Red light scorched behind her shuttered eyes. Kagome groaned, shifting in the softness that enveloped her. As her stiff limbs wakened, she curled her hands into the fine texture beneath her, something strange and alien in it startling her to full wakefulness. Her breath stilted, her fingers clenching. Exhaling forcefully, she pushed herself upright, coils

Even before Kagome’s eyes shot open, her bow was armed and in her hands. Rapidly she breathed through the lingering fog of her unconsciousness, her miko instincts firing at the foreign, near-undetectable youki feathering at the edges of her senses. Reiki flamed down the drawn shaft of her arrow, its light fit to blind as

The word left her as little more than a whisper, but its effect was immediate. A fearsome roar reverberated through the wilderness, Kagome’s hair whipping back as the Beast’s massive bulk crashed to the earth below. Dust and youki rose in a storm, the miko shielding herself as best she could against it. With stinging

The darkness swallowed up Kagome’s tried-and-true command of subjugation, its afterecho ringing hollow in her throat. Huge crimson eyes scintillated with derision. Black canine lips pulled back in a fiendish leer as the lights of her rosary beads dimmed and sputtered out. Kagome’s features crumpled in defeat, but before she could dwell too long on