XLV

Ieiunium Fulgur

Kagome feels blood on her lips and something within her lurches in confusion and terror. She doesn't back away, doesn't dare move – she's not afraid, not for herself, not of Kouga – but she is afraid for the man behind her on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the wounds of Kouga's teeth.

Another moment and she would have been too late, but she doesn't want to think about that, just like she doesn't want to think about the fact that there is blood smeared across her lips, and Kouga's lips, and that it is human blood. Despite herself she can't help but think about it. Not wanting to doesn't prevent her mind from wandering on its own.

She has proof now that Kouga is what he says he is – that his wolves are, too. The pups are already crowding around the man's fallen body, licking at the blood on the furs around him, licking at the blood on his torn robes and on his arm where the sleeves have pulled up, revealing the skin. By accident she licks her own lips, tastes copper and nearly retches, but she's distracted from her own distress by Sho.

The littlest pup comes forward and grips the man's forearm in his baby teeth, tugging angrily at the skin there. Kagome reaches forward to tug him away and Sho growls at her faintly but lets her do so.

"Kagome -"

She looks back from the pup in her hands at Kouga's face. His eyes are dark but not with anger now; he looks...worried, and the expression doesn't fit his face. She blinks at him and takes the step that separates them, touches his shoulder gently.

"What is it, Kouga?"

Just at the touch, relief floods into his face. He bends and presses his nose to her neck, breathes deeply and then rubs his blood-damped cheeks against her.

Kagome wrinkles her nose at that and pushes him back.

"Ew- Kouga, you're all bloody! I have got to have a bath now."

Kouga grins and leans forward, laps at her throat with a hot and lazy tongue. She wrinkles her nose at him and he laughs a little and then turns and gives her a push toward the passage outside.

"Go down to the river, Kagome. I'll be with you in a minute – someone needs disciplining, for letting this idiot get loose – and then I better tie him up myself if you don't want him dead."

Kagome blinks at him as she reaches the threshold and feels a strange shiver crawl across her skin.

"Of course I don't want him dead -"

"I know. You stopped me. So I'll bind him up, for now. If he gets away again his life's forfeit. You might want to explain that to him if you decide to talk to him after your bath."

Kagome nods and turns away, still feeling that same shiver – youkai, Kouga's youkai. More than the moment she met him, more than while he was fighting or hunting or being wolfish at her, watching him attack that man without a second thought brings the truth of the word youkai into her consciousness and makes her wonder what it is she's doing here, what it is she thinks she's trying to be.

The water of the river is cold, but she welcomes the shock on her senses and scrubs blood from her face and hands and the sweat of the night from her body, and then leaps out onto the bank and wraps herself in fur, shivering.

"I guess I better go talk to that guy, whoever he is. He must be a holy man, or he wouldn't carry ofuda."

Thoughtful, wondering why Kouga hasn't come down like he said he would, Kagome climbs back up the rocks and ledges to the mouth of the den and then follows the presence of Kouga and his shikon shards until she finds him, involved in conversation with a wolf she doesn't know in a part of the den she hasn't yet explored. She only hears a few words, but they renew her inner chill.

"...escaped. But I won't stand for a threat to her – do you understand?"

"Kouga-sama -"

"More lives than just that man's life depends on it."

Kagome sucks in a breath at the expression on Kouga's face – dark promises, rich anger, the blue of his eyes gleaming with a red edge. The wolf in front of him does not cower, but Kagome sees the acceptance in his face, the knowledge that his life depends on adequate performance of his duties, and then Kouga turns and looks at Kagome and his face changes in an instant flicker.

"Kagome, you were too fast for me!"

She smiles a little.

"I doubt that – it's just cold so I didn't want to take any longer than I needed. Too long in cold water like that and I'll get sick."

The expression on Kouga's face is almost comical now, and Kagome snickers and shakes her head.

"Don't worry about it, Kouga. Maybe next time I take lessons you should have some too."

"Kagome – you -"

He laughs, and the sound is rich and deep and gorgeous, and Kagome flushes and then turns away from him in confusion.

This is the Kouga she knows, the Kouga she's spent time with and learned how to talk to. This is the Kouga of goodnight kisses and good morning snuggles, the Kouga who takes her on hunts and fights beside her, who rolls his eyes in aggravation whenever Sho absconds his place at her while she's sleeping.

Who is the Kouga he can become without a moment's notice? The wolf, deadly, red-eyed, embodying all she knows of youkai?

Or is that just Kouga, too? The man and the monster -

She remembers everything she had thought in the quiet hour before Kouga had returned that morning, and knows that she must decipher this mystery. This mystery of Kouga, and why she still isn't afraid of him when she knows she should be.

A/N: And there we are! Today's chapter, as promised...I feel much better about myself now that I'm doing daily updates again XD The chapter title, "Ieiunium Fulgur" means "lightning fast" - Kouga's a moody thing isn't he? More tomorrow, my dears, which probably means...oh...5 or 6 hours since it's one in the morning where I am and thus technically already tomorrow! Thanks for reading my dears; see you soon!

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