Hiya, folks! It's been too long :( So sorry about taking such an incredibly long time to update, but I've sorta been out of the country for the last few months. Anyway, this "chapter" isn't as long as they normally are but that's because I wanted to post *something*, anyway. Think of this, actually, as Chapter 16a. With any luck, I'll post the remainder of 16 this weekend but I am kinda having a problem with Jaken right now. If worse comes to worse, I'll just ignore Jaken for the time being and get back onto the business of Kagome and Sesshoumaru. :-)
Okay, well I'll stop blabbing and get back to writing. Thanks for being so patient with me and I so hope what comes next doesn't disappoint too much! Thanks!
-Celyia, celyia@yahoo.com
Chapter 16
He growled, his pallid lips pulling back to bare sharp teeth even as his eyes opened suddenly.
"Inuyasha!" he heard the old woman snap, but heedless to the warning in her voice, he forced himself into a sitting position, only to want to vomit as a myriad of spots clouded his pained vision.
Panting, Inuyasha ignored the pain as he glared at the old miko.
"Sesshoumaru," he bit out as an explanation. His half-brother was close, so close that his scent seemed to linger in the very air.
Kagome. Where the hell was Kagome?
Gritting his teeth as he dragged himself up to his feet, Inuyasha leaned unsteadily against the old, wooden wall. He had to get to Kagome. Fuck the pain. He had to find Kagome now.
"Inuyasha, you shouldn't move yet. You took a heavy hit," Kaede said slowly, her voice filled with disapproval.
"Where is he?" the hanyou spit out, wincing as he heard the desperation and hopeless in his voice. But the truth was, he could hardly stand. How could he fight Sesshoumaru and win?
He'd find a way to win. Brushing aside the sudden image of Kagome's face that wavered before his eyes, Inuyasha took a deep breath and started slowly walking to the door.
"Undoubtedly somewhere in the village," Kaede said easily. "If he hasn't left already."
Had it not been so painful, Inuyasha might have laughed at the woman's ignorance. It wasn't like the great youkai lord, Sesshoumaru, would pass up the opportunity to screw with his younger brother's life again.
Instead, he settled for a freezing glare as he tried to keep from panting from the exertion.
"And still you plan to attack him," Kaede sighed wearily as the ferocity of the glare finally
"Feh," the hanyou summed up all his emotions in that one word as he turned away from the elderly miko.
The old woman snorted in impatience as she came to Inuyasha's side, her wrinkled hands reaching to touch his shoulder, only to snap back in an instant as she saw the cold look in his hardening eyes.
Inuyasha bit his lip suddenly as a wave of nausea crashed over him, almost causing him to fall to the ground. Thrusting out his chin even as his lower lip began to bleed slightly, Inuyasha glared at the miko, daring her to mention his momentary weakness.
"Perhaps your temporary truce should be extended to allow for him to leave the village? After all, your brother had been injured in the fight as well so it would be meaningless for you to best an injured opponent now," Kaede said slowly, her words calm and motherly even as she stepped back to an unthreatening distance.
Leaning against the old wooden wall, Inuyasha looked up at the elderly woman, a dazed confusion all over his pallid face.
"Fight?" he blinked, unable to keep the word from rushing from his mouth. A part of him cursed silently as he accidentally unveiled his ignorance before the human but the need to know that he had not just been dreaming took, at least temporarily, a higher priority.
Kaede nodded, her hands working steadily as she folded a damp cloth into a rectangular strip. "After you saved the child's life, Naraku fled and Kagome returned to the village to retrieve help to … help carry Lord Sesshoumaru."
"The dumb bitch. She shoulda just left the bastard there to rot," Inuyasha grunted as he tried to ignore the sudden relief he felt knowing Kagome survived. "Bet the bitch went back to her own time again, huh…"
Had the old woman even seemed slightly amused by Inuyasha's poorly concealed concern, there would have been hell to pay, but Kaede merely shook her head. "Kagome didn't wish to leave until she was completely assured you would make a quick recovery."
"Feh. About fucking time the bitch showed even some sense," he grumbled, trying to deny the warmth he felt in his chest at Kaede's words.
"She only left to check on the child of Sesshoumaru's."
His brother. Inuyasha shook his head instinctively as his mind pulled back from Kagome back to the topic of his half-brother.
He forced a disinterested grunt from his tightened throat as he turned away from the woman. So it hadn't been just another dream after all. None of it: not the inadequacies or the sudden triumph, not the helplessness of watching something still his woman's soul and not being able to really do a damn thing about it. And not that brief euphoria from, for the first time in his entire fucking adult life, of actually having a brother.
A real brother.
Growling, Inuyasha lashed out at the wall, grinning in strange pleasure as the pain of the slivers of wood embedded into his already tender skin. Don't need a fucking brother now, he thought angrily as he pulled his fist from the wall, only to make a matching hole with his other hand. I could have done it myself, you bastard. I don't need your fucking pity. And I don't need you fucking in my life, either.
"He has until sunset to leave," he said, his voice deep and full of a strong, unyielding power that Kaede had never heard before in the hanyou's voice. Slowly, he turned his hands over, smirking at the way his blood appeared to mix with the waning light of the afternoon sun. "After that, the truce is dead. Just like he will be."
With a defiant glare at the startled miko, Inuyasha growled one last time even as the pain overcame his defenses, forcing his body and turbulent mind to retreat into the sanctuary of unconsciousness.
Sorry to break it off so early, but I may continue doing this for the next few parts in order to get the story back into the groove again. Also, I will pick up with the responses to reviews in the next installment, going back to all the reviews I haven't responded to yet. Thanks so much and hope you enjoy what chaos is coming up!