Hey, friends! This time I came sooner, just to compensate how late I was!
(And I had a brief holiday as well)
Have a nice reading!
Chapter 12 – Sacrifice
"What a strange feeling" Kagome said while she was walking with her friends in the woods.
"What is it, are you feeling some jewel shard presence?" Inuyasha asked with excitement.
"No, it isn't about Shikon no Tama, but..." her hand rested on her cheek, she was contemplative.
"What's going on, Kagome? You look weird..." Shippo looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"I can sense something as well" the monk who was used to spiritual energies stared into the distance. "Look" he pointed his finger tho the soil beyond, covered by a thin veil of mist. "Some supernatural activity is happening nearby".
"I feel a very strong aura, I can't tell if it's good or bad. I can almost see the light..." Kagome walked in calm steps, attracted by that mystical energy.
"Kagome, wait, be careful!" Sango warned her.
Inuyasha jumped up to the girl and walked beside her, aware of any danger around. When they did realize, they were facing a large ancient tree, different from all the flora of that forest. The long vines fell like strands of greenish hair.
"Look, I made it for you" Ailyn came to Annabelle with a garland of white roses in her hands "Do you remember how we used to have fun making this?"
Annabelle emerged her naked body from a rounded bathtub made of wood logs. Her blond twin helped her to rise, took off some petails of her orange locks and skin, and covered her body with the transparent cloak taken from the huge bed of stone.
"I am ready" Annabelle announced in a inexpressive tone.
"Have you seen the moon?" Shippo jumped and pointed at the celestial sphere hidden behind the broad leaves in the treetops.
Miroku touched the tree trunk and felt something vibrating inside.
"There was a gateway here, but it's closed now" he revealed.
"A gateway?" Inuyasha bent his head to the side like a little pup, visibly confused.
"The strange energy I feel seems to be on the other side... What can it be?" the time traveler girl was apprehensive. She touched her ear to the tree trunk and closed her eyes, concentrating herself. Kagome could swear she heard voices beyond there.
"Lay down" Ailyn pointed to the stone bed.
Annabelle paraded gracefully, the tunic dragging across the wet earth. Before sitting, she laid her head down so her sister could garnish her head with a crown made of scented flowers. When she laid on bed, white petails was poured over her. Ailyn trown them from a basket.
"Stretch your arms over the stone" The fair-haired lass ordered as she covered her curls with a black hood.
Annabelle took her hands off her belly and did as she was told for. At that moment, her heart started to beat fast and her eyes trembled before the red full moon in the skies.
"Open your mouth" her twin gave another orientation.
The rosy lips opened maidenlike, she felt a bitter liquid down her throat. Her eyelids tightened in response.
"You don't have to be afraid, you'll sleep and won't feel anything" an icy hand caressed Annabelle's face as she began to feel slumberous.
Her arms and legs seemed so heavy! Even she wanted to raise up, she woudn't be able to. Her eyes narrowed and the world around her spinned. The fireflies ceased to be bright spots and formed circles, spirals, words in an ancient language.
"Inuyasha, something very bad is about to happen! We need to get inside there!" Kagome suddenly yelled. One hand over her chest was trying to contain all furious heartbeats. A piece of gem adorning her neck sparkled.
"Oh, Kagome's Shikon shard is..." before Sango could finnish her phrase, the high tree trembled and a lot of leaves and branches fell.
The earth shook and time stopped for a few seconds.
"Kagome!" Shippo hugged the girl and she held him tightly, the two of them shrinking, trying to protect themselves.
"Behold!" Miroku's eyes reflected a white passage openning through the thick trunk.
Clear teeth unraveled through reddened lips in a greedy smile, then the woman in red and black laughed loudly. Ailyn stared at the alabastrine wrapping of her consanguine as she pulled back the black cloak and drew a small blade from her cleavage, yet large enough to pierce someone's heart.
The crystal moon on Naraku's hands oscillated from opaque to gleaming and warmed his palms. His orbs crimson as the moon in that night contemplated the young lass of the golden hair raise her arms up and point the sharp dagger to Annabelle's bosom. Something inside him made he feel uncomfortable. The spider hanyo felt a sort of cold run into his belly, making him dizzy.
What is this?
He wanted Annabelle's power.
He wanted Annabelle's body.
If Annabelle got killed, Naraku would lose his chance to make her a servant of him, and – who knows – to absorb her skills.
No! He was the only one who had the right to decide if the foreigner lass would live or die. So, the half breed demon hurriedly got up, wore the baboon blanket over his purple kimono and hid his face under the mask.
His fingers closed around the pendant, then something he would call as "intuition" told him to just wish to be in the place where the ritual was happening. His eyes sealed, his every shapes blanched till he faded away in flashes.
A dark fog of youki covered the Blood Moon. The dagger, darkened before, returned to its common color and Ailyn got confused. At the same time, steps of running people concearned her and she turned to face them.
"Hey, what the hell do you thing you're doing, girl?!" Inuyasha arrived first, soon his friends joinned him.
"It's not of your concern!" Ailyn growled, squeezing the dagger handle between her fingers.
"I can feel Naraku's scent, he must be involved in this!" his golden apprehensive eyes fixed on his friends.
"What's this?" Sango felt something hold her by her backside, it was a shapeless shadow.
Ailyn had reached down and pinched her fingers on the ground. From earth, a black mist rose and assumed many forms. The figures surrounded the group, then Inuyasha wielded his Tetsusaiga and started to cut them down.
"They are tormented souls!" Miroku noticed "It's useless to strike them, they're not made of flesh".
"I know what to do!" Kagome confidently said, so she left Shippo on the ground, got ready to take her bow and...
"Naraku, you bastard!" Inuyasha yelled as soon as he has seen his rival hovering gracefully on the other side of the stone bed, passing through the fog created by his very self.
"Did you miss me, Inuyasha? Ku, ku, ku" his smirk showed up under his mask.
"You..." Ailyn was surprised by his presence and recognized him.
"Thank you so much for distracting them for me." spoke the perverse Onigumo's descendant while softly taking the unconscious ginger lass in his arms and covering her with his pelt. "Now, if you excuse me, Annabelle Rose and I have some essues to deal with".
"You monster! Take your hands off her!" Kagome pointed him an arrow.
Naraku used Anna as a shield in front of him without thinking twice.
"Shoot if you dare" He challenged her.
"Wretch!" Sango shouted annoyed, Ailyn's ghosts resisted and still attacked her and her friends, so neither she nor the rest of the group managed to pay due attention to their enemy.
"Release her!" Ailyn pointed the knife to him "She is mine, we have a deal!"
"Sorry to tell you, but your deal has been undone.." and with those words, the hanyo carrying a girl in his hands was covered by a miasma swirl that flew far in the sky.
Ailyn was furious and ready to persue him, but a shinning arrow passed so close her that made a thin cut on her cheek. She turned to the one responsible for that, ready to tear the girl apart and send her to hell, then the blondie lass undestood the real target of that arrow wasn't her, it was the dark purple cloud growing up around the moor. Naraku purposely allowed his poison to spread because he wanted to harm all people in there, including her.
"We need to get out this place!" Sango announced. Her little pet youkai increased size so she could rode it. Miroku jumped over Kirara, joinning Sango.
"You, come with us!" Kagome invited Annabelle's sister, she didn't care about the fight they almost had moments before. "This swamp is falling apart!".
"Have you lost your mind, Kagome?!" Inuyasha complained.
The gateway opened again, not because of Ailyn's skills, but for Shikon no Tama's sake. It's shine reflected in front of the other Scottish lady eyes.
I want that. She sighed, noticing the great power the roseate shard could countain.
"Hurry up!" Kagome spoke to her again, Inuyasha was already carrying her on his back.
The misterious woman gave her no response, she just covered her head with the black hood of her cape again, gave one step ahead and then huge trunks collapsed between her and the others. Ailyn was lost of sight, an earthquake had begun and the sky seemed to be falling down over their heads, red as the moon. Inuyasha jumped with Kagome and Shippo in his back, Kirara followed him, taking Sango and Miroku together.
It was so hard to breathe, the air around seemed to be dense. Annabelle's eyes rolled under her agitated eyelids, the eyelashes slowly parted and her little summer skyes, still cloudy, looked around trying to comprehend where she was. Her eyes could only see pure darkness.
Her naked body was covered by a fluffy white cloack, her fingers slippered trough and felt its texture, it was familiar. That soft consistence... she felt that once, in a day she stumbled on a a wagon's wheel and was supported by a certain counselor.
Finally, her view was recovered and recognized some shapes. Although the room was very dark, it was familiar as well. The walls and the ceiling were clean and clear one day, now were darkened, abandoned, cold as their new owner. If Annabelle wasn't gifted with such pure aura, she would certainly perish as every living being in a venomous atmosphere such as that.
At last, she slowly turned her face, delaying that fateful reencounter as long as she could. Naraku was sitting next to her futon, although his features seemed serene, he was a little anxious. The hanyo wore a fancy purple embroidered kimono, over his crossed legs laid his baboon mask and in his extended hand over knee a crystal moon was shinning discretely. His carmine gaze rest upon her misteriously. He didn't gave a glimpse of his malicious smirks, his lips were straight. His vast wavy strands falling over his shoulder, over his chest...
How handsome he is.
No, such charm didn't belong to him. It was Hitomi she was seeing, not him.
Wasn't it?
"That is yours" his low voice sounded peaceful.
Annabelle tried to raise her body, she rested her weight on one of her elbows and kept the cloack over her breasts to cover them. To sit down was a martyrdom, her head spinned. After all, she was still weak because of Ailyn's potion. Her head leaned back and forth a few times until she regained control and managed to keep glimpsing the man, the monster, or whatever he could be.
Her fearful hand approached his, caught the pendand and brought it close to her chest. Suddenly, the gem shone bright once again.
"You almost let that woman murder you. Why?" he seemed curious.
"Why did you save me?" she countered with another question.
"First my answer" He was as irreducible as ever.
Annabelle sighed and hugged her own legs, hidding her face over her knees. Her orange locks fell down a a cascade over her arms, their sweet scent invaded the hanyou cleared nostrils.
"We have all the time in the world..." he pretended to be pacient, his eyes stood still on that creature, in the present she was vulnerable as a common human. He could tear her apart in that moment if he wanted.
But he didn't.
"End it at once. What are you waiting for?" she said.
"You want to meet your Kagewaki in paradise, don't you?" at some point Naraku needed to recover his mocking tone, it was his nature. "What a pity, Annabelle, he is not there".
"I want to stay away from you" She lifted her angry face. "I want to go to a place where I'll never have to look at your face again and remind myself how weak I am!" she got up with difficulty, Anna was so intent on pulling away from him that she didn't even bother to cover the back of her naked body.
She slowly began to walk, resting her hands on the wall to maintain balance. His calm footsteps followed her, a discreet laugh echoing not so far. Before she could reach the door, Naraku was imposing in front of her.
"Get out of my way" she whispered breathless.
"Or what? You don't have a horse to knock me down, not even enough strength to fight me now." His smirk grew large. "And I, thanks to you, feel better than ever, even after being injured by that girl's arrow. I'm strong enough to give you the punishment you deserve"
Annabelle tried to evoke her power, but it was temporarily sealed. So, she tried to use her own weight on him to push him away, yet all she could do was fell into his arms. Naraku didn't held her or tried to move away. He let her there, grabbing at the soft fabric of his dark robes, sinking her nose in his chest and blowing the breezy air near his neck. The baboon pelt slid down between them and the girl returned to be as the way she came into the world, the only cloth that separated her skin from his was his kimono. The supercilious hanyo laughed once again.
"I wanted to kill you..." she apathetically confessed.
"A lot of people do" he mocked "Who is that woman?"
"My twin sister, she helped me to conjure the weapon..."
"And you offered your life in return, didn't you?" the pieces finally fit.
Annabelle silenced completely, her fingers loosened their grip on the beautiful costume of the castle's new master.
"How foolish of you, woman..." Staring at nothingness, wallowing in the addictive scent of her ginger hair, he criticized her. "You did not complete your goal and even then you would give up your own life. What a waste of such a peculiar power, that could be used to do such magnificent things. This crystal moon in your hands isn't the source of your strength, I have noticed. The thing is inside of you." He held her red locks, forcing her to look into his eyes, then he took her face in his hands. "My proposition remains, Annabelle Rose. Serve me and I, Naraku, will make you forget all sorrows from the past" He brought his face close to hers. Oh, that seductive tone again! And those hands stroking her cold cheeks, then her neck and her shoulders... if he persisted that way, she would lose her mind and that was exactly what he wanted, she knew it, as she knew why he had that malicious smirk on his lips. Once more, the gap between her legs was wet because of him and he could smell it.
"Never!" The indignation gave her the strength she needed to push him away. The white light flickered faintly around her and didn't last long. Naraku fell sitting in the hallway and she collapsed inside the room, yet she found the breath to scold him: "After all, the love Hitomi and I felt for each other has been consummated, we lived the fullness of that feeling and you can never take it from me! This is something that someone like you will never have in life!"
He laughed hysterically as if he'd heard the funniest joke ever, the uncontrolled laughter echoed through the castle. Still laughing, Naraku got up and looked her up and down one more time, then he put his hand over the door, preparing to close it.
"Ailyn can find me at the edge of the world, and she will, you cannot keep me here forever!" She kept confronting him, until he was completely behind the door. "She will come after what was promised to be hers!"
"Then you should thank me for being under my barrier's protection. From now on, your life is mine." So he left her in there, alone and awared that he would not let her go, that he would not aloud any one take her from him. This power will be mine. He longed for her skills, but it wasn't his only desire. The hanyou remembered in details the moment when he received her light and experienced an unspeakable sensation, that one he could do anything to feel again. She will be mine.
To be continued...