InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tsubaki's Revenge ❯ The Escape... ( Chapter 17 )

Tsubaki's Revenge, Part XVII: The Escape ...

 

A hand covered his mouth. Startled from sleep, the dog bit. Blood flowed into his mouth, and someone gasped. "Inuyasha!" she said in a harsh whisper. "Inuyasha, don't you know me? It's Kikyo!"

 

The rest of him woke up. Ears swiveled, and he sniffed. A familiar, comforting scent washed through his nose. Kikyo? He realized that his mouth was filled with absolutely horrible-tasting blood, and that it must be hers. Shame and embarrassment flooded through him. He abruptly let go, flattening himself onto his stomach, flinging his good forepaw over his head, whining.

 

"Inuyasha?" Despite the whisper, she sounded shocked. "What's wrong? Why are you..." she trailed off, as unwilling to come to a conclusion. To his annoyance, Inuyasha realized that his body was still acting like a dog. Growling softly, he sat up. Looking for her face, he realized that his vision had still not completely healed. He could make out a dark mass against a greater darkness, but no detail.

 

A hand touched his shoulder. "Can you walk?" she whispered. "I cast a sleep spell, but I don't know how long it will last. We have to get out of here."

 

He glared at her. Leave the bitch?! If she was asleep, then they should go kill her. He growled, softly, turned his head towards where he sensed the partially collapsed building was, and then snapped his teeth together twice.

 

"No," she said firmly, evidently taking his meaning. "No killing. Now can you walk? I don't want to have to bring the horse up."

 

Inuyasha sighed, and stood up on his three more-or-less good limbs. Sniffing deeply, he searched for the scent of horse. Locating it, he started forward, anxious to be gone. If he couldn't go kill the bitch, the least they could do was leave, fast.

 

"Don't get ahead of me, Inuyasha," she whispered from behind him. "I don't want you spooking the horse. By the way, have you always had that tail?"

 

Inuyasha froze. Tail! He centered his attention on himself for a moment. Toes, feet, calves, knees, thighs-something touched the back of his thighs, something soft and furry. He imagined swatting his left thigh with a tail. Something smacked against his thigh, and he realized he was feeling something past the end of his backbone, something that felt like an extension of his spine, but which moved and had skin and muscles and fur-

 

A tail.

 

His body almost flattened itself again in embarrassment. He avoided that, but did feel the tail curve towards his belly. He whined, his ears lowering. Gods, bad enough the bitch was trying to kill him, but why did she have to humiliate him as well? He wouldn't mind a tail if he were able to transform into a demon dog like his father. But to have a tail added on to his mostly human appearance--! Another whine came out of his throat.

 

A hand reached down to scratch his ear. "Don't worry about it," said Kikyo. "We'll find a way to get it off."

 

He sniffed deeply and let her scent fill him. He sighed, relaxing a bit. Kikyo had come, and that was the important thing. Get free of this place, get somewhere safe, and then his Kikyo would find a way to free him. He could wait. As long as he was free and with her, he could wait...

 

Kikyo took the lead, and Inuyasha was content to pad along behind her. Embarrassments aside, he felt happier with every step. She had come. Kikyo had actually come and rescued him. What was the embarrassment of acting like a dog and having a tail, next to that? Someone actually cared enough about him to search for him and rescue him. The thought was pure bliss.

 

Unfortunately, the thought was also enough to almost set off the imposed 'dog' in him into an attempted prance, which would end up with a leap up onto Kikyo to lick her face. Keeping that desire suppressed took a considerable edge off the happiness.

 

The smell of horse became overwhelming. Straining, Inuyasha made out its form looming in the dark. "Can you jump onto her back, Inuyasha?" asked Kikyo anxiously. "If you can't mount normally..."

 

He carefully eased forward, sniffing, acutely aware of the fact that horses had big, very hard and heavy feet, and that he didn't want to get his hand (or his feet) stepped on. Rearing up, he let his hand land on the horse's side. Straining to see, he guessed that the horse's withers were actually about as high as his collarbone, if he were standing straight up. He sank down a little, then carefully jumped.

 

He estimated the amount of strength he needed accurately, landing on saddle. What he didn't allow for was the state of his ribs, as he came down. His half-healed ribs protested violently, and he gave a yelp of pain.

 

"Are you all right, Inuyasha?" The dog whimpered, not wanting to move, realizing that he was very awkwardly positioned, as either dog or human. "Look, get your leg over, then straighten up." He felt her push on his foot. With that to guide him, he managed to wriggle around, though not without a few whines and yelps. As he panted, half-sprawled over the horse's neck, he felt Kikyo mount behind him. Moments later, he felt her arm go around his waist.

 

"Here. Lean back on me," she instructed, pulling him back. "I'll hold you on."

 

He found himself leaning back against her, his tail tucked between his legs and apparently not equipped with pain nerves. As a half-human male, he didn't at all object to leaning back against her. As a dog, he was extremely uncomfortable. Dogs didn't perch on their rumps, leaning backwards. He had to fight the urge to squirm sideways to get off. Which rather spoiled things.

 

Her arm around his waist tightened. "There's a warded hut we can get to before dawn, but we'll have to hurry. I know it may hurt, but try not to move-I won't let you fall."

 

The horse lunged forward, breaking into a canter. At the first jump, Inuyasha realized what he was in for. Each stride the horse took jarred his body and every single partly healed bone in it. Within a dozen strides, he was glad that Kikyo was working to keep him on the horse. A few more dozen, and his teeth were ground together, with only a single thought in his mind, to endure the pain and not cry out.

 

If he succeeded, he didn't know. The nightmare ride continued until consciousness faded entirely. When he roused, it was to a cup pressed against his lips. He swallowed the liquid eagerly, not noticing until the second or third swallow-and then, not caring-that it was one of Kikyo's rather hideous plant brews. It was followed by a larger bowl of plain water, which was even more welcome. He sighed as she let his head down, feeling the analgesic herbs start to take effect-or perhaps it was just being able to relax into the relative comfort of a straw bed. "Thank-you, Kikyo," he whispered. "I—" His eyes flew open. "I can talk!" he exclaimed. "The collar—?"

 

"It's not off, but it appears that I managed to nullify at least part of its effects," she said.

 

"You did," he said with a sigh of relief. He was on his back, and not trying to squirm onto his side; he could talk. "Gods...she had my body thinking it was a dog..."

 

"Ah. I'd guessed that." Something moved into his range of vision; her face was badly blurred, but with the help of the firelight, he could at least tell that it was her face. And that she was smiling.

 

He reached up with his good hand to touch her face. Her skin was warm and soft, and he stroked it, being very careful of his claws. A knot tried to form in his throat, and his eyes burned-damn it, he was a hanyo! Hanyo's weren't supposed to cry! "Kik-yo..." His throat closed up then.

 

She gently pried his hand away from her face, and lowered it. "Inuyasha." Her face moved down. "My love."

 

She pressed her lips against his. Something like a shock ran through his body. He returned her kiss with interest, lifting his head, and freeing his hand to run it into her hair. She deepened the kiss, forcing his mouth open, rather to his surprise. He didn't object, but he found himself running out of breath. Breaking off, he let his head drop, then turned his head to avoid her mouth. "Heh, Kikyo," he panted. "I'm not up to this, yet. And don't we have things to talk about?"

 

"About what?" she asked, shifting position so that she was lying on her side, propped up on a elbow, leaning over him. "We can do that later," she whispered, using her free hand to stroke his face. "And don't worry about it—I can do all the work." She gave him a quick peck on her cheek. "And it's not like you don't want me."

 

He went crimson, perfectly well aware of his arousal, and of the fact that she could hardly miss it, given that he had nothing on top of him at all. "Of-of course I want you," he stammered a little, turning his face back so he could meet her eyes, blurry as his vision still was. "But how—we can't take the time now! Tsubaki will be searching for us as soon as she wakes up, and I—who knows what she can do with this collar-we've got to get it off!"

 

She only smiled at him. "We have time, lover. All the time we need."

 

He put his hand in the way of her lips, all of his instincts twanging. Something was wrong. Kikyo had never used the term 'lover': what he had heard that one time, that one kiss, that one embrace, was 'beloved'. And she wasn't this forward. She was a miko, and a very good one. When she was on the hunt, she exhibited the emotionless control and craft of a top predator-he'd been on the receiving end too often not to know that. It didn't make sense that she would drop that control now, not with an uninjured foe around, and someone (himself, damnit!) that needed protection.

 

And there was something else wrong, besides her behavior. Something that had been tickling the back of his mind since he woke up. Something odd, something that didn't fit.

 

She grasped his hand, intending to pull it away from his mouth. He resisted, as his eyes tried vainly to find anything wrong with that hand. He had bitten her on the hand, hard. This hand, he was certain, given the position he'd been lying in when she had awoken him, and what he remembered from the bite.

 

There was no mark.

 

And the blood had tasted—odd. He could not recall ever having tasted pure human blood. But he had tasted his own often enough, plus enough mortal beasts to know that there was little very difference in the taste of blood between his own and fur-bearing animals. A pure human's blood surely could not taste that much different.

 

She tried to move his hand down again. He caught her hand instead pulling it aside. He looked up at Kikyo, wishing that his vision had completely healed, so that he could really see her. He drew in a breath, and the scent was exactly like he remembered. But scent wasn't enough. "I'm sorry."

 

He dug a claw into her hand, piercing the skin. Letting go of her hand, he plunged a different claw into his own palm. Bringing his hand in front of his face, he examined the two droplets of blood. They might be fuzzy, but he could see color. And while one was a normal, blood red-his; the other was so dark as to be almost black. Licking his claws, this time he identified the foul taste.

 

Ink.

 

He stopped her attempt to kiss him, pushing her back

 

"You're not Kikyo."

 

"Of course I am, Inuyasha," she said, trying to move his hand from her shoulder. "I want you, and you want me—why are you hesitating?"

 

"Because you're not Kikyo. Because you're Tsubaki's puppet. Because this—this has all been an illusion. A pretty little play, created by your mistress." Part of him screamed in despair as he stated that, but he knew with a sure instinct that he was right. It had been too easy, and nothing in character. "You panting, rutting bitch," he added with a snarl.

 

Kikyo-Kikyo's duplicate-froze a long moment. Then she sighed. "Oh, Inuyasha," she said, sounding so like Kikyo that Inuyasha flattened his ears, wishing at that moment his hearing as as fuzzy as his vision. "This could have been so enjoyable for you. I was willing to give you that." He discovered that he could not move, as she bent down and kissed him gently.

 

"But, since you're not willing, I guess I'll just have to rape you."

 

"What?!"

 

He stared at 'Kikyo's' face in shock. "A woman, a woman can't—"

 

She laughed, and a shiver ran down his spine. Were her teeth suddenly pointed? "Oh, my, are you truly that innocent, little puppy? Never been raped? Never had sex?"

 

He stared at her, unable to answer. "Of course a woman can rape a man," she whispered, leaning over to sink her teeth-gently-into his lower lip. "She just has to be clever." She breathed against his face, nuzzling it. One hand reached up to scratch his ear. "And this one ... is strong, as well as clever."

 

She bit him, hard, and her teeth were indeed all pointed.