Looky there, Chapter 46 is here! Hopefully you guys will like it. Please let me know! That means REVIEW!

Now to the story!

Chapter 46

Morning dawned all too soon for Sai the next day. Her immense fatigue from the battle with Haruka had not yet subsided. However, Kaze seemed to be perfectly fine, seeing as he was making himself busy with preparations for their journey. Their other traveling companion, Kirara, seemed content enough just to watch him work.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sai asked through a yawn as she watched Kaze fiddle with a fully loaded bag that Kirara would be carrying. Kaze's head snapped to her as the sound of her voice reached his sensitive ears.

"Well it looks like you're awake." Kaze commented, smiling, "Just making sure we have enough food for the trip." Sai furrowed her brow in confusion and propped herself up on her right, uninjured elbow to make it easier to talk.

"Don't we normally just hunt for food? Why do we need to make Kirara lug supplies around?" Sai asked, curious as to why the new method was being implemented.

"I want to spend most of the day traveling. That means we won't have much time for anything else, including hunting. The wolves offered to provide food for our journey and Kirara doesn't seem to have a problem with carrying the extra weight, so I figured we might as well take advantage of the convenience." Kaze explained. Sai turned her head to Kirara who mewed her affirmation of what had been said.

"Alright, sounds good to me." She agreed, struggling to stand up, but thinking better of it upon feeling the pain in her ribs, "I just want to be able to move normally again." Kaze chuckled at his mate's complaint and smiled warmly at her.

"Well that is why we're taking this trip isn't it?" He pointed out. Sai rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, so stop talking and hurry up so we can go." She said sarcastically, making Kaze laugh heartily.

"Anything for you love." He said before setting the bag in his hands down by several similar ones near Kirara and walking to a different part of the cave. Sai allowed herself to fall back onto the pelt she was on and grimaced in pain upon landing.

"Damn ribs." She cursed bitterly.

About an hour later, Kaze, along with Sai riding on Kirara, were on the road back to their home village. They had said their goodbyes to their friends and to the wolves and received the blessing of Koga and Ayame. With any luck, they would be returning within a week, so there was no need for any long or drawn out farewell. The road on which they were travelling was calm and quiet. There no signs of chaos around at all. Kaze and Sai took note of how strange this was, especially considering current events, but guessed that it was due to the fact that Koga was in tight control of his domain, especially with his alliance to the panthers. At the very least, it made for very speedy travel. Kaze ran as Kirara flew with Sai on her back next to him. They didn't even have to avoid any travellers or merchants along the road who would be frightened by such a group as them. It was completely empty and quite peaceful.

"Hell, if we keep going like this, we might make it back by tomorrow." Kaze pointed out happily. Sai laughed and breathed in deeply the scent of the world around her.

"Yeah, that would be nice. But if that happened, we wouldn't get to enjoy the nice weather." She jested lightheartedly. Kirara mewed her agreement. The weather really was almost perfect. It was satisfyingly warm with a light breeze. The sunshine was strong and only a few puffy white clouds broke the strong light blue of the sky.

"I thought you wanted to get back as soon as possible." Kaze pointed out, chuckling.

"I do, but I might as well enjoy what I've got. Plus, you two are doing all the work, so I might as well catch a nap. I woke up too damn early anyway." Sai said as she curled up on Kirara and nuzzled herself into the cat demons soft fur. Kirara purred in response, enjoying the sensation and to help Sai fall asleep.

"Whatever you say love." Kaze said to himself, chuckling, "Whatever you say."

A few hours later, the sun was high in the sky and Sai was still asleep. Kaze was astonished that she had slept for so long. He almost didn't want to wake her up for lunch, but knew that he would be much worse off for not doing so. That didn't mean that he couldn't admire his mate's sleeping form nuzzled on top of Kirara. Sai suddenly cracked an eye open.

"Something weird on me?" She questioned, quickly getting up to check for anything that would cause Kaze to stare at her so intently. However, she stopped as Kaze began to chuckle at her antics.

"No just admiring the view." He said calmly, walking forward to get one of the bags from Kirara's side. Sai was glad that he didn't notice the light blush that appeared on her face, "Glad you woke up, though. I was dreading having to wake you."

"Well you should be glad that I did wake up." Sai told him, taking his hand and slowly getting off of Kirara, who promptly reverted back into her small, kitten form, "If you had let me miss lunch, I probably would have had to hurt you." Kaze laughed at this and nodded in understanding.

"Oh I'm sure. I know sleeping works up quite an appetite." He joked, making Sai roll her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." She said dismissively, "Just pull out the food." Kaze smiled warmly at her as she walked over, with some difficulty, and sat down against a tree.

"Gladly." He said, opening the bag.

"Milord." Called a small blue demon that distinctly resembled a lizard, "They are here." Konton smiled wickedly. The half-demons had foolishly fallen into his trap and didn't even know it. Of course he knew that they were on the move. Haruka had been his servant and she had fully served her purpose. It was a shame that she had to die in the process, but it wasn't a great loss. He would have had to do it eventually anyway. She would have rebelled when she found out that it had been him that had killed her family and not Koga, like he had told her. It was good that she had essentially delivered a helpless Sai into his hands before Kaze cleaned up her mess. Now they were in his grasp without him having to worry about their pesky friends.

Konton turned away from the demon without answering and walked to a large table that dominated the tent that he occupied. It was littered with scrolls and other things of little importance. However, it also held something crucial to his plan. He picked up the small black orb. It was blacker than any void. That made sense since all it was was Konton's unholy, unadulterated demonic aura in solid form. When released and directed, it would be enough to bring Sai's precious mate to his knees. Then the two of them and their mangy cat demon would be easy prey for his army. He gripped the orb tightly, forcing more of his aura into it, before tossing it to the small demon.

"Begin."

Kaze stood up and stretched after the meal, before reaching down and helping his mate to stand. They had eaten quickly in order to get back on the road as quickly as possible, but they had to admit that the wolves had done a good job with their food. It was mostly meat that they had hunted, but it was cooked in such a way that not only preserved it for the journey, but also made it delicious. Both of them considered it a shame that they had to scarf it down so quickly. However, they did what had to be done.

Sai, with help from Kaze, walked over to where Kirara was. She had enjoyed the meal too and seemed almost reluctant to begin travelling again. However, it didn't take long for her to stretch out her muscles and transform into her larger, more ferocious form. Sai was helped onto her back and, less than a minute later, they were all back on the road.

"So," Sai called out from Kirara's back, "How long are we going to travel before we stop for the night?" Kaze shrugged.

"Guess we'll figure that out when the time comes." He said nonchalantly, "Might as well go for as long as possible, but we'll stop when we get tired." Sai nodded. She understood his desire to keep moving. At the moment, all she wanted was to be up and running again.

"At least it's peaceful." Sai pointed out, "I don't smell or sense any demons, so I don't think we'll have to worry about any of that for awhile."

"True." Kaze agreed, "But don't you think it's a little strange?" Sai furrowed her brow in confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked, curious as to what he was getting at.

"Well, normally we'll at least smell the demons that inhabit the forest naturally and aren't aggressive." Kaze pointed out, "Thing is, I don't smell any type of demon around. It's like they're hiding or something."

"I guess that is a little strange." Sai admitted, "Maybe there just aren't many demons in this area."

"Or maybe someone doesn't want the demons just don't want to be found." Called out a high-pitched male voice from behind them. Kaze immediately skidded to a stop, while Kirara turned around in flight in order to face the demon. He was small, and an interesting shade of electric blue. By the looks of him, he was a lizard demon similar to Jaken, but not quite.

"Who the hell are you?" Kaze bit out in an intimidating growl. On the surface, the demon did not appear afraid, but Kaze could smell the fear on him.

"Not important mutt!" The lizard shouted back, reaching into the pocket of the brown robe he wore.

"Why can't we sense your demonic aura? We can barely smell you!" Sai demanded. The demon smirked in response as he pulled out a small, black orb.

"Because my master willed it to be so." He said venomously. Sai and Kaze's eyes widened in realization.

"Konton!" They said in unison. The demon's smirk grew.

"Exactly." He affirmed, outstretching the arm which held the orb straight out in front of him, "Now feel his wrath!" The demon squeezed his hand tightly over the orb. Black smoke began to pour from in between his fingers. Suddenly he released his grip on the orb and the black smoke shot forward in a spike. Sai gasped. The smoke was heading straight for Kaze and it was moving too fast for him to get out of the way. It slammed hard into his chest.

"KAZE!" Sai screamed as Kaze fell to his knees. He was shaking violently as the smoke continued to pour into his body and his eyes kept changing between pure red and pure white. Demon markings burned upon his cheeks as his fangs and claws grew. Another second passed before the last of the smoke overwhelmed his body. As soon as the flow ended, Kaze's body gave out and he slumped to the ground beneath him, "KAZE! NO!" The demon that had released the smoke immediately began to laugh hysterically. Sai turned on him, her own demonic blood flaring to the surface, and let loose a growl that stopped the demons laughing cold.

"What did you do to him?!" She roared, her eyes beginning to bleed red.

"M-my master overwhelmed h-him with his dem-monic aura." The demon stuttered, clearly terrified of the woman in front of him. Sai bared her growing fangs at him.

"Where is your master?!" She demanded, "I'll kill him first and then I'll rip your throat out you bastard!"

"My my..." Came a voice from the forest, calming the lizard demon's quaking, "Saiai, that is no way to treat my servant. What's the expression? Don't kill the messenger?" Sai roared in anger as Konton stepped from the treeline and took a relaxed position well in front of his lizard demon servant.

"Burn in hell!" She bit out, making Konton laugh.

"Why don't you make me, my dear?" He taunted. Sai responded in turn by moving to leap off of Kirara. However, her assault was cut short. Before she could even move off of the cat demon, Sai doubled over in pain from her ribs. In her pain, she fell off of Kirara and landed hard on her broken left arm, making her yelp. Konton laughed maniacally as Sai tried desperately to move, only to be halted by her injuries.

"What's wrong, my dear Saiai? Are you hurt?" He asked mockingly. Sai growled so threateningly that any other demon would have been terrified.

"What does it look like, bastard?" She bit out, "How the hell did you know about this?" Konton threw back his head in laughter as if this was the funniest thing that he had ever heard in his life before turning his murderous gaze back to Sai.

"Did you really think Haruka was working alone or that I wouldn't know the results of your little battle?" He asked incredulously. Sai's eyes widened in realization, "No I knew. I planned the whole thing, including this part."

"And what part is that?" Sai demanded defiantly, making Konton smirk.

"The part where you die." He told her with a tone of finality.

It was as if her fate had already been decided. But then again, it might as well of been. Kaze was unconscious and it was clear that Sai couldn't fight. The only logical outcome of this situation was both of their deaths. Kirara might be able to get away, but it was likely that she would die defending them. This was an incredibly depressing realization. They had been led into a trap and walked happily right into it. Now they would pay dearly for their oversight. None of this, however, would stop Sai from having the last word in the matter.

"Go ahead and try it you bastard!" She yelled across the road, "I won't die without a fight! Your blood will stain this road, before mine does!" Konton laughed straight in the face of her defiance while his eyes glinted with malice.

"I figured you would say something like that." He said plainly, "Which is why you can't smell any demons in this area." Sai's jaw dropped. There was no way. She couldn't believe her foolishness. The trap had been bigger than she could have imagined.

"No..." She gasped.

"Oh yes." Konton said, chuckling, "There is an army of demons in that forest awaiting my command. They will devour you, your cat, and your precious pathetic little mate that's lying beside you." Sai's eyes flashed red. Her rage was complete. It she could move, her claws would have already ripped out Konton's throat. However, that was the problem. She couldn't get up and she couldn't fight.

"Damn you to hell!" Sai screamed.

"See you there." Konton said dismissively, turning away from her and walking back into the woods from which he had come, "But until then, I think I should let my army have a little fun. So, without further ado, BEGIN!" As soon as the word left his mouth, the ground began to shake as thousands of feet began to pound through the forest. Kirara bristled in anticipation, ready to fight to the last, while Sai used her good arm to draw Mondai from its sheathe. She was at least going to take some of these bastards with her.

The demons flooded out of the forest and surrounded them. Their eyes spoke volumes about the bloodlust that filled their hearts. It wasn't hard to tell that all of them wanted a taste of the two succulent half demons before them. A side of cat demon wouldn't be too bad either. Sai and Kirara bared their fangs in defiance.

"I'm sorry, to everyone." Sai muttered to herself, "I've failed you."

The army wasted no time. As soon as all of the demons finished gathering around them, they let loose a yell and charged. Sai raised her blade and slashed it forward.

"DRAGON WAVE!" She roared. In her weakened state, the attack was nothing compared to what it should have been. Barely fifty demons fell to her attack and the rest didn't even pause to mourn their fallen comrades. Sai did her best to fend off the army with her sword, but it wouldn't be long before she gave out. Already she was taking hits. The only reason she wasn't dead was because her kimono was taking the brunt of the assault.

Suddenly, a familiar scent filled her lungs. A scent that she hadn't smelled in a long time permeated the air above her. Sai glanced upward and immediately smirked at her luck. Back up had arrived.

"DRAGON STRIKE!" Came the strong, authoritative voice of the Lord of the Western Lands, Sesshomaru. Green light flooded the battlefield, turning everything around Sai to dust. The demons were obliterated along with all of the ground around where Sai and her companions had been making their last stand. Now all that remained was a massive crater with a small island in the middle for them to occupy.

Sesshomaru floated gently to the ground, outside of the new crater, with his Bakusaiga still drawn. He did not face them, but instead looked to the woods. There was murderous rage in his eyes and his knuckles were white from how tightly he gripped the sword.

"Come out now you coward!" He commanded from where he stood. Konton's voice, that came from everywhere, but did not have a discernable source, responded to him.

"Ahhh, Sesshomaru." The voice said, "I did not count on you making an appearance this day. Well, I must say, that changes things. Worry not, though, we will have our day to do battle. And on that day, you shall die. For now, though, enjoy your time with your mate. Enjoy her and your pup before I rip their hearts from their chests." Sesshomaru's eyes immediately became a murderous red and, without saying a word, he raised his blade and sent a massive wave of energy flying into the trees. It left a massive swathe of destruction in its wake, though it was soon clear that Konton had not been killed in the attack.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Sesshomaru." Konton's voice taunted, "I told you that we will have our day, but you must be patient. Now I recommend that you attend to your niece and her mate. They seem to be in need of some aid."

After that the voice went quiet. For a moment, Sesshomaru stood still and showed no signs of changing that. However, he suddenly sheathed his sword and floated across the crater over to where Sai was. He looked down upon her injured form on the ground as well as that of her mate and Kirara. His face, as usual, was void of emotion.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. Sai nodded in response, unable to respond through her gritted teeth as she clutched her new and old wounds. Sesshomaru then looked over where Kaze was passed out on the ground. He instantly knew the cause of his unconsciousness by sensing Konton's aura slowly bleeding out of him. This was not the first time in his long life that he had seen something like this.

Sesshomaru kneeled down and, much to her surprise, helped Sai to her feet. Carefully, he leaned her against Kirara before moving over to Kaze. He kneeled down again to pick him up off of the ground and then placed him on Kirara's back. Then he turned to Sai.

"Use your cat demon to travel back to your mother. She will be able to help both you and your mate." He told her, "I will make sure that you are not attacked again in the process." With that, Sesshomaru helped Sai onto Kirara and turned to leave.

"Sesshomaru!" Sai called after him, making him stop, but not look back, "Why did you help us? Why not let us die?"

"You are family." Sesshomaru said plainly, "You may be a half-demon, but so will my son when he is born. Must I also remind you that you are the only one that can defeat Konton? If I were to allow you to die, then I would be doing myself and my family a disservice. However, in the future, I would recommend being more careful. I may not be able to save you next time. You must survive to fulfill your job." Sai nodded, understanding his words.

"I see." She said, "Well then, farewell." Sesshomaru nodded and, without another word took to the sky. Kirara quickly followed after him.

"Dammit!" Konton cursed, slamming his fist into the large wooden table in his tent. The wood splintered under the pressure of the blow and papers were sent flying everywhere.

"M-milord?" The small blue demon that had weld the black orb said tentatively. Without warning, Konton slashed his hand around and let a blade of his demonic energy cleave the lizard demon in half. The scent of his blood filled the tent, calming Konton slightly as it filled his lungs. He took a deep breath of it and tried to calm down.

Konton quickly turned on his heel and walked across the tent. He knelt down to pick up a scroll that he had sent flying across the room and brought it back to the ruined table. Slowly, he unrolled the scroll. The scroll held all of the information that he knew about Sesshomaru and his empire. He scowled at how little that was. All he knew was everything that anyone else on the street knew. Sesshomaru was a very secretive man and Konton had never succeeded in infiltrating his territory, let alone his palace. It seemed that Konton would be going into this fight blind. His only shot would be to take out the girl named Saiai first. The only problem was that, now, he had no idea how to do that. Within a few days, she would be well again and more than a match for his armies and until then, Sesshomaru and her father would be guarding her. Even her precious friends were safe in wolf and panther territory.

Konton was furious. His plan had been foiled. This was not supposed to happen. His victory should have been certain and easy to obtain. Now the situation wasn't looking as certain as it had when he began this endeavor. At least he could take solace in the fact that the embodiment was safe As long as he had that, he could not be killed. And if he could not be killed, then he couldn't lose. Could he?

What is this? Konton is doubting himself? Impossible! It's not like the bad guy has ever lost right? And Sesshomaru is being protective... of a half demon... What? Crazy right? This story is nowhere near done, but Konton is about realize that he may be screwed... Of course, we already knew that. But let's not think that he'll make it easy for our friends! No, no, no. The journey will be very hard on Saiai and her companions. But, then again, when has saving the world ever been easy?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter and the story as a whole, so please REVIEW! It would be awesome to hear from my audience. Also, just to let you know, I'll be going away for a week next week and I won't have internet. That means no update until after next week :( I know! I'm sad too! But I promise that I'll get it up as soon as possible and I'll do my best to make it good for you guys. And hey, if you really need a good for while I'm gone, check out my other one, Crossed Swords and Crossed Lovers, if you haven't already. Hopefully, that one will tide you over until I get back :) Love you all and until next time!