Chapter Seven

Untainted Sacrifice

Long, leanly muscled arms draped over hers, and she recognized them instantly.

"Sesshomaru?"

"I am so sorry," he murmured evenly.

Kagome watched in a daze as he dipped a finger into the urn. The blood drained, slowly, but steadily, absorbing into his skin.

She tried to pull away from him, but found herself trapped between his body and the altar. It was no simple platform, as she forced herself to believe for so long, this slab of rock was always an altar! Instead, she turned in his arms, lifting her tear dampened gaze to stare up at him.

A moment passed before she understood how serious this was, that there was something she should worry over, but her head swam, and her body was acutely aware of how close he stood. "How could you?"

Even as she asked, she lifted her hands, trailing her fingertips along his collarbone and then lower, over the lines of his chest.

The gulp he forced down his throat as he watched her exploration was audible. "I have no choice. Such is the only sustenance I am allowed."

His tone was so . . . resigned that her heart wrenched. She felt a little stupid, as though she couldn't follow logical thought right now. "Allowed by who?" The answer couldn't be what she thought—this had to be some spiritual rule that governed beings like whatever Sesshomaru was.

"The Higurashi Clan."

She thought time stopped around them as she tried to make that sink in. "Why?" It was all she could say as a wash of tears sprang into her eyes, even as he gently cupped her cheeks in his hands.

"This is the way of things. For centuries. They allow me no other purpose." He delicately brushed the pads of his thumbs beneath her eyes. "Shed no tears for me, I have only this existence."

"But . . . no," he was so beautiful, and so sad . . . so eternally sad. Whatever he was, didn't he deserve more than this? "We can leave!"

"We," he echoed, as though the word made him happy. "No. I cannot. They . . . own me. That is the purpose of the blood. It keeps me bound to them. They own me, as they own you."

Even as he spoke, she felt a warm pulse thrumming through her. He told her something shattering and yet, in her mind's eye, she could only see sordid pictures. She imagined him tearing her dress from her body; imagined what it would be like to stroke her hand lower, over his abdomen, down the flat plane between his hips . . . .

"I never wanted you this way," he whispered, lowering his head to rest his lips lightly over hers as he continued. "You have never been like the others."

"Others?" She stepped out of her heels and pushed them aside, delighted when he moved with her, his mouth never far from hers.

He said this to her before, hadn't he? That night in her bed . . . before she found those pictures of the children.

Like a bolt of lightning, the awareness of what was happening—what had been happening in this family for centuries—tore through her. She drew in a startled, trembling gasp against his lips and pulled away enough to look up into his eyes again. "They . . . use you like an animal! To—to breed? I don't . . . I don't understand!"

"I am a demon, Kagome. I am . . . I was a demon of fortune. Baring a child of my blood grants prosperity upon the family into which that child is born."

She listened, tried to make sense of his words, but it couldn't be possible. Demons didn't exist! Her family couldn't expect her to sacrifice her virginity, to bring a life into the world, all so they could ensure their continued affluence!

Yet . . . here they were.

Those children were Sesshomaru's children.

And still she wondered what his skin tasted like, wondered how it would feel to look down and see his mouth moving over her bared breasts. What was wrong with her?

"This is not a fate I wish upon you," he whispered, even as he began slipping her dress off of her shoulders.

She wondered, distantly, how many times he'd been forced to do this. How many of her ancestors had her family made him impregnate just so they'd keep their wealth and standing? But wait, didn't he just say he didn't want her?

Had she misjudged his seeming intimacy during the nights he'd visited her? She could only hold on to her thoughts for a few, glimmering seconds at a time, but she knew she wanted to hold him close and comfort him.

Even while the darker recesses of her mind wanted to hold him close for an entirely different purpose.

"You don't want me the way you had the 'others?'"

"No," he replied simply, despite dragging her dress down to expose her breasts before cupping the soft weight of them in his hands.

Kagome shuddered, arching her back to press her skin more tightly against his palms.

"None of them ever thought to care about me," his voice was a gravelly murmur as he circled her nipples with the tips of his thumbs. "But you . . ." he rocked his hips forward, trapping her against the altar. "You have cried for me."

Kagome moaned helplessly, feeling the hardened bulge between his legs against her. She tried to wriggle out of the rest of her dress without displacing him at all.

He lowered his face, whispering in her ear. "You heart hurts when you think of that which my existence has been reduced to. Such compassion is a thing I have never known. And so, I want you. But not this way, yet . . . this is all we will ever be allowed."

Sesshomaru pulled away from her, put only long enough to remove his hakama. He was on her again so quickly, she barely had time to see what he looked like wholly naked.

He brought his mouth down on hers, sighing into her before plunging his tongue between her lips, his hands sliding along her body, over her hips and back to cup her bottom.

Kagome gave a small, whimpering moan as she gently caught his tongue between her teeth, nibbling and suckling at it. His pained groaned was music to her ears as he ground his pelvis forward against her. Instinct told her to lift her leg, to place it over her hip.

He moved a hand along her leg, catching her thigh in mid-motion. "Not yet," he murmured, returning his hands to her hips and lifting her backward to sit upon the altar.

She realized dully—as she registered just how little she cared that they'd knocked the porcelain urn to the ground, shattering it—that the incense they were breathing in contained some aphrodisiac.

His hands slid under her knees to part her legs and stepped closer, pressing his hardened length between her thighs. "I have wanted to taste you," he whispered, before dropping to his knees. It delighted him how wet she already was for him.

She felt his fingers part her, gasping as his tongue swept over her. He lapped at her lovingly, working delicate beaded flesh in quick, circular motions until she writhed beneath his mouth. Her fingers gripped into his hair as she moved against him, rocking her hips until she cried out, her body going taut.

He carried her through the orgasm, sucking and licking at her flesh until she was spent.

Oddly, she thought she heard him whisper words of thanks as he stood again and moved her legs to rest over his hips.

"For what?" she asked, dazed.

From his look, she could tell he'd not realized she heard him. "For not being like the others," he replied as he settled his hands over her hips and lifted her. "I am sorry, but this may hurt."

Kagome only nodded and braced herself. He entered her slowly, pushing until he could get no deeper and she lowered her head, sinking her teeth into his shoulder to keep from crying out, but the pain she awaited was fleeting as he continued sliding into her and withdrawing. After a few moments, only a lingering soreness accompanied his thrusts and she began to move against him.

Unclenching her teeth, she slid her arms around him as she dropped a line of kisses from the bite mark she left on his shoulder, down across his chest where she caught one of his nipples between her teeth and suckled playfully at it.

Sesshomaru groaned, his hands holding her securely against him as he moved them to lay on the altar. He resumed his thrusts, relishing the feel of her so tight and warm, so very, very wet, around his length.

Entirely too soon, that tight warmth became tighter, still, as her body clenched around him. But the scent of salty dampness tickled his nose.

He pulled back only enough to see her face clearly. His heart stuttered. Kagome was crying.

"You're not hurting me," she managed immediately, once she realized he'd noticed.

His thrusts paused, and, almost laughably, Kagome was mad at him for it. "Then why do you cry?"

"They're going to send you away after this, aren't they?"

Those gold eyes dropped from hers.

"That's why this ritual moves from branch to branch, because after this happens, they send you away to start this whole thing all over again in another part of the family." What they were doing to him disgusted her.

"Yes," he said sadly, truthfully.

"And we'll never be like this again. When this is over, you'll just . . . ."

He nodded slowly, raising his gaze to hers, finally. "Do you know that I do not remember any of their names?"

"No?"

Sesshomaru shook his head. He knew what she was about to ask, but she didn't need to. "You, Kagome, I will never forget."

His voice was thick, in a way that, too her, made it sound as though he was on the verge of tears. Though, she had trouble picturing a creature such as he crying.

She sniffled, and took a trembling breath. "None of it matters, does it? They'll take you away even if we don't finish?"

"Yes, and they would blame me," he said, his tone grave.

"So then," she forced a smile, trying to ignore how her body was screaming at her that they were taking too much time as it was, "where were we?"

Smiling serenely, he pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead and, still hard, wrapped up inside her as he was, he withdrew his length almost entirely before thrusting into her, hard and deep, again and again.

Kagome's hands wandered over every inch of him she could reach. She wanted to remember as much of the feel of his skin beneath her fingers as was humanly possible. She wanted to recall every sound he made, every breath, every rumbling groan.

Her body began to tense and she wanted to yell in frustration, it was too soon, but then, as he ground his hips forward, and pulled back, plunging his length into her, she realized that no matter how long they lasted, she would feel as though it wasn't time enough.

Not with such an inevitable fate.

She threw her head back, crying out his name as the orgasm tore through her.

A fine tremor went through him as his own muscles grew taut. He couldn't help himself, she was too tight, too warm, too deliciously wet; the sound of her moaning his name too sweet.

He gave in, sinking his teeth into the flesh on the side of her throat as he came.

Kagome writhed, her hips jerking as she moved against him in a dizzying mix of pleasure and pain.

When it was over, he pulled her to lay, curled up in his arms, on the altar. A bit of crimson stained his lips.

"Why did you do that?" she whispered, suddenly sleepy.

Sesshomaru sighed heavily, pressing a kiss to her ear before resting his head back against the stone. "To remember what every part of you tastes like."

As she fell asleep, Kagome thought that to be the most wonderful answer to anything, ever.