Chapter 8: Demon Blood
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AN: BLAH! My momentum is slowling down. It usually does about now. I am having mild troubles with this and a few other stories I'm working on. Please bear with me!
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Tama returned to his time, and saw several demons gathered at the tree. He forced a scowl on his face, walking towards it. He saw Sesshoumaru look directly at him and twitched slightly. "So, when are we starting this thing?"
"Momentarily..." He glared at the boy. "You were supposed to assist your cousins in setting up..."
"I had...business I had to attend to myself." He said, glaring at the much older demon. He saw the knowing look on his cousin's face and scowled. "What the hell should I call you now anyways? You're not my cousin, and you're name's not Datsu, so what?"
"In private, you may call me Sesshoumaru, or..." He snorted. "Grandfather. In public, I am Akuma Datsuzoku." He arched a fine eyebrow and grabbed the boy, dragging him towards the Goshinboku tree.
"How does this work again?"
Sesshoumaru got a wicked look in his eyes. "You'll just have to wait and see, wont you." Roughly, he tossed the boy against the tree.
Tama barely had a chance to draw a breath when the attacks began. Oh yeah, that's right. They were going to beat him up a bit, then those damn demons were going to taint him with their blood.
He stood there, taking it, till that filthy wolf-demon gave him a particularly hard punch to his stomache. Something cracked, and he collapsed, clutching his side. He glared at the demon, but saw the look on his 'cousin's' face and forced himself to his feet. 'That fucking hurt...I'm bleeding pretty bad right now...I hope this stupid ceremony doesn't kill me...'
That was the last thought he had. Sesshoumaru moved forwards, grabbing his neck in his clawed hand. "Tama...the time has come..." He roughly slammed the boy against the tree, and pulled a knife out of his coat. "Are you sure?"
Tama looked down at the demon. Hesitation? "If I could protect Kagome as I am...would I be here now?"
With a nod, Sesshoumaru lifted the knife to the boy's throat. "For all practical purposes, you will be legally dead for about three minutes. Tell me what it feels like." Then he drug the blade across it, spilling the boy's blood on his hand. He dropped Tama, then he drug the blade across his palm, spilling his own demon blood, before placing a hand over the gaping wound. He passed the knife to Kouga, who severed an artery in one of Tama's arms. He too, then slit his own hand and placed it over the wound. The other great demon followed shortly afterwards.
Sesshoumaru looked at his watch, then back at the boy, who's eyes were cracked just slightly, but rolled up in his head. He checked for a pulse and nodded. The boy was technically dead. The next few minutes felt like hours. This part was always a delicate process. It was a risky procedure, as most humans could barely handle the taint of the blood of a lesser demon.
This boy was recieving the blood of three great demons.
Suddenly, Tama let out a pained cry, fighting them, trying to stop the pain. It burned! He had no idea that the procedure would be physically painful! He felt Sesshoumaru touch his forhead and draw something on it with a sticky substance. He screamed. He had to make them stop! He was only human! He couldn't handle this!
Sesshoumaru and the other demons restrained him, while Sesshoumaru traced their family mark upon his forhead in his own blood. He began to whisper timeless words, that he had learned from a demon from another land. After all, in other lands, people like Inuyasha, like Tama, were not so rare. They were more feared than most demons, and often were taught to control their demon blood to their advantage.
Tama's eyes snapped open as the pain subsided and he tried to catch his breath. He saw the other demons were a short distance away. "Why didn't you...tell me it was going to hurt?"
"Did you think it would tickle?" He tilted his head to the side arching an eyebrow. "You did well, Tama."
"Why did you have to beat me up, first, anyways?" Tama asked as the great demon assisted him in sitting up.
Sesshoumaru frowned. "We had to bring your body dangerously close to true death. It would appear that you have my brother's stubborn streak, though, so I figured I'd just cut it short, rather than putting you through more pain than was absolutely necessary. Your wounds should heal quickly enough."
"Fucking Kouga broke a rib..." He pressed his fingers against it, and was shocked to find that there wasn't the least bit of pain. "Wow, that was fast..." He looked at Sesshoumaru. "What happened while I was out?"
"You died." The demon stood, brushing himself off. "I need to go was this blood off myself. Come along..."
"I'm gonna go see Kagome-"
"No." Sesshoumaru said firmly. "Until your training is done, you will remain beside me. Inspite of your rapid healing, you are very weak right now, and if the demon blood swallows your conscience, you will kill anything within your reach. It's a very dangerous time for you."
Tama opened his mouth to object, but Sesshoumaru drug him towards her families home and knocked politely on the door.
The door opened and a kindly woman appeared, smiling. "Ah, so is it over? We can't keep Grandpa locked up for much longer." She opened the door fully, allowing the demon and the very tired boy to cross her threshold. "That sounded dreadful, I hope no one calls the police..."
Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow at the woman. "No one called the police, believe it. This shrine has a sizable barrier. I doubt anyone even heard the fireworks that just went on."
"Is that guy okay?" Souta peeked out, looking at the Inuyasha look-alike through wide eyes. "He's covered in blood..."
Tama straightened, not even wincing. "I'm fine, kid...I guess I should clean myself up, too." He looked towards the woman who was smiling at him. He twitched a bit. Silently, he wondered what Kagome and Sesshoumaru had told them about him. "Could you point me towards a bathroom?"
Kagome's mother smiled kindly, and pointed down the hall. "There's one across the hall from Kagome's room. Straight down the hall and on the left."
Tama nodded, walking down the hall while Sesshoumaru walked to the kitchen. After all, Tama had far more blood on himself that Sesshoumaru did, inspite of arterial spray.
Tama looked in the bathroom mirror and saw a crescent moon drawn in blood on his forehead. "What the hell?" He mumbled, dampening a wash rag and trying to scrub it off. When it was gone, he sighed deeply, beginning to wash away all of the blood. Was it true? Had he really died?
The boy looked in the mirror, noting the paleness of his skin, noting for the first time in his life he had small bags under his eyes. Maybe Sesshoumaru was right, he couldn't let Kagome see him like this. Having just died-
He rubbed his neck, then glanced longingly at the bath. What he wouldn't give. He quickly finished cleaning up and moved across the hall. He opened the door to Kagome's room and looked inside.
It wasn't what he imagined.
He'd always thought she'd have one of those frilly girls rooms, with stuffed animals all over the place, like the ONE girlfriend he'd had in the states had. But this...
Her bed was covered in a dark blue comforter, her sheets were light blue, and resting upon it was a HUGE cat. 'Buyo, huh...' He reached down, lightly rubbing the cat's stomache. He sat on her bed, looking around. It was a comfortable looking room, not overly large, like his, but not a bad size. It only had a single twin bed in it, and a desk, and a bedside table with a few pictures on it.
He leaned towards the pictures. The first that caught his eyes was one of a man with dark hair and Kagome's smile. He tilted his head to the side and moved closer to the pictures. "Family pictures?" He mused aloud, seeing one other that caught his eyes. It was one of him wearing a dark scowl, her leaning over his shoulder, smiling cheerfully. He smiled a bit.
He picked it up, and saw something flutter to the floor. He reached down and froze.
It stared up at him, a picture of his previous incarnation and Kagome in the middle of a heated argument. It was obviously taken in one of those photo booths. Two of the pictures had been cut off, and he silently wondered what was in those two.
"You shouldn't enter a girls room without permission."
The dry voice at the door caused him to jerk in surprise and he suddenly felt like a no-good sneak. He saw Souta standing there, grinning at him. He scowled darkly.
Souta walked in, seeing the picture of Inuyasha on the floor. He bent down, picking it up. "Inuyasha didn't know how to stay out of trouble, he and Kagome always argued." He pondered something, looking at his hero's face. "I think my sister was in love with him..." He looked towards the older boy, who had an annoyed look on his face. "Sorry, am I bothering you?"
"Naw, that's not it..." No matter what he did, everyone was comparing him to this dead guy Inuyasha. "How do you know she loved him?" He pondered, looking at the boy for a moment.
"Because, my sister's a strong girl. I never saw her cry until...when she came home that time. Then, it was like her whole world had ended. She's only come out of it recently. I think it's because of you."
Tama fought off the urge to blush. "Keh, how rediculous." He growled, looking away from the boy.
"I mean, the day she came home from school, she looked...well, happy. For the first time in weeks, she was SMILING." He shook his head. "I miss Inuyasha, he was my hero, but I don't think he and Kagome could have actually been happy." He tilted his head to the side. "But hey, what do I know, I'm just a kid!" He laughed.
Tama looked at him, and smiled a bit. "You're smarter than you think, kid." He muttered. He reached over, and ruffled the boy's hair.
"So, did you really DIE? What's it like?" Souta asked in interest.
Tama facefaulted. "I can't really remember."
Souta followed suit. "Oi..."
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Kagome woke from her sleep with a splitting headache. Miroku's training was proving more trying than Sango's had been. Idly, she wondered how Tama was doing and wished he'd come back to tell her how his training went that day.
She suspected that Sesshoumaru was at least partially to blame for this.
She pulled her body out of bed, gathering her bathing supplies, and silently walked from the hut, heading towards the lake nearby. She really couldn't wait to go home and have a long, relaxing soak in her bathtub.
She went into the water, pulling out her loufa and beginning to bathe, wincing with each movement.
She closed her eyes, sending out several mental feelers. She wanted to be sure she was safe during her bath, and had several psy-flares, as she'd dubbed them, ready and waiting.
She didn't fully understand them, but from what she understood, when they encountered a demon's youki, it blinded them for quite a long time. She also had a few other new weapons in her cache, not the least of which was the ability to seal a demon's powers. The problem was the procedure was difficult, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to remember it precisely, which could be dangerous for all those with demon blood in the area.
Considering everyone she worked with had demon blood, that would leave them all pretty much defenseless. She didn't want to use that power unless absolutely necessary.
She relaxed, finally certain there were no demons dangerous enough in the area to cause her worry and she settled down to bathe. She closed her eyes remembering a few days ago, when Tama had told her that he wanted to protect her. She blushed, smiling. He's more like Inuyasha than he knows...but at the same time, they're completely different. Tama...seems much more gentle, softer around the edges.
She heard a twig snap and spun, preparing a flare quickly and releasing it, meanwhile, giving the person several zaps with her powers.
"Ow! Ow! Dammit, Kagome, it's just me!"
Kagome blinked, thankful for the small trace of demon blood in Tama's body. She lunged towards the shore, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself. "DAMMIT, TAMA!" She shrieked, trying desperately to hide her bits from him. The flares did wear off reasonably quickly, after all.
Tama blushed, catching the outline of Kagome's form as his vision started to return. "What the hell was that for!" He snapped, turning his back to her. Looks like she's got a handle on her powers, now. He almost smiled.
"Don't sneak up on a girl when she's bathing!" She snapped, quickly pulling on her clothing. "I could have seriously hurt you!"
"Hmph, like you could hurt ME." He looked towards her and saw her smiling a bit. "School starts back tomorrow...are you coming back today?"
"I have one day left to train..." She sighed, looking at Tama. He seemed tense. "Are you okay? How did your training go?" It had only been a week, but Tama looked exhausted. She was secretly very flattered that he'd come all this way to pick her up, even if he'd gotten a bit of a peek.
"It sucked." He said bluntly. "I died."
"You look pretty alive to me." She walked closer and saw a streak of silver in his once solid black hair and reached up, touching it. The stray hair was deffinately his.
"It was part of that fucking ceremony, just after that last time..." He blushed, remembering what he'd said.
She tilted her head to the side. "Tama? What happened during the ceremony?"
He watched her scoop up her stuff, and then glanced away. "Sesshoumaru told me that they were supposed to bring me to within an inch from death, and then they had to 'taint' me with their blood, whatever that means." He saw the surprised look on her face and then her eyes filled with concern.
She reached towards him, and immediately began mentally feeling for injuries. She brushed his mind and her face turned dark red. He was alright, that was for sure, and evidently, his teenage libido was active as Miroku's. "TAMA!" She shrieked, angry.
Tama looked down at the miko, wondering what he'd done to piss her off so much. "What did I do!" He backed away defensively.
She paused, realizing that he hadn't said a word, and blushed, angry with herself for invading his thoughts. "Pervert..." She muttered, quickly pulling the mental feeler back quickly before she saw more than she wanted to. She began walking towards the village and heard Tama following her.
"Why the hell are you calling me a pervert! I didn't DO anything!" He blushed, the memory of her slender muscular figure popped into his mind again and he looked away from her.
She blushed darker herself. "I'm sorry." She said softly. "I was making sure you weren't hurt, and...I caught one of your thoughts." She glanced towards him and saw he was refusing to look at her. "It wont happen again."
He blushed darker, and glanced towards her, meeting her eyes briefly.
She twitched. Well, this certainly was awkward. She lowered her eyes then glanced back at him. "I'm sorry I called you a pervert..." She offered lightly.
He snorted. "I'd already forgotten about it." He said roughly, looking towards her. "So are you coming back or not?"
She nodded. "I have to say goodbye to everyone here. She smiled. "I think I should also thank Miroku-sama for the flare trick."
"Is he the one who taught you that?" Tama grumbled.
She saw the annoyance on his face and smiled a bit, reaching over and sliding her arm through his, shyly.
He twitched. Slowly, he lowered his eyes to their linked arms. "Did you walk like this with your 'Inuyasha'?" Tama mocked softly, wondering if she saw him as the hanyou, or the human.
She blinked, looking up at him in shock. "What?"
"You were in love with him...It only makes sense that you'd walk with him like this." He said softly, annoyed. He saw the shock on Kagome's face and then, before his eyes, it turned into a smile. He forced himself to look away from her.
"No, Tama, Inuyasha and I didn't walk like this. More often than not, he put as much distance as humanly possible between us. Then again, he didn't love me...he loved Kikyou..." She glanced towards him. "Kikyou was my previous incarnation..." She smiled faintly. "I always felt like I was in the way for them...even if she was technically dead, she haunted him."
He looked away. It wasn't fair. "He sounds like a jerk to me." Tama snorted, looking away.
Kagome smiled at him. "He was." She agreed, then looked at the ground, still smiling. "But sometimes, he could be very gentle and kind, too." She lifted her eyes and saw a perterbed expression on his face and frowned. "Tama?"
"I'm sorry I even brought him up." Tama scowled, and jerked his arm free from hers. I'm not that fucking jerk! He mentally screamed, and began to walk in front of her.
Kagome blinked, then ran to catch him. "Tama-"
"Just drop it." He snapped angrily. "I don't want to hear another word about it."
She smiled faintly, then slipped her hand in his. "Baka..." She said affectionately. "You have nothing to worry about."
'I have everything to worry about.' He mentally retorted, glancing towards her. How was he supposed to ask her what he wanted to? Could he do it without pissing her off? Was it worth it? "Oi..." He began, looking down at her, uncertain. "Do you-" He stopped himself. "Forget it."
She blinked. "Do I what?"
"Forget it."
"Nope." She shook her head, smiling cheerfully.
He stopped fully, looking at her. She was so pretty. He stepped towards her, his hand cupping her face. It hurt to know that Inuyasha still had her heart. Yet, he had to ask this question, or he'd never feel at peace. "Kagome...when you look at me...do you see him?"
She stared up at him in shock. Was it possible? Could it be that her speaking so fondly of Inuyasha that he was beginning to feel uncertain about who she saw? Tears filled her eyes and she smiled gently. She walked towards him, putting her arms around him. "Tama, I'm going to tell you something that he told me once. He said 'Kikyou wa Kikyou. Kagome wa Kagome.'" She smiled at him. "Well, Inuyasha wa Inuyasha, Tama wa Tama. You don't need to worry about that."
"But...I saw that picture of him...we're almost identical." Tama muttered, uncomfortable.
"True, you DO look like him...but honestly? I think you have the potential to be much more than Inuyasha was." She blushed, looking at the ground. "Inuyasha was very strong, but...he had far more difficulty expressing himself. Usually, he resorted to violence, but he never said what he was feeling."
Tama looked at her, uncertain. "Kagome-"
Kagome heard him say her name and pressed herself up onto her toes, quickly kissing his lips lightly. She saw his eyes get wide and he froze, unable to say another word. She blushed, lowering her gaze as she dropped back down.
He stared at her in shock. Why? Why did she do that? He grabbed her wrist, pulling her against his chest and hugging her tightly. He pressed his face into her shoulder and bit his lip. Something inside him twitched a bit and he fiercly bit back the urge to roughly throw her to the ground.
Kagome felt him shaking and gently caressed his hair. "It's okay, Tama." She said softly, pulling back slightly. To her surprise, a crescent moon was glowing fainly on his head and two slashes had appeared on his cheeks. The demon blood?
He saw the strange look on her face and noticed his senses had sharpened. He cursed thickly, pushing her away from him, and giving her his back. "Come on..." He muttered, offering her his hand hesitantly. Evidently Sesshoumaru was right. If he had gone to Kagome first...then he would have hurt her.
Kagome looked at his hand and smiled, reaching her own out, wrapping it gently around his own.
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AN: Yeah...um...Tama's such a PERV! Smacks him Hmph. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this latest installment. Now that the training's done, I hope I can do something fun...I dunno, like putting some smack down on Naraku's evil, and now female, ass!