She had been trying for several days, but continuously failed to find time to confront Kagome with her suspicion that she was up to something, plotting with Sesshomaru. Sango wasn't really as angry as she could have been. She was sure that Kagome was acting out of the hurt Inuyasha was constantly causing her. She just had to bring her to her senses before any irreversible mistakes were made. Sango watched anxiously for her chance, praying it would come before she was too late.
It was late when Kagome slipped away from their camp at the edge of the forest, making her way into the rolling fields stretching into the distance. She didn't go far before settling on the fire side of a hill out of sight of camp.
"Kagome."
She jumped and looked around, only relaxing when she recognized the person at the top of the hill, "Sango, I didn't realize you were still awake."
"I've been wanting to talk to you." The only thing stiffer than Sango's voice was the way she walked down the hill to sit next to Kagome.
"About what?" Why wouldn't Sango look at her?
"I know that Inuyasha has hurt you many times, but that is no reason to turn against him."
"What are you talking about?" Kagome demanded, her eyes glued to Sango, wide enough to be nearly perfect circles.
"Whatever you are planning for revenge you have to stop before you do something you'll regret."
"I'm not planning any revenge Sango. Why would you think…"
Sango's hand rose and opened, her thumb and pointer finger pinching the end of something. Kagome watched with a mix of panic and shock as a single long strand of silver hair fell out of her palm to dance on a breeze.
"I pulled this off of you the night after we were attacked by the cat demons, after you left on your own. It's Sesshomaru's not Inuyasha's."
Kagome tried and failed several times to speak as panic's icy hands closed around her throat. Then Sango knew.
"It is Sesshomaru's then." She had expected her to deny it, dared to hope she would. This silence was painful and telling.
"Sango… I think you might have misunderstood."
"Whatever you've started planning with Sesshomaru you have to end it. Sesshomaru means to kill Inuyasha. He won't stop until he does."
"It isn't what you think."
"You were with him before I found you. What were you doing?"
Kagome turned away, hoping moonlight wouldn't reveal how badly she was blushing. "I…I can't tell you."
"Kagome I won't tell them if…"
"I'm not planning anything with Sesshomaru, but I can't tell you anything else."
"Just don't do whatever it is he's trying to make you."
"He's not trying to make me do anything."
"What are you doing then? I can't believe you would do something like this, and lie about it."
"I love him." The words came bursting out before she could stop them, echoing faintly on the air.
"I know, that's why you shouldn't be trying to hurt him."
"Not Inuyasha." She caught the strand of hair, took it from Sango, "Sesshomaru."
"Kagome you can't mean that!" It was impossible to tell if Sango was more shocked or outraged.
"Please Sango, you can't tell. Promise me you won't tell the others. They wouldn't understand." Kagome pleaded.
"I don't understand."
"I know, I'm sorry Sango. I didn't want any of this." She focused on the piece of hair she was winding around her fingers.
"I guess you can't pick who you fall in love with." Sango murmured, her thoughts momentarily going to a monk with a weakness for women.
"He's beautiful though, isn't he?" Kagome fell backward to stare up at the full moon hanging overhead.
"Sesshomaru?"
"Yeah." She released the hair, watched it soar away as the wind claimed the prize it had dreamed of having.
"I don't know Kagome. I don't see it."
"Try not thinking like a demon slayer about it." Kagome murmured, staring at the sky, "He's got the prettiest hair I've ever seen, like moonbeams, and his eyes… like the late afternoon sun coming out after a stormy day." She could almost see his face above her, those eyes bright staring into hers.
"Maybe if you encased it in ice." Sango fell back into the grass next to her, "Those eyes are frigid."
"Not when they burn." Kagome whispered, and Sango pretended that she wasn't hearing any of this.
"I'll keep your secret Kagome, but I won't be helping you sneak off to see him."
"I wouldn't ask you to," Kagome sighed a little, "Besides I doubt I'll be seeing him anytime soon."
"Then Sessho…He doesn't know how you feel?"
"He does."
"But he doesn't feel the same." There was of course no way Sesshomaru could love anyone, especially a human traveling with his little brother.
Kagome looked down. It made sense that Sesshomaru wouldn't love her, but she was beginning to think, to hope, that maybe he had come to save her because he did care, but it was a fragile hope, and far too delicate to be trusted to anyone but herself. This hope belonged to her and no one else could know it. Not yet.
*
The last of the cats was dead, no longer a threat to her or an annoyance to him. He had no further reason to be concerned with her safety. And still the voice would not leave him, bending his will continuously against him, haking his desire to see her a pathological need. He was growing to hate the voice whispering in the very back of his mind.
Sesshomaru would have considered returning home if he hadn't known that his torment would become torture there. For now he would have to find more appropriate occupations for his time.
*
He stood on the cliff looking down at them, the words he had overheard the night before burning in his ears.
"I love him… eyes like sunshine… hair like moonbeams…I love him."
How could she feel like that? His woman… how could she love the mutt? Koga stared down at the girl walking below him, the half demon next to her basking in her loving gaze, stealing her heart away, and completely undeserving of her affections. How he hated him. Koga knew he would have to win Kagome's love back, but first he had to get rid of the mutt.
"I love him… hair like moonbeams…eyes like sunlight…I love him… Inuyasha…" He tried to block his ears, but the words had already burned into his brain.
"Kagome," Helplessly he turned to find her in the distance, stared after her, "How could you?"
*
"I have seen enough Berena." He continued to admire the lovely face in the bewitched mirror until the spell had ended and she was gone, "My decision is made. This girl will become my queen."
"My lord Gorenchi, I must protest this, she is but a human."
"An unusual and lovely human, who shall be mine." Gorenchi lounged in his thrown, absently twiddling an end of his black hair with his fingertips, "You should not object Berena, you showed her to me first."
"By accident my lord, I assure you." The witches hand tightened on the frame of them mirror she held.
"Accident or no. My decision is irreversible. Lillya." He glanced at the girl next to him, who moved instantly to kneel before him, "Take all you need and retrieve my bride to be. Do as you wish with the others, but she must not be injured."
"As you will my lord." Lillya remained on the floor as she turned away, and stood with her back to him. She snapped her fingers several times as she left his thrown room and uniformed men fell into step behind her.
"What is the lovely human's name again Berena?"
"Kagome, my lord."
"Ah yes… Kagome. She will make a wonderful queen, don't you think?"
"Yes my lord, she will be a charming ornament to dangle from your arm."
*
"I get the feeling that Kagome and Sango aren't telling us something." Miroku murmured, watching the girls huddle together just out of earshot.
"You're getting' paranoid Miroku. They're girls, you aren't supposed to understand them."
"Still Inuyasha, they're behaving oddly of late."
"Maybe they've just gotten tired of being asked to bear your children."
"You're being… that is quite ridiculous."
"Ridiculous huh? Hey Kagome, want to have Miroku's kids?" Inuyasha called, not looking at the girls.
"Um…no thank you." Kagome threw Sango a confused look.
"Now he has Inuyasha asking for him? Could he really be that out of control?"
"I'm sure Inuyasha is just trying to prove a point. He doesn't approve of Miroku's… oh sorry." She had forgotten that Sango was sensitive about Miroku's womanizing.
"Never mind it. I'm going to get some firewood, would you like to come?"
"Sure." Kagome stood as Shippo leapt into her arms, "Do you want to come too?"
"Yeah, I don't want to sit with those two." He looked at Miroku and Inuyasha, who was ignoring the monk glaring at him.
Kagome dropped the wood in her arms and turned to the rustling bush near her, jumped back from it.
"I have come with no intentions of causing you harm." The little green imp emerged from the underbrush, already bowing.
"J…Jaken, what are you doing here?" She wasn't really afraid, just nervouse. The imp had killed her after all. If not for Sesshomaru she would have never survived the last encounter.
"I beg of you to forgive me for my actions when last we met."
"Of course Jaken. You were worried about Sesshomaru, and I'm okay now." This was the fastest way to get the creature to go. Accept his apology and Jaken had no reason to stay.
"I know I do not diserve it, but I have a favor to beg" It was like he was reading a script.
"What do you want Jaken?"
"I would have you ask Lord Sesshomaru to allow me to return to him."
"Jaken I…"
"Please, my purpose is the serve him, I have no life but to follow him."
"I'm sorry Jaken. I'm not with Sesshomaru anymore. I won't see him anytime soon." The defeated look on his face mad her wish she could help him, "I'm sorry Jaken, there really isn't anything I can do."
"I had suspected as much." There was no humility in his tone now, only hardness and anger, " You have been no help to me."
"I'm sorry Jaken." She repeated, watching the imp try not to shrink under his disappointment and heartbreak.
Kagome turned away from him for a second, gathering the pieces of wood she had dropped. When she looked back Jaken was no longer the only creature standing in front of her. Her eyes moved up the small body hidden beneath thick armor and dark uniform clothes.
"Hello." There was a brightness in the voice, but the girl did not smile.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Kagome backed slightly away, strange shivers moving up and down her back.
"Not yet. My name is Lillya, I have been sent for you."
"Sent by who?" She asked softly.
"My lord Gorenchi."
"I don't know any Gorenchi. I think you must have mistaken me with someone else." Kagome flashed her best smile, wishing she hadn't wandered so far from the others.
"I have not. My lord is quite taken with you Lady Kagome, he is most insistent upon meeting with you." Lillya smiled, but it was obviously fake and not pleasant at all.
"Well… I'd be… I'll come meet your master once I meet up with my friends."
"There is no time for that. You will have to come with me. Now."
Kagome screamed as hands closed around her arms, yanking her away. She fought against them, but couldn't escape the vice-like grip. "What are you … Let me go!" She didn't stop screaming or fighting as she was drug forward by two large men.
"Kagome, what's happening?" Shippo appeared suddenly running through the tall grass.
"Shippo, go get the others." She screamed, still fighting, but loosing ground rapidly.
"I was hoping that you would make this easy lady Kagome. Your friends will not be able to come with us until they are summoned. I have been instructed to bring only you." There was only a hint of impatience in Lillya's girlish voice.
Shippo nodded and ran, screaming for Inuyasha and Miroku, then Sango.
"Take her quickly. We will deal with those who come." Lillya snapped moving past Kagome and her captors, "We will catch up quickly."
"No Let me go!"
Momentarily frozen by the shock of this scene Jaken went unnoticed as he slipped away, watching Kagome kick and claw at the people holding her. The only thought that registered in his mind was how angry Lord Sesshomaru would be if this Gorenchi succeeded in stealing the girl. He had to tell him, and it would give him a reason to see his lord again. With that in mind he ran.