UnBound Memories

A/N: Okay, I know this is short, but I'm working on the next chapter already, so things should be along quickly.

Chapter 28

Difficult Issues

Waking up in a cold sweat, Miroku could sense something was wrong with Sesshomaru. He was in trouble. He was afraid, even if he wouldn’t admit it, for their child.

“I told him not to walk out of this room without me,” Mirkou muttered as he ran to the door of thechamber, finding it locked—no, not locked, bound. With every ounce of demonic power in him, he threw his body against the door, but it was worthless. It wouldn’t budge. He clawed at it, tried his spiritual powers even, but with no success. Whatever spell had been cast on it, Miroku couldn’t break. He realized he was wasting time, and though it was a risk to use indoors, he pressed his right palm against the wall, ordering his kazaana to open, engulfing the wall.

Running through the halls, detecting his mate’s scent, Miroku cried out Sesshomaru’s name. He follwed the familiar scent out of the palace and found that the moment he reached the courtyard, it was lost. He began harnessing all the powers he had, demonic or otherwise, to detect his mate’s aura, finding in desperation that it was lost. He knew that in times of trouble, the bond from mating with a true mate grew strong once again, which made it all the more confusing that Sesshomaru wasn’t communicating with him. So, he forced himself into the daiyoukai’s mind.

“Sesshomaru, where are you?”

“Cannot…” Miroku could feel the pain coming from his mate, pouring into his soul, his being. Katsuro…Kidnapped…Collar…”

And that was the last Miroku heard, the last he needed to hear before he once again found himself transforming unintentionally into his inu form, with the only thought on his mind that of bloodlust to see Katsuro dead.

********

“You tried to communicate with him,” Katsuro said as they rode on the back of a large bat demon while one of the collared courtesans sat at the beast’s head, creating a barrier that blocked out their scent.

Sesshomaru currently found himself face-down in the mangy bat’s fur, the force of the damned collar taking a toll on his youkai, something he simply couldn’t afford in this state.

“Why do you insist on doing this?” Sesshomaru growled at his cousin.

“For the same reason you never fought against me at your palace, though you had every right to do so. This is for the honor of the clan, something your branch of the family has had problems with accepting for quite some time, Cousin.”

Sesshomaru growled at him. “And what do you intend to do to me now that you have me collared. Do you expect me to submit to you?”

“Intend to…” Katsuro paused. “Sesshomaru, I have no intention of…” He looked sick. “Of course, if I prove you are pregnant, I will take you as my mate to solidify my place as lord, but I assure you of one fact: That will be the one and only time we are intimate in such a way. I only have you collared now so that you do not rip out my still-beating heart from my chest at the moment. I only intend to hold you long enough so that your pregnancy scent has faded from your mate. Then, I bring you both back before the clan to present to them that you are the one carrying the pup. Nothing more.”

Sesshomaru sat upright on the bat’s back, glaring at his cousin. “You must feel very smug with yourself.”

“Not at all, Sesshomaru. If I had my druthers, I would have defeated you in a battle of submission and merely taken my title in a much more open way, an honorable way. I am no better than a conniving kitsune the way I am taking this from you. However, the suspicion is there in the clan. I am not alone, Sesshomaru. You must understand that I do not have a choice in this matter. As next in line, no matter how dishonorable kidnapping you and holding you prisoner is, I have no choice, though I would like for you to know that I do not wish for it to be this way.”

Katsuro folded his arms. “Cousin, if you had merely fought me, as I expected you to do for the courtesan show, I would have fought you enough to submit to me, released you and let you, your mate and little pup go on your way. Instead, you took the high road and ignored me. I was not anticipating a reaction so drastically different from the Lord Sesshomaru I have known for the last few years. You forced my hand to this despicable method.”

The younger inu looked at Sesshomaru’s stomach. “If you are pregnant as I am certain you are, my only question is now, what to do with the pup. I have racked my brain for a solution to this. Inu law dictates I destroy it. It also dictates if there is any evidence that your son was born the same way he should be exiled. I would prefer that not happen either. Having a goddess married into the clan is an increase in status. You have posed some very difficult issues for me, Cousin.”

Sesshomaru growled at him, glaring with hatred, while his cousin only returned it with an expression of frustrated disgust.

********

InuYasha had heard the cries from the hall, the shouts, but found himself unable to escape his own bedroom. Kagome was forced to use a sacred arrow, several sacred arrows, in order to break the barrier that had been placed on the door. Opening his own door, he was surprised to find that there was merely a gaping hole leading into Miroku and Sesshomaru’s room. All he knew at the moment was his head was killing him and he could detect the scent of an inu in demonic form. It was fresh but faint, making inuYasha certain it was Miroku. As he ran through the hall, Kagome freeing the others from their rooms, he didn’t fail to notice that she seemed to be favoring her hand where the clan marking had been placed, and when Rin stumbed out of her bedroom after being released, she was holding the corner of her left eye.

InuYasha left freeing the others to Kagome, running outside of the palace to the courtyard and transforming into his full demon form, making him almost as large as a demon dog as Sesshomaru had been when they’d first battled for the Tessaiga. He was enormously grateful that his father had taught him this during the preparation time for the mating ceremony. He couldn’t explain why his forehead felt like it was burning, but somehow, he got the impression that Miroku had something to do with it. It didn’t really matter how much of a head start his friend had on him, because the former monk had never once managed to transform into anything bigger than a wolf, and it merely took a few quick sprints in his twenty-foot form, before InuYasha would overtake his father’s mate.

When he finally found the black dog, he was sitting before three very strange-looking inus, all of whom were bowing their heads to him. InuYasha transformed back, as did Miroku. The tallest of the three, a woman with long white hair, pulled back almost mimicking the way Kikyo once had worn hers, stepped forward, a cream and crimson kimono covering her lean frame. She had elfin ears, much like Sesshomaru’s and the other full demon scum of a family InuYasha had encountered thus far, but her eyes were chocolate brown. Despite a regal grace and demeanor of one of royal blood, she was part human.

“As members of your clan, my cousins and I wish to serve you, mate of the demon lord. My name is Manami.” Once again the woman bowed deeply to Miroku. She stood and directed their attention to a dark-haired female hanyou, who wore almost as little as Kagome did in her school uniform, and all black leather. “This is my eldest cousin, Takara.” Takara had short, straight black hair cut at her jaw, with two triangular ears that stood at the top of her head. Her eyes were blazing gold and looked ready to either fight or to find someone to dare question her in any way. “The younger of the two twins,” Manami said, directing the lone male, at least InuYasha was fairly sure they were male, on the slight knoll, “Yasashiku.” This one had rich brown eyes with flecks of gold in them, softer features than even his sister, human ears and white hair, pulled back, bound into a leather band wrapped around the hair for the length of his neck, creating a ponytail that fell down to the small of his back. He was handsome and beautiful at once and had an easy smile that could at one moment seem quite genuine and at another almost devious.

“How are you part of our branch of the clan?”

“The late Inu No Taisho marked us when no one else would because we were mixed breeds,” Yasashiku said, pulling up on his sleeve to reveal a crescent moon on his wrist. “And you called us. Your mate is in trouble, and as the lord’s mate, you have the power to call on those with this marking.”

“I don’t remember any of you. If I’d have known there were other inu hanyous out there, my life wouldn’t have been so miserable.”

“We didn’t exactly want to announce it to the world that we existed, you know,” Takara said.

The strange male knelt down in front of Miroku. “Come, let us go back to the castle. You will tell us everything you know and we will help you find the one or ones who did this.” The young man extended a hand to the former monk.

“But Sesshomaru…”

“Cannot be detected by traditional methods. Takara is an expert at spells and may be able to trace him that way,” Manami said.

“Don’t coddle him, you two,” Takara said, with a groan. “Look, Lord Sesshomaru’s gone, right? Kidnapped, I’m guessing, and the only one that a demon that powerful gets kidnapped is if he gets knocked up. By you, I’d hope.” The black-haired hanyou crossed her arms at her chest, meeting two leather-clad forearms together. “So, if you want to help your mate and your pup, I suggest you listen to us. We’re speaking from nearly 1,500 years of combined experience here. Come on. Get off your ass and let’s get back to the palace, because if you think only one person’s behind this you’re fooling yourself. The entire clan hates Lord Sesshomaru and his family for previous ‘disgraces’ on the inu name and would loven othing mroe than a reason to put him in his place.”

“A few sutras should prevent the inu demon’s escape from the palace, keeping all possible suspects in one location but we will need you, former monk and the goddess/former miko,” Manami said. “That should not take long, and we can be on our way with those you trust to help you.” The tall woman who stood near Miroku’s height put a hand on his shoulder. “You need to have faith in us.”