X.

Those Who Stand On The Sky

The scent of sun-warmed furs woke Kagome, trembled in her nostrils with unexplainable freshness and clarity. The very air had its own scent, a blue scent; she could almost taste the richness of some distant fruit perfume, lingering in the stillness. Behind her there was pine-tinted warmth, a richness of musk that screamed 'male' at her awakened senses. She opened her eyes, squinting against the brightness of a flaming yellow sun, and then she opened them wider, staring around her at the brilliance of what looked like a whole new universe.

There was comfortable warmth pressed behind her and draped over her. She opened her eyes very slowly and, then sucked in a deep breath. She had wakened to a world of far brighter colors than her memory allowed for. She squinted at the bright flare of the sun, and reached out to touch the soft tawny furs – and stopped.

She felt, faintly, a sensation of shock growing in her at her heightened perceptions - and then the shock was suddenly total and complete, because there were claws on her hands, claws on her fingers, and she had never been the one with claws. Her other hand, too. And the sharpness in her mouth was now explained; the sound of the breathing earth was explained, the ripe scent of a new world – all of it was the same, the same as it had been , but she was changed!

Memory flooded her, flushed her cheeks and weakened her limbs. One of Sesshomaru's hands tightened around her waist, and she felt a hitch in her breathing. Ecstasy beyond imagining, in those hands! Her fingers came up slowly, traced the only tender spot on her whole body. His teeth had left deeper prints in her than his claws, but all she really remembered was the fire of his presence and the wanting that had filled her.

Panic washed through her blood like poison. She had to stay still, had to be calm, had to not think all the thoughts that were touching her. She did not remember every touch, every movement, but she remembered - she remembered -

No, not now, not those thoughts!

She did not remember coming back to the fortress, but it was well within Sesshomaru's ability to bring her here – he had done it before.

The thought of him sent a renewed tingle fleeing through her skin, and she turned just a little, darted a glance out of the corner of her eye. He was the warmth behind her, and the complete awareness of this fact made her aware of their skin touching in many places, the strength of the legs wrapped around hers, the arm draped loosely across her middle. Carefully, she gripped the edge of the furs, again, her eyes tracked the glittering passage of her claws; more delicate than Sesshomaru's, her claws, but no less lethal - she could tell that already.

Almost immediately, as she shifted in the bed, Kagome felt his eyes on her, and knew he had been awake. His hands slid over her skin, and she became suddenly aware of her own nudity, of his, and flushed; his voice was expressive, possessive, as he spoke against her shoulder. If she had been afraid of awkwardness, there was none, except in her flush, her sudden desire to bolt from this bed -

"Beautiful Inu, you are mine now. Did you know that you are Inu, now, that the Dragon caged in your blood changed even as you changed?"

She felt the truth in his words, appreciated the difference of her own feeling inside that truth. The Inu was essential predator, with only the conscience of the hunter, and she felt that moving in her skin; in the beginning, there had been other.

But, a Dragon? He talks like I should know these things -

"When you say Inu, Sesshomaru-sama, there is a growl inside me -"

She had to stop speaking, because he was laughing - he, Sesshomaru, laughing! She could feel the vibration against her back, hear it, low, rough against her ears.

"Do not call me Sesshomaru-sama, Kagome. Such formality…it is no longer needed between us."

"Then - Sesshomaru. But - please."

"Please?"

The word held promise, left his lips slowly. Momentarily, she heard herself - "Please, please, please -" - her flushed darkened to cherry red, but she swallowed her embarrassment and forced her voice to come out steady.

"Sesshomaru, I can feel that it is true, when you say Inu to me - but when you say was Dragon - what does that mean?"

"There was a dragon-spirit in you, the beast of your youkai soul - but you are mine, Kagome, and I am stronger than you."

She shivered, and he felt it, and laughed again.

"Yes, I am stronger. The Dragon could not resist the Inu; the many of your nature have become one. But you are also miko, my dangerous mate - and woman no longer."

Mate - !

She felt his teeth in her skin again, deep in the mark of the night before, and the thoughts, the panic that had begun to flee across her thoughts again dissolved in a flashback - his hands, on her skin, his mouth - the electric lashing of his tongue, his penetration -

She writhed in his hands, and he held her; even the new strength of her revealed youkai flesh was not a match for him, and when she was still again he lapped at the drops of redness that had spilled over onto her skin, and smiled against her. He was almost lightheaded with the fulfillment of his desire; he did not yet know what he would do with her, what having her in his life would mean, but...he was willing to make the experiment - the test. Not once in his life had he ever backed down from a challenge.

"I am going to go downstairs, and find Kinawai, and face his laughter – and then you must come down, so that he sees how beautiful you are, and becomes furious…because you are mine."

I know he tormented me for the sake of provoking me – but still, I know that there is want in him; he is as alive as I am!

"I am - yours."

He stared at Kagome strangely for a long moment, both seeing confusion and feeling it, even though her voice was flat. He was more aware, now that he was more awake - he could feel the bond that had been fastened between them, tightening itself into an unbreakable cord.

"Yes, you are mine, the mate I chose. Didn't I tell you this would be so? Mine, my Kagome, my mate."

The tense, strange look on his face was broken by a fierce smile that warmed her unexpectedly. When he had said it the first time, panic had threatened, but now, she felt…oddly comforted. She had already decided, hadn't she, that she was never going back?

Not to either place that was mine. So - so why not? Why not…be his?

"Does that mean that you, Sesshomaru...are you mine?"

The words came out of her mouth slowly; he looked at her, and they did not know that their eyes were echoes, each bearing the expression of the other's face.

"I will only be yours if you want me, Kagome."

It was not a question of desire, and she knew it, but he slid past her, and stood, and turned his face away while he dressed so she could not see the turmoil of his features. This was the worst thing that could be - to care for her. To care for her, and not be free, even now - but he could not help it. He had listened to her dream terrible dreams for twenty days of fever; he had pressed his own blood into her veins, when it was clear that nothing else would be enough to save her. He had meant to take her - of course he had; there was no other way to break the bonds of Power. But -

My mate? My mate. Yes, I see. Now, I see. I know why you came, Kinawai, why she sent you.

But at the moment, he was more concerned with Kagome, who said nothing in answer to his words, the half-question in them. He did not know that she fought against a storm whose beginning was the knot of her feeling, could not know that guilt came close to sweeping her away. She was restrained by the river of Blood that lay behind her, passable in only one direction: the way she had already crossed.

Sesshomaru was dressed before Kagome had even left the bed, and then he left her alone with her thoughts.

It was very slowly that she crossed the room to the open wardrobe, and let her fingers pass randomly across the many robes.

This time, she did not jump when the door opened, seemingly by itself. There was tension now, in the presence that before, had been laughing, and Kagome felt a sudden pang, like a premonition.

"No - please, don't treat me any differently now. I - my body is different, but -"

She whipped around suddenly, and pushed the door of the wardrobe open all the way; there was a polished silver mirror on the inside door. Slowly, she unwound the fur that she had wrapped around her naked skin, and peered at her reflection with wide eyes, reached out with one hand to touch -

Her hair looked…very strange - the top layers all purest white with a silver sheen, and beneath, some of it still black - the color it had been, before -

Before.

And her eyes!

Inu -eyes, golden eyes, glowing youkai eyes!

It was still her face, but - the angles were strange, the planes of her cheeks changed, the angle of her eyes; there was sharpness, now, in the line of her jaw, and crimson stripes, like tattoos, or brush paint, highlighting the raised curves of her face.

I look like me, but -

Tentatively, she smiled at herself in the mirror, felt the fangs in her mouth gently with her tongue, peered at them.

Behind her, there was laughter again. She flushed, but smiled, happy that such little things, at least, could stay the same, and pulled out a deep blue robe, the sleeves and hem embroidered in paler blue waves.

"Will you help me with this, please?"

The silk smoothed easily over her skin, and Kagome moved her arms carefully into the sleeves, holding her claws away from the delicate thread. As the last tie was smoothed, the door burst open, and Kagome saw the girl, Rin. She stood staring for a moment, the expression on her face almost confused, almost frightened - and then she ran in and grabbed Kagome tightly around the knees.

"Kagome-sama, you must forgive Rin - but it is not fair, it is not fair! Why - why does Kagome-sama get to be youkai?"

Kagome saw something like trauma on Rin's face, the first distress, the first anything besides a smile she had ever seen there, and understood suddenly what it must be like for this girl, a human girl living with Sesshomaru, protected by him, but human - always human. She felt a deep sensation that told her the girl was right – it was not fair.

"I am sorry, Rin. I…am sorry."

After a moment the girl stepped away, shaking her head, wiping away tears only half shed.

"It is not your fault, Kagome-sama. Rin will - I will be fine. But you should go downstairs, if you are ready - Sesshomaru-sama is waiting for you."

"Ah, is he? Well, will you bring me down, Rin? I don't know my way around, yet - "

And she swayed a little, feeling a sudden pressure - as if, as fast as events had been moving around her, it was not fast enough.

Why - why is that? Why could that be?

Kinawai had been waiting for Sesshomaru since he had felt the presence of him slam back into the fortress, just before dawn. Contrary to the Inu's expectations, he watched him come down the stairs with a very strange look in his eyes, but he did not laugh.

"Was it a good Chase, Sesshomaru?"

And Sesshomaru answered him with a smile that expressed many things, some good, some beyond judgment.

"A good Chase, Kinawai - "

His smile changed as quickly as it had appeared, became not a good expression, and in a moment he flashed across the floor, his hands pinning Kinawai to the wall.

"You have done what you came for, do you understand? - and now I know what that is. She is my mate, not only youkai – but she is youkai."

He took a step back, and released his grip on Kinawai's haori, his throat.

"I know what you were doing, Kinawai - but if you touch her now, I will kill even you, my friend - my father's friend, without hesitation."

Thinking of her and battle in the same breath caressed his face with bloody tenderness, and he took a step away and stood waiting, watching. He ignored Kinawai completely, until Kagome stepped beyond the wall that hid her at the top of the stairs and stepped down them, holding Rin's hand.

"Is she not beautiful, Kinawai, this Inu who is my mate?"

And he laughed, a low sound that was triumph, and possession, and pleasure in them both, and Kinawai could do nothing but agree, watching Kagome come down the stairs. Her eyes were gilded now and her skin covered strength, but could not hide it. White-platinum softness over-matched the remnant darkness of her hair.

As a few days passed, and he watched the final movements of her Awakening spend themselves and leave behind the finished flesh, Kinawai walked with her and spoke with her more than he had been able to before, still observing, still uncertain. But the changes were both more and less than he expected; she was different in ways that did not lessen her strangeness. It was something in her feelings, in her expression; he thought that perhaps her heart was still human. It would be hard for her, if that was so.

He answered her questions carefully, always mindful of the distance between them, more careful now that he had seen the lack of control she evoked in Sesshomaru, the absence of restraint. She did not seem to notice; perhaps she, too, was somehow aware of the message of danger. He smiled widely, and looked out towards a sky that neared its final clearing. It would not be long now; winter was coming, and there would be Presentation, now, of this new female Sesshomaru had found.

But he is stronger than I thought, to overpower the Dragon in her so quickly, so easily. I wonder, is she still a miko? Can she still touch that most dangerous power?

The shikon no tama still flickered bright and deadly around her throat, a cunning lure for those foolish enough to swallow it.

Perhaps - perhaps I do not want to find out.

Inuyasha finally stopped running when he came to a river he could not easily leap across and he ended up to his hips in cold, clear water. It washed the scent of Kikyou away from his claws and fingertips, the scent of her flesh-not-flesh. It always tore him when he smelled it, ripping him in an unfathomable place that he had not even known before. In the deep forest, when he was alone, sometimes his thoughts came back to him, memories of other places and times when he had not felt so broken, so lost to himself and the craving urges of his bloody soul.

She was there in all of those visions, the perpetrator of a horrible crime. She had loved him, monster though he was, and filled him full of hope that had ended in pain.

He could remember someone saying that it would all end in pain, that his kind were not meant to live. So unnatural, so dangerous, so damned.

He pulled his hands from the water, clean now, but even the river could not take away the scent of ashes and death that had always been like a signal of terror, a warning.

She had been mortal, though, fragile, with skin so thin that the scent of her beating heart was always a temptation to his thrusting senses. The scent of his someone memory was all over this place…he knew, suddenly, who that someone was, felt it with the remnants of sanity that had been left by Kikyou and her terrifying light. Brother! He remembered his brother, and the first fight alone, the taste of his own blood that had awoken the golden edge of his sword and given him the name at its heart: Tetsusaiga.

He had almost forgotten about the sword. There was a reason, a trembling of pain when panic first struck him and tore into the meaty edge of the time before. The time before madness, the time before Kikyou had returned, tempting with darkness and the flame of forbidden eyes. Kikyou - Kikyou - Kikyou -

He was aware even in madness that those who could not gain power the right ways turned to the wrong; he bore the responsibility for her death, but she had come to him afterward…she had come to him often and then, the last time - blueness. It all came down to that edge of memory, the edge beyond which everything was lost, but he knew that when Kikyou found him again, as she always did, she would not be pleased. He had run away from her promise of blood, and that was all she had left him - all she wanted from him.

On the other side of the river he climbed up the bank, staining his hands with red mud and the scent of clean earth, covering Kikyou's scent and the freshness of the water both. The beat of the forest was soothing, stroking over something that might once have been tears, bubbling inside him. Too much focus made his head hurt when he tried fighting against the haze that liked to fill him. He had to attack it every moment, without hiding in the protection of a sword or claws, bare and with no chance of pleading with this enemy.

He was his own enemy, and the pain was more than pain. In secret places that he hid from his own eyes, he screamed at the world, at the woman who had done this to him, and at the woman he had loved. He was not like them; he would never be like them again.

The first person who was able who found him would kill him, and the bright spark that had first dawned in him, seeking a way from madness, would be silenced in a heartbeat: by sword stroke, or arrow, or power, or flame. Not even friends would hesitate. He had heard the huntress calling once, the one who had been his friend - but her voice was soft as the archer to the deer, and he was not a dumb beast, to so quickly or easily led to her hand.

But now, none of that mattered - now, he was stalking a scent that contained both life and death. The closer he came, the more it seemed she tormented him - why had she come so close to him, why was she here? There was not enough of his thoughts left for him to understand why she might have come so close - so close, so strong her scent - but it was as if she was wearing a perfume that spoke to him of hate and the essence of an old jealousy.

He knew that scent, that essence; without warning, he came to the place where her scent was strongest, and knew it then for what it was, knew why the fragrance that had once been his comfort now bore a sickening edge.

The scent of strong mating had penetrated the whole forest, darkening the dawn, and now he stood where that mating had occurred. The scents were enough; the sight of the ground, torn up, the depressions in the moss where flesh had been pressed were like salt rubbed into the wound.

Inuyasha felt the taste of something hated and something light on his tongue, sickness rising in his deepest self from the demon-wrath of remembrance. Power rose in his eyes like water into a jug; the rolling tide of the howl that came from his lips shook his whole body, tormented him with shaking and threw him to the ground with tears and pain, tears and rage, tears and quietness.

He was burning, now, burning without pause, and his loss was complete. She belonged to hate. She was light and light could not belong to hate! How could this be - he could not let this be!

His mind was consumed with blood and bones; behind them was a memory of blue terror.

With just as little warning as this first unpleasant surprise, a second one crept up behind him.

"Inuyasha, do you see what she has done to you? To betray you - and with your own brother…"

Kikyou. He stayed where he was; a second, sharper howl burst out of his lungs.

"Inuyasha, you are disappointing me. How can it be so hard to take one human life? You are a demon, and that girl is powerless before that puppy face of yours."

The only voice he well remembered had faded into hardness. He turned, and turning there was once more blueness, pain - all things dissolved into the wash of air that was suddenly thick, and pressed even in his mind for silence.

"When you see her, you know you will hate her. You know the scent of these woods, Inuyasha, you know that hate has been here, that she has betrayed you."

He was shivering on the ground before her, shaking on his knees.

"You know what to do, Inuyasha, you know what to do."

Burgundy waves of fear reared up in his flesh, conquered his eyes, lengthened his claws, drew jagged stripes across his cheeks.

"This time, I am coming with you; and I will take them from her, the last of the things she possesses...that are mine."

A/N: Mwaha! Chapter 10 - and you know, while I was typing it, I could have sworn it was chapter 9! What's with that? Oh well...here it is, anyway - poor Kagome, all confused and disoriented and NOW: Coming Soon: The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen! Much thanks to Saorise Driscol for review - strange and interesting are both a plus in my book! Also thanks to Kouga's Older Woman: don't worry, I just introduced Kinawai! i can't kill him off now! :D But seriously, he's got some balls, tempting Sesshomaru like that...ahh, but he's learned his lesson, right? And also thanks, Akatsuki'sBloodyNekoNinja - Tada! Next chapter! And finally, also thanks to lunarcat12! Poor Rin...but EVERYONE can't be a demon, that would just be silly. More chapters soon, everyone, for currently I do indeed work on 11!

Me=spoiling you with rapid chapters! you=Please Review!

Final revisions – done! Ha! R&R!