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A gunshot echoed in the enclosed space. Kagome winced, her fingers twitching against the concrete as the bullet met with her barrier and clattered harmlessly to the ground. A second and a third followed in quick succession and Kagome grunted, wondering how much longer she could keep this up. The dark power thrumming against her back didn’t help her concentration, either.
She gritted her teeth and glared over her shoulder at the tall male.
His face was a blank unconcerned mask under his vivid markings. His golden eyes glowed softly in the dim light but the look in them was hard, unforgiving. He stood still as a statue; only strands of his long silver-white hair moved, buffeted by the oppressive, roiling youki whirling in the air around him.
He had bothered to draw his sword, though.
“If we die, I’m going to kill you,” she informed him in a hiss, bracing for another onslaught of bullets. Her shoulders slumped a little in relief as her barrier withstood the attack.
“You are welcome to try, miko,” he sneered, “but I have no intention of dying in a place like this.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” Kagome retorted, eyeing meaningfully at his blood-splattered kimono and the stump that was all that remained of his left arm.
He had been bleeding profusely when she had found him, and she wasn’t sure if his superior healing abilities could have closed the wound in time if she hadn’t lent him a hand. Daiyoukai like him lived for centuries and were hard to kill, but they weren’t immortal.
He bared his fangs at her in a snarl.
“It was the half-breed who got me, not these puny humans.”
Kagome went very still.
“He was here? You saw him?”
He nodded, a quick, angry jerk of his head.
“How was he?” Her voice came out little more than a soft, hesitant whisper.
“It was bad,” he allowed after a brief silence. “He is no longer rational. I do not think he even recognised me.”
“We need to get out of here,” Kagome said, her stomach dropping, her fingers trembling with a desperate urgency. “We need to stop him before he attacks someone else.”
He looked at her, with those haughty, otherworldly eyes and she could not read his expression.
“Agreed,” he said at last.
“Then do you mind handling these monks?”
His lip curled in a cold, mocking smile.
“I assume you want me to leave them unharmed?”
“I would prefer if you didn’t kill them, yes,” she admitted with a frown, “but we need them out of commission. If they get to Inuyasha, they won’t hesitate to put him down like a rabid dog.”
“At the moment, he is little better than that,” the daiyoukai said darkly.
Kagome’s jaw clenched.
“But we can snap him out of it.”
“Have you ever seen him in Bloodlust before, miko? It is not so easily broken.”
Kagome took a deep breath, praying the kami for patience to deal with this insufferable daiyoukai.
“I know you don’t like me,” she said. “I know you don’t even like Inuyasha; that you only pursue him now for the sake of family honour and pack loyalties. You left me behind because you thought I could be of no use in this fight, and that arrogance cost you your arm.”
He didn’t even twitch – but suddenly the weight of his youki crashed against her. Kagome had time to gasp under that horrid black pressure; then her own reiki flared, bright pure and cold. It swelled around her, pushing his energy off and for a fleeting second, surprise flickered on his face.
“Inuyasha is my friend,” Kagome said, her voice calm, even as the air between them crackled where the two opposite energies met. “I have arrows prepared with a sealing spell. And I am not as weak as you seem to think.”
An odd glimmer had appeared in his eyes.
“No,” he said, his deep voice so soft she barely heard him. “I suppose you are not.”
A smile finally touched her lips, brief though it was.
“Then let me help you, Sesshoumaru.”
His youki was gone as suddenly as it had attacked her, it receded as he once more tamped it down, brought it under his control. Kagome called back her reiki, and the pure energy calmed and vanished.
He looked at her, and she could finally read his expression – it was serious, assessing.
“Very well,” he finally replied and stiffly inclined his head. “I shall take care of these war monks. Then we will leave to pursue Inuyasha.”
“Deal,” Kagome said.
And then he was gone, out of the protective circle of her barrier. He moved almost too quickly for her eye to follow, in a dance that was as brutal as it was beautiful; maimed as he was, he still retained the sleek grace of a predator. The monks fell with grunts and screams and the gunshots stopped.
She blinked, and the next moment he was towering over her. Their eyes met, blue and gold, both grim and determined. She let her barrier finally drop and it disappeared with a flicker. He sheathed his sword – clean of any blood – and then offered her his only hand.
She stared at it for a second in surprise as she gathered her bow and arrows. Then she reached for him, her fingers hesitantly curling around his. He pulled her off the floor and off her feet, and tucked her firmly against his side, in the crook of his arm. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this new position. Even though she understood he had to carry her in order not to leave her behind in the proverbial cloud of dust, she still hadn’t really expected this. His deep voice cut through her urge to squirm in discomfort.
“Let us go find Inuyasha.”
Kagome forced herself to relax even though those deadly claws were resting against the curve of her waist and nodded.
“Let’s go.”