Authors note: The bold thoughts are Rin's. You'll find that alot of this chapter is taken from His Eyes - Chapter 1. Enjoy!
Chapter 67 - Mine
Sesshomaru heard Rin inhale sharply from her place in A-un's saddle. "Lord Sesshomaru?" She said quietly. The yokai's eyes shifted to glance back at her. Her fear filtered into his mind again, cold as ice in his thoughts. Then, somehow the door between himself and Rin's mind was flung open beyond his control. The door that he had so carefully kept barred between them, to ensure her ability to retain her flooded unchecked into Sesshomaru's mind, entirely out of his control. Voiced thoughts overlapping in a cacophony of sound that he couldn't distinguish. Rin's direct thoughts... or memories of her thoughts, were the loudest.
He must be a... god.
Your generosity is wasted... I don't eat human food.
I knew you were the dirty culprit Rin! There were flashes of light accompanied with blinding pain, Sesshomaru recognized the sensation, as he had felt it before himself. She was being beaten. Rage at the offenders swirled with pain. The only comfort was, that these particular offenders, likely had been consumed by the wolves long ago. A morbidly satisfying thought.
I just hope to see him again. One more time.
Then, a strange image swirled in his mind. It took Sesshomaru a moment to realize that it was his own face, from Rin's point of view. He was fairly certain, that despite his innate demon countenance - she exaggerated what he looked like in her own thoughts. To Rin, he glowed with ethereal beauty.
Where did you get those bruises?
Absolute love and adoration filled the image of him, warm as the sun on the sand, glowing from the inside out.
I love him!
Then, just as quickly as they had begun, the images shifted. Instead of warmth and love, they were tinted dark and cold with fear. The sound of snarling and tearing human flesh filled the memory, brown fur swirled in the air as wolves attacked and ripped apart the villagers. In the midst of the imagery, was the face of the wolf demon - Koga, as Sesshomaru now knew he was called. At Koga's instruction, the wolves began tearing apart everyone they saw. Rin fled to the woods, toward where she had believed he had been waiting for her. It pained him to realize, that he was already gone. She had been fleeing toward a false hope.
Please! Please save me!
Sesshomaru tried to sever the connection, to close the door between them once again. I don't want to see this... I don't want to see Rin die. But he couldn't budge, the memories held him fast, like a mental vice controlling his focus.
NO!
He wasn't sure if it was Rin or himself that thought it. The wolves descended, their vicious teeth tore into her tender flesh, rending skin and bone. She screamed once, before her throat was torn out by another beast. Then, all that came out was a gurgle, hot blood poured from her throat as she tried to cry out again... and failed. The image of his face, was what she had clung to with her dying breath. It was an image that he had already seen, but now he experienced as keenly as if he had lived it, just as Rin had.
Sesshomaru could do nothing but watch as Rin remembered all of this in the blink of an eye, faster than even a heartbeat. His face remained unchanged, but he was truly shaken within. It was in that moment, that Sesshomaru realized that Rin didn't truly comprehend that she had died that day in the woods. She only knew the pain and the fear of the memory, and then nothingness, until he had brought her back with the Tenseiga.
Heart pounding, Sesshomaru finally pulled himself away from Rin's thoughts... unable to consider the reprucussions of how she had opened the barrier of their mind's at the present moment. All this she remembered, seeing the face of this wolf demon. Her fear was encompassing, it physically caused his chest to hurt. Had they been alone, he would have comforted her... in his own way. But at present, he couldn't show such weakness. Already Naraku, and InuYasha recognized the importance of the human girl, to the yokai lord, he had no intention of making that circle wider.
He had missed some conversation between the wolves, as this silent moment between himself and Rin had transpired. He didn't deem it important, as it had been the two lesser wolves talking.
"So you're InuYasha's brother?" Koga said, breaking the stiffness of the silence. "Except you're not a half demon." Sesshomaru's eyes shifted back to Koga from where he had been focusing on Rin. "What's this?! Looks like I struck a nerve!"
Little did the wolf demon know, the nerve struck, had nothing to do with InuYasha.
"Koga no!" The two idiots warned.
Perhaps they are not as stupid as I first assumed. At the very least, they know I will kill them without hesitation.
"Stand back Rin." Sesshomaru instructed, it was directed more at Jaken than her. Saying such aloud, was a statement that all demons would understand. It was an audible, yet silent claim of ownership.
Rin is mine.