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Kagome stared in growing horror at the sharp claw tracing a lingering line up her bare arm. A few short minutes ago, she’d been in fear for her life, but at least she’d known what was going on.
Now she didn’t have the foggiest clue of what was happening. Being unsure and out of her depth made her feel more fearful than she’d been moments before, when she’d been fighting for her life.
Because the hand touching her arm was the very same that had been wrapped around her throat; squeezing the breath out of her. Yet, there was nothing threatening about this new touch – quite the contrary.
It was a gentle caress, and the shiver that ran down Kagome’s spine wasn’t all from fear.
“Sesshoumaru,” she whispered, her voice sounding as small as she felt.
His golden eyes were soft with strange heat, but the frown he directed at his own hand – still slowly stroking her arm – was clearly displeased.
“What is this magic?” He growled. “What have you done to this Sesshoumaru?”
“I haven’t done anything,” she replied. “Only defended myself against you.”
“You must have done something, miko. Because a moment ago I was intent on killing you, and now I feel compelled to touch you.”
He wrenched his hand off her arm with visible effort: his fingers trembled as they hovered in the air, barely an inch from her skin.
Kagome sighed at the loss of physical contact, but the sound was one of disappointment, not relief. She leaned to him and her fingers moved – as if their own accord – reaching, curling around a loose strand of his silver-white hair.
The moment she touched him, she felt better; calmer, happier.
His eyes fluttered shut, but his stubborn frown belied his mixed feelings.
“I don’t think this is me,” Kagome insisted, her heart beating erratically in her throat. “But something’s wrong.”
He opened his eyes and slanted her an assessing stare. “It is not just I who feels this… compulsion?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
“I believe this is magic of some kind, but none that I would have seen before.”
“Who would have?” Kagome asked, running her fingers through his hair. “Is there someone we could ask, someone who could tell us what’s going on?”
“There is one person I can think of, but I would rather not go to her with any questions if I could avoid it,” he murmured, following the trail of her fingers with hooded eyes.
“I don’t like this,” Kagome confessed. “We need to figure this out.”
A part of her felt trapped, like a bystander witnessing a car wreck they had no hope to stop. Another part found it completely natural to be touching Sesshoumaru, like it was the perfectly right thing to do – something she’d wanted to do all along. Since she knew at the back of her mind that wasn’t true, that a very short while ago they’d been enemies, that warm fuzzy feeling frightened her.
The side of her neck tickled, then stung, and Kagome used the hand that wasn’t all tangled in Sesshoumaru’s silky tresses to slap away whatever bug had bit her – only to find a dizzy Myouga on the palm of her hand.
Her shoulders slumped in relief at the sight of the flea demon.
“Perfect timing!” she smiled at him.
“Kagome, are you all right? I felt your energy earlier, bright like a beacon.”
“And you came to check up on me – better late than never, I guess,” Kagome stated dryly.
“Some magic has gone awry,” Sesshoumaru said, his voice as deep as it was cold. “The miko and I seem to be under a compulsion of sorts.”
“A compulsion?” Myouga frowned.
“I feel this need to touch her. I have never experienced something like this before.”
“What lead to this… compulsion?” Myouga asked, looking from one to the other.
“We don’t know. I mean, Sesshoumaru attacked me right before. I fought back,” Kagome said.
“I raised my youki,” Sesshoumaru clarified. “I wanted to overwhelm her to make my point, but she unleashed her own powers to respond in kind.”
Myouga stared at them. He had grown very still, which did nothing to calm Kagome’s nerves.
“Did you?” he asked, his voice intent.
“Did I what?” Sesshoumaru arched his eyebrow.
“Overwhelm her? When you contested your energies, which of you won?”
Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru. She met his eyes, but couldn’t read the expression in them.
“I don’t think either of us did, really,” she said softly.
Sesshoumaru gave a stiff nod. “We reached a stalemate, then my youki was just gone.”
“You are sure that your energies were equally powerful and reached harmony?”
“Why all these questions?” Sesshoumaru growled.
“Because I do have an inkling, but I need to be perfectly sure,” Myouga replied.
“If by reaching harmony you mean our powers were in a perfect balance with one another, then yes, I guess we did,” Kagome answered.
Sesshoumaru’s mouth was a thin line of discontent, but he nodded his agreement.
Myouga crossed his arms, and glanced at Sesshoumaru.
“Have you heard about the concept of soulmates?”
Sesshoumaru sneered. “Do not tell me you are foolish enough to believe in such ridiculous old wives’ tales, Myouga.”
“I have heard that when two opposite powers achieve perfect harmony, with neither of them stronger than the other, it means the souls have recognised their match.” He fixed them with a stern look. “Now, you tell me that you and Kagome battled with your energies – the holy against the demonic – and according to your own words, reached a stalemate. Then your energies receded, and you felt compelled to touch her. Do you still think it just a foolish tale?”
Sesshoumaru’s hand balled into a fist and Kagome’s hand slipped from his hair to squeeze his shoulder for support. She needed it, because her knees grew weak looking at Myouga’s solemn face; she had a sinking feeling that he was right.
Sesshoumaru was her soulmate.