Blood Stained

Blood Stained

Chapter 18: Conspiracy

When she finally woke up, Kagome found herself alone in the bed, much to her relief. She was still wearing Sesshomaru’s clothes, as she tighten them around her body as she sat up in the bed. She pressed the palm of her hand against her head, feeling slightly dizzy. Kagome hadn’t been quite pleased with the previous night, but she couldn’t help but wonder what had caused the beast to leave her so fast, not that she was complaining, it simply went against his character. Slowly, Kagome began to walk in direction of her kimono, picking it up from the ground. Then, she looked around carefully, making sure nobody was in the room, before she dropped Sesshomaru’s kimono, leaving her naked, standing in the middle of the room. She hurried to get dress, her hair a tangled mess, before quietly exiting the bedroom. Kagome had a goal in mind today; find Sesshomaru, the real one.

Unfortunately for her, the castle was very spacious, and there were many rooms. It also didn’t help that she never explore, making this place very unknown to her. She had no idea what Sesshomaru’s habits were, or where to find him at certain times, since he was almost always the one to come to her. With a sigh, Kagome ventured deeper into the hall, hoping to cross path with someone, although she prayed it wouldn’t be Rin. Yes, the little girl would be extremely helpful, but then, once she would need her to leave, it would make things awkward. Plus, since Rin had heard some of their previous conversations, Kagome didn’t want to take any chances. Then, all of the sudden, a tiny woman appeared from one of the room, and Kagome rushed in her direction.

“Excuse me,” she said, before stopping in front of the woman.

Immediately the woman stiffed, before her eyes widen. When she took noticed of whom it was, she bowed right away, mumbling an apology under her breath. “May I help you Lady Kagome?”

Kagome felt slightly uncomfortable with the way she was being referred to, but pushed it aside of the moment. “Have you seen Sesshomaru?” when she noticed her little slip up, Kagome corrected herself. “Sama. Sesshomaru-sama.” She would never address him that way in person, but right now, she didn’t want to provoke questions from the maid.

The woman nodded softly before pointing in direction of one of the doors. “He would be down the hall milady.”

Kagome put her hand on the woman’s shoulder before smiling. “Thank you.”

She kept a steady pace as she began to walk in direction of the door, knowing very well Sesshomaru had already sniffed her, meaning he knew she was coming. There could be no element of surprise with a youkai. Quickly she opened the door, only to find Sesshomaru sitting down, in what looked like a luxury comfy chair, not even looking up at her. Obviously that didn’t help her current mood, as she closed the door behind her, and walked in his directions, with every intention to get more than 3 words out of him. She was well aware that he wasn’t much of a talker, but she was tired of only speaking with his beast, and it was time he stopped avoiding her. It seemed quite silly that such a powerful youkai as him was avoiding a tiny human girl, but she believed he was doing it because she reminded him of his one and only weakness, according to him.

“Sesshomaru,” she said, when he still didn’t look at her.

Annoyed, Sesshomaru sighed before slightly raising his eyes to take a look at the angry miko standing in front of him. He had spent the last three minutes wondering if he had the time to leave this room before she arrived, but decided to stay. It was not as if he wanted to run away from her, he simply had no current desire to deal with her; she was loud and annoying. Sesshomaru put down the current scroll he was holding before repositioning himself in the chair. Since the sun had risen, he had been trying to figure out the consequences his beast was talking about. Yes, he did have an idea, but it worried him that his beast was not concern about what could happened, and Sesshomaru did not like that one bit.

“Make this quick,” he said, resting his chin on his palm.

Kagome scoffed at his arrogance before walking towards the nearest chair and sitting down. Considering her current state, it was better if she didn’t remain up. “Why do you avoid me?” she asked her voice completely neutral. At the moment, she wanted answers, and if she let her temper get the best of her, she would get none.

“This Sesshomaru does not avoid you Miko, he simply has more important matters to look after.” She clearly thought to highly of herself.

“The only one I ever talk to his your beast, and he doesn’t quite think things thoroughly.” Then she mumbled, “if he did, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” She despised Sesshomaru because of the way he was, but he didn’t want this either, although in her opinion he got the better end in all of this.

He wouldn’t voice it, but on that point he agreed with her; his beast was too impulsive, which created a mess out of things. “This Sesshomaru has nothing to converse about with you.”

Of course you don’t. Sometimes it was hard to believe Rin could see so much good in such a cold and heartless being. “Let’s get things straight, you don’t want this, and neither do I.” She waited for Sesshomaru to agree, and when he nodded, she proceeded. “Instead of working against each other, why aren’t we working with each other?”

To be honest, the idea of working with Sesshomaru was making her sick, but he was her only chance to ever escape this wretched situation. After all, only he could remove the bracelet, and she doubt the beast would ever do that for her, which meant she had to rely on Sesshomaru. No, it wasn’t the best person, but he was the only one. Kagome was pretty sure she could get him to get involve in this, since he despised her as much as she despised him, and he had no desire to be mated with a human. She had thought about this for a while, but, first of all, he was making extremely difficult for her to talk to, and she had been out for quite a good amount of weeks. There was no better time then now. She wasn’t sure how she wanted to do this, but she hoped Sesshomaru would have some kind of idea; he was supposed to be older and wiser right?

Sesshomaru stared into her grey eyes for a few minutes, replaying her words in his mind. She wanted them to work together? “Explain yourself Miko.”

She sighed heavily before lifting her arm, showing him the bracelet. “You’re the only one who can remove this. If only it was off, I could go back to my own time, and we would never have to see each other again.”

“We would still be mated,” he pointed out.

Kagome shrugged her shoulders, she had thought about that slightly. “I’m human, I won’t live very long compared to you. What’s eighty years?”

“The mating has extended your life. You will live longer than regular humans.”

She frowned; well she had never considered that part. “Well, then I will live longer. Plus who says the bond will be present once I travel through time?” Who knew if mating could travel through time? Maybe the bond would be broken once she would reach her own era.

Sesshomaru dropped his arm, thinking her words through. He didn’t want to associate himself with the miko, but she did have a point that on their own, this situation would never be fixed, which didn’t leave them with many options, although there was still on problem. “The beast won’t let this Sesshomaru remove the bracelet.”

Kagome softly nodded; it was basically the only problem they had to overcome. “I was hoping maybe you had a way to prevent him from stopping you.” She couldn’t really do anything about that, meaning it was all up to Sesshomaru.

“If this Sesshomaru could do anything to stop him, the beast would be locked away already.” Did this Miko think he had no desire to stop the beast? If this were something in his reaching abilities, he would have done so already.

She slowly bit on her bottom lip, desperately trying to come up with something, anything. “Could we trick him?” Her words immediately caught his attention, and he stared deeply at her, waiting for more explanation. “Is there a way we could make your beast believe you have no intention of taking the bracelet off? Making him trust you.”

Surely Sesshomaru could outsmart his own beast, although once again, it would require some work from the Miko. “It would start with you, Miko. Before the beast trusts this Sesshomaru, he needs to believe you have no desire to leave.”

Right away, Kagome’s heart sank as she realized the meaning of his words. The beast would need to believe she was happy in her current situation, and that she actually appreciated his affections. Her breathing rate accelerated slightly when she thought about what it would involve. Would she really be able to do this? It was the key to freedom, but it didn’t make it easier on her in any way. Sesshomaru observed her as both her facial expressions and scent shifted through different emotions. If she did decided to pretend, it did not affect him in any way, since his beast would end up taking it no matter what, but for her, it meant much efforts, not that he cared. He didn’t hate, nor like the Miko, his feelings upon her were neutral, and this association was purely to free himself from the burden of touching her, and being mated to her. Whatever else would happen to her was none of his concern.

“I’ll do it,” she said, her words nearly a whisper.

She doubted it would work, because she wasn’t sure how much of a good job she could do. It would be fairly easy to pretend she didn’t mind his company, but what would happen when he would want to take things up a notch? Would she have to pretend she enjoyed it when he abused her body, and took her as much as he wanted to? It repulsed her to think about his hands on her body, but she wanted to do it. Any chance she had to escape this era, and this place, she had to do it. Kagome breathed out heavily trying to tell herself she would pull through this. Although, she would never to be careful; if she changed her attitude in one day, the beast might be suspicious of her, which meant it had to be a gradual change if she wanted to keep their chances high.

But, she had one more question for Sesshomaru. “Does your beast know everything you think about?”

“Not everything, although This Sesshomaru is not aware of everything he knows.” He paused for a second, wondering if it would be best to let her know. “The beast will only take over once the sun sets down.”

She arched her eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because it is the deal which has been made.”

Kagome nodded, feeling slightly frustrated. Somehow she wished she was consulted once in a while, but it was perhaps too much to ask for. “I guess we’re done.”

“Hn.”

She closed her eyes for a brief second, before lifting herself up, and walking away from Sesshomaru. He gently picked up the scroll he had been holding earlier, and resumed his reading. Unless the beast trusted the miko, Sesshomaru could not do anything that involved his beast trusting him with her. Nonetheless, he doubted she would be able to make it through. Yes she did express her desire to be out of this situation, but he knew how much she hated his beast, and eventually whatever façade she would put up would fail, and the beast would see the lies. But, he supposed it was worth a try, after all, nothing else had worked so far, and he did wish for the miko to be gone. He rubbed the sides of his head with his index and thumb, hoping this whole headache would be done and over with soon.

Kagome’s heart was beating like a drum, as she began to walk down in direction of the kitchen. She hadn’t eaten yet today, and she didn’t want to skip a meal, and perhaps endanger her baby in any way possible. Her left hand was holding her stomach to whole time she was walking. We will get out of here, and away from him, I promise. Her child would not be raised in this kind of environment, and especially not with a double personality father. During the day he would despise him, and love him during the night? It sounded slightly psychopath. After a few more minutes, Kagome made it to the kitchen, where Rin was waiting for her, a smile on her face.

“Kagome!” she screamed, pushing her plate away.

She hadn’t spent much time with the young woman the previous day, since Sesshomaru-sama had come back. Rin was told they needed to spend some adult time together, and she had accepted the situation, although she had missed Kagome dearly. Once she reached her, she encircled her waist with her tiny arms, hugging her. Kagome smiled as she bent down slightly to wrap her own arms around Rin. A smile from her was enough to push her worries aside for a little while. Once Rin pulled away Kagome looked up at the table where there was a plate filled with food beside Rin’s. The little girl had made sure that Kagome would have something to eat once she would awake. She hadn’t asked for anything for Sesshomaru-sama, because she had never been given an answer as of what he eats.

“Thank you Rin. This is very sweet of you,” she said before walking in direction of her chair, and sitting down.

Rin was more than excited to join her at the table. “Rin told them what to make for you, to make sure you would like it. ” she said, proud of herself.

Kagome returned the smile. “You were right, I do like it.”

As Kagome began to eat, her mind replayed her conversation with Sesshomaru. According to what he had said, she had the full day to pretend to be normal, than once night would come, she would need to start her plan. She hoped she would be able to talk him out of having sex with for tonight, because she knew it would be too soon to pretend she enjoyed it, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to pretend something so big. However, she would eventually have to do it, but hopefully she would be ready once that would happen. She closed her eyes, and prayed that if she was actually willing to go this far for her freedom, that she would obtain it. Anywhere was better than here with him.

***

Kagome was outside, sitting on the grass as the wind played with her hair, her eyes tightly shut. The sun was slowly setting, and she knew very well what it meant. Soon, she would have to face it, and she better be a damn good actress, or all of it would fail. She was trying to calm herself and create some inner peace before she needed to do that. Kagome wasn’t sure how to start, or how things should be done. From what she had seen so far, the beast wasn’t much of a talker, and he relied heavily on its actions, problem was Kagome was quite the opposite. Plus, she was not ready to touch him just yet. Also, she hoped the beast didn’t know what was going through Sesshomaru’s mind, or she might just be in trouble. She had made the decision to remain outside until the last minute, and she stuck with it. More minutes pass, and she still remained on the cool grass, her eyes completely shut. She would know when there would be no more light, and it was still not now. Her heart was still beating extremely fast, but there was very little she could do for that, not that she hadn’t tried. Her heart was heavy with regrets, and sadness, but it was to be expected; every time she was by herself like this, thinking, darkness would take over. Then, after a few more moments, the sun was completely gone, and Kagome opened her eyes quickly. Her movements slow, and her body heavy, she rose to her feet, before turning around, facing the castle. She tried to give herself a small pep talk, but it didn’t really work, thus she began to walk in direction of the door.

She was taking small steps at a steady pace, covering a small distance with every footstep. Soon enough, she found herself staring at the door of his room, and all she could hear in her head was her own heartbeat. It took her a few instants before she found the courage to slide the door open, revealing an empty room. She almost was disappointed that he was not there, because it made her feel uneasy to wait for this to happen; she wanted to get it over with. Carefully, she walked over to the bed, and sat on the edge, where she would wait for him to arrive; with his nose, he would spot her location very quickly. Kagome was staring at her feet, when she heard him coming, but she didn’t look up. Although she couldn’t feel auras because her powers were sealed away, she could simply sense that the beast was there. She remained quiet, thinking of what she could do or say, as he joined her in the bed, sitting beside her.

She tried not to stiffen when she felt his claw fingers touch her chin, moving her face so that she was now staring at him. He felt as if there was something different about her, but he could not pinpoint it. Perhaps she was still sick? “How is your sickness?” he asked, trying to figure it out.

“I’m okay,” said Kagome, her current state of body being the last thing on her mind at the moment.

He nodded. “Did you eat today?”

“Yes,” she whispered, unsure what to do. She did answer all of his questions without a struggle; it had to be a start.

The beast had also notice her willingness to answer his questions, which was unusual coming from his mate. He reached out for her, and wrapped his arms around her waist, turning her around slightly. The previous night, there had been some trouble for him to deal with, and he hadn’t been able to enjoy her as much as he would have liked. Tonight, the same mistake would not be repeated. Kagome closed her eyes shut as she felt his body being pressed against hers, and she tried to come up with a way to stop him. Not this, not yet. She knew she said she would do it, but this was too much of a big step to start with. She pressed her hands against his chest, trying to push him away, which caught his attention. Immediately she felt his hold on her loosen, and when she opened her eyes, she found him staring at her intensively.

She knew he was waiting for her to say something, which meant she had to come up with a lie. “I- I wanted to talk,” she blurted out; not the best lie.

“Talk?” he asked, slightly confused.

Kagome nodded frantically, trying to come up with a conversation topic. “We never talk, I just thought we could get to know each other, since,” she paused, searching for her words, “you know we’ll be together for a long time.” She knew her nervousness was probably showing, but she prayed he wouldn’t think it was because she was lying.

Sesshomaru tiltled his head slightly as if he was pondering her words. He was surprised that she wanted to talk, but he decided to go along with it. After all, it was the very first time she requested to do something with him, and he simply couldn’t deny her this. “Very well, you may talk.”

Kagome’s eyes slightly widen, as she pinched her lips together; what in the world could they possibly talk about? Since she didn’t know, she decided to ask every day normal questions; at least it would buy her some time. “How old are you?” It was an interesting question, she had always wondered how old Sesshomaru was, since he didn’t look older than 20.

“I’ve lived for many centuries.” His answer was vague, but enough to let her know he was much, much older than she thought.

She quickly nodded her head before proceeding with another question. “What exactly is involved in mating?” Humans didn’t mate, because she assumed they couldn’t, which left her to wonder what exactly it meant.

“Our lives are linked together in a way. We should have a strong bond and connection, but in our case there are some interferences. You belong to me, and no other male can have you.” Once again, his answer was not precise, but even he didn’t know the full potential of a mating. All he knew was in their case, it was very weak, and Sesshomaru was much to blame for that.

Kagome assumed their lives being linked together was why she would live longer, although Sesshomaru had never told her how much longer. Did he mean ten years or hundreds of years? She didn’t want to ask the beast though, in case he didn’t know about her little conversation with Sesshomaru; it was better to play it safe. The beast had stressed the fact that she was his only, but Kagome had already been aware of his possessiveness, so it wasn’t news to her.

Since he was very kin to answer her question, Kagome decided to ask something else that had been in the back of her mind. “How long will I be pregnant?”

The beast seemed to think for a few seconds before he answered her. “I am unfamiliar with hanyou pregnancy, but it should be more than 4 months which is youkai pregnancy.”

For a split second, Kagome found herself jealous that they only had to go through half the time human female had too; a lot of women would be extremely jealous of that. She wanted to ask another question, but she felt his red eyes burning her skin, as he stared at her, and it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. It was as if either he knew what she was doing, or he was suspicious as of why she wanted to ask him so many questions all of the sudden when usually she wanted nothing to do with him. But then again, maybe she was so paranoid that she was hallucinating all of this. She took a deep breath to calm herself slightly, before beginning with another question.

Unfortunately for her, before she could do so, he voiced a question of his own. “Why do you wish to talk?”

At least this informed her that he was smarter than she thought. “Because this is what humans do.” He should believe that, after all, Kagome knew how much Rin loved to talk, and surely even Sesshomaru’s beast was aware of that.

Indeed he was, so he nodded. “But there is something else.”

She closed her eyes, slightly frustrated. “I want to talk because our,” she paused to find the right word, “relationship, didn’t start the normal way.”

“The normal way?” he asked, intrigued. He claimed her, and mated her, what was not normal about that?

“I meant not normal for a human from my time,” she said clarifying things.

“And what is normal?” Sesshomaru was aware that humans did not proceed exactly like them, and was willing to be flexible if it meant making her more comfortable with him and her current situation.

Kagome leaned her head to the side slightly, before answering. “Humans talk, and do activities together, before mating or getting married. We take things slowly, one step at a time, making sure both people are comfortable with the speed things are going.” Technically not all of it was accurate, but it mostly sounded believable. This was how Kagome wanted things to progress because if she was lucky, she wouldn’t have to explore any more intimacy with him, if he trusted her before they reached that stage. The slower things were moving, the better for her.

Sesshomaru seemed to actually be considering her idea for a few seconds, as he ran it through his mind. This whole idea of taking it slow wasn’t really what he preferred, especially considering the fact they had gone the whole way, and she was pregnant, but she seemed very interested by it. Not only that but it also meant she wanted to spend time with him, and she was finally accepting her situation. He took no pleasure in bringing her pain, and for once she willingly wanted to do something with him. Perhaps after a little while in his company she would even forget about all these steps she mentioned. Sesshomaru came to the conclusion that if it made his mate happy, he could indeed give it a try. After all, she was human, and it was expected to make some compromised. As long as she did not push him away, there was no reason not to do this.

“It is acceptable.”

Kagome could not believe he actually agreed to do this, although it did bring her great joy. She never thought it would be this easy to do this, and she almost felt like slapping herself for not thinking about this, although without Sesshomaru on it with her, it would have led to nowhere. She sighed in relief knowing that this might just work after all, as long as she did not screw it up when things would go further.

“But, there is a condition.”

Kagome sighed heavily; she should have known that everything with him came with some sort of consequences. “What is it?” she asked, just slightly annoyed.

“You will sleep, only sleep, with me every night.”

She nodded, finding the request acceptable. After all, he would make her do it anyway, so might as well have some advantages to it. On top of that, he did not ask for too much, or anything sexual, which also made her agree.

He watched the light appear in her eyes, and he knew he had made the right decision. “What activities do you wish to do?”

She tried to come up with the most pure, and innocent activity she could think of, and the first thing that came to her mind was Rin. “Flowers! Let’s take a walk, and find some flowers! It would be a good surprise for Rin tomorrow!”

He seemed a little surprise by her proposition. “This late?”

She had not really consider the time, but it hardly mattered, since there was good light around the castle anyway. “Why not?” she asked with a forced smile on her face, as she rose up from the bed.

The beast was more than obliged to follow her as he got up, grabbing her hand in his, like he had seen many humans do before. Kagome kept her control as he did so, making sure how unplesant it was did not show on her face. Sesshomaru decided to remain behind her, so Kagome lead the way to outside, even though he was much more familiar than her with the castle. Soon enough they reached outside, and Kagome quickly went ahead, removing her hand from his, which he did not seem to mind. She knew she was sweating because of how stress she was, but she still tried to hide it, even though he could smell it on her. Now that this was working, she still needed to find how to act around him, or what to talk about; this wasn’t Sango or Inuyasha, or anyone else she felt comfortable around. As she walked around, remaining in the light, she could feel him walking right behind her, probably waiting for her to say something. She began to chew the inside of her cheek, as her nervousness grew with each passing second.

“How does it feel?” she asked, never looking behind her.

“How does what feel?”

“Being lock inside someone,” she said clarifying her answer. In her case, she was completely sane, which meant there was no way another personality would come over and take over, but she couldn’t help but wonder how it was. She didn’t ask because she felt pity for him or anything, she was just trying to understand.

He remained quiet for a few minutes, before catching up to her and walking beside her. “It would be hard to explain. I am part of him, I am him, we are just divided.”

She nodded, not quite understanding, but it didn’t really matter, since she had a much more important question. “Did it ever bother you?” she could recall asking that question to Sesshomaru, but never to the beast, and he was the one who hurt her.

This time, he did not need more explanation to understand what she was asking, although her question left him confused like usually. “You are my mate, I need you, why should it bother me?”

She glued her lips together, her heart heavy, knowing she would never get regrets from him. “Because I was never willing to participate in it?”

He shook his head slightly. “You enjoyed it.”

At that precise moment she felt like scoffing, and yelling at him, but she kept her mouth tightly shut as she reminded herself that if she did that, it would ruin everything she had started. Although, the fury was quickly stirring up inside of her, and it was getting harder to push it down. He based his answers simply on her body reaction, not on what her mind desired. He was selfishly ignoring everything else, just so it would make him feel better, or at least that’s how she saw things. She decided to remain silent for a few minutes, just to calm herself, so that nothing that could make him suspicious would escape her lips. Once, she felt like she was in better control, she decided it was time to change the topic, or answers might upset her again.

But, she did not have the time to do so, because he had a question of his own. “How is the pregnancy?” he asked, putting his arms around her waist, stopping her movement at the same time, his hands resting on her stomach. There wasn’t a big bump yet, but his hands still remained there, where it would soon be.

She shrugged her shoulders slightly, giving a honest answer. For the most part of her pregnancy she had felt sick, and it had worried her because she was so afraid there was something wrong with her baby. Plus, the whole time she had to concern herself with what would happen after. Although, she was extremely grateful that she hadn’t been really sick in a while, even though it seemed her fever kept lurking around. However, she could still remain awake, and in a conscious state, and it was all that matter for now.

“It could be better, but it could be worse,” she said, giving a vague answer.

Sesshomaru tighten his hold around her, and pressed his hand even more against her stomach, earning a gasp from her. He ignored it, as he remained in that position for a few more minutes, causing Kagome to arch an eyebrow. Then, finally he pulled away from her, so Kagome turned around to take a look at his face. For some strange reason, he had a concern look on his face, and it made her worry. She opened her mouth to ask what had just happened, but he was quicker than her.

“We are going back inside.”

Without another word, he grabbed her hand, and began to roughly drag her in direction of the castle, her feet stumbling at every step. “What happened?” she asked, slightly nervous. He usually didn’t look worry about anything, and she wanted to know what had caused that.

“You need to lay down,” he ordered, before deciding she was walking way too slow. He turned around before picking her bridal style, and carrying her inside of the castle.

When he had touched her stomach, he had tried to feel the child, to see if perhaps, he could ease her current worries, but what he had found worried him. The weak, and new aura of the child was quite confusing; he had never felt one like it before. Also, it had a different vibration to it, and he didn’t know why it happened; the child should be an hanyou, and that did not feel as if it was an hanyou. He didn’t know if it was this way because of her previous weakness, but he would not take any chances. Sesshomaru knew if something happened to the baby, his mate would be heart broken, and extremely depressed. Things were finally looking up for them, and she was finally giving it a shot, and he wouldn’t let anything bring her such pain, even if he had to look after her all day long. Although she didn’t show any sign of disease, he could tell from the child that there was a illness happening because the child seemed in a small distress. He could feel her slightly struggle against his touch, but he knew it was because he didn’t give her an answer, and not because he was touching her.

“SESSHOMARU WHAT’S WRONG!” she yelled, when he didn’t give her a good answer.

Right away, the thought that something was wrong with her child crossed her mind, and her heart skipped a beat. After all, his worry had only appeared after he had touched her stomach, which meant there was no other explanation behind all of this. “TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY CHILD!”

It was almost surprising that she let her temper escape her when it came to her child, but not when it came to him raping her. She cared more about her infant’s well being than her own, but then again, she always sacrified herself for other, so it was not surprising. Sesshomaru still ignored her as they walked inside his bedroom, and he dropped her on the bed, before walking in direction of the washroom. Since he wasn’t sure what was wrong with her, he did not know how to heal with. Still, he grabbed a towel, and dipped it in the water, before walking towards the door. He opened it, only to find a servant nearby.

“Have them prepared my mate’s tea.” Without another word, he closed the door again, and the poor servant, nearly ran to the kitchen, to make sure this would be executed as fast as possible.

Sesshomaru put the towel on her forehead, pressing it so hard, water was dripping down her face, and into her mouth. “Sesshomaru, what’s going on?” she asked, her tone a lot more calm now.

“You will be sick.” It wasn’t the full answer, but he didn’t wish to worry her unnecessarily about the child, since it would not help her condition.

“How do you know?” she asked, confused. Had her scent changed all the sudden? Was that what caused the change in his facial features, and did that mean her child was safe?

He didn’t have the chance to answer her that someone knocked on the door, interrupting them. Sesshomaru lifted her hand, and positioned it so that she was holding the towel against her forehead, before getting up. Quickly he grabbed the tea, rudely closing the door in the face of his servant, so that he could return to his mate quickly.

“Drink this.”

Although she didn’t like to take orders from him, she didn’t wish to be sick once again, and be in a coma for weeks, so, she slowly began to sip it, the hot liquid actually feeling refreshing inside of her throat. Once she drank nearly half of it, he put it down on the ground. Then, he forced her down on her back, which did not please Kagome.

“What are you doing?”

Since he was trying to help her, her never ending questions were annoying her, so he decided it would be better for her to sleep. Gently, he pressed a special spot near the crook of her neck, and slowly, Kagome felt her vision blurry, as her body became heavier. Before she could realize what he had done, she completely drowned into darkness, and fell into a deep slumber.

***