CHAPTER 22: BETWEEN THE SAND AND THE STARDUST
"If you came to me, with a face I have not seen, with a voice I
Have not heard, I would still now you. Even if centuries
Separated us, I would still feel you. Somewhere between the
Sand and the stardust, through every collapse and creation,
There is a pulse that echoes of you and I.
When we leave this we give up all our possessions and
Our memories. Love is only thing we take with us. It is
All we carry from one life to the next."
(Stardust, Lang Leav)
"Ah!" Kagome's back hits the wall with a thud, but she doesn't seem to notice or care. Her head is thrown back in reckless abandon, her eyes wide and unseeing as she holds fistfuls of Sesshomaru's hair like a lifeline. Her mouth is murmuring nonstop, pleas for more, yes, please, oh yes.
They are music to his ears.
He adjusts his grip on her, one hand on each of the silken, smooth endless thighs that are wrapped around his waist like a vise as he thrusts into her, pinning her against the wall like a butterfly on a board. He buries his face into the column of her throat, drunk off the heady smell of lavender and their lovemaking. He cannot resist leaving a mark of himself on the flawless skin there, a possessive sign that she is his, that she chose to be his. She moans and then, leaning forward, she sinks her teeth into the curve of his own shoulder.
His eyes flare open as a surge of lust streaks through his system like lightning. Her mark. Her mark on him. It is more intoxicating, more delicious, than he would have thought. A low growl, half pleased, half desperate sneaks through his lips, and he arches into her mindlessly, his fingers digging crescent moon shaped marks from the prick of his nails into her creamy skin.
A wayward thought creeps into his mind that he owes that stupid monk some sort of boon for this brilliant, perfect idea of his.
"Okay, so I'm not quite sure what sort of ritual is involved in naming someone the Lady of a land – "
"This Sesshomaru simply wills it to be so." There are a slew of blank faces staring at him. "As Lord of these lands, I claim a woman as consort and it becomes so."
The monk blinks. "Okay, well, that makes things simple, I guess. So, once you do that, Lady Kagome," he smiles at her fondly, "now really a lady, after all," She blushes. Inuyasha snorts. They all move on. "You will get a boost of power. When that happens, I would like you to focus on condensing it down like we practiced in meditation."
"Like the Jewel of Four Souls."
He nods sagely. "Whatever imagery appeals to you, use, but that is an excellent metaphor. So you will picture all of that energy, the old and the new, pressed down tight and compact, all held within that single image and space. It is then that you will have access to it all at once. Picture it filling your hands and place them on the injury. Then you must picture very clearly in your mind, what you wish for that power to do. Use your thoughts to direct it and not let it go astray. We don't want everyone here growing limbs in strange places, now do we?"
She giggles and Sesshomaru is thankful to the man for keeping Kagome calm and steady for what will essentially be the first time she does anything like this. He trusts her implicitly, but spiritual power is hardly ever a demon's best friend.
"Are you ready to begin?"
She opens her mouth, nodding, but Inuyasha interrupts. "How do we know she isn't going to purify his ass?"
Kagome fixes him with a positively regal stare, looking down her nose at him. "Because I don't want to." He snorts, but when there is nothing else forthcoming, she turns back to Miroku. "Ready!"
With a gesture for Sesshomaru to proceed him, the monk steps back.
Sesshomaru and Kagome turn to face one another and he takes a moment to make sure this is still what she wishes and she isn't doing it for some noble reason to simply help.
She rolls her eyes at his question. "Oh my God, Sesshomaru, make me your lady here or I'll go see Koga."
He growls, but he's smiling, too, because she is looking up at him, her eyes alight with happiness and there is not the smallest sign of regret or hesitation in her. She looks happy. "Then I, Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, name you, Kagome Higarashi as Lady of the Western Lands, from this moment forward."
The words wrap around them like ribbons, like strands of fate, and he feels a great wash of power from deep within in flare up like a volcano, burbling and bubbling until it erupts and bursts out of him. It pours down the chains that bind them together, flowing into Kagome like a stream flowing towards the sea, filling her with light that glows bright, brighter, brightest, until it is as if there is a sun standing before him. But slowly, the light recedes.
No, no recedes. It condenses, folding over and around itself like an old woman winding string on a spindle, until in her hands is a supernova of light, a mixture of power that flavors the air with the mixture of them. There is a furrow between her brows as she concentrates on that ball of power between her shining palms, raises it to his shoulder and presses those hands against him.
They burn.
They burn like ice, so cold they feel like they are searing. It is an effort not to flinch a way, to hold himself as still as stone and let her push that power into him. His body recognizes its own power, but it is flavored with spiritual energy that makes his hair stand on end because he knows that, with a twist of thought, Kagome could turn him into nothing but ashes and dust. But her spiritual energy seeps into his pours like electric honey, it tingles as goosebumps break out across his shoulder and spread across his chest. The tingling extends, lengthening longer and longer until there is an itch in fingertips that he has not had in years.
With a pop, the light dissipates and he lifts his arm, still full of pins and needles. It is perfect. His wrist long and elegant, the skin as pale as moonlight, the swatch of color on his wrists from his markings. He can feel the pulse of poison beneath his claws, just waiting to pulse to the surface.
There is a tremble in his hand as he reaches out to brush it against Kagome's face as she smiles at him, her eyes still glowing with spiritual light. "My lady," he murmurs to her, as he bends his head and presses their lips together. She smiles against the curve of his mouth as he wraps his two arms, hale and whole, around her, and practically lifts her off her feet.
And now he has this. He cannot even describe how much he did not realize he had wanted to wrap her in his arms, to be able to pull her close and drape himself around her. And to be able to hoist her up with his hands and press her into a wall, raising them higher and higher and higher until they both unravel around, with the other's name spilling from their lips like promises, like prayers.
When he tumbles them, satiated and shaking, onto his bed, they bask in the afterglow of each other, running hands through hair and across tingling skin, under their racing hearts are still again, until their ragged breathing is calm again.
Kagome is staring at his face with a soft look in her eyes, but they are far away. "What is it, little miko?"
She startles and her eyes focus on him. "Hm? Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking that my mama would love you."
"Then shall go see her. This Sesshomaru would like to meet her, as well."
A sad smile this time. "It's not that simple." His cannot tilt his head in curiosity because they are laying on his plush pillows, but the look on his face is questioning enough. "I know that… my clothing is strange. And I know I'm more educated than women here."
Women? She's more educated than most of the humans in Japan. But he lets her continue.
"I think you already know that Kikyo and I share a soul, that I'm her… reincarnation, right?" He nodded, though he did not see the connection between her first statement and this. "Most people assume that I was reincarnated thirty or so years after her death… It was more like four hundred." He does not understand and it must be apparent because she hurries on. "I was born in four hundred years from now, with the Jewel of Four Souls inside of me. And that lets me travel through the well, back to this time."
His mind whirls, though it all explains so many of the things about her that did not quite seem to fit. "The Bone Eater's Well?"
She nods. "It is on the grounds of the temple my family cares for."
"So," he leans up on one elbow to stare down at her. "You are separated from your family here? You left them behind?" His heart feels like it is cracking.
A frown furrows her brow. "I mean, I can still go see them. But," her hand presses against his cheek, "I don't think you can. Only Inuyasha has been able to go through the well."
"My brother can travel to your time?" Jealousy, hot and thick, coats the back of his tongue.
But she shrugs, seemingly unconcerned. "I think it's because of his connection to Kikyo. That's the reason I can travel here, after all. I don't know if he's realized that yet."
His eye roves over her unsure face. "Did you think I would be upset by this information?"
"Well… I lied to you."
"This Sesshomaru does not recall asking if you were from the future."
Her mouth falls open in shock, then she laughs, the tension in her body unwinding. "I really wish you could meet my mama though," she says as he settles back against the headboard, pulling her against him.
"There is no reason I cannot. This Sesshomaru will still be alive in a mere four centuries. I shall simply have to wait until then."
"Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't think about that." She grows quiet, but he can tell from the weight of the silence that she thinking about something deeply. So he waits while she compiles her thoughts, carding his fingers through her hair, partially because he enjoys the feel of the silken strands and partially because of the novelty of finally being able to do so with his left arm again. "I'll be alive then, too?"
The motion of his hand stills. While it is true that being named Lady of the Western Lands grants her more power and a connection to the land, only by being mated to him with their powers combine and mingle in a way that overlap them. He is careful with his words. "Being my lady," he says, purring on the title because he does not think he will ever get sick of declaring her his, "endows you with power concerning the very land her, connects you to it. I cannot say for certain whether or not it will extend your mortal lifespan the way being…" his voice stumbles "… mated would. But I also cannot say that it will not."
"Mated is like being married, right?"
"That is the human word, but yes. But our powers will join together and become so intertwined that it is inconceivable that they should ever be parted." He noses at her hair, trying very hard not to let her see how very much he wishes for that. To feel his power sink into her, to sink under her skin, to be connected to her always, tied irrevocably together. To feel her energy coiling under his skin like liquid lightning.
"Because I'm pretty sure I love you."
Her voice is so quiet, so hushed that it takes him a moment to hear them over the sounds of their breathing. But when the words register to him, his head shoots up. She is staring at him, a small, unsure smile on her face. His heart is thundering in his ears so loudly he is sure that even her human ears can hear it. "What?"
"Yeah, I kinda thought I should tell you." He's staring at her, thunderstruck and astonished, and her voice grows timid, like she has said something wrong. "Um, so yeah, sorry?"
She yelps when he rolls over on top of her, holding her so tightly that she is no doubt struggling to breathe. He is raining kisses down on her cheeks, her eyelids, her nose. Then, over and over again, her lips. With every press of lips to skin he is murmuring, "I love you" and "Yes" until she is laughing against him, tears of happiness salting their kisses.
Until he pulls back just enough to breathe against her lips, "Marry me."