Wednesday, January 19, 2005

   Chapter 40: The Greatest Lies Hide in Truth
Inuyasha opened his eyes as he lifted his hands and set them on Kikyou's shoulders, pushing her away, "Kikyou..."

Kikyou wasn't looking at him though, her eyes were again off to the side as she stared at something only she could see, "I told you I would kill her, Inuyasha. Things would be simple if she were no longer in the way."

Inuyasha tensed, nearly throwing Kikyou away from him at the insinuation in her voice. Alarmed, he spun around, his senses alert as he searched for Kagome's presence. His eyes widened in shocked disbelief when he realized the wind had formed a sort of pocket in the grove, nothing but what he could see registering to his ears or his nose. For as good as his senses were right now, anything could be beyond the tree-line and he wouldn't have known until it was too late.

Like now, he thought grimly, pressing a hand to his heart and focusing inward in an effort to feel the steady pulse behind his, Kagome's heartbeat. It should have been simple, strong and steady with his own, but it nearly eluded him, distant and faint...

"What have you done?" he whispered in pained denial, his fingers curling into a tight fist over his chest as his instincts screamed a warning over the loss of contact. Turning back to see Kikyou at the edge of the grove, surrounded by her youkai, his eyes darkened fiercely, "What the hell have you done with Kagome?"

"You'll come back to me once she betrays you," Kikyou flashed him a cold, enigmatic smile. "That girl is a fool. As long as she thinks she is the one in control, she will not fight against the powers directing her. She will not force him from her mind. He knows it... and he will use that to its full advantage when he comes for you. She does not have the knowledge or the control to stop herself or her powers, Inuyasha, not when they are being fed by another. You will have to kill her, and then there will only be one of us."

Inuyasha turned around slowly to face her completely, his chest tightening even as a touch of scarlet bled into his glowing eyes, "Where is she?"

Kikyou looked away from him, her face bland as her youkai lifted her off her feet, "I will not tolerate anyone who tries to come between us, Inuyasha. You told me that you didn't want to make the choice... Now you don't have to. You will be mine in Hell," she answered as the youkai disappeared into the trees with her in tow.

"Kikyou!" Inuyasha snarled out, reaching a hand towards her despite the futility of the motion. He knew she was already gone, "Damn you, Kikyou! If anything happens to Kagome, I'll-!"

Inuyasha stopped abruptly as with Kikyou's departure, the wind shifted and blew naturally through the small clearing again, freed from whatever force had held it still. His heart began to pound all over again when the wind brought him a scent he knew only too well, 'Blood? Kagome's blood?!'

His head snapped around towards the source, Kikyou forgotten as he covered the distance in almost one straight, desperate leap, crashing through the brush in his haste to locate the source of that smell. A bright glint, half-hidden in the matted foliage, had him skidding to a stop as he dropped into an instinctive, defensive crouch.

Inuyasha's heart nearly stopped when instead of the weapon he'd been anticipating, he recognized Kagome's necklace, smeared with her blood and the chain broken as though ripped forcefully from her neck. But the shards were all there...

His hand closed so tightly over the glass vial it was a wonder the fragile material didn't shatter. Had she been kidnapped and he'd let himself be too distracted by Kikyou's presence to see it? To realize the clearing had been closed off to his senses? Did Kagome pull the necklace off and drop it herself in an attempt to keep it safe from her attacker?

He cursed, long and black in his growing rage until his eyes fell on the remnants of Kikyou's bow a few feet away. Inuyasha rose to his feet with growing apprehension, his ears flattening back as he shuffled closer to look down at the two separate pieces. The wood had been snapped in half under enough force that the string itself had been ripped apart in the same place, and the broken ends of that string were gleaming sickly in the afternoon sun.

That was the real concentration for the smell of Kagome's blood.

Numbly, Inuyasha crouched down again, reaching out to lightly touch one of the dripping strings, but the moment his fingers came in contact with the blood, he let out a sharp hiss and rocked back on his heels. Pain flooded through him so deep and intense it brought the sting of tears to his eyes, and on the heels of that mind-splintering sensation came a wash of rage to sweep it all down to his stomach. The abrupt emotions left him confused and shaking even as he stared at the blood coating his fingertips.

'These...are Kagome's emotions?!' Inuyasha's eyes widening in dawning understanding and horror as his gaze moved from his fingers to the section of the clearing visible from that position.

The vial shattered.

'Kikyou... Kikyou tricked me!’ his eyes clenched shut as his body shook with anger that was unlike any he’d ever known. 'She knew... She KNEW Kagome could see us. That's why she kissed me like that...'

When Inuyasha opened his eyes again they were glowing scarlet, and he looked down from Kagome's blood on his fingers to the blood on the bow and dripping onto the grass with a frown. It wasn't that much, but it would have to do.

Baring his teeth, he reached out and slid his hand over the strings, and then the grass beneath them, collecting all that he could, "This had better fucking work."

He lifted the hand almost tentatively, scowling at it a moment before his let out of pent-up breath and licked the blood off his palm and fingers. If he could feel the emotions she had felt when he touched the blood, wouldn't consuming it give him a clearer link to what she was feeling now?

A jolt rocked through him as he swallowed the last of it, knocking him on his back as he reflexively clutching his pounding heart, snarling at the greatly intensified wash of pain constricting his chest. But this time he could feel something new. Nearly smothered beneath the severity of the pain and rage was a broken thread of sorrow. It had been buried so deep beneath the other two he almost missed it, but the feelings were intense... youkai emotions instead of human...

What the fuck was happening to his Kagome to make her feel youkai emotions?

The growl rose deep in his chest, a natural response to the chaotic jumble of sensation he could feel through Kagome's blood. Kikyou had said she didn't have the knowledge or control to stop herself. Did she know Kagome was experiencing youkai emotions and use that against her, knowing that as a human, they would be too intense?

His eyes dropped bitterly to the evidence at his feet, 'She had to know. She... wanted Kagome to feel them... to lose control without realizing it... She said-'

Inuyasha's eyes sparked murderously as he made the connection between what Kikyou said and what it meant. HE knew, and HE would use it.

The second voice. The man who tricked Kagome the last time she had fought Kikyou herself, almost getting her killed and turning her against him. The man who had tried to steal her from him.

With Kagome out of range she would be vulnerable to that voice again, but who would know enough about them to be able to fool Kagome into thinking he was telling the truth?

A light breeze curled around Inuyasha almost mockingly, bringing with it a scent that was almost enough to push him over the edge of his control.

Kagura had been in this spot... with Kagome.

Naraku had taken her.

**

Kagome would have been violently disgusted with herself if she knew, or more importantly, if she cared, that the blank expression she'd adopted to mask her inner turmoil made her look more like Kikyou than she ever had before.

Really the only differences at the moment were that Kikyou's eyes had never glowed pale blue, she would never wear anything remotely similar to the younger girl's futuristic attire, and the undead miko had never in her lifetime or beyond so visibly radiated with her powers.

As Kagura led the silent miko through the darkened passages of Naraku's present castle, traces of blue and scarlet curled around at sporadic intervals. The ground under her feet hissed in protest as the taint seeping into the stones was purified at her passing, and occasionally bolts would lash out at curious youkai minions who wandered too close. And Kagome walked on through it all, leaving them seriously wounded if not out-right killed by the potent blasts.

Kagura kept a fair distance nervously, glancing back at the miko with a tense, calculating expression. Just because Kagome's wild aura hadn't harmed her yet didn't mean it wouldn't, and the wind youkai was beginning to have serious reservations about Naraku's plans for the girl. She doubted even he had suspected the miko could have grown this powerful in such a short span of time, and her lack of control over that power made her dangerous to have anywhere near them. If Kagome ever focused that power...

Kagura shivered at the thought, but at the same moment, she felt a faint glimmer of hope. What if she really could help free her from Naraku? The idea had seemed ludicrous at the time, just an excuse to fool the miko into coming, but now? She'd have to get Kagome alone later, and she doubted even Kanna could hold an image on the girl with this kind of aura tangling the air around her.

*I told you the hanyou did not deserve your love.*

"Shut up," Kagome growled out, focusing on the boiling rage flowing through her rather than what should have been surprise at the forceful return of the man's voice. She knew if she let go of that feelings, the only thing left would be the debilitating pain humming just beneath her calm facade. The rage was the only thing keeping her from sinking into despair at the embrace she'd seen between Inuyasha and Kikyou.

Kagura jumped a bit in surprise, turning a questioning look back at her, "What?"

*Did you really think it was you he wanted when he was fucking you? He cares only for the walking dead. You saw it then and you ignored it. Look at the suffering it's brought you; the pain.*

"I said shut up!" the blue of her eyes turned violet with her deepening rage.

Kagura frowned in cautious surprise, pacing herself a little farther ahead, 'She... isn't talking to me. She hears something else?'

*You should have listened to me from the start. If you had obeyed me you would not have suffered this pain and humiliation. Why did you shut me out, miko? Is my love not good enough for you? You would rather be second choice to a corpse in that hanyou's affections? A convenient substitute?*

"I don't even fucking know who you are," Kagome reached out and grabbed a door in front of her to yank it viciously to the side, either not noticing or not caring that it melted under her touch. "Get out of my head or I'll get you out myself," her teeth clenched so tightly, by all rights she should have ground off the sharp edges.

*Don't act like that with me, Kagome...*

Kagome froze in alarm when she felt something brush past her cheek.

*Not when you were reborn for me.*

'So strong,' Kagome's hand hovered over the last door Kagura had passed through, her eyes narrowing as she swept out her senses to find the owner of that low voice. 'Why is it so close?'

A cool curtain of silky hair slid over her shoulder from above and behind her just as she became aware of a man’s presence at her back. His mouth came so close to her ear she could feel not only the warm breath but the movement on his lips against her own hair, “I cheated death to be with you, miko, and you have been returned to me. So much more powerful and beautiful than ever... I can help you, Kagome. You have only to ask..."

**

Inuyasha felt his every muscle snap taut when another magic wrapped itself obviously around Kagome, dampening the feel of her heartbeat and emotions in his head. This magic was dark, oppressive and taunting; a blatant challenge to his claim on her that tipped his own tenuous control that much closer to its breaking point.

He could hear whispering in his mind, low taunts and a mocking voice overlapping itself and making it impossible to distinguish what it was actually saying. The meaning, however, was clear. The owner of that voice was goading him, trying to push him past his limit and make him lose control.

Inuyasha scowled, forcing himself to breath slow and deep in a fight to stay calm. If that voice wanted him to lose it, he'd be willing to bet his life that would only make things worse for Kagome wherever she was. She had pulled off his emotions more than once with nearly disastrous results, so what would happen to her if he lost control and he wasn't close enough to balance the flood of emotions in her? Would it be like before or would it be even worse?

What was happening to her now that something was trying to get to him?

If he was right, and Naraku had taken her, how would she react to being so close to the levels of his magic? Would she be overwhelmed or would she be able to purify the evil energy before she soaked it in? Could she purify something that corrupted when he had the assistance of the Shikon-no-Tama and she had left her shards behind?

"Kagome..." Inuyasha bit down hard on his lower lip, his eyes glistening with suspicious moisture even as his expression filled with helpless, dangerous anger. Too many things could happen to her, 'Don't listen to them, Kagome. Whatever they say, don't... I'll be there as soon as I can. I swear it.'

**

Miroku shivered suddenly, clutching his staff as he frowned and turned his gaze in the direction of the disturbing feeling.

"Houshi-sama?" Sango looked up at him in concern when she caught sight of the tenseness in his stance and expression. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"There is a dark chill in the air, Sango," he responded quietly, closing his eyes as he attempted to focus on what could have caused that chill. "Something has happened..."

Shippo looked up at them, his brows drawing together in worry at the agitation in both adults and glancing in the direction of the spring. Kagome should have been back by now... but then, Inuyasha should have been back too. After last night he wouldn't have thought that so suspicious, but they hadn't left together this time, and something felt... wrong.

He smelled the blood first, coming to his feet with a terrified gasp as he spun around to face the direction where he felt Inuyasha approaching fast. He'd been preparing to jump at the hanyou and demand answers, but the moment Inuyasha came into view, the kitsune screamed and shot behind Miroku for protection.

Inuyasha snarled at them impatiently, his annoyance peaking when the pair dropped instantly into defensive stances at his reappearance, "I'm fucking fine, you idiots! What the hell has gotten into you?!"

The surprise was easy to read on their faces as they studied him, still cautious and looking uncertain enough to deepen his impatient frown. He sounded like himself, a bit rougher perhaps, but he looked... He looked like he was halfway to transforming into his youkai form. It was only the lucidity in his narrowed gaze and the death-grip he had on the Tetsusaiga in its sheath at his hip that assured them he wasn't on the verge of snapping on them.

Sango set her jaw, glancing at Miroku briefly before she spoke, "Inuyasha?"

Miroku warily relaxed his stance when the hanyou growled in disgust, his frown changing to a harsh glare before he turned his gaze north. He could only think of one thing that could bring out this near-change in the hanyou and his throat closed even as he questioned, "What has happened to Kagome-sama, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha's growl turned primal and deadly even as he clenched his fist around the shards of glass and jewel in his hand. The sharp edges bit into his palm, sending a pulse of alluring energy tingling through his blood even as he answered, "Naraku has her."


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