Bloodlust by Lira

Taste

Her eyes snapped open, her hands reaching desperately behind her for her bow. It was only when she stopped to look quickly behind her that she noticed both bow and arrows were missing.

"They would be useless anyway, human wench."

Kagome looked back in front of her, staring fearfully at the bearing of the youkai ki she had been sensing.

Sesshomaru.

Both bow and arrows were in his hands, and she was struck once more by the impassive coldness that emanated from his every movement, from every word that passed his lips. She was overwhelmed by his speed as well, the speed that made him a blur of white and amber eyes.

She did not remember when it was she had decided to ignore his harshness, or ignore the threat he presented to her life. Maybe it was after he walked away from fighting InuYasha when he transformed, maybe it was when she noticed that Sesshomaru, though stronger and faster, had never really done InuYasha any harm; indeed, had lost an arm to his brother's first use of the tetsusaiga's transformed power.

"Lord Sesshomaru."

She bowed slightly, as one does to an equal, and the ends of her hair brushed the ground. He raised an eyebrow in inquisitive surprise, one of the few expressions of emotion he allowed himself. For once his brothers wench was behaving properly. He sniffed delicately, and detected no trace of fear in her scent. She was not afraid. She was human, unarmed, and she was not afraid. He was not sure whether to be complimented or insulted, and settled instead on his usual impassivity.

"Why are you alone in the woods, wench? I cannot detect my half-breed brother's scent, even on you. Has he died and saved me the trouble of killing him?"

Kagome wrapped her arms around her knees and leaned back against the tree she was sitting in front of.

"I have not traveled with your idiot of a brother for several months. After we completed the jewel I had no reason to, but I cannot go to my home without losing the ability to return here - and I will not leave my friends because of InuYasha."

She spat his name with distaste, and Sesshomaru raised his eyebrow again.

"I was under the impression that you cared for my brother, as unlikely as I consider such a thing, even from a human."'

She sighed softly, the expression of scorn fading slightly from her face.

"I did, for a long time. But he abused my friendship, abused my love, and desired to trade my life for that of someone who was already dead. When I would not agree willingly, he tried to steal the shikon from me, after all we went through to get it back, so I left him. I...I left InuYasha behind."

He sensed she was on the brink of tears, and was surprised when she controlled them, and help up the completed and purified shikon jewel, sparkling pink in the sunlight.

"All because of this....stupid jewel..."

She shook slightly, looking more as if she wanted to throw the thing away than anything else, but tucked it back into her blouse on its chain, and sighed again.

"But why are you asking, Lord Sesshomaru? I know you do not like your brother, and I know you do not like humans, so why this sudden concern?"

"I merely wondered who was trespassing on my lands, and took advantage of an opportunity to gain information about my brothers whereabouts."

He dropped her bow and arrows at her feet, and turned to leave, moving away until he felt a small, soft hand on his arm.

"I know where InuYasha is, Sesshomaru, and I will take you to him, if you wish. But only if you allow me to travel with you. I will not tell you where we are going until we get there."

He shook her hand off her arm, and with preternatural speed drew Toukijin and pressed the demon blade against her throat. Kagome's eyes widened slightly, but she still did not fear him. He noticed the lack of change in her scent, and it infuriated him that she did not believe he could hurt her, did not believe that he was something worth fearing. The words that came out of his mouth were a half-growl, laced with fury.

"Why do you not fear me?"

To his complete and utter shock, the girl smiled, a slow, soft, sad smile.

"There are two reasons, Sesshomaru. The first is that though you have attacked us many times, never but the first time have you hurt any of us, or truly attempted to do so, though we both know you could have. The second...the second is that I don't care any more if I live or die."

He blinked, and relaxed the pressure of Toukijin against her smooth throat, allowing his anger to ebb away.

"Why do you wish to travel with me, wench?"

She looked straight into the iced amber of his eyes, unable to look away because of the pressure of the sword against her throat.

"I cannot face him alone, Sesshomaru, yet face him I must. Even an uncaring demon lord is a better companion than to travel alone to a welcome that will destroy what is left of my heart."

"Very well, Miko, I will do as you have asked, but I have a condition of my own. You must restore my arm, now, before we leave."

Kagome pressed the sword away with her hand, cutting her palm, but she ignored the stinging pain, and turned her back to him, struggling to hold back the tears that hovered in her violet eyes.

"I will restore you arm, Lord Sesshomaru, the day before we come to where your bother waits. Is that satisfactory?"

He could not help but notice the shaking in her voice, or the trembling in her shoulders, but only nodded briefly when she turned back to look at him. Out of nowhere he caught a sweet, thick scent that ravished his thoughts and made his sensitive nostrils twitch. It was the scent of blood, powerful demon blood, and his youkai began to darken in his eyes. He stood stiff, a growl building deep in his chest. Kagome turned from where she had been searching for a bandage in her enormous bag, and dropped them from limp hands at the look on his face.

"Lord Sesshomaru, are you well?"

Before she could move, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, bringing her bleeding palm close to his nose. He ceased her struggling with a sharp growl and a tug on her fragile wrist, struggling with what he knew she was compared to what the scent that bled from her palm was telling him. He wrenched words out of his last bit of sentient control, tormented by the instinct to take and to claim.

"What...are....you...?"

Kagome saw the struggle but knew not its source, and the touch of madness and the beast in his voice reminded her of InuYasha when he transformed. For the first time in her strange encounter with the demon lord, she felt real fear.

"I am a human woman, Lord Sesshomaru, a human woman and a miko. That is all!"

The words were a cry, and the rumbling growl that broke from Sesshomaru's chest made her jump back, twisting her wrist and making her cry out in pain. He sniffed the blood slipping down her palm, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits, before drawing his rough tongue around the gash.

Instead of pain, Kagome felt a shock of electric heat flash through her body, felt in herself an alien desire for his blood, for a thick sweetness and a slow, burning touch. She realized then that there was no anger in Sesshomaru's blood-tinted gaze - no anger, but there was lust. She knew it, she felt it in the sucking flesh of his lips on her bleeding palm, and she responded to it. Her response terrified her, and an uncontrolled blast of miko power surged out of her body and pushed him away from her, flattening him to the ground. He growled, and nearly approached her again, but as she concentrated her energy on closing her wound, the blood lust that had come over him departed, and he retreated to a safe distance.

His mind was in turmoil, his blood still raging, though his face did not show it. Somehow, the scent of her blood had unleashed his youkai, and yet he had not been destroyed by the miko in her blood when it passed his lips, or the blast that had hit him - a blast which should have purified him out of existence. This did not bode well, for traveling with this human woman increased the chances that such would happen again. He looked at Kagome, saw her trembling slightly, and scented the fading remnants of her blood, her fear, and her...arousal? on the departing breeze. He thrust the last of them from his thoughts at once, ignoring the clamor of his youkai to learn how that would taste, and nodded to her stoically.

"I ask your forgiveness. The scent of your blood did something which I cannot account for."

To his surprise, she did not yell, nor did she become frightened, but returned his nod, and smiled at him.

"I understand - I felt some of what affected you. But I never expected the great Lord Sesshomaru to apologize."

He gazed at her sharply, and narrowed his eyes at her half-mocking words.

"I have my honor, wench. Appreciate my indulgence, or I will remove it. Come then - and perhaps it would be best if you took greater care not to bleed."

She looked at the ground, a faint blush coloring her cheeks, and for the first time in a very long time, Lord Sesshomaru, Taiyoukai of the Western Lands, was amused. That night they stayed in the small grove where Sesshomaru had come upon Kagome, she asleep in her sleeping bag near the fire, he sitting cross-legged across from her. The firelight shattered in his amber eyes, as he stared at Kagome's sleeping form, listening to his own question resounding in his head.

*What are you?*

She said she was a human woman, a miko, and he knew she believed it, for he would have smelled the scent of her lying. Yet he knew that she could not be human, that eventually he would have to solve the mystery in her blood, for the sake of his own sanity. His eyes narrowed in thought, as to whether it might not be easier simply to kill the wench. But he told himself that it was easier to follow her to his brother than to seek him out alone, and any other reason that might have existed he pushed aside with cold denial. The memory of the taste of her shook his control, and he stood and walked outside the limit of the firelight, claws clenched so tightly that he pierced his hand.

He did not feel it, didn't notice the pain, so intent was he on gaining control of his own soul. In all his life, nothing had ever affected him so much, for he had never allowed it to. But the taste of the girl gave him no choice, and made him disgusted with himself for being affected by a human, by his brothers wench no less. No matter what she said, in his mind she would always be his brothers wench. His youkai chuckled inside him, betrayed him to himself, but he reasoned that she was powerful...and that he doubted her humanity.

Control regained, plotting in the back of his mind, he returned to his place across the fire, and watched Kagome sleeping until dawn broke. It was in the morning that he saw the first spark of the Kagome he had seen with his brother, the first spark of the passion and power that had always intrigued him about this weak, human woman, in her refusal to travel at his youkai speed.

"I'll not travel on your floating cloud, or whatever it is, Sesshomaru! I don't trust that thing!"

He was frankly amused, knowing that if he chose to take her with him, she would be forced to accompany him, or die in a fall from a height she probably wouldn't like to imagine; but he would not show his feelings to her. Long before he had learned how much of a mistake that was, and he was not one to make the same mistake twice.

"It matters not to me Kagome, but know that if you insist upon walking, I will not take it easy on you."

She nodded, and threw everything but the necessities out of her bag, and started walking in the direction of InuYasha's forest. She glanced back at the cold Taiyoukai following her, and then realized something.

*He called me by name....*