SORRY about that cliff-hanger! Ow! Hey, stop hitting me! And no more hate-mail, please!

Kura and Sesshy both start to lower their guards, finally. Now that they trust each other, can they still hide their growing attraction?

I'd like to thank Kat Morning for the setting of my story, which is based on the alternate universe of her inu fanfic "Blood Ties."

Disclaimer: I do not own Sesshomeru, Miroku, Sango, Kaede, or any other Inuyasha characters. They are owned by their author/creator, Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 18: Sesshomeru Chooses

"The gamble failed," Sesshomeru thought, "Now it's time to cut my losses." The human boy holding Kura's corpse looked up at the demon lord, snarling with hatred. A lover, perhaps? Sesshomeru watched him with cool disinterest.

The demon lord wondered why he hesitated. Sesshomeru's hand grasped the tensaiga automatically. "Am I trying to save her life?" he wondered. "Why do I care? Her usefulness has expired." And yet . . .

Sesshomeru unsheathed the tensaiga; the metal rasped against the sheath. "Don't move, boy," he warned, and raised the mystical weapon.

Miroku blanched. What was the demon doing? Kura had just died trying to protect him. Now he was intent on mutilating her corpse? The monk raised his right hand as if to catch the sword, and he raised his spirit shield with the same motion.

Sango watched the shining blade descend, slicing through Miroku's spirit shield, wrist and torso, but stopping an inch above the young woman's body. A second stroke sliced Miroku in half at the waist. The demon lord sheathed his sword and held out his hand to his victims. He asked with detachment, "Can you stand?"

Miroku stared at his right hand. He had felt the blade pass through his wrist, but his hand didn't fall off. Nor was being bisected particularly painful, although he had expected it to be. He had just shifted his bewildered attention from his own hand to the demon lord's offered hand, when he felt Kura sit up in his lap. The shirt was still torn, but there was no trace of the wound that had killed her. "Miroku? Sesshomeru-sama?"

Sesshomeru pulled her to her feet and put an arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground. A short jump landed them on the windowsill. Looking down at the street five stories below, Kura gasped and grabbed onto Sesshomeru with a death grip.

Having a terrified woman clinging to his neck made the demon lord a more comical figure leaving than entering. He leapt to the roof of another building across a narrow alley, where he had waited while Kura tried to negotiate a deal. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop was not Kura's favorite form of travel. Her stomach lurched horribly each time, and she was certain Sesshomeru's grip would slip and she would splatter on the street below. Ten minutes later, they landed safely on the roof of Sesshomeru's apartment building. He struggled to unlock her arms from around his neck, but then was forced to support her anyway because her knees refused to hold her weight.

"You aren't afraid of heights, are you?" Sesshomeru teased.

"I sure as hell am now," she snapped back. "Why'd you do that? Half of Tokyo must have seen you."

"How often do you look up?" he asked. "No one ever looks at the tops of skyscrapers. Even if they did see me, the human mind has a remarkable ability to reject the truth when it doesn't suit them."

Kura was forced to admit that was true. Even those attacked by vampires claimed that the assailants were "muggers" or "yakuzas."

Kura fingered the edges of her torn shirt. There wasn't even a scar where the demon lord's claws had torn into the muscle tissue. Her broken ribs were also miraculously healed. Sesshomeru watched her brow furrow in confusion. "I thought . . . Was I dead?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Did Miroku . . .?" No, it couldn't have been Miroku: the monk didn't have healing powers.

"Miroku? Is he the boy with the spiritual powers? The one who broke Kaede's spell? He was quite upset that you had been killed, but he didn't have the power to revive you. Can you stand now?"

"Hunh? Oh, yes, I can . . ." Sesshomeru turned his back on her, walking to the rooftop's access stairs. "Wait! Sesshomeru-sama, what happened? Who brought me back to life?"

"Tensaiga."

"Who's that?"

"The Graverobber, the legendary Sword of Life, Tensaiga."

"Your sword brought me back to life?"

"For the third time, yes." He pulled open the door and descended to his penthouse apartment.

"Wait, Sesshomeru," Kura called behind him. Sesshomeru paused, trying to formulate an answer to her inevitable question. "Sesshomeru, I . . . Thank you."

Sesshomeru snorted. "My warriors will be gathering here shortly. Try to stay out of our way."

Kura was slightly annoyed by his cold response. She wondered sarcastically, "What did I expect? A declaration of eternal love?" Kura poked around the kitchen, but couldn't find any Ramen Noodles or anything else she knew how to prepare. Disgruntled, she went to lie down on her bed . . .although, to be technical, it was actually Sesshomeru's bed.

The moment she walked into Sesshomeru's bedroom, he had just stepped out of the shower and was toweling dry his hair. He turned toward the opening door in mild surprise, and she saw his nude form. He was pale, slender and muscular like some greek god in marble. He lowered his towel but didn't bother covering himself, visibly amused by the woman's slack-jawed stare. Kura blushed a remarkable shade of red and beat a hasty retreat, slamming the door behind her. Sesshomeru chuckled and began to work the tangles out of his damp mane with his fingers. Then he paused: something was bothering him about the encounter, but he couldn't think what it was exactly. Her scent . . . she still smelled of citrus, as she always did, but something had changed . . . The rank stink of fear had disappeared. The fear was a human body's automatic reaction to a demon's presence; the only human who didn't stink of fear whenever he was near was Rin, and she had spent several weeks in his home before adjusting. Kura trusted him so deeply that she had overcome instincts that were thousands of years old.

Slipping on a kimono, Sesshomeru decided to test his theory by moving up behind her soundlessly while she sat on the couch. She didn't notice his presence. He leaned close to smell her; there was no trace of fear in her scent. As he leaned in, some of his hairs brushed against her neck. Startled, Kura jumped and whirled around. "Hey!" she yelled, but slipped off the edge of the couch and banged her head on the coffee table. "Ow . . . What the hell are you doing? Don't sneak up on me like that!" She looked up at him, but her face turned red again remembering that she had just walked in on him naked.

"I thought it was impossible to sneak up on a Council Senior," Sesshomeru mocked. Kura's cheeks paled as anger replaced embarrassment. Her retort was lost forever when there was a sharp rapping on the door.

Sesshomeru opened the door and ushered in a prim young woman. She was petite, with her dark hair pulled back in an immaculate bun. Sesshomeru asked, "News?"

"A great deal of it, Lord Sesshomeru." She nodded to Kura on the couch. "Sanada-san."

Yura's jaw dropped. "Mikayami-san?" This was the last place she expected to see Tokyo Council's Chief Secretary. "Are you . . . spying for Sesshomeru?"

"Don't be silly, Sanada-san. I merely pass along the information that comes my way. Meaning all correspondence coming into or leaving Tokyo Council. Of course, there's been a blizzard of paperwork since you two made that scene at the office 34 minutes ago."

Sesshomeru asked, "What's Council's status?"

The woman opened her binder. "None of the Seniors reported performance-threatening injuries, although two katanas, a short dagger and a small crossbow were reported damaged beyond repair. The estimated cost of repairs to the walls and table comes to--"

"Skip it," Sesshomeru interrupted.

She flipped two pages before noting, "Kura Sanada and Miroku Higurashi are both facing discipline or expulsion for endangering Council . . ."

Kura interrupted, "What happened to Miroku?"

"Kaede-sama wanted him imprisoned in Council offices, but his squadron leader interceded and took him into her custody."

"Hunh? Squadron leader?"

"Sango Himake from National Council. He has been assigned to her squadron, and discipline within the squad is her exclusive jurisdiction." Kura shrugged; Tokyo Council had never had enough members to organize into squadrons; most demon hunters considered themselves lucky if they were assigned a partner.

Sesshomeru asked, "And what of war preparations?"

"At least some in council seem to have taken Kura's warnings to heart. They are focusing their efforts on securing ample miko blood and blessed weapons. The enemy is now believed to be in sector P." Kura smiled slightly. At least Council had some idea what to expect now."

"When will the attack come?"

"The plan is to launch an attack on sector P at 11:30 PM, the day after tomorrow. With the assumption of heavy resistance, the army would not approach your territory before 2 AM at the earliest, my lord."

Kura protested, "Council is still going to attack Lord Sesshomeru?"

Sesshomeru said softly, "I told you before, Kaede will not pass up this opportunity to get rid of me."

"Kisama!" Kura punched the couch in frustration. "Why won't she listen to anything I say?"

"Because of her hatred for me. Remember: fourteen years ago, three Seniors attacked me on Kaede's orders."

"You're saying that she can never forgive you for killing those three?"

Sesshomeru's eyes were far away when he answered, "No, I'm saying she can never forgive herself for sending those three to their deaths."

"Then why does she risk more lives attacking you again?"

"She is behaving illogically. Humans' actions are emotional far more often than they are rational. Beneath the trappings of civilization, humans are merely animals of instinct."

Kura's cheeks burned with this new humiliation. Damn his cool superiority! What right did a dog-demon have to call humans "animals," anyway?

Mikayami was, of course, unruffled. "Do you have any further questions, my lord?"

Sesshomeru dismissed her with a wave of his hand. He then turned to Kura. "Do you remember what I told you about the Gathering ceremony? How a mystical barrier guards the site?"

"Yeah. You said you needed a human with exceptional spiritual powers to break the barrier. That's why we went to Council."

"We still need a monk or miko." He tossed her a cellphone that was sitting on the coffee table. "Why don't you call your Miroku?"

"Oh!" Kura flipped open the phone eagerly and was almost dialing when she paused, puzzled. "Uh, Sesshomeru-sama? You have 192 new messages."

Sesshomeru snorted disdainfully. "I told them not to call me. I don't leave my phone on." Kura raised her eyebrows, and Sesshomeru snapped, "I can't stand the ringing."

Kura chuckled. "I stuffed my cell under my couch cushions." She was so nervous, she dialed the number wrong three times before finally pressing the send button. "Hi, Miroku, this is Kura, I--" Her face fell, and after a couple seconds she started over again. "This is Kura. I need your help, and, well, I really need to talk to you. Call me as soon as you get this message. The number is, uh . . ." She looked at Sesshomeru expectantly, then repeated the number he dictated. After pressing "END," Kura exploded, without a trace of irony, "Dammit! Why do people leave their phones off?"

"You would prefer everyone left their phones inside their couches?" Kura lobbed a throw-pillow at Sesshomeru, who caught it and placed it on the armchair, outside of Kura's reach. He then gave her an appraising look. "My warriors will be meeting here within the hour. It would be safest if you were not present."

Sesshomeru saw the jaw clench, and realized immediately that he had taken the wrong approach with the demon hunter. "It might be safest for your demons if they don't provoke me. Sesshomeru-sama, I agreed to serve you as a fighter, not a maid." She met his eyes, challenging him.

Sesshomeru shrugged. "Do as you like."

"I will. Always."