-1A/N: I know you hate me...this chapter was originally part of the last, but after I typed the bit about Kagome dying, I figured I'd leave you a tension filled cliff-hanger. I'm surprised no one asked me in a review just exactly how many times could I kill Kagome in one story. The answer? You'll see...
Chapter 16
Sesshomaru was awoken by a scream of pain from Kagome beside him in bed. About as quickly as it had come, Kagome's scream came to an abrupt end, along with her breathing and heart beat. Sesshomaru panicked, picking her up in his arms and cradling her limp body. His eyes stained red as he registered that there must've been a complication with the Drink of Anomede, something wasn't done right, or...or... something! His mind was racing. It had killed her instead of making her a demon. He had lost his mate because of his foolish wish for her to become a demon. He held her chest close to his ear, trying to find even the slightest heartbeat. There was nothing but silence. Sesshomaru threw his head back and gave an almighty mournful roar.
His resounding howl echoed through the castle, waking the servants, guards, and children. Sesshomaru's heart paced and his breathing became ragged. His chest felt like it was being torn in two. He began rocking back and forth with Kagome in his arms.
'Noooo!!!!' he screamed in his head, 'Not now, not yet, not ever! I won't let it happen, even if I have to go to the Afterlife and drag her soul back with me. Oh, no!!!! I never told her, never told her when she was awake...even after Sasarg warned me...I never told her how I felt about her...I never told her that...'
"I love you, Kagome!" The emotion in his voice, the tears that stung his eyes, the pain in his aura, they all testified the truth in his words as he desperately told his limp mate his heart. He closed his eyes and held her body closer.
"I always knew you did."
His head shot up, joy, sweet joy, overwhelming him. He looked into his mate's eyes, fearing that his sanity had finally broke and that he was imagining her voice. But no, her wonderful brown eyes looked back into his. They were filled with tears, loving tears of happiness. He couldn't help it when a tear fell from his eyes too- never had he once in his life even considered showing such weakness as crying. He was strong! Always! And here he was with a wet drop sliding down his cheek and he didn't care. He almost laughed, for he didn't care. Everything that had once mattered to him- appearances, titles, strength- it all disappeared as he held on to this one little human miko with a heart unlike anyone else's.
She giggled and reached up to wipe away his tear. Sniffing, she said, "I know why I'm crying, I'm so happy, but why are you?"
"I thought I had lost you," murmured Sesshomaru quietly, resting his forehead against hers, "and I didn't know what to do once you were gone. Promise you'll never die on me again."
More tears leaked out of Kagome's eyes, "I'll promise as long as you stay alive for me."
He nodded, "Let me hold you while you sleep. I don't want anything to happen to you," said Sesshomaru as he positioned Kagome so that she was leaning against his chest.
"Never let anything happen to me again. Well, that sounds boring." Yet she consented and soon she was asleep again, but not before she mumbled, "I love you too, Sesshomaru."
Once she settled down, Sesshomaru listened to her breathing. It felt wonderful just to hear that simple noise again. He silently wondered why she had stopped breathing in the first place. His eyes narrowed as his brow creased in thought. Then he heard it- the sound of her heart. The youkai from the drink must have finally hit her heart and started to transform it into a demon heart. He listened to its beat. It was louder as it pumped the blood through her body along with youkai energy. It must've only stopped to allow it time to reconstruct itself to its new youkai needs. It seemed stronger already. All hypothesis aside, he knew that above all and if nothing else, the girl's heart belonged to him, and his to her, forevermore.
(A/n:blah, too much fluff...need...more...action, and bloodshed, can't forget the bloodshed. I'll get to work on that in the next chapter, just bear through the fluffiness for a little longer...;p)
The demon lord woke mid-morning, nearly afternoon, his mate still asleep on his chest. Or, at least he assumed she was his mate- she had his mark and still smelled like Kagome, yet the sight he met was very different. It appeared the Drink of Anomede felt like changing her appearance sometime between him falling asleep after it had effectively killed his mate and his waking. He couldn't say the changes were unpleasant.
He nuzzled her neck until she awoke. She put up quite a fight until Sesshomaru merely got up from the bed- lifting her with him- and stood her on her feet beside a mirror in the room. She glanced at her reflection before doing a double take. Her eyes grew wide as she saw the physical changes.
The first thing she noticed were her ears, no longer humanoid, but pointed in the demon variety. One of her ears was being nibbled by Sesshomaru while the other was hidden beneath her hair. Her once ebony hair had turned gold. It shone with a light of its own in the semi-dark room. Every movement made it glitter and sparkle. She was pleased as it was beautiful, and soft, she noticed as she ran a hand through it. Sesshomaru took up that action as she looked for further changes. Her brown eyes were gone, and now pure silver stared back at her. Sesshomaru's crescent moon was still upon her forehead, but now it accompanied a single scarlet demon streak on each cheek and marks on her eyelids in deep plum.
"I look like a human version on the leaves of the tree of Emoceba Anomede. It has the scarlet tops, with the deep plum bottom, and trimmed and veined in gold. I guess I should be glad I didn't turn green like that guardian guy Sasarg, but I wonder why my eyes are silver," Kagome told Sesshomaru while leaning forward to better look at her demonic marks.
"The tree had silver bark. Perhaps that's why," he said while lifting up the back of her shirt. He had caught the sight of something back there when she leaned forward. His claws lightly traced the demonic mark on her lower back- a simplified tattoo of the 13-branched tree of Emoceba Anomede was there in the same deep plum color as the bottom of the leaves.
"How provocative," he growled seductively.
"So I've noticed," answered Kagome studying the newfound mark. "I wonder if I have any demonic abilities yet?"
"Let us go find out," said Sesshomaru.
They went to Sesshomaru's dojo at the back of his castle where Kagome first tried to keep up with him when he ran- tried and failed. Apparently, her speed was still human, as was her strength they later found out. It seemed that, on the first day of the transformation, only her appearance changed to that of a demon.
"Mommy's even more beautiful! Shippo come look!" screamed Rin when they all came together for lunch. The kids were thrilled to find out their mother was soon to become a demon.
The rest of the day passed quickly and Kagome could sense her demonic powers growing stronger. She fell asleep in Sesshomaru's arms wondering what changes would await her on the morrow.
She woke the next morning purring. She couldn't help it, even when she tried to stop. Something was sending the most pleasant feeling up her back bone. She opened her eyes to figure out what could be causing her such contentment and found that Sesshomaru was petting her- well, petting her new tail.
"Good morning, beautiful," he greeted, still dragging his fingers through her golden tail in a tickling sensation.
"So I grew a tail last night?" she asked obviously.
He nodded, still never letting go of her tail, and added, "And claws and fangs."
Kagome held up her fingers and indeed, she did have claws. Running her tongue over her teeth, she nearly sliced her tongue with her new and sharp fangs. She winced.
Sesshomaru chuckled, finally letting go of her tail as her lowered his lips to hers, and kissed her. He slid his tongue over her lips and was granted access as he too ran his tongue over Kagome's new fangs. They finally drew away, breathless and Kagome could taste Sesshomaru's blood in her mouth.
She instantly felt sorry for hurting him. "I'm sorry," she apologized.
"For what? You're perfect," he said offering her a hand to help her off the bed.
"But I hurt you," she pressed.
"This Sesshomaru does not get hurt, he gets even."
"What!?!"
"I'm sure Rin would love to hear how you purr when someone rubs your tail," he said, pretending to be serious.
"You wouldn't!" flared Kagome. Rin would be murder- constantly pulling and rubbing her tail until Kagome purred.
"We shall see." And with that, Sesshomaru walked off, a smug smirk on his face.
O0o.o0O
"Inuyasha, I think we're lost," offered Miroku one evening as the sun was setting, many days after they had first begun the trip to find Inutaisho's castle, to find Kagome.
"I'm not lost!" barked Inuyasha grumpily.
Sango's feet were dragging as she continued at Inuyasha's brisk pace, Kohaku was asleep on Kirara. Miroku pressed Inuyasha again. "Then care to explain why we've been walking for days and have passed that river bank twice?"
"The river bank looks the same everywhere on the river. Just because it looks like it, doesn't mean we're walking in circles," growled Inuyasha. He was looking for the river bank Miroku was talking about, sending glares at every river stone and sparkle of water. He knew Miroku was right, he could smell that they had already come this way, but he really didn't know where else to look for his father's castle. He had never been there before.
"Then why is it taking us so long to get there? I thought for sure that we'd be there by now," said Sango. She really want to see her best friend too, but at the pace Inuyasha was going, they'd only see the afterlife if they continued.
"We're taking the long way to it then," snapped the half-demon, "Sesshomaru wouldn't expect that."
"That's because he's sane Inuyasha, which is more than I can say for you. When you said you'd lead the way, I assumed you would know where you were going" expressed Miroku, "Just admit it, Inuyasha, you're lost."
"No! I'm not lost!"
"Are you sure?" asked Miroku, but didn't wait for an answer as he continued, "Because if I were your father, Lord of the WESTERN lands, I think I'd but my castle in the WEST."
Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks. He looked for the setting sun- it was on his back. 'Damn!' he thought, 'Suns sets in the west. I'm leading them east. Pay more attention you moron.'
Inuyasha gave a frustrated growl and began stamping his way in the other direction, this time towards the Western lands.
"Inuyasha," groaned Sango, "Let's just rest here for the night. We're human, we need to rest. Surely you must be tired."
"No! You can stay here if you want, but I'm going to go find Kagome!"
"Why? So you can tell her you just abandoned her friends in the middle of the wilderness. Come on Inuyasha, you're acting childish," scolded Sango.
"I actually wouldn't mind be abandoned in the middle of nowhere with you, Sango. Then, we could cuddle for warmth and nobody could interrupt us when-"
The lecherous monk never got to finish as Sango had knocked him unconscious with her boomerang. "Hentai!" she murmured, yet not as angrily as one would think. She then addressed Inuyasha, "Inuyasha, we're staying the night here."
Inuyasha 'feh'ed before jumping up in a tree limb to rest. Sango was nearly as scary as Kagome when she was angry. At least there were no 'sits' coming his way after he had a fight with Sango though.
Tomorrow, he promised himself that he would find his father's castle, where Sesshomaru lived. He'd never been there before, but he was determined to find it nonetheless.
O0o.o0O
Kagome awoke the third morning after she had drank the drink of Anomede to find her senses overpowered. Everything suddenly had a smell, she had just never realized it before. Even Sesshomaru smelled like something- spiced oranges and something unidentifiable, but still pleasant- like a fresh wind smell she guessed. She buried her nose in his hair to block out all the other smells trying to offend her. However, as soon as she ended the scent discomfort, she could hear everything so well. Sesshomaru's heart beat pounded in her eardrums, the bees outside the castle seemed like they were flying around inside her head, and the children's laughter was sharp and pierced her hearing. It all made her crawl into a little ball and hold her hands over her ears.
This distress awoke her mate who instantly knew what was wrong. He just sat by her, soothingly rubbing her back and waiting for her to get used to the new level of senses. That was how they spent that day.
By the next, Kagome had it all under control and had woken to find new scarlet markings on her wrists. They indicated that she had poison at her disposal now. Shortly after the morning meal, and after accidentally melting two tea cups with her touch, Sesshomaru took Kagome to the woods to practice.
"You must learn what the poison glands feel like under your skin," instructed Sesshomaru, "Then, you need only to think about flexing those glands for the poison to start to drip. If you want to control it, just imagine that it's flowing down your wrist and into a rope. After its long enough, catch the poison rope and snap it to make it into a whip. Very good, though yours is a little too long for a beginner. You could end up catching yourself with it if you're not careful. How about a test; Try to hit that tree over there." Birds flew away in a frenzy as the tree came down. "Hmm...you seem to be a natural with this, or are you just used to whipping people?" He teased. The fury in her glare made him suddenly promise himself that he would never anger her again. He just prayed that she would put the demonic poison whip down before she killed him with it.She cracked it dangerously by his foot. Not one to give up, he took matters into his own hands, after all, he not only was Lord of the Western Lands, but also the creator of this beautiful little monster.
Using his demonic speed, he quickly pinned her to the ground, straddling her waist and holding her hands above her head, where the poison whip instantly disappeared.
"Uncle!" she called.
"Your uncle is not going to save you from me," he said, an predatory look in his eyes as they feasted on his mate.
"But we promised to go on that picnic with the kids," she reminded him.
He pulled himself off her muttering, "Spoilsport," only to have her steal a kiss from him before running back up to the castle. He casually followed. 'Oh, how he was addicted to her' his conscience murmured deeply inside his own head. The once feared, coldest, Ice Prince to top them all, that never took crap from anyone, was submitting freely to the whims of one female. Fate was laughing at him assuredly.
The next two days found the two testing Kagome's newly gained speed and then strength. They once again found themselves in the dojo, though this time, Sesshomaru had trouble out-running Kagome. She zipped around the training area faster than one's eyes could follow making it appear as if she were really just teleporting from one side to the other. Her strength was also glorious and she had pinned Sesshomaru 6 times out of 10 as they sparred. Weary and sweaty, they headed back to the castle for baths and then bed. Kagome was counting on her fingers of skills she had yet to gain from the potion. She couldn't think of any more she had to gain, yet she still had one day left of the transformation. Sesshomaru knew what was missing, but decided to wait for her to discover it herself.
She looked in the mirror the next morning to only see a slight difference- another scarlet demonic mark on each cheek, giving her two on each cheek total. "Sesshomaru? What do these marks mean?"
Sesshomaru lightly traced them with a gentle claw as he answered, "They are the marks of a taiyoukai. Now, your demonic power is great, and you can transform."
"Transform? As in like a big silver dog?"
"Or a golden one in your case, but yes, an Inu taiyoukai." He lightly kissed her forehead, "I shall teach you, come."
"Okay, but I have to know something. If I'm done transforming, shouldn't we start trying to find Naraku again and put an end to him?"
"You can sense his jewel shards now, correct?" asked Sesshomaru.
"Yeah..." confirmed Kagome but not really knowing where he was going with it.
"Then, as soon as he is within one day's journey, we shall take off after him. His castle moves every night, so if he's not within one day's travel, then we are chasing after smoke in the sky- he'll disappear before we can get to him."
"But shouldn't we tell my friends, Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha? They deserve a chance to defeat, or at least help defeat Naraku. He's messed with each one of their lives."
"I will send a messenger to lead them to the castle, if it pleases you. They may stay here while we wait for Naraku to show himself. They may fight alongside us if they wish," agreed Sesshomaru, leading the way to a clearing outside the castle so that they would have room to transform. A plan started to form in his head. He didn't want Kagome to fight in this battle against Naraku- the evil hanyou had already killed his mate once, and Tensaiga couldn't revive her again. Sesshomaru would find a way for her to agree to stay out of this upcoming conflict. He would not risk losing her ever again!
Sesshomaru turned his mind from his slight scheming and began instructing Kagome again. He told her how to enrage her youkai, while maintaining control. As a side note, he told her to concentrate on growing her fur outside of her clothes so that when she resumed her humanoid state, she wouldn't be naked.
Her eyes closed in concentration and when she opened them again, they were red. Her mouth and nose expanded and became a snout, her backbone curved as golden hair began sprouting from it. She grew into a monstrous size and her tail came off her shoulder to rest like a dog's does. Her pointed ears moved upwards and folded into huge dog ears. Soon, a golden beast stood where Kagome once had.
She pranced about the clearing a bit, wagging her tail much to Sesshomaru's enjoyment. After a few playful pounces at him, he transformed into his giant dog form and play wrestled with her. Every time she would pin him, she would lick his face, coating his shining fur with her spit. To a human, it seemed disgusting, but to an Inu youkai, it was sexually appetizing(just ask Sesshomaru).
Sesshomaru transformed back into his humanoid form and waited for Kagome to do the same. The golden beast closed its eyes once more in concentration and gradually shrunk in size. Its snout receded and left a cute nose and lush kissable lips. Sesshomaru was slightly disappointed to see that Kagome had managed to concentrate enough to keep her clothes, but he had already developed a workable plan.
"Come, there is only one test of your new powers left to do," beckoned Sesshomaru, pulling one of his all-time-favorite graceful walk-aways leaving Kagome to follow in his footsteps.
"Another test?" asked a befuddled human miko turned miko-demon, "What is it?"
"It is a test of endurance, and shall be held in my bed chambers, as soon as I send a messenger to retrieve your friends. I suggest you prepare, I will not go easy."
Kagome paused with an happy smile on her face, dreaming of what was to come. "I'll tell Jaken to watch the kids. I plan on passing this test with flying colors." She ran off with demonic speed leaving Sesshomaru with a smile...that is until he remember what exactly he had planned. Then his smile turned into a guilt-ridden frown.
A/N: I'm sure many of you can figure out what he has planned, and if you don't, it'll all be revealed in a short time. It seems Sessho's starting to finally feel the after effects of Sasarg turning him human on the mountain with the tree of Emoceba Anomede. hmmmm...my sessho's an ooc whirlwind...uhhhh...make that hurricane. Sorry 'bout that...
Anyway, here's some stats for this story so far: reviews: 149; hits: 27220; c2s: 3; on favs list of 65 peps, and 112 people have selected to be alerted of an update. I'm so proud!
Well, since we;ve reached the end of this chapter, could you be so kind as to drop a line or two in the review box on your way out? Thank ye kindly,
Tiki Rane Gobell