The Girl Sesshomaru Loved

Warning: Attempted rape in this chapter. It is a little darker than the others.

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Chapter XVI: Puros Attacks

Arena struggled in the water, not used to swimming with only one leg. She had trouble breathing with the shock of the cold, but was too angry to notice it. She continued to beat herself up with reflections on his actions and her response. She wasn’t really angry with Sesshomaru. After all, any typical male in her experience had no qualms about a one night stand. She scoffed. Men! Arena was actually more upset with herself. Why did she let herself believe there could be anything more with him? He was a demon lord of the Western lands, for goodness sakes! And who was she? She was merely an archaeologist who only rented a tiny one bedroom flat in London. When did she lose her self control that she would fall for such a man?

Arena opened her eyes with realization. Of course, that was why she was so upset. She had fallen in love with Sesshomaru! Gods, why did she always have to fall for the wrong man? First there was that bully in highschool, and her professor in grad school, of course that excavation on Crete where she got drunk one night and tried to pick up the wealthy patron of the dig that she was running. He turned out to be a creep. Arena flushed at the memory. Her embarassment turned to anger as she remembered her reaction to Sesshomaru. Damn, talk about the wrong man! The problem was, he was exactly the opposite to the wrong man. He was powerful, gentle with her, and as he had proven tonight, was capable of great passion. She tried not to think about how good it felt to have his arms around her, and his tongue inside of her…

*******
Sesshomaru watched Arena as she hobbled away from him as quickly as she could, fully nude. He wanted to run after her and pick her up in his arms. Then after kissing her passionately he would take her right there beside the river, just like in his fantasy. He knew to try and do so would not be welcomed. His engorged erection was slowly subsiding as he thought of the hurt and angered look in Arena’s eyes. He turned away from the river and sought refuge elsewhere, anywhere else, as long as he could not see her nude body in the cold water. Why was she so angry? Surely logic would force her to agree with him. He reflected upon the cause of her anger. Could she really like him? Could her human emotions be blinding her to what seemed so logical to him? He hurried away unsure of where he was headed.

That seemed right to him, however, who was he to be able to speculate on the emotions of human women. This was going to be a long journey if he did not placate Arena’s anger. Either that, or she would get herself killed by going off on her own. Damn humans and their bloody emotions! He deliberated on the best way to calm Arena. He had absolutely no idea where to begin.

A low growl emanated from Sesshomaru as he sniffed the air. He growled deeper. Something was wrong.

*******

Arena swam over to the side of the river that gradually became shallow and turned into a pebbled beach. She crawled out, cursing herself again for receiving an injury. Why could she not heal herself? She pulled herself up to her feet, wincing at the pain, and hopped over to her clothes. Her eyes delayed at the stop on the forest bed where she and Sesshomaru had been intimate, then she shook herself and set to dressing herself. She finished dressing and thought about what she should say to Sesshomaru. How was she ever going to apologize for her outburst? She reckoned he was not used to verbal abuse, and certainly would not take lightly to it.

Arena was combing her fingers through her hair and didn’t notice that she was no longer alone.

The fire demon from the top of a waterfall had witnessed the beautiful woman bathing and was quite interested in what he saw. She was so caught up in her own reverie that she did notice his presence. As he watched her climb out of the water he noticed she was injured. It would be even easier to take her than he thought. He chuckled to himself and having leapt down the waterfall he slowly trudged towards the dressing woman.

“Hello there, young lady.” The fire demon smiled at the woman.

Arena jumped and whirled around to see who was speaking to her. She took a step backwards when she realized that it was not someone she recognized. “What do you want?”

“Hmm, you will find out soon enough. Although it is a pity you just finished dressing. What a waste of time.” A flash of lust appeared in his eyes.

“Who are you ? Get away from me!”

“Oh no my dear, I do not think I will be getting away from you at all. I’m afraid you will have to come with me. I have been longing for…company of your nature for quite a long time. You are a most welcome discovery.” he moved towards her. Arena tried to back away, but her ankle buckled underneath her weight and the fire demon caught her with a hand around her arm. He brought her back up roughly chuckling at her injury.

“Now do be careful dear, for I am Puros, a fire demon, and when I get angry I tend to, how shall I say it, well, I flare up. And you do not want to get incinerated now do you?” He spoke to her condescendingly as he lifted her up and threw her roughly over his shoulder.

“I am going to fuck you until you scream in pleasure, and then I am going to fuck you until you can’t walk. And then my dear lady, I am going to fuck you until you beg me to kill you.” He grinned wickedly. Arena was thrashing wildly over his shoulder, trying to knee him in the neck or some other sensitive area. She tried to poke out his eyes but the demon just threw her further over his shoulder and threatened to flare up again. Arena was terrified. She could think of no worse way to be killed than to be raped to death. ‘oh, if only I hadn’t pissed off Sesshomaru’, she thought, ‘damnit, there is no way he will come looking for me now.’

“You are a feisty one, aren’t you!” Puros said gripping her harder. “I think you need to be taught a lesson. Perhaps I should give you a taste right here. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Just seeing you bathing was enough to make me rise to the occasion.” He threw her on the ground and pinned her hands over her head under his left hand. He was incredibly strong and Arena could barely struggle let alone try and get out from under him. Arena tried to scream as Puros spread her legs and pinned them with his knees but no sound came out. Puros looked at her and shook his head.

“That wasn’t very hard, you put up less sport than I was hoping. However, I really must do something about these irritating clothes. I really cannot do the job through your clothes, it wont hurt you enough!” Puros smirked as he looked at his free right hand. As he gazed a tiny bladed claw began to grow out of his index finger. He looked back at the struggling woman and started slicing her clothes off. He enjoyed scratching her skin here and there as he shredded her clothes. Arena stopped thrashing, as her movements were creating more cuts. She stopped panicking and tried to think of what to do.

Puros smiled, “you are submitting that easily? Perhaps you have been broken before!” He laughed cruelly and bent down to kiss her breasts. He started sucking hard on her left nipple and she cried out in pain as he bit down on her, drawing blood. He licked up the blood and after sucking on her breast he let it pool in his mouth. Then with a smile he brought his lips up to her face, ready to kiss her. Arena’s eyes widened when she realized what he was about to do. She had to act, and do it fast!

*******

Sesshomaru could smell the scent of Arena’s blood. It was slight at first but then it grew stronger as he hurried through the forest to get back to the riverside. The smell made his stomach churn with worry and with a growl he increased his speed. He had to get to her! He did not know what he would do if something happened to her.

He reached the tree where they had rested and his eyes strayed to the spot where he first kissed her. He shook himself, he had to find out where she had been taken! He sniffed the air, and another wave of Arena’s blood overpowered him as he heard the scream of a woman. He looked up at the top of the waterfall and saw an evil demonic aura. That must be where she is! He took off with great speed and leapt up the waterfall.

*******

Arena had no time to panic.

The fire demon was moving towards her, a sick smile on his face as her own blood dripped onto her skin.

What was she to do? She was stuck! Suddenly she remembered a scene in one of her favourite movies, Tomb Raider. Her eyes narrowed. She gritted her teeth and brought her forehead up abruptly, connecting hard to Puros’ nose with a sickening crack. Blood gushed from his face and he relaxed his hold Arena’s arms. She quickly snatched her arms back and jabbed her thumbs in his eyes. He cried out in pain as blood now poured from both his eye sockets and his nose. She quickly punched the demon in the throat, crushing his esophagus.

“You fool! Now I will make your death even slower than you ever imagined! How dare you think you could injure me, the great Fire Demon!” He croaked.

Arena rolled from his grasp, kneeing him in the groin, and stood up. She tried to run away but Puros, who didn’t have an injured ankle, got up quickly and grabbed her from behind. He pulled her head sharply to the left and started to prepare to feed from her exposed neck.

*******

Sesshomaru arrived at the clearing in time to see a black demon ready to bite a bruised and bloody Arena. He had blood gushing down his face and it looked like his eyes were gone. Sesshomaru could not help but smile inwardly at the fight Arena was putting up. He unsheathed Tokijin.

“Get away from her.” He said sternly.

“Sesshomaru!!” Arena cried. Relief flooded her voice.

“Who the hell are you? I’m not sharing this one. She had the audacity to strike me, and I want my revenge!!” Puros croaked.

“Get away from her so I can kill you without getting your filthy blood all over her.”

The fire demon threw Arena to the ground. And turned to Sesshomaru. “You think you can battle me? What a bold little doggy!! I will certainly enjoy a little entertainment before I slaughter and fuck that girl. Or was it fuck and slaughter? I can’t remember which.” Sesshomaru’s face turned into a fierce growl at the fire demon’s last words. He raised Tokijin and swiftly cut off Puros’ arms.

The fire demon screamed a shrill cry as he looked as his dismembered limbs.

“You are lucky, demon, I don’t feel like giving you the slow and painful death that you deserve!” And with those last words he lopped off the fire demon’s head easily. He didn’t look twice at the black and charred body that was now dismembered on the forest bed. He strode quickly over to where Arena was crouched on the mossy ground. What remained of her tattered clothing was spattered with blood.

“Arena…” Sesshomaru started. He was racked with guilt.

“Oh, Sesshomaru, I am so sorry I yelled at you! I was so scared, and I didn’t think you would come back for me…” Arena rose, sobbing, and threw herself into Sesshomaru’s arms. He looked down her, and his heart broke.

“No, Arena, it is I that should apologize. I am so ..” before he could finish he felt Arena sag in his arms. He picked her up lightly and took her back to the soft forest bed near their tree. He laid her down and went to fetch some fresh water to clean her wounds.

“no, don’t leave me alone again…” Arena said weakly. Sesshomaru’s heart broke for a second time at her mention of the word ‘again’.

“Arena, I am not leaving you, please, I need to clean your cuts…” he tore himself away from her feeble grasp and quickly brought back some soaked rags. Arena whimpered as he started to dab the blood off her skin. Luckily, Puros’ claw had been so thin that the cuts were not very wide. The blood had quickly congealed and the bleeding stopped. Sesshomaru dabbed at the cuts on her breasts, her abdomen and her thighs. ‘Such a perfect body should not be marred by scars’ he said to himself, furious at the fire demon.

“Arena, are you going to be okay?” He was worried about weak human emotions.

“Yes, Sesshomaru, except for the cuts you see and the embarassment of being seen naked by that horrible demon, I am unharmed. I believe I damaged him worse before you arrived than he had me.”

“I saw, I was very impressed.” Arena looked up at him. “You were? Either way, Sesshomaru, you arrived just in time. I hate to think what would have happened if you had been even a few seconds later. Thank you for coming back for me.”

“Oh, Arena, of course I came for you. I said that I would take care of you.” Arena nodded.

“We need to get you some medicine, Arena. I believe there is a village nearby. Can I take you there?” Sesshomaru asked.

“Yes, of course, thank you. I am sorry, now our journey will be delayed even more.”

“Stop apologizing! I will make up the time.” Sesshomaru answered firmly. He picked her up again and Arena snuggled into his arms and drifted off to a dreamless sleep. She knew she would have no nightmares while she was in Sesshomaru’s arms.