written by Christine
Chapter 14
"At least I was able to do that for him," Isabo mused.
"Sesshie was conceived right," she remembered.
She had already fallen for the beautiful Lord but when he asked her to be his mate, she couldn’t have been more surprised and pleased.
"Why did everything have to end so horribly?" she said. "Nothing can ever be the same for me again."
The full moon reflected off of her body and made her even more radiant, but it belied her true feelings.
A leaf crunched behind her and she swung her head around and took two steps in the direction of the sound with her front legs so she could better see what was approaching. She was now in Demon World and lesser demons were always on the hunt.
Isabo gasped and raised her head. There, standing on the trail was Inutaishou. She knew she should leave but couldn’t. She couldn’t get her feet to move. She drank in the vision of him like a human in a desert drank water.
He was not the same. His soul was just a shell of his former presence. She could sense both joy and sorrow in him, but the sorrow was overwhelming the joy. His soul was injured. Was the only thing holding him together a human girl and her hanyou son? Her leaving him did this.
He was weaker too. She could sense his mortality. The fight with the dragon Ryuukoysusei left more of an injury than was apparent on the outside.
He'll never survive another encounter, she thought.
Inutaishou stared at the Unicorn. She was the first one he had ever seen. Her scent. had a familiarity to it but he couldn't quite place it.
Why is she here, he thought, and why isn't she running away? Then his eyes narrowed. Now the Unicorn's scent was bring up old memories. He looked at the cave and back to the Unicorn. This cave was where it all began. Why here? Could this be… “Isabo?”
She backed a step. She couldn’t help but react. Her heart started racing faster. Half of her wanted to run away and not face him. The other half wanted to run to him, embrace him, and beg his forgiveness. She didn't know what to do. She just stood there, saying nothing, returning his stare.
Inutaishou watched her. She had reacted to the name but it could have just been a prey’s reaction to sound. He could hear her rapidly beating heart but he didn’t smell fear, what he did smell was Isabo, he was sure of it now. He knew little of Unicorns, just a bunch of fairy tales told by the clan’s mage, his brother. His brother believed that the dog clans were descended from Demon Wolves and Unicorns. Wolves he could see, but Unicorns? But now one stood in front of him, one he felt strangely connected to. He waited. He knew Isabo, her mannerisms, and her abilities. He knew if he waited long enough she would betray herself.
Why is he just standing there staring at me? Isabo thought impatiently. She started shifting her feet. She couldn’t take this any more. Nothing was going to change by this. Tears dropped from her eyes, then she ducked and swung her head as she turned to move away.
“Unhand me,” she said to him telepathically.
It was her voice. “Tell me who you are,” he demanded.
“You already know. Unhand me,” she demanded back.
“You’ll run again,” he said.
“What more is there to say?” Isabo closed her eyes against the tears that were again forming.
“You owe me an explanation, a real one! Face to face,” he said. He was afraid to let her go.
“LET ME GO” she screamed. She pulled energy from the ground and then expelled it from her body in the span of those three words.
The force of the charge sent him backwards and landed him on his back. He looked up at her. He sat up but didn’t rise to his feet. He didn't look at her, expected to hear her run away.
“What do you want to know?” she said.
He heard her humanoid voice and looked at the Unicorn. He watched her transform into the Isabo he once knew. She was still the Isabo of his memories. Standing there in a silky dress, this Isabo before him was slightly different, sadder, with whiter hair, and no demon marks but a star on her forehead still remained.
She dropped down and sat before him. Isabo figured there was little harm in telling Inutaishou anything he wanted to know now.
“Why did you leave?” he asked.
“Because I was no longer in heat,” she responded. She knew it was vague but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go into the details. She dropped her eyes to stare at the fists in her lap.
“Then our relationship was only based on that? You never really loved me?”
“No,” she choked.
“No what?”
“No, our relationship was not based on my heat…. I loved you, Inutaishou, ... I still do," she finished in a whisper.
“Then why did you leave?”
“Because I could no longer bear children for you.”
“Why would you think that mattered to me? We have ten children! That’s more than I ever dreamed of having. What are you not telling me?” he demanded.
“The dream? What dream? You left me and the children because of a dream?”
“It was a foresight dream, a vision. InuHaru had the same vision. I didn’t even believe it was a vision until he told me he had seen it too.” Isabo explained.
“The day I came home and you were crying in the field, that was why?”“Why didn’t you just tell me?” he demanded. “Visions are just warnings, they don’t have to become true.”
She raised her tear streaked eye to look at him.
“This one did,” she said.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“Because of Izayoi and InuYasha.” she said.
A deep blush followed the look of surprise on Inutaishou’s face. Isabo had never seen him blush before.
“The vision was of them,” she continued. “InuYasha has a pivotal role to play in the future. I knew if I stayed, he would never be born.”
He knew what she was saying was true. Izayoi would have been nothing more to him than a friend if Isabo hadn’t left.
“Inutaishou, you love Izayoi and her son, don’t you?”
He squirmed and didn’t respond. His eyes left hers and he dropped his head and stared at the ground in front of him. He finally realized what Isabo had sacrificed; everything. And he had done nothing but hate her and deny their love. No wonder his children had turned from him. They had known their mother's true feelings better than he did. All this time he never thought beyond his own pain and suffering.
His hands dug into the ground beside him. In her place, he could not have done it. All those years of suffering, all the years she sacrificed, knowing that he hated her and yet she still loved him. The children were right and he was the fool again. He felt tears on his cheeks. The last time he had cried was the day she had left. They were tears made from grief and anger. The tears he formed now were from a different source.
“Please, don’t be ashamed of your feelings for them," Isabo said. "Even if we reconcile and can be friends again, she is your mate now. I accepted that fate seven years ago. I met both of them before I came here. Izayoi is a lovely and kind young woman. Her son is adorable. He takes after you.”
He looked up from the ground and stared at her in surprise. He had been unfaithful to her and she wanted him to not be ashamed.
It surprised her to see tears in his eyes. She had never seen him weep. Seeing those tears on his eyes triggered her own again.
“I loved you first!” he said as he reached forward and grabbed her to him.
He hugged her, burrowing his face into the hair on her shoulders. She resisted only a moment before doing the same to him. He pulled back and then kissed her long and hard. She accepted his kiss with all the old passion that had been locked away inside for so very long. Inutaishou then moved off her lips to her left shoulder pushing the shoulder strap of the loose gown out of his way and the other hand doing the same with the other side. Isabo knew where this was leading. As the straps left her shoulders and she felt the gown start to drop, she grabbed it at her chest and rolled away. She stood up with her back to him, looking at the entrance of the cave.
“Do you realize what you are doing?” she asked him. Instead of an answer, she heard him detaching of the armor he always wore and the familiar thud as it hit the ground. This is folly, she thought. She could feel the heat from his body as he neared. She felt his arms encircle her. Her body responded to his nearness so strongly, she found she no longer caring about circumstances. Here and now there were only the two of them, reunited. She felt his hands push her hair away and then his lips on the back of her her neck and along her shoulder. She shuddered with the thrill of it. He scooped her up, kissed her on the lips, and walked into the cave.
Back deep in the cave Inutaishou placed Isabo on her feet, still embracing her but trembling. He was fighting for control over the feelings that were twisting him up inside. All he wanted to do was fall to his knees and beg her to take him back. How had she gained this much control over him? He wondered.
She could feel his trembling with the bottled up emotion, This was the wound that she had given him. Isabo realized it now. To him, Isabo was his lifetime mate. Izayoi may have been able make bearing life easier for him, to bandage the invisible wound and help him go on, but even her sweet love could not heal him. Only Isabo had that power. She had touched his soul so deeply that it had bound with hers, making them soul mates.
She had to finally admit these feelings in herself as well. Only once before had she felt this connected to somebody. Her life has not been the same without Inutaishou. It was true that he was often out about his lands, but he was always within reach. She felt connected to him and he to her. When she left, she severed those connections and those wounds longed to be healed. She knew she could pay dearly for this. Rebinding with him meant that if he died as was predicted, it would likely destroy her heart again, as it had happened with her first love. When he had died she wanted to die too. She continued on but it was a very long time before she had allowed anyone to break down the walls around her heart. Not until Inutaishou entered her life. Now she saw the same thing happening all over again, like a runaway wagon heading for a cliff. Still, here trembling against her, was her wounded lover. Heartache or not, she couldn't refuse him.
