After pacing around for a little while, Kagome sat down on a moss-covered boulder to wait. As the minutes ticked by—first in a trickle and then by the handful—her impatience steadily mounted, along with her doubts. What if Sesshoumaru had simply left her here? He’d certainly been pissed off about that necklace…

Her fingers drummed on the rough pitted surface of the stone. If he’d ditched her, there’d be hell to pay. But would he really go so far as to do that—to outright abandon and defy her? Maybe he would. Maybe he’d already taken that woman away somewhere. He might be having his way with her right now, while Kagome sat here waiting like a fool.

Slipping angrily off the boulder, the miko extended her spiritual senses—preparing to track him down—when with a start, she detected him close-by, and drawing closer still. Kagome wandered a few steps ahead, her eyes widening at the soft ivory radiance that lit the wilderness like a lantern’s glow. Wreathed in this pale luminescence, Sesshoumaru appeared, his burnished gold eyes arresting her own.

Kagome’s mouth ran dry. He was a handsome creature, but she had never seen him look like this before. His hair was a feathery halo of platinum silk, his skin glowing like marble inlaid with sapphire and slashes of ruby red. The fur cascading from his shoulder teemed with a velvety white light—a light that suffused the rest of his celestial form in mesmerizing, otherworldly brilliance. Before she fully realized it, Kagome was moving toward him, her heartbeat slow and leaden, as though she had discovered him in a dream.

The clamor of her instincts was a distant nuisance as she stepped into the shining circle of his arms, heat pooling her belly at the tantalizing warmth of his touch. Her lashes lowered, her lips parting as his sculpted mouth fell to hers, the ghost of his breath over her damp, tingling skin shocking her at last from her stupor. Her palm cracked hard against his cheek as she reeled from his hold, Sesshoumaru dropping his glamour with a heavy frown.

Kagome stumbled back a few steps more, her stinging hand flying out against a tree branch to brace her. “You…you tried to seduce me!” Rage robbed her temporarily of her voice, her eyes shooting daggers into his as her pounding chest continued to heave. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Sesshoumaru—do you hear me?”

Frowning still, the daiyoukai glanced briefly over his shoulder. “She is coming.”

Quickly, Kagome straightened. Beyond him, a path of misty, ethereal light still glowed, a slight feminine form materializing through the shimmering haze. Scrambling back behind the tree, the panting miko hid herself away, clamping a hand over her nose and mouth before peering around the trunk again.

Dark eyes as wide and glazed as saucers gazed up at Sesshoumaru from a pretty, heart-shaped young face. The miko was surprised and somewhat irritated to see that the so-called ‘woman’ her brother-in-law had picked out was in fact a teenaged girl—certainly no older than Kagome herself had been when she’d first arrived in the Feudal Era. Though her cheeks were flushed with nervousness, the girl was clearly still enraptured, appearing almost on the verge of intoxication as she continued to behold the demon lord. Having just been subjected to Sesshoumaru’s seduction spell herself, Kagome could attest to the strength of it, her thoughts souring as she imagined him using it on Mayuri and all the others as well. Such a low, dirty tactic—and overkill, besides.

Gritting her teeth, Kagome watched him as he studied the girl in turn, his attitude oddly unenthusiastic for someone looking to get laid. Knowing his subtle expressions better than most, Kagome could see that he actually seemed vaguely annoyed, the slightest furrow of his brows betraying the sentiment. The girl was oblivious to all of this, of course. A small shivery gasp of pleasure escaped her as he cut loose the tie at her nape and ran his claws briskly through her unbound raven hair.

If this girl wasn’t a virgin, Kagome didn’t know who was. Her sleeve twisted in her clenching fingers as the girl continued to gasp and tremble beneath Sesshoumaru’s dispassionate caresses, the silencing slant of his mouth against hers almost a welcome relief. Until his lips began to move. A brick of lead seemed to settle in the miko’s stomach as she watched him kiss her, the girl’s clumsy attempts to reciprocate betraying her total lack of experience.

This was wrong on so many levels, Kagome didn’t even know where to start. All she could do was stand there frozen as her brother-in-law took this poor girl’s first kiss—first everything. It was a sickness that deepened when his eyes opened suddenly toward Kagome herself, the miko’s breath stilting as his look darkened and his tongue plunged its way into the girl’s unsuspecting mouth.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi