VI
Qui Vigilat
"There are others in the village that require my care, youkai wolf. Will you be staying here over night?"
"Yes – and my name is Kouga. I won't leave her; don't even think about trying to move her away from me."
"I...of course not. I have no intention of doing anything to provoke you; nor do the villagers. Please keep that in mind."
His grin is wide and feral, exposes a legion of sharp teeth.
The expression sends Kaede scurrying out into the night, and he sends his laughter after her. Miko she might be, but not strong enough to challenge him – and she knows it, too.
Alone, he contemplates his position. He has done well enough, he thinks; the miko obeys, the girl will heal...the girl. He stares at her, contemplates the strangeness of her, feels the pulse of power in her that matches the power pulsing in his own palm; then he undoes the fastenings of his armor and tucks it into an unoccupied corner, stretches and rubs his shoulders.
The old miko knows more than she's said. Shikon no tama...she recognizes it...but she hasn't said anything to me about it. She won't, I bet. But I wonder how she knows?
It has the taste of a large secret, but he can put such considerations aside for a later time; the old miko is going nowhere, and he can always return to question her at his leisure. For now...for now, he wants little secrets.
"Like your name, shikon woman..."
The girl on the ground before him stirs in her unconsciousness, and he sees the gleam of her eyes as they open and is startled into stillness.
Blue.
Exotic and lovely. Kouga wonders if they were that way before shards of the shikon no tama infected her. She stretches, and then lets out a high-pitched gasp of pain; she reaches her hand down the side of her body, feels the bandage that has been wrapped there, the damage to her clothes. Kouga hears her heartbeat speed faster, smells the bitter snap of fear as it grows in her scent.
He steps closer, and he sees the moment she grows aware of his presence, the moment she catches sight of his gleaming eyes in the dimness of the little hut.
"You – you...are...who are – who are you?"
It is a good start, he thinks. She has neither screamed, nor jerked away from him in terror. It doesn't occur to him that it hasn't occurred to her that he is youkai; that he is impossible to her, not a clear and present danger.
"I'm Kouga, the Wolf-Alpha, the Ookami Prince."
He grins at her dazed expression, thinks it is because of his rank when really she is frozen in disbelief.
"Who are you, shikon woman? What's your name?"
She answers automatically.
"Kagome; I'm Kagome."
A/N: Well, it's only 4:30 am, but technically...that means it's today! And so this chapter appears...how startling! "Qui vigilat" means 'he who watches'; until tomorrow!
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