Spark

Chapter 14

Afraid of a Light in the Dark

Rin followed Raiju down the long narrow hallway that would lead her outside. She glared at his back as if her very gaze could harm him.

The doors slid open, bathing her face in cold light. If her resolve had wavered before, nothing could break it now. She knew she risked death or worse, but it didn’t matter. Rin wasn’t weak or easily led.

She was heartbroken. And she was angry too, but if the weasel taiyoukai thought that she would contemplate harming her Sesshomaru-sama, or that she even could, he was a fool.

Allowing herself a grim little smile, Rin knew she could harm Raiju…maybe even kill him if she tried hard enough. It took every ounce of her will to keep her miko powers safe under her skin. They smoldered, wanting nothing more than to purify the evil in front of her.

“Any moment now,” Raiju said, “InuYasha will breach the summit. You must act quickly.”

Rin schooled her expression into one of uncertainty and worry. “I will try. Do you think I can do it, Raiju-sama?”

His cold hand trailed down her cheek. Rin clenched her fists to keep from flinching away from his despicable touch. “Poor child. Has no one ever had any faith in you at all?”

She wanted to spit in his face. Of course they had. Master Jaken, despite his bluster, loved her. And Sesshomaru-sama would not have let her follow him if he’d deemed her somehow unworthy of his presence. And even if neither of them believed in her, she believed in herself. Rin lowered her chin. Let him think whatever he wants, she mused. Soon, he won’t be thinking at all.

A flash of red in the white and the prickle of Master Jaken’s familiar youki snapped her gaze forward. Her powers gathered in her hands, whipping her chestnut hair about her body.

“But just to make sure you don’t waver, my child….” Raiju said from behind her.

Before she could turn around, something cold clamped around her throat. She tried to cry out, tried to warn InuYasha and Master Jaken, but it was too late.

#

Kagome watched Sesshomaru as if he’d disappear at any moment. And considering the way his jaw clenched and relaxed, it was a very real possibility.

“Are you going to go and save Rin?” she asked softly.

“It is a trap,” Sesshomaru intoned without any emotion. “Perhaps Raiju will not be expecting InuYasha. I will catch him off guard.”

It wasn’t a real answer, but he was walking away, leaving her. Biting her lip, Kagome held out a hand to him, but he didn’t see it. He was disappearing into the trees like a ghost.

“Wait!” she called out. “I’m coming too!”

He didn’t turn around. “There is no turning back if you follow me. You should go home while you have the chance,” he said. His tone was full of loathing, but whether it was for himself or for her, Kagome didn’t know.

She didn’t know how she felt. She was sure love didn’t feel this way.

Kagome thought she knew a great deal about love. It could hurt, that had been the first lesson she’d learned, but she knew it didn’t feel like this…did it? Did it feel helpless? Did it feel like drowning when you weren’t even in the water? Did it make you hate yourself?

She realized he was waiting for her to say something, to follow, or to go.

“What is this?” she asked, her voice barely making it past her lips. Silently, she cursed herself for even asking him. A person just didn’t ask Sesshomaru questions like that.
He turned just enough to look at her. “It is nothing.”

Hadn’t she known that was what he would say? The wind felt colder than it should’ve been, and she shivered. Kagome was surprised she didn’t cry. Maybe I’m growing up at last, Kagome thought with a wry twist of her lips.

She watched his face for a moment. His eyes were on her, but she could tell his thoughts were on himself. The only thing betraying his cold calm was the line between his brows. Maybe…maybe he was just as confused as she was.

“I’m going with you. This whole thing is my fault,” she said, finding her strength again. Kagome smiled. Something within her snapped; she could almost hear it. It hurt a little, but it felt like freedom.

#

Her body was warm on his arm. Her expression carefree, her posture far too relaxed. Didn’t she know that he could drop her at any moment thus ending her life and her hold over him?

He sighed. Of course he would do no such thing. He’d exhibited a frightening lack of self control. Potion or no, Sesshomaru knew he was better than that. Or he’d thought he was. The way his scent wrapped around hers made him shudder, made his body harden in want for her.

Sesshomaru wondered what she knew of youkai rutting practices. He doubted she knew much, and he supposed he ought to tell her, but…that might make the outcome less than favorable for him.

But he had warned her all the same. And yet, she chose to travel with him, to fight along side him. Now, she had but one thing left to do and she would bind herself to him for the rest of her life…that is if he allowed it.

He supposed he should be grateful the potion hadn’t made him rut with just any human. Perhaps a powerful miko would prove an asset, not a weakness. Every touch on her bare skin, and he’d felt the power singing in her blood. Once joined with him, she would no longer possess the ability to harm him.

All the miko had left to do was proclaim her affections. Nothing as simple and as ridiculously human as a marriage or a declaration of ‘love’. It wasn’t about love. No, she would have to seduce him. He had already taken her…twice. He had made his offer. Now, she had but to accept it before the next full moon and their fates would be irrevocably intertwined. Should she do so, he would be unable to resist her call.

He had given her the chance to leave him, to go, but she hadn’t taken it. Now, he was bound to her by honor. Sesshomaru would protect the miko until it was time to part ways…unless of course she accepted his offer. He knew there was no guarantee.

#

In horror, Rin watched as she raised her arms, a bright pink ball of energy flaring between her fingers.

InuYasha and Master Jaken were speeding towards her. No recognition flashed in their determined gaze. And why should it? she thought. I don’t even look like myself anymore.

Raiju’s hand moved to the small of her back. She willed herself to twist away from him, to destroy him with the power gathering between her palms, but she simply couldn’t move. She could feel the demonic aura of the collar he’d put around her neck. It burned her flesh.

The taiyoukai leaned forward, his whisper slithering over her ear. “I could smell the deceit roll off you in waves. You must think me stupid, girl. It is unfortunate that it had to be this way. Now, put a barrier around them.”

Rin closed her eyes. It was all she could do as the energy flew from her fingertips.

Raiju’s hands were on her shoulders, dragging her backwards with him. She didn’t fight him, but she didn’t help him either. Her body sagged against him, supported only by his strong arms around her waist. He hissed curses at her, but she felt so tired suddenly that it was an effort to stay awake.

The doors to Raiju’s fortress slammed shut.

He hefted her into his arms as though she were still in her child’s body, as though she weighed nothing at all.

“I regret having to do this to you, truly I do. But it is necessary. I won’t have you spoiling my plans. Plans I’ve made long before your birth. It would’ve been better to have made you see things my way over time, but I lack the patience,” he said as he hurried down the corridors, silk swishing around his ankles. “I can make this pleasant for you….”

Rin wasn’t sure what he was talking about exactly, but she was certain whatever his plan was for her now, she wasn’t going to like it.

Raiju laughed, his eyes shining feverishly. “I had intended to capture the miko who defeated Naraku, but she had already been trained. I needed the power wild, so that I could bend it to my will.” He seemed to be ranting now, not even making sense. Raiju was speaking so quickly, Rin had a hard time making out the words. “I thought it better to rid myself of both the miko and Sesshomaru.”

With his slippered foot, Raiju slid open a shoji screen leading into a bedroom Rin hadn’t seen before.

Gently, he laid her down on the futon. The silk of the sheets slid against her cheek. Somehow…she knew what was going to happen. She wanted to fit, to spit in his face, to scream. She couldn’t do anything.

Raiju’s clawed fingers touched the collar and everything changed.

#

InuYasha thought it was Kagome standing by Raiju for a moment. But as he got closer, he saw that it wasn’t Kagome at all.

This girl had larger eyes, a smaller mouth…she just looked like a creature who would break at any moment, so frail…so beautiful. Purifying energy sparked between her fingers.

InuYasha tried to dodge the blast as it hurtled towards him, but it enveloped him all the same. He waited for the pain, the burning of his flesh, the boiling of his blood, but it only hummed over his skin. Jaken squawked in fear from his place on his back, but the imp seemed to be unharmed as well.

“What the hell?” InuYasha breathed as his vision cleared.

“It’s a barrier! That woman was a miko…,” Jaken trailed off, InuYasha felt him go stiff and rigid.

“What’s the matter?”

“I think…I think it was Rin. That woman….”

InuYasha snorted. “How is that even possible? Rin’s a kid.”

“It looked like Rin,” Jaken huffed.

“Ha! No way. That woman was…well…you know. She was different.” InuYasha felt his face warm in embarrassment. He didn’t need to be telling Sesshomaru’s lackey that he thought the woman who’d just imprisoned them was beautiful. Besides, if she was with Raiju, she was likely bad news.

Hesitantly, he touched the glowing pink bubble that surrounded them. With a yowl, he drew his smoking hand back. “No good,” InuYasha said from between his clenched teeth, clutching his smoking hand to his chest.

“What about Tessaiga? Has it not broken barriers before?”

“Worth a try, I guess,” InuYasha said as he drew his blade.

It failed to transform for a second time.

Jaken slid down his back and stood in front of him, bug eyes narrowed. He tapped the blade with a claw. “The sword did not transform? How curious.”

“Yeah, it happened when I fought Raiju the first time. Damn thing. Stupid unpredictable piece of crap!” InuYasha shouted, sheathing his blade. He sat down on the ground, muttering curses under his breath.

“What are we going to do now?” the imp cried, looking so forlorn that it was almost funny.
“I guess we gotta hope that Kagome and Sesshomaru have figured out some way to break the curse.”

Jaken wailed. “We’re going to die! Sesshomaru-sama would never rut with a human wench!”

“Shows how much you know,” InuYasha grumbled, his mind supplying him with a picture of a topless Kagome with her mouth around a certain part of his half-brother’s anatomy. For the hundredth time, he cursed his own stubbornness. He should’ve just let Kagome have what she wanted. Maybe she would’ve done that for him. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to die a virgin. “Dammit,” he said.

#

If Rin closed her eyes, the lips on hers could belong to anyone she chose. But the illusion was broken when she felt both of Raiju’s hands on her body. Her treacherous body that refused to be disgusted, that refused to recoil in horror like her mind was doing.

Once, in her travels with Sesshomaru-sama she had stumbled upon a pair of lovers by a hot spring. It had made her giggle behind her hand…the way they looked, all naked and sweaty, making funny noises. It hadn’t looked like very much fun at all. Her romantic fantasies of her stoic guardian had never gone beyond an innocent kiss.

But now they did.

What would it be like to have Sesshomaru-sama touch her this way? To have him brush his fangs over her pulse, to have his clawed hand trail along the swell of her breast?

“Thinking of him, are you?” Raiju asked.

She didn’t respond. She couldn’t make her lips move to form the words.

“Open your eyes,” he commanded. She didn’t want to. It would ruin it. She would be sick if she had to.

Her eyes opened despite her best efforts to keep them shut.

Sesshomaru-sama stared down at her, his face a perfect, beautiful mask. His long silvery-white hair spilled over his shoulders, brushing against her cheek.

Rin gasped. “How?” she managed to croak. Her voice sounded rusty.

Sesshomaru-sama’s lips curved into a smile that was so beautiful that it hurt her heart. “Illusions, my dear. Does this illusion please you?”

She could only nod weakly.

“Will it make this easier for you?”

Rin nodded again, a cold tear snaking down her cheek. She’d nodded not because she wanted to, but because Raiju wanted her to. It wouldn’t make it easier. It would make it worse.


A/N: Sorry for the delay! I was attacked! By…um…laziness and ennui. I’m also sorry that this chapter is a wee bit shorter than the others. But it ends where it needs to.


Thanks again for the great reviews! And no, this story isn’t anywhere near finished yet. I have quite a few things to do still. I hope they surprise and delight!