III.

Into The Fire

Kagome's fists were wrapped tightly around a double handful of Sesshomaru's haori, and her hair had been plastered against her forehead by small droplets of sweat. Sesshomaru looked down at her flushed and fevered face and did not notice the flare of speed that gathered itself into his footsteps.

They had traveled for only six hours, just into the first darkness of the night, when she collapsed - and he was barely by her side in time to keep her head from hitting the ground. He could tell the moment he touched her that her temperature was higher than it should be and once he had noticed this she had seemed to get hotter even as he held her. He had sniffed her over gently, and sensed no trace of sickness. Her wounds had begun to heal well, and were not festering -

It was only then that he noticed; it was the first time he had been this close to her and not consumed by bloodlust. So faint…but so deadly.

Poison!

It was for that reason that he was now running back towards the spring where the carcass of the dead youkai lay, as fast as he could travel with Kagome cradled in his arm. He could not believe he had not noticed the venomous smell - but it was difficult for him to tell such things, always. A faint odor of poison always hung about his person; it could not be helped. Dokkasou was worth it, but he had not thought previously that it might be a danger to his companions – at least not in this manner. He barely smiled, the faintest shift of the lips imaginable. Jaken would have run in terror; Kagome might have fallen at his feet…but...she was dreaming.

Inuyasha smashed through Naraku's barrier with Tetsusaiga, but could not manage to strike him with the same blow. Naraku smirked and drew back his hand to let a blast of power strike Inuyasha.

My turn….

Naraku was far too concentrated on destroying the one he believed was his only opponent, and did not sense Kagome moving up behind him. She drove her arrow right through the skin of his back, into the center of that exposed demon scar, and he instantly whipped around - but by then it was too late.

Kagome sent her purifying miko energy through his body, and watched the tainted flesh dissolve in the violet light projected from her arrow, her clenched fists. Where Naraku had been standing there was now only dust. A flash of pink radiance exploded outwards, leaving in its wake the completed shikon no tama, descending gently to rest in her cupped hands.

No - no -

She turned, a bright smile on her face. It flickered when she turned to see Inuyasha standing beside Kikyou. It faded completely when she saw the cold smile on the un-woman's face – there was a confident, heart-wrenching coldness in that smile.

"Inu…Inuyasha?"

No!

She was afraid of his smile, his silence, but it would have been better for her if he had kept it. The words that came out of his mouth twisted her heart.

"Give me the jewel, Kagome. You promised it to me."

"Are you going to wish to be full demon, Inuyasha? Please don't…you won't be yourself anymore, won't be the hanyou that I…that I love."

Don't say it. Don't say it!

Inuyasha's smile spread, grew wider and more cruel.

"You just never got it, Kagome. I love Kikyou…then and now. You are just a flawed copy…and with that jewel, I will wish for her soul to be returned to her, and she will live...and the copy will go away."

Kagome was too shocked even for tears, and she backed slowly away from him. He cleared the increasing distance between them with a leap, holding out his hand. It was then, when he looked up at her, that she saw his discolored demon eyes; a flash of red coupled with a strange, reaching tenderness – and then darkness, complete and total and as he spoke deadly words.

Not again! Not -

"I don't care if you live or die, bitch-"

In the dream, Kagome fell back from those dark stranger-eyes, and awoke suddenly and screaming.

Instead of darkness, the eyes that peered down at her as she blinked herself away from the terror were glowing gold.

"Too loud, Kagome. Do not move."

She knew immediately who it was; no one else had a voice or presence like Sesshomaru's. She was also immediately aware that he was carrying her; his fingers were uncomfortably close to a very intimate place. She almost demanded that he put her down, but the deep breath she took in preparation for the words made her think twice. There was pain like fire in her lungs, a sudden, terrible pulse in her temple. Agony spread down her side and across her chest, a thousand times worse than it had been when she awoke that morning. The fire spread from her breathing outwards, claiming her muscles with a spasm, and she gasped, pressing her head against Sesshomaru's chest.

He looked down at her again and she heard – or did she imagine? - concern in his voice.

"You have been poisoned, Kagome. The wounds have not festered; I cannot think of anything else that might cause your ailment."

Between bursts of pain, her brain was puzzling over his apparent worry, but then – why wouldn't he be worried? She was probably his only chance at finding - a miko - to restore -

She tried to calm her breathing, but it came faster despite her efforts, in short sharp gasps. Sesshomaru felt tears hot against his skin through the silk of his haori. His brow furrowed, somewhere between concern and concentration, and he pressed his thumb gently against a point on her neck and watched as she fell at once into deep unconsciousness.

It will keep her from -

He shook his head, as if that could rid him of the errant thought, and growled at himself.

No. It's just better than having her tears on me.

He was disturbed. He was not used to this…feeling, this uncertainty concerning his own motives. Something was speaking louder than logic, and he shifted Kagome so she lay more comfortably against his chest. When he reached the hot spring minutes later, he lay her gently on the ground, and nearly flinched at her pained moan.

The Inu was hot and flowing in his veins as the stench of the beast he had slaughtered reached his nose. The sight of the dead Bear youkai brought a growl close to the surface – and then that growl overflowed, as he lifted a limp, cold paw and smelled the old scent of Kagome's blood.

He ripped one of the claws out, and watched with a grim satisfaction as a viscous black liquid dripped to the ground and vanished with a hiss. The claw cracked and then broke as his fist tightened; the pieces dropped to the ground, unrecognizable.

I knew I should have torn it to pieces. I will - I will -

He stood still for a moment, his eyes faintly red, as his body tried to do things he had no time for now. With slow movements, careful this time, he pulled free another of the dead youkai's claws and wrapped it in a fragment of cloth.

With the wind in front of him, he set off once more - this time for his fortress, the place where he maintained his treasures and the memory of his father's honor, the glory of his House. It was deep in the Western lands, deep in youkai territory; she was a human woman, a miko. He was setting himself up for something terrible, and knew it, but what else could he do?

He no longer thought of killing her.

A hundred times faster than he had been leaving, Sesshomaru flew back through trees, past villages and over a mountain, down through his own territory faster than he had ever done. No one knew what had passed by. Those sensitive enough to sense the strength of his presence muttered "kaze-kami!", and went back to their business; by the time they had finished the thought, he was a score of miles away.

The Gate of his father's fortress opened in front of him and he did not slow down; he raced across the courtyards, dark in the afternoon shadow, and up the wide shallow stairs that led into the main hall. Without pausing, Sesshomaru crashed through the door, and gathered behind him a silent, invisible knot of followers who crowded around his footsteps. There had never been other servants; he needed nothing more than what these unseen hands provided.

No longer really running, still quick-footed, he climbed the curving staircase and sped smoothly down a long hallway. The door opened for him when he stopped in front of his own room; carefully, aware of every shift, every sigh, he lay Kagome down.

She did not wake up and he did not know if that was good…or very, very bad.

"Heal her! Youkai attacked her. The wounds I tried to heal..."

He paused, sucked in a sharp breath. Even these servants, invisible, insensible, voiceless, should not know what he had done for the miko.

"But...she burns.

His fingers touched her forehead, her cheek, paused in her hair.

"She burns."

As though he had truly been burned, he jerked his hand away; he remembered the claw that he had brought with him then, and tossed it on his bed. Immediately, it was grabbed up, unwrapped, examined.

Sesshomaru strode toward the door. He paused as he grasped the handle, irresolute. Behind him, Kagome was lifted and turned in fingers that knew their task well, though he could not see them. The door opened, startled out of his grasp, and drifted toward closing. Before it had a chance, it was pushed open again.

Some dark liquid that dripped over her lips was poured down Kagome's throat – almost instantly, the deep crimson flush began to fade from her skin, and Sesshomaru saw that she breathed easier.

Now that the first danger had passed, there was a moment for the courtesies of things. Her hair was pulled back away from her face, and a steaming cloth began to wipe away dried blood. Minutes passed. Sesshomaru watched Kagome's face with the intensity of a hunter stalking its prey, and counted the measure of her breathing, listened for the murmur of her pulse. The attentive hands moved away; the door opened again.

"Bring furs and make a place for her."

Sesshomaru spoke over his shoulder; there was a pause of a moment, a silence, and then the quiet click of the door. He turned back, listened to Kagome breathing lowly, and then leapt away from the bedside, paced the length of the other side of the room.

His thoughts moved furiously, darting like knives into his own assumptions, his own pretensions, but it was not doing any good. Twice, he moved towards her, and twice restrained himself. He felt brightened by a vivid touch of anger, but it was not anger at her -

He could not understand the movement of this compulsion, how his body could move without recourse to his thoughts. The fact that she was even here, in this place –

And in my own bed! Why, out of a hundred rooms – my own!

"Why, Kagome? Tell me why I brought you here!"

Her lips parted, as if teasing him with the thought of an answer. Her breath poured out heavily, and then quieted again.

"Why, why did I bring you here?"

He spoke to the woman, who did not stir, to the flickering torches, to the silence that preceded his words, and followed them. Into that silence came the opening of the door, and piles of furs. With efficient haste, they were arranged into a soft, well-warmed pallet. The door closed again, and he thought sharply, humorlessly, that at least now, she would not be in his bed.

Red heat betrayed him, rushed through his veins claw to toe, the Inu making a mockery of his self-controlled thoughts. Was it that simple? She called to his blood, and his blood wanted her?

Never!

To mate with a human was to give birth to disaster. He was not his father. He would not sire children only to have to seek them out and destroy them.

"And you, Kagome – what are your thoughts?"

There was not even a rustle from her furs. With eyes that glowed at her through the darkness, he watched her, waiting silently for something that would tell of her life or death.

To poison a miko it must be virulent poison, but youkai poison was meant to be strong enough to kill their own kind. One so powerful had not dared to cross the scent barrier into the heart of his territory in more than a hundred seasons; and powerful…against him, victory was only ever a dream, not a possibility.

The draw of the shikon no tama, it seemed, was greater than all other concerns; even him. She carried a dangerous trinket - it had been hundreds of years since power had roamed free on such a scale. What did that mean?

A burst of thunder called his eyes towards the window. Clouds were shifting in the sky; darkening, thickening. It had rained on them even as he ran. Now, thinking back, he supposed that it had not helped her to be rained upon, but there was no moving shelter and for her, to stop would have been to die.

He allowed himself, in the privacy of his own thoughts, to touch on the recollection of that most desperate moment. With the fading rustle of her breath clinging to his ears, drawing on what seemed to be his very soul, he had done what no youkai should ever do – not even one of his stature and power, especially not one of his stature and power. He had shared his blood with her, the vital essence of his strength; he had broken taboo in the deepest way possible, had given to her, like a sacrifice, the outpouring of his own life.

Though the blood of a demon lord had the power to heal almost any wounded, the side effects of such a gift were unruly and often violent; it was why such help was not meant to be offered, why such power was not often shared, even among kin – and never with humans.

But in the face of her suffering, staring at the possibility of her death, he had been weak. Why this would be, he could not imagine, but she was soft and fragile and it was not easy to remember that she held great powers captive in her blood. During his long run in the dark rain, surrounded by black smells and red smells, he had become concerned only with the pace of his feet against the ground, with the pale sound of breath from the woman cradled in his arm. Nothing else, no taboo, no possibility of future violence, could make its way into his mind.

She had charged his blood with this strange desire, this instinct, and now his thoughts pulled on her, basking in questions. His intentions were changing, even while the night passed slowly by him. Inuyasha would have to be found and dealt with, but for now…could he not be content with his miko, and dissolve the mystery of her scent?

The moon was bright through the curtains as the rains paused and clouds drew away from the sky, but all he cared to see was that the pink and ivory tones were returning to Kagome's skin.

"You have decided to live, Kagome? That is good. But what am I going to do with you?"

She moved restlessly, her fingers grasping at the empty air. Before he knew it, he had taken a step, and then another. Her fingers latched onto his sleeve, and then she sank into a deeper sleep. He took a deep breath. What was this? Was it - not only him, but her, too, affected by...whatever it was? How could it be? A human. He stood still, unwilling to break the fragile connection between them, and then sat slowly at the edge of her pallet, carefully so as not to alert her. Unblinking, he watched her stillness and her breathing through the balance of the night, until the morning came and the bright sun broke apart the shadows on her face.

In the new light, he asked a question of the attentive silence that was changing Kagome's bandages; the wounds looked worse now, but smelled better. There was no poison scent in the room but his own, and he did not understand. Why was she still sleeping?

"How long will she be like this?"

He watched the shadows moving on the wall, making shapes he could interpret. His eyes barely widened, and then narrowed.

"Twenty days? More? That is too long - too long!"

I will go mad before then.

When Kagome finally awoke, the fiery pain that was her last memory had mostly subsided, though it was still difficult to move. She could not identify where she was, and thought that perhaps it had all been a dream - until she saw Sesshomaru, sprawled across a bed that was across the room from where she lay.

Carefully, slowly, she sat up, and piled her pillows behind her so she could lean back on them. Sesshomaru awoke at the noise, and looked over at Kagome, noting the expression of pain on her face, but also the absence of fever. She took a deep breath, and only winced a little; her hand lay lightly, experimentally, on her chest.

"Is the pain gone?"

Kagome looked up quickly at the sound of Sesshomaru's voice, and then felt gingerly around her fresh bandages. She noted a significant lack of wounds and paused to wonder momentarily how that was possible before she succumbed to her urge to stretch.

"I think - oh - oh - ow!"

Swiftly her arms came back down, and she cradled her side for a moment. She had felt something beginning to tear - not a deep feeling, and that was good, but she had no desire to lengthen her healing time.

"Kagome?"

She was still trying to get used to the idea of Sesshomaru's voice, Sesshomaru's presence; he seemed surprisingly at ease, but as she carefully checked the bandages, pressing gently here and there, the one place she felt pain she also noticed a slowly widening spot of blood. Her eyes widened, thoughts flashing through her head that gave her an inexplicable tingle.

"I have pain, but it's bearable. I think the bandages should be changed, though."

He detected both the change in her scent and the change in her manner, and spoke stiffly, trying not to breathe deeply, forcing even the slightest hint of warmth out of his tone.

"They do not need to be changed for several hours, Kagome. They have been changed…regularly. I arranged for this when the poison was neutralized."

"Sesshomaru-sama, I mean no disrespect, but - the blood - "

Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, and his eyes narrowed. He had almost forgotten that she would know - he had dared to hope that she might…forget.

"You do not need to be afraid of me. I have been near you enough now to have gained control of myself."

"Enough…now?"

He paused. She did not know how long she had been asleep, how long she had moved in and out of feverish dreams…and perhaps it would not be wise to tell her now. Now, perhaps it would be wise to do what she said…because that scent, that scent was -

When he looked up at her again, and nodded, his eyes were streaked with red, but Kagome saw with relief that they were mostly clear. He motioned for her to sit up, and proceeded to unwrap the bandage that covered her breasts. She flushed brilliantly and stared at a spot on the wall over his head; there was no reason for her modesty, nothing he hadn't already seen, but she couldn't help her embarrassment. His breath was warm; she could feel it on her skin as he bent forward, and then the roughness of clean linen. He had some trouble trying to tie it off, but Kagome noticed his difficulty with the one handed knot and placed her hands over his to tie it herself.

From where their hands touched, a violent spark shot up Sesshomaru's spine, and he growled softly; the red that had misted his eyes took over as he clutched Kagome's hands in his. The same shock flushed through Kagome's body, raced from the point of contact up into all her nerves. She felt her flush deepening, heating her skin, felt desire that she could not suppress or trace.

Sesshomaru looked into her eyes and saw the blood-streaked gaze of a demoness controlled by heat. He growled softly, heard her answering growl, thick with desire. His fingers let the bandages drop; gently, he ran his claws over the unmarred flesh beneath her wounds, and down her thigh; he bent and drew his tongue over the wounds themselves, the faint, silver-pink scars, the trickle of red where she had torn the fragile new flesh.

Kagome felt pure lust rolling through her body, rising up to where his tongue and claws touched her. She undulated gently, parted her thighs. She shocked herself with her growl, a growl that matched Sesshomaru's in depth and hunger. She could feel every beat of her heart, her pulse pounding behind her eyes. She groaned out loud when his tongue followed the path of his claws, and looked down at him, unaware of the red in her eyes. Her mind was still her own, possessed of reason she refused to use, full of questions without answers - but she still could not make her body obey. Sesshomaru caught her eyes with his, pulled the breath from her body with the sheer power of his gaze, not red now but the brilliant amber that made her pulse beat faster.

Sesshomaru pulled away to wrap the new bandages around her a second time, his breathing shallow now, but Kagome reached blindly for him when he pulled away, out of control, not possessed of the same well of rational calm. She needed him, needed sensation...but after a moment the feeling passed, and she drew in a deep breath, felt an embarrassed flush spreading under her skin.

"Why - why - did you do that - Sesshomaru?"

Her voice was husky and deep, panting; her eyes had not yet lost their demon color, and her stare sent pleasant ripples through his body. He considered for a moment; his voice emerged in the barest growl, stunning them both.

"I wanted to."

It was the truth, but it confused her more than any falsehood possibly could have. Confusion returned her eyes to their normal coloring, and suddenly she couldn't speak. He stayed very still for a long minute, watching her, and then he stood and walked away. At the door, he turned and spoke over his shoulder at her; it was then that she realized he was bare-chested, only half dressed – and for whatever reason, that made her flush more than everything that had come before.

"Dress, Kagome, and then you and I must speak."

A/N: Since I made you wait, slightly longer chapter - chapter four almost done, and on its way shortly...Please Review!

Woo! On a roll! 5/28, Final Revisions...complete! R you know you want to! :D