Jackie: Well, the semester is over, and instead of enjoying it I get sick… Bummer. The good news is that I'm no longer a jobless bum! I just landed a great job as a computer scientist. Go me! To make things even better, Nashville loved my demo CD of cover songs… The down side is they say I'm not skinny enough. Quote: "We have the technology to make anyone sound good, we want someone we can sell pictures of" sigh Why don't they just hire models then and skip the whole talent issue? I mean really, with technology who needs talent? If I can loose the weigh by next April they are willing to take me, they say I've "got the looks" minus the weight issue, but they want me, a 5'10" Amazonian built woman, to weigh 110 pounds, 120 max! At 145 (when I used to do a lot of running) I was only 5-8 body fat, just how the heck am I supposed to go below that? Have some organs removed? glare Oh well, I still have my writing and my Bachelors of computer science.

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Chapter 13;

Two weeks later………..

Naraku yelled with fury again over loosing his treasure, "Lord Sesshomaru will pay! If I cannot command the power of the metamorph, no one will!"

"And just what do you plan to do about it?" Kagura sneered.

Naraku smiled, "She does not yet realize her power. She is an easy mark."

Naraku let down the top of his kimono and slice a sword into his flesh. He smiled darkly and said, "I will create something dark and ugly. Something powerful and designed to defeat the known powers of Tokijin and Sesshomaru. This incarnation has but one purpose on earth."

He sliced a piece of his flesh off and it started to form in a body. Naraku smiled and he said, "To kill Lord Sesshomaru, and his beloved Miyoiki."

…………….

Sesshomaru and Miyoiki sparred. It was taking more and more of his energy to draw out her powers. He would soon be spent and she would still have room to grow. Incredible.

He swung at her and she froze staring to the west. He stopped his blade a hair short and looked in that direction. She growled deeply and said, "Something is coming. Something evil."

Suddenly Miyoiki was struck by something and flung back 50 feet from where she had stood. Sesshomaru growled and held his sword ready as he tried to back his way towards her. He was only a few feet away and asked, "Miyoiki, are you-?"

He was cut off as he was struck by a tremendous wave of power that hurled him away from Miyoiki. He found his feet immediately a sniffed the wind, but found nothing. Miyoiki groaned and looked up. She saw something strike Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru lashed back but hit nothing and he was struck again. This time his armor was shattered.

Miyoiki grabbed two fists full of dirt and ran toward her lord. When she was at his side she clapped her hand together creating a slight smoke screen. They both scanned the area, waiting for the attacker to be revealed. Miyoiki saw that it wasn't enough and started kicking and throwing dirt into the air. This time the attacker was revealed.

A cruel chuckle surrounded them. The demon flashed into visibility and said, "So very clever, but it will do you no good."

It was a hunched lumpy man, with large black eyes. He was troll-like in appearance with a wickedly-cruel fanged grin. His right arm seemed to grown as it swung out and struck Miyoiki, flinging her like a toy across the clearing. Her head hit a stone with a loud crack, and she just laid there. Sesshomaru glared as he asked, "Did Naraku send you? He is not going to take Miyoiki!"

"He's not interested in taking her," The creature explaining, "He wants her dead, but he wants you dead first."

The creature opened its mouth. Normally Sesshomaru was too fast for any demon, but this one's tongue moved faster than Sesshomaru's eyes could register. It hit him in the chest and pierced strait through. Sesshomaru growled and began to lift Tokijin. He would mount this beast's tongue over his mantle.

But it was not to be. Sesshomaru started to glow a sick brown-green, and he felt his strength leave him. His sword hit the ground with a light clunk and chatter. He was paralyzed and hanging there like a rag doll. Some kind of paralytic poison. The demon's eyes filled with delight as it used its own sword to make Sesshomaru into a pin cushion.

Miyoiki began to stir and stars swam in her vision. She groaned and held her head as she looked across the clearing. Her whole soul cried in despair at seeing Sesshomaru dangling, limp in the air and being repeatedly stabbed. She howled, "PUT HIM DOWN!"

A wave of dark demon power flung outward from her and knocked the creature over. Sesshomaru landed on the ground in an uneven lump. She raced to his side and made note of his many severe wounds. His eyes rolled to her, and she felt the most complete rage she had ever felt. She could hear the rasping breaths of the demon behind her, and she wanted it to stop.

"You bitch!" the demon roared and lunged at her.

She caught him, mid flight, and hurled him across the clearing. Her eyes shined with a bright blue light and she flew across the clearing at him. He had not yet landed when her silver claws grew and then cut into him. What followed was too gruesome for description, but a fitting end to one of Naraku's creations. She flew to Sesshomaru's side and asked, "Are you all right, my lord?"

Sesshomaru's eyes rolled in their sockets, and she lifted him up. She carried him towards the waterfall. If he lived, he would need somewhere hidden to rest. She landed and drug him behind the waterfall. He groaned lightly, but she could see that the wounds were already knitting shut. She laid him down and she opened his top to look at his injuries. She touched his bare and bloody chest lightly and gasped as even his most severe wounds seemed to close before her eyes. His eyes fluttered open and he looked at her.

He had felt it. A strange sort of pure spiritual power had pulsed threw him, but instead of purifying and killing him it had surged to his wounds and healed them. She blinked and looked into his eyes. He looked down and she realized her hand was stilling on his chest. She bit her lip and started to pull away as she said, "I'm sorr-"

His right hand swung out and grabbed her hand. She froze and stared at him. He stood and brought her up with him. She gazed up into his beautiful amber eyes and felt his warm hand wrapped around hers. She felt his pulse in his palm and breathed in his rich male scent, only slightly marred by the metallic scent of blood. Beneath that was that smell again. Must.

He looked down into her confused silver-blue eyes. Her feelers twitched lightly and he could feel her heartbeat quicken. He couldn't help himself. He had been fighting this so long and he was tired of it. His free hand gently tucked a stray lock of silver hair behind her ear as he said, "Don't pull away."

It sounded unmistakably like a command. She couldn't think of anything else to say so she said, "You told me-"

"Forget that," He said.

Damn. Why was this so hard? He was the great Lord Sesshomaru. He wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. He wanted her. He had always reached out and took whatever he wanted, but he couldn't this time. Knowing what he wanted wasn't enough; he had to know what she wanted. There was the small problem that he had no idea how to ask.

Miyoiki was dumbstruck. That musty scent had gone away and his eyes suddenly seemed unsure. He looked at her as though he was seeking something, asking a question, or permission? Permission for what?

It was growing dark in the cave, but she could still see his smoldering golden eyes like to embers glowing in the darkness. The air was damp and clung to her skin, and the rush of the waterfall filled her ears. She remembered now, with his hand tenderly holding hers, the tenderness of his examination at the river. She could see his eyes dart and his ears twitch, looking for Rin. She saw him, watching over them as they slept.

She saw the pain in his eyes as he watched her engulfed by the silk, she felt the heat of his touch when his single claw made circles on her skin. Then something clicked. Her emotional side let go, and the puzzle master that she was took over.

"You have been my greatest puzzle," She whispered to him, "So dark, so cold, but that's just the surface, isn't it?"

Sesshomaru's eyes never faltered, and his expression never changed. Beneath his cold exterior he wanted to run and hide. He had a feeling she was doing it again. She was seeing through him. Still his golden eyes never strayed. They watched, and waited.

Miyoiki took a breath. It was very likely that she was about to get herself fired, or worse, killed over the presumptions she was about to make known, but she had to know if she was right. If she wasn't, was it really worth working for him anyway? Did she want to work for a man who enjoyed nothing more than death and kept a group of vassals only out of some perverse pleasure at being exalted? She needed to know that he was who she thought he was. She needed to know that he was more.

"Why would the great Lord Sesshomaru take on a vassal like Jaken?" She started, "You didn't need someone bowing a scraping at your heels. He has no real power to add to your arsenal, and he can only slow you down. Then there is Ah-Un, you don't need his power either, and you don't need him to fly."

Sesshomaru's face remained placid. She was getting nervous, but she continued, "And then there's Rin. A human child can not be considered a convenience to your plans either. Since you can't possibly need any of us around, there remains only one possibility. You want us around."

Sesshomaru continued to gaze at her, never letting the shock hit his face. He had always told himself some lie, some reason or duty that made him take on these vassals, but deep down he could not refute her reasoning. Even if just now was the moment that he realized it was true. Her eyes flashed, she had just collected another piece of the puzzle she was putting together, "The… You didn't fight back… When I attacked you…"

It became clear to her, all at once in the growing darkness of the cave. Everything he appeared to be at the surface was just a cold shell for a heartbroken man. He was designed to push people out, so that he would not suffer their loss. He must have lost someone very important to him. Somehow she, Jaken and Rin had gotten beneath that.

But more than that she had gotten even further. Did she dare to call him on it? Did she dare to believe it?

"I did not," He said, prompting her to continue.

"But," She started, "Everything is weighed and measured by you. Without you, who would care for Rin?"

"I figured my half-brother would handle it," He answered simply.

"No," She said firmly, "There's more. How could you weigh the balance and decide that your life was less important than mine? It is completely out of your character, unless…"

"Unless?" He asked softly.

"And, the tenderness at the river," She continued, "You said 'please'."

He nodded numbly. She had it together, and now she was just in shock of what she had discovered. He loved her, and she now knew it. Sesshomaru waited to see what she would do with this knowledge.

"The training, and the times that you let me get away with disrespecting you," She prattled on.

It was beginning to grate on his nerves. His grip tightened on her hand and he said, "Just how much proof do you need to make your conclusion, Miyoiki? Go ahead, say it."

His eyes became intense, and she felt his normally steady pulse jump. His hand trembled slightly, and she saw the briefest hint of sadness flash across his eyes. She looked into his eyes with shock and said, "It's true… You… You…"

"Yes," He said simply.

The cards were out. There was no way back now. Miyoiki's pulse actually stopped for the briefest of seconds beneath his fingertips. Her silver eyes sparkled in the darkness of the cave. Outside was night, and in this cave were two bright shining stars twinkling and leading him to either ruin or salvation. He waited.

"Well?" Sesshomaru asked.

"What am I supposed to say?" She whispered.

She had not meant it as a rejection; she was just too shocked to think of anything else to say. But that is exactly how he took it. He dropped her hand abruptly and said, "I see. You had better get some sleep. Your skill has improved greatly. We should return to my castle and wait for Naraku's next move."

"My lord," She whispered.

"Rin will be glad to see you," He said over her.

He perched near the edge of the cave and stared into nothingness, because he did not dare to look into the blue eyes that bore holes into his back and his heart. He heard Miyoiki shift behind him, and when he turned she was curled up on the cave floor sleeping.

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Jackie: Sleepy time! Cya next chapter.