LXIII

Cave Canem

Kagome comes out of the bath and hears yelling before she can even manage to get her clothes on – harsh words in the voice that Kikyou's memory has taught her.

"I'm not going to let you just take over my quest – the old woman even said we'd have to find them, that our destiny was bound up with them. Get over it, wolf. You're not going to win the shikon no tama just because you've found a copy of my woman!"

The words sting, but not badly – just enough to rile the flash of Kagome's temper from its long sleep. In an instant she is pushing past Kikyou, storming down the hall, one hand clutching her towel tight against her chest and the other a furious fist. She slides open the door with a wrathful flourish, and Kouga turns to her at once – but her attention isn't on him.

She directs the full force of her angry glare in Inuyasha's direction, and watches his ears wilt with some satisfaction.

"Did I hear you write, Inuyasha? I'm a copy of your woman?"

She sees the darting of his eyes, away from her face, down into the corner – she can read his thoughts in the jostling of his expression.

"Oh yes, I heard you – you're an idiot, you know that? Weren't you even listening when we were talking before? I'm Kagome. She's Kikyou – and we aren't the same! There's five hundred years between us – at least, in the soul we share."

Inuyasha scowls at her, turns his face to side and lets out a huff of disbelief.

"Five hundred years. Right. I heard Kikyou going on about that earlier, but I can forgive her, whatever's happened messed with her head, or something. What's your problem? Kikyou died fifty years ago, not five hundred."

Kagome stares at him, mouth open, then closes it and shakes her head, narrows her eyes at him.

"That's none of your business – that doesn't matter. It's true, that's all you need to know. Now apologize! And stop yelling at Kouga, the shikon no tama is my responsibility, and no one else's. I certainly wouldn't give it to you."

She turns up her nose and looks away from him, but that is the wrong choice to make. Even Kouga doesn't read Inuyasha's intentions in enough time to stop him from acting, and in the next moment he has Kagome against the wall, one hand around her throat and the other pinning her hand as she tries to beat at him, mortal strength ineffective even with her life on the line.

#

A series of impossible events take place one after another, pass before Kouga's eyes in a series of blinks. Blink, and Kagome is tearing at the Inu-hanyou with her words. Blink, and his hands are reaching out with rage – blink, and she is against the wall, towel falling from her, scent of her blood ripe in the air and the Inu crushing the life out of her.

Blink, and Kouga moves forward, motion uninterrupted by thought. He knows only my woman and danger, impetus enough to drive him to the utter extreme of his new power in only an instant.

He plucks Inuyasha away from Kagome with a single hand, smells the scent of her blood thicker, fresher, as the Inu-claws drag across the skin of her throat and break the surface. It enrages him as nothing else in his experience has ever done. He holds the hanyou at a distance and drives his fist into his face, again, and again – and again. He hears bones breaking, but that is not enough to stop him.

Not the scent of blood, not the crackling under his fist, not the labored breathing of the Inu he holds by the throat stops him. Instead, it is a single word – Kagome's voice, his name.

"Kouga." He pauses, turns to face her, shows her the face of the wolf taking over his flesh, red-eyed destruction, all dark things…but again, she speaks. She reaches out one hand for his arm, touches him, soft, safe, and he sees her, naked, unconcerned in this moment for her own modesty, her own wounds, unconcerned with anything but him.

"Kouga, enough. He didn't really hurt me – he's not worth it. And it'll hurt Kikyou if you kill him."

He stares at her, stares, red glow receding, then nods once, short and sharply, drops the hanyou and sneers at the slits of his bruised eyes before he turns away.

"For you, Kagome. Since you ask it."

His voice is rough with wolf-tones, fraught with growls. He stands between Kagome and the hanyou, conceals her body from his vision as best he can, pulls her close to him until she can gather her towel and wrap it around her again.

She looks up at him, bright eyes with the shadow of fear in them still, and he turns and looks at the hanyou lying broken on the ground, unconscious now and his own woman hesitating to go to him.

"What do we do with him? I won't leave him to hurt you again, Kagome – and we can't take him with us. The human in the den, that monk – that's one thing. But I won't bring this moron."

Kagome hesitates. He sees her thoughts shifting, her expression changing, but there are no answers there.

#

"Kouga-sama."

Kikyou's voice is quiet and thin – like Kagome's voice with all the life drained out of it, all the vibrance gone.

"Excuse the interruption, but may I take responsibility for Inuyasha? I know a way –"

She hesitates, then looks up into his face as she continues.

"I know a way to keep him from harming anyone – my sister…Kaede-san gave them to me, just in case."

Kikyou reaches into her sleeve and pulls out a necklace of connected beads. Kagome draws her breath at the sight of them, and Kouga stares uneasily as a word slips past her lips.

"Kotodama –"

Kikyou nods.

"Yes. Kotodama no nenju, the beads of subjugation that make a single word a binding power. I made them long ago – to protect Inuyasha from himself. But it seems like many things were broken fifty years ago, more than I knew. Now…now I must return to protecting the world from him, until he is…better."

Kouga snorts, and tightens his hold on Kagome – yet he cannot deny that this miko, dead or alive, has provided a way out of his dilemma without forcing him to kill the hanyou.

That would displease Kagome.

He watches as Kikyou holds her hands together, the necklace wrapped around them – black shining beads separated and spaced by ivory fangs. She chants in a low voice, and her words are stinging, sharpen themselves on his ears as they enter.

After only a few moments, the beads split apart, separate from the necklace and reform around the hanyou's throat. They glow with a faint and subtle light. A fragrance comes into the air that is like, and yet unlike, Kagome's power, and Kouga takes another back.

Kikyou speaks one word.

"Tomare."

Stay.

There is a blinding flash – then it is done.

#

A/N: Another chapter, and not nearly as long a wait! No idea how long it will be to the next one – book two of my series goes on pre-order at the end of this month, I'm writing books three and four, and an unrelated book, Wolf of the West, is now in editing and will be out early in the new year! So! More as soon as I can, though deadlines eat my soul, and thank you for the delicious reviews, which continue to inspire me! This chapter's title, "Cave Canem", translates to "Beware the Dog". Keep an eye out for more, and

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