The Power of Compassion

A/N: Nothing to report at this time.

Disclaimer: *looks pointedly at readers*shakes my head* I don’t own diddly.

The Power of Compassion
Chapter 2: Hanyou Scents of Deception


A tall youkai with long flowing silver hair growled again as he sniffed the air around his supposed girlfriend.

“You have been marked by my brother…give me one good reason why I should not kill you on the spot, Kikyou.” He said, his eyes flashing red in anger.

“Because, you would still be punished by law, and you would not dishonor yourself that way, Sesshoumaru.” A sickly superior female voice replied, a smirk on her face. “Besides, you can’t blame me, I just went to someone better than you. It just happened to be your half brother, Inuyasha.” She said again, earning a low, menacing growl from the taiyoukai.

“First of all, you will refer to me as Sesshoumaru sama, or you will begin to start losing limbs. Second of all you will leave my presence and never darken my doorway again.” He replied darkly, his nose being assaulted by the scent of her mixed with his half brothers scent.

“Like you can order me around anymore, Sesshoumaru…sama.” She said, taking his threat to heart.

He pressed a button and instantly, a hoard of security guards were at his office door. “Escort Miss Kikyou out of the building. All her privileges are to be revoked, and she is no longer allowed to set foot within this building. Am I understood?” he asked, looking to them with a glint of anger still present in his eyes.

“Yes, Sesshoumaru sama.” They replied in unison, bowing in turn as they grabbed Kikyou’s arms and began to walk her out of the building. She smirked to herself and let herself be led away.

‘I will hurt you even more…just you wait, Sesshoumaru…’ she thought to herself, as she was met outside by her new mate, Inuyasha.

Sesshoumaru watched his brother embrace the one woman he had allowed himself to fall in love with. She was annoying, yet, she put up with him, which was more than he could say for many of the women who had made advances at him. Others wanted him for one thing, his money, but lately, even she had been very loose with his money. He sighed, an ache settling in his heart. He had not been able to foresee this coming. Especially from his half brother. ‘I thought he had a woman he was to mate already?’ he recalled, nodding to himself. He remembered her from one of their family reunions.

“Kagome…” her name fell from his lips as he recalled her. She was his brother’s complete opposite. While he was brash and loud, she was gentle and quiet. While Inuyasha was always looking for a way to force his way to the top, Kagome worked with others to get where she wanted to go. He wondered how she was taking it, or if she even knew yet. She was human, so he couldn’t know for sure. He sighed, shaking his head. It was no longer his concern. He looked to the stack of papers on his desk and growled as they seemed to mock him.

“Jakotsu! I’m leaving on vacation for a while. No one is to know where I am, and tell all my associates that meetings have been pushed back a week.” He said, pressing his little intercom button.

“Understood, Sesshoumaru sama!” A girly voice replied, taking the message with interest as this would be the first vacation his boss would be taking since the day he began work, a little over ten years ago.

Sesshoumaru got to his feet, stretching. ‘Now where am I to go?’ he thought, looking to a map of Japan that covered his wall. Closing his eyes, he pointed randomly to a spot on the colorful map.

‘Hokkaido…an onsen, perhaps.’ He contemplated thoughtfully. Nodding to himself, he called his driver and left the office with nothing but himself.

~*~

Kagome fought off her tears for not the first time today. She hadn’t slept at all last night, and she was still trying to get herself to move and get dressed. ‘I can’t stay like this forever. I have to get over him!’ she shouted mentally to herself before a fresh tear drop fell down her face. She gave up her fight for now, and let the tears fall once more over her already puffy face.

“Damn you, INUYASHA!!” she shouted to the empty room, where it echoed, hurting her ears. She paused, cringing. The pain was something to set her sights on. She nodded to herself, her mind now thinking with no logical thought. Opening her purse, she pulled out a small Swiss army knife that, ironically, Inuyasha had given to her. She placed the blade to her wrist, drawing the fresh, glistening blood from her body. She stared at it mesmerized a moment before she looked up at the sound of her door opening…

~*~

Sesshoumaru took a deep breath, enjoying the clean scent of the onsen. “Irrashaimassee!” an older woman greeted him, smiling.

“I wish to stay here, are there any rooms free?” he asked, knowing that if they didn’t have a free room, they would make room for him.

“Hai, sir. We do. Why don’t you check in at the front desk, and I’ll take you to the hot springs once you are settled?” she suggested. He nodded, walking towards the desk.

After getting his room key, he went to the elevator and found his room. As he opened the door, he frowned at a girl who was sitting on his bed. She had a knife in her hands, and there was blood flowing from a wound in her wrist…

~*~

Kagome looked to the man a moment and before she fell over on the floor, she couldn’t help but appreciate how much he looked like Inuyasha. Tears fell from her eyes as she laid there looking at him, her life blood staining the carpet beneath her.

Sesshoumaru stood there a moment and watched as her body hit the floor. He thought of just leaving her there to die, but something about her called to him. He recognized her from somewhere, he just couldn’t seem to recall where.

He walked over to her, and lifted her from the ground. “Girl, why would you take your life?” he asked, not expecting an answer. He took a towel from the bed and quickly wrapped her wrist in it, but the blood wouldn’t stop its flow. He frowned. She was quite serious in her attempt on her life. He had met plenty of humans who said they would take their life, but not one of them was really serious in their attempts. The whole idea was for them to get attention, but this girl wanted her life ended, and his curiosity was peaked as to why. ‘Probably a silly reason…’ he couldn’t help but think as he lifted the towel to reveal even more blood.

He was slightly uneasy now, as her blood kept coming from her body. Resigning himself to fate, he went ahead and licked the wound, and was surprised to find that her blood was sweet, not especially tangy like other blood he had tasted. The wound instantly healed over, stopping the loss of further blood. She stared unseeingly at him, her eyes dark and devoid of any emotion at all.

Sesshoumaru looked at her face, and berated himself for not being able to recall who she was. He looked to her overturned purse and hid a surprised gasp at her name. ‘Kagome Higurashi…’

‘This is the girl who was with Inuyasha…she must know about Kikyou then…’ he couldn’t help but feel a bit of her pain. He knew for a fact that she was with Inuyasha for many years, waiting for him to make up his mind. He wanted her, or so he claimed, but he just didn’t want to move too fast, he had said. ‘Fast, my ass…he wanted to have his cake and eat it too…’ Sesshoumaru thought angrily, yesterday’s thoughts returning to him.

Her soft whimper broke through his thoughts. “Go away, Inuyasha…I know about your affair…leave me die in peace…” she said, seeing the silver hair and thinking the worst.

“Do not imply that I am Inuyasha. My name is Sesshoumaru.” He said a little ruffled at her insinuation.

“You are…not Inuyasha…?” she seemed to be crushed even further at that statement as she began to cry silently again to herself. “Why…why did you save me? Why couldn’t I have just died? Then Inuyasha would be happy…” she said softly, her head rolling into Sesshoumaru’s chest.

His body subconsciously pulled her closer to him. ‘Inuyasha will pay for hurting this girl so badly...’ he thought before realization struck him. ‘Why do I care about her at all? She is another human…another selfish human who would just as easily hurt someone than care for them…’

He paused before his conscience replied, ‘But this is not another ordinary human like Kikyou…this is Kagome…she felt love for your hanyou brother…she was hurt by him, not the other way around…’

He sighed and was surprised as he felt her hands wrap around him, her body shivering as it realized that blood was lost, and in a great amount.

He closed the door behind him and took her into the bathroom. Running almost all hot water, he pulled her robe off of her and set her in the tub, letting the warm water do more than he could at the moment. He blocked his mind of her nude form, and began washing her arm of the drying blood and other spots of blood that came on her body as she fell on her spilled blood.

“How could he do this to me? I loved him…” she said, making him look quickly up to her blank face.

‘He did not deserve her love…nor did Kikyou deserve mine…’ he thought, continuing the washing of her as her shivering slowly stilled.

She was still limp in his arms as he found some of her clothes and dressed her, setting her into one of the beds that occupied the room. He would not be staying in the same room as her, not if he could help it. She held too many personal ties to his brother, and he wanted to thoroughly kill his sibling right now.

He went to leave, but her voice called him back. “Wait…don’t…leave me…alone…” she said, her eyes no longer dark and hollow, but sad, and finally looking as if there was some spark of life to them, albeit very lonely.

He looked into her eyes and couldn’t pull away. They called to him. She called to him. Kikyou never looked at him like that. She never said once that she needed him for anything other than money. This girl was a stranger to him, yet in the little time she was around him, she had formed trust for him. She trusted him with her very life, which was interesting to the taiyoukai.

He walked over to her side and she grabbed his hand. Normally, he would have smacked it away and told her to never touch his person without permission again, but she didn’t hurt him. She held his hand softly, her own smooth skin, resting against his. She had to know he was a demon, it was so obvious, but she didn’t seem to care. No one had given him this kind of consideration before. Even Kikyou had taken her time to get close to him, and she was a miko.

Her eyes shined with unshed tears and she looked up to the ceiling. “I’m sorry, for calling you Inuyasha. You’re hair…reminds me of him…” she finally said, getting his attention once more.

“You seem, familiar to me…have we met…somewhere before?” she asked, looking to him with her sad eyes.

He chose not to answer. Saying he was Inuyasha’s half brother wasn’t the way to keep her calm. Kagome didn’t worry when he didn’t answer her. She just said, “Its okay. You just look familiar to me…My name is Kagome. Kagome Higurashi.” She said, surprising the taiyoukai again.

‘She trusts me yet she knows nothing about me…this girl is unusual to say the least.’ He thought.

“He told me he loved me…Inuyasha. But…he was having sex with another woman…I don’t know who she is…but that’s why…” she said, feeling she had to explain herself to this Sesshoumaru person who so kindly saved her life.

He nodded, understanding. He knew it hurt her to tell him that, but she seemed less sad about it now, whether that be because she was tired or because she lost so much blood that her heart wasn’t working anymore, he didn’t know, but he was somehow…glad that she told him why she had attempted to take her life.

“Get some sleep, Kagome. I’ll be here…when you wake up.” Sesshoumaru said, his own voice echoing weariness. She nodded and said, “You sound tired, Sesshoumaru…why don’t you go to sleep, too…it will be good for you…” she whispered out, her eyes closing as sleep overcame her.

He hid a small smile. ‘She is worried about me, even though she’s the one who is in danger…interesting human, indeed.’

He stood and stretched, her suggestion sounding better and better to him. He got into the empty bed and covered up, sleep quickly claiming him.

~*~


A/N: Well, hope you enjoyed. Please R/R!
A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed!!

A/N: Next Chapter: Sibling Rivalry