At the bitterness in his voice, Kagome swallowed, wishing she could retreat further back into the wall. The heat of Kohaku’s body rushed over her as he pinned her in against him. Desperately, her eyes darted up to his. Her fingers seized at his wrists.

“W-wait,” she said faintly, grasping at straws. “What about Rin-chan? She loves you.”

“I don’t care,” Kohaku said, as he bent down and captured her lips with his.

Helpless to resist him, Kagome trembled in his hold, wide-eyed and tense as he laid claim to her mouth again and again, each time pressing harder, urging deeper. She could taste the sake on his tongue. She could feel the futility in the curl of her nails against his chest. Her mind raced as she struggled inwardly, sensing that to struggle outwardly would only incite him further. Blind panic shot through her as he crushed his hips to hers anyway, the stab of unbridled, animalistic intention making her heart stutter and her stomach drop—

Almost as much as the dark demonic winds buffeting against her from the west.

She had to stop him. She had to regain control of the situation for both their sakes. Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, and under the guise of stealing a second to breathe she whimpered out, “…Kohaku, I’m afraid.”

He stilled against her, softened against her. Drawing back, he took her face in his hands. His eyes searched hers, fathomless and dark—

Knowing.

“What are you afraid of?” he asked her all the same.

Kagome gazed up at him, her throat working fruitlessly to answer. In the distance, demonic energy crackled, sharp and scintillating, against the wards she’d placed. Pulling her to him, Kohaku sighed into her hair.

“All I want is to be with you,” he murmured. “Let me be with you.” His grip on her tightened, and Kagome shuddered. “Let me protect you.”

Kagome’s eyes closed tightly, her palms wedging flat between his chest and hers. “You have to go. Now.”

“No,” he said, the word leaving him as a growl. “This time I won’t let you shut me out.”

She was over his shoulder before she could twitch a muscle, her breath bursting from her in a startled gasp. In sheer distress, Kagome thrashed and kicked, pounding her fists against his back.

“Kohaku, you put me down right this instant! Let me go!”

Ignoring her, he crossed the room in a few brisk steps. All the air burst from her lungs again as her back hit the futon, and Kohaku’s weight bore down upon her at the waist and wrists. Seething, Kagome tried to buck him off, but it was as futile as before—if not more so. Above her, he stared down, immovable and intractable as stone.

From the corner near the door, Ikiryou whined. Kagome’s blood ran cold with true fear, her teeth clenching beneath the immense spiritual pressure assaulting her senses.

“Kohaku, listen to me, you have to stop—”

“Shut up,” he said, squeezing her wrists so hard she cried out in pain. “I’m through listening to you. You don’t know what you want. You don’t know anything. You’re sick—you’re diseased in the head. But it’s going to be all right, I promise.” For a moment, the miko forgot everything else, as the manic gleam in his eyes unnerved her to the marrow. “I’m going to fix you, Kagome.”

She couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to, even as the grip on her left wrist relented, and he skimmed his knuckles along the line of her jaw. Cool and dark as ink, the long tail of his hair flowed over her collar, as he leaned in and kissed her again. But when his hand traveled down the length of her body, when she felt his knee sliding back to part her thighs, Kagome’s paralysis broke. With a quickness that surprised them both, she struck out at him, her nails raking claw-like across the breadth of his cheek.

Viciously, Kohaku swore, releasing her in shock. As he reeled back, Kagome wriggled free, her shoulder smacking hard against the trunk nearby. Panting, she stared warily at him as he glared at her in turn. From the fingers he’d clapped to his cheek, blood seeped in a red, spidery crawl.

How long this hostile stalemate would have lasted was anyone’s guess. But a sudden presence at the door had them both turning palely toward it instead.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi