Merripit House: The Dark Daiyokai

Cradle Robber

How she knew her friends and family were hosting her funeral, she didn't know. She couldn't possibly have known. In her mind's eye, she could see all of them dressed in black — her parents, Sesshomaru, Liu, some blue-haired stranger with a blurred out face, Michaelis even deigned to come to the graveside. The graveside service was far better attended than she had ever imagined it would be. There must have been half a thousand people on that hillside alone. A minister of some sort sang her praises, proclaiming all the myriad of ways she and Merripit House had saved the world in one way or another. And now the memory of her life would simply have to inspire others to fulfill her mission.

Anyway, there was no way Jenny could have known any of this. Because all she could smell was formaldehyde, linen, wood and dirt. Fabric scratched her bare arms and tickled her nose, and her hands laid trapped under a bouquet of flowers resting on her stomach. More suffocating than that, though, was the omnipresent darkness. No matter how wide she opened her eyes and let her pupils dilate, she could only behold black.

Pushing the flowers aside, Jenny scratched at the fabric above her head, tearing it away in a panicked frenzy. It didn't take long before her nails scratched treated and stained wood. Mahogany. Oh, her parents must have gone all out.

"Can anyone hear me?" she shouted. The sound returned back to her, muffled by the casket lining and pounds and pounds of soil resting atop her. The weight seemed to settle in on her chest, making her heart race and ache. "Please, I'm not dead! I'm not dead!"

Was she really now? Maybe Theda had finally gotten her way. Maybe Jenny had actually died, but something had gone awry with her body. After so many resurrections, maybe she had lost the capability of staying dead. In which case…

"No, no, no, no, no…" Feverishly, Jenny tore harder at the wood encasing her. So hard that her fingers began to bleed. But with such little air, she could feel her head going dizzy and unable to comprehend pain. Soon, the wood began to give way.

To dirt. Bursting through like a hole had sprung up in a dam, the soil sprayed down in her face, filling her mouth. It tasted of spiders and bone dust. The more she dug, the more dirt rained down on her, rushing down her shoulders, past her waist over her legs and toes. Yet no matter how much dirt she moved aside, her hole never seemed to turn into a tunnel. She just kept digging and digging and digging…

Tears and sweat made the soil turn into mud, encasing her like clay. Suffocating. Crushing. Sculpting.

"Sesshomaru!" she gasped. He must have stuck around after the funeral. She knew he would. And she knew he could hear. "Sesshomaru! Please help me! Sesshomaru!"

That smell was growing all too familiar to him. And he hated that. Adrenaline, the tang of her sweat, the salt of her tears — fear. Unadulterated, uncontrolled, unrestrained. Her racing heart quickened his own. Her labored breathing burned the air in his lungs.

Sesshomaru practically flew to Jenny's side. Writhing and screaming in her sheets, she cried out with a name that chilled his blood. "Sesshomaru! Get me out!"

"Jenny." His hands held her face, his fingers brushing hair away from her forehead. "You are safe."

Gasping like a swimmer breaking the surface of a pool of water, she sat up and opened her eyes. For a moment, she flailed wildly as her head turned this way and that, searching for safety while her hands grabbed at something. Anything. The instant she locked onto Sesshomaru, comprehending his presence, his proximity, his touch, her heart began to calm. "Sesshomaru?" she asked, panting.

Sitting down next to her on the bed, he pulled her closer. Or perhaps she's the one who pulled him in towards herself. Clinging to his kimono, she seemed to have the strength of a tiger. "I am here. You are safe," he said.

Deflating in relief, she collapsed against his chest. And the waterworks began.

Stroking her back and softly combing his fingers through her hair, he simply held her and let his fur pelt soak up her tears. Certainly this wasn't the scene he expected to find when he broke in. Yet he found it oddly … expected. After Michaelis swept in with his men to clean up the mess and finally cornered the detective, Jenny insisted that he had nothing to worry about in regards to her well-being. Theda resurrected her to perfect health each and every time she had killed her, after all. No reason to coddle the detective, to worry over her, to cluck about like a mother hen. She just needed sleep. Some goddamned sleep. Why the hell was everyone looking at her like some kind of cripple, like some kind of damaged puppy? A couple of Aspirin and a full night of rest and she would be right as rain the next day.

To be fair, Sesshomaru had tried the same thing. Michaelis put all of Merripit House up in a nearby hotel, likely to keep track of them and debrief them than out of any sort of care for them. Liu immediately smuggled them out under cover of confusion and found a nicer place for them to stay. Except for Eva who insisted on taking a nap on the roof. He might not have forgiven Michaelis yet for his many wrongs against the thief.

In any case, Sesshomaru took this opportunity to rest, taking the second bed in Jenny's room. The battle had raged for days, and how long had he kept himself awake for? Weeks? Months? So concerned about not waking up that he hadn't dared go to sleep. But with so much blood lost and strength expended, he could fight his urges no more. Exhaustion swept over him like a heavy fur rug. And with Jenny, cleaned up and in a change of clothes, lightly snoring across the room, he knew the siren song of sleep would call him soon.

Except… Perhaps it was possible to feel so tired that he couldn't sleep. No matter which way he tossed and turned and forced his muscles to relax, his mind simply kept going. It kept turning to thoughts of Jenny. The relief he felt when he first heard her voice after waking up, her weight pressing down on him to make him certain of her reality. The way she looked down on him when he inhaled her delicious air, so joyous that her entire being lit up. The softness of her lips and the sweetness of her mouth and the desire and hunger and compassion behind her kiss.

Hiccuping in a desperate bid to regain her composure, Jenny's sobs seemed to abate a bit. Sesshomaru's arms held her just a little tighter. A primal need to protect, to defend, to fix, filled his heart. But in this moment, he knew what powerlessness felt like. He could not keep the fear and pain from her mind. And she could not pretend any longer.

"I'm sorry," she gasped between sobs. "I shouldn't be … so …"

"Scared?" She nodded against his chest. "I cannot see how you possibly couldn't be."

"It's so dark." Her voice came in a frightened whisper. "Every time I close my eyes, I just know she's right there waiting to freeze my heart again."

"And you wonder if this is the last time you're ever going to experience conscious thought." A slight growl rumbled in his throat and his eyes narrowed in anger. But he had no place to direct it at. Theda was powerless and broken. Daiichi was in the custody of Japanese officials. Merripit House had defeated their enemies who would pay for their crimes, but it seemed that the damage they caused would live on.

"How the hell am I supposed to just be fine with just falling unconscious for eight hours a day?" Looking up at him, she wiped away a few tears from her face, only for them to immediately be replaced. "I know you haven't slept since I woke you up a few months ago. I figured that you had gotten so much sleep that you were all stocked up for the next century or so. But it's something more than that, isn't it? I wish that I could stay awake like you so I could just avoid this entirely. But I'm a human. I'll literally die if I don't sleep for an extended period of time. Ironic, right? That I could kill myself because I'm afraid of dying."

Well now that simply wouldn't do.

With the sleeve of his kimono, Sesshomaru wiped her face clean of tears. This simple action seemed to quiet her crying somewhat. "Jenny. I failed in my duty to protect you. I failed in my duty as your servant. For that I am not worthy to beg you for your forgiveness. But I will beg nonetheless. If you will allow it, until the day you pass from this earth, I will stay by your side and not let any harm befall you. And should I fail once again, nothing will stop me from traveling to the deepest, darkest depths to bring you back into light."

"I can't ask you to do that, Sesshomaru. You are the most powerful being on this planet. You're a lord and a leader and destined for far greater things than to be my bodyguard. You were never meant to be subject to my will or to anyone's will. It's not fair for some lowly human to tie down someone as incredible as you with something as mundane as guard duty, even for as short a lifespan as mine."

His fingers brushed against her face, gently and tenderly. "You are …" His mind searched for the right word. Something simple and absolute. Human speech had many beautiful and complex words to describe concepts equally as beautiful and complex. But nothing seemed quite right to capture her essence, her soul. Except for, "You are daiyokai."

She frowned in confusion. "I'm not sure I understand."

"There is yokai: common and base, varying in power and strength. And then there is daiyokai. We are above such creatures, the epitome of perfection in every realm that they strive to obtain mastery and proficiency in. Likewise, there is human. And then there is you."

"Oh, honey," she said, letting a southern Georgia drawl bleed into her voice quite distinctly. "I am so very, very human. I'm not the Übermensch."

"I don't know what that is."

Shaking her head, Jenny relinquished her hold on Sesshomaru's kimono, her joints creaking as her fingers stretched out. She propped up a pillow and scooted back a smidge to sit against it, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "I'm afraid that as your guide to the 21st century, I may have deliberately or inadvertently given you the impression that I'm more important than I actually am. I might be smart and clever, but I'm no more or less than any other human on this planet. As you can well see," she said, gesturing to her puffy, red eyes and the wet mess she'd made of his fur pelt and kimono, "I am weak. I'm afraid. I screw up. I cannot possibly measure up to you. You were never my servant; I manipulated you into working for me. You've always been better than me."

He couldn't help but let out a laugh, and a smile actually crossed his face for a moment. "No ordinary human could have taken a defeated, dishonored and disoriented daiyokai and improved him. And I will never let anything take such a rarity from me ever again."

A red hue bloomed across her cheeks and her eyes widened in shock. And she wished that she had her phone recording this moment of humility from the one and only Sesshomaru. Suddenly self conscious, she tucked some hair behind her ear. "Has Liu been teaching you about alliteration again?"

"Not as much as you would think."

Despite her desire to argue with Sesshomaru's assertions, Jenny found herself smiling at this simple thought. That despite the fact that he now had Ketsugō-kiba in his possession, which meant that he had no more contract, no reason to work for her anymore, he still wanted to protect her because he found her worth protecting.

"While we're on the subject of baring our souls and vulnerabilities to each other and you've seen me ugly cry, can I ask … Did your kiss mean what I think it meant?"

Before answering, Sesshomaru took a deep breath and resettled himself beside her on the bed. He had known for a while that she would ask such a question. It was one of the thoughts that had kept him awake. "If you think that it meant that after facing the very real prospect of being separated from someone I was surprised to find that I care deeply about, that I was happy beyond words to see you alive before my very eyes … then yes."

Jenny's heart leaped in her chest and her breath hitched in her throat. "You don't just want to protect me, do you."

His gaze lowered even further than before. "I do not. But after my failure, I don't deserve to ask for anything more."

"Do you know how much that hurt?" Jenny abruptly cried, lurching towards him, like she was going to grab his collar and shake some sense into him. "To watch you fall down dead right in front of my eyes. I thought I'd been through hell and back with what Theda did to me, but nothing hurt as much as seeing you die. If you didn't …" She swallowed back the words that felt too horrid to speak aloud, afraid that if she did, they would come true. "Goddamn it, Sesshomaru, I think I love you."

The words hung in the air between them, echoing in the silence it seemed. Jenny wasn't entirely sure she was ready to deal with the effect they would have, but there they dangled, just out of her reach and impossible to snatch back. Sesshomaru took them and studied them and found that he would probably treasure them for decades and centuries to come.

"Is that such a bad thing?" he asked in pure sincerity.

Flushing pink with embarrassment, Jenny averted her gaze from his. "Well there's the matter of the fact that I'm a good thousand years or so younger than you. That's some serious cradle robbing. And the way Theda made it sound, humans are supposed to pair off with humans, daiyokai with daiyokai, gods with gods. Though she's not really one to talk ..."

"Did I not just say you are daiyokai?"

"Yes …"

"And do you doubt the judgement of the most powerful being on the planet?"

"Sesshomaru …" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Then simply ignore the words they've slipped into your ears and trust mine." With a gentleness that belied the fearsome strength she knew he possessed, he gathered her into his arms to hold her close. "You are the most incredible woman I have ever been privileged to meet."

"And how many human women have you met, Mr. Despises-all-Humans?" she shot back.

"I am very old," he argued back. "I've met several. Most of them impressive in one way or another. And others who have fallen in love with me at first sight. They were less impressive," he hastily added as Jenny's eyebrow began to raise.

Sighing, she rested her head on his shoulder. His kimono was far softer than any grossly expensive suit he'd worn to humor her. And the pelt of fur over his shoulder felt airy and warm, like a gentle cloud enveloping her. Billions of questions buzzed through her head right then, all of them relating to the specifics of 'us,' of the state of their relationship, whatever that would entail. As much as she wanted to hold on to some semblance of control of her life, she knew that her grasp had barely any strength to it. And now that the adrenaline of her nightmare had run its course through her body, exhaustion was quickly catching up to her.

"I think I need to go back to bed," she said with a yawn. "I'm sorry I woke you up."

The way he scoffed at her pointless apology without making a sound told her that he was likely to stay up the rest of the night making sure she didn't have another nightmare. "I think you're right. You humans are quite frail after all."

Though he held her in his arms with a great gentleness, she couldn't seem to escape his grasp when she tried. As romantic as it would be to fall asleep in his arms, Jenny knew the position would be hell on her joints in the morning. "You need to sleep too, Sesshomaru."

"Not as much as you do."

Clearly she would not be getting rid of him tonight or sending him back to his bed. So with an exasperated sigh and another long yawn, she suggested a compromise. "Well, it's a big bed. Probably has enough room for the two of us."

This, Sesshomaru seemed to accept, as evidenced by his hold on her relaxing. Jenny slipped out, straightened the tangled bedsheets a bit and laid down in her preferred spot. Then he followed after, lying on his side with an arm wrapped protectively, or perhaps possessively, around her. To his bones, the bed was much squishier than he was accustomed to. But he wasn't about to complain.

Closing her eyes, Jenny's breathing began to relax at his touch. Somehow that little gesture kept the monsters in her head at bay. For now. His eyes, too, began to close.

There were a million and one things they had yet to handle: Specific arrangements for Daiichi's and Theda's imprisonment, cleaning up the battlefield, figuring out what to do with all these mythical creatures and gods who had woken up, therapy or at the very least counseling for Jenny after that hell she endured, explaining how Rosario was dead and her body was not, finding out where InuYasha was if he wasn't dead, and figuring out who to send an invoice to.

But at this moment as they drifted off to sleep, the pair of them decided that these would have to be part of a larger story for another day.

XXX

Sesshomaru and the crew of Merripit House will return in "Merripit House: The Hunted Ones."

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