A/N- I do not own Inuyasha. WARNING- Tentacles will be violated. Not explicit, exactly. Just a warning. And SQUEEE the first two books of my series Mana Storm are up for sale in Amazon. If interested, link is on my profile. ON to Pawn in Arms!
Chapter Five
"She has been baited?" Naraku's deep timbre smoothly inquired. "You are positive?"
Kagura smirked. "He called me yesterday and I got visual confirmation. Do you doubt my word?" She continued to circle the fan that dangled from her wrist in the air. "You could go see for yourself."
Narrowed eyes answered her smart retort. "Do not forget your place, Kagura. What would your heart's desire think of your involvement with his greatest enemy?"
All mirth fled and Kagura's voice sharpened, "Leave him out of this. You promised, Naraku. Sesshomaru is mine. He is never to know about this."
"Oh?" Naraku edged closer. He tapped the edge of the ornate blue and red flowered kimono she still insisted on wearing though it was far out of fashion. "What else did I promise, Kagura?"
She grimaced but did not resist when the deformed tentacle rose from beneath the dark robe he favored to slip around her neck and tugged her closer. "Again?" she pouted.
Lips a bare inch from hers, Naraku's reply sent chills down her spine, "And again and again until I have had my fill of your filthy desires, Kagura. Do not pretend you do not enjoy my attentions. We both know that is not true." Another tentacle joined the first in caressing her throat then slid down to part her kimono from the bottom. She wasn't wearing anything beneath it.
He grinned wide, showcasing narrow canines and a deviant glint entered his gaze. "I see you were prepared to offer what we both want."
She snorted then groaned when the flexible appendage began its ascent to where she ached from the memory of his last claiming. "Just because I enjoy having sex does not mean I want you," she clarified. "Until I can have him I will make do with what I can get."
Naraku laughed, dark and menacing. Kagura shivered and felt herself grow wetter. What twisted, dark monster lived inside her body that craved the powerful male even while being repulsed by him? she wondered. He was a hanyou. A disgrace to Youkai and humans both. But he was strong. After selling his soul to the dark ones many centuries ago he had emerged both more and less than both races.
"Hands and knees on the floor, Kagura," Naraku ordered. "You do not deserve softness today. No, today you will leave me remembering who it is that owned your cunt," he promised.
She pretended to pout but lowered herself with an unseemly amount of haste to do as he bid. He was a bastard and she hated him. But, Kami, could he hit all her buttons. She was beyond frustrated that Sesshomaru yet refused her attentions. Naraku could work it out of her easily. She always left him buzzing from the high that lingered from his possession.
A small part of her enjoyed knowing that once Sesshomaru came around, he would be claiming what Naraku had before him. A bit of anonymous revenge for all the trouble she was going through to get the blind Taiyoukai all to herself.
Kagura heard the robe hit the floor and her body was encased in flowing tentacles that pulsated all around her body. They squeezed and caressed almost to the point of pain then slithered down to grope her most sensitive places, forming a suction with the moist cups that flowed down each long appendage. She shuddered in rapture and let go of her frustrations.
"Kouga, please, for the fourth time, I am not going to mate you. Ever. I understand the Council sent you here. Along with Sesshomaru. And Hojo," Kagome added with a shake of her head. "But that does not mean I am going to choose one of you for a lifelong commitment."
"Reconsider," Kouga urged, a sense of urgency entering his voice. He grabbed her hands. "You don't understand, Kagome. This is not just about my heart, though you know you command it. You need me," he stated.
Caught by his sweaty hands, Kagome tried to tug herself free but could not. "Don't make me purify you, Kouga. Let go," she ordered with authority she did not feel.
His desperation was making her edgy. It had been two days since he and Sesshomaru had moved into the shrine. She had been able to put off Sesshomaru on the talk he wanted to have, but had been summoned to the wellhouse on her mother's demands that she see to the irate Taiyoukai before he destroyed it on the grounds that it was infested with vermin.
The wellhouse was old. And there might be a few rodents running around since Buyo was too old to be chasing them off. But that did not mean he could destroy it due to spotting a mouse while sparring in the wide area around it!
"Release the Miko," came Sesshomaru's cold tone from behind Kagome.
For once grateful to have the Taiyoukai around, Kagome sighed in relief when Kouga dropped her hands as if they burned him.
"Stay out of this!" Kouga ground out. "I am so sick of your bullshit. You think you know who I am, but you don't! I am destined for more than you will ever have!"
Sesshomaru tilted his chin in the air and closed the distance between himself and the pair he had come across while seeking the absentee Miko. "Brave words from a foul-mouthed cretin. Would you care to face this Sesshomaru on the grounds, Youkai?"
"Youkai? I am a First Son!" Kouga howled.
Kagome flared her aura, glowing a dark pink to fill the night sky with her power and prevent the confrontation from turning into a full scale battle right in front of her. "Enough!" she spat. She turned to Kouga, "Go inside. Mama went to special effort to make your meal. We will all be in shortly. I need to speak to Sesshomaru."
Hissing at the burn to his skin from her aura, Kouga glared through the light at the Taiyoukai but turned to obey. Over his shoulder he threw out, "This isn't over Kagome. You know I am the only one suitable for you. He wouldn't even know what to do with a female, let alone a soft-skinned one like you. I'll wait up for you after the meal."
Kagome huffed once he was out of sight then crossed her arms over her chest. She hated every word, but felt obligated to offer, "Thank you. He was getting a little nuts. This whole thing is insane."
Sesshomaru regarded her in silence before stating, "In this one thing, we are agreed. We must talk, Higurashi. Now." He gestured toward the wellhouse that sat a few feet away. Kouga had caught her just before she reached it.
Kagome groaned. "You know, we can talk here. That place is creepy in the dark. It always feels like someone is watching me."
He narrowed his eyes.
She could literally feel him attempting to shrink her into nothingness. "Alright!" she threw her hands in the air and started walking. "To the wellhouse we go."
Once they were inside and Sesshomaru had locked the door and sealed it with a bit of his power, he turned around to regard her in the barest hint of moonlight that streamed through the single window. "This wellhouse has been warded. None shall spy upon the words spoken within."
Confused, Kagome's right eyebrow twitched up. "Just who would be spying on us?"
Tension easing from his shoulders, Sesshomaru gestured to a small table he had set up in the dark room that had two chairs. His chess set had been laid out on it. The ivory gleamed even in the dim light.
"Seriously?" Kagome griped even as she claimed one of the seats. "You called me out here for a game?"
"This Sesshomaru can talk and play at the same time," he replied loftily. "There is much you need to know, and an agreement must be reached before either of us can leave this room. However," he added, "if you are unable to converse and concentrate concurrently this one will leave off the game until later."
"Shut up and go," Kagome ordered, already angry. Ha. As if she hadn't wiped the floor with him already many a time.
Four moves later, and Kagome bit her lip while placing her pawn. "Are you going to talk?" she asked without looking up.
Sesshomaru's clawed finger slid the rook one slot over. "This one's mother offered to ship you to any continent or place far away should I mate you."
Kagome blinked. Her mind, for once, blitzed on her next move and her gaze shot up to meet his. "Eh?" she barely managed.
"This one," he continued as if he had not just shocked the hell out of her, "is not a philandering honor-less bastard like the Inu No Tashio. So, now this one is in a quandary."
Kagome leaned back in the chair. "How about this one would appreciate it if, while we are warded and all, you dropped the honorifics and third person narrative. It is bothersome," she snidely finished, borrowing one of his favorite words.
His lips pursed and she felt the pulse of his power that signaled a loss of temper. He could hide it all he wanted from others, but she was not fooled. She had been on the broad side of his temper too often not to know how to read him. She arched a brow, unimpressed.
"Higurashi, I am attempting to be civil. Return the favor I am granting to your insignificant person or this conversation is over."
She shot back, "Not so insignificant if you and Kouga were made to come here. I didn't ask for your consideration nor do I want it."
His clawed finger tapped the tabletop. Silence lingered except for the steady 'tap' 'tap' of his claw hitting wood. Finally, "You will listen. Then you will understand the whole of this sorry affair in which your family and mine are linked."
Kagome's mouth snapped shut. "Finally!" she sat back. "I am all ears, Sesshomaru. I promise not to interrupt." Seriously? She had not imagined it would be Sesshomaru who would be the first to break the silence surrounding all the pomp and circumstance the Council had alluded to.
He eyed her, clearly disbelieving, but began with a deep sigh. "Naraku was a human. Four hundred years ago he made a bargain with demons. In exchange for his human soul they would grant to him immortality. What they did not tell him was that they would lay claim to his body and inhabit it with him for eternity. His mother came upon him while the demons feasted upon his human flesh to be reborn as a part of them. To save his soul from damnation, she wrested his heart from the demons and ran from them.
Kagome legs shook with the effort it took to not jump in with questions. So many questions.
Unaware or uncaring of her predicament, Sesshomaru continued, "The woman took the heart to the village Miko. Your ancestress. The Miko burned the heart but could not remove the curse entirely which had promised Naraku's soul to the demons. It turned his heart into glass instead of dust. A bauble of evil intentions denied. The demons sought it so that they could finalize their claim on Naraku. Without it, he would remain in control of himself and all the powers of his new body. The Miko killed most of the demons, but one hundred remained. My father, who had been drawn by the masses of demons, answered her dying plea and ended all but three of them. In a bid to protect her village, the Miko sent most of her soul into the glass bauble and the demons followed it. It sealed them within the promise they had made.
Naraku, free from the demons that hunted for his soul, attempted to claim his heart so that none could ever control him and he would live as a god. The Miko, knowing he would become a plague upon the earth, urged my father to protect the heart with her last breath. He and Naraku did battle. My grandfather arrived in time to join in the fray. It took both males, the strongest of our lines to ever produce before this one reached majority, to overpower Naraku and destroy most of his body. Immortal, now, they did not destroy him. Rather, he has been slowly regenerating all this time. Now, we received word he has reformed completely. And he will seek his heart once more. If he claims it, he will be invincible."
Kagome nodded her head. Her thoughts bounced around. Then, "How does this involve me, exactly?"
"On your side, beneath your right breast, there is a scar." Sesshomaru slid his knight over, capturing a pawn. "For every generation of Mikos in your line, starting with the daughter of your ancestress, Naraku's heart is passed down. When you turned five you were selected before your grandmother passed. It was removed from her and placed inside you. Contained within your flesh to avoid easy detection by the hanyou should he revive himself, or the many low-level Youkai who could covet the power of commanding the hanyou or claiming the immortality promised therein, the Shikon No Tama rests."
All thought fled. Kagome stared, unseeing, at the chess board. Her fingers found the old scar with ease. It had always bothered her. An itchy place she had repeatedly asked her doctor about but had been reassured it was perfectly normal to have a bump just above her ribcage.
Disgust roiled within her. "Get it out!" she finally shouted out, leaping from the chair to twirl around and get a better look at her side. She flipped her shirt up, not giving two cats' tails that he was getting a glimpse at a whole lot of skin. She felt around the bump, shuddering in revulsion. "Give me a knife and I will do it myself!" she commanded.
"Remove it and you will die," Sesshomaru calmy stated as if he had not just yanked the mat out from beneath her feet. "You are linked to it, now. Others had tried and they all died. Accept it. Accept your guardianship of it, Higurashi. You have no other choice. Just as I must now call upon myself to guard you lest you fall into Naraku's hands and release the evil upon the world."
Kagome fell back into her chair. She watched him warily. "How do you intend to manage that?"
He huffed then gestured for her to take a turn at the match. She shook her head. "Answer me. I am not in the mood for games."
"We will leave this place tonight," he answered shortly. "Unless you find yourself possessed of an inordinate need to become this one's mate, the only other solution is for me to abscond with your person and remove it from temptation until Naraku can be dealt with."
Kagome frowned. "What about Kouga and Hojo? Shippo? Why did the Council go through with this farce?"
"Not a farce. They honestly believed the wolf capable of protecting you. The human," he sneered, "was offered the position out of pity only. None believed you would select a weakling over one of the true First Sons."
Kagome sniffed. Her eyes watered. Sesshomaru frowned. "Do not," he ordered.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and squared her shoulders. Irritation colored every word, "I am allowed to cry, you know. How should I react to something like this?"
"Pack a bag," he ordered rather than answer. "This one already prepared for the journey. Do not alert any to our departure. We leave at midnight."
Unable to come up with a convincing argument, Kagome settled into a sullen but thoughtful pout. She shoved her pawn forward. He was a jerk, but he never lied. Ever. Even if she thought he knew himself to be better than the entire populace of the world, he still never fibbed.
She was in crap up to her neck. The vague warning of her mother now made perfect sense. Well, she consoled herself, she had been seeking a way out of the mating. Sesshomaru was offering to run off with her. Except rather than elope he planned to hide her away from a homicidal hanyou with delusions of grandeur until said hanyou was obliterated again.
Once more, she asked the Kamis just what she had done to merit her current level of bad luck.