Kagome recoiled at the phrase, the Beast’s words haunting her through it.

“You…” she said lowly, sweeping his fur clear of her as she backed away. “Don’t be so cheeky.”

Heatedly, Sesshoumaru held her gaze. “Then compose yourself.”

The miko grit her teeth. Her hands fisted at her sides as she glared.

“If you didn’t want me to be so bad-tempered, you should have picked a better time for all of this,” she snapped, glancing aside as she thought back over the pattern of his known encounters. “Gods. Is this really how it’s going to be?—every month’s business?”

“Roughly,” the daiyoukai replied, regarding her heavily.

Kagome exhaled through her clenched teeth. Pacing over to the stream, she knelt at its edge and drank sullenly from the racing current. The cold braced her slightly. Straightening, she turned toward him.

There was something curious in his behavior toward her. Something in his bearing that suggested he didn’t quite know how to behave. It was so uncharacteristic of him that Kagome couldn’t possibly let it go. Her brow furrowed as she considered him further, a frown weighing her lips as a thread of chilling realization wended through her.

“I’m the first, aren’t I?” she said, almost on a whisper. “The first one you haven’t killed during sex.”

In the darkening of his gaze, she found her answer. Swallowing tightly, she turned away, her fingers twisting in her sleeves to still their shaking.

“Well, you heard what I said last night—you’re not ready for other women,” she said, her voice still tight to her own hearing. “But all things considered, it could have gone a lot worse. At least I was able to get a hold on you, in the end.”

“Yes,” Sesshoumaru said.

Somewhat mollified by his concession, Kagome gazed off toward the stream’s turbulent end. “I’ll relax the barrier around Edo village so you can enter. It was only a matter of time until Rin-chan started interrogating me about it, anyway.” Her shoulders slackened a bit as her eyes slanted back toward him. “She misses you.”

“And I her,” he replied.

Kagome deflated further. “…I don’t know where my sandals are. I think they must’ve washed downstream.”

“It is no matter,” Sesshoumaru said, extending a clawed hand toward her. “Come—I will take you home.”

Staring at him for a moment, Kagome approached. At once, his arm went around her, caging her in against him. The miko squirmed on principle as they took to the air, the warmth of his breath against her neck making her feel vaguely ill. In what seemed like another life, she had taken a measure of comfort in his rare embrace—now, the mere feeling of him against her made her skin crawl with unease.

It was a feeling that deepened as they soared East. Fanned out against her, his claws scratched lightly over her lower stomach. Trying her best to remain unaffected, Kagome nevertheless cringed at this unwanted intimacy. But it was the feeling of his nose against her ear that startled her into full distress. Even as she shifted pointedly in his hold, his mouth pursued her. When his fangs closed around the delicate shell of her ear and tugged, she reeled in sudden anger.

“What the hell are you doing?” she exclaimed—deeply resenting the fact she couldn’t ‘sit’ him in midair without breaking her own neck in the bargain.

“Showing you affection,” he replied, nonplussed. Nipping once more at her tender lobe, he rumbled, “Is that not customary for one’s partner?”

“I’m not your ‘partner’,” Kagome seethed, slashing her chin to the side to break his hold on her ear. “I’m your referee—and I’m never flying with you like this ever again!”

The minute his youki cloud touched to the ground, she broke free of him with a jolt of reiki. Rounding upon him, she bared her teeth.

“Down,” she growled, her chest heaving as his knees hit the earth. It was a subjugation without savor, as his eyes met hers boldly, simmering with intent. “Damn you, Sesshoumaru. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay far away from me.”

“As you wish,” he said, inclining his head as he rose gracefully and took to the air once again, “my lady.”

Scowling, Kagome stared after him, her heart pounding in her chest as she followed his fading form through the sky.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi