Trap of Darkness

A/N: Welcome back to Trap of Darkness. Congratulations, you've finally reached chapter twelve. Thank you to all the readers, reviewers and those who favorited this story. Thank you to LADY SILVERFOX charita rai for all your ideas and help. This story is owned by both LADY SILVERFOX charita rai and myself. We owned all rights to our OCs Jasmine and Akemi, but we do not lay claim to the Inuyasha cast. Enjoy reading and don't forget to leave a review. Thanks!

For a little head's up:

'Japanese'

'English'

Thoughts

Twelve

Tōga-ō led Jasmine back to the school building, his gaze intense while his mind was frantic with thoughts. Though his mind was distracted, he was aware of all that was around him. Or at least that's what he convinced himself to believe. He was all too aware of Jasmine trailing behind him, the scent of fear and anxiety that wafted from her pores, even the way she kept a certain distance between them. He frowned at the thought that she feared him. He was used to dealing with people who feared him, but he was not used to females he was attracted to fearing him.

Due to his lack of awareness, Tōga-ō didn't sense or see the female panther yōkai staring at the pair with a gaping mouth. He merely opened the door and ushered Jasmine in first. He led her through the corridors at a quick pace that she found herself lagging behind just a bit. Jogging to keep up every now and again, she felt relief wash through her when they finally reached their destination. The headmaster's office. But a new bout of fear unfurled when she realised that she was going to be trapped alone with him in that room. At that thought, Jasmine felt the beginnings of her arousal rise.

Shit, she cursed in English. What rotten luck.

Tōga-ō's shoulders stiffened as a familiar smell caught his attention. This was going to be torture, he decided as he opened the headmaster's office and waved her through first. As she passed him, Tōga-ō tensed even further as her arm accidentally brushed his. He swallowed nervously and closed the door, trapping her very enticing scent in with them. He found himself wanting to massage his temples and suddenly wanting a very cold shower. He could feel parts of him awakening that he wished wouldn't at this particular moment in time.

Jasmine fidgeted where she stood, all too aware of her bodily changes, but unaware the effect it was having on Tōga-ō.

'The bathroom's through there,' Tōga-ō announced, pointing to the door on the right.

Jasmine felt her face grow hot and she quickly retreated to the bathroom.

Tōga-ō watched her go. He was relieved that he was no longer drowning under the scent of her heat, but he was disturbed by the scent of fear that clung to her. As attracted as he found himself to her, the idea that she feared him held him back. And though his thoughts still lingered with traces of Izayoi, he no longer beat himself over being interested in another woman. After all, he had only been loyal to two other women. Where was the harm in finding another woman to share his life with? He knew he couldn't deny this attraction to Jasmine, but he was not going to attempt to court her when she feared him.

But that was not what he wanted to talk to her about. He needed to discover as much as possible about her species, before his ignorance gets him into trouble he won't be able to get out of.

He strode over to the desk and sank into the black leather chair. He booted up the laptop as he waited for Jasmine to emerge from the bathroom and logged onto the internet, typing 'Djinn' into the search engine. Far too much information was listed, nothing concrete that he could trust or believe. He hated this feeling of uselessness and incapability. Until today, he had never heard of the djinn species. If he was honest with himself, he was surprised that Akemi knew about them before him. being the King of Japan gave him access to all manner of things. But she not only knew about them, she had djinn in the newly rebuilt House of the Sun.

The soft click of a door closing snapped Tōga-ō out of his thoughts. He looked up and locked his golden gaze on Jasmine's mixed eyes. The green added colour to the brown, and for some odd reason the green of her eyes reminded him of fire. He was sure there was a reason for it, but he didn't know why. Beneath the scent of her heat he could smell vanilla oatmeal combined with the scent of a smokeless fire. It was this fiery scent that belied her humanity. Jasmine Sarish Samaira was far from human.

How he didn't realise until now was a mystery.

But where she drew the line between human and monster remained more of a mystery than anything else. He didn't know anything about her, about her species. What morals did she follow? What were the djinn like? No matter the question he had no answer to it. And the only one who had the answers stood before him now. He was sure that Akemi had some answers in regards to the djinn species, but Jasmine should know more about her species than anyone else.

'You should know why I've called you here,' he said stapling his fingers together on the desk.

She nodded.

'But first, tell me how you've come to be fluent in Japanese. When you arrived here you were incapable of speaking simple words, but now you're speaking as fluent as if you were born here.'

Her eyes took on a gleam of a fiery spirit, once more reminding Tōga-ō of her inhumanness.

'Djinn are masters of many things. Grasping languages at a much quicker rate than humans is only one of many things we can do.'

'What can you do?' he asked, emphasising the one word to know that he was on about her individually rather than her whole species.

Her face flushed and she looked away embarrassed.

'I do not know,' she muttered, hands playing with the hem of her oversized black top.

Tōga-ō raised an eyebrow. 'You are an inexperienced djinn?'

'I merely follow my instincts when it concerns my abilities. I have minor telekinesis and the ability over fire but I can't always control that.'

'Is that all?' he asked, surprised to hear that she possessed so little

She flushed in humiliation. 'Like you said, I'm an inexperienced djinn. I have no one to teach me how to control my abilities or to unlock the ones I don't know about,' she said angrily.

'I apologise if I offended you,' he said sincerely.

She nodded to acknowledge his apology.

'Now then, let's discuss this at length, shall we?'

Karan disregarded the school rule to not run in the hallways and raced with agile flexibility around the students and over to where her sisters and brother were. She was full of excitement and juicy gossip that her siblings would love to hear. So would the whole school for that matter. Even she herself couldn't believe what she had just seen. She was just itching to blurt it out now, but she wanted her siblings to be the first to know before letting any of her friends know.

'Nee-san!' Karan cried out after seeing her sister's light blue hair.

'Karan, what's the matter?' the tallest of the sisters asked when Karan stopped next to her, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

'You're not going to believe who I just saw together!' she blurted, red eyes bright with excitement.

'Well stop stalling and tell us!' Shūran demanded, crossing his thick burly arms across his green clad chest.

'The Inu no Taishō was with that new girl, Jasmine!' she blurted, voice excited.

'Are you sure she wasn't stalking him like most of the other girls do?' Shūran asked, discounting her story.

'No, that's wrong!' Karan said, hands clenched in fists. 'They were together! He even held the door open for her! I'm telling you, they were heading to a more secluded place to have some privacy!'

Tōran smiled. 'Oh? Is that so? I never thought the King of Japan would be that type of man. But then, he did fall in love with a human before.'

Shunran giggled. 'That'll soil his reputation some more, don't you think?'

Tōran smirked. 'Japan's Great King taken in by a human, again. Oh how the media would soak this up. Imagine what they'd do with this information.'

'Nee-san, you're so evil,' Karan said grinning.

'Why should the dogs sit on top all the time? Looking down at us as if we're beneath them, it pisses me off,' she said with a sneer. 'Well, if they're not careful, they're going to lose their positions to someone like us.'

'It's not just the Inu no Taishō,' Shunran said, a mischievous smile on her lips.

'You should have seen the fight yesterday,' Shūran agreed, a grin on his face. 'Kagura and Kikyō both got their asses handed to them.'

'Oh? By who?'

'By the new girls,' Shunran answered. 'Although that Jasmine's got some unusual abilities, for a human, it's Taiyō Akemi that's the main problem. She's a dog yōkai just like Sesshōmaru and it seems the two have some kind of past connection.'

'Yeah, Kagura was beyond pissed when Sesshōmaru acted familiar with that Akemi,' Shūran said. 'Embracing her from behind, even going as far as to lick her neck and then her wound that Kagura managed to make.'

'Hmmm,' Tōran hummed in thought, blue eyes briefly flashing with anger. 'Let's make the Taishō family's life a living hell.'

'What do you want us to do, nee-san?' Karan asked, eager to participate.

'Spread these rumours around the school,' she answered, taking her mobile phone out of her pocket. 'You can even make some up. Just make it believable. I'm going to inform the tabloids of this new development in our beloved royal family's lives.'

'What about the hanyō?' Shūran asked.

'He's quite chummy with that human female, Kagome,' Shunran said delighted.

'Might as well include that blasted monk, Miroku, in the rumours as well,' Tōran said.

'Heh, you're really going all out, nee-san,' Shūran said smirking.

'Of course,' Tōran answered, an evil glint to her blue eyes. 'We'll make them regret suppressing us of the panther tribe for as long as they have.'

Karan whistled. 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' she whispered to Shunran.

Shunran nodded in agreement and giggled. 'This'll be fun.'

'I'm worried about Akemi-chan and Jasmine-chan,' Kagome said, watching as the pair were led away in different directions.

'Keh, I'm not worried about Jasmine one bit,' Inuyasha said. 'Oyaji will take care of her. He's not the type to attack a woman without cause. It's Sesshōmaru who's the problem. That bastard doesn't care whether they're male or female, but if they stand in his way or damage his pride, he'd kill them.'

'Akemi-hime's done more than just damage Sesshōmaru-sama's pride,' Miroku pointed out.

'But Sesshōmaru-sama won't really kill her, will he? Rin asked worriedly, brown eyes ready to tear up at any second.

'Honestly, I'm not so sure,' Miroku admitted. 'Even with Akemi-hime's confession of being his rival, I'm still incapable of understanding Sesshōmaru-sama's intentions.'

'He won't kill her,' Sango said confidently.

Everyone turned to her surprised.

'I'm not sure if any of you realised, but Sesshōmaru-sama acted almost gentle when he was dealing with Akemi.'

'Gentle?' Inuyasha repeated. 'What world are you living in? Sesshōmaru is never gentle!'

'He could have killed her countless times over in that incontrollable state, but didn't,' Sango pointed out. 'If he really wanted her dead, he would have done it.'

Rin clapped happily. 'You mean to say that there's something going on between them?'

Inuyasha looked like he was going to puke.

Miroku blinked but then a lecherous smile appeared on his face as he held his chin between his forefinger and thumb. 'Perhaps Sesshōmaru-sama has taken Akemi-hime to thoroughly examine her condition.'

Sango punched him on his head.

'What was that for, Sango?' he complained, rubbing the back of his head.

'Stop thinking such perverted things. Neither Sesshōmaru-sama nor Akemi are anything like you.'

'Sesshōmaru-sama is a man before he's the prince of Japan,' Miroku reminded them. 'Do you really believe he is incapable of such things?'

Inuyasha sneered. 'He's far too prideful to do anything like that. He'll think it's too beneath him.'

'Sesshōmaru-sama's perfect! There's no way he'll be as corrupt as you, Miroku,' Rin announced, causing the girls to laugh as Miroku looked dejected.

'But what do you suppose he will do to her?' Kagome asked, kick-starting Miroku's perverted thoughts. She glared at him. 'I'm not on about what you're considering, Miroku-sama!'

Sango punched him on the head.

'What was that for?' he asked, rubbing the spot.

'I'm sure Akemi will be fine, Kagome,' Sango said, ignoring Miroku to smile reassuringly down at her sister.

'What about Jasmine?' Rin piped up. 'She's new to Japan. Do you think she'll be alright?'

'Inu no Taishō-sama's looking after her, Rin,' Sango said.

'He's the most dependable one of the Taishō family. Jasmine-sama will be just fine,' Miroku said, also smiling.

'Oi!' Inuyasha protested.

'You're right about that. There's nothing dependable about Inuyasha,' Kagome agreed.

'Watch it!' Inuyasha growled at her.

'Make me!' she bit back at him, easily getting into an argument.

Rin smiled at the pair while Sango and Miroku merely sighed at their usual antics.

Akemi was right. Definitely in love, Sango thought while watching the arguing pair.

Word meanings

Nee-san – older sister

Hime – princess

Sama – respectful term, but is used as lord or lady in this story

Inu no Taishō – dog general