Chapter Ten: Bruises are Cuts that Don't Break Skin

A/N: Okay, something more sexy and aggressive for this chapter! Been a while since we've had any gory shenanigans. Let's rectify that, shall we? For our themed songs, we have "Lone Digger" by Caravan Palace and "Nightmare" by Lilly Wolfe. (I am a demon, I'm a dream cut down – what great lyrics for it.) Onward!

Morning light broke across the road, the tigress again jogging alongside the carriage. She glanced inside from time to time, pleased at the discomfited look on her mother's face as the jostling of the road disturbed her overfull stomach.

Serves her right for engorging herself so quickly.

Lixue sniffed, the faint copper tang of the poor man's blood still a hint on the older tiger's breath. Her father didn't look too happy either, but his irritation was less with the road and more with the fact that he had indulged in his sake a bit too deeply the previous night. He was always cranky when he was dealing with hangovers, and his glowering came across more as petulance than any sort of threat. Their driver knew better than to try and talk to the irritable trio of tigers by now, and concentrated on keeping the horses moving along at a brisk trot.

"Hm…?" She sniffed again, more earnestly. There was… something there, carried by the faint breeze. Should she investigate…?

She shook her head, ignoring the curious glance of the driver. It's none of my business. If it's worth knowing about, it'll come to me. These two couldn't fight off a sleeping baby.

"Stay sharp," she warned the human. Not that it'll do a lot of good by the time he'd see anything.

They continued in silence a few minutes longer, the unease beginning to chafe at her; she began to wish that she had hackles to raise, if only to diffuse some of her tension. Her father seemed to pick up on some of it, as he sat up straighter to glare out of the window, watching the trees casually pass by. Her mother groaned and lay down on the seat, holding her belly tenderly as if it held an unborn child and not the remains of a fully grown man she had bed the night before.

What was it that made the air crackle so? The predator in her stretched and licked its lips in anticipation, her fangs beginning to lengthen under her lips and against her tongue, her fingers stretching themselves out like fleshy imitations of her true claws.

Then, the tense stillness exploded into noise and heat, an explosion of light and destruction ripping the roadside to shreds of dirt and clumps of grass, the trees splintering. The driver screamed in unison with the horses, and he whipped them into a frenzied gallop, her parents making noises of surprise inside the box they drew.

Lixue shielded her face with her arm against the wooden shrapnel, her flames wicking away the few needles that stuck to her clothes before dashing in pursuit of the carriage's wild retreat.

An explosive? No, it feels demonic –

She had little time to wonder, though, before the telltale flashes spread along the forest to her right. She ducked away and covered her head as they were followed by the domes of fire and force, raining tree limbs and littering the sky with leaves and feathers.

It doesn't look like they're aiming at us, if they're aiming at anything at all.

The carriage was too far away now to catch up on two feet; she needed haste, her cover be damned. She shifted, falling to her fours and loping at an easy pace, her long stride eating the ground between her and the charging beasts. Her gaze flicked to the craters where the explosions had cleared, and flattened her ears, quickening her pace. Soldiers were filling the spaces, pouring down the gentle slope toward the road like so many ants.

The roar of many throats from her left lifted her flames from their resting place to blaze along her back. They were beset on two sides, and who knows if their fore or rear were clear. They needed to go faster. There was an answering roar from the cratered hillside, and the footsteps faster still, many boots rushing to battle sweeping in to crush each other – the travelers on the road were no more than leaves before the gale, pebbles before a flood.

Save for a tiger, who would not be crushed.

The carriage was within striking distance when one of the horses screeched, falling to its knees and rolling to its side, its companion thrown along with the carriage into an undignified arc over and against the packed dirt with a sickening crunch and squeal. Lixue threw the dying creature away from the carriage with a sweep of her claws, an arrow protruding from its neck, while the other struggled and bucked against its restraints. She tore the door away with her fangs, the driver limping to his living horse and freeing it before they tore away along the road in a desperate bid for life, dragging the reins along behind them. The two armies, weapons flashing and fangs glinting in the golden light, clashed together, swallowing them.

Lixue roared above the din, her mother clambering to the top of the overturned wagon – no more than so many sticks at this point – screaming threats at the top of her lungs as her mate pulled himself free, clutching his elbow to his chest. Horrified fear etched itself plainly on his face as his daughter squalled, cleaving a soldier into meaty chunks with her claws, his spear clattering to the ground before his body followed. She swung her body around, dragging her paws along the dirt to paint fire in its arced path. It clung to her as it danced, a protective barrier between her and the sudden innumerable foes.

Beset on all sides, she rumbled in her chest, her enemies fighting each other just as easily as they turned their blades on her. It was chaos, blood forming a fine mist and the pained screech of metal meeting metal only drowned out by the dying and the furious.

Her mother had leapt to aid her, shifting to her own petite tiger form and forming lines of flowers in the ground for her daughter to light afire, their burning petals releasing a smoke that burned the eyes and clung to the lungs. She coated her mate in huge blooms to shield him from stray arrows, as he was frozen in place, mumbling with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Lixue ran frantic circles, ripping and tearing and shredding, the bodies radiating out of her small territory like the spokes of a wheel, but for every enemy she dismembered or disemboweled or strung between her fangs, two or three more would appear, either beyond caring or excited by the challenge she presented. If she had been on her own, she would have broken free by now, or lost herself in the sheer mad joy of battle – but her fear outweighed all else, the fear of losing her father again, when she'd just gotten him back. When he might be the only way to get back home. He was beyond precious.

So she fought to maintain the line, every hard-won inch lost again as soon as she turned her head. She found herself pushed back against the carriage, her tail curled against her legs as she struck with her forepaws and tried to keep her fire from spreading to the wood that sheltered her father.

"No!" Her mother cried behind her, desperation tinging her voice. "Stay back! I'll choke everyone here, I mean it! Don't you dare touch us!"

Lixue started to turn to look, a long-legged lizard latching onto her wounded shoulder and flailing at her face in an attempt to catch her eye with its stubby claws. She crushed its neck in her mouth and tore it free, some of her fur coming away in its mouth, a patch of bloody scar tissue dangling against her chest as she wheeled around to face the threat.

The pearly fur nearly glowed in the golden light, his familiar crimson eyes glinting at her mother with deadly intent. Despite the bodies he had no doubt left in his wake, he was untouched – the snarling taiyoukai could have stepped from a painting – and there, before him in foolish defiance, her mother's small orange body, preparing to give herself in furious battle to save her mate.

Lixue roared and gathered her legs beneath her for a leap toward the pair, a sudden weight on her hips forcing her down. She engulfed herself in fire, whipping her body around once more to frantically strip the lizard from her skin, his spit dripping down her legs and her flesh smoking and bubbling in its wake. She kicked it away, not even caring to see if it was truly dead this time, before scrambling to her feet and hurtling herself toward Sesshomaru and her parents, time slowing to nearly a crawl as her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the maelstrom of noise and death to a mere whisper.

The mother, feinting and leaping toward the dog's neck, flowers blooming under her feet with a burst of color, beautiful even against the mire of mud dyed red with gore. Her father, snapped out of his shock and stupor, the bone protruding from his elbow a faint pink and his embroidered clothes ruined with dirt and blood, forming stripes along his body far too late. Sesshomaru, who casually swung a paw to catch her mother from midair to slam her into the ground, mouth streaming with lines of poison that dripped along the demon's struggling form as he lowered his jaws to crush her.

"Sesshomaru!"

She howled his name, throwing herself onto his paw and stretching herself along the ground, flat against the ground and staring up at his face. Lixue didn't know what motivated her, precisely, following her instinct and choosing to deal with the consequences later.

Maybe it was to save her father from losing his mate, who he still loved, despite her faults. Maybe it was out of respect for the woman whose ferocity she had inherited, who wouldn't devote her life to one man but would devote her death to him without thought. Maybe it was out of the knowledge that she needed Sesshomaru's aid to get back to where she belonged. Maybe it was something else that urged the words from her mouth, and put her face to face with the same demon who had ripped open her shoulder and nearly killed her the last time they had been face to face.

"Spare her, and take me instead." She spoke calmly, baring her fangs but lying still, her wounds pouring fresh onto the ground beneath her and onto his fur. "I'll do whatever you want."

He turned his gaze to hers, an intense pressure behind his eyes that she didn't understand, but she held it – pinning her ears flat to her head and her pupils widening.

His smell is the same. It brought memories of dancing and sleeping, curled together, and her heart stirred with a sharp ache.

"Lixue, what are you doing?!" Her father's shouts broke over her back like wind against a stone. "Is Ju alright? Get away, both of you!"

She didn't break eye contact with Sesshomaru as her mother struggled under his paw, shifting to better grip her daughter's fur. The sensation felt far away.

"They may go. But your life is mine." His breath was warm against her nose, the faint tingle of poison tickling her nostrils. "You will stay."

"Fine. Just let them go." She agreed, and this seemed to satisfy him, her mother released from Sesshomaru's claws.

"W-what? No, that's not acceptable!" Her father blustered and stumbled down from the carriage to protest, before being caught in the arms of his mate.

The battle had moved along without them, only a few stragglers and the dead nearby as the shouting rose up just out of reach. Sesshomaru casually walked toward the battle, expecting her to follow.

"You should probably go before he changes his mind," she held her voice steady, hoping it didn't betray her trepidation at what she'd just agreed to. "I'll be alright. You should keep going to the castle – the little lordling needs to ally with his great-uncle, and give him the bridge as a gift. It'll make them think again about invading, and peace talks will commence."

"But–"

"Hush, papa. It's alright." She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile, despite her bloodied fur and ragged shoulder, and turned to follow the man she'd loved, in what felt like a lifetime ago. She tried not to listen to the fading voices behind her.

"Let her go, Chao. She's doing this for us."

"She's my daughter. I can't leave her to save my own skin!"

"If it weren't for her, we'd probably be dead. She knows what's best, I think."

"What's best is being safe at home, not out in the backwoods of Japan while our daughter gives her life to some stranger so we can go on without her!"

"Weren't you listening? That's Lord Sesshomaru. He's no stranger to her, or did you forget already? She knows what she's doing. She's an adult, and she's strong. Don't coddle her so."

"Oh, I know, alright. He's the one who did that to her shoulder, too. He's no friend of hers. Who's to say what he'll do to her?"

"What do you propose we do, then? She negotiated for our freedom. If you interfere, we ruin her noble gesture."

"Don't you even care?"

"I do care, Chao. But I care about you more. You need to respect her wishes, and go through with this meeting. We can come back to this later."

"…I'm sorry, Lixue. I'm so sorry."

Don't watch me leave you; your heart cries and I hear it, inconsolable.