Author's Note: I love that you're still reading. I would like to thank anonymous reviewer Afan, for catching a bit of an inconsistency in chapter two. All fixed, and all is well in the Universe. Enjoy!

Author's Note v.2.0: This chapter was edited and re-uploaded on 5/3/20. Please bear with me as I slowly update early chapters.

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Chapter 4: Kikyou's Spell

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Kagome

He was a God.

At least, that was Kagome's first thought, after she finished screaming.

He was tall, with long, flowing silver-while hair, large golden eyes and a powerful build. He wore only a hakama, his chiseled chest bare, and two little, fluffy white ears sat atop his head.

Her second thought was she'd lost it. What the heck was going on? Gods didn't show themselves to humans. Only crazy people talked to Gods.

But the museum guide's story popped into her head, and she remembered: He wasn't a God, he was a youkai.

And that's when Kagome realized she was dreaming. Because if there was anything crazier than a God appearing in a magical mirror and talking to her, it was a youkai appearing in a magical mirror and talking to her.

It was a good thing she was dreaming, otherwise she'd think she was going insane. Dreams she could deal with. Insanity was not an option for her. Still, for a dream it felt so real.

The youkai glared down at her from inside the mirror, pacing back and forth, growling, his arms flexing with power as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He'd called her Kikyou, and insisted she was trying to trick him in some way, pretending to be someone she wasn't.

He pushed at her nerves, calling her names, yelling at her. He'd actually told her he hated her, and that's when she'd snapped.

No one should hate her, she hadn't done anything wrong! And yet lately everybody seemed to be blaming her for everything. Dream or no dream, she was sick of it.

Steeling her nerves, Kagome walked right up to the mirror and tilted her hand back to look into his eyes. She knotted her brows together, giving him her best I'm-not-taking-anymore-crap-from-you look.

And then she laid into him. Oh, she gave it to him good. He wasn't getting away with speaking to her like that. Not like she'd let Hiromi get away with it.

"-What I have done, is been jumped by a gang of girls, tied up, and thrown into a closet! And now I have a concussion or something, because that's the only reasonable explanation for what is happening to me!" If the youkai hadn't been hiding behind all that glass she would have slugged him… maybe. He looked like he might be the kinda guy who slugged back.

That's when she'd noticed the change in his demeanor. Sometime during her speech his eyes had widened, like he was actually seeing her for the first time.

"Fuck," he said.

Oh thank the Gods, he understood! She was having the worst night of her life. "I know!" She cried, relieved that he finally appreciated the hardship she'd been through. "And it's not even my fault! Hojou liked me, he asked me out and he started it! If Hiromi should be mad at anyone, it should be Hojou!"

"You're not her," the youkai said.

Kagome caught his gaze again. "What?"

Then she realized, duh, he wasn't talking about her bad night. He'd finally figured out that she'd been telling the truth. She wasn't whoever this 'Kikyou' person was. That girl sounded horrid! Kagome was nice, everyone knew that.

"Oh, Kikyou," she said. "Yes, that's right, I'm not her. I'm Kagome."

"Fuck!" he repeated.

Kagome frowned. Was it really that much of an issue? The youkai should have been happy that she wasn't Kikyo.

"You sure curse a lot," she said, "it's not very polite."

His demeanor had changed from threatening to confused, then settling on something that looked like….

Confidence, she decided.

And it looked really good on him.

Kagome gave herself a shake, trying to clear any thoughts about the youkai that stood in front of her in that way. She liked Hojou, and she didn't want anything to ruin what they'd started. Although technically, her brain nudged at her better judgement, this is a dream. And there's nothing wrong with dreaming about sexy youkai. And sexy was the correct word for what the youkai was. Sexy hadn't had a meaning until she'd laid eyes on him.

Her musings were interrupted when he knelt down in the mirror. He was barefoot, and he placed his hands, each finger tipped with beautiful, strong, sharp nails, down next to his feet, sitting on his haunches. He seemed to relax all of a sudden; the anger that had radiated from every taught inch of him was suddenly gone, dissipated like it had never been there in the first place.

"Kagome," he said, his voice low and soft. Like velvet. Or butter. The way he spoke her name caused a pleasant tremble to spread through her, caused her body to clutch on the inside. She couldn't look away. His eyes burned into her. They were molten gold, holding her in place.

"I need you to help me," he said.

A chill went up her spine, but Kagome couldn't tell if it was because he was so freaking attractive or if it was an automated warning to his words. He oozed danger, just as much as he oozed sex appeal.

This was probably the best dream Kagome had ever had in her entire life.

"I need you to get me out of here," the youkai continued, in that beautifully rough voice of his. "I've been in here for a really long time, and the witch who trapped me here is coming soon. Can you help me?"

She was playing with fire, she knew. She could sense how powerful he was, even while she was dreaming.

"Aren't you a youkai?" she asked, fully aware of how breathy her voice had become. "The guide said you tried to destroy the world three hundred years ago."

The muscle in his jaw clenched. "I'm not a youkai, I'm a hanyou. I'm half youkai and half human. Like you."

Like me! kagome's brain whispered. And did it matter? Whatever half he was, he was delicious. How had her subconscious conjured up such a creature? He was so beautiful. She felt trapped. Ensnared. She was glued to his golden eyes, and she leaned in closer to the glass that separated them.

"Why did this Kikyou girl trap you inside?" she asked, willing herself not to get totally lost in him.

He growled, and it was as terrifying as it was utterly alluring. She wanted to step back, but she held her ground, entranced.

"Does it matter?" he asked.

"Of course it does," she replied quickly. It didn't matter though. Not really. "You could kill me if I let you out." She watched as his head cocked to the side. He smiled. It spread across his face slowly, as if he were deliberately making her wait for it.

"Kagome," he said, "I could kill you, it's true. But this is a dream. And since this is your dream, do you think I'd be more likely to kill you, or more likely to kiss you?"

That was it. With those words he had her, and she knew it. She felt the blush spread across her face, felt her insides quiver. This was a dream, dammit, and she wanted to enjoy it. She needed to know, on some primitive level, what it would be like to kiss him. Would it be like the kiss Hojou had given her? Would it be better? Kagome was a virgin, although she'd had a few boyfriends before. For some reason this dream-youkai… no, dream-hanyou… spoke to her innermost, lustful desires like nothing else - dreaming or awake - ever had before.

"Um," she said, fully aware that she was shaking for need of him. "What do I have to do?"

He dropped his voice, forcing her to lean closer to him. "Press your lips against the mirror, Kagome." It was a demand, spoken in velvet. One she would follow no matter what.

She tilted forward, her hands on the glass to steady herself. His golden eyes held her as she leaned in, closer and closer, until finally - her eyes closed, her fingers trembling - she pressed her lips against the mirror.

The glass was cold and hard, but she kept them there, hoping that something would happen; that this God-like hanyou creature would show her what kissing was really supposed to be like.

His lips were on hers then. One moment there was glass, and the next, there was him, and instantly the heat that had been bottled up inside broke through the dam and spread through her. Eyes closed, afraid that he would disappear if she opened them, she parted her lips to invite him in.

What could happen to her, after all, in a dream?

To her delight, he took her invitation, wrapping his hands in her hair, pulling her to him, pressing up flush against her. He deepened the kiss and it was electrifying. She felt like her world had opened up, had expanded to overwhelm her with a brilliance she'd never felt before. She had kissed boys in her short life, but she had never truly been kissed by boys before. Not like this. The hanyou kissed her like she was his lifeline, as if he couldn't get enough, and she felt the same.

The warmth she held inside of her would evaporate if he stopped.

He growled then, into her mouth. She felt it rumble from deep inside his chest and she answered him in her own way, letting him know that in her dream, in this fantasy, she wanted him to do all the things to her that she'd read about in romance novels and seen in movies, but had yet to find in anyone.

Even Hojou.

He mumbled something then, something she couldn't quite make out, and he lifted her by her waist and she took his cue and wrapped her legs around his hips. Gosh, he was strong. She felt feather-light in his arms. He had no problem turning her around and pressing her back against the mirror

He nipped at her, playing with his kisses, biting and tugging at her lower lip. Kagome was unbidden, unhinged. The hanyou trailed heated kisses down her chin, her throat, finding places to kiss and nip that made her insides melt.

"Oh God," she said, and she ground her hips against him, slowly, shuddering, inhaling sharply at the intense need she had to possess more of him.

She'd heard of wet dreams before, but she'd never had them.

...They were awesome.

He growled again, and it awoke something in her. When he found her lips this time he crushed against her. It was intense, needy, rough. Their clothes were in the way. Too many clothes, she thought, almost in a panic. This dream could end at any moment and she didn't want to wake up before she got what her body was crying out for.

He moved his lips from hers then, and she whimpered at the loss of him, but his eyes were on fire now. He tore her shirt open, revealing her tank-top underneath. He reached for that too, and Kagome, who had never before in her life scratched the surface on arousal such as this, wanted him to.

But he didn't tear her tank-top. He froze instead, and quicker than she'd seen anyone move in her life, he dropped her on her feet and spun.

Kagome blinked at the toned muscles of his back, watching them tighten. What the heck happened? He still had her pressed up against the mirror. Slowly, her body still trembling with fervent need, she leaned over to peek around him.

"Kikyou," he growled.

And then she was there. She appeared almost like the hanyou had appeared, but not, because there was no mirror there for her to appear in. One moment she wasn't, and the next moment she was.

My imagination is in top form, Kagome thought, resisting the urge to ogle and failing. Was everyone in her dream going to be so utterly beautiful? She felt bland in comparison. How had the hanyou confused her with this woman in front of them?

Kikyou was regal. She was otherworldly. Tall and thin, with long, flowing black-as-night hair and deep, dark blue eyes that seemed to shimmer as she looked Kagome and the hanyou over.

"Well," she said, as her red lips pulled into the barest hint of a smile. "What do we have here?"

Kagome should be cowering, she knew. She should look away, because as beautiful as the woman was, there was something not right about her. Something dangerous. Something more. Their eyes locked, and the chill that spread up her spine was no longer one of passion.

Kikyou turned her attention to the hanyou. "Who is this girl, Inuyasha?" she asked. "How did you get her to set you free?"

The hanyou, Inuyasha – what a strange name, Kagome thought – growled, and he pressed Kagome back into the mirror a little bit more. She had to crane her neck to look around his arm, so she could keep her eyes on the woman.

"She's no one of importance," he said.

"She doesn't look like no one of importance." She snapped her fingers, and for a moment nothing happened. That is, until Kagome felt a soft pull focused around her chest, and before she knew it, she'd stepped from behind Inuyasha's back and was now standing out in the open, between the two individuals she'd created in her head.

"I'll ask you again, Inuyasha," Kikyo said, keeping her eyes pinned to Kagome. She felt like an insect under a microscope. "How did you get her to set you free?"

Kagome couldn't see the hanyou, couldn't tear her gaze from Kikyou, but she heard the shrug in his voice, the nonchalance that took residence in his words.

"She was just there, bitch. I got lucky, that's all."

"Lucky. Hmm."

This dream had gone from awesome to horrible in two seconds flat. Other than having no idea what the two were talking about, she didn't like not having control of her body. Not in this way. This wasn't the unnerving lack of control she'd had when Inuyasha was kissing her. This was the unnerving lack of control of not being able to move her arms and legs by herself.

"It doesn't matter," Kikyou replied, waving her hand. She sounded bored, like Kagome being there was of no importance. "Midnight is upon us. I must weave the spell." Her eyes moved from Kagome then, and she felt her body turn so she too could see the hanyou. She watched as he bared his teeth, eyes darting from Kikyou to Kagome and then back to Kikyou again, before he turned and took a step back into the mirror.

He froze, one leg in, and turned his head, looking the woman square in the eye. "Don't hurt her, Kikyou," he said, and Kagome felt another chill go up her spine. What was he saying? What was he talking about? She saw his face twist into frustration. "She's just a girl, she doesn't have anything to do with this."

"Inside the mirror, Inuyasha," Kikyou insisted, and with one last hesitant look back at Kagome, he obeyed.

Something about his eyes, something about his body language made Kagome's heart break. It was like he'd become a puppy, scolded for doing something wrong and going back into his cage. When the mirror had again enveloped him, the youkai named Inuyasha turned, leaned his forearm against the glass and locked his eyes onto her own.

"Hold her," Kikyou said, and with the smallest gust of wind, a man appeared behind Kagome. She couldn't see him, but his hands wrapped around her arms, holding her in place. She didn't understand what for, it wasn't like she had control of her body anyway.

The priestess started to chant then, and the stagnant air around them kicked up and brushed against them, whipping Kagome's hair into her face. The language was one Kagome was not familiar with. As she watched, the frame around the mirror glowed, the etched letters and symbols, reacting to the incantation, pulled away from the mirror, and then slowly, as the wind died down, pushed back into their place.

Inuyasha didn't look like he was in trouble. He didn't look like he was in pain from the spell. Mostly, he just looked bored. Kagome wondered what the spell did, other than keep him locked inside.

Kikyou moved past Kagome, who was glad the woman was back in view, and walked slowly up to the mirror, putting her hand against the glass.

"I cannot let you out, Inuyasha," she said, her voice low and even. "You know I cannot allow you to escape."

"I know," he bit out, eyebrows drawn together in anger.

"You hate me," she said. Kagome noted a hint of sadness in her voice.

Inuyasha didn't speak for a moment, then: "I do. You're not the woman I fell in love with."

Oh… Oh. She was his ex-girlfriend. Of course she was. Of course.

"You're right, I'm not," Kikyou agreed, her hand steady on the glass. "You had a choice and you chose wrong. For the sake of the world, for the sake of humanity, I had to do what I had to do."

"And look at you now," he spat, bitterness seeping out of each word. "You're an abomination. You should not be alive. Yet here you are, with growing power. It spills over the brim. You're enjoying it far too much."

She laughed then, and it was unfeeling and cold. "You're right Inuyasha, I do enjoy it. And now that you've found my doppelganger, I will be enjoying my power for many, many more years to come."

Kagome saw his eyes widen. He stiffened, his back locking upright into place. "Wait. Kikyou wait!" he shouted. His eyes were wide and fearful now as they locked onto her. She felt her stomach drop as Kikyou turned and made her way towards her. She stopped a few feet away, ignoring Inuyasha's demands to leave her alone, ignoring the pounding of his fists on the glass. She looked down at Kagome, reached out a hand and gripped her below the chin.

"Don't worry," she said, "it will only hurt for a moment. I promise." Her eyes darted up to the man holding onto her arms. "It's above her right hip. Rip it out of her."

And before Kagome could ask what she meant, the man whipped her around, and she saw a blur of black hair and deep purple cloth before sharp agony so intense she nearly fainted tore through her. She cried out in pain, still unable to control the moment of her limbs. Tears sprang to her eyes. They dripped from her lashes and wet her cheeks.

She looked down, stunned, as blood pooled around the wound at her side, and suddenly she had control back. Trembling, she turned to gaze up at the man who had held her in place, his handsome face unsmiling. In his bandaged hand he held a pink, shimmering marble, perfectly round and about the size of a glass eyeball.

"What…?" She managed to choke out before Kikyou started to chant again, and the jewel rose into the air, high above her head, and a screeching noise, like claws on a chalkboard, ripped through Kagome's head. She smacked her hands to her ears, but she couldn't look away as the marble shattered into pieces and disappeared.

"It's done," Kikyou said. She turned to Kagome, her smile soft this time. "Poor little human, getting caught up in this mess. Do not worry child, I will weave a spell so that you will forget. Be at peace."

Terrified, trembling hands pressing at the oozing opening in her side, Kagome glanced back at Inuyasha, the hanyou in the mirror. Her mouth opened to scream for him to help her, but he wasn't looking towards her anymore. He wasn't pounding against the glass.

His defeated, slumped form was the last thing she saw as she slipped into unconsciousness.

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Ah, another longish chapter. I'd like to point out how sorry I am that I keep backtracking a bit in each chapter, but it's necessary. I hope you guys enjoyed!

Also, please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about or anything to mention or anything to say, I would love to hear it.

~SugarRos