“…I think you know.”

He had not bothered to mask the loathing in his words. He did not bother to hide it now. Seething, he pinned her doe-like gaze, daring her to feign ignorance of his intentions.

Yes, you wretched girl. Knuckles cracked as he flexed his claws. You know full well what I want.

Bitterly, he studied her face, still somewhat astonished to find it before him once again. He had not expected her to return. And in such an irksome manner…

A muscle in his jaw tensed slightly. In a perverse way, he supposed her arrival was fitting.

It would not do for her to simply let him be. The gods had singled him out for torment, it seemed, and now here she was again, to punish him in his affliction.

She would never agree to such terms. He had said those words to her out of spite, knowing that she would refuse him. Had she not already? Had she not humiliated him, rejected him—

“All right.”

He looked at her sharply.

The wind stirred her glossy hair, a faint tinge of red dusting her cheeks. Her blue eyes shone as they held his, entrancing in their clarity.

“…If that’s what you want.”

His eyes narrowed. His lips thinned. She did not shrink from his menacing expression, though she stilled, appearing not even to breathe.

“Miko,” he said to her, a low rumble roughening his voice, “do you realize what you are agreeing to?”

Slowly, unfathomably, she nodded. Her flush deepened, although the icy breeze could be yet to blame. He had to know for certain that she had not mistaken him. He had to hear her give answer to his demands, to the dark hunger that stirred within him.

Looming over her, he said, “You would surrender yourself to a demon you have wronged? You would let me take you, ravage you…defile you, if I so choose?”

A shadow passed over her features before they hardened, her eyes flashing with a steely glint, though her voice was soft. “So long as you’ll help us put an end to Naraku and the Shikon no Tama, you can do whatever you want with me.”

He could feel the heat creeping into his gaze, her words stoking the white-hot blaze of his desire. How often he had thought of revenging himself upon her, her reiki snuffed like a candle flame beneath his unfettered youki, her body trapped beneath his own as he swallowed her desperate cries.

It was a scenario he despised as much as he craved. The knowledge that she could—and had—denied him had granted Sesshoumaru a measure of security in the face of his detestable fixation. And so her present acquiescence unsettled him. That she would she would let him have her, that she would allow him to fulfill his wants unchecked forced him once again into a precipitous position.

He resented her for shifting the burden of decision onto him—though there could be no choice but one. His pride would not permit him to back away from his own proposition. All that was left was for him to plunge ahead, down that path where his accursed lust was beckoning, pulling at him with the force of gravity.

“Very well,” he declared, gaze hooded as he regarded her intently. “Then this Sesshoumaru will aid you in your quest.”

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi