II.

The Ragged Edge

Mid-day passed, the afternoon rolled over them, and the sun that had dazzled through the morning's preening leaves was no caress any longer

Memory of the last night's bloody incident had remained so strongly in Kagome's memory that she risked Sesshomaru's ire by moving more slowly than she needed to where the ground was rough or the foliage thorny, avoiding even a splinter's worth of risk. If Sesshomaru noticed, he did not complain. Then again, he had actually apologized to her...and it was obvious that he had no more desire to continue down that path than she did.

Gradually the sun began to lean into the west, filling the sky with a dull red radiance, diminishing the heat of its presence. They had walked all day, since the earliest dawn, but she refused to complain about her aching legs, or the burning sun, or her hunger. It had, after all, been her choice that had set them on this path.

Kagome lifted her hair from the back of her neck gratefully, feeling a cool breeze waft over the plain and tingle on her sweat-damp face, chilling her skin. It carried the scent of heat, a tingle of oily minerals. Near sunset, steam became visible over the cooling distance, rippling in the air with the heaviness usual of a hot-water spring. She slowed and stopped, leaning to stretch tightness from her back where the weight of her bag had dug deep.

Sesshomaru heard her footsteps pause and looked back over his shoulder. He saw her standing on the flat plain before the horizon, a black outline drawn with shadows against the red destiny of the sun. When she stood straight again, she was caressed with fire. Gradually she was reduced again to human stature as she walked toward him and the light ran down into the earth; still he stared at the nimbus of sunset shimmering around her hair, until she was standing in front of him, staring up into his eyes.

"Is everything alright, Sesshomaru-sama?"

He stared at her impassively, his face a blank mask. He was not alright, nothing was alright – but he could not say that.

"Humans require sleep and food every day, do they not? I have learned of this from my ward."

He blinked solemnly, and Kagome almost laughed at his gravity, the solemnity of his voice.

"Yes, we do need food and sleep, but isn't that something humans have in common with youkai?"

"Youkai eat, but of different nature usually than human food. And we do not require as much sleep."

Kagome nodded, waiting. There had to be a reason he was speaking to her - staring at her. He was, indeed, staring. Looking at her this close, the signs of weariness were obvious, threads of tiredness straining across her face no matter how she tried to hide them. Twitching lines in the flow of her muscles showed where fatigue had laid itself, and then, with horror, he realized what he was doing and turned away from her with as much disdain as he could force into a simple movement.

Perhaps he was more skilled at this than he knew. The edges of his vision showed a lapse of pain in the grieving starkness of her face, and a moment of sympathy tapped with light knuckles on the aloof shell that held his tender feelings. The moment passed quickly, but it had given him an excuse for his silence and confusion.

"You are fatigued."

Very low, she laughed.

"Yes. I am tired. I'm sorry - you must forgive my human weakness, Sesshomaru-sama."

He found suddenly that he could not look at her face. The night-lashed stars that peered at him from inside her eyes were bad enough. His own words thrown back at him in mocking tones were more than he could stand. If he did not kill her, than what could he do?

The sky called him. The risen full of the moon, bright and transfixing, awakened the deep song of the night. He found himself suddenly longing for the taste of blood, any blood that could make him forget hers. The pulse-drum that pushed temptation through her veins was calling to him, and the pulse-drum of his own veins was calling louder still. She spoke to him, and he could barely hear her over the inner roar.

"I think there's a hot spring nearby, Sesshomaru-sama; do you mind if I bathe?"

He blinked, forced himself to focus.

"I do not care what you do as long as you live long enough to lead me to my brother."

He was purposefully cruel; it made him feel more like himself again. Kagome flinched slightly at the coldness in his words, turned toward the steam rising visibly from the plain. Suddenly regretting his words and their unnecessary harshness, Sesshomaru called after her.

"While you bathe, I will hunt."

She paused to acknowledge his words, but he did not notice; he had already sped away, deep into the trees.

Kagome came within sight of the bubbling water, and slipped out of her clothes and into the hot caress with a small sigh of content. She lay back in the water for a few minutes, letting the heat soak the tension out of her back and legs, before she washed and rinsed her hair, and climbed out to get her clothes and wash them as well. There was a tingle that disturbed her, and she frowned - but by the time she felt the approaching youkai, and recognized it for what it was, it was too late.

An enormous bear-demon towered in front of her, eyes flashing red and hair matted with the blood of old kills. Her scream was sharp and piercing, as the bear reached for the jewel around her neck, growling its desire for the shikon and its power. Her hand flew up, tightened around the gem, and a name fled her lips without thinking, not the name she was used to calling but a new one, darker, stronger, louder.

"Sesshomaru!"

Tongue lolling, claws reaching, the bear approached.

Sesshomaru was Hunting. More than protecting his lands or chasing after his brother, he enjoyed the hunt, though it be after dumb beasts. The way his blood thrilled in his veins to the chase, the way his claws dug deep into animal flesh and spurted thick blood to his lips. He needed the chase to forget about the woman, needed the taste of other blood to forget the taste of Kagome's. His encounter with her had shaken him more than he was willing to admit even to himself; he could sense her blood calling to him still, even closed in her veins.

As he moved swift and silent through the trees, he caught the scent of bear, but dismissed it when he sensed the youkai in the scent - and then froze as a piercing scream, his name, reached his sensitive ears.

Kagome.

He followed the scent of youkai-bear, the sound of that scream, as fast as he was able, avoiding trees with lightening reflexes. He did not question why he ran; he smelled her blood, the same scent as before, but now it enticed him to rage, clouded his senses with a mist of desire to rend, to destroy.

Dokkasou rose in his veins, poured out into his claws. The poison melted flesh, shredded through the demon's thick hide before it even knew he was coming. He stood panting, blood and poison dripping from his claws, and then turned to stare with red-glazed eyes at Kagome.

She glistened unconscious with water and blood, naked and sprawled on the rocks beside the hot spring where she had bathed. Sesshomaru dropped gracefully to his knees beside her still form, and sniffed her body, searching for wounds. The Inu still had hold of his flesh, of his consciousness; the instinct that had risen to the surface demanding her blood was equally demanding now that her blood had been spilled by another.

He found claw marks across her breasts, and down her side, not deep enough to kill but more than enough to be very painful. From the way the injuries were placed, it looked like she had offered her body to the youkai so as to protect the jewel, which still glowed gently around her blood-spattered neck.

Foolish woman. She has survived months without my brother? How?

The thought was strong in him that twice in two days she had been in mortal danger; except that she did not seem to consider him dangerous. Still, no thoughts could distract him for long. The part of his mind that was still his own fought with the Inu, and then committed treason. The wounds needed to be cleaned…but the Inu desired only the taste of her blood again, the blood from this human girl who tasted like a queen of demons.

Slowly, so as not to cause her more pain, he ran his tongue along her neck, lapping at the droplets of blood that had flown upward from the wounds across her breasts. The scent stirred his lust, and he drew his tongue over each of the gashes, not drawing more blood from the wounds, but savoring the taste of what had already spilled. His fingers, his claws, were carving strange shapes into the rocks at her side as they tightened and released; he felt drugged, drunk.

Kagome stirred slightly at the first brush of his tongue across her breasts, and blinked her eyes slowly, aware of pain but separate from it, lost in separate twinges that assaulted her nerves from something that was gentle and rough, moisture that left shivers across her skin. It was when she looked down and saw Sesshomaru bending across her naked body that she tried to scramble away, but the pain and the look in his eyes kept her still, listening to the growls that escaped his lips. She felt his claws pressing lightly against her skin, and breathed a sigh of relief when the slow motion of his tongue across her breasts ceased - and then she felt him again, that long, sensuous motion against the wounds in her side.

Fully awake now, she shuddered in guilty pleasure, knowing he would regret what he had done, unable to stop him even if she had wanted to try. There was a gathering, tightening heat in her belly, and her breath came in soft, uneven pants. She knew what was happening, though she could not think of why. A thought came over her that she knew she had had before:

What is wrong with me?

He was touching her, but he had not really touched her; even so, her entire body was flushed and hot, so hot. Sesshomaru sensed dimly through a haze of foggy sensations what was happening. The scent of her arousal was thicker, more intoxicating than the scent of her blood. Through the white-noise rush in his head he heard the soft panting of her breath, a moan -

With a swift, decisive thrust he pushed the Inu down, down, deep into his soul, and stared at the woman in front of him with hot golden eyes, finally free of red. Slowly, unsure of his control, he backed away from her, and only then, finally, noticed a strangeness that he could identify. Her eyes were touched with demon-red; she blinked at him, showing that color, impossible but true, and then seemed to drift back into uneasy unconsciousness. He was frozen in stillness; the taste of her was still thick in his mouth, cloying, hard to ignore.

Who is she? What is she? Why does she arouse this...hunger in me? I have tasted youkai blood before, many powerful females, but none of them have ever called to me like she does.

He could not find an answer for his own thoughts, and growled in disgust with his own actions. Carefully, he opened the enormous yellow bag that the woman carried around, poking through unfamiliar articles for bandages. They were of a material that was unfamiliar to him, but he wrapped them around her wounds, careful to avoid breathing the scent of her too deeply, and bent to look in her eyes. What he saw almost made him laugh.

Once again, it was impossible - but Kagome was asleep. He spent a thoughtful moment looking down at her, and then carried her gently to where they had planned to make camp, and lay her on her sleeping bag.

For a while, he sat watching her, wondering if she would wake; too quickly, it became difficult to stay seated, just watching, and when he found himself edging closer, leaning toward her, he stood and edged away from her, his thoughts divided. She had already proven to him that she could not be left alone; but more than ever, he desired the hunt that had been interrupted. For another hour, he waited - finally, it was too much and he knew it was one or the other - the hunt, or Kagome.

Kagome awoke in the middle of the next afternoon, and remembered the day before in a flash, first fear, then embarrassment coloring her scent to the youkai who stood nearby, tending the fire. She felt the bandages across her breasts and side, tied somewhat clumsily, and knew Sesshomaru had done it for her, though she could not imagine why.

If he had not hated her utterly before, he must hate her now - after she had caused so much trouble, after she had exposed him again to the scent of her blood. But she could not help feeling a tingle of warmth when she remembered the feeling of his tongue, the red flash of his desire -

No one had ever desired her before.

"Kagome."

Sesshomaru's voice was clear and calm, but she started guiltily, sure he knew what she had been thinking. When she looked up, he was holding out a plate for her, one of the ones she carried in her bag. It was piled high with neatly cut slices of some sort of meat, and she breathed the good, hot smell gratefully. She had been hungry when she had gone to take her bath; she was starving now.

"I…thank you, Sesshomaru-sama. I - apologize, for…yesterday."

She got the words out without choking on them, trying not to think, but he sat down across from her and managed to shock her utterly.

"I was not aware you had asked the youkai to attack you."

"No! I - "

She winced, and put one hand on the ground, leaned back. Talking with any sort of force was incredibly painful; she lay a hand on her chest and felt heat through the bandages, then shook her head.

"I should have remembered that the shikon no tama attracts youkai after power, and been more careful."

His eyes were difficult to focus on with the firelight between them, but he said nothing, just continued to watch her. Painfully, she sat up, felt her breathing hitch deep in her body and widened her eyes at the rough sensation.

Slowly, she began to eat; when she was finished, she lay back with a sigh, not talking, not moving, just staring at the slow-burning fire.

Sesshomaru sat still himself, peering at her through eyes closed to slits, considering how best to approach her, how best to broach a subject that he could not believe he was contemplating. She said she was a woman, and it was not a lie; equally, he knew, it was not a truth.

I am beginning to think…I know what you are, Kagome. And I want to know if it is real - what I am thinking. If it is real, what I see in you, then the scent of your blood is the least of your secrets.

Once, long before, he had heard of a great concealment, achieved at the cost of a great power. Looking at her, he could not believe it of her, but if he closed his eyes…if he closed his eyes, the scents took over, and he could believe…anything. There were words in his memory and they pounded deep in his brain, prevented his sleep. They were words in his father's voice, and they brought with them a deep sense of unease.

"…and the power in the Blood, the breaking of the great Lines, do not forget. Someday, you will have need of this knowledge, my son. Someday…"

A/N: As promised, chapter 2! The revising is going easier now that I remember what was going on...heh. More soon; Please Review!

NOTE: As of today, which is...May 27, this is also a Final Version! Woo! So, much thanks to all those who reviewed on the first run through, and here we go again! :D

R&R! (It feeds the evil genius...)