Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Takahashi Rumiko et al., not me. I just borrow them to have some fun.

A/N: Thank you very many to my Beta, Raijin!

Warning: This chapter is not funny! It contains no humour whatsoever! Sesshoumaru is being evil (again)!
Thank you reviewers! I love you!

Chapter V – Eighteen Strokes

It was raining outside, in huge wet drops that exploded into a myriad of tiny droplets when they touched the windowsill. A dead bug glittered in thousand colours when a raindrop hit its armour and broke, sparkling in the light of Kagome's lamp. I wondered how long it would take the elements to wash away the tiny dead body.

As the fading daylight grew paler and finally dissolved into darkness, I kept on looking at the windowsill. My prisoner was lying on her bed behind my back, sleeping. I stayed with her, keeping watch.

Even in her sleep, I saw the changes that were taking place in her body. It takes twenty-eight days, the time that the moon needs to go from full to full, to undo the work of the Gods and change a priestess to one of my kind. To dissolve humanity. I touched the new pointy nail on her thumb slightly. The markings on her face were very pale, because unlike me, she was not of royal blood. There would never be a crescent moon on her forehead. Her jaw was slightly bigger now in order to accommodate the teeth that were growing longer. Sometimes her fox demon son would play with her new pointy ears and tease her about them.

When she was awake, she would pace around, painfully slow, clothed in precious many-layered kimonos, while her maids would follow her around to catch her if she were to fall. Even in her movements that now were slowed down due to the pains of her change, I could see the beast she was becoming, but in the looks she was giving me, I saw that she still was fighting me on the inside. Her pupils were round and black, and from inside her, the thing that I wanted to erase from her soul - the humanity - glared mockingly at me. The day when her pupils turned into slits, I would have won. Only a few more days and she would have no other choice than to stay with me.

I have paid dearly for the necklace that held Kagome captive. There are many different ways to win power over a demon, and gaining a part of his body is one of the best. One of my fangs was in the hands of the demon smith who had made Kagome's necklace. A tooth grows back, but the fact stayed that a sword that could slay me was in the making right now. I was hoping I could get hold of it somehow, but I was also aware that there was a chance of someone else getting hold of the sword. I had paid a great price for the possession of Kagome. I had put myself in a dangerous position. I saw no reason to tell her all this. Still, I found it reassuring to know that Naraku, my old enemy, was dead, although not by my hand, but by that of my half brother.

She moved in her sleep and tossed the blanket aside. She was lying on her stomach; the top of her sleeping garment was torn open in the middle of her back, showing the red mark on her skin just at the small of her back. It was very small, and one had to go closer to see what the mark was - but I knew, because I had made it.

It had started a few days after I had taken her to my home. She was kneeling on her bed, head buried in the covers, biting the fabric with her teeth. I could hear it rip between her fangs. She was shivering.

"I could help you," I said. "I could ease your pain for a while."

At first I thought she would not answer, but then she turned her red-rimmed eyes to me, to see me sitting close by.

"How?" she asked faintly.

I stretched out my hand and showed my nails that were dripping with poison before I wiped it off on my kimono. The fine silk sizzled and burned away, leaving some skin to the sight. She drew away from me.

"My poison could paralyse you for a while. It wears off after one or two hours, but if I put it in you when the pain is strongest, you could at least get some sleep. You would feel nothing."

She seemed to think about it.

"It comes with a price, of course," I added.

She looked at me questioningly.

I hesitated for a brief moment; then I went on:

"It will leave a scar on your skin. Your healing abilities are improving due to the metamorphosis, but my poison would still leave a trace. And I wish to leave a special mark on you…"

"What mark? How many times do you have to… puncture my skin to apply the poison?"

"Just once." I studied her face. "But I guess we will have to repeat it several times, since the pain comes in waves, and the worst time seems to be two hours before midnight."

"What…" She stopped, drew breath and concentrated on driving away the pain. "What would that mark be?"

"Today is the tenth day of your change. You have eighteen days left. I will surely find something that requires eighteen strokes to write."

She sighed and bit her bottom lip until a thin stream of blood started to run down her chin. I took her left hand and forced her to wipe it off with her sleeve. She did not resist. Where the blood had been, a red burn streak stayed. The blood inside her that still resisted the change tried to purify her demon flesh - but it was too weak. Slowly, the burn faded away.

"What will you write?" She said, with hands folded in her lap. "And where will-" A gasp interrupted her, her head went up and she sat with her mouth open, opening and closing her fists.

I said nothing, just waited until the fit was over.

"Do it." She said. "I will allow it. I don't care what you do, just stop this."

"Turn around," I ordered. She turned her back to me and waited. I loosened the obi that was holding her dress together and carefully sliced a small opening in the back of it. The silk fell open and revealed smooth, unmarred skin that was turning more and more pale every moonlit night. I extended my index finger with the deadly poisoned claw and made a tiny cut a few inches above the place where her human spinal column ended. No tail yet. When she lost feeling in her body I held her upright, then laid her down on her bed and got on my feet.

"I hate you," she said. "I will find a way to go back to being what I am and once the shards are all found, I will leave you and your rotten time for good."

I put a finger on her lips, which soon were also taken over by the poison's working. "I thought you liked me," I said. "I thought you would not object too much to being taken by me. I guess I was wrong, then." For a moment I was just watching her, her shining face, eyes closed. "I still think that you do not hate me."

She scowled, and her eyes filled with tears, but then the poison overwhelmed her and I called her maids in to change her clothes and lay her to sleep.

Kagome now had fourteen strokes on her back. Tomorrow, the second of three characters I intended to write on her skin would be completed. She was not allowed to look at her back in a mirror, no matter how often she asked. To my relief, she did not show her new scar to Shippo and Rin, probably to shield them from what she thought was my savage and cruel nature. Four more days and she would be a demon. I closed my eyes for a heartbeat, and then continued to listen to the rain.

I did not regret doing this. Kagome was shining, strong, beautiful. Her only fault was her humanity. After almost two centuries of living this life, I have never encountered anyone who would suit my purposes better. If only she were by my side, I felt, I could rule the world. Not that I intended to do so, but when Kagome was ready, transformed and educated to suit my wishes, there was nothing in this world to stop me.

Behind me, Kagome stirred. The poison was wearing off. She opened her eyes. Quietly, she moved, trying out if her limbs were working. She always did it this way. When she was sure everything was in order, she relished the numb feeling in her body. The pain had not yet set in. Her eyes fell on me. I did not turn around, but I could feel her gaze boring through my back. She was angry with me; I could feel her shivering breath on my ear when she came closer. Thin, fragile fingers with long sharp claws enclosed my throat. She leaned her tired body on my back heavily.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't slit your throat with my shiny new nails," she said, her voice quiet and raspy. She still had to get used to speaking with bigger jaw and teeth.

"You cannot harm me. The necklace is holding you back," I said. "And if you try to purify me, the purification will go against you." Quickly, I turned to her, removed her hands from my throat. Now it was my hand on her pulse.

"And if you use your powers, they will leave your body, and never return to you. Your soul itself will detach from your body and go to the other one - is it what you want? I do not care…" I let her throat go and took hold of her necklace to draw her closer to me. My mouth almost on her ear, I said, quietly: "It will just serve my purpose. Do you want that?"

Suddenly, she fell against me. For the first time in twenty-four days we were this close, no, for the first time ever. I could hear her heartbeat increase, but her voice was firm.

"I thought you liked me. How can you do this to me?"

"You will understand in time," I said and brushed the dark veil of hair from her face.

She sighed and backed away. A stray breeze disturbed the faint light of the candle, which flickered, and threw restless shadows on Kagome's face.

"I think you just want me for what I could be," she said. "I don't know if you realise how cruel you are being." She reached for the necklace and played with it absentmindedly. "You are doing the same thing as Inuyasha. He always thought I should be like Kikyo. You think I should be a demon so I won't spoil your bloodline. Whenever I told either of you to go and get the real thing, not me, the replacement-" Here her voice grew thinner. "You will persist on keeping me." She let go of the necklace. "It hurts. I have had this with your brother; I will not go through it again with you."

"You should feel honoured that I have chosen you."

She was angry now. "Of course I am honoured! Of course!" She grabbed the bedcovers and ripped them to shreds without noticing. "I wanted nothing more than to be dragged away by an evil demon and turned into one myself. Of course!" Tears started running down her face again; she wiped them away.

"What have I done to deserve this?"

"You have been cruel," I said. "You have hurt people. You have killed." She did not move. "You have killed demons. Perhaps some of them have had families? You have destroyed the jewel and you have brought great evil over all of us. This is what you have done." Even while saying it, I was not sure if it was wise to do so. Still, I was mildly angered by her constant complaints.

"You have been cruel to the one who loves you…" I continued.

"No!" she shouted. "It was too late! It was too late for that." She came closer to me again, as if her arguments would have more strength when she shouted them to my face.

"I have given him time, and patience, I have given him everything. I have given him Kikyo…"

"And that was cruel, wasn't it?"
"No."

"Yes, because you gave her your soul, and he noticed that he did not love her anymore after all… you are a cruel woman, my pet."

"I thought it would make him happy to have her close…" Kagome's face was showing her anguish clearly.

"You were hoping it would not. You were hoping that the same thing that had happened to you would happen to him. Your interest was turning somewhere else at that time, was it not?"

She covered her face with her hands. "No!"

"Yes." I brushed her hands aside; that made her look at me.

"If you are asking yourself what you have done to deserve what I am doing to you, then think about this."

"It is not your place to judge me."

"Oh, but it is. You are using me as a replacement for my half brother. You have taken my necklace out of your own free will. You have left your friends to come with me. And with me, you will stay."

"I am not using you as a replacement for your brother." Her voice was fierce, although quiet. "I am not using you as a replacement. When… when I… I did not like you because of him. I started liking you for yourself… but that is over now."

Everything had been said. My eyes closed and I breathed in the scent of her clothes and her hair, the tears on her face and the tea she had had before. It was hours past midnight. I turned away from her to face the window again. The bug was gone, either dissolved by the raindrops or eaten by some bird. Perhaps the rain had just washed its body away from the windowsill. Behind me, Kagome turned away, but then changed her mind and came closer. I could feel her arms sneak around my waist from behind, while she leaned her head on my back.

"Why does it have to be this way?" she murmured. "Why does it have to be complicated with me?" The thin silk on my back warmed up under her breath.

"The Gods must love you." I said nothing more, unwilling to betray anything that she could use against me.

"Neither your brother, nor you," I heard her whisper, "have loved me enough to let me be who I am."

I did not move, but I touched her hand, slightly. If I loved Kagome, I should let her go. I shook my head. She was here to stay.