Curiosity Caught the Miko by Stella Mira

Ira

Written for KYN's Weekly Word Prompt Challenge

Prompt: Alarm

~~~~~

Sesshōmaru closed his eyes and sampled the air. Earthly smells and human odors – the zest of sweat, of plowed fields and dirt, boiled vegetables and meat-smoke. Her scent clung to particles in the air, but it was diluted with other agents, too faint and indicative of her absence. The miko had entered the village, possibly stayed for a few hours, but she was now gone.

His gaze rose to the sky, an obscure vastness of saffron and cloud-haze. Night was coming, and the miko wasn't where she was supposed to have been. Sesshōmaru didn't even contemplate the thought of venturing into the village to ask of her whereabouts. Yōki swelled and spilled outwards, swept across the land for a reaction, the sensation that sizzled down his nerve endings when it stroked her reiki. There wasn't even the slightest flare of pure energy to be found. It was…strange, unpleasant. More disconcerting than the non-pulse of reiki was the susurrus of voracity rippling in the atmosphere, the rush of hunger that stirred a hunter's instincts.

He tasted the air once more, senses sharpened, tuned to the beat of that hunger. Blood-copper, sultry and potent, primal impulse snaking across his tongue and over the points of his canines. Human blood. Sesshōmaru was moving before he could swallow down the implications of the blood-scent, teeth gnashing and muscles seething in his thighs.

His speed slowed once he came upon the still-wet trail then stopped altogether. A lump of flesh and hair lay on the ground, wearing the form of a woman. She was broken and ripped, bent and unmoving. His lips peeled back for a soundless snarl, more baring of teeth than sound.

Sesshōmaru stood rigid and quiet, aggression pouring into veins and arteries, wrath lining his features and shaping them into something inhuman. Raw and feral-edged, dripping with violence. His feet began moving while he yet burned with things he hadn't felt for a long time, odious things, loathsome – but when his fingers brushed her skin, discolored and claw-marked, he froze. Frisson of disquiet, hot blood turning cold. Sesshōmaru dragged the backs of his fingers over her cheekbone, her soft lips. Puffs of breath slid against and between them, shallow and weak. A slow tempo slithered into his ears – echo of a heartbeat, blood-pumping organ.

She was alive.

~~~~~

Her body felt heavy, swathed by numbness. It didn't last long, this blissful state of un-feeling. Agony lanced through her when her nerves awoke, shock after shock of explosive pain. Blood gurgled in her throat; she was chocking and flailing, vying to respire – then she was being turned over on hands and knees, coughing and shaking with rattling tremors. There was someone behind her, strong pressure against her back, slow, steady circles. A thin membrane covered her retinas, made her vision blurry and out of focus. Pain. Her ears were crusted with thick fluid, but she could tell there was a voice drifting above her impaired hearing. Kagome grasped its smooth vibrations as she was being lifted off the ground and pulled against another body.

"-ko. Miko."

The foggy substance leached out of her eyes, and she made out his shape, but still struggled with sound. He was too close, close enough that she could trace the distention of his pupils, black stretched and seeping into his irises, devouring the gold. A gasp crawled out of her mouth, transformed into his name, breathy and laden with confusion.

"Ses-shō-maru…"

She watched as he imbibed the gritty sound. A rise and fall of his Adam's apple, and he was speaking.

"Why are you in this state?"

There was something in his voice, in those wild eyes, that sent shivers creeping down her spine – horripilation over thin skin. Foreboding. Eerie. He was calm…and anything but calm. Fatal juxtaposition. The duality of his expression alarmed her.

Kagome licked her lips, spoke despite the strain in doing so. "The mizuchi… I attacked it."

Something flashed in his gaze, like melted gold, heat of animal instinct.

"Foolish woman."

The words slipped past clenched teeth, distorted and carrying the roughness of a growl. She tasted the savagery in the sound, the quintessence of rage, and shrank into herself. Sesshōmaru radiated lethal intent, angrier than she had ever seen him before. A shudder coursed through her body. Uneasiness laved her organs, congregated in a queasy mass low in her stomach and culminated dread. Kagome parted her lips, though she didn't know what to say that would take the edge off of him, but she wasn't even given the chance to try. Hard ground touched her back, jostled her injuries and wrenched a moan out of her.

Kagome found herself staring up at him, mapping out the contours of his back. He was all angles and silence, unnaturally sharp, like a sword itching to cut into flesh and shed blood – then he began walking away.

"Wait…" Her voice came drained and wary, and she knew she couldn't stop him, but she had to ask. "Where are you…going?"

"You have left a trail steeped in your blood. The dragon must be dealt with first."

His reply flowed over his shoulder, drenched in quiet aggression, writhing with the promise of carnage. It served to allay her worriment, if slightly. At least his target was specific and no one would get caught in the crossfire.

"Do not move from here."

It was a decree, non-negotiable. Kagome chuckled wryly.

"Not like…I can."