By: TigressMoon
Awaken to Twilight
Chapter 3: Touch of Betrayal
A strong arm shook my shoulder trying to wake me. I reacted instantly by grabbing the hand and forcing myself awake. As my eyes cleared I realized it was Inuyasha and released his arm. My body ached still from the shocking, but I was already healing rapidly.
There was a weight to my limbs however that could not be attributed to the volts and knew that I'd been chained. Before panic could grip me I forced myself to stand and pulled at the chains. But they did not yield. I snarled; they were too short to even reach the other half of the cell.
I growled and looked around realizing that Inuyasha and I were not alone in this large 20 by 30 foot cell. Kikyo, Sesshoumaru and Kouga were here, shaken up but no worse for the wear. At least they were all alive, which is more than the leader of marauders had told me. I stared at all of them for a moment, assessing their injuries.
Inuyasha's ability to move let me know that he was not chained and realized that none of the others were too. I glared wondered why only I had received such special treatment.
Whatever injuries Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha had acquired was already healed with only the faint bruises on their face and arms to say that they'd been harmed. Kikyo was fine, dazed but fine. She stayed close to her beloved. Kouga sat in the opposite corner of the cell a trail of blood trickling down the side of his forehead. But he seemed not to notice.
I sent a tentative thread into his mind asking if he was ok, he jumped at the intrusion and stared at me. His eyes widened for a second and I wondered why it was so. There was a lost look in his eyes. As if he were trying to tell me something but couldn't. When I could not figure it out he gave a deep shuddering sigh and looked away from me.
I was given no time to ask why he was troubled for the scrapping of boots on the concrete and a key opening a lock caught my attention. I heard a door open and moments later twin guards with a third behind them appeared.
The last I soon learned was not a guard, instead he was a nobleman, and I thought maybe the lord of the house. He looked in the cell his eyes searching and then his eyes rested on me and he smiled.
He whispered something that my ears could not pick up. Then he looked each of us over carefully.
"Throw down your weapons." He ordered, his voice was commanding and cultured. I was right in thinking him a nobleman.
"I ain't given you my sword you bastard." Inuyasha told him.
The nobleman laughed.
"You have not changed Son of Inutashio. You are trespassing on forbidden land, I have the right to demand anything you possess." He replied.
"I go wherever the hell I want." Inuyasha snapped arrogantly, I stared at him. He was in no position to be so bold.
The nobleman laughed at this too.
"If you may go as you please, leave this cell." He mocked and Inuyasha growled under his breath.
"Exactly young one, you cannot go as you please. And it is because of your lack of protocol that you are in this position."
As many times as I had hoped to see the day when Inuyasha was put in his place…this was not what I had in mind. I was quickly beginning to become agitated; me and cages did not exactly mesh well.
Then his eyes then rested on me again.
"Well not just that."
He moved over to where I stood against the bars and I had to fight not to try and put some more distance between us.
"So you are Kagome." He said while his eyes took me in from head to toe, he and I were exactly the same height, and I gazed effortlessly into his eyes.
"...Not quite what I expected..."
I stared at him for a moment, not really knowing what to say. This time when he smiled I knew what it said. Smiles like that are the cliché 'I know something you don't know'
"Then again my lord always did have rather…interesting tastes."
I glared at him, I knew the double meaning to that phrase and this time did not care think of my pride as I drew back from him. He smiled and before he could say anything further I asked.
"Why are we here?"
"Aren't you more concerned about why you are here Kagome, I think the others should be the last of your worries." He declared with the same smile. It was beginning to irritate me.
"Why are we here?" I asked again unfazed.
"And stubborn too, a terrible combination. We will have to see what can be done about this."
This time I could not help but growl, mind games were fine; I played them well. But I detested cells; they tended to bring back bad memories, I wanted out of here and now. I dipped into a mock curtsy and let my voice rise to an elegant drawl.
"While I would normally be more than happy to play word games until the break of dawn my lord…"
"Garrison." He put in helpfully.
"My lord Garrison, I currently have not the patience for it. So if you would be so kind, please explain why w…" I stopped and corrected myself. "Why I was brought here?"
The noble clapped his hands together, "Bravo my lady, excellent. So you can be charming should you so choose."
I huffed indignantly and he smiled again.
"It has come to the attention of my master that there is a miko found strong enough to be worthy of him." He began.
My head cocked to the side in confusion and then I turned to look at Inuyasha whose eyes were intent on the noble and refusing to meet my gaze. My eyes narrowed into a glare.
"Dare I ask how your master came upon such information?" I asked my teeth clenched.
"My dear lady," He said patronizingly. "I believe you know."
Inuyasha met my gaze then, not a single shred of remorse showed on his face. And that if nothing else made me angrier.
"Yes…I think I do." My eyes returned to the courtier and asked. "So what does he want with me?"
All laughter faded from the noble's face as if a hand had been drawn down it. The solemnity suited him better. His gaze was cautious as he declared.
"In exchange from the freedom of your companions, my lord asks for one night with the priestess named Kagome."
Before anger could overpower me I said very slowly and very carefully.
"I…am no man's…whore."
The noble shook his head. "My lady you do not understand…"
"I AM NO MAN'S WHORE!"
I snarled with all the venom I could muster. When I was done, the rafters were still shaking from the sheer force of my voice. I was breathing heavily now, nearly all of my control gone. Only the chains that bound me kept me from attacking him.
"Kagome you do not have a choice. My lord has been starving himself in preparation for this."
My head cocked to the side. "Starving?" I repeated.
It was Sesshoumaru who answered my question; I had forgotten he and everyone else were there.
"He has probably been keeping himself from any kind of…release in anticipation."
I shook my head, desperately trying to understand what was being told to me. "You can't be serious."
"Oh but he is, my lord has been so anxious in meeting you. He is expecting you tonight."
I shook my head again. "Then I send my apologies, but I will not play whore for anyone."
The noble frowned then shrugged his shoulders. "Well that is your choice dear Kagome, but you should be aware that my master will have someone tonight. Your choice in the matter however resides in who it will be, you…" His eyes turned to Kikyo. "Or her."
I saw Inuyasha lock a protective arm around his beloved as he hissed showing his fangs. His anger was expected but what he said then was not.
"That was not part of the deal Garrison." He growled before he knew what he said, when he did he spared me a glance.
Deal? I repeated the word in my mind before another began buzzing in my mind.
The word was betrayal.
The stench of it began to fill the room, just a touch thought.
My grip on the chains grew until I thought an imprint of my fingers would remain. My whole body tensed as I glared at Inuyasha with all the hatred and anger I could muster. A shadow began to creep into the room, the shadow being my anger taking physical form. I felt it swirl around me and smolder under my skin.
I saw neither Garrison nor the guards beginning to pull away from me, nor Kouga begin to awaken from his stupor, nor Sesshoumaru whose eyes had never left mine. My eyes were focused solely on Inuyasha, forcing myself not to believe what I was being told.
"I will await your answer, you have ten minutes." The noble and the others were gone in a flash.
A dead silence resonated in the dungeon, as if all held their breaths. I watched Inuyasha, my mind mulling over what I had heard. I refused to believe that he had brought me here as a bargaining chip. I refused to think that he would sell me like a piece of meat for his own affairs.
It was he who broke the silence with. "…Kagome…"
"Not a word." I snarled. "Not a single word until I say otherwise" I added in a growl.
Surprisingly, he remained quiet. I took deep breaths trying to sooth myself back into calm, but I let the anger stay in my eyes.
"Demon…tell me you have not done what I think you have." I asked but all he did was turn his head from me. "Tell me what little of my heart remains is not being threatened. Tell me you did not sell me to him."
"Tell me you didn't betray me again!" My voice was threatening to break. I strained against the chains forcing him to look at me. "Tell me you did not make a deal forcing me share his bed!"
"I HAD NO CHOICE!" He yelled back.
All eyes turned to the demon prince. My own were beginning to cloud with tears as I sagged against my bonds and gazed at the floor. It was Kikyo who broke the silence as she laughed. Her eyes were sparkled with barely controlled glee as she asked.
"Is it true Inuyasha." He looked away from her as he had me. "Did you really?" Her voice was cheery, as if this were pleasant conversation.
He looked at her, taking her hands in his and said. "I couldn't let them hurt you. It was the only way to buy us safe passage."
"SO YOU AUCTIONED HER OFF LIKE SOME SLAVE!" Kouga yelled.
Kouga's reaction was the only one that kept me in place. He was up and on his feet faster than anyone could see. Had it not been for Sesshoumaru who held him back, nothing would have stopped him from trying to tear Inuyasha apart.
"After all she has been through…after all she's endured in the name of your family…you would pull this!" He snarled. "You sick bastard!"
"Do none of you understand that I had no choice!" Inuyasha yelled again in defense. "It was between her or Kikyo." He looked at Kikyo. "And I would let them do her no harm."
My voice rang clear over them all as a blood-curdling laugh.
I began laughing then and it forced them all to stop. My voice bitter and hollow, a sound that should never have come from human lips. Chained to a wall about to endure untold horrors, I laughed at the irony. I forced my head up, the laughter making my tears slide down my cheeks.
Only Inuyasha would understand what I had done, for he was one of few who had ever provoked me into doing it. I was beginning to slip into the Chaos Realms, the place of madness that I had recoiled into when my world threatened to swallow me whole.
I gazed up at him, my eyes alternating between their usual sapphire to a still icy gray. My whole body was trembling but I steady myself enough to say.
"Why…am I not…surprised?" I declared my voice a venomous purr. "I mean after all, what was I ever to you...save the means to an end."
"Kagome…you must understand this was the only way. I knew you wouldn't let them hurt her."
Inuyasha stepped cautiously forward his hand reaching out to me. For a moment the madness subsided to be replaced by hatred and I bristled against the wall before snarling.
"Do not touch me!" He stopped mid step. "Yours is the touch of betrayal, and I will not have it on my skin."
When I saw the shocked expression on his face, as ifI had insulted him the madness took me again and I began to laugh again. Ilet my back recline against the wall. "Of course demon lord, I know what you think. You were counting on it."
A cruel smile settled onto my features as I began to fantasize about all the things I would have done to him if I were not bound to the wall. I noticed then however that Kouga 's eyes watched me with a mixture of fear and sorrow. I realized he had never seen me like this.
I smiled at him, the gesture deceptively welcoming, and declared with a purr. "Do not worry so dear Kouga." I told him. "This is merely one of the darker facets of my personality, brought on as one of many…side effects of all that was done to me in my past."
He was confused and told me so. "Kagome…I do not understand."
"Did they not tell you dearling?" I asked mockingly surprised as I gazed at Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. "How strange, neither both the heirs of those who destroyed me told you of their handiwork."
"Do not do this Kagome." Inuyasha whispered and I laughed again.
"Oh, you're no fun demon lord." I declared and straightened myself.
I knew what it was they saw when they looked at me. My eyes held a glimmer so wicked that it made them shudder. And a cruel almost dangerously playful smile made them recoil.
"It is after all a riveting story. You should be proud of your heritage." My gaze returned to Kouga. "I am sorry however to say that you are the only one who does not know." My eyes turned to Kikyo.
"It was all that bitch's fault."
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha roared, but he was silences when Kikyo touched his arm.
I smiled at her, inadvertently flashing a bit of fang and watched as Inuyasha wrapped a protective arm around her. "I thank you Kikyo, you always were a sweet girl."
For the first time since all this happened, my eyes rested on Sesshoumaru, who had released his hold on Kouga and watching me as well. I began then.
"The short and rather candid version of it all is that after Inuyasha accepted the deal to have me as his father's sacrificial lamb in return for him being a full demon. I was brought before their father." My gaze turned to Inuyasha. "Inuyasha's father nearly raped me to death."
If nothing else, being able to slip into insanity had its good sides. It allowed speaking of such things without completely breaking down.
"And after he was done raping and beating the life out of me, he locked me in a cell not much different than this one." It was then I looked away from them all, seeing things that only I knew were there. As the image replayed itself in my mind.
"He left me, with my own screams echoing in my ears, the image of hell flashing before my eyes, and anguish of what he had done to me raging through my body. He left me there like that for a week, where I neither ate, drank, nor slept." I paused letting my eyes meet each of theirs.
"I went mad in that cell and when they left me to rot, I nearly died insane. Even when I escaped I never fully recovered from it." All eyes were on me know.
"It is why even now those times when I should scream or yell I simply start laughing, it is a sign that I have conveniently slipped into insanity. So really my dear friends, you need not worry about me in this state, eventually I will force myself out of it. When that will be I cannot tell you, I rather enjoy the numbness it allows."
For a long moment no one spoke, and yet all eyes were on me. I gazed back at them, my own as hollow as I felt. Inuyasha stepped forward, again to break the silence.
"Kagome, the score between yourself and my family is a long one, and one not likely to be settled. I ask only that you do not take it out on those I care about."
"As you did on mine, or did you forget how you cut me off from my family so I would have no choice but to help you."
He shuddered at my unflinching honesty then said. "But what will you do?" When I said nothing he gave a long sigh then said.
"For what it is worth Kagome, it wasn't supposed to end like this."
A smile crossed my face then, one of the few things I could do this deep in madness. I sagged against the wall, letting it support my weight. I leaned my head back on the cool granite and closed my eyes. Slowly, racking shudders swept through my body as wave upon wave of emotions I had so long fought to keep down were threatening to overpower me.
The laughter began to overtake me again and before I wouldn't be able to say anything further I whispered. "Of course demon lord, it never is, is it?"
I began then to fight the madness, pulling myself away from its hold. Tears ran down my face and mingled with the low rumbling chortle that escaped my lips. Then the laughter turned into a half roar half scream. It was a sound made by myself and the beast within me as we both mourned. And with that sound, I ripped myself from the Chaos Realms.
By the time I had finished a guard had appeared to see what was the matter, I gazed at his startled face and said through panting breaths.
"Tell your master…that I will come."
