Bound by Corruption by BelovedStranger

Dark Magic

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Word Count: 3,734

HOPE, A FICKLE, insignificant emotion, flooded the miko’s dark eyes.

“You know where she is?”

Staring down at her guileless expression, Sesshomaru felt cheated. For one, glorious moment, he’d been the center of Kagome’s focus. Her passion had burned impossibly bright, scorching him with her heat. Such wild, innocent, abundance! Intoxicating.

Her ardor had surged unexpectedly, surprising him. Only to amuse him to realize that she was using him for sex. If she craved distraction from some inner turmoil, who was he to deny a damsel in distress?

When Kagome had chosen Onigumo over him, her rejection had seared through Sesshomaru, until her desire had washed over him like a soothing balm. For one, hellish week, he’d watched her with him, consuming Sesshomaru with an emotion he refused to put a name to as he vowed vengeance on the hapless worm. To make Onigumo curse the day he’d first drawn breath.

To make Kagome suffer the consequences of rejecting him.

Compassion—goodness—had compelled her. But Sesshomaru was certain she’d never once desired the warlord. The dilapidated hut she’d shared with Onigumo had been saturated in the vermin’s lust for the girl, but no shared fluid from sexual secretion, nor even a hint of the miko’s arousal.

Only with him did she burn.

She wanted him. Not Onigumo.

Possessiveness had snapped the mighty threads of his restraint. The need to stamp his claim on her had consumed him. He’d been incapable of gentleness. There was only a raging need, called forth by the tender cravings of a human miko.

He’d nearly had her. 

But something had happened, stealing her fire. All that passion vanished, leaving him to smolder in the ashes and embers that remained.

Her need of him was no more.

Now, she yearned for another.

For Kikyo.

Sesshomaru had a powerful urge to grab Kagome and shake her—to drag her back into his arms and kiss her. To reignite her flame and make her burn for him again. But seeing the painful uncertainty in her open expression, he knew he’d lost the spark that had burned for him.

Leaving him with a painful erection that refused to abate.

As well as a newfound worry. The miko had already left him once—for duty. To help Onigumo. Would she not try to leave him again for her precious Kikyo, her loyalties once more divided?

When he did not respond, the girl stepped towards him, placing her small hands on his chest. Once more clothed, he burned to feel her touch on his flesh as before. Her expression beseeched him more than her words. “Please, Sesshomaru. If you know where she is, you must take me to her. She—” Her breath hitched. “She’s all I have left.”

Wrong. She had him.

A tear slid down one cheek, then the other.

She was crying—again. How many tears had he seen her shed—and not a one for him. She’d left him. As if it had been easy. Not once had she shed a tear for his absence. She’d left him all to willingly for him to believe she held him in any tender regard. Lust, for certainly.

And that was all he wanted, he told himself fiercely even as he obsessed over those she did care for. Her sister. And, in a strange, misguided manner, Onigumo.

“I do not.” Even as he answered her, his mind spun with cold calculations.

Her eyes dimmed, face falling as the spark of hope faded.

Kikyo.

How strong were the familial bonds that tied them? Formidable, if he were to judge by Kagome obsession over Kikyo’s return. How much sway did the elder have over the younger?

Too much, he suspected.

But even the mightiest of bond had its weak links. It was only a matter of finding those vulnerable pieces and exerting the right amount of pressure, thereby severing the ties that bound the sisters together.

And he would find it.

“Do not despair. I can locate her for you,” he promised with in inward, secret smile. Gently, he cupped Kagome’s face and stroked his thumb across her cheek, wiping away the path of her sorrow.

Her eyes flared, her kiss swollen lips parting. She stared up at him with such open trust and deep faith that Sesshomaru was tempted to lean down and recapture her mouth. What did hope taste like?

“How? Onigumo said—”

“It matters not what he told you,” Sesshomaru interjected, voice hard before he forced himself to gentleness. His thumb repeated its stroke across her cheek, but she was no longer crying. “All you must do is rely on me.” And me alone, he thought but did not project to her.

Only a moment’s hesitation before she nodded.

Sesshomaru grinned. He couldn’t help himself. He leaned down and nuzzled his nose against her temple.

Good girl.

She heard him. Her pinkening cheeks and shy glance told him she had.

“We must return to your village.” She hadn’t expected that. She blinked, before pain flashed across her face. He soothed her, petting her hair as he continued. “I know of a spell that will aid in our cause, but it will only work if we are standing in her last known location.”

Kagome’s eyes widened. “Really? Why didn’t we try this spell before?”

Because he’d wanted to bathe in the blood of vengeance with her. He could see the awareness in her eyes, correctly suspecting his nefarious motives.

“I know your thoughts, aijin.” His voice was silken smooth as half-truths dripped like honey from his tongue. “Before you condemn me beyond possibility of redemption, you are under the mistaken impression that such a spell does not come without great cost.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

Rather than answer, he said, “Seeking out the bandit forces for questioning was the simpler action of our limited choices. With that resource exhausted, we move on to the next available option.”

“Sorry,” she muttered shamefaced. “For thinking the worst,” she explained unnecessarily.

A twinge of conscious pricked at him, easily ignored, buried under a mound of self-serving excuses.

“You are young, impulsive,” he dismissed good-naturedly, laying all the fault with her, and acknowledging none for himself.

The saucy wench dared to roll her eyes at him. Amused, he grinned, and surprisingly, her face relaxed. She didn’t smile back at him, but her tension ebbed from her. Then she frowned. “Is the spell dangerous?”

He lifted am imperious brow. “You doubt my abilities?”

“Of course not! I just…”

“Worried for me, aijin?”

She scoffed and glanced aside, but she did not deny it.

Another grin curled his lips, and he couldn’t help but tease her further. Using his hand on her cheek, he forced her face back to his and kissed her before she could react, or think to deny him. He sipped at her lips, so very different from the untamed passion of before.

Kagome had become stiff but with his self-restraint, keeping the kiss light, he felt her relax, even tentatively respond with a gentle sweetness that called to the wickedness inside him. Before his restraint could crumbled—how easily this innocent stole his self-control, Sesshomaru eased back, and was gratified when she leaned forward, unconsciously seeking more.

“Come.”

He grinned at his word choice, but the naive little miko only stared at him, confused. She sensed his teasing but had no true notion if his meaning. But she would soon enough.

He looked forward to addicting her. To him.

Perhaps then, she would hesitate to leave him a second time.

“WHY WAS YOUR sister in the neighboring village, with the bandit forces so close to home?”

Kagome was surprised by Sesshomaru’s sudden curiosity, but she answered without hesitation. Especially if it would help in their search. “The headman’s wife was in labor. Last year, she nearly died in childbirth.” Feeling a wash of sadness, she revealed, “The child did not survive. Kikyo went to aid in the birth of the new babe. It is my hope both mother and child live. That they all got out of the village in time.”

“How certain are you that is true?”

Kagome narrowed her eyes at Sesshomaru. “Kikyo told us, obaasan and I. She wouldn’t lie.”

“Hn.”

The sound Sesshomaru made was noncommittal, yet Kagome felt compelled to defend her sister, explaining, “She’d been out collecting herbs. We hadn’t really needed the extra, not at the time, but I assumed Kikyo wished to be alone. She does that sometimes, seeking solitude,” she reflected.

Kagome had never thought this strange, not when she herself liked to go out to the lake at night whenever her mind was too full to sleep.

“She returned earlier than anticipated, saying she’d been approached on the outskirts of the village. The neighboring headman had sent a servant to fetch her. She’d only come back long enough to inform us and collect a travelling pack. We…I haven’t seen her since.”

“If that is her last known whereabouts, our search begins there.”

“In the neighboring village? How will we get there?” Kagome asked, hesitant.

She wasn’t sure where Sesshomaru had taken them. The hot spring was lovely, but she had no notion how far they had travelled from the town she’d stayed with Onigumo. From there, she knew it would take a day’s hard travel on foot to return to her village, but it was already nearing midday. They’d never reach her village before nightfall, forcing them to bunk down for the night.

Kagome had to control a wave of impatience. After today, she knew how fast Sesshomaru could travel, but she remembered his past chastisement.

“Just because you can do something, does not mean you should. If you always choose to take the easy road, you’ll never grow and adapt. You will always be dependent.”

His condescension had lashed her like a whip.

Would he force them to take the slow route this time around, as well? She bit her tongue on the instinctive urge to complain. He was helping her, she reminded herself. She’d take it however he chose to give it—even if it killed her.

As though reading her mind, he assured, “We shall not be walking.”

Kagome felt elation. “We’re flying?” She actually quiet enjoyed the experience. She imagined it was how a bird must feel, to soar so high and free.

“In a manner of speaking.”

Her face scrunched in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“You will,” he promised.

His cryptic reply only made her nervous. He stepped around her, confusing her further. When she turned to follow, he was suddenly there, crowding her back. She felt him pull her flush against his chest, and suddenly, she was surrounded by his warmth.

After the intimate bath they’d just shared, her heart skipped a beat and heat pooled low in her belly. “Sesshomaru?” she asked, uncertain.

She felt him lean over her. A silken strand of silver hair fell over her right shoulder, spilling across her breast, passed her hip. His hair was so long. And beautiful. Like starlight. Her fingers itched to touch it, but she stifled the urge.

“I scent your unease, aijin,” he murmured, dark and sensuous. “Do not be afraid.”

She shivered, unable to control her body’s response to his nearness. “I’m not.” A half-truth, spoken barely above a whisper.

She felt his lips, like a gentle breeze, caressing the side of her neck, over her rapidly beating pulse. When he spoke, his mouth moved butterfly soft against her flesh, heating her blood.

“Your heart is pounding.”

Her eyelids lowered, bespelled by the low, rough timbre of his voice. It reawakened the ache deep inside her body that she was coming to understand to be passion.

“Not from fear.” Was that her voice? Breathy? Nearly a moan—of want.

He curled more fully around her, pressing the side of his face against the side of her head. She felt one of his hands gently clasp her left hip, while his other arm wrapped snuggly around her waist.

“No, not from fear,” he agreed, voice husky.

A surge of energy surprised her. Sesshomaru surrounded them with his youki. His demonic aura didn’t lash out at her, but her reiki flared in instinctive response.

“Control yourself,” he cautioned without a hint of anger. “I will not harm you.”

His youki was suffocating, constricting her throat. Just how powerful was he?! “I know. I’m trying,” she replied thickly, struggling to pull her reiki back. Unlike her sister, Kagome had always had to wrestle for control. What came easily for Kikyo had always been a battle for Kagome, and she was embarrassed for Sesshomaru to witness her incompetence.

Eventually, she managed to restrain her reiki, but it was a hard thing. Sesshomaru’s youki danced across her skin. Not hurting her, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable, either.

“Hurry, please,” she said through gritted teeth, sweat dripping down her brow.

Sesshomaru didn’t answer, but she felt it. With effortless control, he surrounded them in a sphere of pure, daemonic energy. She felt their feet leave the ground, then they were moving, too fast for her ningen perception to follow. Everything was a blur, and with chaotic youki enveloping her, Kagome soon felt sick. It was all she could do to keep a tight rein on her reiki and not to vomit.

Dizziness assaulted her, vertigo making her world tilt, and she was thankful Sesshomaru was wrapped around her so tightly. Without him as an anchor, she was certain she would collapse.

Sesshomaru must have sensed her struggle, for he turned her in his arms to press her face against his chest. Closing her eyes, she held onto him, burring as deep into him as she could. It helped, but she was grateful when everything stopped and his youki vanished, retreating back inside him.

She’d never felt anything like it, had never been so close to such a powerful daemon. It was terrifying yet filled her with awe.

She felt him stroke the back of her head, soothing her. “Forgive the discomfort, aijin.”

“Was that…the magic you spoke of?” She peaked up at him.

His cocky grin revealed the sharp points of his fangs, making her heart skip. “No. What you witnessed was raw energy. If any were able to perceive us, we would have been little more than an orb of light, flying across the sky.”

“Like a shooting star,” she said with wonder. A journey that should have taken at least a day of hard travel on foot had been little more than an hour.

Curious, she looked over her shoulder before stepping away from him to see where they were. Her eyes widened. All around her was the burnt remains of a once thriving village. At the sight of the bodies left to rot in the streets, Kagome turned away, cringing. Her eyes pricked with the threat of tears, but she refused to cry. She was through with weeping. She had to be strong. For Kikyo.

Kagome tensed, evil slithering across her senses.

Jerking around, she relaxed; if only slightly. It was Sesshomaru, his youki flaring—and something else.

“Stay close.” Doing as she was bid, she stepped near, where he pulled her against his side. She didn’t fight him, even when his youki—and that something else—danced along her body in electric currents. It was all she could do to prevent her reiki from lashing out.

“The spell is a conjuring,” began Sesshomaru. “Bring up an image of your sister. Share it with me. Yes, like that. Through your memories, I shall manipulate time, creating an illusion of what once was. We shall find her trail by traversing the past.”

Kagome felt her eyes growing wide. What he spoke of sounded incredulous. Impossible.

“Focus.” His reprimand was sharp, his voice strained. She felt his youki pulsate dangerously, before smoothing. Along with that other energy.

Black magic, she now realized, the hairs rising at the back of her neck.

Swallowing thickly, she wondered if she should be in such close proximity with so terrible a magic, but there was no turning back now. Trusting in Sesshomaru, she closed her eyes and thought of Kikyo.

“Give me your hand.”

Kagome obeyed without thinking, felt Sesshomaru wrapped his much larger hand around the back of hers and hold it out from their bodies.

“I require something that retains your sister’s essence” he explained with tension tightening his body against hers. “A strand of her hair, a finger nail, or a personal effect she kept close. It can be anything. A hair comb, a hand mirror.”

“But…we don’t have anything like that,” she said with unveiled disappointment.

“We have the next best thing. You.”

“What can I do?” Determination filled her. She’d do anything. 

“You must bleed.”

Kagome felt a claw dig into her flesh. She gasped and tried to jerk free on reflex, but Sesshomaru held her immobile.

“Don’t fight me, aijin.”

With his left arm wrapped around her back, his fingers gripped around her wrist to keep her arm held out before her, he’d pulled back her wide sleeve with his right hand, before a single claw sliced high on her inner forearm, cutting deep, but careful not to sever a major vein, she was quick to assess. Still, it hurt. She hissed out a breath but did nothing to stop him, even when he squeezed her arm, forcing her blood to ooze faster.

She yelped. She couldn’t help it. “Ow!”

“Forgive this small hurt.” His voice had become rough, jagged pants. “You share a familial bond, but the essence comes not from the person of conjuring. More of your blood is required to fuel the magic.”

Kagome nodded, wincing. “I understand.”

No sooner had she spoken, his youki flared, pulsing stronger. She felt it, his energy thrumming in time to her beating heart, and a third pulsation. Of dark magic.

Kagome watched as her blood dripped to the ground, while Sesshomaru’s dual energies threatened to strangle her. It was worse than travelling within his sphere of light. Her reiki flared around her, unbidden, and Sesshomaru hissed.

“Miko,” he ground out between gritted fangs. “Submit.”

“I’m…trying!”

Against her will, her reiki pulsed in jagged streams. They both cried out. Somehow, Sesshomaru kept a tight rein on his youki, controlling his energy from lashing back at her, but she felt his struggle to hold on to the magic. He snarled, a fierce, frightening sound that rumbled against her back with his chest pressed tightly against her. Suddenly, she felt him fumble with the front of her haori, yanking the collar open to expose her shoulder.

Stiffening, her free hand flew to grip the edges together, trying to conserve her modesty. “What are you—?!”

Releasing her haori, the collar left gaping, he grabbed the base of her braid and yanked, forcing her head to the side. Throat bared, his fangs pierce where her shoulder met her neck. Kagome’s eyes flew wide. For one, prolonged moment, a strange…stillness overcame her. Then agony. She gasped and tried to pull away, but his arms kept her caged against him. She fought harder, until he bit harder.

She froze, whimpered.

He snarled.

Submit! The command blasted across her mind, more beastly growl than the voice of a man.

Something inside Kagome…responded. Softening, becoming receptive.

For a moment, her reiki yielded. Sesshomaru took swift advantage. Somehow, his youki enveloped her rioting reiki, forcing it down. Kagome helped as best as she could, until he distracted her by drinking from her. She felt him. Pulling at her neck, swallowing her blood. Kagome’s breath caught. Pain. Pleasure. Incredulity. Disgust?

His bite consumed her, focused her. Concentrating, she reigned in her reiki.

The moment her energies were under control, she felt Sesshomaru redirect his own, and the magic pulsating around them expanded and contracted.

His fangs released her, and Kagome nearly sobbed. It hurt. It was addicting.

“Call your sister’s full name.”

She didn’t dare question him but did as he commanded. “Kikyo Higurashi!”

The magic snapped. Sesshomaru began snarling words in a language she didn’t understand. It was dark, hypnotizing. With each word, power crackled sharply.

She watched as unnatural clouds formed around them, light at first, little more than whisps, before the haze thickened, blinding them to their surroundings. Green, jagged strikes of lightning arched around them, mixed with red and black jets. So close, Kagome could have reached out and touch them, but she dared not. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as grumbling thunder echoed around them, frightening her.

Sesshomaru’s voice boomed, echoing wildly. His voice rose above the unnatural storm roiling around them, when finally, he spoke Kikyo’s name. A command.

Heart pounding, Kagome didn’t know what to expect when the lightning dissolved, the thunder quietened, and the clouds faded. She blinked in surprise, dazed. Looking around them, everything appeared the same, baffling her.

Had something gone wrong?

She turned her head to stare up at Sesshomaru, wincing when she felt pain where he’d bitten her. A frown pulled down the corners of his mouth, his eyes searching their surroundings, before they lowered to meet her stare.

His words struck her like a blow to the chest. “She was not here.”

“That’s impossible. She had to be! She came to prevent a pregnant woman from dying!”

“The magic does not lie.”

“Maybe the spell failed?” Anger flashed in his eyes that she dared question his ability, and she quickly elaborated. “Maybe my blood wasn’t enough?”

“Is she your sister in truth? Or merely half?”

Kagome shook her head. “We share the same blood. Same mother. Same father. Our looks are so similar, we are often mistaken for twins.”

“Then the spell did not fail. Nothing happened, meaning she was not here at the time you said she would have been.”

 “Then something must have happened to her on the road before she could arrive!”

Sesshomaru leveled her with a strange look. “Perhaps.”

“What is it?”

“It is possible this village wasn’t her destination when she set out.”

“You mean…she lied about where she was going?” questioned Kagome in disbelief. She wouldn’t believe it! “I already told you. Kikyo would never lie! Not to me or our obaasan.”

“If you are certain, aijin. You know her best.”

Pacifying words that did not match the doubt reflected in his honeyed orbs.