Chapter 33: Plans
Exhaustion filled him.
The day felt as if it had been too long and all he wanted was to be with his children. He wanted to hold them and Kagome, to let the annoyance and frustration fade in their presence as it always did. It was a comfort to hold his children and to watch Kagome care for all their children.
It was so different to see her care for their children where he had seen others hand off their children for the servants to raise in their stead. He was happy that his own children would have him and their mother at their side as they grew up.
Walking the halls, he was greeted by gentle music that filled him with pride. Closer and closer, Sesshomaru knew that Kagome was playing the koto for their children as she had taken to do when they were all fussy for some reason or another.
Kagome believed that their children remembered her playing in her womb and knew it to be a source of comfort for all.
Which was true since he had found it to be comforting to listen when she played. Even though the music was sad and told of Kagome’s pain under his care. The reflection of her emotions within her music told him that he was not succeeding in giving Kagome what she needed.
Even if it meant that they would not have a breeding or heaven sessions when they were in his bed together. He missed the feel of her naked skin against his own and feeling his release within her. But she refused to give him her body so he was forced to respect her desire to be without his touch. It was so hard for him when he had been able to touch her, see to her release has he had before and he knew that she felt the touch of lust now that she was no longer pure as she had once been.
Walking into the music room, he was forced to push the arousing thoughts of Kagome in his bed from his mind. He would not break the promises that he had made to her. He would do everything that he could to be everything that Kagome needed.
The sight before him only confirmed to him that he could not live without Kagome.
For the sight of her playing the koto for their sleeping children was too important for him to ever let it go. It was too much for him to resist, seeing her there playing so beautifully.
He went to her side knelled down and gently caressed her cheek. She stopped at the sudden touch but did not otherwise move; she just stared down at the koto as he continued to caress her cheek because he wanted her to look at him. He needed her to look at him.
But she did not look at him, she just stared at the musical instrument. It only lasted for so long though and then those ocean blue eyes were looking at him. How it made him feel sick.
The fear within her eyes was so different from the anger that were usually there for him. He did not want to see the fear, he wanted the anger or the love but not the fear. It teared at him to see it there in her eyes. Sesshomaru knew that he was the one that had given her that fear yet he knew not how to take it away from her.
It chocked him like hands that were determined to end him and all he could mutter was “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” she whispered. “What are you sorry for?”
Staring into her eyes, it felt almost as if whip sliced across his back when he saw her pain. How could he take all that pain away? How could he heal her from all this? But all he could was wrap his arms around her and answer her question “Everything.”
She struggled in his arms but she was no match for his strength. She was prisoned by his arms and struggled so desperately to be free of him. Yet, he knew that he could not let her go in that moment, he needed to hold her, to have her close to him.
“You’re lying.”
Those words were said with such poison and pain that he instantly released Kagome, who glared at him with her pain burning so brightly through her.
“That’s a lie…you are not sorry for anything that you have done, Sesshomaru. You have been sorry for a moment in the last two years and I can’t stand to be around you anymore after today!”
He stared at her as she got up and moved away from his side…a panic touched him as he saw how she moved to keep herself away from him. He needed her by his side, yet she moved to separate themselves.
“Today, you met with so many people that wanted to buy our daughter from you for their sons! You acted as if you were going to sell Mizuki or the others to them if they can outbid the others…my children are not things for you to sell, you asshole!”
She kept her voice quiet for the sake of their sleeping children. But all the hurt and anger as well as fear filled her voice that turned into a hurricane of emotion that would seen him destroyed if he was not careful. “That is not my intention, Kagome.”
“No? Because that’s how it was to me, why is the strongest demon alive sell his children to others when he doesn’t have to?”
“That does not mean that I an invulnerable, Kagome and our children will decide who they will one day mate with. I have to make the pretense that our daughters will be mated off when they come of age; if I do not then the council will become involved on the matter and that cannot be allowed to happen until we are ready for battle.”
The separation was too much for him to bear any longer and he grabbed her up in his arms once more. He was happy that Kagome did not struggle in his arms as he had before. But he knew that their conversation was nowhere near done if the expression upon her face told him anything.
“Council? This is the first I have heard of a council…why do you never talk with me? Why is it that trying to talk with you is like talking to a wall, Sesshomaru? Why would you let me go?”
“I would let my arm be cut off again instead of letting you go, Kagome.” There was nothing else that could be said. It would be so much easier to cut off both of his arms then to let her go.
It would be easier to embrace death than to let her go. He knew that it would probably be the best thing for them to let her go for a time, to let her try and heal away from him but he could not allow it. The thought of her leaving, possibly going back to his brother and their friends.
The thought of her being with the one that she had told him was the one thing that she wanted most in the world…it terrified him that he could lose her.
“I don’t want you hurt, Sesshomaru. I want us to understand each other and for this hurt to stop.”
oOo
“Why are kids such idiots?”
“Who did what now?” Hotaka asked in resignment.
Rie smiled at the look of utter annoyance on her mate’s face. It was so clear for anyone to see that he was planning on fixing whatever their children had messed up this time just like he always did. It had always been one of the things that she had loved most about him.
He was a father through and through; even to those that were not his children.
“Our kids have done nothing…yet but with our brood, it’s usually a matter of time as you know. I was talking about Sesshomaru.”
“What did he do now? Do I need to go back and talk with Kagome again?” He asked her.
Rie look at her mate in question. “You have been talking with his concubine? Why?”
She knew that he was most likely seeing a human woman in need of help. Hotaka had always been kind like that and she had always been proud of him for being that way. It also wasn’t like he desired to have the woman in their bed, they had never been into having humans in their bed with them…they were too delicate to handle their taste.
“The girl is troubled. Nori hasn’t been a support for the girl like she should have been…she was more the tormentor than she should have been and Sesshomaru was no different than the criminals of her home were.”
Sesshomaru a criminal? He was a high lord of the human realm, he would be on the council of hell if he were to capable of surviving there. It was beyond Rie’s thinking at her best friend’s son could be seen in such a light. “Sesshomaru? A criminal? But he saw to her pleasure, right?”
“Yes and now, she finds no pleasure in one’s bodily release because of it. Its tainted for her.”
“This is all her side of the story. We need to hear from Nori and Sesshomaru as well before we can assume anything, Hotaka.”
This couldn’t be true, they would not abuse a human priestess in such a way and then call upon them for aid in keeping the woman. Nori knew that she was a demoness that was there for the protection of such powerful priestesses and priests because her mother had been among their numbers.
She and her brothers were the impossible. They had the holy powers of mortals and to know that their mortal kin were being abuse when they were the saving grace of all demons of power was something that they would not allow to pass.
“Do you want to take the girl away with us?”
“If what you have said is true then we will have no choice but to take her and her children…Nori told me there were troubles but I cannot believe that she would abuse the girl, Hotaka.”
She sat down, feeling drained by all that was happening. How she wished that Nori was there so that they could talk about this, so that she could be made to understand what their side of this was all about.
Rie suddenly felt so hallow at the thought if she and her best childhood friend had were no longer as connected as they had been because of the passage of time. They had known everything about each other and had done everything together. Nori was a wicked and sneak bitch that was both greatly feared as well as respected but she had never dared to do anything foul with humans because of their friendship.
“We need to go and save her.”
oOo
Nori awoke in a puddle of blood. From the sound of silence, it was clear to her that Takashi was gone for a time and she was allowed to return to her chambers. She would need to recover before she could gain any information that would be of use for her family.
Getting up from the puddle, she was surprised by the insanity that was before her. Limbs, blood and pieces of bodies were everywhere. There was not a spot that was untouched by the gore and chaos that had taken place within the chamber. It was almost as bad as a battlefield, only she had no desire to insult the dead around her and roll around on all of it as she had done in the past.
These demons and humans had not deserved to die as they had and it was ashamed upon Takashi for murdering them all as he had. Sesshomaru would never do something as shameful as this and Kagome could not ever be allowed within such a palace of horrors.
Walking the halls down, Nori had no problem being naked in all but the blood of dead. She wore it as it was the most beautiful of silks and walked with the pride that could only be given to those of great power and strength. But the servants dared not to look at her, knowing that she was as powerful as their lord and would kill them for the dishonor.
Her beauty and strength was meant for the strong to look upon and for the weak to look away with envy in their hearts, all knowing that they would never been her equal.
“You look good in blood.”
She had not been expecting to see the mistress of death herself, Setsuna but Nori was not unsurprised by it either. Takashi’s stepmother ruled his household with an iron fist and could even knock a few of her teeth out in the ring of politics.
Setsuna sat before a table and was drinking black tea from hell if the smell told Nori anything. She walked to the table and sat down across from Setsuna, making sure that her breasts were not covered by her blood stained hair.
She was smug at the look of envy that had been in the other demoness’s eyes for mere seconds before her eyes became as blank canvas. “Of course I do. I carry it off better than anyone that we know after all.”
“Maybe if you were not in battle so often, you would have been a more worthy a opponent where it really counted.” Setsuna stabbed.
But Nori just smiled, both of them knowing who was the better warrior on the battlefield and had given their lords the children that they had desired. Setsuna’s former mate had never desired a daughter and giving birth to her only living daughter had caused Setsuna to become infertile. It was a bitter thing that Nori knew that still filled Setsuna with envy that Nori was still fertile and capable of giving birth in their dying realm.
“I wonder if I have conceived Takashi’s child yet…it will bring such joy to your house and lands when your lord has children at last.”
“It would be a miracle if your womb could give birth to a living child.”
“I had one miracle already so I am such that the gods will be kind enough to give me another…but let us talk of other matters, why are you here?”
“My question exactly, Nori. Why are you within my home, my step-son‘s bed? Our families’ have an alliance in place already with our children’s mating.”
That alone told Nori everything that she needed to know. Setsuna knew nothing of what was happening and it was all to Nori’s advantage for that reason alone. It was time to play her enemies against each other, oh what fun it will be to see Setsuna rip into Takashi as he had his victims just hours ago. “Sakura is dead.”
“YOU. Lie!” Setsuna snarled at her as she leaped at Nori the moment the words left her tongue.
Nori had the other demoness pinned with great ease. “I’m not lying to you at all, Setsuna. Sakura has been dead for some time now.”
Setsuna roared and did all she could to get out from under her but Nori’s years of battle had made it an impossible task. Tears ruined Setsuna’s make up and the struggle was disastrous to the rest of her appearance yet the demoness nothing for it in her distress at the news of her only child being gone from their realm.
“I will destroy you and your line for this, Nori! Your son will breathe his last as he watches his children skinned alive before him!”
This was not a threat that she would allow to stand.
“You touch my family in anyway and I will keep your daughter’s murder from you forever.”
The demoness beneath her was still at once. The demand and suspicious in her eyes was all that Nori needed to know that she had Setsuna right where she wanted her.