Ch. 12. The Witch

Julie woke up in the morning with Sesshomaru's arms wrapped around her. She could feel his fluffy fur thing on her face. This reminded her of the first morning when she had woken up with Sesshomaru holding her and she'd tried to get away.

Sesshomaru woke up. Jaken had found where they were in the middle of the night and he was fast asleep by the fire. Sesshomaru woke up and sent him to get Julies breakfast. Then they started walking. They had to go find the two-headed horse.

Julie was starting to wonder about something. Last night, Koga had mentioned Rin. Rin was a little girl that Sesshomaru had taken care of for awhile. She had noticed that she wasn't around but she hadn't asked why.

"Sesshomaru, how come Rin is no longer with you?" asked Julie.

"I decided to let her live with a nice couple," said Sesshomaru. "The wife was unable to have children so I let Rin live with them. Rin didn't want to leave me but it's dangerous to have her around. I'm always going around all the time and other demons tried using her against me. She needs a stable home life."

"I know why she came to live with you for awhile," said Julie. "It's kind of odd. You don't like humans yet you took care of her for a while and you keep saving me all the time.

"Hmm," said Sesshomaru.

"Maybe you don't hate humans so much after all," said Julie.

Sesshomaru stopped walking and looked at Julie like she was a bug.

"Come on," said Julie. "I know you have soft spot for us humans right here." She touched a spot on his armor where his heart probably was. "I know you are able to feel love."

"Who is there for me to love?" asked Sesshomaru, removing her hand.

"You mean you've never ever, in all the years you've been alive, felt any kind of love for a girl?" asked Julie.

"I have no need to," said Sesshomaru. He continued walking.

"Have you ever kissed a girl?" asked Julie. "Besides me?" she added with a slight giggle

"I did not kiss you," said Sesshomaru, looking disgusted. "You kissed me to reverse my transformation. And why are you asking me all these questions?"

"I'm just curious," said Julie. "What about your mother? Did you love her? Surely you must have loved your mom when you were a boy. All little boys do."

"I never knew her," said Sesshomaru. "She died after I was born. Murder."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Julie. "I-I didn't know. So I guess it was just you and your dad then, huh? Must have been hard."

"Hmm," said Sesshomaru. "My father taught me to fight and we fought many battles together. My father was a great demon lord. Then he found a human woman, mated with her and she gave birth to Inuyasha. My father created the swords, Tetsusaiga and Tensiega. He fought a demon, sealed its power, and then died of the injuries later."

"Oh," said Julie. "And I know how he hid the key to the tomb in Inuyasha's eye. I remember reading about that."

They stopped for lunch later. Julie and Sesshomaru sat against a large tree. It was a warm afternoon and the heat made Julie drowsy. She fell asleep against Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru looked down at Julie who was fast asleep. Jaken was sitting on a log, staring out into space with his mouth slightly open.

Sesshomaru thought of annoying Julie had been today, asking a million different questions. Nowadays she was such a chatterbox at times asking questions, or telling him what a meanie he was. When he had first kidnapped her, she had been very resentful toward him. He could smell her hate and fear of him. Now she wasn't so resentful, she just argued a lot with him about how he had no heart, no feelings, blah, blah, blah...

She was a bit of a pain. He always had to save her. It was like that with Rin. Naraku, an evil demon, had kidnapped her before to lure Sesshomaru. Now other demons had kidnapped Julie intending to kill her or, (in Koga's case), mate with her. And they had to stop so she could eat because humans are like that. And one time at night, when she had been curled up next to him, she had kicked in her sleep and gotten him right between the legs. Woke him out of a sound sleep. Not a pleasant way to wake up.

But, he realized that he almost kind of liked having her around. Sometimes she was very cheerful and she'd chatter away while she ate, telling him about all sorts of things in her time: ponies, manga, computers, and a television show that her friend Megan enjoyed watching, some Drake and Joshy or something like that. Apparently it involved two human males that got into all sorts of adventures and a sister who was a demon. Why the humans considered the demon to be there sister still baffled him. But it was rather interesting to hear of the weird things humans enjoyed in her era.

So, perhaps it wasn't so bad after all, having her around, even if she was a human. She could be like a friend.

He quickly scratched that thought. She was a human and he was a demon.

"Demons don't need friends," he whispered quietly to himself so Jaken wouldn't hear.

"Mm, wha?" asked Julie, waking up beside him. "Did you say something?"

"Nothing," said Sesshomaru, fixing her with a cold glare. How could he, a demon, even think of having a human for a friend?

"Because you have a heart," said a little voice inside his head. "And if your father was capable of loving a human, so are you."

He tried to ignore the little voice.

Julie was looking back at Sesshomaru, wondering why he was looking at her so coldly. Something must have been going on inside that pretty head of his.

She looked away from him for a moment, wondering why she had thought of the word pretty. Well, he was pretty hot. She used to really love him. Then he kidnapped her and she hated him. But now he had been kind of nice to her. And he had saved her so many times. She knew her feelings for him were starting to come back. Besides, how could a girl live around a gorgeous guy and not start to like him after he had saved her life so many times?

But the reason he had been kind of nice to her lately was because she wasn't trying to escape. She knew if she tried to escape right now, he wouldn't treat her kindly.

She stood up and stretched.

"Do you want to continue on?" she asked him.

Sesshomaru said nothing and stood up and began to walk away.

"Sheesh, you could have least answered me verbally," she muttered.

A demon attacked them in the late afternoon. However, it was not strong and Sesshomaru took care of it quickly. But it managed to leave a long gash in his arm. Sesshomaru said it was nothing but Julie insisted that she should have a look at it and wash it.

"It's just a damn scratch," said Sesshomaru as Julie tried to drag him to stream. He stood his ground like a rock while Julie tugged fruitlessly at his other arm.

"It could get infected!" Julie yelled at him. "Stop being so stubborn, you-you-"

"Yeah, you want to finish that sentence?" asked Sesshomaru. "I just dare you to insult me."

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" asked Julie, still tugging. "You're like mule, you know that? You need to learn to listen to people once in awhile."

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. Suddenly Julie gave a particularly hard tug and he lost his balance and fell forward on top of her.

They stared at each other, practically nose to nose. Then Julie got mad and pushed at him. Sesshomaru quickly got off her.

"Watch what your doing!" Julie huffed at him.

"Well, you're the one who was trying to tug me to the stream because you're all worried about germs," said Sesshomaru.

"Just get over here!" Julie snarled at him. Sesshomaru finally gave in and allowed her to drag him to the stream where she washed the cut, her cheeks still pink. Jaken hovered around in the background, not knowing what to say or do. He was kind of surprised that Lord Sesshomaru allowed a mortal to talk to him like that. Normally if a human spoke to him like that, they'd be cowering on the ground with a bloody slash across their face or chest. Or worse.

Julie cleaned his wound and wrapped some cloth around it.

"There, all done," she said.

"Yeah, whatever" said Sesshomaru.

"You know, you could thank me," said Julie glumly.

Sesshomaru sighed and managed to mumble thanks.

"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" asked Julie.

Sesshomaru said nothing. But the look on his face suggested that he had just been trampled on by a herd of bulls. Julie told herself to ignore it-he wasn't accustomed to thanking mortals for stuff.

They decided to stay there for the night. Julie ate dinner and then she sat on a rock and soaked her feet in the stream. Sesshomaru sat up against a tree. Jaken and Julie chattered to each other like a pair of bigmouthed parrots.

Julie put her socks and shoes back on. Jaken meandered off, probably deep in thought about a very weird book Julie had told him about. Julie laid on her back on the rock and gazed at the clouds and wondered where her friends were.

She jumped off the rock and started to walk back toward Sesshomaru. Her arm brushed a bush.

"Ow!" she cried. It felt like something had pierced her skin and went into her. She looked at her arm. There was a cut.

"You mean old bush!" she snapped.

"What are you whining about?" asked Sesshomaru.

"The bush scratched me," said Julie. She cleaned it with water from the stream, wondering how a small cut could hurt so much.

Sesshomaru took off his armor. He held Julie like he always did at night. She fell asleep.

The next day, she felt particularly angry for some reason. But she didn't know why. Everything seemed to annoy her, especially Sesshomaru. She was so angry, she even snapped at him for no reason at all which got him angry.

She decided the best thing to do would be to keep her mouth shut. She walked alongside Sesshomaru, annoyed.

She was watching her feet as she walked. Suddenly, Sesshomaru threw his arm out and caught her in the chest.

"What?" she growled at him.

Sesshomaru ignored her tone. "There are several demons here."

"That's right," said a voice.

A lady with black hair stepped out of the trees. Her eyes had an eerie glow. Several serpent demons emerged behind her.

"There you are, human," said the girl. She smiled a wicked smile.

"What do you what?" asked Julie angrily.

"Oh, grouchy aren't we?" asked the woman. "Good. That means the potion is working."

"What potion?" asked Julie.

The lady held up a pin. "I sent one of these things after you. I soaked it in a special potion that I created with the venom of my darling serpents. The potion will fill you with and evil essence. You're the first human I'm trying it out on. If it works, I'll do it on several more humans. I think it's nice, to fill innocent humans with evil essence. To corrupt a human soul is lovely."

"You witch!" shouted Julie. "That's what I felt last night! It wasn't the bush. It was the pin!"

"Yes," said the woman. "I am a demon witch. And the pin and the potion have long since dissolved into your blood. I soaked that pin in a weak version on the potion. The solution on this pin is much stronger!"

She threw the pin into the air. Julie heard a whizzing noise and she felt something pierce her chest. She collapsed to her knees. She could actually feel the potion entering into her blood, dissolving. She started to feel like she had a fever. She felt like she was freezing.

"It's so cold," she said. Sesshomaru took off his kimono and the upper part of his under robes and he wrapped them around Julie. It didn't help much, but her teeth were chattering too much for her to tell him.

Sesshomaru was wearing his armor though. Jaken came up alongside Julie to see if he could do anything.

Sesshomaru was ready to kill this witch and her wretched demons.

Julie looked at the witch. Suddenly the witch changed her shape. It was the old lady who had given them the Wishing Lump!

"Remember me?" asked the lady. "I'm a demon that had just perfected the art of witchcraft. And I live to cause problems for humans. I gave you the Wishing Lump because I knew what you would wish for."

"How?" asked Julie, her teeth chattering.

"I just know," said the witch. "I knew it would there would be problems if you were transported here. How would you get home? And the worry of being attacked by demon. Looks like you've had plenty of problems here, haven't you? Now I'm testing out my new potion on you."

She laughed insanely. Julie was furious. This witch was crazy. Totally out of her mind.

Sesshomaru cracked his knuckles, ready to slash the demons apart.

"Oh, you want to fight, huh?" asked the woman. "You're interesting, protecting a worthless human. Demons go forth!"

All the serpent demons were eager to fight. Sesshomaru knew he could defeat them all. The demons were lightening fast.

The fight started. Julie was still on the ground, clutching Sesshomaru's kimono around her, trying to keep warm.

"That's it!" Jaken was shouting to Lord Sesshomaru. "Get them nasty demons!"

Julie could still feel the potion in her body.

Suddenly a hatred for Sesshomaru began to rise up in her. She wanted to hurt him, kill him. He deserved to die.

"That's it," said the witch. "Feel the anger."

"Julie, your eyes are turning blue!" Jaken was getting scared. Julie's eyes had turned blue and they looked kind of creepy. It was as if she was transforming, kind of like Sesshomaru. Her nails had gotten pointed, just like Sesshomaru's claws.

Julie suddenly lashed out at Jaken. He leaped backwards just in time.

"SHE'S TURNED INTO A DEMON!" screamed Jaken.

Sesshomaru had just finished killing the last demon. The witch was angry.

"You killed all my darling serpents!" said the Witch. "No matter. This girl in her new form will give you what you deserve."

Sesshomaru lunged forward and slashed her arm open. The witch screamed as blood spattered the ground. Sesshomaru had released poison from his claws. The poison would enter her body and kill her eventually unless she could do something about it.

"How do I cure Julie?" asked Sesshomaru.

"I'll never tell you," said the witch.

"I kill you right now if you don't," said Sesshomaru grabbing the front of her clothing. He shook her roughly. "TELL ME YOU WORTHLESS WITCH!"

"Never!" spat the woman. "Besides, you've already killed me! I have no antidote to the poison you put in my arm! I'll die pretty soon anyhow. I'm weak against poison. But the girl will get you. You just wait!"

She suddenly disappeared. Sesshomaru growled in disgust. He turned around. Julie was standing up, her eyes blue and eerie. Jaken was hiding behind a tree, shaking.

"Sesshomaru," said Julie. "I am going to kill you."

"Snap out of it," said Sesshomaru.

"Don't tell me what to do!" shouted Julie.

She suddenly leaped forward with incredible speed and agility. She tried to get him with her claws but Sesshomaru dodged. He slapped her in the face.

"Snap out of it or else," said Sesshomaru.

Julie ignored him and tried again, this time she succeeded in scratching his arm. Sesshomaru scratched her back on her arm, but he didn't release any poison.

Julie was fighting as well as any demon. They were attacking each other. But Julie managed to dodge all of Sesshomaru's attacks just like he dodged hers. Sesshomaru wasn't really even trying to hurt her though.

Suddenly Sesshomaru picked up and began to carry her away, using his speed. Julie bit his arm with her fangs.

Sesshomaru found the stream they had stayed by the night before. He dropped her in the cold water, hoping that would calm her. Unfortunately, that only made her even more enraged. She lashed out at him and missed.

Julie somehow got even more enraged and was attacking him with lightening speed. She seemed to be getting stronger.

"Stop it Julie!" shouted Sesshomaru. "I don't want to hurt you! And I know you don't really want to hurt me!"

Julie ignored his words, attacking with everything she had. She slashed his shoulder. Sesshomaru grabbed her wrist and sank his claws into her, releasing poison. Not enough to kill her, but just enough to numb her body so she couldn't move.

Julie sank to her knees, her legs and arms growing numb. Her hatred for him rose. Damn, how could she kill him if she couldn't move?

Sesshomaru put his arm around her so she wouldn't fall backwards. She was paralyzed now, unable to fight him. He leaned his face into hers and kissed her.

Julies eyes widened in shock. Why was her enemy suddenly coming onto her like this?

Her anger toward him disappeared. Her eyes went back to normal. Her fangs and claws vanished.

Jaken was hiding behind a different tree, watching them. His large eyes had grown even larger.

"M'lord is kissing a human!" he whispered to himself in shock. "Ugh, I bet he's putting his tongue in her mouth. That's disgusting. Mushy stuff."

Sesshomaru stopped kissing Julie and looked at her. She had gone back to normal.

"Well, I see you've gone back to being a normal human being," he told her.

"Uh, yeah," said Julie, blushing. "Oh, Sesshomaru, I'm sorry I attacked you. I couldn't stop myself. I barely even remember even of it now. But I remember I was trying to cut you or something.

"It's okay," said Sesshomaru. "I had to paralyze you so you would remain still long enough for me to bring you back. I remembered how you reversed my transformation with a kiss so I just did the same thing to you."

"Thanks," said Julie. "What happened to the witch?"

Julie was beginning to regain movement of her body again. The tiny amount of poison had worn off. Sesshomaru explained to her what he had done.

Sesshomaru went to fetch his kimono and the upper part of his under robes. He put them back on. He was very quiet now.

Julie couldn't get him to say anything. He was very quiet for some reason.

"Sesshomaru, what's wrong?" she asked him. They were walking through the forest. She stood in front of him to block his path. He stopped and looked at her.

"Nothing," he said.

"Don't lie to me!" Julie told him.

Sesshomaru had a very strange expression on his face. "Jaken, go away."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru," said Jaken. He hurried off.

Sesshomaru looked back at Julie. "I-I was afraid of losing you earlier. I wasn't sure if I would really be able to turn you back."

"You were afraid of losing me?" Julie asked him. "But-but I thought you didn't really like me that much."

"I didn't at first," said Sesshomaru. "But then a while ago I realized that I didn't mind having you around with me. And I realized that if my father could love a human, I could too. Then when you started to change, I became afraid of losing you."

He suddenly hugged her. Julie hugged him back. "Sesshomaru, there's something I want to tell you. Before all of this happened, when I was in my own era, I didn't even know you, but I kind of loved you."

"Julie," said Sesshomaru. "You are the first human I have ever had feelings for. You have taught me that even though I am a demon, I can love a human."

He released her and took out the Wishing Lump and handed it to her. "It's time you went home. I'm not going to use you in my plan. It wouldn't be right. We'll find your friends tomorrow and you and your pals can go back home."

"Thank you Sesshomaru," said Julie.

They made camp that night again.

"I'm not going to sleep with you like I normally do," said Sesshomaru. "I know how much that annoyed you."

"You know something," said Julie. "It's okay. You can hold me if you like. This might be our last night together."

So Sesshomaru held her and they went to sleep.