So, I don't own Sesshomaru, Kikyo, or Rin. Enjoy the fic anyway.
Chapter 9
Kikyo and Rin were still bound as they were dragged into a castle. They were taken into a room where Kikyo was flung roughly at the feet of the lord in charge. Rin whimpered because of the treatment of her mother, but the priestess hardly made a noise from the impact with the wood. Kikyo sensed the aura of the lord. He was a demon and then she looked up when she realized that she knew this aura.
"You," Kikyo hissed venomously as she beheld the Lord Itachi. She would curse this weasel bastard until the day that she died if he dared harm Rin. Should he hurt her child in any way, his life would not even be measurable in minutes.
"Good to see you, Lady Kikyo," Itachi said with a proud, sinister smirk on his thin face. It seemed in her opinion that he was unaware he just signed his own death warrant. If she did not kill him, Sesshomaru certainly would.
"What do you want?" she demanded. She was fairly certain she would kill him and get home before Sesshomaru even knew they were gone.
Itachi smirked even wider. "Nothing much, just those lovely western lands," he informed her.
"And you think stealing me and Rin will get you such a foolish dream? You are quite the weak-willed fool. I had no idea people came as stupid as you," she commented. Sesshomaru was so right about these weasel demons.
Itachi growled because of the insult. He leaned down and slapped the raven-haired priestess with enough force to bruise her cheek. Kikyo hardly made a noise when the blow landed. She was moved back because of the power he put into the hit.
"Don't hit my mother!" Rin ordered, struggling to get to Kikyo. She held back by one of the kidnappers. Grunting, she tried to tear away, but found she was not strong enough. She wished she knew how to channel her spiritual energy through her hands like Kikyo because if she did, man, she would put a hurting on all of the demons right now.
"Now, Lady Kikyo, since you know what I want, I'll tell you how you can help me attain my dreams," Itachi said.
"You want my help?" Kikyo asked incredulously. The lord had to simply be out of his mind if he thought that she would assist him in any way, shape, or form. She would never betray her dearest Sesshomaru. Never.
"I do. I want you to purify Sesshomaru."
Kikyo could not help laughing. He wanted her to purify Sesshomaru? Oh, the man had to be completely out of his ever-loving mind. He had to be totally, utterly, stark raving mad. He would have to kill her before she considered doing anything for him.
"Why are you laughing, priestess?" Itachi demanded with a snarl, thinking she was mocking him.
"I assumed that you were telling a joke," she replied. "I know I found it quite humorous."
Itachi growled again because the woman was not taking him seriously. He considered striking her once more, but that did not seem to affect her, so he decided on something else. He motioned to one of his guards with his hand and the demon brought Rin to the lord. Itachi yanked the girl to him and then flung her to his wife's feet. Rin grunted a bit upon landing.
"What a cute child," Kaori said. She sat right behind her husband, wearing her usual flamboyant kimono.
"Leave Rin alone," Kikyo ordered in a very calm tone, which should have served as a warning to anyone thinking about injuring her daughter.
Lady Kaori leaned down and grabbed the child by the neck. Rin whimpered while the demon woman put her painted claws to the girl's throat. Kaori then turned her eyes to stare at Kikyo and she smirked wickedly at the priestess.
"My claws are just like Sesshomaru's, extremely poisonous. It is not a peaceful death to die by my claws, choking to death as the venom burns through your veins. If you continue to be stubborn, then I guess I will just have to slay your child," Kaori informed the bound priestess with a carefree shrug.
"If you kill my daughter, not only will you no longer have any leverage against me, but I will have no choice to kill you. All of you," Kikyo riposted easily. The look in her eyes was not that of a frightened mother, but of a determined, wrathful warrior. She wished these weasels would do something so ignorant as to murder Rin in front of her because she would slaughter every weasel demon in the territory after that.
Itachi noticed the look in Kikyo's cocoa eyes and he gulped, knowing he might be looking his death in the face. The priestess' body backed up the expression in her eyes. Her heart rate had not accelerated from nervousness, nor did her body go rigid from fear. Kikyo did not waver in any way to show she did not mean her words. She would kill them all.
"I'll give you some time to think about it," Itachi said to Kikyo. Her expression did not change.
-8-8-8-8-
Sesshomaru returned home as quickly as possible, Jakken whining the whole way and wanting to know what was happening. Sesshomaru did not respond because he did not know what was going on. He was just certain it had something to do with him being away from home.
By the time Sesshomaru made it home, it was nighttime by the time. The first place he went was Rin's room. He worried more about Rin than Kikyo for the simple fact that Rin was a little girl and Kikyo was a grown, trained, and powerful priestess.
The dog demon discovered Rin's room was empty. He growled as he tried to catch the scent of her or anyone else that might have been in the room. He could not smell anything at all, though. It was like the room was sterile. Instead of assuming the worst immediately, he considered Rin might be sleeping in the room with Kikyo. There were a couple of times when Rin liked to crawl into bed with them and just reassure herself that she was not alone, that she was cared for, and there were people that adored her. He did not understand it himself, but it was Rin, so he allowed it.
Sesshomaru turned and headed to his bedroom. He did not like that he was not picking up any signs of life from his chambers. He did not hear any breathing and he had not caught Kikyo's scent. When he made it to the room, he saw that it was as empty as a fresh grave. The same sterile smell that coated Rin's bedroom was glazed over his chambers like honey on a pastry, which lead him to know that someone tried to mask their scent.
"I am going to personally tear out the spines of anyone that was involved in this," Sesshomaru quietly decided.
The silver-haired male sniffed around his room, but he did not find a hint of who had stolen his wife and child. He decided to go outside to scan the area for Kikyo's or Rin's scent. He locked onto that sterile smell, but it went in several directions. That's clever, he thought, but whoever had done such a thing was not clever enough. Through the annoying sterilized scent, he could smell his wife and child. They seemed to have worked up a sweat, struggling against their kidnappers undoubtedly. He took off in the direction that his mate and child were taken.
-8-8-8-8-
Kikyo and Rin were left bound in a cell with stonewalls. The dungeon was more than likely a cave that was left when the castle was built. Rin curled up next to her mother for assurance that everything would be fine. Kikyo hummed softly to help ease Rin's nerves. The priestess guessed they would be left there until Itachi could think of a better threat, a better way to use Rin against her. She would rather not be there when he came up with a good idea, or at least she would rather have her hands free.
"Are you all right, now, Rin-chan?" Kikyo asked quietly.
"Uh-huh," the child answered. She was a bit shaken because she knew those weasels wanted to use her to get her mother to hurt her father.
"Then you're going to have to free your hands."
"Okay."
"I have an arrow hidden in my yukata. If you move your hands to your front, then you should be able to reach it."
Rin nodded. The child happened to be double-jointed, but the men that tired her ropes did not know that. She easily held her hands over her head and moved them to her chest. She then turned to Kikyo.
"The arrow is at my left side," the adult said. She was a bit paranoid sleeping alone in the castle, which was why she had the arrow tucked away in her nightclothes. She had been sleeping with bow at her side and an entire quiver of arrows at the other side. When those ninjas grabbed her, they did not give her time to gather her weapons. The arrow was the last resort and she had not even had the chance to use that.
Rin reached into her mother's yukata and Kikyo jumped. Rin pulled her hands back. "Did I do something wrong?" the child asked.
"No, your hands are just cold. I didn't brace myself for it," Kikyo explained with a reassuring smile.
The girl nodded and reached back into the yukata. She quickly discovered the arrow. She liberated the weapon and did not need to be told to work her hands free of the ropes. It took a while since the ropes were thick and tied around a third of her forearms. She then cut her feet free before working on her mother's bonds.
"What now, Mommy?" Rin inquired.
"Let's see if we can get the guard's attention and hopefully have him open the door. Sit back down as if you're still tied up," Kikyo instructed the girl.
Rin nodded, wondering what her mother had planned. She sat back down at Kikyo's side. She curled her legs behind her to hide the fact that her feet were no longer bound. Kikyo put her hands behind her to keep up the illusion that her hands were together.
"Excuse me," Kikyo called to the door, knowing there was someone nearby. She sensed a demon, but he actually seemed to be a bit far for a guard. It took a moment for him to respond.
"What?" he huffed.
"My daughter is cold. Might she have a blanket?" Kikyo requested.
"No," he answered plainly.
Kikyo chuckled a bit and shook her head. She glanced down at Rin, who appeared to be wondering what they would do now since the guard was not coming. The priestess smiled to show that she had other ways of getting the guard to open the door.
"Excuse me," Kikyo called again after a few minutes.
"What now?" the guard asked in a gruff tone.
"My yukata is coming undone. Please, could you fix it for me, so that I might avoid becoming sick?" she requested.
"What?" he inquired to be certain that he had heard correctly.
"My yukata is coming undone. Please, could you fix it for me," she repeated. Apparently, she had gotten his attention with that.
Rin looked up at her mother with her eyebrows curled up and her forehead wrinkled. Kikyo shook her head as a response as if telling the girl not to think on it. These were not matters Rin needed to understand for a few more years.
The door opened seconds later and a typical weasel demon entered the room. He smirked when he saw that Kikyo had not been lying about her yukata. Rin had loosened it by accident when reaching for the arrow. The demon began grinning like a pervert when he saw the curve of her milky breast was visible.
"Mommy," Rin said when the guard started reaching for the exposed flesh.
"It's all right, Rin," Kikyo assured the child.
Kikyo knew the child was worried about the lewd demon actually touching her, but that was not in the plan. Only one man would ever touch her so intimately and that man certainly was not with them at the moment. Kikyo took hold of the guard's wrist like a striking viper. He only had a chance to gasp in surprise before her powers were circulating through his system. She shoved him away from her when he went limp. She climbed to her feet and Rin followed suit.
"Getting out of here isn't going to be so easily," Kikyo muttered because she knew almost all castles were built like mazes to confuse enemies and people that did not belong. She had to do something, though, because she refused to wait for that lunatic Itachi to think of some way to use Rin against her.
Kikyo fixed her yukata as she walked to the door to see if she could plot the course that they had taken when being brought into the room. Rin busied herself by grabbing any small, loose pebbles in the room. Kikyo was pretty sure she recalled the route that they had taken, so she was confident to leave the room and make a run for it.
"Rin, come and make sure that you stay behind me," Kikyo cautioned the child.
"Yes, ma'am," the little girl answered.
-8-8-8-8-
Sesshomaru arrived at the end of the trail. He scowled when he saw where he was standing. I will personally skin and behead this ignorant bastard Itachi. He would not even use Toukijin when he did it, he would behead that skinny bastard with his claws. He would then use Toukijin's energy to destroy all traces of Itachi's filthy body. Yes, that seemed like a very accepted arrangement. So, now all he had to do was reach that dead man, but, before that, he had to save his favorite ladies.
The dog demon moved about the castle searching for some hint of Kikyo or Rin. He stalked through the castle as if he was the shadow of death itself. It did not take long for guards to take note of him and attack him like intruder he was. Sesshomaru calmly countered the attack with the Toukijin. He cut down anyone that came to battle him.
"You're all fools to throw your lives away for this coward you call a lord," Sesshomaru said as he cut down another wave of guards.
-8-8-8-8-
Kikyo and Rin's escape was no longer as quiet as it had been when they started out. Apparently, they were to be taken alive because none of the guards that came at them attempted to draw a sword. Rin and Kikyo had been using the rocks that the girl had picked up as weapons. They did not use the stones in any ordinary sense. They charged the pebbles with spiritual energy like they would with arrows. The rocks turned into deadly projectiles in the hands of Kikyo and Rin.
By the time the two humans made it to a courtyard, they were out of stones. The guards seemed to think that since the females were out of ammo that meant that they were helpless. But, they were just as dangerous without weapons as they were with them. The demons were careful around Kikyo, knowing a simple touch from her could mean their demise. They tried to go for Rin and that turned out to be just as bad an idea.
The little girl was trained in several forms self-defense, both hand-to-hand and weapons, and she was no slouch in the areas. Those were about the only things she thought were fun that her tutors taught her. She could hit with enough force to daze her opponents, letting Kikyo have enough time to get hold of the stunned men. Kikyo finished off whatever Rin started. They continued their flight, but after a few minutes of running, Kikyo realized they were not going the right way. Everything just looked alike. Castle architects were sadists, she was certain of that.
-8-8-8-8-
Sesshomaru could smell his wife and daughter very clearly. He could even sense some panic from them, so he knew they were very close. He was done playing around then. His eyes bled over crimson and his teeth grew. He transformed into his giant dog form and ripped through everything in sight to find his family.
-8-8-8-8-
Rin noticed a white blur in the sky out of the corner of her eye for a brief moment. It looked like a tail tip to her. She turned to her mother, hoping to get her attention and direct her toward the snow-colored blur. Kikyo was a bit busy though, protecting the girl and Rin saw the tail again.
"Daddy?" Rin wondered and then saw the tail a third time. "Daddy!" the child hollered in joy.
Sesshomaru, having very good hearing, heard Rin's shout. He rushed to where her voice was, tearing down anything in his way and his acidic saliva melted anything on his sides. Everything in his wake was either stomped or dissolved and he could care less than nothing. He made it to Kikyo and Rin as they were being backed down a dead-end.
The dog demon changed back into his human form, silent as an ant while doing so. He then charged into the group of guards, cutting them all down without hesitating. Many of them did not even have time to gasp.
"Sesshomaru," Kikyo said in a slightly stunned voice. She had been too busy with the weasel demons to sense his presence at all.
"Beloved," Sesshomaru greeted her in his usual tone.
"Daddy!" Rin cheered and she charged him to leap into his arms. Sesshomaru grunted when her weight landed on him.
"She is happy?" Sesshomaru asked Kikyo, just to be sure.
"Of course," she answered with a small smile.
"Itachi was behind this?" he inquired, again just to be sure. There was always a chance his wife acted without his consent.
"Yes," she confirmed.
Sesshomaru frowned. He would get that coward and end him. First, he was going to do some very unspeakable things to that man. No one, but no one played around with the great dog demon like that grubby, little weasel worm.
-8-8-8-8-
Next time: Sesshomaru and Kikyo have a moment before being interrupted by more enemies. Can't these two catch a break!