The expectant looks of the spirit detectives had a nervous sweat breaking out on the back of Kagome's neck. It really should not feel like she was making a huge decision right now.

"About that..." The priestess looked between the group and her old ally before she took a steadying breath, "Sesshomaru-sama would it be ok if I stayed with you for awhile longer?" Said demon regarded her for a few heartbeats before turning his eyes back to their original position.

"Do as you please." He monotoned.

"Absolutely not." Yusuke snarled, "after all the shit we went through to get here you're coming back to the human realm with us." He gestured to Hiei who's wound had finally stopped bleeding, and even though Kagome felt guilt tug at her heart there was nothing she could do for the small demon. Her energy was shot.

"Look if I go back to the human realm whoever is after me is just going to keep sending those demons and putting innocent people at risk." She caught the black-haired youth's eyes and bore into them. "I'm not leaving until I figure out what they want from me." A few beats of silence stretched between them but Kagome knew that the argument was far from over.

"Human's aren't permitted in the makai!" Yusuke tried again, "even if it was allowed it's way too dangerous you'll end up as a snack or worse."

"Sesshomaru-sama would never let anything bad happen to me." She retorted as indignant rage welled up inside her. "Besides, I'm not exactly helpless y'know." At least not anymore...

"That's another thing. You've sure got a lot of faith in a guy who hasn't seen you for five hundred goddamn years." He persisted. "I find it kind of strange he even remembers a single human at all. How do you know he's not the one who sent those assholes after you?"

Kagome felt her face flush as rage flooded her system at his accusation and tasted blood as she bit her tongue on the first thing that came to mind. She could not 'sit' the detective, afterall, but she sure as hell wished she had a subjugation necklace right now. Instead of giving into the white-hot anger the miko took a calming breath before she said something she would regret later. She was not fifteen anymore. "You don't know what you're talking about." She said with finality. "I'm staying with lord Sesshomaru."


Yoko was irritated. While that may not have been a particularly new experience the fact that said annoyance could not be easily disposed of was a very new concept. He eyed the stoic inu out of the corner of his eye before allowing his gaze to drift to the human who traveled on the other side of the demon. He was rewarded with a low growl of warning for his efforts and smirked as he returned his eyes forward.

How did she earn the protection of the lord Sesshomaru I wonder? Yoko mused to himself.

You know him? Shuichi asked.

Only by reputation... He never really kept anything worth stealing. The fox let his attention waver as he glanced back at the sullen-looking Hiei. The priestess had kept sending the fire apparition concerned looks until a heated glare from the smaller demon put an end to that in short order. Yusuke and Kuwabara had gone with Boton to report to Koenma. Yoko was sure that the toddler was taking the news of Kagome's refusal to return splendidly.

The going was dreadfully slow, though not surprising considering they had a human in their midst. The damn dog didn't seem to mind the slow, quiet, boring pace but Yoko sure as hell did. Unfortunately every time he had tried to sidle up to the miko to try and pass the time the dog had warned him off, he'd minded his manners and stayed back so far but the beast couldn't keep him away indefinitely. Trying to get near the female would prove a lovely distraction from the tedium of traveling.

"I wonder what your family will say when Kuwabara informs them of your departure." Yoko said casually as his eyes slid back to the miko. She glanced at him and shrugged, much too relaxed about the whole ordeal considering she had been attacked and kidnapped by demons less than forty-eight hours ago.

"They'll understand. It's not like I'm 500 years in the past this time." She seemed about to say something else but thought better of it and let silence rule once more. The fox frowned. He had really hoped to stir her ire and perhaps start an argument.

"You never did elaborate on that adventure." He tried again.

"Nope." She agreed mildly, and i'm not gonna seemed to be added silently to the statement.


The fire crackled in the center of the camp and Kagome watched as the light danced over the faces of her two companions. Hiei had disappeared sometime during the day of travel. She supposed the pace was slow going for demons but she really couldn't bring herself to ask lord Sesshomaru if she could fly with him, nor did Kagome have the courage to cling to his back as she would have Inuyasha. She knew the big inu would not hurt her despite, or perhaps because of their past, but asking him to lower himself in that fashion put a bad taste in her mouth.

The fact that he allowed her to sleep in his fur she could only chalk up to necessity. It would dishonor him to let her freeze to death or catch a cold.

"Where are we headed anyway?" Kagome asked of Sesshomaru from the folds of his pelt that night. Yoko let out a scoff at her question and she stuck her tongue out at the fox.

"Careful, I might put that tongue to use." He quipped.

"This Sesshomaru has matters to attend in his lands." The statement was delivered evenly enough but Kagome brightened as if he'd given her the best news in the world.

"Really? We're going to see your home?" She asked hopefully as she sat up in the mokomoko. The fur twitched at her sudden movement and the side of the daiyoukai's lip quirked at her innocent exuberance as he gave a slight incline of his head.

"Sleep, miko." He rumbled as she wiggled around in his fur.

"I'm too excited to sleep now." She practically vibrated with energy.

"Oh? You need some wearing out?" Yoko piped up from the other side of the campfire. "Come on over I promise keep you warm afterwards." She could hear the wink in his voice.

"Geeze I'm going to start calling you Miroku if you don't stop." She huffed before becoming uncharacteristically quiet. She felt a familiar pang in her chest as she thought of the monk and Sango by proxy. The pair were long dead now and lost to her so long as the well refused to work. Everyone was lost to her. As she noticed a patch of twitching fur she seized it and hugged it tightly to her chest as she buried her face in the warm appendage. Not everyone. She had to remind herself as she slowly drifted off to seep.


Her breath wheezed out of her lungs as she pulled herself up to the discarded Tessaiga. Sesshomaru and the possessed Inuyasha battled below her. Kagome winced with disgust as Naraku's insides squished under her hands and seemed to undulate excitedly underneath her touch.

She was falling now. Tessaiga was safely with Inuyasha and she could feel a smile on her lips as she watched sanity return to his eyes. Instead of landing on the spongy insides of the spider strong arms wrapped around her and held her to a hard masculine body.

"Do you know my wish, Kagome?" The voice sent chills over her skin, it may have been an attractive baritone if she didn't know to whom it belonged. She struggled against his body and earned a chuckle for her efforts."You'll know my wish soon, lovely Kagome." He purred into her ear before his teeth nipped at the side of her neck. She tried to pull on her holy powers but no matter how much energy she delivered to the spider's form his grip would not loose.

He directed her gaze up to where the inu brothers battled and her blood froze as the muscles and innards surrounding the pair rose up to envelop them. "No!" She gasped as despair overwhelmed her.

"Don't mourn them..." His cool lips brushed over her collarbone as his hands strayed to forbidden places. "They shall forever be a part of me." One hand splayed across her flat stomach as he melded her back against himself. "And you shall always be mine."

Kagome gasped desperately as her wordless cry of despair echoed around the clearing. Her sides heaved as she fought the panic and revulsion that lingered from her dream. She rubbed her face with the sleeve of the fire-rate and tried to get her breathing under control. It was just another nightmare. He wasn't here. It was impossible for him to be here. She shrank in embarrassment as she looked up to the narrow golden gaze of Sesshomaru and realized she had probably disturbed the whole camp.

Kagome was nearly paralyzed with mortification as she also realized she had soiled Sesshomaru's pelt with the sweat of her nightmare, and it wasn't like she could throw it in the laundry downstairs as she would her sheets. That probably explained the death-glare she had woken up to.

"G-gomen." She said softly as she started to stand. A part of the fur looped around her wrist and tugged her back down into the safety of it's coils.

"Rest." Sesshomaru ordered. Kagome would have loved to obey the order, however a rather pressing need had made itself known now that she was awake and so she shifted uncomfortably for a few minutes before the hard stare of the daiyoukai found her again and her already pink face reddened further.

"Ano...I have to go." The miko received a blank look and she widened her eyes. "y'know...go." She wiggled a little to get her point across. The daiyoukai raised an eyebrow and she flushed red as a tomato as she picked her way out of the mokomoko.

"Don't wander far." He warned her retreating back.

Traveling with youkai one got used to compromising on their privacy. She was sure that the demons in the camp could clearly hear her passing water despite the space she had put between them. There were pros and cons to having canine youkai as companions. One of the cons was they could hear and smell things about humans that said humans had no idea about. She grimaced at her underwear as she stood up and decided to kick them off, they were filthy and would start to stink soon.

Really she would have preferred to keep something covering her rear, especially with that raging perv Yoko around, but she could not stand the way the sweat-soaked things clung to her.

"I'm going to the stream." Kagome announced to seemingly nobody, but she knew that Sesshomaru at least could hear her. Inuyasha always could at this distance and it would be an insult to think the daiyoukai would be less capable. As the miko washed the sweat from her skin and ignored her own shivering as she admired the forest around her and the stars above. A nostalgic sigh escaped her lips as she realized it really wasn't so different from the feudal era here.

Kagome's fingers froze halfway through tying her obi and the miko stood stock still as she stretched out her senses. The miko felt it again, barely a brush against her mind and obviously still far off. Something about the demonic aura unsettled her and she backed hastily away from it and stumbled back to camp with her heart pounding and legs as weak as a fawns.

The miko practically dove into Sesshomaru's fur where she shivered with more than just cold. The fact that her demon companions were unperturbed told her that she was overreacting. Kagome couldn't bring herself to care about that, though because...

because that aura had felt much too like Naraku's for her to dismiss it.

A/N

As always thank you for reading and reviewing you really have no idea how much you inspire me and make me think about what I'm writing with your questions and comments.