Enchanted Orbs

Chapter 24 Bittersweet Kiss

Sesshoumaru heard the desperate plea that Kagome uttered, and a feeling of complete failure washed over him. It was unbidden; it was unwanted. But it came.

He had never felt this way before; total defeat was never something experienced by him. Temporary setbacks were the closest he had ever come to this, but now, he had failed.

He was required to defend his lands. He needed to reaffirm his title. But he wanted to protect Kagome. He desired her safety and well-being. When did this happen? It didn't matter now because she knew.

She knew of the death sentence that was just reaching the field; she had realized the implications, and she was on the verge of tears. Sesshoumaru could see his reflection in her eyes; tears were brimming and about to fall. But what could he do?

He felt helpless.

But then her tears were forced back, and Kagome found her voice. It was shaky, but she forced the words to come.

"We can do this. There's not as many as last time. We just need a change in tactics, that's all." She gave him a half hearted smile.

Sesshoumaru hesitated but nodded, unsure of what action should be taken.

Shouron and Aishi watched the interaction between the girl and their lord. They glanced at each other but kept their silence.

A faint laugh brought their attention back to the girl. Kagome stared straight at Sesshoumaru as if begging for reassurance.

"I've fooled you with my strategies; Rokoshi and his goons shouldn't be a problem." Kagome said as if trying to convince herself. She looked at the ground for a moment then turned back to her lord.

"Sesshoumaru, why haven't you transformed? Aren't you stronger in that form?"

He hesitated a moment. "Yes, but that form is not suitable for this circumstance."

"Why not?" She asked.

"My inu (dog) form is more capable of handling mob-like situations, but my speed is greatly hindered. With as many soldiers as the enemy has, they would eventually overwhelm me. If I stay in my humanoid form, my speed allows me to kill without allowing as much harm to me."

"Oh." Kagome looked a bit crestfallen, but her brow creased and she began thinking again.

She didn't want to die. It was true, but that didn't seem quite right. 'No, the truth is...I don't want to see him die.' Sesshoumaru was her friend, and she didn't...no, that wasn't true either.

Realization struck. 'I can't watch him die. I would die before I let that happen.' Watching Shouron's death was tremendously painful, but Sesshoumaru? It brought tears to her eyes, and a numb feeling began to come over her.

White light seared through her vision. Her power was attacking her again. Pain ripped through her, and she instinctively cried out. "No!"

"Kagome, what's wrong?" Shouron's voice called to her, but she looked up and saw Sesshoumaru's face.

The normally stone face was gone. Gold eyes shone with worry, and his mouth was drawn into a slight frown.

Kagome smiled up at him, but the smile faded with gold. A golden thread of sunlight traveled from one to another. She had seen it moments before, but this time, it started with him.

'No! I won't let him die!' Her thoughts became determined. She shook off the inquiries of Shouron and estimated the number of enemies surrounding them.

"How many would we have to take out before you could transform." Her voice was set.

He turned his head to look out at the approaching soldiers. "About half."

Kagome's brow creased in concentration. "I can take care of a fourth of them." She turned to Aishi and Shouron. "Can you two get the rest?"

They nodded. She smiled. "Then you can finish up, Sesshoumaru."

The taiyoukai's eyes narrowed. "Kagome, what are you going to do?"

She closed her eyes. "I'm going to give them a few presents." It was hard, but she gathered her power, and was about to create a few landmines when Sesshoumaru stopped her.

"Kagome, don't."

The confusion held in her expression prompted him to continue. "You'll destroy yourself. Your body is already beginning to dissolve itself from within. You need to heal or you'll die." His voice was calm, but a pleading undertone was not wasted on Kagome.

She bowed her head with his statement. Her voice was so soft that Sesshoumaru nearly missed it. "Better me than you."

His eyes widened at her words, but it only helped to further set his determination. Kagome was his friend, a companion, and he would not allow her to die for him. He could still protect her, and he would with his dying breath.

"No." His voice left no room for argument. "My generals and I will fight this alone. You will return home during the distraction."

"I will not!" Whether she was hurt that he would send her away or mad because of his command, she did not know. "I will fight by your side, and damn you if you think that I..."

"Kagome, please." It was so soft. His voice was a gentle caress on her ears. She almost agreed because of it.

She turned pleading eyes to him. "I can't watch you die." She responded just as quietly.

Soft eyes looked back on her before they hardened with an emotion Kagome was unsure of...determination? Frustration? She couldn't decipher it.

He said nothing as he turned his back on her. Casting a quick glance at his generals in an unspoken warning, he shattered her barrier with his acid whip. The males were instantly ready for battle, and Kagome was just trying to hold back tears.

She stood as began to walk forward, following the others, when a barrier was posted over her. It was of Sesshoumaru's power. A warm feeling took hold of her briefly at his care, but it was replaced with a sick, sinking feeling because now she couldn't help. She was too weak to break his shield.

Trapped. That stupid, irritating helpless feeling came over her again. 'Damn it all.' What could she do but watch.

A cloud gathered under Shouron's feet and he was lifted into the sky. From above, he was not susceptible to the close combat fighting that he was adverse to, and this vantage gave him a better view of the battle below. Shouron now could direct his attacks more accurately, finding areas that are denser with enemies and destroying those cliques with his lightning or wind.

There are youkai that have flight capability, whether they were strong enough to use a cloud of youki or if their natural forms were enabled of flight, but they were easily thwarted by a cage of lightning that protected its master and a rush of wind that sent them barreling towards the earth.

Aishi seemed to be doing well, too. He wasn't in his fiery form this time, but he did have some definite skill with the double swords he was swinging. He was utilizing the same strategy Sesshoumaru had previously. Aishi moved with tremendous speed and agility, striking his opponents dead before they even sensed his approach.

Sesshoumaru seemed untouchable. He stood amidst a crowd of warriors, all of whom were trying desperately to wound him or hinder his speed, but all failed. His limbs were a blur of movement in his strikes and thrusts, only rarely did he have to defend.

The opponents began to thin somewhat. Kagome began to wonder if she had been overreacting earlier, but then she noticed something missing.

In all of the chaos of the war, she had really taken for granted the special attacks, but now that the lightning was glaringly absent, she missed its presence. Snapping her head to the sky, she saw Shouron trying to defend and attack against three airborne youkai. Two had wings and the other appeared to be floating on air. One fell from the sky with a bolt of lightning, but it didn't deter the other two.

Something pulled her attention away...it was Aishi. He was still a formidable enemy with his swirling swords now dripping with the blood of his enemies, but now, there was blood on his once spotless robes.

Upon closer inspection, Kagome noticed a rip in the fabric, over his hips, which was surrounded by a deep red stain. The stain was growing.

Not liking the trend, she sought out Sesshoumaru. He was still fighting, and though there was no visible ailment, she could tell he was slowing down. His speed about half of what he fought with during the previous battles, and Kagome noticed that he was forced to defend more often than before.

Everyone was losing speed, and they had only taken out half of the enemy. Things were not good.

She was slowly recovering, but there was no way she could do much of anything stuck behind Sesshoumaru's shield. 'Its like I'm in an aquarium, just watching everything around me able to do nothing about it.'

She watched in dismay was Shouron took a punch to the face before he retaliated with his own attack.

Aishi was still going strong but he was listing to the side somewhat. 'Probably in a mixture of exhaustion and pain.' She thought as she mentally calculated how long they had been fighting. With the five minute break between battles excluded, they had been fighting non-stop for a full day.

Reverting to childhood fear in her uncontrollable thoughts, Kagome shivered in the ever growing blackness of night. There was still a bit of pink on the horizon, but hope was fading with the light. And bad things always happened at night.

She closed her eyes to block out the traitorous thoughts. A flash of an image formed in her head. It was too quick for her to even recognize anything but color. Silver.

Her thoughts went to Sesshoumaru, his hair swirling around him as he became Death, itself. But that was wrong; the image cam again. Shape was allowed her this time. Thin and cord-like made up the consistency.

'A silver cord? No, a silver chain!' Her thoughts went instantly to the gift she had been given. The chain Nara had given her had transport capabilities, or so she had been told. But could this gift transport four people?

She didn't see why not, now she just had to get everyone back inside her...this wasn't her barrier.

'Ok, scratch that idea. I need to break this barrier, get them here, and erect another one. Do I have enough power to do that?' She hesitated for a moment. 'Yes, I have enough power, but will it destroy me?' She thought.

Looking up, she watched, horrified, as a sword finally connected with her lord.

Strands of silky hair drifted towards the ground as if in slow motion. Blood spread down his arm in thick rivulets. To cause the amount of blood flowing down his limb, it had to be a very deep cut.

Something cold wrapped around her chest and gripped her heart at the sight. Icy fingers cruelly tore through her, mercilessly seized her, and she almost wretched at the feeling.

But with that came power. Unknowingly, in her secondary lapse, she dissolved her cage. The instant she felt her freedom, two whips were flung outward, away from her. One wrapped around Sesshoumaru; the other found Aishi.

Why didn't they dodge her attack? She would probably never remember to ask, but she consoled herself to think that they recognized her power as that of an ally and made no move to thwart it.

Retracting them, she smiled at the image of two insanely powerful youkai flying helplessly towards her. 'Wait. Flying helplessly towards me?' She ducked her head behind her shoulder and arms and waited for a very painful collision, but it never came.

When she looked up, both were standing inches from her glaring intensely. They turned to head back into battle before the soldiers surrounding them realized the situation, but they were halted by a miko's shield.

Simultaneously, the two generals turned and again pierced her with a vicious glare, but she paid it no mind.

A bubble formed around Shouron, interrupting his fight with the last of the flying youkai, and dragged him back into the shield.

"Kagome, what is the meaning of this?" Sesshoumaru asked with his flat tone, but instinctively she knew that he was beyond mad.

"I just remembered that I can get us out of here. I have a transport..." She began but was not allowed to finish.

His smooth voice did not betray the ice she was receiving from his gaze. "You wish me to run?"

She was not sure how to answer. Kagome knew it was a strategic retreat until they could heal and regroup, but she also knew that he would never see it was anything but a coward's retreat.

Kagome turned to look at the generals. Shouron, though his lip was cut and bleeding, looked dismayed. At what? She wasn't sure.

Aishi, like his lord, betrayed nothing of his feelings at this instant, but a feeling told her his thoughts echoed those of Sesshoumaru. He was injured as well; she could now tell that the gash on his hip cut from the protruding bone down to midthigh.

She didn't answer his question; she opted to appeal to one of their more primal urges, that which seeks to escape pain.

Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru's arm. A sword had cleanly sliced through the muscle and took part of the bone away in its course. The arm appeared to be half connected, and she shivered at the thought.

"All of you need to heal. This battle can be resumed and won with no deaths if we do so now."

He looked at her a moment. All the earlier emotion now absent, but she no longer unnerved by his gaze. As if not wanting to tear his eyes from her, he closed them and turned towards the soldiers hacking at her shield.

"Let down your shield, Kagome." He commanded.

"No. Sesshoumaru, please, let me take us away from here."

He stood in silence, waiting for her to cave and follow his direction.

Finally, he unsheathed Toukijin and pointed it at her barrier. She knew what was coming.

Fear lanced through her, and she funneled that into the strength of her shield, praying to whoever would listen that it would hold.

Toukijin's attack was purified, but had no visible affect on the barrier's stability.

But now, between the soldiers desperately trying to break through from the outside, and the attack that just wrecked havoc on this side, Kagome was unsure how much longer she could hold it up.

"Sesshoumaru, we have to leave now! I can get us out of here, please."

"I will not surrender my lands to these vermin. I will not retreat." His tone was flat, but he spoke with conviction behind his words.

"You will die here. Please, let us take our leave."

"And give them the victory? Never."

"Sesshoumaru we will return, and I swear on everything holy that they will die by our hands, but not now. When we return, it will be on our time, in our favor."

Sesshoumaru growled and began pummeling Kagome's barrier in order to resume the fight.

She folded her hands in her lap and let her head sag. From her sitting position, she looked so small. Her voice lost its previous fervor. She sounded weak and timid when she spoke again. "Sesshoumaru...have I been a good companion?"

His attacks ceased, and he slowly turned to look at her. She read his questioning gaze and clarified.

"Do you trust me? Am I considered a friend in your eyes?" She asked with a tender, soft voice.

He hesitated. This wasn't a question he expected in the middle of a battlefield, and he didn't want to show any weakness towards her in front of others. But he would not lie to the one closest him.

"Yes." He answered, still not facing her.

"Then come with me. I can't bear to watch you die. Please." Kagome pleaded with tears streaming down her face.

"Your death is not necessary, Kagome." He said with a tight voice. For the first time in centuries he had a hard time suppressing the emotion that wanted to surface at her tears, at the thought of watching her die because of his choice. With a soft tone heard only by Kagome, he spoke. "Please, Kagome, don't stay for your death. Leave and live."

She looked up at him through crystal tears. "You really think I would leave you to die alone. No. I will fight by your side if I cannot convince you otherwise. But as your friend, will you grant me one last request?" Her voice trailed away into nothing with the final syllables.

Sesshoumaru turned to face her and gazed into the ocean's depths of her eyes. His face gentled slightly and nodded. "If it is within my power at this time."

Kagome gave him a heartbreaking smile and pushed herself off the ground. He watched her rise with a grace that should have been absent with her weariness. She never broke their gaze as she closed the distance between them.

As she was walking slowly towards him, Aishi and Shouron were surrounded by a halo of her white orbs. Before they had a chance to react, they were pulled by the spheres slowly towards their lord's back.

Sesshoumaru didn't even notice their approach as he was entranced by the emotion spilling into him from crystal blue eyes.

When Kagome was mere inches from Sesshoumaru, her eyes strayed from his only to fall on his lips.

"Forgive me, my lord." He heard her whisper as he felt her hand caress the side of his face.

Kagome rose onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. The painstakingly beautiful feeling that seared her was bittersweet. Something clenched in her chest as she fulfilled a longing. When? When did this longing bloom? Did it really matter at this point? No. The only thing that existed was him.

Another tear slid silently down her cheek as she silently informed Sesshoumaru and all watching of her unrequited love.

His eyes widened at her actions. Yes, he had never been able to predict her actions, but this was by far the most unexpected surprise.

Everything that Sesshoumaru had ever been, told him to push her away and sneer at the disgusting ningen that stood before him.

But this was Kagome, the girl he had become a friend to, the girl he had come to need, the girl he now wanted. He gave in to his desire to taste the flavor that existed within her mouth from its source.

The stiff, perfect posture wilted just slightly as his injured arm snaked around her waist, pulling her to him. The other went to cradle her neck gently as he angled face for better access.

Exhilaration coursed through her. She never expected him to participate; she never thought he could possibly feel anything for her aside from respect, possibly friendship, but now there was hope.

Sesshoumaru gently stroked down on her jaw with his thumb, encouraging her to part her plush lips. Kagome was hesitant; she was unsure of what to do, but she allowed him entrance.

His tongue swept into the cavern of her mouth, and he reveled in her taste. She was unique, sweet, spicy, with a tang that represented her power and personal flare all mixed into a culinary masterpiece that he knew he could never tire of. Sesshoumaru let his tongue rush in and savor her.

Kagome could feel the passion behind his actions and began to mimic his dance with own of her own.

She loved him. There was no denying it now. Any hint of doubt that nagged at her had vanished in their mingled passion, at his participation; she would not let him die.

'I will not lose him, not now that I just found him.' Kagome thought determined.

Her hand slipped down from his cheek and descended to his back; her other arm reached around him as well.

Without Sesshoumaru noticing her actions, she reached behind him and grabbed Aishi and Shouron. Aishi took in a breath to protest, but Shouron silenced him with a scathing glare.

They watched as a silver chain surfaced from beneath the skin of Kagome's wrists and disappear behind their lord. What they couldn't see was the chain beginning from her neck, draping down her arms to wrap around her wrists. One end of the chain released her wrist and shot out, through the barrier, and off into the distance.

All where immediately enveloped in a white bubble, and their surroundings began to move away from them as the scenery changed. The speed increased until all that surrounded them was a blur of colors.

The white disappeared, leaving them standing in the middle of a clearing with an abandoned well off to the side.

There were no more soldiers trying to kill them, no more bloodstains reminding them of their fallen enemies and comrades, and no more crumbling walls signaling the former safety of Sesshomaru's stronghold. There was none of that, only the nature surrounding them, an old dry well, and their lord passionately embracing a human female.

Kagome released her hold on them and returned her hands to Sesshoumaru's back.

Both Aishi and Shouron shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to proceed from here. They were hesitant to leave their lord unguarded, but it was obvious that he didn't want company, excluding that of who he held in his arms.

Kagome needed air, but she was more than willing to suffocate in order to prolong his ministrations because she knew what was coming.

Sesshoumaru pulled back, and reluctantly, Kagome released her hold of him. But he did not let go. He stared down at her with the most intense gaze she had ever felt, as if he was inspecting her soul.

The abundance of green surrounding him alerted him as he came back to reality. There was no longer a shield around him, no longer soldiers to kill; nothing was there except a forest, Kagome, and his generals.

Betrayed. She had tricked him, and he had let her.

Growling, he instantly let go of her, and Kagome tumbled to the ground.

"You deceived me." His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I saved your life." She countered.

"If that means being branded a coward, then I would have rather died." He glared menacingly.

"Now you may live to regain your lands and title. No one will call you that and live when we return." She promised.

"Foolish girl. You have no idea of what you speak." He accused.

"I know strategy, and that's what I'm using. But there's no victory in death." She hissed at him.

"There is no honor in retreat." He countered.

"You think those traitors would honor you in any way?" She practically yelled at him.

He spun away from her in his rage.

She tried to calm him down. "We'll rest up here. We can heal and re-stock any supplies we need then we can retake your lands."

Kagome got no response as he walked stiffly away from her. She looked over at the two generals.

They said nothing only gazed at her with unreadable expressions.

Her entire body sagged as if the weight of the world rested on her weary shoulders. Locking eyes with Shouron, she spoke. "There is a village just down that path, if you need anything speak to the miko named Keade and tell her you are friends of mine. There is a river nearby if you need to bathe."

Shouron smiled slightly and nodded but still said nothing.

She heaved a sigh and turned to walk away.

Shouron's voice drifted to her. "Where are you going?"

Kagome turned her head to look at him in her peripheral vision. "I'm going home. I'll be back in a day or two."

Both generals thought she had gone mad as she walked up to the old dry well. She no longer cared about keeping the entrance to her world a secret. She highly doubted anyone except she and Inuyasha could cross the threshold anyway. 'Well, there was Mistress Centipede. Oh well, too late now.' She thought as she dropped over the edge.

Shouron rushed to the side of the well and reached for her arm, but he missed. He looked down and saw Kagome's silhouette engulfed in an indigo light that reeked of powerful magic.

Then she was gone. Incredulous eyes swung to Aishi who was busy trying to sort through the foreign thoughts and images he had just seen in that girl's mind.


TA DAA! The long awaited Kiss. Hope you guys enjoyed it, cuz it was a bitch to write. I still am not too satisfied, but it'll work for now.

Oh, and I've had a lot of anonymous reviewers ask me when I update. If an address was left, I would have answered personally BUT since I was left without one...I'll remind you here. I update weekly, so look me up around Saturdays, Sunday at the latest. (Yes, sorry I'm later than usual, but this chapter, it was so incredibly hard to keep everyone in character. I hope I succeeded.)