long while. "You're not half as ugly as a part human should be."
Startling both my mother and I, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to my other self's slack and split ones, and held them there. I could tell by the working of his jaw that his tongue was inside my other self's mouth.
For a second I was filled with righteous indignation. Beside me, Mom was sputtering obscenities.
But when Kouga pulled away, his lips and tongue were covered with my blood, which he quickly slurped up and licked away. "Kabau is right, you do taste like a canine hanyou." I allowed myself to relax and hope that the only reason he had kissed me so throughly while I was unable to defend myself was that he wanted to taste my blood and that was the place where it was flowing freshest and fastest.
He stood abruptly, cradling me in his arms, and started at me face again, his eyes lingering on my lips. Slowly, he closed his eyes and leaned down and gently kissed me again, this time far more hesitantly and chastely. "Not half so ugly at all..." he murmured, pulling away, then flung me up over his shoulder and was off, leaving my Mother and I breathing in the dust he kicked up.
"Where is he going?" Mom asked in a whisper, and I let her go. She walked a few steps up the path, then turned back to me and said, "Where is he going?"
"Back to the Wolf Den," I said, still slightly disturbed by the witnessing of Kouga and I's first kiss. I hadn't even been awake for it! "I'll stay there for a few weeks, before learning that Naraku was using me to spy on Kouga and his kin. They'll all be slaughtered, except for Kouga himself, his henchmen Ginta and Hakkaku, the wolf Kabau, and three or four of the other wolves. After that," I shrugged, "I'll figure out how to use the power of the Shikon Shard I have left and wish myself home."
Mom was silent and I stared in the direction that Kouga had disappeared in. He looked older in the future, I realized. But only slightly. Here he looked like a teenager, and in my time, he appeared to be in his early twenties. So youkai DO age.
"Come on, Mom," I said, and reached out and took her hand. "I'm not in the mood to re-live anything else."
With a bright flash of magenta light, Mom and I were back in the lavish hospital room, I laying in my bed, and Mom asleep on top of me. I pushed her gently and she sat up abruptly.
"Az!" she yelped, "What just happened?"
"I don't know," I smiled, "But I think it was good. I'm just surprised... I didn't think... I mean, whatever power I might have had, I thought it would have left my body with the Shard."
"The shard...?" she echoed, then her eyes widened. "Is it a pink piece of glass?"
"Yeah," I nodded, wondering how much about this whole situation Kouga and Uncle Sess had told her. "But it's gone. The Doctor's removed it."
Mom twisted her hands nervously. "Where did they put it?"
Her nervousness set off alarm bells in my head. "Why?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"Well, there's a man here, sweetie... a buddhist monk. I brought him here to get rid of the demons..." he face flushed momentarily, and I couldn't tell why. Perhaps she had finally realized that the demons around us did not mean to hurt me? I could only pray. "He told me that he needed that glass to help you."
"Why on earth would he need a piece of the Shikon no Tama?" I wondered out loud. "How did he even know there was still one around?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the Shikon no Tama, except for the piece that was inside me, was absorbed by my ancestor Inu Yasha hundreds of years ago, and ceased to exist when he died." I rubbed my hands across my eyes and the bridge of my nose, frustrated. "I don't like the sound of this."
"We could ask him," Mom said and before I could tell her that I was suspicions of this guy's motivation, she opened the door and leaned out in the hall. "He's not there," she said and came back inside, letting the door fall closed behind her. "I wonder where he went?"
The door slammed back open and thankfully Mom was far enough inside the room to avoid getting hit. Kouga strode in, looking a mess, hair wild and mussed, clothing torn and dirty, blood all down his chin and on his lips. His finger tips were stained as well, and I noticed with wide horrified eyes that he was deliberately trailing smears all over the door and walls.
"Looking for Amphitrion?" he grinned, and I shuddered. His teeth were stained crimson as well. He did not sound like my Kouga. He sounded... colder.
"Where is he?" Mom demanded, and I shrunk back wards in the bed, praying my mother would get the sense to dodge past him and run away. Something was WRONG.
Kouga's grin got wider and his arm snapped out and grabbed my mother by her collar. He dragged her forward and pressed his bloody lips to her ear. But his eyes remained on me.
"I killed him," he whispered, before tossing her hard into the air. Mom flew across the room and slammed into the wall beside my bed, falling, slumping face-down onto the floor. There was blood on the back of her head, and I screamed.
Kouga leapt up and landed on all fours on my bed. He yanked the blanket taught, effectively lashing me down, and leaned over to hover above me, the blood on his face dripping down onto me.
"Give us a kiss, honey," he hissed, and I barely had time to take a breath before he shoved his tongue down my throat.
~~~
Author's note:
dun dun dun....
Well, I just have one more chapter to write, then I can post the whole ending at once. (I write out of order and they're all finished already). Hopefully it can get done tonight. I'm actually surprised I wrote this much today!
Also, go back and re-read chapter 11, because I re-posted it and added some info.
And, if someone could tell me which chapter it popped up in, I realized that somewhere I wrote that Kouga was the Prince ofthe NORTHERN wolf tribes instead of the WESTERN. Eep. I need to fix that.
Reviews:
Pallas Athena1: Thank you. *bows* And he will... trust me.
Kataionna: I'm glad you like it. Naraku is hard to love, isn't he? Originally this story was going to be a Naraku romance, but when it got right down to it, he was just too unloveable. But Az did have a crush on Kagewaki, so I guess that's close enough. So yes, it's safe to like Amp. As for the picture, it's a pity you can't draw the duster too, 'cause he likes it so much, but I won't complain. FANART! YAY! I LOVE FANART! And what was the something that you understand that was bugging you for a while?
Lavender Valentine : My carpel tunnel isn't bad enough to warrent surgery yet, but that you for the confidence booster. I"m happy that you enjoyed "Spider", and that you found "Wolf".
sashlea: Oh, it will be one heck of a fight! And I can't be rid of Naraku THAT easily. He's too good of a villain. As for Amphitrion's name... I'm a classics major and was reading a text book at the time. Amphitrion you see was the soldier-husband of Alcemene, the mother of Hercules. The night he perished on the battlefield, Zeus stole his form (some say his body, too), and visited Alcemene. The result of this "visit" being Hercules and his twin brother Iphecles. So, what better name to give to a character who his possesed by a powerful spirit?
Skitzoflame: Yay for spelling Az right! And you're right, her mom is slap worthy. Hopefully this chapter both gives her the slap she needs, and proves that she's not all THAT bad, just blind and bigoted.
InuyashazFukaiMori: ...and he just keeps getting sicker and more twisted. I'm actually really enjoying writing this sadistic bastard, just because he HAS no limitations! I think the "peeling of flesh" proves it, eh? I wonder how a fanartist would tackle that scene... and try cussing him out all you like - if you live long enough for the words to escape your throat.