This is my first Fanfic of any sort so please, tell me what you think, any suggestions you might have on how to make it better are always welcome. –KK

Disclaimer: I don't own, Sesshou, or any other inu char's, I barely own a beat to hell Dodge. Takahashi Rumiko: if you want it, the van is yours. (Please pay for delivery.)

For Amalie's Love

Prologue: Unintended Rescue

Amalie

Fate.

Its funny how such a small, one syllable word can encompass an entire life so completely. Because of fate, I now stood, my back to a cage, fighting for my life against those whom I had sworn my undying loyalty too. Just three short years ago I would have given my very life to their cause unquestioningly and now those who stand against me will die painfully at my hands.

I was facing a good hundred of the Demon Killers and they had my back to their infernal cage but the yokai in me fought for release. Its need to be used was burning in me; I dispatched twenty of my closest attackers with a burning whip of that power. Whirling twenty more fell at my feet in pieces, those who where at the edge of my attack where writhing in pain from the poisonous effects of even the edge of my attack. At this rate I wouldn't even have to draw my sword, they probably would have been more easily dispatched with my Dokkasso claws, but I was trying to give them a chance to escape.

The yokai in the cage sat motionless watching the fight, his presence was a curiosity, I wondered if I should just dispatch him and remove him as a distraction, but his aura was not evil, and I had made a vow to the one who and given me my power. Today was his lucky day, I would kill his would be exterminators, and allow him to remain breathing.

Then it came. The moment of his arrival was signaled by the retreat of my inadequate assailants. "Demon whore! Surrender and your execution will be a swift one." A familiar voice yelled to me. It was a surprise to hear, even though I expected him to be the one the council would send to this foreign land, I regretted that I would have to be the one to send him the land of the dead.

"Whore? Jacob, your words sadden me. Even you should realize that I, of all people, would not have sullied my pure lineage by copulating with beasts." The contempt for such a disgusting idea dripped from my words. I stood calmly, my whip at the ready by my side, my hood covering my face, sweat made the black suite I wore cling to my flesh, my soft knee high boots where comfortably silent as I calculatingly shifted my weight from one foot to the other. The silver belt resting on my hips glittered in the light. Such a blatant display of the symbol of my oath must have made Jacob feel as if I was mocking him.

"To day you will die. I will remove that belt from your waist and present it as a bloody trophy to the council when they promote me to Lead Huntsman."

I smiled coldly, "Such a faithful dog of the council, I promise you will live only long enough to regret your hubris."

"You where once as loyal a dog of the council as any of our number, sister, before you betrayed us to the demons for your own gain." A female stepped from the crowd, even in her hood I recognized my twin sister Tansy, and the distress in her voice hurt me.

"If you betray even a loyal dog enough it will turn on you, sister. The council does not understand what it is doing here. Many of these yokai are different from the Demons we have in our lands, they are not evil, and by exterminating them we upset the balance. The council is only motivated by greed and its lust for the power they can gain from the corpses of slain Demons, stolen power that they have no right to!"

Jacob's contemptuous voice broke in, "Balance! Is that how you reconcile fucking a Demon when you had a lover of the true blood? It that how you excuse betraying your oath and trading your soul for these filthy powers you are so blatantly using to destroy your brothers and betray humanity?"

"So that is your motivation, Jacob, jealousy of my imaginary tryst with a beast? Do you truly believe that I turned my back on you, and my entire family, for the satisfaction of a Demon's cock? Do you truly believe that I would be so willing to slaughter my own sister for what worthless power I could gain from trading my body to an animal?" I laughed coldly. "You are a fool."

"Bitch, the truth is I have always been a better, stronger hunter than you, and without those demon's powers you would not survive a fight with me!"

"Prove it. You, me and our mortal swords, nothing else."

"Bitch, like I would believe you could possible fight me honorably."

Reaching to my belt I unhooked one of the small glowing charms, its red stone flashed as I inserted it into my bracer next to the vain in my wrist. Immediately my whip vanished and I felt weaker, mortal. "Now, Jacob, come prove your strength to me." I called, unsheathing my katana. Wordlessly he drew his sword and charged me.

It was odd fighting with only my mortal strength, constantly reminding myself to pace my attack so that I would not tire quickly, but my training stood me well. Hiroshi, the yokai who gave me my power, had lived almost four hundred years and the sword techniques he had taught me where as formidable as they where lost to mortal memory.

The fight raged on, Jacob had obviously been working hard on honing his sword skills in the three years we had been apart, but I was really just stalling, tiring him out in hopes that I would not have to kill him. Then it happened. I made a graceful forward slash with my sword and caught him in the left side next to the rib; he cried out in pain and stumbled exhaustedly backwards to lean on his sword and examine his wound. I stepped back to give him some room and found my back pressed into the bars of the closed cage door.

Surrounded by a hundred slayers and my back pressed so painfully close to the cage door a bar literally split my butt cheeks, and a charm restraining my yokai power, I must have appeared to be offering myself up like a lamb to the slaughter. Ridiculously I mentally chided myself for getting so carried away with playing with Jacob that I did not pay attention to my location in the room, I deserved to be killed for such blatant stupidity, but I had an ace up my sleeve as Jacob yelled angrily, "Kill the Demon slut!"

I quickly grabbed my bracer and undid the snap that held it in place, as it and the charm fell to the ground my yokai rushed through my blood, infusing my body with new vigor and strength. My aura unfurling from its constraint and enveloping me like a mantle. I laughed as the flood of attackers rushed forward to kill easy prey. I gleefully channeled my dokkasso attack into the blade and my sword began to glow venomously.

The fight took only moments, with my enhanced speed, strength and the burning poisonous fire emanating from my blade they fell like mowed grass, and I wasn't even breathing hard. Standing in the far right corner of the room stood my last two enemies. My eyes glowed hungrily as I approached them. I know I must have looked every inch the blood thirsty demon with my claws, I felt my fangs brush my lips as I grinned menacingly down upon their huddle forms.

Tansy was ministering to Jacobs wound, her body held before him like a shield. "Sister, no, if there is any humanity left in you, I beg you, do not kill us!" It touched me. Of course my humanity was in tact; the yokai gift Hiroshi bestowed upon me didn't erase my humanity!

"I'm not going to kill you, sister, or my former lover. I want you to deliver my message to the council."

"Bitch, the only thing we will deliver to the council for you is your head." Jacob spat defiantly, Tansy clung to him more tightly.

"Such brave words from a coward who lacks the honor to finish a dual and who fucked his betrothed's sister every chance he got. Tell me, did you truly believe I was so blind all those years, or just stupid?"

Tansy gaped, "Sister really we didn't…"

"Do not bother lying, sister; Jacob isn't even smart enough to remember the difference between your bras and mine. I knew years ago, and it is all of no consequence now. You will return to the council and you will tell them that this land is under my protection and that if even one yokai dies mysteriously, the slaughter here today will look like a Mayday picnic to the destruction I will meet upon the council hall itself. Am I understood?" My eyes burned and the poorly contained rage with in me made me look every inch the blood thirsty yokai. My sister only nodded her agreement. "Good, now leave before I decide only one of you is needed to deliver my missive."

Tansy dragged Jacob's weak form to its feet and they stumbled out of the room that had housed the Japan branch of the Demon Killers Guild as I stood tall shrouded in power and radiating menace towards them.

The sound of rustling cloth reached my sensitive ears from the cage, the yokai was standing as best he could with his hands and feet bound in the charmed restraints of the Demon Killers. He was wearing a charcoal business suite, grey silk shirt and matching mono-colored tie with an embroidered floral pattern and some sort of furry boa that should have looked ridiculous with the business wear, but for some reason suited him. "And now what will you do with me?" He asked in a calm, deep rumble. Ignoring him for a moment I glance down at my sword intent on re-sheathing it, but the acidic poison I had unleashed into the inferior metal had melted the blade into uselessness and I tossed it away before answering the yokai.

"What happens to you is of no concern to me, yokai, free yourself and go on your way." I said coolly retrieving the cages key form the wall and throwing it at his feet. I strolled from the room, not bothering to glance back, but I heard no rustle of cloth that would indicate he was reaching for the key. Banishing thought of him from my mind I left the building and began my walk home.

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Sesshomaru

How could he have allowed himself to be captured by such an easy ploy? His agents had told him a about the vile Demon Killers that where invading his realm, and how they had nearly exterminated all of the yokai from the mainland. Yet it never occurred to this Sesshomaru that he, the powerful Daiyokai Ruler of the Western Lands, could have been a target for such pathetic ningens. Nor that they could indeed capture him. His hubris was his undoing. They had cleverly set up a meeting with his company using a failing bank as a cover for their plot. When he arrived at the newest acquisition of Taisho Corp. he was ambushed. They had lined the room with giant red stones that melted his yokai power to nothing. Worse he did not even notice the presence of these vile ornaments until it was too late. Then they threw a net braided with the little charms they used and locked shackles onto his wrists, ankles, and neck. They then dragged him to the basement as he fought futilely against his bonds. He was placed it the cage, shackled and powerless as a ningen. In retrospect he felt a bit foolish for the display he had presented to his captors, it was weak of him to show his distress, only proving how startling all of this was to him.

A day passed. His captors spoke English in front of him, probably assuming that he would not be familiar with their language, the fool. They seemed to be waiting for someone of importance to arrive before they executed him.

The man, Jacob, as Sesshomaru learned arrived that evening. He discussed his plans to steel Sesshomaru's yokai power and kill him in the process; the ritual was to be performed at moon rise.

The Daiyokai planned on how he would gut this man like a pig when he was freed.

The woman appeared an hour before the ritual. She entered the room with such force she splintered the door, an army of his captors at her heels. She did not seem to be running from the mob, to Sesshomaru, it appeared as if she was more concerned with finding something or someone. Her yokai aura rolled off of her in waves, it astonished Sesshomaru to realize her power was near his own, but he did not believe she could possibly equal him, he was Daiyokai ND she did not smell like a yokai at all. As the battle played on he notice his own techniques and power mirrored in this woman's attack.

The exchange between the woman and the leaders of his captors was entertaining, but did not reveal much about the intriguing woman, he did not learn her name, of her intentions in this place, or how she came by the power that was so like his own. The fact that she was human and somehow related to his captors was intriguing. The insolence in her to announce herself at the guardian of his lands angered him, but he would have to control his wraith if he was going to use her to procure his release.

When his remaining captors had fled he stood. He had to admit to himself, even with her face partially concealed in her hood and the shadows he was attracted to her strange and powerful scent and her yokai was strangely alluring.

"And now what will you do with me?" He asked calmly. "What happens to you is of no concern to me, yokai, free yourself and go on your way." She said coolly she threw the key out his feet and left not bothering to glance back. Sesshomaru waited until her footsteps disappeared before reaching for the key, in front of that strange ningen creature he would not kneel or grovel, even if it was to gather the key to his freedom. By the time he had removed the shackles and his yokai had returned even her scent was gone from the exterior of the building, even more intriguing he thought to himself.

Maybe it was for the best, he wasn't sure he would know what to do if he had followed her and there where other things to deal with. His captors where long gone which was a disappointment, he was really looking forward to gutting the one called Jacob, but they and their council where now a target of his wrath and they would not get away.