InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Gray ❯ Five ( Chapter 44 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

~<>~ Chapter 44~<>~ Five

 

<notes> I promised that I would finish this story, and I intend to hold true to that. Sorry that it’s been….uhh….five? years since the last update with the promise of a speedy update following that just…didn’t. But this time, I used my noggin and wrote out all of the remaining story before posting. So you should be getting the rest of the story as one big upload. I want to write an epilogue, and I do plan to, but seeing that it’s taken me 15 years to finish this story, I figured I shouldn’t keep these chapters sitting while I find time to finish an extra one. A trigger warning to be offered on this chapter and the next (more so the next): there is discussion of everything that has happened to Kagome with Bankotsu and some in more detail than you may be comfortable with. 

Also, a note of dirty consensual smut ahead. You’ve been warned.  </notes>

 

 

Kagome Higurashi stood, staring at the empty seats and mahogany railing that caged the people who would determine her fate. She ran her finger delicately over the swirls of brown and black, her eyes sharply focused, studying the pattern in the wood. Her words stuck in her throat as she willed time to quickly pass. The weight of the situation was crushing; tomorrow she would sit here, across from these people, and from him. She would have to see him, to hear his voice, to smell his scent.

For two months, she had been liberated from the weight of this burden. While it lived in the back of her brain, never terribly far from her thoughts, she had been granted a short but needed reprieve while she and InuYasha attempted to collect the scattered pieces of their lives. InuYasha had introduced Kagome to the family, he had repaired some of his relationship with his older brother, Sesshomaru, and he was healing, slowly, from the loss of Kagejiro. They hadn’t any leads as to the whereabouts of said missing brother, or whether he was alive or not. While his presence was sorely missed, there was so still so much for Kagome to do sorting out her own life.

The fallout of the Koizumi case was hard on the Taisho family. She constantly found herself apologizing to his father and mother every time she would see them. As the family had traveled the same circles that Bankotsu did, they were always at odds with someone, accused of framing the ‘poor young kid’. The phrase ‘made a mistake’ came up enough to make Kagome sick. Apparently, it had worn thin on Luania as well, because the Taisho Corp had begun trimming the fat from their cadre. Yes, it had cost them a lot of money, enough money to make Kagome feel faint, but it didn’t seem to faze the family in the slightest. And their stocks had taken a hit, both domestic and international, but no one seemed to be sweating.

As far as Kagome, her life had barely returned to normal. Her father hadn’t attempted to contact her directly; instead sending an envoy from Japan to discuss dropping the lawsuit. In the letter from her father, he informed her of the harm her scandal was causing his business and demanded that she admit to the truth and back off her persecution of Bankotsu. He believed that this was an attention seeking scheme and that she was only out to ruin his business. She had been curt but polite with the envoy; it wasn’t their fault that her father was an asshole.

Her mother was dragged into the spotlight, which enraged Kagome more so than anything Banktosu had done to her. The media got ahold of the story of her brother’s origin and ran with it. Theories were concocted and assumptions were made; Kagome had quickly become the gold-digging strumpet that America loved to hate. She was sick of seeing her face on tabloids and magazines alike. InuYasha had suggested, without jest, of getting her a publicist. She punched him in response. But her mother had handled it gracefully; she had been offered interviews as well and she had picked and chosen which allies to make during this battle. Her mother never once questioned or doubted Kagome’s story and was a staunch advocate in her daughter’s fight for justice. Souta also loved the attention; he got to be on TV and that was cool in his six-year-old brain. It was all he really understood of the whole proceedings. Kagome was sure she’d be paying for therapy later in life when he finally understood everything that had happened.

She never knew isolation like her final few weeks at school. She might as well have been a leper; people refused to have anything to do with her for fear of the spotlight finding them too. With others, that was less of a concern; Jakotsu lived in the limelight with her. He had made it a game to be next to her every time she made some sort of social appearance. Jakotsu took this opportunity to make Kagome into his very own dress up doll, creating a new ensemble for all of her interviews and appearances. He unleashed some of his creative flair, designing and subsequently selling a number of her outfits. He shamelessly plugged his name and label anywhere he could to great effect. A new website paid off handsomely with increased sales. Needless to say, he had been thoroughly ostracized by the rest of his family. Not that he wasn’t already on the outs, but this was a more final separation. Kagome clung to this friendship as tightly as she could; Jakotsu had put so much of himself out there for her. He had spurned his blood ties to side with a friend.

It amazed her, looking at the past few months of her life, how much things had changed. At the start of the year, she had been bound and broken, both literally and figuratively, and searching without knowing what she was searching for. She was caught in a cycle of self-hatred and destruction. The viciousness had overwhelmed her, nearly consumed everything. And yet she emerged; she had more family now than she ever dared hope for. She had InuYasha, who was her life raft in this sea of turmoil.  She had Jakotsu, Sango, and Rin cheering for her, supporting her, loving her as a sibling would. She had Sesshomaru, take him or leave him on certain days depending on his mood, but he was a powerful ally and friend. She had Miroku, who she grew to love more and more every day; his humor and wit was enough to break any cloud of depression and he was quick to get the room to laugh. He didn’t allow her to wallow, and would chide her if she even attempted it. She had recently found out that when Miroku had learned from InuYasha of the events of her father’s exploits and attempts to slander her, he mailed her father and his company twenty-five pounds of dick-shaped gummies, specifically with the note to ‘eat a bag of dicks’. Five times. All of these people had healed her to some extent; and while the hardest battle of facing this monster in court was looming on the horizon, she knew she was strong enough now.

State’s Attorney Easton broke the silence by quietly clearing his throat. In the stillness of the empty courtroom, the disruption caused Kagome to jump slightly. His interjection reminded her of the proximity of that looming storm cloud; she would be coming face to face with Bankotsu in less than twenty-four hours. Thankfully, the attorney had taken some of his time to prepare her for the approaching storm. The court had a half day; there was a hearing in the morning in which more doctors and nurses had offered testimony on behalf of the prosecution. That had ended at noon, two hours earlier, and the court house was shut down for some sort of computer upgrades. Using the free time, Easton had arranged for Kagome to meet him there to discuss her pending testimony.

The court case had been proceeding for the previous two weeks without her. She hadn’t wanted to be in the same room as Bankotsu; she honestly didn’t know if she could handle it. The court case was a mess and the blows to her character kept coming in hard; first she was painted as a victim, but little by little, the defense was chipping away at that image. Souta was her son…she was sleeping with Inu and Bankotsu… then someone mentioned a demon at the club, much to both her and Yasha’s chagrin, and then Naraku was brought into it. Suddenly she was a whore who jumped into bed with anyone. And while people weren’t openly discriminating against demons, it was of little shock that people were disgusted by her, a human, sleeping with the ‘enemy’.

InuYasha and Miroku had attended nearly every court date; Miroku was the glue that held InuYasha in his seat every time the defense attempted to assassinate Kagome’s character. Jakotsu had also attended a number of court dates, sitting proudly next to InuYasha, showboating his support for Kagome against that of his family. InuYasha was mostly tight lipped about what happened in court, but Miroku had no problem reenacting the highlights. He always seemed to love replaying snippets from the anti-rape culture protesters outside that showed up en masse to condemn the idea that Kagome had somehow brought this on herself and that it was an antiquated notion to blame the victim. Hearing that strangers were on her side helped to keep Kagome a little more sane.

And yet, they had finally reached the day that Kagome could no longer hide from facing Bankotsu in court and disclosing her questionable decisions from her dark past. She had to face him, offer her testimony, and pray it was enough. The prosecutor, Easton, had seized a courtroom to play nice and ‘practice’ with Kagome to help her prepare for the coming fight. While Kagome knew he had a thousand other things he could be doing, Daniel had taken the free afternoon to sit with Kagome and walk her through what would happen.

“So…Miss Higurashi, you see, when the defendant enters, he’ll be in cuffs. You won’t have to worry about him making any fast moves. The bailiffs will be close to you and there will be two armed guards with him at all times.” He pointed towards the darkened doorway on the left of the room in which all prisoners were brought into the court room from the detention center below the building. “His defense attorney may ask for the handcuffs to be removed but I will argue against that. With these charges, I don’t believe it will pose much of a problem.” What would, Kagome wondered; the handcuffs or removing them? Easton was at best vague on all of his statements. Was he saying that he didn’t think Bankotsu would try something? Would he? Kagome took a deep breath. InuYasha would be there, he wouldn’t let Bankotsu get within ten feet of her. Part of her cringed; would InuYasha be able to sit in the room and listen without ending up with charges of contempt of court for trying to choke the defendant?

Kagome wrung her hands together, nodding every so often. She heard his words but was unable to process much of what Easton was saying. She was already breathless at the thought of having to see Bankotsu tomorrow, let alone possibly engage with him. She knew that man, and there was very little chance he was going to keep that trap shut for any length of time.

“You’ll be called to the stand,” he gestured with his hand and slowly walked towards the podium on the right side of the room. He beckoned her to walk with him. “You’ll take this one. You do not need to walk by Mr. Koizumi for this. During the trial, only myself and the defense attorney or the Judge will address you with questions. Under no circumstances will you have to interact directly with Mr. Koizumi. If he speaks to you, you are to ignore him.” Seeing her breathe a quiet sigh of relief, he continued, “when you are on the stand, it’s best to answer with ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’. You want to present yourself as likeable,” he paused and smiled to add, “not that you aren’t, but you need to be charismatic.”

“I thought it’s the facts that matter,” Kagome quipped while redirecting her attention on the small box.

The man’s smile remained intact, even though it waned in his eyes. “Yes, well, the facts are my job. You need to make sure the jury sees a young woman who might have made a poor choice, but was unquestioningly as well as ruthlessly taken advantage of and abused to the brink of paralysis.” He tapped his fingers against the stand, weighing his next set of words. “They need to feel bad for you, sympathize with what happened to you and understand that Mr. Koizumi was fully responsible. Sometimes, witnesses take the stand and quickly become defensive, if not downright hostile, when placed under scrutiny. Some people naturally can’t accept it, they have trouble being questioned.”

Kagome lifted her eyes to lock with the attorney. “There’s only truth,” she said with barely concealed annoyance.

The state’s attorney raised an eyebrow, “this is what I’m warning you about. They are going to try and get you to change your story. They are going to try to trip you up, to mix up one small aspect of your story so they place reasonable doubt in the jury’s minds. They will try to make you angry so that you will say something out of anger, which doesn’t play well with a jury and trying to convey you are the victim. They will try to discredit your story and you as an individual.” Rubbing his chin, the man frowned, “with all due respect, Miss Higurashi, without your testimony…”

“He walks,” Kagome finished for him. “Yeah, I know.” That was the pit in the bottom of her stomach.

“So why don’t you take a seat and we’ll walk through some of the questions you might hear tomorrow.”

Kagome closed her eyes and sighed. She knew the man was just doing his job but the less she had to answer these questions, the better off she was. He was unequivocally correct; she had to know her story inside and out. And she did. Except… she had to also protect InuYasha, who was a huge part of the story and the ensuing mess. How could she explain her miraculous healing? So far, no real explanation had been asserted. Rumors of course had their own speculations; she drank demon blood (that wasn’t a thing!), she was a demon, and her favorite and most dangerous of the rumors, she wasn’t injured at all and someone forged all of the records. They had subpoenaed two of her nurses and three doctors to testify. All of their testimony supported Kagome’s story, along with pictures, X-rays, MRIs and records, but not one of them could explain her miraculous recovery.

Swinging herself around into the testimony box, Kagome put both her hands on the wooden podium and slowly sat down in the chair. “Okay…”

“Do you want to hear some of my questions? Or some that the defense might ask?”

Kagome sighed again and shrugged. “Hit me with whatever.”

The corner of the man’s mouth twitched, “please be mindful of your word choice, Miss. Higurashi.”

Kagome couldn’t help but roll her eyes. This man wasn’t as bad as the first who had approached her in the hospital shortly before her discharge, but he was nearly as infuriating. She could see it behind his eyes, and InuYasha had muttered it upon meeting him: this guy did not believe Kagome’s story. He viewed her as some sort of damsel in distress who made some bad choices and wanted the attention afterwards. She wanted to hate him for that, but he was professional enough to keep his opinions to himself.

Upon hearing no real objections, the man began. “Miss Higurashi, can you explain the nature of your relationship with Mr. Koizumi?

Kagome closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “It was sexual in nature. We started out dating, but that changed when he ended his relationship with his previous…” Kagome swallowed thickly, knowing how it would sound, “…submissive. He decided he wanted to date someone who was more culturally affluent…”

The man’s nose twitched and he scratched his forehead, a gesture that Kagome had learned meant she said something wrong. “Please, Miss Higurashi, keep to the verifiable facts, things we can back up with evidence or additional witness testimony. So far, this other person hasn’t materialized…”

“That’s because she’s dead,” Kagome snapped back. This was another topic which infuriated Kagome; no one believed that Bankotsu’s previous submissive had ever existed. No one knew her name, so it was much easier for Jane Doe to have disappeared. Without any real evidence of her death, or  his involvement, that lead had fizzled out, regardless of those who would testify in support of it. According to InuYasha, the NYPD was still trying to find out who she was, and where she went. Inu knew very little about the woman beyond the one night of passion he had with her so many years back. But there were no ties that could connect Bankotsu to any Jane Doe over the past three years.

“Again, Miss Higurashi, let’s stick to what we can prove.”

               Kagome counted backwards and tried to answer the question again. “Our relationship was sexual in nature. We were in a relationship and then, when that was no longer something he wished to maintain…”

               “Miss Higurashi, we call that speculation. You can’t guess why he terminated it. Just…say the facts, and stick to your perspective on events.”

Kagome’s glower must have said it all. The attorney clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “This is really important, Miss Higurashi. This is one of the easier questions you’ll be asked tomorrow.”

               Was it really tomorrow? Kagome choked under the pressure. She wanted to be indignant, she wanted to stand up and yell at Bankotsu, but this man was right. She had to be likeable, affable…if it was a pleasant ‘-able’, she had to be it.

“Mr. Koizumi and I were in a sexual relationship. When that was no longer a viable option for us, we moved on to something more. We were no longer dating but we still slept together.”

“And you were okay with that?”

Kagome felt her eye twitch and her lips pulled to thin lines. “Yes, I understood what he expected from me pretty early on. He made it very clear and easy to understand. I was to do as he asked, and in return, I stayed in his favor.”

“And what were some of the things he asked you to do?”

Kagome wondered for a moment how this wasn’t speculation, or hear-say. A part of her worried that the lawyer was enjoying these questions. “He would ask me to perform sexual favors for him,” she let out a short sign, “or for his friends.”

“And you would?”

Kagome bit back her scream. This man was, without question, judging her. She knew the gleam that was hiding just behind the pupil of his eyes; he was interested in what type of girl would sell her body for a few glasses of booze and the privilege to play with the adults. “Yes.”

“Would he pay you?”

Kagome nearly spit back, “I am not a whore. He never paid me….” Her fists clenched at her sides. InuYasha had repeatedly made comments about how he didn’t like this guy, and now Kagome completely understood why. He had wanted to come with her to this ‘practice session’, as he called it, but he had finals in his history class.

“In money. But what about in drinks, or clothing, or vacations?”

“No. I got all the drinks I wanted because I was staff. All staff members got to drink.”

“While working? Tell me, Kagome, if you were staff, doesn’t that imply that you were paid? If you were staff, what was your job?”

Again, she found herself counting backwards. “I was employed, I guess. My job, when I was there, was to dance. I would get the dance floor moving; I would go out when no one was dancing and encourage others to join me.”

“Do you have W2s to show your wages collected from this job?”

Kagome threw her head back and groaned. “No, he paid me under the table.”

“And how did you pay him under the table?”

Kagome’s head snapped up and her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?” Rage quickly bubbled up to the surface and whispered for her to tell him to fuck off.

The attorney only smiled politely, “You have to understand how this all sounds, Miss Higurashi. It sounds like a poorly fabricated story meant to fool some idiot jurors. It sounds like you have collaborated with others to try and make yourself sound more important than you were at that club. In fact, I would venture to say that you were merely a play toy for the owner. You weren’t employed, you weren’t special; you were his whore and you don’t want to paint that image of yourself.”

Kagome’s vision blurred behind a flurry of angry tears. Her knuckles turned white at her side, her nails biting into her palm. “Wait…”

“Miss Higurashi, did you, or did you not, allow a stranger, a demon, to put his hand down your pants while on the dance floor in front of Mr. Koizumi…”

Kagome blanched and pulled her hands up from her side and slammed them into the witness stand. Her head was swimming. What kind of questions were these? Where the hell did this guy get off asking these kinds of intimate… And then it hit her. These were the exact emotions she’d be feeling as the defense slowly picked her apart in front of Bankotsu. She’d feel this way, but his eyes would be on her. The thought brought the stinging sensation of bile up the back of her throat. He was way out of line but the emotions were not. This would be harder tomorrow and literally all the eyes would be on her. “I…I’m sorry…”

The prosecutor grimaced and offered an apologetic smile. “No, I’m sorry. That was rough. For your edification, those are the sort of questions that I will contest. If at any point, I yell over their question ‘objection’, I do not want you to answer that question until the judge either overrules my objection, or agrees that the objection is warranted and will tell you not to answer.”

“What do you think of me, Mr. Easton,” Kagome asked quietly, staring at the ceiling to will down the nausea. She already knew by the tone of his questions, the condescending tenor that carried his words. But she wanted him to know that she knew. She knew what he, and a lot of the male population thought of her, saw her as. And it was accurate, wasn’t it? She had allowed her desires and unchecked libido to make a series of poor choices. But were they? InuYasha and the demon were the same person, though she obviously couldn’t tell anyone that, and Bankotsu was a fixture in her life, and she never slept with Naraku, regardless of what the tabloids stated. She had fallen in love with someone else, and her former partner had turned to domestic abuse to force her back. She had to remember that. She hadn’t made a mistake, she wasn’t the slut in the picture they were trying to paint.

The man shook his head, checking his tone before he spoke; “It’s not my job to form an opinion of you, Miss. Higurashi. My job is to prove the facts of this case, that Mr.Koizumi did what you say he did.”

“Do you believe me?”

The lawyer smiled mirthlessly. “Again, that’s not my job.”

“You can’t even answer the question, can you?” Kagome placed her elbows on the podium, and rested her forehead in her hands. “I can’t explain what happened. I can’t tell you why I’m cured. I have my theories, but I cannot and will not address or justify them. What I can tell you is that I begged Bankotsu to leave me alone. I asked him to free me. He wouldn’t do it; he wanted to own me until he broke me. At some point, Mr. Easton, Bankotsu stopped being the man I cared about and became something else. He saw me as one of his possessions, and sought to reclaim me. He imprisoned me after brutally attacking me at my job, and hurt me. Repeatedly. He…” Kagome shut her mouth and shook her head. “I might look better, but you cannot see what he has done to my insides. You cannot see, just from looking at me, how many nightmares I have where I scream myself awake, or how I have to be walked to my car at night, or how I shake any time I hear certain phrases or hear certain music because it evokes memories of him. Because, at this point, all these memories are nightmares. And I have plenty of them.”

               Mr. Easton frowned pointedly. “Well I understand your disposition, Miss Higurashi. This is a very difficult place to be,” he said gesturing to the witness box. “How you address the court, and by proxy, him, is up to you.”

“I want him to face justice,” Kagome sternly replied sternly. “I don’t want him to see how much he’s hurt me, broken me, but…” Kagome let out a short sigh, “I want to know that while he did hurt me, that I’m not afraid of him any longer. I want him to know that I will stand up to him and to anyone who feels they can walk all over me thinking I will be silent. I was for so long, and I allowed so much to go wrong in my life. I willingly chose to keep important parts of me and my pain sealed away and it nearly destroyed me and my family. I will not do that any longer, and he needs to know that.”

The lawyer nodded. “I understand that, and can respect it. I want you at your very best tomorrow. It is going to be a harrowing day. I know more than anything, right now, you want to be with those you love. But I really need you sequestered tonight, Kagome. You need to be by yourself with your thoughts and emotions. You don’t want someone else’s opinions changing your testimony or changing your decisions about tomorrow.” He took a step towards Kagome. “And, for the record, I do believe you…I just don’t understand his…or your… motivations.”

As Kagome opened her mouth to reply, the door on the right of the courtroom cracked open, disturbing the quiet envelope around them like a sonic boom. “Daniel, we need you for a sec on the Cedarbridge case,” the voice of the office secretary called.

Mr. Eason turned and gave Kagome the faintest of frowns, “I understand your frustration, Miss Higurashi. I want you to get some water and take a few breaths. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Practice explaining the nature of your relationship and we’ll review. While I cannot coach your responses, because that’s illegal, I can tell you what questions or comments might be made based on your responses.”

Without waiting for Kagome’s reply, the man turned and walked out the back door of the courtroom. The slamming of the door bounced off the concrete walls and reverberated through Kagome’s ear drums.

Kagome returned her gaze to the patterns in the wood and fell back into her own mind. How could she survive the cross examination if she floundered at her lawyer’s questions? He wasn’t her lawyer, she reminded herself; she was simply a witness called by the state. This man owned her no allegiance, owed her no courtesies or exceptions. She had to understand how this looked from an outside perspective and address the questions from such a similar stance. She couldn’t sugar coat and couldn’t dance around the point in her responses. As much as it might mollify her father and humiliate her mother, she had to be direct. For the first time in a very long time, she was going to have to tell the whole truth. And the thought scared her horribly.

A squeaking door hinge roused her from her internal dialogue. She cringed, wishing she had used the break to get some water, as he suggested, when she found the way he left was still firmly shut. Spinning in her seat, she quickly assessed where the noise had come from. Across the courtroom, from the darkened doorway Easton had pointed out earlier, a man with a shaved head was regarding her. He wore a guard’s uniform that she had seen men wandering about the court wearing. He was a prison guard. His shifty eyes darted to the other three doorways which lead into the room and then he disappeared back from where he came. A moment later, she heard a noise at the two main doors; it was the scraping of a lock being bolted from the outside.

Kagome half rose, wondering what the hell was going on. The whole reason they had utilized today in the court house was that it was free. Had there been a change in schedule? Kagome placed both hands on the podium as the darkened doorway once again swung open. She tilted her head, trying to see inside the small room. There were two figures, one speaking quietly but firmly to another. And then he removed the other’s cuffs? The blood rushed from her face and she was nearly sure she swayed where she stood as a single sunbeam snuck through the tiny skylight and illuminated the duo.

There he stood, eyes boring into hers with feverish intensity. Even though he was covered by shadows, the piercing aquamarine crippled her. She felt herself frozen, like a deer in headlights, staring down the man who had attempted to murder her. Twice.

“Hey, kiddo; how the hell are ya?” Bankotsu baited her as he stepped out of the small hallway and into the fluorescent lighting.

“What… are you… how?” Kagome stammered, unable to command her voice to relay any of the multitudinous thoughts simultaneously clouding her head. Why the hell was he here? Who was in charge of his care? Her eyes darted behind his form to see that the guard, who had brought the creature up from the depths of hell, had vanished.

Bankotsu followed her eyes and turned to look behind him, very much for show. “Oh him?” Bankotsu turned around with a smile that juxtaposed the dangerous glint in his eyes; “don’t worry about him. He’s no one.”

Kagome stood to her full height and, for a moment, she considered running. She had heard the doors lock but maybe she could make it to the one her lawyer left through. If she screamed, would he make it in time? Scenes from movies of the weak girl running up and down hallways screaming and pounding on closed doors while the hunter stalked her from behind, flashed through her mind. She whipped back around, not liking the fact she had turned her back on this predator. Much to her surprise, he had taken a seat on the table of the defense and was regarding her with the smile still etched across his face. Sitting on the edge, he looked much too casual, much too collected. It was obvious that this was no mistake. He had paid someone off, again, and was here to terrorize her. Again.

“While I don’t have long, I do have some very important information to share with you, Cupcake. I’ve employed a few guards and some others to give us some much-needed alone time. I may not have access to the same funds I did before, but it’s no matter. I’m already rebuilding.” Seeing her pointed lack of interest in what he was saying, he ran a hand through his raven hair and blinked at her. “I have something important to offer you.” He paused for the dramatic affect.  Seeing that he had Kagome’s undivided attention, he offered a genuine smile; “Your life. And all you have to do is tell the jury you don’t remember who did this to you. How great of a deal is that? A few words, a foggy recollection, and you get to keep your life.”

Kagome’s mouth opened but no sound came out at first. She balked at the man, unable to wrap her head around his words. “What?” Her stomach was in her mouth, bile burning in her throat and invading her senses. Her hands shook at her sides, and to her utter dismay, she was sure her entire body was radiating fear.

Bankotsu rolled his eyes, as if he was exasperated with her. With HER!  Leaning back from where he sat, he studied her for a moment. “Kag, get the dick out of your ears and listen to me. You get to walk away. You get to never worry about me, or my friends, or my family, or your family. You get to go back to Kagome circa January 2006 if you just…forget. And I know we’re too far in for you to play stupid, like you love to do. I realize you can’t just get up on the stand and tell them you forgot the past two years over the last few weeks. As much as I would love it if you could keep your dick sucking mouth shut, I know you can’t and I know we’re way past that point. So what I want is for you to remember everything about us. That’s you and me, babe, and the times that we had leading up to this…faux pas.  I’ll even let you slander me by recounting that time that I hit you in my apartment.” The disarming Bankotsu-Charming smile remained on his lips, but she could see right through it, she could see the mirth in his eyes. He was enjoying this; these types of games were his bread and butter. Hell, he was probably getting off on the thought of her remembering all the times he had abused her.

“You tried to kill me,” she replied deadpanned. It never ceased to amaze Kagome how disassociated this sociopath truly was from reality. She could feel the tremble in her hands as she tried desperately to keep it under control. She couldn’t let him see that his presence affected her so deeply. All of the healed wounds ached at the mere sight of him, his voice slicing through the mental stitches with which she had rebuilt her sanity. But she couldn’t let him see, she couldn’t let him know just how much her terrified her. She refused to cower to this maniac.

Bankotsu waved a hand while his sickening smile widened, “semantics. But honestly, you’re being dramatic. I had plenty of opportunity during that time to kill you, or have you killed. I wanted you to learn not to lie to me, but, little good that did,” he huffed and rolled his eyes. “I won’t fight you on your revisionist history of that event….”

               “You beat the hell out of me and tried to drown me!” Hostility colored her words. The urge to rip the man to shreds was quickly overwhelming her fear. She found her knuckles going numb from the fist she had drawn. Her hands rattled, but not all together out of fear; there was a fury blooming in her blood.

Bankotsu rolled his eyes and chuckled lightly. “I washed the blood off of you after one of our sessions. It’s a far cry from drowning.”

“A session? A session, Bankotsu, was a gentle flogging, with maybe a crop, not a god damned bullwhip, following by tender love making and aftercare. Not brutal force, bludgeoning, and then you choking me into unconsciousness on a table.” Kagome quickly glanced about the room, looking for cameras. There had to be cameras, right? What was going on? How was this happening? She continued to quake; how dare he downplay what he had done to her. The son of a bitch had nearly taken her life…twice; had it not been for Jakotsu, InuYasha, and Kagejiro, he would have left her confined to a wheel chair for the rest of her life. Yet he saw no fault, took no blame; to him, he was immune from any consequence.

“You didn’t deserve one of our good sessions, Kagome. Not after lying….” Bankotsu sighed again, dismissing the fact that he had been consumed by blood lust, by his desire to break the girl to pieces. To him, it had been just another day, and she another play toy for him to do with as he pleased. “I don’t have time to debate this. Look. Tomorrow, when they ask you who ‘accosted’”—he used air quotes as if she hadn’t been dragged through glass, stabbed, and subsequently tortured—"you at work, you’re not really going to be able to recall a face. It’s all really blurry for you and, while you thought it was me, you realize that maybe you were wrong. You really can’t be sure who it was.”

Kagome’s disbelief played across her face as she tilted her head. The man was a mix of bravado and self-delusion; how could he expect her to lie in court, for his benefit? How could he expect her to do anything for him after all he had done to her and her family? How could he expect anyone to buy such a departure from her current narrative after the field day the press had with this case? “No one would believe that,” she replied, her voice hardly above a whisper. “Suddenly I’m confused? No…that’s…” she snorted out air, completely shocked at this twist of events. How could he think she’d agree to help him?

Bankotsu shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He reminded her of a child, the way he sat on the child and swung his legs. He seemed carefree, not at all troubled by the fact that he was facing life in prison. “They don’t have to, not really. They just need to know you’re not sure who it was. Reasonable doubt, Kagome. That’s all I need.” He smiled, genuinely, and Kagome felt her stomach churn.

Kagome slowly crossed her arms, her hair on end. There was a certain knot of dread forming in her chest, making it harder and harder to breathe. She could see that he was already scheming, plotting. He was crafting a new narrative that would vindicate his good name and indict the ones who had wronged him. Kagome knew who the star of that new story would be. “If it wasn’t you…”

Bankotsu waved a hand at her dismissively. “You don’t need to worry about that. If you don’t remember who it was,” he said while rolling his eyes, “you get to be free of me. That’s it. Nice and simple. It will be a clean break, you have my word.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and resting his face against tented fingers. “I promise you, we’ll be done.” His eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and a look crossed his face that Kagome truly didn’t like, there was far too much affection present in it. “And I know you won’t believe me, but it’s hard for me to say that. I don’t want to let you go, Kagome. If you ever trusted me, please trust in that statement. I want you under me…on your knees for the rest of your life. I…” he twitched and for a moment, Kagome wondered if the man was completely mad. He took a deep breath and seemed to be internally struggling with something. Kagome wondered if it was the urge to jump from the table and take her. She shifted her weight, preparing herself to run if need be, but she knew that ultimately, she was trapped. “But I promise, you won’t see me again.”

Kagome stood her ground and narrowed her eyes. “Your word is worth shit to me, and you’ll pin the blame on InuYasha.”

               Bankotsu rolled his eyes hard with a loud sign and then flopped backwards to lay on the table. The psychotic break that he seemed to be on the cusp of seemed to be swallowed whole as he chided her. “Jesus, Kagome, I’m offering you your life and you’re still focused on that half breed.”

Kagome’s eyes narrowed. “I will not allow you to….”

Staring at the court room ceiling, Bankotsu suddenly mused, interrupting her statement. “you know, Kagome, jail has been really rough. I mean, there are some very discourteous people in there. I had to fight… like, actually fight, a guy. That was less than ideal. And then I had to fight someone else. And another. And another. It was like it was never going to end. But…even though it seemed like a stupid television trope, I made a few friends who knew a few people and it got easier. Then I really got to meet people.” Sitting up on one elbow, he met her stare with a smile that could only be described as demonic. Malice poured from his eyes. “There’s one guy… he’s really fucked… I mean, people think I’m bad… but Jesus…” He shook his head lightly, “anyway, this guy did some really bad stuff. Like news worthy stuff. And no one really talks to him. But I do. And because I do, people kind of leave us alone. So now he owes me some favors. And I mentioned your brother… I mean son…”

Her stomach in her mouth for the second time. She walked around the witness box, the only facade of protection from the monster in front of her, and inclined her head towards Bankotsu. Her voice was little more than a whisper but it slammed across the court room with the weight of a mountain behind it. “What did you do?” Her voice was even and calm, regardless of the shake in her body and hands.

Bankotsu lifted his shoulders up so he could meet her eyes. The smile on his face was sly, like he knew that he had her in checkmate. “Nothing. I was just chatting with him. I mean, this guy is in jail forever. He will never get out, unless something crazy happens, like he escapes.” Bankotsu sat up abruptly and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Which, if he did, well… he might have some addresses. It wouldn’t be Souta though. Not at first. First, it would be Kikyo and everyone in her house. Then your friends. Then, maybe one day a few years later, you’d come home and find your front door kicked in. Your mother, well your poor mother would be…” He shook his head, the psychotic glint returning to his eyes as he stared her down, “and then, then your world would go dark. And when you saw light again, it would be you and Souta… And you would get to watch. Every second. There’d be no option to close your eyes because first thing he’d do is remove your eyelids…” The sickening glaze in his eyes spoke in volumes about how much he was enjoying this.

Seeing red, Kagome rushed him; shoving Bankotsu backwards, she found herself straddling his chest, a pen poised like a dagger in her hand. She didn’t even know where she’d obtained it, but the weapon presented itself perfectly. Kagome jabbed the tip of the pen against Bankotsu’s Adam’s Apple and held it firmly. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you!” she growled as her aura darkened with murderous intent. It sickened her how she now had firm proof of his enjoyment of this interaction pressing against her thigh.

Bankotsu’s eyes lit up, a splash of lust and excitement coloring the blue, but he didn’t move. Holding his hands above his head, he grinned. “Where was this tenacity a year ago? We’d be in such a better place if you had been this daring.” Seeing no emotion cross Kagome’s face, he cleared his throat. The pen was raking against his throat and for a moment, he was worried she might actually follow through with it. “If you kill me now, you win this round. You do. But you don’t win the game. You don’t get to walk out of here. You wouldn’t have a life anymore; you’d go to jail for murder. And I have friends who will still make sure you suffer. Plus, you’d then be at the hands of those who owe me most. And trust me, Kagome, they’d be on you like white on rice.”

“I think the courts would make exceptions.” She knew she should just do it; one thrust, a few pounds of pressure, and he’d be gone; the threat to her family would be nullified. But she knew, deep down, that he would have anticipated some sort of resistance. He would hold to his word, someone somewhere would continue her suffering.  He would still be able to reach her from beyond the grave. No, if she wanted to be rid of him, she had to beat him at his own game.

“Will they?” Bankotsu motioned with his eyes to his left. His lips twisted into a cynical smirk as he brought his attention back to Kagome and waited for her to make a move.

               The guard who had let Bankotsu free to terrorize her again was standing in the walkway, his gun trained on Kagome.

Kagome glanced to her right for only the briefest of seconds, but it was enough for Bankotsu to knock the pen from her grasp and flip her over on the table. Quickly, he reversed their position, ending with him now astride her. “Well, that was fun, but let’s wrap this up, shall we?” Eyeing Kagome for a moment, a look filtered through his eyes that Kagome did not like one bit.  He brought his right hand to her face, and he traced her cheek with two fingers that he then dipped into her hair.  He watched his hand for a moment while applying pressure to her hips with his, holding her firmly against the table. He took another moment, staring down at Kagome, before smiling wistfully. “Tomorrow, you say you don’t remember. That’s it and we’re done. You walk away, you keep your family, and you never need to worry about me again. Of course, you never talk about this again and you never write a book about it, and you never go on talk shows… you just disappear from my life and keep my name out of your mouth. And I will do the same. All you have to say is that you don’t remember. And while I would love to continue this…” he thrust his hips against hers for added effect, and for one second, Kagome feared he would take it further, “because it’s been far too long, I have no desire to play in InuYasha’s used cum dumpster.”

Sliding from the table, Bankotsu shrugged his orange jumper back into place and walked towards the guard. “I’m sure you’ll make the right decision, Kagome?”

Kagome sat up, shuddering from the unwanted contact and the residue of his skin against hers. She was shaking, horrified, and feeling utterly violated, but she couldn’t just let him walk away. Rage was overpowering rationality. “Orange is a good color for you,” she called back, her voice cold. “I hope you get to wear it for a long time.” He could go fuck himself, she summarily thought.

               As Bankotsu approached the guard, he called back without looking at her, “Don’t be a cunt, Kagome. Make the right choice.”

The guard’s eyes stayed trained on her, as if she were the sociopath, as he holstered his gun and took a pair of handcuffs off his belt.

She felt as if her temperature dropped several degrees, and she shivered. She suddenly ached all over. She rubbed her wrists, a specter of pain resurfacing from the last time he had his hands on her. She felt a burning in her throat and her eyes as the guard finished handcuffing Bankotsu and, without another look at her, walked from the room. That was it. He had been yet another tornado in her life, striking again when she had rebuilt her fortifications from the previous disaster.

It had to be another thirty seconds before she realized she was not breathing. Inhaling sharply, she felt hot tears of indignation begin streaming down her face. That… son of a bitch. He had yet again taken a controlling interest in her life. And where the fuck was that lawyer?

A click on the two doors simultaneously sounded. Rationally, she understood that someone could have distracted the lawyer long enough for Bankotsu to pull this stunt, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he was in on it. She swiped at her face with the back of her hand, dashing the tears to the ground. Would it ever end? Bankotsu had clearly answered that question. How was he still in control? He had no money, therefore should have had no power. The old feeling of fear, the desire to take flight, filled her mind. She should take her family and just… go. Run. Get away from all of these idiots who had ruined her life. Taking a deep, shaking breath, she fumbled with her phone. She wanted to call Inu, she wanted to tell him what happened. She even got to a point where she had opened the phone and brought up his number before convincing herself to snap it closed. No. She wouldn’t involve him, she couldn’t. If she told him, he would be the one to go to the prison to confront Bankotsu; he would start a riot. He would… protect her and her family with everything he had. And Bankotsu might get more time for witness tampering but everything he said, all the threats… Bankotsu didn’t make them idly.

Lies. Lies had gotten her here, and she still lived in the castle built of them. Lies created the foundation, they were the walls and the halls in which she walked. If she chose the path of honesty now, if she was straight with InuYasha, it would be a relief but what would it do to him? She had sworn to tear down her kingdom of lies, she had promised never to reside in that lonely dark dwelling again but…it was so easy, it was so alluring to use lies to escape this conflict. It would be so simple to not say anything, to stay quiet and follow the commands issued to her. She would let down InuYasha but they could finally be safe. If she told him, it would put InuYasha in a position where he was in danger. But if she went along with Bankotsu now, he would know he could still control her and then where would that put her? What would be the next ‘easy decision’ he presented her? He had made it crystal clear to her that he would never let her go, regardless of what he told her today, and she doubted he would suddenly become amicable to the notion after she tried to ruin him.

The back door to the room opened as Kagome had yet another storm of moral dilemmas circling her mind. The district attorney entered the room, obviously oblivious to what had just transpired. His head was buried in his notebook, which he snapped closed as he reached the witness stand. Daniel Easton cleared his throat, clearly misreading the distress on Kagome’s face for that of being upset about their previous conversation.

“Ms. Higurashi, I’m….” he cleared his throat and shoved his hands into the pockets in his pants. Leaning against the door frame, he cast his eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry. I’ve been quite firm with you and that is not what you need. I know that this is very difficult for you. What you have been through had been a…harrowing…experience. No one should have to suffer as you have. I do hope you understand that I’m not trying to be unkind. I want to make sure that our case is strong enough to see this monster go away for a long time, and I’m afraid that the bulk of evidence for that conviction rests on your shoulders. It’s not going to be an easy testimony, and I want you to be as prepared as possible.”

Kagome stared at the man, willing herself to see past his words and into his soul. Was he on Bankotsu’s payroll? Apparently at least three people in the New York City Court system were. Would it be so hard to believe he had bought his way into the DA’s office? She wondered if, for a moment, she should tell him what had just transpired. Would he support her? Would he be able to find evidence to support that? It would give Bankotsu more prison time but…if she were, on some strange whim, to take Bankotsu up on his deal…it would clearly take that offer off the table. She gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Was she actually considering taking Bankotsu’s offer? Her mouth went dry and she had the sensation that she should be puking. That feeling was becoming all too common for her liking.

The attorney took a few steps towards her then paused. He was not reading the room at all. “Why don’t we call it a day, this is obviously taking its toll on you.” He cleared his throat again. “I think it best, Kagome, if you were to stay in the hotel room we offered you tonight. Sequestering yourself would be in your best interest. You would be able to clear your head and get your thoughts straight without any outside interference. I strongly advise it.”

Kagome rolled her eyes as she choked down the vomit. He was right though. If she went home tonight, she would have to look her family, and InuYasha, in the face and lie to them. Because, no matter how many times she went over it in her mind, she really couldn’t get them involved.

‘That’s the stupid shit that got you here,’ her brain screamed. ‘Stop lying, stop telling half-truths, get the help you need!’

Kagome nodded slowly and rose from the table.

‘Call Inu…. call the police….do something!’

God, that sounded so much like InuYasha. She walked to the district attorney and held out her hand. “I do appreciate all you’re doing….” Kagome paused as she found the man staring at her hand slightly aghast. Glancing down, she was surprised to find her hand covered in ink. The pen she had held to Bankotsu’s throat, just a moment prior, had exploded at some point and leaked ink all over her hand. She stared at the ink and the dam broke. That could have been Bankotsu’s blood. All she had to do was to take the initiative, to strike while she had the chance. He had literally bared his throat to her and instead she had relented, returned to her role as his submissive. The ink might as well of been blood; it would one day either be her families or InuYasha’s.

Sliding to the ground, she began to sob uncontrollably. This was all too much. She wasn’t strong enough to deal with this.

The district attorney sputtered a few utterances of surprise as he quickly moved to help Kagome to her feet and into a chair. She didn’t resist and quickly found herself propped upright. She could hear the man asking if he should call someone, a doctor, InuYasha, or her mother, but Kagome couldn’t find the right words to answer with. Everything sounded like she was underwater. Her blood pounded in her ears as she shook in her seat. She wondered if this was a panic attack; it sure as hell felt like one.

The man stared at her, wondering what the hell had just happened. He had been oddly called to a conference call of which he wasn’t scheduled, and held there discussing a case that held no relevance to what his focus should have been. He was annoyed, sure, but hadn’t put more than a second thought into it. But seeing Kagome melting down in front of him, he had to wondered just what he had missed. He scrunched his nose and glanced around the court room. His eyes caught sight of something and he began his walk to the defense table. Crouching, he picked up a discarded pen that was bleeding ink onto the floor. He lifted it tentatively, with two fingers, keeping it far from his clothes and glanced at the table then back at Kagome. He had obviously missed something very important, and his gut was telling him it was bad news.

Kagome swallowed the sins of her past, the lies she had built her life around, her unwillingness to put others in danger, and her damn obstinacy.   She met Daniel’s eye and took a deep breath. “There’s something you should know...”

 

***********************************

Sitting in the small conference room, Kagome couldn’t get warm. Her hands were still shaking, and she didn’t quite trust her voice. She was waiting, and that was painstaking. The clock on the wall ticked away the seconds and her sanity. She hated not knowing what was going on. After telling Mr. Easton about Bankotsu’s improvised visit and renewed threats, he had ushered her directly into the conference room and placed a guard he trusted on door duty. He then had rushed off to security to get access to all of the cameras to try and get the evidence before it could be deleted.

He was visibly as shaken as she felt. Recalling the abject horror that crossed his face when she explained what had transpired made her feel…. relieved? Did that make her a monster? Today, a stranger who really didn’t believe her story got a small taste of the terror that was Bankotsu Koizumi. The lawyer was now going to see how Bankotsu’s influence could reach into something as impenetrable as the justice system to turn things in his favor. Today, Daniel Easton’s world would be shaken by the knowledge that someone he knew, someone he trusted, was in the pocket of a sociopathic criminal. He was going to learn that if he questioned or challenged that fact, he too would become a target. Kagome felt sorry for the man. Almost.

She eyed the door warily, wondering when he would return. Would he find the evidence they needed? Knowing Bankotsu, Kagome doubted it. The man was always thorough with covering his tracks, but…he was trying to organize this from a jail cell. Would he still be as meticulous as he had always been? Kagome prayed that she hadn’t made an error informing the lawyer. She believed that she would always remember that look of horror he displayed when she explained Bankotsu had just been in the room. What impressed her, however, was his decisiveness in taking action. He hadn’t questioned her account, he hadn’t sat her down and asked her a play by play. He had immediately taken her from the room, called on the phone just outside the door for a specific guard, then took her to a conference room. He had gently but firmly impressed the need for her to stay in the room and not to try to leave. And it was wonderful to trust him. She felt free for the first time in a long time.

But now, as the seconds clicked by and he had yet to return, she began to second guess herself. Was he just another of Bankotsu’s pawns? Had he gone to the prisoner holding within the courthouse to tell Bankotsu about her treachery? Had he run off knowing he was going to be indicted in this conspiracy? Was he going to return with a gun and body bag? Would he return at all?

The door clicked and Kagome’s head snapped in that direction. From her corner in the tiny room, she pulled in on herself while her nails dug into the arm rest of the chair. The urge to fight had left her; if this was it, then so be it. Before a sob could leave her lips, the door opened.

InuYasha pushed past the door with the district attorney at his heels. InuYasha locked eyes with Kagome and she nearly fell apart, again.

Inu crossed the room in two large steps and wrapped his arms around Kagome, nestling her head firmly against his chest. “Shush,” he whispered gently as she began hiccupping with sobs. “It’s okay, I’m here. I got you….” His fingers gently danced up and down her spine, trying to instill the knowledge that she was, indeed, safe.

Closing his eyes, InuYasha thanked whatever had kept Kagome safe this time around. He had failed to be there when she needed him most. Again. He had been discussing the trial with Sesshoumaru when the lawyer had called his phone. InuYasha couldn’t even be sure he had explained to Sesshoumaru before bolting from the office. He had yanked off his limiter and bolted across roof tops of smaller apartments and stores to reach midtown as fast as humanly possible. Only once he dropped behind the building had he put back on his limiter, and that was against his burning rage. The lawyer hadn’t given him much to go on beyond a few stammered sentences about Bankotsu threatening Kagome in the courthouse when he was on the phone and that Kagome was shaken up pretty good. If Bankotsu was still on the grounds, Inu would gut him, power limiter be damned. He would happily go to jail if he was given the opportunity to rip out the bastard’s liver and feed it to him.  But he knew that Kagome was his first priority, and he couldn’t just waltz up to her in demon form without selling out his family.

Easton had met him just past security and explained the situation as he knew it. If it was possible for InuYasha to be any angrier at the legal system’s incompetence, he would have been surprised. But he choked it down and settled for storming ahead of the blubbering lawyer to find Kagome. He needed to see her for himself, to know that she was okay. The last time Bankotsu had gotten his hands on her…InuYasha hadn’t been able to process that thought completely. The though of her being injured again like that roused a formidable beast within him that he wasn’t sure he could control.

Wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his chest was as cathartic for him as it was for her. The intense rage that was nearly all consuming was smothered under the weight of his relief at her wellbeing. He eyed her silently, looking for any mark that Bankotsu may have put on her. Seeing her blemish free, he took a deep breath and willed himself to release the tension in his jaw and shoulders.

Kagome couldn’t stop the tears for a few moments. It took a solid five minutes before she could present herself respectably to both men. “Did you…was there any evidence?”

Mr. Easton shook his head, color still not returning to his pale countenance. “I’m sorry,” he said after a moment, a very troubled look clouding his eyes. “They scheduled maintenance for our security cameras for today. You see, they only had a few cases this morning because today was the day the courts wanted to upgrade the software programs. We were only down for an hour but…” He rubbed his head with his right hand and opened his eyes widely before covering his mouth and dropping into a seat. “I…I’m so sorry Kagome. I never should have…I should have realized…” He seemed to flounder for a moment and there was a part of Kagome that was okay watching him sink. He had thought her a stupid girl who just happened to cross the wrong guy. That wrong guy, Easton would now understand, was more connected and more psychotic than anyone could ever have guessed.

InuYasha glanced down at Kagome, who was sniffling, before answering for her. “It’s not your fault, but this is the shit this guy does.  He was able to time his visit in correlation to the system maintenance, meaning he has someone in security or IT in his pocket. He was able to get a van and a guard to escort him here, and he was able to use one of his men to escort him around the hallways. This kind of shit is what makes him dangerous. He’s too connected and too informed. There’s a legitimate constant danger from this man. Behind bars or not, he is bad fucking news.” This is what they had been telling this man, his team, any anyone who would fucking listen. But no one wanted to hear it.

The man seemed to stare through both of them. “My conference call….” He hung his head and covered his face. “Someone in my office…”

               Kagome nodded, understanding how the man saw life unraveling before his eyes.  “If you can find out who scheduled the conference call, it will help narrow down the possible candidates for being on Bank’s payroll.” She shuddered at how normal that sounded. Was that what life would always be? Finding out who the psycho in jail paid off to tail her, to gather information and rely it back to him?

The lawyer shook his head. “Inconceivable. I don’t know one person in that office who would sell us out like that.”

InuYasha raised an eyebrow. “A quick ten G’s sounds great for moving one meeting date to another. It’s completely possible the person doesn’t even know that they were helping him. Bankotsu could have had someone pose as your client and ask to move the conference call….”

Kagome sniffled again and looked up at Inu. “How much do you know? When did you….”

InuYasha hugged her again, keeping one arm wrapped tightly around her. “When Danny-boy realized that there was no footage, he called me immediately. Thankfully I was close by.” By a few miles, but she didn’t need to know that. “I ran here and he’s mostly caught me up.”

               Kagome nodded slowly, trying to return to a calmer state. She knew he wouldn’t be mad at her, but she felt as if she had failed some sort of test. She hadn’t been able to handle Bankotsu, she hadn’t been able to end this. If InuYasha had been in her shoes, they would have been cleaning Bankotsu off the ceiling. “So you know,” she took a deep breath, “about his offer. I know he’s lying, and I know I can’t trust him. But what….” She covered her mouth, realizing she was once again sliding down that slippery slope of reading into Bankotsu’s empty promises. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t….I couldn’t lie anymore. I had to tell them about his threats.”

InuYasha scoffed. “Don’t be stupid. Why would I want you to lie about this? If anything, the blame is on this fucking building for not escorting him back to lock up. You made the right choice. We’ll get him for this, we just need….”

“Evidence,” Mr. Easton interjected, “without evidence, we’ll get nowhere. No one is going to believe that he was able to seamlessly infiltrate the court system and employees to manipulate such a meeting. If we don’t have evidence, we’ll be laughed out of the court room.”

               InuYasha grunted and pulled Kagome closer to his chest. Burying her head into his clavicle, he wished that he could just take over. He wished he had Sesshomaru’s emotional detachment from reality to handle this properly; he wished he had Kagejiro’s propensity for violence and ability to think ten steps ahead. He wished he had allowed Kagejiro to bury this asshole when he had offered so many months prior. He wished he could call his brother and tell him that. “What are our other options if there are no cameras? What about recording devices? Were you recording your conversations?”

The lawyer shook his head, looking rather dejected. “No. Normally, the court stenographer will keep a recording of what happens in the room but because no one was in the room after lunch, there was no stenographer and no recordings going on. Unless I can find that guard and pressure him enough to break, we have nothing.” He picked up a pad of paper from the table on which he wrote Kagome’s description of the bailiff. “He doesn’t work here in the courts, I’m sure about that. He might be a prison guard who switched shifts or duties with someone. Its’ also possible that he’s someone who walked in off the street that Bankotsu threw into a uniform. Anything is possible but I’m placing a call to a friend with the NYPD and have them start investigating. I want to file charges immediately. Whether or not we can substantiate them is another story but I don’t want to wait. Maybe they can dust for prints on the table. You said he touched the table with his hands, yes?”

Kagome chewed on her bottom lip while reliving the waking horror that was Bankotsu’s newest plot. “He put his hands above his head but his palms didn’t touch the table.”

The lawyer sighed. “Well, it’s something. I’ll see if they can pull red light cams from here to the prison and see if there are any ATM or other cameras that might have caught the guard unloading Bankotsu here. Someone or something had to see them….” It was going to be a paperwork nightmare. By time they gathered all the subpoenas for evidence and review all the video, it would be long past tomorrow’s trial. This could take months to review all the evidence.

Kagome glanced up from InuYasha’s chest, her eyes hollow. She knew there was no way they could gather this in time. “I’m glad that you’re willing to help gather this evidence. We appreciate it.”

Easton snorted and crossed his arms, meeting Kagome’s eyes. “It’s not just for you, sweetheart. This guy played me today, and I am not pleased at all with any of this. He was able to manipulate too many people I know too easily.”

InuYasha cocked in eyebrow, running his hand clumsily through Kagome’s hair. “Welcome to our fuckin’ lives. That’s what this asshole does. It’s his MO, his specialty in life.”

“My family…” Kagome started suddenly, trying to pull herself from InuYasha’s grip.

The lawyer nodded firmly. “I ordered a car to move them to a safehouse while the trial continues. I’m going to contact the prison to get the files on Bankotsu’s roommate, and move both him and Bankotsu to isolation. If Bankotsu wants to play games, he can spend his entire sentence in solitary where he will have no contact with anyone. But…” the trouble seeped back into the lawyer’s face while he contemplated his next few sentences. “I believe he is going to try to seek retribution for you telling me this. I strongly believe you should consider applying for witness protection.” For a moment, the lawyer stared blankly forward, quickly getting lost in thought. Silence hung in the air while the lawyer seemed to reevaluate everything he knew in life.

InuYasha rubbed Kagome’s shoulder while trying to gather her back into his arms, his eyes trained on the man. It was disconcerting to watch him go through all the stages that InuYasha and Kagome had been through over the past few months. There was shock at how easy it was for someone to infiltrate the corners of one’s life, and then there was anger at the violation of privacy, compacted by the stomach-churning fear of wondering what this person was actually capable of. Add in a dash of indignation for being caught unaware and frustration because there was really nothing short of murder that could alleviate the problem. That was InuYasha’s hardest obstacle with this; he could rend Bankotsu into four neat pieces with his claws and this would be over. It would be so easy to take the son of a bitch outside and eviscerate him. But he couldn’t; especially not now with his and Kagome’s families being caught in the crossfire. Helping Kagome take a seat, he couldn’t believe how tiring this entire process was.

“No, I take it back.” Mr. Easton rubbed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. “I…I don’t think witness protection would be good.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and collapsed into a chair next to Kagome.

               InuYasha had already been one step ahead of him and figured they shared a similar reasoning but he asked anyway, “why?” Kagome leaned over and buried her face in InuYasha’s shoulder, knowing what the lawyer was about to say. She didn’t want to hear her biggest fear vocalized.

“Because…if Koizumi was already able to get this far with these guards, what’s to stop him? He would either be able to get the information and then the whole point of it is just stalling for time…” he flashed an apologetic grimace towards InuYasha and Kagome, realizing how crass it sounded, “or he would be able to pay off someone in the program to handle the situation for him.”

“You mean kill us,” Kagome added dully, her voice muffled by InuYasha’s tee shirt.

Daniel nodded. “It’s grim, to say the least. I never thought…” he sighed. “I hate that I don’t have a reasonable offer for you, Kagome. I never would have thought that he could be so….” his voice trailed off as he realized there was no one word to fill in the blank. Daniel had been a state’s attorney for nearly two decades and had never run into such a situation. It was worse than dealing with the mafia.

Kagome sat up straight and rubbed her hands together nervously. “You want to like him,” she said shortly, “you see this put together individual who is charismatic and charming and articulate and you think, wow, he has it together and he’s a nice guy.” Kagome dropped her hands and over at InuYasha. “and he’s really the worst. He is able to hide that monster within him so well that it’s damn near invisible. And when you do see it, you never get to tell anyone about it because, by then, you have given him the keys to the kingdom and he controls everything.”

Easton shook his head and looked towards the ceiling. “He’s a lawyer’s worst nightmare. Getting the jury to see that sociopath, that you yourself have trouble spotting, is nearly impossible. He’ll be the perfect defendant and leave the jury questioning everything. Unless they are given video….”

InuYasha’s grip on Kagome’s shoulders tightened. Rage flashed through his amethyst eyes. “See, that’s your job. You have to find a way. We don’t have video, we don’t have audio. All we have is Kagome, and our stories. You didn’t find the bouncer Jacques, you acquitted Carlisle of any involvement, and therefore she doesn’t need to testify. You chose not to subpoena his associates. You had all of these other options but you chose not to use them. So sorry, but you don’t get to complain about how hard this is going to be.” InuYasha hadn’t been a fan of the attorney at all, and he criticized every action he made. This really was the icing on the cake, so to speak. Sesshoumaru had insisted that if anyone was going to be able to bring down Koizumi, it would be the DA. And yet, here they were, with Kagome being attacked in the god damned court house. InuYasha wanted to scream and rage and break things, but he knew he couldn’t.

The lawyer’s dazzled expression turned sour. “I realize you’re not a lawyer, Mr. Taisho, but those leads wouldn’t have produced a credible witness. One of his bodyguards lived through the attack on his club. That man hasn’t said a word since then, and doctors think he is so traumatized, he will never speak again. He had the literal shit scared out of him, and watched three of his family members die in front of him. So no, subpoenaing him was not going to happen.”

“Attack?” InuYasha nearly knocked Kagome off her chair as he tried to rise to his feet. “Kagome was a god damned prisoner. He was the one who attacked her at work, he doesn’t get to be a victim! Do not try to blame…”

Daniel held up his hands. “I’m not trying to project the blame onto Kagome. I’m trying to explain why no jury in the world would take the words of one of his bodyguards. Their story of being torn to pieces by demons…drinking and passing out, none of it makes sense. They aren’t credible.”

“But what about his employees? Have you dug up one of them who would testify? Why didn’t you call in Carlisle?”

Kagome put her hand over InuYasha’s, trying to remind him silently that they were all friends in the same boat. “Inu, it’s beyond that at this point.”

InuYasha growled, trying to keep his temper in check but failing miserably. “How? How is it beyond witnesses?”

Easton rubbed his face. “Carlisle’s testimony would only match what we already know as fact. The club did not open. She was told to call people and cancel reservations. That’s it. She can’t conjecture why she thought they closed, it’s insubstantial, and she can’t attest to first hand witnessing Kagome’s imprisonment, she only heard about it, and that’s hear say. Why should I waste time on the stand with testimony that’s not valid?”

InuYasha grunted and yanked his hand out of Kagome’s grasp. He stalked the room for a moment, pacing like a tiger behind bars. “We have to find Jacques. He saw everything first hand. He saw you in the car, he saw where Bankotsu took you, he saw it all. He’s our wild card but your people…”

               “I have the best on it right now, it’s all we can do.”

‘Bullshit,’ InuYasha thought, ‘If ‘Jiro was here, he’d find him in a heartbeat.’ That made Inu’s heart hurt. He hadn’t the time to put into figuring out what the hell had happened to his eldest brother and what the hell was going on there. But, as much as he wanted Jiro’s help, he hadn’t reappeared, and Inu wasn’t about to tell the family that the troublesome brother’s grave was empty. He had to eat this elephant one bite at a time. And right now, it was Bankotsu who was the largest piece.

InuYasha had run off before getting to explain what was happening to Sesshomaru, whom he was meeting in the city later. Maybe that asshole would be willing to help. InuYasha made a mental note to call Rin when all was said and done. Maybe Sesshiles could track down the missing bouncer. He shook himself out of thoughts as he realized the lawyer was talking to Kagome again.

“…he seems fixated…fascinated…and obsessed with you and your family Kagome. I do not believe he is honestly going to back down. If he was willing to walk into a court house, the home of justice, and verbally threaten a witness, there is little that can be thrown at him that will serve as a deterrent. I am going to strongly advise you to do what it takes to protect yourself and your family.” He glanced at InuYasha. “You too, Mr. Taisho. I know you have…some money to your name,” he coughed at the understatement, “You might want to find a way to disappear as well.”

InuYasha cocked an eyebrow, wondering if this really was the best time to put the lawyer’s head through the two-way mirror. He had been furious with this guy from the start; Inu found him incompetent and condescending. It had taken all of his restraint not to slam his face through the stupid slate table they sat at during the first meeting. The man had the audacity to question Kagome about what she was wearing and how she acted in the club, typical victim blaming, when Kagome first explained about the club. Then he had stared at her throughout her explanation, which to Kagome was humiliating enough, as if she was a whore who deserved it. InuYasha eventually had to walk away when the man had her repeat the story three times of the night she had been abducted. It was taxing enough for Inu to remember it, but to hear it over and over was too much. He had failed Kagome that night, and felt as if he was failing her again. The lawyer was shit, and though even though now he was serious (and only because he had witnessed the psychopathic tendencies that money had allotted Bankotsu), it was far too late to build a strong enough case to put Bankotsu away for any serious length of time.

“I can protect Kagome. Forget about your witness protection program, she’s not going into that shit. I’ll move us across the world if I have to. But I’d rather see you do your fucking job and put him away.”

The lawyer seemed unimpressed. Rubbing his face, for the hundredth time, he heaved a deep sigh. “I will see him put away, don’t worry about that. What his power is in jail though, that is what I’m worried about. If he can reach Kagome through others….”

InuYasha cast Kagome an apologetic frown. He had promised, after the first meeting, that he’d keep his mouth shut if he couldn’t say anything productive. That was now out the window. “Let me explain this again, because you didn’t hear me. I will handle Kagome’s safety. Your concern needs to be to put this asshole away in isolation, or whatever, maybe a nice hole in the ground filled in with cement.”

The lawyer nodded slowly, plainly ignoring the last part. “Okay, Mr. Taisho. I will do my best, as I have promised from day one.”

InuYasha couldn’t help the sneer that rose up on his lips. “Except maybe now you can do it seriously.”

Easton frowned. “I…” deciding he wasn’t going to continue the banter, he switched his attention to Kagome. “I still suggest you take the hotel room. But, when you get to the hotel, ask them to change your room number. If they have any questions or issues, have them call my cell. Leave your cell phone or anything electronic in the car so that they cannot track you that way. Do not make any calls, order take out, or do anything of the like. Mr. Taishio, you must do the same if you are staying with her.”

“Of fucking course I’m staying with her. Someone has to protect her,” he growled.

               Mr. Easton nodded. “Tomorrow, I will meet you outside at seven. Mr. Taisho, I beg of you, if you are going to be in the courtroom during the trial, you must….” He cleared his throat and regarded the other man, “control yourself. You cannot yell out objections or curse or be disrespectful in any fashion. It could jeopardize the entire case…”

               “Just worry about yourself,” InuYasha coolly retorted, “and we’ll see if you keep your job when all’s said and done.”

               Kagome shot InuYasha a look of strained patience with his crass attitude then slowly rose to her feet. “Thank you for calling InuYasha,” she said while shaking hands with the attorney. “And thank you for trying to protect me. Be careful tonight as well.”

               Easton shook her hand.   “I am going to be talking to the NYPD tonight about the threats, which they will discuss with you tomorrow after you testify. I don’t want them bothering you tonight. If anyone shows up claiming to be NYPD…”

               “They’ll have me to deal with,” Inu muttered before grabbing Kagome’s arm. Gently but firmly leading her to the door, he paused. “You really are our best hope for tomorrow. Don’t fuck it up.”

 

 

****************************************************

               Closing the heavy metal door, InuYasha made a fist and thought for a moment about punching a hole in it. Instead, he tapped his fist into the frame, then pressed his forehead to the mass of flesh. He inhaled deeply before pushing backwards and kicking off his loafers. He loosened the tie from his neck and shoved his hands into his pockets. Today had been nothing less than a clusterfuck. Nothing would have prepared him for Bankotsu’s appearance at the court house. He had spent so much time preparing Kagome for tomorrow, rebuilding her confidence and assisting with her articulation of events; now, this bastard had once a-fuckin-gain come along and shattered it. He breathed deeply, trying to remain in control of his emotions.

               Brown eyes regarded him silently from the edge of the bed. Her lips were pressed into a firm line of upset and concern. After a moment, her bottom lip was tugged behind a thin line of pearly white incisors that began to worry at the muscle. Unconsciously, she picked at the cuticle of her right index finger. She sighed heavily and stared at the carpet. He could just about see the wheels turning in her mind as she rethought everything that they had practiced over the last few weeks.

               Inu grunted again before taking two steps forward. He wrapped his hands around her head and pulled her forward slightly, bringing her to lean her cheek against his abdomen while his fingers ran through the rivets of her silken black tresses. He hushed her, even though she made no sound. His fingers brushed over her scalp, gently massaging the headache he knew lingered just below the surface. He had one too, and it sounded far too much like Sesshomaru droning on and on in his skull. ‘Do what is right, protect your mate, do not endanger the family, keep a cool head’. All of these thoughts blurred together into a mass of pain that lingered just behind his eyes.

               He felt Kagome still beneath him. She seemed to be waiting for him to speak. When he didn’t immediately address his thoughts, she began to speak. “What are…”

               He shushed her again. Letting go of her head, he squatted down in front of her, so that his amethyst eyes were in line with hers. How much time had they spent wondering what Bankotsu would do, what he would come up with, or how he would attack them? They had spent countless hours worrying about him escaping from jail, or sending an assassin. They had worried over what exact details Bankotsu would disclose and to what extent she needed to be prepared for the humiliation that followed.  She had struggled to tell him the depths of Bankotsu’s depravity, the likes of which she had willingly dove to meet. While InuYasha was no stranger to adding a certain amount of kink to their relationship, he had been a little flabbergasted at some of the things he had heard. He would not judge her though, he couldn’t; it would be the pot calling the kettle black. Instead, they had had a healthy discussion over their limits and what they desired from one another. And while that discussion had definitely been productive for their relationship, the foundation of that discussion, and nearly all the ones before and after, had been cemented in the name of Bankotsu. InuYasha was honestly sick to death of that man’s constant presence in their lives.

               It was odd, InuYasha realized slowly. Ever since he had met Titania at the club, and had made the connection between her and Kagome, they hadn’t been free of Bankotsu’s presence. For the entire length of their fucked-up relationship, Bankotsu had been at the forefront of everything. They had fought his control, fought for Kagome’s freedom and then her life, they had then spent the last two months fighting him legally while attempting to heal the wounds he had gouged in both of them. Their relationship had never been their own because Bankotsu was never far from either of their thoughts. InuYasha knew he couldn’t wait for the trial to be over, but he never knew to the extent that it had influenced and shaped his relationship with Kagome. And he couldn’t tolerate the thought of that. His and Kagome’s relationship was theirs, and by god, he would take control of it right here and now.

 “No. We’re not doing this.” Though he spoke with a friendly inflection that was full of concern and care, it was hardened into a command.

               Kagome raised a slim eyebrow, confusion giving way to exasperation. Her eyes reflected how tired she was and how she was equally exhausted of the tango Bankotsu had been remotely making them dance for some time.

 The day had been nothing short of chaotic; after the scene at the court house and Easton’s inevitable falling apart at the seams, InuYasha had whisked her away to an impromptu dinner with the family. His father was less than happy with the knowledge that Bankotsu had an in with the attorneys and the justice system. He hypothesized that someone from the prosecution was willingly strategizing with the defense. InuYasha had downed one glass of bourbon over that thought. Sesshoumaru theorized that Bankotsu was using money funneled in from his European family to conduct his exploits and would have been able to find enough ex-cons to make good on his threats. He had already moved Kagura and the kid to her parents in Florida while Rin and Kenren were with her father at a family cabin upstate. Sesshoumaru was working with some shady people to run traces on accounts he shouldn’t have access to, in an attempt to see where the money was going to head off any possible suspects. They had four leads. That was another glass of bourbon for InuYasha. Launia had spent the remainder of the evening speaking quietly with Kagome, discussing the perks of moving abroad while the dust settled once the case was over. She had offered up the Taisho home in Ibiza for a prolonged respite. Launia had also all-too-casually thrown in planning their wedding, hosting a baby shower for a theoretical honeymoon-conceived non-existent fetus, and staying with them as a live-in au-pair. That lead to at least two more glasses of bourbon for InuYasha as well as the other two men. Ultimately, Kagome had driven them both back to the city to the hotel that Sesshoumaru had secured, the prosecution’s offer be damned.

               “We’ve been over ever possible scenario, Kagome. We’ve done the math, the geometry, the angles, the fucking physics of this issue. We’ve mulled over it all fucking day and I just can’t anymore.” Closing his eyes, he gave pause for just the briefest break of exhaustion to trickle into his voice, “I just…can’t.” Opening his eyes, he looked so weary.

               Kagome smiled faintly, nodding in acquiescence. “Okay,” she replied slowly. Looking around the hotel room, she huffed before throwing herself backwards on the bed and putting an arm over her eyes. But how could she not? She understood, completely and utterly, but that didn’t stop her mind from wandering and the possible scenarios to play in her head like movies. “But…”

               “No.” He couldn’t help the frustration that laced his words. He hated watching this consume Kagome. He had tried and tried again to pull her from the depths in which she wallowed, and sometimes he could cut through the darkness, but she quickly would revert back to the quiet brooding Kagome that had sat in the corner and sulked most of the night. It wasn’t that he blamed her, not at all! He couldn’t imagine the fright instilled in her the moment that psychopath had been given unrestricted access to her. In thoughts he refused to acknowledge, he knew that today could have been cataclysmic. If Bankotsu had touched her…if he had attempted to… if he had succeeded…all the past months of progress would have been down the drain. It was a miracle that she was still functioning. By all rights, she could have shut down utterly. Yet she stayed strong and he wasn’t about to let that go to waste. He couldn’t allow her to be overwhelmed by the what ifs and theoretical bullshit that ate away at them with each passing day. That had been their reality for the last six months and he was so fucking god damned over it. So if he had to order her to shut down her brain, to stop thinking for the night, then by God, he would do so.

 

               She slid her wrist up from her face to glance at the man standing before the bed through one eye. “But what am I…”

               InuYasha ran his bottom lip through his teeth and turned to glare up at the ceiling. “Kags.” His voice held a warning that shot through her chest, down through her abdomen, and straight to the apex of her thighs. Her mouth opened slightly before a blush erupted on her cheeks.

               “Okay.” How long had it been since he had used that tone with her? She had dreamed about it, waking up needy and wet between the thighs, but try as she might, she couldn’t recall a time where he sounded so…alpha. And she liked it. More than liked, it was the air she didn’t know she needed. A tidal wave of desire washed over her, threatening to drag her under. She had turned away from the subservient role she had lived for so long, and yet with one word, he could easily have her on her knees, begging, pleading to suck his cock. But was that right? Would it ever be okay for her to step into that role again? Bankotsu had used and abused the title of Dom, and she knew that. She couldn’t deny that the thought of InuYasha dominating her was alluring, but was she ready to step back into that life, that game? She knew it would be different with him, it had to be. She would never return to the ignorant and diluted girl she had been; she would never blindly trust someone and allow them to use her the way she had Bankotsu. But…Inu….using her…that was…. Kagome bit her lip to try to stave off the throaty moan that was building in her chest. Pressing her thighs together, she tried to throttle back her inner whore. There was enough drama in her life and she didn’t need her hormones getting the better of her rational thinking.

               Unbuttoning the top three buttons of his dress shirt, he turned to look in the mirror over the small vanity in the middle of the room. He huffed after a moment and then drew the curtains in the room. Only once they were closed off from the outside did he remove his power limiter. Cracking his neck while his head of ebony hair turned silver, he twitched his ears twice and turned to glance at Kagome over his shoulder. He couldn’t help the corner of his mouth twitching skywards or the way his eyes darkened at the scent of her. He watched her in the mirror for a moment, marveling at the way she was trying, and failing, to juggle her emotions. What he wasn’t ready for was how turned on she was at the current moment. In the dark recesses of his brain, a small voice kicked to life, one that he had tried to smother out after Bankotsu began harassing Kagome. He hadn’t listened to his inner demon and the whispers that told him the filthy things he wanted to do to the girl before him for some time. But as he watched her silently, his trousers growing tighter by the moment, he witnessed the sudden shift in her emotions; from writhing with need to a sharp spiral into self-loathing and confusion. And he decided in that moment he was having none of that shit.

               Kagome had covered her eyes again to mull over her own thoughts. While Inu, Sesshoumaru, and the entire world could say the answer was easy, she still had to entertain the thoughts that had been thrust into her reality. How couldn’t she? If she simply ignored his threats, as she had for so long, what would she do when he made good on them? How could she ever look at herself if even just one of her friends was hurt because she tried to…. Tried to…. Do what was right? Right for who? InuYasha had proven that he was titanium, Sesshoumaru and his father even more so. There was really no question that Bankotsu would not be able to take down the Taisho empire. Right? But if she didn’t change her testimony, there were at least five other families who did not don that kind of invincibility. They would be the ones to suffer at the hands of some mysterious criminal who would slip in unnoticed and shed blood. But if she did give in, if she took his bait, she would also be allowing him to walk. And even if he never hurt her or anyone she loved again, the truth was he would hurt someone else. It would be another girl, as lost in the pensive melancholy of this world as Kagome had been, and then she would be at fault. If she allowed herself to be threatened, to be browbeaten out of testifying, she would always wonder who was his next victim. Her decision shouldn’t have been a question, by all rights she knew that. Had Bankotsu not crawled out of the depths of her nightmare to accost her once again, she would not be having these thoughts. It was best, as InuYasha had tried to explain, to forget it had happened. But how do you forget someone thoroughly threatening the life of everyone you love?

               Muddled in the hundreds of possible realities that splintered from their very own based off her decisions of the coming day, she completely missed the movement at the foot of the bed. Only once a hand, claws and all, wrapped around her ankle and yanked her, hard, down a foot on the bed did she wake with a start from her cloudy thoughts. An audible squeak ripped from her throat as her eyes shot open.

               By this time, InuYasha was on all fours, looming over her, smirk and all. Braced on his hands and knees, his golden eyes burned like fire. She knew that look, and regretfully it had been some time since she had seen it. But now, as their stress level became nearly unbearable, it seems that something in him had snapped, releasing all of his pent-up frustration and desire. His eyes glowed with intent as he pressed his will upon her. She felt her breath hitch in her throat as she realized that the night was about to get extremely interesting. All the thoughts of a dominating InuYasha pulsed back into her mind and down to her clit. The stare had her transfixed, unable to move or speak.

 “I said no.” His voice was husky, barely concealing his ire, and yet his eyes told of another imminent emotion that was lapping at the edges of his sanity. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the endless toil of frustration for a problem that he couldn’t control, or the look of helplessness that had consumed Kagome, or it was just the way her skirt bunched up around her thighs when he slid her forward on the bed, but he realized in that moment that he had very little control of what he was about to do. Specifically, he had very little control of what he was about to do to the girl beneath him.

Kagome gulped audibly.

Dropping his head, he pushed his nose against her left cheek, forcing her to turn her head to the right. His mouth ghosted over her ear for a moment, before his tongue darted out to trace the outer edges of her lobe. “I’m going to say this once,” he whispered gruffly, allowing his lips to run over her ear as he spoke, brushing roughly against the skin, “you will do tomorrow what you think is right for you and your family. Don’t worry about anyone else. No one who matters will blame you. I’m a big boy, I can cover my own ass.” Shifting his weight to his knees, he moved his right hand that had planted itself next to her shoulder down to push her skirt up higher around her hips. “But I will not give that asshole another minute of our time. I’m done. And I am done sitting here while you think about another man.”

Seeing Kagome’s mouth open to contradict his statement, he nipped at the cartilage of her ear hard enough to make her gasp.   “I plan on fucking you senseless. That way, both of us can get some god damned sleep tonight. And I will repeat said fucking until I see that you are too tired to think another thought about any of today’s bullshit.” His fingers wrapped around her cotton underwear, and with a hard yank, he tore the material straight from her body. At the same moment, his mouth latched onto her neck, sliding down the length of her jugular with hot, passionate kisses, that culminated at the edge of her collarbone where he nipped at her hard.

Her mouth opened with a harsh gasp as his teeth pierced the skin and, using the distraction, he sank two fingers into her. Her back arched off the bed and a moan fumbled from her lips as he rocked his right hand hard against her, letting his palm bump against the sensitive region. His tongue darted over the mark he left on her neck, loving how responsive she was to his touch. It only made him that much harder. He sucked hard again at the small wound, his fingers pummeling into her with abandon. This was pure bliss, he thought as she tightened around his fingers; it was the easiest answer to their current problems: don’t think about it.

Her fingers rose up to tweak one of his ears before sinking into his silver mane. She grabbed a fist full of his hair and pulled hard as the palm of his hand hit her clit, wreaking havoc on her sanity. Seeing how response she was to his brush against the nub of flesh, he sat up right, abandoning his mark and stared unabashedly at her glistening sex. Reaching with his left hand, he pressed a nail against the tiny piece of flesh that controlled her pleasure. His golden eyes met hers and he pressed hard, eliciting a loud gasp from Kagome. He withdrew his fingers for a moment, his nail raking across her clit with slow and deadly precision. He pressed hard again, added a third finger, and sank his fingers into her with a firm thrust of his wrist. Twisting his hand, he moved his fingers against her outer most wall, searching for the magical spot that would turn her to putty in his hands. His simultaneous assault on her clit and her g-spot reduced Kagome to a whimpering mess, the echo of her moans and pleads filling the wallpaper clad hotel room.

Bringing his face up to hers, he leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “Tell me what you need, Kagome. Tell me how you want me to finish you.”

Kagome’s mouth moved as she ground her hips against his hand. She chewed her lip and threw her head back, on the edge of the precipice of relief but unable to attain it. She cursed, much to InuYasha’s amusement, and begged him with words that were neither coherent nor what he wanted to hear.

Slowing down the circles he had been dragging over her clit, he licked the side of her neck and nipped at her ear. “How about this; you tell me what you’ll do for me, and I’ll made sure you see stars.”

“Anything, I’ll do whatever you want. Please, Inu…I’m so close, I’m so….” She groaned as he pressed his nail into the bundle of nerves and she moved against his hand. “Please. I’ll suck you off, swallow it all…You can fuck me however you want…”

“We call that Friday,” he smugly replied as he thrust his fingers into her once more. “I want to know what special prize I’ll get for helping you find your release.”

Kagome arched against his movement, feeling the wave cresting within her. All she needed was another moment, one more harsh drag of his claw, thrust of his hand, one more…something…and she would break into a million pieces, only to be put back together by the man she loved. “I’ll be a good whore. I’ll be wet, and warm, and inviting. You can use me, I’ll lick, swallow, fuck, whatever you want. I’ll get you off inside of me and lick you clean.”

InuYasha’s smug grin was lost to the girl, whose eyes were firmly shut, as he flicked her clit with the index finger of one nail while forcing his fingers deep into her opening. “Come on my hand, bitch. And I will own you tonight.”

Kagome’s eyes rolled back in her skull as her entire back arched off the bed. Stars exploded behind her eyelids as the wave of orgasmic bliss rolled over her being. Tonight, she would be his, she thought as she drifted back down to her body, and she would love every second.

He thrust his hand against her twice more before yanking his fingers from her. Wrapping his left hand around her neck, he shoved his right arm under her ass and hauled her up the bed with him, nearly throwing her three feet up the bed to the headboard.

Kagome felt her breath leave her body as she landed, unceremoniously, against the large swath of pillows at the top of the hotel bed. A giggle slipped from her lips, a euphoria loosening from the tight confines of the oppressive dread that had restricted their lives for so long. He was right, she thought in a maelstrom of emotions; she had to stop thinking. And honestly, this was the best way to do it. They had played nice for the last two months; every time they made love, InuYasha had been overly gentle and careful with her. He had treated her like she was glass, too petrified to shatter her. She understood it completely and hadn’t complained. After what he had seen when he had rescued her from the confines of Bankotsu’s dungeon, she knew that he had been deeply affected as well. They hadn’t spoken of his trauma from that day, having been overly concerned with her paralysis and then the loss of Kagejiro, but she saw it lingering in his eyes when they would make love. His touch was gentle, far gentler than it had ever been. He had avoided taking off his limiter when they made love, and now she firmly understood why. He hadn’t wanted to dominate her for fear of resembling that asshole. But she wasn’t that fragile anymore, and really, at the end of the day, a good hard fuck would help to settle her troubled mind. She hadn’t seen his eyes so fierce, so damned demanding since the night he had plowed the hummer across the lanes of the Garden State Parkway to fuck her on the side of the road. The dominant in him, the one that commanded for her to submit to him in the changing room of a clothing store, and in the dirty bathroom stall of Jak’s bar had been noticeably absent for too long.

Planting his thighs on either side of her chest, InuYasha towered over Kagome. One canine slid over his red lip, his cognac eyes drilling into her. Without breaking eye contact, InuYasha’s hands went to his belt. He made quick work of the buckle and pulled the leather from his jeans. In the same instant, his left hand grabbed her hands, that had planted themselves on his thighs and were massaging him gently, and tugged them together. Looping the belt through a slat in the headboard, he slipped her left hand against the material, looped the belt through the buckle and caught her right hand in the other loop. Pulling the leather tight, he slipped the end of the belt under the buckle once more to finish the bind. He pulled tight, knowing that the restraint was lacking the refinement of satin ties but it would do the trick on the fly.

               Kagome had allowed him the time to figure out his strategy for securing her with no complaints and no attempts to make him work for it. She simply watched him, engrossed in how she could just about see his brain work out the problem in front of him. She knew she was grinning like an idiot, and was called out for it when she noted the cocky smile break out of his face. Leaning down for a moment, InuYasha pressed his mouth to hers in a passionate and loving kiss. Pulling his lips back just slightly from her mouth, he whispered, “Color?”

“Green.” She stole a quick kiss from his lips before he could pull back.

For a moment, he stared at her in awe before his eyes darkened with the demanding need to make her submit. Lust damn near exploded from the man’s body as he ripped the tie off his neck. Pausing, he glanced at the red material in his hand then back down to the partially naked and bound girl before him. His smirk returned as he threaded the tie around her neck and created a quick Windsor knot. He eyed his handy work, taking in the view of the vixen loosely bound to the headboard, before running his eyes down her body. His hands slid down her torso, his claws leaving the faintest of red marks across her ivory skin, a light hiss escaping her lips in their wake.

“I want a number tonight; count how many times you come.” His tongue darted out across his lips for the briefest of seconds before he buried his face between her legs.

Kagome’s mouth dropped open to a voiceless scream as his tongue slipped between her folds and lapped at her opening. Her back arched, coming up off the bed violently only to be restrained by her hands. She crashed back down as InuYasha braced a hand on each inner thigh to keep her pressed to the bed. Wrenching her legs open with said hands, he pushed his face closer to her lips, his mouth working her opening while his nose bumped against her clit. Having come so recently, she knew that this wouldn’t last long. Her breath left her body as she felt his teeth nipping at her folds, and then once again, harder than she would have dared dream, at her clit. A yelp that didn’t sound pained at all tore from her lips, surprising even herself at how fucking needy she sounded. If she could have found the words, she would have expressed how much she wanted him…no needed him…to destroy her tonight. The pressing need drummed behind her eyes, in her ears; her blood boiled for his touch, his devotion, his punishment. ‘use me, bruise me, make me cum, bend my body for your pleasure, make me yours over and over,’ echoed in her mind. She felt him pause, mid nip at her clit, and she had to wonder if she had actually said those words out loud. But she meant them; the safety she felt at begging him for the same things she had feared Bankotsu for doing juxtaposed one another beautifully. It was plain as day to her the difference between the two men, and her body hummed in agreement. It was the greatest feeling in the world to know that these actions, that this kink, did not belong to the man who had lorded it above her. Part of her had been concerned that she would never again want to engage in such a show of submission; and yet, here she was, without a concern in the world beyond pleasing her mate.

 Kagome could swear she saw stars; light exploded in front of her eyes as the hanyou made quick work of her. His mouth stayed on her as she rode out her second orgasm of the night, and he waited for a moment. As her breathing became more natural, a sign of her riding out the wave, he bit her, hard, on her inner thigh. “Number?”

Kagome yelped, her hands giving a surprised tug at the headboard. She had forgotten her role and her bonds. “Two!” He nipped her thigh again before gently kissing the mark he surely had left against the fragile skin. “Two,” she repeated, attempting to sound less needy.

He pulled her legs wider once more, his fingers slipping from their iron grip on her hips to splay open her thighs. He brought his mouth to her mound once more, and then licked her soundly; once, twice, and then thrust three fingers into her. He twisted his wrist upwards, smiling against the slick skin of her nether region. He nipped hard at the soft flesh of her thigh, relishing the way she mewed and gasped at his ministrations, his tongue dancing over the red marks his fangs had left at the last bite. She would have a mark, but he would make sure to kiss it better. Repeatedly. His eyes lifted from between her legs to regard the beauty above him.

Kagome raised her head to stare down at the man she loved. His lava-colored eyes bore into her with a passion she had nearly forgotten he possessed. He looked down right hungry. His demeanor, the fervent need that radiated off him in waves, it all brought Kagome back to the first day she had seen him, the demon him, at the club. He had been all hands, and tongue, and demands; Kagome had never wanted so much in her life to bend to the will of another. Now, she was his to command, his to control. And he was hers to love.

As they held eye contact, she had to wonder what was in store for her tonight. Bound to the headboard and completely at his mercy, slowly building to her third orgasm of the night, her brain wandered back to some of the conversations they had indulged in about limits. It felt like years ago, but had been shortly before everything had gone to hell. She knew some of the kinks in which he indulged, and those that he had yet to try, and she felt her body tingle with anticipation. She had told him she had very few limits, the only one that she had learned to stand firm on was the necessity of a safe word or signal. Beyond that, her body was his to mold. And tonight, it seemed, she would be his clay.

InuYasha smirked again before leaning down to suck hard against her clit. Feeling her body jolt, he ran one of his canines over the captured bud of nerves. A curse flew from Kagome’s mouth and he couldn’t help how hard it made him.

“Fuck,” she cried out, nearly coming apart at the feel of his incisor, “Inu…please…” What was she begging for? Number three? For him to be relentless. She would have all of that and more, and she knew that.

“Remember your place,” he whispered while trailing kisses across her abdomen, “speak out of turn again and I will punish you.” Hearing her whimper but consent to his demand, he returned his head between her legs. His fingers that had remained defy implanted in her twisted and wormed against the inside of her, seeking out the sensitive spot within her body to make her fall apart again. He spun his wrist gently yet firmly, back and forth as his fingers worked against the inside of her. Slipping his pinky in along side the other three, he lifted his eyes to check her face, to check on her wellbeing. Seeing her eyes firmly clasped shut, he kissed her hip. “Color?”  He lifted his torso up from his place between her legs to watch her face for any sign of insecurity.

Her mouth fell open as she ground herself against his hand, seeking relief to the mounting pressure within her body. His ability to push her orgasm through orgasm was exhilarating, albeit exhausting. “Green,” she purred out, “always green for you.”

His left hand came down hard across her breast. The slap shocked Kagome, but was not unwelcome. Her hips ground hard, and a hiss escaped her lips as her eyes shot open to lock with his.

“I warned you,” He pulled back to lick her clit with the tip of his tongue. “Do you want to try again?”

“Green,” she cooed, her breath coming in ragged pants.

InuYasha leaned forward to kiss the reddened skin of her breast. After giving attention to the mark for a moment, he returned to his place between her legs. He blew a breath of hot air against her sex and Kagome felt her entire body shiver. He eagerly began to lick at her center as she approached her next orgasm.  

She was so wet at this point, she was sure she had soaked through the sheets beneath them. Embarrassment colored her face but did not pause her attempts to find satisfaction against the hardness of his hand and the softness of his tongue. She trusted him explicitly and knew that he would push her as hard as he could, but he would never hurt her.

He could feel her coiling around his fingers, her body building to another crescendo in the opus of their love. Her hips gyrated harder, faster, against his hand, seeking more, seeking to be filled to the brim. He pulled back from his place between her legs, allowing his hand to press harder and harder against her opening. He was transfixed with the sight before him, with how much she was taking. And as he teasingly slowed, then quickened his pace, until all that remained outside was his thumb, he cooed to her, “that’s it, darling; you’re doing so well. I know what you want,” he said while pressing harder against her. He grinned as she ground her hips in response, “so needy. You need to be filled, don’t you?” he thrust his hand once more against her.

Kagome’s body shuddered beneath him, the promise of pleasure amidst domination nearly bringing her to her next orgasm.

“Not yet,” he chided before leaning down to capture her clit in his mouth once more. Sucking hard, he let his tongue box the small piece of flesh back and forth while his fingers continued their streak of torture. He nipped at her again, savoring how much she had to fight to keep from screaming his name. He knew she was close, and that realistically he could only ask her to hold on for a few more moments.   But he wasn’t done playing with her yet; he had a promise to keep.

Kagome lost track of time as he drove her repeatedly to the brink of orgasm. As she would swiftly reach that precipice, he would reign back in the throttle, his fingers would slow, his mouth would move to her belly or thigh, and he would pepper her skin with gently deceptive kisses. While only five or ten minutes had elapsed, it felt like the entire night had been spent tied to the wooden board. And she knew he was just getting started. He had promised to fuck her; this was only the opening act.

He licked her clit once, then again, and then continued his pummeling assault. Kagome’s entire body constricted around his hand as she arched off the bed. Leaning forward to nip hard at her clit, he ordered her, “come. Now.”

Kagome couldn’t have stopped even if he commanded it. Her vision faded as her entire body convulsed against his ministrations. Her mouth fell open and blood roared in her ears. She yanked hard against her restraints, the orgasm ripping through her body like lightning. Sweat erupted in blooms across her forehead and her neck as she sucked air into her lungs. She pushed hard against his hand, feeling him sink deeper into her as she spasmed in pleasure. She collapsed a moment later, all fight and energy fleeing her body as she crashed down the waves of the torrential orgasm. “Three,” she squeaked, unsure if she would be able to muster the strength to keep up with him for the rest of the night.

InuYasha was staring down at her in awe. The girl was a goddess, and watching her surf the crests of the waves of pleasure he caused was enough to make him blow his load. He leaned back down and gently tapped her clit with his tongue. Her body jerked as if he had shocked her. He tapped her clit again and again as he moved his wrist back and forth, sending jolts of pleasure straight to her core. He could tell she would crest again, quickly, if he kept it up, and to be honest, so would he. He wasn’t sure he could survive much more of this, and he had yet to fuck her. “Breathe,” he cooed again, as he felt her tightening around him.

Kagome sighed happily, floored by the dominant yet passionate male who lingered above her. This was how a dom/sub relationship should have been; he brought her to her limits, towing the line for both their pleasure, and met her with love and passion in the aftermath. And judging by the mischievous glint in his eyes, she knew that he had more in store.

Two fingers pressed into her mouth and rubbed against her tongue, giving her a taste of just how wet she had been. He dragged them over her lip before removing them. Grabbing a small hand towel that he had left at the side of the bed, he cleaned himself off before gently, yet firmly, dragging it between her legs. The terrycloth against her aching folds shot tiny jolts of electricity through the already sensitive region. Her mouth opened to cry out but she hardly had time.

 A hand grabbed the tie wrapped around her neck and pulled her forward roughly, snapping the belt tight against her wrists behind her. Lips crashed down against hers, his tongue demanding entrance into her mouth. She laid there, allowing him to pillage her mouth with his for a moment before he released the tie, and her, back to the bed. Her eyes opened, half lidded, to see him beaming down at her.

“That was so fucking hot; you did so well, babe,” he cooed again as he leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. His eyes bore into hers, silently assessing that she was still ready for him to continue. Seeing the exhausted smile tip upwards on her lips, he grinned. “Color?”

She smiled, exhausted but ready, “Green.”

“All right then.”

Kneeling on either side of her chest, InuYasha made quick work of his button-down shirt and the undershirt beneath it. Throwing both to the side of the bed, he ripped open the button to his jeans and shoved them and his boxers down his thighs. Her eyes followed his hurried movements with hunger. Leaning forward to try and capture him in her mouth, she was surprised when his right palm gently touched her forehead to stop her. His hand traced down her cheek to catch her jaw in between his fingers. Squeezing gently, his fingers settled on either side of her jaw. His thumb rubbed against her bottom lip before he cantered his hips forward and ran his hardened length across her lips. Using his left hand, InuYasha wrapped it around his length and brushed the tip across her lips again, and then pushed it into her mouth. His right hand continued to hold her jaw, demanding her to bend to his will as he used her mouth solely for his pleasure. He pushed three inches into her mouth through his knotted fist, to pull back and run the tip across her lips again. He thrust forward, five inches into her mouth, and pulled back two. He squeezed her jaw with his right hand, pushing her mouth closed just a bit more than it had been. Thrusting again, he buried the entire length down her throat. Removing his left hand, he thrust forward more. His left hand moved down her throat to grab at the neck tie and roughly pulled her forward. Her eyes watered but she did not attempt to pull away. Kagome quickly got her breathing corrected, and maintained eye contact with the demon above her. His smile was arrogant and he radiated dominance. He pulled again at the neck tie, allowing himself to break eye contact to roll his eyes towards the ceiling in pure bliss. A deep moan that must have started at his toes rippled from his mouth along with a muttered, “Fuck….”

He thrust back into her throat for a moment, his hips gently pushing deeper, relishing in the obscene sound of his cock pillaging the wetness of her mouth. He canted his hips again and again, before burying his hand behind her head and pulling her head up to meet his pelvic bone. He could feel her gag reflex but couldn’t find himself willing to pull out of such a warm haven. Using more force, he fucked her mouth. “Such a good girl,” he cooed, “such a good cocksucker. That’s it baby, take it all down that tight throat of yours. I’m gonna come straight into your stomach. So good,” he whined, as he slowed down his tempo, moving on to slow but brutal thrusts of his hips. “God, I Just want to live here, like this.” But he knew that if he kept this up, as good as it was, it would be end game.

Sliding himself from her mouth, he grasped his length in his left hand once more and rubbed it across her lips. Her breathing was ragged, her eyes lust ridden and wanton, and glazed from his rough treatment. Her eyes followed his left hand as he pumped himself once, twice, before leaning forward and telling her, “lick it.”

               Her tongue darted out and swept off the drops of precum and drool that had amassed on the tip. She then stuck her tongue out further and circled the mushroom cap.

               Wildly, he thrust forward and sunk six inches into her throat. “That’s it, baby,” he cooed, “suck me off.”

               Pulling forward, Kagome gave it her best go while still restrained to the headboard. Her mouth expertly worked him up and down, her tongue attempting to overcompensate for a lack of hands.

               Panting, InuYasha watched from above as Kagome serviced him. He thrust his left hand into her hair and knotted the tresses through his fingers. He pulled tight once, twice, and a third time before pushing his hips backwards. He would finish too quickly if he allowed her to continue. He stared down at her, his cock throbbing to finish what he had started. His eyes roamed over for a moment, his smile nothing short of completely sinful. Leaning forward, he quickly undid the belt from her wrists.

               Kagome nearly fell forward when he released her arms, and he gave her a moment to roll her shoulders and wrists to move the circulation. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, while taking her right hand in his. He gently ran the pad of his thumb over the redness of her wrists, checking to see what there was no damage. For a moment, he massaged her right wrist, and then her left, before kissing her again. “Color?”

Kagome rest her head back against his shoulder and smiled from under a mess of black hair and closed eyes. “Green…and four.”

InuYasha’s eyes widened as his mind made sense of her words. His lips twitched into his trademark cocky grin, his eyes darkening even more. “You get off on sucking my cock, bitch?”

Kagome nodded, somehow looking innocent even as her lips swelled from the treatment.

“Say it,” InuYasha hissed, his left hand grabbing a handful of her hair and his right dipping between her legs to see how wet his treatment had made her. Little to no surprise, she was dripping.

“I got off on you fucking my throat,” she said without a blink.

“And now? What about now? What about my fingers?”

Kagome gasped as he pushed three fingers into her.  Tender was a good word for the feeling, and yet she felt like she couldn’t get enough. “If you keep that up, I’ll come on them too.”

He pulled his fingers from her and pushed all three into her mouth. Holding her hair tight, he fucked her mouth with the three fingers that had just been inside of her.

Pulling her forward to her knees, InuYasha grabbed her hands once more and restrained them in the belt behind her back. He pushed her to the center of the bed, still on her knees, and took his place behind her. Holding her up against his chest, both of them on their knees, he embraced her. His arms wrapped around her back, hands coming to rest on her breasts. His mouth descended to her neck and latched onto her pulse. There he paused, his mouth gently adoring the skin of her neck with soft and needy kisses. His hands deftly pressed against her breasts, his nails softly scraping against the material around her nipples.

               Kagome’s breathing hitched higher and higher as InuYasha switched gears completely. Gone was the imminent demand for submission that had dominated the previous actions. Now he was playing the role of the gentle and passionate lover that left her damn near trembling with need. His mouth worked over her neck before his one hand gently cupped her chin and craned her head back towards him. Locking his lips hard against hers, he kissed her for all he was worth. Tongues crashed against one another, professing a love that had been born from tragedy. He poured life into the kiss, hoping to convey all the emotions he could never find the right words to express.

               And then it was gone. Pulling tight with one arm, InuYasha pulled his mouth back to her ear, allowing the need to dominate the girl before him light anew in his blood.

               “Which hole?”

               Kagome gasped at his abruptness, her mouth moving with words unspoken.

               InuYasha grinned and pushed Kagome forward onto the mattress. She fell face first to the soft bed, her hands bound behind her back and her lower half completely bared for the taking. He eyed her for a moment, appreciating the way she submitted to him without question. She was willing to allow him to do as he pleased with her. Reaching between her legs, he traced his fingers gently over her quivering sex. He ran a finger through her wet folds and up to the puckered opening above it. He circled his fingers over the opening that he had only pillaged a handful of times. He ran the tip of his finger over the sensitive opening then gently pushed in. Hearing her hiss beneath him, he removed his finger and slapped her ass, hard. The crack echoed across the near barren walls of the hotel room. Kagome’s mouth fell open and he spanked her again. “Answer me when I ask you a question.”

               Kagome moaned against the callous hand, and when it connected for a third time, she nearly came. “My  pussy, please….please fuck me.”

Inu grinned, “who am I to deny a lady?”

               Pushing his knees to the inside of hers, he widened her stance before gently guiding himself into her. He thrust forward, allowing himself to sink slowly into the warmth between her thighs. Both of them hissed at the pleasure. Sliding back and rocking forward, InuYasha gradually blazed a trail into her body. Each thrust was agonizingly slow and reserved, normally meant for a more tender moment of love making when her hands weren’t bound by a leather belt. He moved forward slowly, testing the waters; he knew that she had to be sore, and he worried that she wouldn’t immediately tell him. Yet she didn’t flinch away from the touch, she didn’t groan or offer any indication that she could not continue with their dirty and brutal round of sex.

 After a moment of reveling in the feeling of the joint bodies, InuYasha hooked one of his hands around the belt that held her arms. Pulling her halfway up off the bed, he began to thrust in earnest. Using the belt to pull her bodyweight back towards him, he began to drive forward faster and faster until the only pronounced sounds in the room were skin hitting skin, the wet of her body accepting his hard cock, and the labored breath of both parties involved. Each thrust became earth shattering; their bodies careened back and forth in the exotic dance, hers at the mercy of his dominance and perseverance. Bone crashed against bone as he ground himself into her, feral growls beginning to seep from his chest as he found himself quickly approaching the end of his rope. He thrust brutally fast, holding her by the belt on her wrists with one hand and the other wrapped completely around her hip. He growled in pleasure as he felt her walls bore down on him as she prepared to come again.

               Pulling Kagome upright against his body, his right hand snaked around her hips to dip between her legs. He didn’t slow down his thrusts as he began to strum his fingers roughly against her clit, quickly bringing her to the edge of another orgasm.

               “Now,” he commanded as he pinched her clit between two fingers. Kagome gave him what he wanted. With a strangled gasp, her mouth opened and she cried out her orgasm with intense force. InuYasha could feel her body constrict against his cock, the gush of her juices, and he nearly lost it. Pulling himself from her, he spun her face forwards and pushed her backwards to the bed. Straddling over her, he wrapped one hand around the necktie and pull her head closer to him, his other hand quickly masturbated his cock three to four times before he began to shoot his load across her face and eagerly opened mouth. The opaque white stream sprayed across her neck, face, and mouth, and before he was done, he released the neck tie and slipped the length of his cock into her mouth to finish the last two squirts down her throat, his balls pressing hard against her chin. Her lips eagerly closed around him, sucking him dry and cleaning him with her tongue.

               He knelt there for a long moment, his cock softening in Kagome’s mouth as she gently sucked on it. With a groan, he pulled from the warm haven and grimaced at the mess he made. A guilty laugh stuck in his throat as he lumbered off the bed and into the bathroom to get her a warm cloth. Returning to the bed, Inu gently ran the rag across her face, cleaning his mess from her skin. Helping her sit up right, he removed the belt from her hands and the tie from her neck. Her breath came in ragged pants of exhaustion and pleasure as she curled up at his side. Grasping one wrist, his fingers gently massaged the bone, breathing feeling back into the previously bound appendage. He kissed the top of her head lovingly, nuzzling his face deep into her hair. “That was…” his voice trailed off. He didn’t want to sound like some pleased dom, speaking condescendingly to his pet after a session of kinky love making. This was so much more than that. They had tiptoed around his thirst for dominance and her desire for submission for far too long. This was months in the making.

               “Amazing?” Kagome offered quietly with a smile wrapped around her face. She could barely keep her eyes open. He had thoroughly fucked her, as promised.

               “Yeah,” he replied. Kissing her head, he smiled against her. His fingers danced over her hip before pulling back, and slapping his hand down hard across her ass.

               Kagome jumped, a sound of surprise slipping from her lips. “What the hell?” She shoved his shoulder from where she laid against him. “What was that for?”

               InuYasha smirked and kissed her head, “Five.”

               Blinking, Kagome pondered his words before blushing wildly, “oh...yes, five.”

               “Somehow, Kags, I feel like you won that round.”

               Kagome grinned against his chest. “It’s not a contest. But yes, I feel like I won the lottery with you and…that.” She moaned as she tightened her inner thighs. “I’m going to be sore forever.”

               Lying in bed, InuYasha gave Kagome twenty minutes or so to recuperate. He ran his fingers through her hair, gently petting her into a place of comfort and complacency. The warmth of her in his arms reminded him of everything they had fought for, and the fact that they had won. No matter what happened, he had her.

After a few more moments had passed, InuYasha stood and collected Kagome into his arms. Lifting her like a weightless doll, he carried her into the bathroom and sat her on the sink only after she acknowledged she was awake. He prepared the shower and then turned his attention back to Kagome, who was simply too tired to stand on her own legs. He smirked, feeling a familiar stirring in his groin as he stared at the well-fucked girl in front of him. He nodded towards the shower with a grin. “Round two?”

************************************************

 

OFF> warned you of shameless dirty smut. Had to throw one more lemon into this story, but damn, I’m too old and now I’m someone’s mom to be writing this shit (Nah, who am I kidding? Me, write a story without smut?) Now off to end this story.