Chapter Nine
The pounding in Mell's head had started when they had started moving once again toward the western lands. It had gone from a slight throbbing to a full blown migraine in the matter of minutes. Clenching her jaw and closing her eyes to the light, Mell tried to focused on everything but the sharp stabs of pain shooting through her head.
Cradling Rin closer to her body, she placed her chin atop the young girls head. Swallowing back the acidic fluid at the back of her throat, she slowly opened her eyes slightly. Only to find everyone but the sleeping Rin staring at her.
"Now what?"
"You are ill because you refused to eat anything all day."
"I'm not ill."
"You look ill"
"Well I'm not. Trin, Collen, back me up on this one!"
No one said a word. Mell glared at the two then winced at the pain it caused her head. Everyone gave her a look of 'I-told-you-so'. Sticking her tong out at them, she cleared her throat. "So, if I fix your arm, you let me and my friends go, right? That was the deal, right?"
After a moments pause, Sesshomaru nodded his head in conformation. "As long as it worked that is. If it dose not, I shall kill you for inconveniencing me so..."
"Okay, stop the....what the hell is this thing anyway? A dragon drawn carriage? Anyway, put us back on the ground and I'll do the spell."
Golden eyes narrowed dangerously as they gazed into her emerald green ones. "What trick is this?"
"No trick. I'm just tired of all the games. If giving you your arm back will free myself and my friends I'll do, Inuyasha's wrath be damned!" at his tilted head, she blushed slightly. "Dog boy told you he'd kill me before letting me help you -- well, it was something like that anyway. But yeah, I'm willing to do the spell now, so we will be out of your hair in no time."
With a curt node, Sesshomaru tilted the rains, shortly bringing them to the ground.
"This will hurt like hell from everything I've read. Are you sure --"
"Get on with it, no pain is too much for this Sesshomaru."
"Right. What ever you say buddy. Just don't say I didn't give you fair warning..."
'This had better work...' as Mell thought this, she dropped the last leaf she needed into the small blob of herbs. Crushing them all together so they formed a paste like substance, she waved for Sesshomaru to come closer. Clearing her throat, she rolled his sleeve up and started to apply the smashed herbs to the old wound. As she rubbed it into his skin, she chanted softly.
Taking a deep breath, Mell concentrated until she was able to not only feel his energy, but see it. Grasping part of it, she began to pull to toward where Sesshomaru's arm ended. Infusing her own energy with his, she began to visualize his arm reforming. The more she concentrated, the more the vision seemed to became reality. Taking one last steadying breath, Mell pushed the last of her energy into Sesshomaru.
As darkness took over Mell's mind, the last thing she heard what the startled gasp of her friends, and a cry of excruciating pain that emanated from the demon before her.
"Inuyasha it's been days! Why haven't you found them yet?!" Kagome yelled, running a shaky hand through her tangled, wind blown hair.
The dog demon glared at her from his position on the ground and bore his teeth. "It's not as simple as it looks Kagome! Since they were in the air for most of their traveling their smell is all over the place."
"Lady Kagome, stop pestering him. He's working as hard as he can to find them. Arguing with him every five seconds will not help." Miroku flinched when Kagome turned to him, her eyes shooting daggers.
"I couldn't help but noticed you didn't go with Sango and Kirara to help look Miroku."
A shrilled laugh was her only response. Rolling her eyes, Kagome turned back to Inuyasha, only to find him walking deeper into the forest. "Where are you going Inuyasha? Did you smell something? Inuyasha!"
"It's not what I smelled, it's what I heard." he called over his shoulder without slowing his pace. "Sesshomaru is hurt. And if he's hurt, god only knows what's happened to your friends..."
Kagome's brown eyes widened in shock just before she started running as if her life depended on it. Once she had caught up to Inuyasha, she jumped on his back and held on as tightly as she could. Seconds later they were flying through the woods toward the enemy.
"Go see."
"No way, you go."
"Not a chance! You do it!"
"But your taller!"
"But he likes me even less then he dose you!"
"Some man you turned out to be Collen! Fine, I, the women, will go see. But I hope you know that makes you the pussy of the group dude." with that said, Trinity flicked her short black hair from her face and walked toward the two figures on the ground.
When she was a foot away, Sesshomaru's now large red eyes popped open. Trinity gasped and slowly walked backwards. Right into someone's chest. Giving another startled gasp she elbowed the person behind her in the stomach. "Collen you bastard! I thought you said you weren't going to see."
"That was before someone called me a pussy. Besides, I couldn't just let you get torn to shreds now could I? Then I'd be stuck out here with the kid and the toad..."
Trinity opened her mouth to yell when something caught her eye. Moving to the side, she looked at where Sesshomaru's missing arm had been. "Collen check it out! Mell's spell worked to a tea. Come one, lets see if she's okay. She's still breathing -- I can see it from here, which is an fabulous sign but --"
Collen pulled her back against him when she began to move closer to the ominous demon before them, completely oblivious to the danger. "Wait a second Trin. Did you not just see the look in that guys eyes? If you get too close, I have no doubt he'd kill you."
"But --"
"He's in a lot of pain Trin. Right now he's not really thinking. He's working on instinct alone. And at the moment, anything that comes near him and Mell will be considered a threat."
"But we need to see if she needs any help! What if --"
"He's not going to hurt her. Over the short time in which they have known each other, he's come to think of Mell as his. Though I'm not sure even he has realized this yet."
Trinity lifted one dark brow skeptically "And when did you become such a demon expert?"
"this has nothing to do with demons. It's a man thing." as soon as he said the words, he knew he was going to get smacked. Flinching and closing his eyes, he readied himself for the blow. Which never fell. Opening one eyes he noticed Trinity was laughing softly under her breath. When she noticed his look, her quiet chuckles turned into loud bouts of laughter.
"Collen, you...should have....seen...look....on......face!"
As she continued to laugh, Collen ground his teeth. Grabbing her upper arm, he pulled her into his chest. Before she had a chance to react, he pressed his lips to hers. As he deepened the kiss, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to his body.
He had just lifted her up so her legs could wrap around his waist when they had some unexpected visitors. They didn't even notice. Not when the greeting was shouted. Not when the gasps sounded. And not when three throats cleared.
"Hey you two, want to get a room of something? I would expect this type of behavior from Trinity, but from you Collen? And here I always thought you were a gentleman." At the sound of Kagome's voice, the couple broke apart. Collen was a bright shade of red and Trinity had on a satisfied cat's smile.
"Hey! You know how long I've been trying to get into that boy's pants! So when he finally kissed me, how could I resist trying to go a little farther?" Was all Trinity was able to say before Collen covered her mouth with his hand. A devilish grin stretched across her face just before she let her tong slide over his palm.
A growling noise stopped any response Collen would have given. All eyes turned to Sesshomaru and Mell. The dog demon's red eyes glowed and shot out warnings to stay away. Mell's dark green eyes slowly started to open as she felt the ground she lay on move. It took her a few seconds to realize it wasn't a earthquake, but Sesshomaru growling like a angry...well, dog.....
As she tried to sit up, he pushed her back down and growled louder. "Hey! Let me up you --"
"Mell, don't make any sudden movements. Sesshomaru is half why into his natural form," Mell tried to distinguish the garbled sounding voice to no avail. Everything around her was spinning and sounded as if it was underwater.
Leaning her head on Sesshomaru's shoulder, she closed her eyes and breather in deeply. "You know, your not as uncomfortable as I thought you would be demon. Maybe we should do this again some time...."
As she whispered those words Sesshomaru's eyes slowly turned back from red to gold. Hugging her closely to his body he rested his chin on the top of her head. Looking over at his half brother, he smile wanly.
"It appears that our fathers love for human women run as strongly in my veins as it dose in yours, Inuyasha. I would suggest you take your women's other friends back to the well so they may go back to their time. This one remains here with me." his normally impassive words held a note of compassion, shocking everyone standing before him.
Kagome was the first to recover her tong. "You can't just keep Mell here! She needs to go back too. She has a family back in her own time. You can't just --"
"She is my mate. Any family she has need of will be found in me."
"You alone can't replace all the people in her family! That's --"
"Kagome, that is not what he's saying." Kagome's face turned bright red as Inuyasha's words took root. As the flustered girl stepped back, the half breed stepped forward. "Congratulations. I hope this means you will be staying out of my hair from now on. After all, your mate -- or should I say soon to be mate -- is friends with my Kagome."
As if just realizing what he had said, Inuyasha's face turned paper white. Giving a little shrilled laugh he turned to Kagome. "Now, don't take that to mean anything women. I mean, you are, after all my jewel detector. That's all I --"
"SITE BOY!!"
End