Remembrance by ShadowsWeaver1

Remembrance

Remembrance

Glowing ambers still burned upon the blackened earth of the battlefield. The evening's air hung heavy and still, filled with the fetid stench of death and decay. No sound broke the stillness, no cries of victory for the battle brought to an end; for there was no victory to be had.

The enemy had been brought down, the darkness sealed once more; but the cost and been everything and everyone.

From the darkness, a lone figure emerged. Her clothing was nothing but tattered remains, still smoking with the remnants of the blazing fires. Her midnight hair was so matted and tangled with blood and ash that it seemed a sickly veil as it fell down around her and clung to her battered body. Her face had been stained with blood and tears, dirt and ash. She seemed a ghost wandering amongst the living, and like those not belonging to this world, she too sought a way to bring her eternal torment to an end.

All around her there was death. Friend and foe, allies and enemies; all lay dead at her feet, broken and torn, burned and ravaged. She alone had escaped, but with nothing more than the air in her lungs and the beat of her heart in her breast. But for one who had sacrificed everything to see justice finally served, that could never be enough.

She lifted her eyes from the carnage, but they too were dead, voids of ocean blue devoid of life and hope. Through the emptiness she sought an end; an end to the torture, an end to the agony, an end to everything. She found it as a brightness on the horizon, a figure in vivid white against the dark backdrop of the battlefield. He gave spark to the deadened flames of hope, a light so small it could barely be sustained and yet casting off enough of the darkness to move her forward one last time.

The Angel of Death, the Killing Perfection; the end she sought.

She walked forward to meet with him. Her steps were slow, forced, each one like walking upon shards of glass, each one a new agony, a new source of pain, another reason to bring it all to an end. When she was finally standing before him, she did not dare to even look upon him. He was to be her savior and her death bringer. He was the last hope that she could have, the last light she would ever see in the darkness that had been brought down upon her.

"Sesshomaru-sama." She spoke his name like a prayer, reverent and filled with desperate need. Her body gave way beneath her, and she collapsed to her knees before him, too broken and wounded to hold on to any semblance of pride or dignity, any glimmer of the woman that she had been. Finally, she lifted her haunted eyes to look upon the blazing gold of his and asked of him her last request. "Send me to them."

Sesshomaru looked down at the broken woman before him. He could see in her eyes that she had given up. She, who had been the only one strong enough to face the incredible power of the Shikon, to stand in the path of its fury, to put an end to its murderous reign; she, who had been the one in the end to take down the vile creature that had been the creator of nightmares for so long; she, who had fought for so hard for so long, had given up now that victory had been granted her.

But she couldn't see what had happened as a victory. All who had gone with her into the fight had died. She had lost her friends, her family, and her love. She had lost the only thing that had the power to send her home. She had lost everyone and everything that had ever been important to her, and now she was alone. In a time far removed from where she began, in a place filled with dangers and untold horrors; she was alone. She had no one and nothing and no reason to go on.

And she wanted him to end it for her.

Sesshomaru was confronted. He knew that he could easily do what she asked. He could end her pain in the way she wished it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The woman had shown such strength and such courage in the battle. Even before, he could remember the fiery girl with the audacity to confront him, to deny him, to attack him. He had also been witness to her unfaultable loyalty as well as her compassionate and caring nature for any creature; young or old, human or youkai or even hanyou. No matter what he would say to deny it, this young mortal woman had earned his respect.

He made his decision. He would not take her life as she was asking. He turned from her, signaling his refusal to concede to her request. He would have left her there and continued on his way, but her broken voice from behind him gave him pause.

"Have you no mercy?"

"You ask not for mercy," he responded without turning to face her, "But for an escape."

"Don't I deserve that escape?" She asked of him as her tears began to fall anew. She forced down her racking sobs to find her voice one last time. "After everything that I have sacrificed and everything that I have lost; do I not deserve to rest?"

He would not do as she asked, but he knew that if he did not she would welcome it from any other possible source. If he were to leave her now, he would be killing her as surely as if by his own poison. No, he would not allow such a fate to befall this woman. He remembered her strength in the battle, remembered how she had called forth incredible amounts of power even in the face of such pain and loss. It was only now that she had allowed herself to give into the grief and heartache that she felt, only now after she had brought an end to the war that she would allow herself to fall.

She waited patiently for his answer. Time just didn't mean anything to her anymore. She just wanted for the end, where she could finally close her eyes and not be plagued by the images of what was and what would never be again. The fire in her eyes had all but gone out, her courage and resolve had been ebbed away by carnage and bloodshed; and her willful spirit and loving heart had been bound tightly by pain and loss. He knew that as she was, she would never be able to regain what she once had. If she was ever going to break away from the painful horrors which had snared her in their grasp, she would have to remember.

He would make her remember.

Sesshomaru finally turned back to the kneeling woman. He had made his decision.

He knew that this woman was no simple mortal. This woman, this miko, this blazing spirit of conviction and determination, of power and light, had shown him that truth can not always be seen by the eyes. She was not as he had believed the rest of her kind to be. She was strong where he would have believed her humanity to make her weak. She was brave where he would have believed her fragile nature would make her cower in fear. She was beautiful, even with her body ravaged by the battle, her clothing torn, her hair and skin streaked with the dirt and grime of the terrible war; he could still see the bright light of her spirit that had captured so many and had not left him without the unforgettable imprint of its warming grace.

And yet now that light had been dimmed, it had been darkened by the pain in her soul, been smothered by her heartache and her terrible losses. She had been broken and torn; her bright light had been corrupted by the darkness of the fires that she had walked into to bring an end to the suffering of so many others. But he would not accept it. He would not allow such a radiant light to be stolen from this would. He would not allow the darkness to have her.

Sesshomaru reached down and pulled the broken miko to her feet.

"Kagome," he addressed her by her title, an honor that she had long since earned in his eyes, "You would serve them better to remember."

Kagome shook her head against the threat of seeing, of remembering. It was too painful to remember, and she could not withstand any more pain.

"I can't." Her voice was broken by sobs which she could no longer contain. "I'm not strong enough. It hurts too much to remember."

Her tears fell uninhibited; tears of suffering and loss, of pain and of anguish. She could no longer see the path on which she walked. She had completed the terrible task set upon her and now all she could do was wait for the end. She wanted it, she embraced it; the end of the suffering, the end of the pain, the end of everything. And so she waited for it to come. She had no strength to do anything more. There was no fight left in her to carry on, no hope to see any light beyond the darkness of her soul.

Sesshomaru pulled the girl closer to him, reaching up to brush away the crystalline waters of her falling tears.

"It is the pain that lets you know you are alive." He said to her, the smooth tenors of his voice never wavering and the soft velvet of his tone wrapping around her in a soothing blanket.

But Kagome could not see it, for it was the pain that had blinded her to everything. She reached up to capture his hand between hers, and guided it down to settle upon her chest directly over her heart.

"How can one live with a broken heart?" she asked in a whisper as broken as she.

He could feel the pulse of her life beneath his hand. So much strength she had to have walked away from the battle with her life still her own, and yet she could not see it. She had given what remained of her life to him, offered herself into his hands, trusting, hoping, that he would be the one to rip it away from her, to take the blessing of her existence away from the future of this land. But she still had life, and he was going to make her see it, he was going to make her feel it once more.

Sesshomaru pulled his hand away from the soft clutch of her hands, allowing it to slip slowly down from where it had covered her heart and to trace lightly the bounteous curve of her breast. He heard her shuttering intake of breath as his fingers grazed across her sensitive peak and it stirred his pride to know that even now, that even when she had abandoned all thoughts and feelings associated with her life and her body, that he could still draw from her a reaction of such unveiled wonder and passion.

His hand slipped lower, moving from his gentle tracing of her sensitive breast to curve around her delicate waist. He secured her in his hold, pulling her tiny frame tightly against his body, finding great satisfaction in the way she gave herself over to him. She was soft and yielding against him, her fragile body melting into his hold easily, accepting and without fear or hesitation.

He could feel her body fill with a gentle warmth as she reacted to him and he could hear the lengthened calm of her now steady breaths. For this time, for this moment; she was his to do as he would with her. But he would not bring pain to this delicate creature. No, he would ease away the suffering cast upon her by making her feel again, by making her remember that even when surrounded by the darkness the light may still shine; if only she would open her eyes to see.

When he caught the deep cobalt of her darkened eyes with the blazing gold of his own, he held her in the intensity of his gaze, letting her see the placid calm of the golden oceans and allowing the gentle warmth of the fires to wrap around her and to steal her away from the raging storms of her torment. When he spoke, he did so slowly, letting his words bleed in through her hardened defenses, and the soft tones he used to carry with them the promise of the hope that could still be if only she were to embrace it.

"You live by remembering those that filled the heart so completely that it could break."

He leaned into her then, his cheek brushing softly against hers as he brought his lips to her ear.

"Tell me, Kagome." He paused to trace the shell of her ear delicately with his tongue, eliciting a startled gasp and an involuntary shiver from the young woman. "What do you remember?"

She still wasn't ready to answer him, but Sesshomaru was not deterred. He moved away from her ear, allowing his lips to brush against her skin in fluttering kisses as he traveled down her face. He paused slightly to nip lightly on the line of her jaw before moving again to trail hot kisses down her neck. She tilted her head back, revealing to him her weakest point without care. But he had no intention of bringing her to harm. He kissed her neck delicately, rumbling in low tones of pleasure when heat rushed into her skin beneath his ministrations. His tongue swept out to taste her, to feel more clearly the reactions of her body as her blood moved to the surface to sing to him of its sweet coursing melody.

He could still taste the dirt and sweat that had settled on her skin from the long and hard battle, but beneath that, beneath the evidence remaining from her perilous fight, there was the sweetness of her skin, the soothing lull of her essence, the scent and the taste of mystery and power, of purity and innocence; of something that was hers and hers alone. It was incredible and beautiful, and so alluring that he wondered why he had never seen it before. He parted his lips, resting his fangs lightly against the delicate skin of her neck, allowing the sharp points of them to trail across her skin and leave tiny streaks of blood flowing after them. He took it in, savoring the sweet liquid and the warming power carried within it.

She gasped when his jaws locked around the life-giving vessels of her neck and he began drawing in more of her with strong draws against her skin which she could feel pulling within her veins. She had placed her life in his hands, and being so vulnerable, so exposed, to a creature with such immeasurable power made her realize how fragile life really was. She remembered then, that though she felt so fragile in his hold, so breakable under his soft but strong actions against her; there had been others who, unlike her who still remained whole despite how weak she appeared, had broken against life's trials.

"I remember death." She whispered to him when she had regained her breath.

Sesshomaru pulled back from her neck slowly when he had heard her words. Though speaking them aloud had brought her pain back with authority, it was still just the beginning of her healing. He held her eyes once again, conveying to her his message with clarity and purpose.

"Then you must remember how they lived."

He leaned into her again, this time catching the soft curves of her lips with his own. He held her to himself, never letting her pull away, keeping her lips caught by his own. His kiss was strong and sure, but also light and gentle. He toyed with her lips, brushing up against them softly in one moment, only to pull on them hungrily in the next, drawing the soft folds into his mouth and teasing them with gentle strokes from his tongue or light bites from his fangs.

She moaned softly against him as she released everything holding her back from the sensations he was creating for her. Tentatively, uncertainly, she began to respond to his gentle prompts, moving her lips slowly against his, parting them slightly to increase the contact between them. He growled softly in approval when he felt her open herself to him, and he wasted no time to take what she had offered to him. Sesshomaru leaned into her forcefully, parting her lips fully so that he could plunge his tongue into the moist, hot cavern of her mouth.

Kagome gasped at the intrusion and stiffened slightly, but when he made no move to release her and continued running his tongue across hers, tasting her at the same time as gently coaxing her to join with him in the exotic dance, she relaxed again. She whimpered lightly when she finally gave in to the burning desire coursing through her and responded to him. She didn't want to feel, she didn't want to know that her body could experience anything but pain; but he had captured her in his hold, imprisoned her to his sweet torment, taken her over only to give her this incredible surge of feeling and of passion.

So she moved her tongue to dance with his, to search out the hot spices of his inviting mouth, to feel the sharp point of his fangs as she ran her tongue against them. At some point, without her knowledge, she had lifted her arms to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer to herself and begging in soft moans and sighs for him to give her more. She was feeling again and she could do nothing to stop it, but what was most incredible was that she didn't want to. She reveled in the feeling of his lips against hers, she felt the burning of desire that raged through her veins and flushed her skin so deeply that it felt like it was on fire. Her lips were swollen from the treatment that she had never experienced, and yet that only seemed to heighten her awareness of his movements and cause the pleasure she felt to magnify to an intensity she could never have imagined.

Lost in the burning heat of their contact, Kagome didn't realize that Sesshomaru had shifted his hold on her. While she had been holding herself tightly against him with her arms wound around his neck, he had shifted his hand from where it had clutched the small of her back firmly to travel down her thigh. When she felt the heat of his hand against the exposed skin of her leg she gasped and pulled back from him. But he would not let her escape. He squeezed her leg firmly in his strong grasp and pulled hard on it to lift it to wrap around his waist before he leaned forward to capture her lips again.

Kagome moaned when he assaulted her mouth again, but now there was more force behind his actions, more need. His kissed with hunger, and when she felt his body press against hers, she could also feel the hardened length of his arousal pressing firmly against her throbbing, heated core. She moaned again as she shifted herself to press against him, trying to relieve the pressure she could feel collecting between her legs.

Sesshomaru growled softly when he felt her press against him. He could feel her heat burning against his throbbing length and the wetness that was soaking through the light layers of cloth that was keeping them apart. He pressed against her again, grinding his hips against hers to feel more of her glorious heat. Her body quaked against his with a shiver of wanton desire, but her soft moans and whimpers only drove him onwards.

He slipped his hand along the creamy length of her thigh, allowing himself to fully appreciate the way her flesh was so soft and malleable and how it heated ever so slightly with every motion he made. He made his way to the gentle curve of her backside, squeezing the muscular mound of flesh firmly in approval and taking pleasure in the throaty moan released by the girl and the way she reacted to his hold by pressing herself against him again, teasing him with the radiating warmth of her womanhood.

But he wanted more of her. She needed to give more of herself over to him if she would ever escape from her torment. And that could not happen so long as the barrier of their garments was keeping them apart. So Sesshomaru moved his hand from the tight curve of her backside to slip up her back beneath the light layer of cloth covering her.

For a moment she tensed when she felt his hand slip beneath her shirt, but a moment was all, for soon she relaxed again and allowed herself to feel the jolting surges of excitement that coursed through her and which lifted her skin to form tiny bumps of shivering pleasure.

The sound of ripping cloth went all but unnoticed as Kagome allowed herself to fall once again into the hot caress of his lips against hers, but when Sesshomaru moved to divest her of the tattered remains of her blood-soaked shirt, the cloth ripped away from where it had bound itself to the wounds running down the length of her arms, tearing them open and allowing the blood to flow once more.

Her breath caught in a startled draw of shock and pain, and she was pulled away from the burning of her desire to once again face the reality of what brought her here. She hissed in pain as her hand grasped onto the open wound on her arm to stop the flow of blood.

"I remember blood." She choked out, her voice cracking with pain.

"Then remember," Sesshomaru told her gently as he lifted her hand away from the wound and brought her injured arm up to his mouth, "Rains that washed it all away."

He covered her wound gently, soothing away her pain with the hot caress of his breath, and licking away the flowing blood with slow drags of his velvety tongue. The exquisite combination of both pain and pleasure had Kagome swooning on her feet. She trembled lightly, her breath coming in in shortened draws, and her legs becoming weak underneath her. But Sesshomaru could feel the gentle swaying of her body, and he wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her, never taking his mouth away from her skin as he continued to cleanse away the dark liquid until there was nothing left but for the soft pink of her flesh which glowed with the light moisture left behind from the passage of his tongue.

He worked his way steadily up the length of her arm, cleaning away the lingering traces of the battle from her flesh and leaving her fresh and new, allowing for the natural sweetness of her to play across his senses. When he reached her shoulder, he paused momentarily at the strap of material that held the cloth wrapping around her bosom. With a quick sweep of his fangs through the material, the strap broke and fell from her shoulder.

Kagome gasped lightly when she felt his lips press against the sensitive skin which had been newly divest of its covering. She tilted her head back without thought, clearing the way for him to trail his hot kisses across her shoulder and down towards the rise of her chest. When his hand came up to cup her sensitive breast and to press it lightly against his eager mouth, she moaned deeply and arched into him, asking without words for him to take more, to continue with his exquisite torture.

Sesshomaru rumbled the deep vibrations of his content as he buried his face in the luscious valley formed between her bounteous breasts, but still the barrier of cloth was blocking is way. His hand shifted, bringing his razor sharp claws in contact with the silken material and ripping through it without care. The cloth fell away in taters, but he took no notice of it. His attention was focused solely on the lush mounds of supple pink flesh that were revealed to him then. One after the other he brought the delicate globes of soft flesh into his mouth, sucking at nipping at them hungrily and drawing sharp cries of delight and rapture from the young miko as she arched against him, pressing him to take more of her into his hot mouth.

Eventually, her cries and moans became too much for him to bear. He ripped himself away from the mounds of flesh which had become swollen and hot under the strong motions of his mouth against them, and lifted himself to claim her lips in a heated kiss driven by lustful fever. His arm wrapped around her and crushed her body against his as he plundered her mouth for all of its hidden secrets and drank deeply from the sweetness she offered. But a short cry of pain from the miko had him pulling back from her again.

Kagome's lips trembled slightly as she lifted her moistened eyes to meet with his. He had hurt her, but he couldn't understand how. She saw his confusion, and after swallowing down the small lump of nervousness and uncertainty that had risen in her throat, she reached her hand up to rest lightly against the unforgiving metal of his armor which had pressed so painfully into her exposed flesh.

"I remember weapons," she told him quietly as her fingers traced across the cold, hard metal of his armor.

Understanding now what had caused the young miko pain, Sesshomaru pulled away from her. He undid the ties holding his breastplate together with practiced ease and allowed it to fall away, landing on the ground in a forgotten heap. His swords too he removed from their place by his side, setting them down along with his shed armor. Even when all the hard metal had been stripped away, he was not yet finished. He pulled the heavy pelt from his shoulder and set it down next to him in expectation for what was still to come, and with nothing more than a slight shrugging of his shoulders, he managed to coax the soft silk of his shirt to fall open and reveal the muscular expanse of chest.

"Then remember iron wills." He told her as he stepped forward again to the little miko.

He took her hands in his and lifted them, bringing them up to be set gently against his chest. She hesitated for a moment, but soon her fingers stretched out to trace across the prefect curves of his finely shaped muscles and to feel the flawless smooth of his skin. She could feel the heat of his body radiating off of him. It was soothing, but at the same time it made her ache to feel that heat against the unrelenting burn of her own skin. Her hands slipped up his chest and over his broad shoulders to wrap around his neck once more. She pulled herself up to him, sighing in pleasure when she felt her breasts press up against his heated skin.

Sesshomaru took her advance greedily, wrapping her once again in his strong arm and pressing her more tightly against his sensitive skin, feeling the burning of want and desire coursing through her and the wild rush of having this creature of light so willing and compliant, so ready to be taken by him in the most intimate of acts. He growled softly in triumph as he claimed her swollen lips once more. She responded to him with vigor, her lips and tongue so bold now as the fought with him for a dominance that they both knew she could never attain.

But it was time for the next step in her healing. Sesshomaru gathered the little miko to himself, holding her gently yet firmly as he pulled her feet from the ground. She released a squeak of surprise, her arms locking tightly around him in startled fright; but he just growled softly to her, telling her without words not to fear as he maneuvered her towards the ground.

"I remember falling."

He heard her frightened admission, but he did not heed it. He held her firmly, never letting her slip away from him, and rested her gently against the soft pillow of his pelt that lay spread out on the ground beneath them. Once he had managed to settle her down against the silken fibers of the soft fur, he pulled his arm away from its secure position around her back and lifted his hand to trace delicately down the side of her face.

"Then remember," he whispered as he leaned over her, his head filling with her captivating scent and the image of her body flushed with passion being burned into his memory, "Who would catch you in your fall."

He took her lips once more in a searing kiss before he abandoned them to explore her body. He traced lines of burning passion against her heated flesh with his lips and tongue and with soft scrapings of his fangs against her delicate skin. And where his mouth was occupied with tasting her flesh, his hand roamed her body, tracing its curves, memorizing her with only touch.

She moaned and shifted beneath him, her body so alight with the fires of her passion that she could not keep it still in the face of his gentle touch and his searing kisses against her skin. She cried out to him, calling his name, begging him for something even though she did not know for what. Her body burned, but the pulsing warmth flowing across her skin was paled in comparison to the throbbing heat between her legs as she could feel the molten liquid gather in her most private regions.

"I remember fire," she breathed out in a voice thick with want as she arched into him to try and alleviate the torturous throbbing.

"Then remember," his lips never left the sensitive skin of her stomach as he spoke, causing her to shiver violently when his hot breath traveled across her skin, "Burning passion."

She moaned deeply in response to his words, lifting her body again to press against his, feeling the burning, the want, the need, coursing through her. She called his name again, a small whimper of desperation, pleading with him to end the torture of his touch. But he didn't listen. He continued his slow torture of her, bringing her to new heights of passion that she had never dreamed possible. Her body ached for him, her blood boiled as it rushed through her, and the throbbing between her legs was becoming unbearable.

A scream of delight was lifted from her when his fingers brushed against the layer of silk keeping her most sensitive regions from him. Her whole body quaked with pleasure and need and she pressed down on his hand to increase the glorious pressure and sending spasms of ecstasy surging through her body.

Sesshomaru smirked as her legs spread wider and her hips lifted to coax him into taking more of her. And though he had every intention of doing so, he was still not finished setting her body on fire with the unquenchable flames of desire. He pressed his hand firmly against the soaked fabric covering her womanhood, savoring the throaty moan that was pulled from her lips and the way her body arched up from the ground as she rode on the wave of pure pleasure that his touch gave to her.

The scent of her desire was so strong that he could not escape it. It surrounded his senses, filling his head with the sweet promise that awaited him. His need for her was becoming painful, but still he held back, committed to bringing her to levels of passion she would never forget. His need was locked away, buried beneath his desire to see the woman beneath him lifted up beyond her mortal existence to taste the fruit of the gods.

But she would not be alone, for he too would be granted a taste of heaven in the sweet nectar that was spilling from her core and beaconing to him with its maddening allure. With a quick flick of his wrist, what remained of her skirt and silk panties was removed from Kagome's body, leaving her bare and open to whatever advances Sesshomaru would make on her.

Kagome gasped when she felt the brushing of the cool night air against her swollen and sensitive folds, but her gasp was turned immediately into a scream of ecstasy when Sesshomaru plunged his tongue deeply into her most secret of places. Again and again her cries were pulled out of her as he drank deeply of the sweet nectar that her body was all to eager to offer to him. Her muscles clenched and trembled around him and her body bucked and shifted beneath him, but his strong and steady motions of his tongue would not be deterred and he held her firmly against the ground with his strong arm crossing her hips and pressing them back.

Kagome whimpered and moaned. She couldn't think, she could scarcely breathe; but she knew, somewhere deep inside her where the fires raged for their release, that she still needed more. She bordered on the edge of a great chasm, ready to take the fall; but there was something holding her back, something blocking the way. She begged of Sesshomaru to give her the release she needed, to let go of what was holding her back from falling into the great abyss of pleasure she knew waited for her just beyond what she could reach.

He growled deeply in satisfaction when his name spilled from her lips along with her desperate pleas for release, the vibrations of it sending more waves of pleasure to shoot through her sensitive flesh and to run rampant across her heightened senses. But still he was holding her back. He forced himself to keep his motions slow and torturous, drawing out her pleasure as long as he could, tasting every drop of decedent moisture that spilled out from her core, landing on his tongue and lips and setting fire to his senses.

Her throaty moans and desperate cries filled the stillness of the night air with her need and her desire, but suddenly her voice was stilled and the world waited on baited breath with her in preparation for her release.

Sesshomaru felt the stiffening of her body against him and knew that she was close, but he would not let her fall over the edge of her pleasure without bringing to her one last moment of ecstasy. He pulled his tongue away from the clenching folds of her heated core, holding himself back from her sweetness and fighting against the urge to give in to her devastated whimpers of loss.

But he was not finished with her yet. He moved his hand to brush softly against her moistened folds, drawing a gasp from the woman below him. He lifted his eyes too look up at her. Her skin was flushed a deep red, her chest rose in short, heaving breaths causing her breasts to tremble ever so slightly as she shakily released the air in her lungs. Her head thrashed wildly back and forth, sending her midnight hair into a wild dance around her; and her eyes had been closed tightly to fight against the unbearable wanting that was flowing through her. And from her lips, still red and swollen from his passionate kisses, escaped soft moans of loss and despair as she realized that her release had been denied to her yet again.

When Sesshomaru finally allowed himself to touch her again and to press one of his fingers slowly through the wet folds of her nether lips, his eyes glowed with dangerous fires as he took in the way her whole body stiffened under him and her lips parted to cry out her pleasure into the night. A low rumbling of his own pleasure began sounding in his chest as he felt her muscles clamp down around his finger and he imagined her tight passage sheathing his wanting length with such glorious heat and friction. He moved his finger within her, brushing lightly against her soft walls to coax them into relaxing to accept more. When he thought her to be ready, he pressed another finger through her slick opening, sliding it easily in with first and repeating the soft stroking motions as he stretched her out from within.

She pressed against him, grinding her hips hard to force him to fill her more and more. She wanted, she needed, she couldn't even fathom what but she knew that she did. Sesshomaru smirked in satisfaction. He knew he had her exactly where he had wanted her. Finally, he allowed his mouth to close over her again, but this time he wrapped his hot lips around the exposed bud of nerves that rested just above her opening.

The second his lips touched her, the breath she had been holding left her in a startled cry. Her whole body exploded with sensations of pure pleasure and her vision was taken over by a blinding flash of white light. She could feel the clenching and violent spasms ripping through her inner muscles as they held firm to the fingers that he had inserted into her; but with every breathtaking quake of rapture she felt, Sesshomaru would draw again on the sensitive bundles of nerves he held in his mouth, flicking his tongue against it in movements so quick and soft she could hardly tell there was movement at all and pressing against her inner walls forcefully to rub against places she didn't even know she had but which filled her with more pleasure than she had ever known. The waves of pleasure coursed through her again and again and she was once again wracked with violent tremors that tore relentlessly through her small frame.

She was feeling so much pleasure that it began to border on pain. She couldn't take any more. Her legs wrapped around him, squeezing gently but firmly and allowing her to pull away from the exquisite tortures of Sesshomaru's mouth. He allowed her to pull away, but only slightly. When she had moved as far as he would let her, he slipped his fingers slowly away from her sopping core, only to replace them with his tongue as he drove it into her to drink deeply from her flowing nectar.

Kagome's moan was so deep and throaty that she could hardly recognize it as her own, but there was nothing she could have done to hold it in. Her body shook with gentle waves as she came down from her soaring high, and every so often her hips would surge up against Sesshomaru's mouth without her consent. But he held firm against her movements, not letting anything come between him and the treasure he had found buried within her, and he moved his lips slowly against her, almost lovingly as he savored the sweetness only she could offer him.

When he finally pulled away from her heated core, she had calmed from her wild ride. She slowly slipped her eyes open to meet with his, the deep azure of the glassy surfaces displaying the immensity of her content. He leaned over her, bringing his lips to hers and allowing her tentative tasting of her own juices settled upon his lips and his tongue. She moaned again and began to bring her arms up to wrap around his back. But before she could he pulled away from her and rose to his knees.

He saw the confusion mirrored in her eyes, but he held onto her gaze to divert her attentions from the way his hand was moving to pull away the confinement of his pants. A low growl of anticipation and conquest began rumbling through his chest when he finally slipped the fabric away to release his heavily engorged length and he began stalking forwards to set himself above her once more.

"I...I remember fear," the little miko choked out when realization dawned on her as to what was coming.

But Sesshomaru knew from what her fear steamed from and knowing made his want for her explode when the thought of taking her virginal innocence caused him to throb painfully in desire. Still, it was her fear that he sought to soothe away along with all else that had held her so bound to the dark, so he took his time with her, leaning over her slowly to capture her lips again and to ease her towards what was coming.

When she had finally calmed again and was responding to his touch with more moans of pleasure and gentle shifts of her body to press up against his, Sesshomaru pulled away from her again. He caught her eyes as he set himself above her opening, relaying to her one last message before he would take her.

"Then remember," his voice was deep with the rumbles of desire that vibrated through his chest, "When you found courage."

He waited only for a moment for the haze of uncertainty to clear from her eyes and for her body to relax, and then he pushed into her, sliding his generous length along the slickness of her awaiting walls slowly yet firmly, stretching her as he moved and breaking through the evidence of her maidenhood without pause. She screamed when the fragile layer within her broke to allow for his passage and her body thrashed in a desperate attempt to move away from him. But he only held her firmly and pressed himself fully into her hot sheath.

"I remember pain," she choked out as she clung to him after he had stilled his movements, leaving him buried deeply within her.

"Then remember," he breathed huskily into her ear as he fought through his own desire to move against her throbbing grip, "That time heals all wounds."

She whimpered lightly and turned her head away from him, but the soft kisses that he was trailing down her neck and to tiny shifts of his body that caused him to move within her had her aching once again for all that he could give her. With a slight intake of nervous breath, she slid her hands down his back to bring them to rest in the curve of his lower back. She used to leverage the positioning of her hands allowed her to shift her body against his. She cried out in pleasure when her tiny shift had pressed him firmly against a place deep within her that shot tremors of electricity though her entire body.

Sesshomaru used her pleasured distraction to take control of her. Now that she had passed by her initial discomfort, there was nothing standing in the way of their joining. He kept his motions slow and deliberate, brushing against her swollen walls and sending shuddering waves of pleasure through her. She moaned deeply and moved with him, pushing her hips upwards to meet his and holding him in place against her with her whole body. He flexed within her, making her gasp and allowing him to pull away again in a slow, agonizing, stroke. Kagome whimpered at the loss, but in the next moment, she was throwing her head back to scream with pleasure as he thrust into her deeply.

One scream of pleasure from her was replaced by another as he drove into her again and again, never seeming to pull away but always seeming to dive deeper. He was filling her more with each powerful thrust, becoming so much a part of her that every muscle in her body fought to keep him with her. Still he kept pushing, driving into her core, making her call out into the night with cries of passion that could never be contained.

She could feel the white fire raging through her again. Only a little deeper and the walls holding them at bay would crumble. He felt it too, felt her body tense against him, felt her breath catch as she waited to be released. He drew in strained breath as he pulled away from her one last time, but with every movement against her straining walls he would feel another painful pulse of need from his throbbing member, but he would not heed it. This was for her. This climax would be hers and hers alone.

One last powerful thrust set Kagome tumbling over into the abyss of endless pleasure. She was consumed by the blazing fires ripping through her and blinded by the light that exploded in her eyes. Her voice lifted up into the night, a scream of pure ecstasy that conveyed to all for miles the strength of her release and bringing great pleasure to the one who knew he had caused her rapture.

Sesshomaru held her as she clung to him. Her body was trembling with pleasure, and her breaths were short and erratic in her blissful haste to remember oxygen again. His member throbbed with want within her as her heated sheath trembled with the delightful tremors of her aftermath, but he held himself still, waiting for her to return.

"I remember screams." She whispered hoarsely when her voice was under her command once more.

"Then remember soft whispers in the night." He responded as he started moving against her again.

This time though, he would not be gentle with her. Her body had been primed for him, made ready with her slick juices and her walls stretched only far enough to allow him passage but still so wonderfully tight that her muscles could clamp down around him and nearly stall his movements. But there would be no more stall for him, no more soft steady thrusts. Now was his time to show her all of what he could give, and take from her the same.

He lifted her leg with his hand and held it firmly to his chest as he pulled away from her. Kagome whimpered slightly at his movement, her arms reaching out to draw him closer to her again, but he stopped all of her movements and wrenched from her a startled scream of pleasure when he thrust into her forcefully. He held her steady as he continued to drive into her, watching as she writhed beneath him, listening with eager ears to hear the cries of pleasure she offered up only to him and the way she would breathe his name between her throaty moans.

Sesshomaru allowed her leg to slip out of his grasp as his hand traveled down her thigh to curve around her back and pull her up to meet with him as he thrust into her. She cried anew when the tilting of her hips allowed him to assault her from a different angel, and he growled out his pleasure when her muscles clamped down around him. But still he pulled away from her, and still he drove himself into her hot cavern, building with every stroke towards the final step of their erotic dance.

The pressure of his own release began to burn within Sesshomaru, pulling him towards it with no way to force it back. It coiled within him tightly, drawing from him every store of his essence. She was so tight, so ready; so pliant under him but at the same time fighting against the stiffening of her body as she once again climbed towards a startling release. He was gripping to her so tightly that his claws began to pierce the delicate skin of her back, but neither of them could take notice; they were both too caught up in the wild pounding of their dance and the forceful meeting of their hips with every powerful thrust.

Finally, when the need had become so great that he could no longer block it away, Sesshomaru gave into it. He gave into the need, to the want, to the desire that had set his senses on fire. He pressed fully into her deep, awaiting cavern, drawing from her a triumphant cry as she was thrown again into the wild inferno of rapture. But the fires danced across his eyes as well, filling his body and spirit with their inescapable heat. He drew his head back to howl the pleasure of his release into the night. Her heat mixed with his own in the pulsing wake of their passion, and he growled lowly and contentedly as he felt her quiver against him with residual currents of pleasure.

He held her against himself as she came down from her high, listening in contentment to how her breathing began to change from short, gasping breaths; to slow and calm draughts of air. A wistful and dreamy smile pulled on her lips as she finally opened her lust-fogged cerulean eyes to look upon him. He met her gaze with just as much contentment in his own, and even allowed a small smile to grace his lips as her hand lifted from where she had been gripping his shoulder to brush gingerly against the side of his face.

"I remember faces," she whispered to him in a soft and tired voice.

"Then remember, Kagome," he told her gently as he took hold of her hand and placed it above her heart. "Remember them smiling."

Sesshomaru pulled himself away from her then. He reached out to her and offered her his hand to help her sit up. She shivered lightly when she felt the brush of the chilled night air across her still heated skin, but he quickly remedied her discomfort by reaching behind him and pulling his outer shirt to wrap around her. Kagome brushed her hand softly against the delicate material once it had been settled around her, a small but warm smile resting on her lips. When she looked up to Sesshomaru, she found him pulling his clothing back into place.

Kagome stood slowly on her wobbly limbs, but after correcting the softness of her stance, she managed to walk over to him. She reached out and took hold of his sash, helping him to put it in place and to tie the elaborate knot. Once she had finished, she lifted her eyes to meet with the molten gold of his. She smiled gently at him in appreciation and devotion.

"I remember you, Sesshomaru," she told him softly, her eyes sparkling with light moisture to make them look like sapphire jewels under the soft light of the moon and stars.

One last time, Sesshomaru allowed himself to reach out to her and draw her into his embrace. His hand rose from his side to take her neck and pull her into him for one last burning kiss. He held her only long enough to burn her taste into his memory and to hear her moan in bliss once more, before he pulled away again.

"Then remember," he said as he stepped back from her, "That I would show you mercy."

With that said, he turned and began walking away from her, the brilliant white of his garments and the shimmering silver of his hair disappearing from her vision to be swallowed up by the shadows of the night. But though the darkness was stealing him away from her, she knew that the light he had created in her soul would burn on for as long as she lived.

"No," she whispered softly into the night, a lone tear slipping her face. But no longer was she weeping from sorrow for what had been lost. She cried for the future which could be had; a future she would not have had without him. "I will remember that you gave me life."

Her words carried on the gentle breezes to reach his sensitive ears; a sweet melody of promise and hope. She would live on. She would confront the trials she would face with strength and courage. She would fight for what she believed and for those she loved. She may find her death for the course she had decided to take, but not on this day, not so long as there was breath in her body.

Was that not how life was meant to be? To walk ahead regardless of the fear, to march forward in spite of those who would seek to block the path with barriers of darkness and despair; to live and to never give in, even though at times there seems no other way.

A strong wind brushed by him as he walked, bringing to his nose the scent of death from the nearby battlefield. It reminded him of those who had confronted their obstacles and failed, of those who had lost their lives to the carnage. But was it truly a failure? They had all known the risks of their quest, and in the end, though not all could see the results of their struggle, their quest had been successful. The priestess they had all fought so relentlessly to protect had done what none of them could, what they all knew she would. They had ensured her safety until she could confront the one who had brought them all to this place, and she had not failed them.

Their sacrifices were not in vain.

A pulsing warmth from his side drew his attention to rest on the fang secured at his hip. The sword shook within its sheath as it spoke to its master in words only his heart could hear.

Of life, of love, and of hope; Tenseiga spoke to him.

Sesshomaru rested his hand knowingly across the hilt of the fang, stilling its voice but not its message. He lifted his eyes and looked out across the horizon, seeing the first glittering rays of the morn slipping in light streamers to cut through the darkness of the night. It was a new morning, a new dawn. A new day was beginning; and it was a day that would begin with life.

THE END

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Whew, that was intense! I have been struggling with this piece of a long time, but I have never seemed to be able to find the courage to actually write it out in words. But, while I am currently in the middle of a terrible block when it comes to writing the next chapter in 'Tears', I thought that I should try to coax my hand by writing something a little different.

Though I won't ask not to receive any flames, I can understand that peoples taste can vary; I will ask that my reviewers please be gentle. This is my first serious attempt at a lemon, and though I will welcome helpful suggestions, I don't think my hesitations about this piece would stand up to very much criticism. Hopefully, if I can get past my incredible embarrassment at writing something of this nature, these scenes will only get better.

Well, I guess that's all. Thanks for reading.

Shadow