Note: Graphic depictions of violence.

Kagome grunted hoarsely as she was tossed to the floor, the side of her body colliding against the hard wood below her kidnapper's feet. She glared up at her foe currently towering over her, his muscular build casting a shadow around her body on the ground from the small torch high up on the wall behind him. He stared back at her with his pitch-black eyes, not a sliver of emotion on his face as she corrected her body positioning slightly, easing her bruised hipbone away from the hard surface it dug into.

"Are you ever gonna tell me who you are?" Kagome spewed, slowly inching away from the demon who hadn't spoken a word since abducting her from the village she had been assisting. He'd appeared out of nowhere, startling the children that helped her pick herbs in the field, smirking daringly at the priestess as she quickly pushed the young girls behind her and pulled an arrow out of her quiver to align with her bow. The weapons were quickly smacked from her hands and Kagome had barely dodged his attack before she was grabbed by the waist, yanked over the demon's shoulder, and whisked away.

His thin eyebrow cocked upwards at her question and he stepped forward to fill the gap Kagome had created, his lips slowly and menacingly curling upward into a grin, baring his sharp teeth at her.

"What does it matter? This information won't be of any use to you if you're dead." He replied, his dark eyes boring into her soul, seemingly seeing every secret she held within. His skin was pale, his ears long and pointed like you'd imagine a fairy's to be. He wore a dark green yukata, the material appearing thinner than a robe should be as the seasons changed from autumn to winter, and he wore his long, dark hair in a high ponytail, small strands of hair hanging loose around the edges of his hairline. There was no sclera to his eyes. All Kagome could see was the blackest of black gazing down at her menacingly, causing her lungs to hitch uncomfortably. She balled her fingers into fists, keeping her own stare fixed on his face, refusing to look away from the demon that had too much nerve for her to respect.

"Well, I'm not dead yet. I think I deserve to know who my attacker is and what, exactly, I did to become your target." The amount of danger Kagome was in was beginning to settle into her gut. This wasn't her first time being abducted. Not in a long shot. But Kagome was witty and could usually argue to stall her attacker, or even fight back, herself. Something was telling her that she was up against something or someone very different than anything she'd ever encountered before, and she just hoped she could stall long enough until Inuyasha could get there.

This was, admittedly, a slim chance of happening. She was nowhere near Inuyasha when the dark-eyed demon appeared. He was back in their village and she had agreed to aid another a few miles off, watching some children and teaching them about herbs and their remedies. He was too far to hear her scream, so Inuyasha showing up was merely a hope she could cling to in order to keep fighting. And she would keep fighting. She'd get herself out of here on her own if she had to.

"Oh, it's not you I hold the grudge against." The demon smirked, taking another step closer and kneeling before the priestess. Kagome quickly adjusted herself at his movements, sitting up completely and bracing her hands along the floor behind her, her knees folded up to her chest while her thighs tensed together protectively.

"Don't tell me it's my husband." She warned, shaking her head and huffing as he cocked his head slightly. A rumble of confirmation emitted from his chest, the dark lids over his even darker eyes lowering halfway as he looked over her stiff form. "So, you took me to get back at him?"

"And, doesn't it work out beautifully?" He laughed, his fangs shining brightly from the saliva pooling behind his lips, and he crawled closer to her. Kagome scooted backwards, focusing in on the items in her peripheral vision to see if any were close enough to use against the demon. "I planned on killing you quickly and maybe hanging your corpse out to dry so that Inuyasha could be greeted with the sight of your mutilated body, but maybe instead I'll have some fun. At least to start. I've never laid with a priestess before."

A blisteringly hot rush of fear doused Kagome's body, starting at her cheeks and coursing through her veins down her neck, arms, torso, legs, and ending at her toes. She'd never been threatened this way before, and the way the monstrous demon licked his lips and inhaled her scent as he inched closer to her body that was agonizingly close to being backed against a wall had her inclined to believe that he was one to hold true to his plans. What the hell had Inuyasha done to piss this guy off so bad?

Kagome couldn't sense the demon's energy. If she weren't staring directly at him as he crawled almost animalistically toward her, she'd never know he was actually there. It was like a nightmare where the only relief of him was closing her eyes and plugging her ears. His demeanor seemed overly-confident and bold. His stare, though hard to tell, seemed fixated not on her but inside of her. His eyes reminded her of demons you'd hear about in the present day; the ones that rose from hell and wreaked havoc on the innocent, threw things, screamed, were unseen to the common, and if possible, killed. The growl that emitted from his throat shook her to the core and had her fingers trembling so badly that she clenched them into fists once again, swallowing tightly and holding her breath in an attempt to seem stable and strong.

"Have some… " Kagome started, biting back the twitch in her voice. "Laid with?"

"Could you imagine the half demon's reaction to knowing I'd made you mine? It would enrage him entirely!" The demon seemed delighted as he explained. "And then I would kill you in front of him! I'd make him watch you bleed out onto the floor, and he'd understand he should have never crossed me!"

"Who are you!?" She asked through gritted teeth, feeling a fire flicker and burn inside of her.

"You still want to know? My name is Akiro." He smiled, nuzzling his jaw into the crook of her neck. His hot, moist breath licked at her sensitive skin and she flinched as he finished his statement. "And you, Kagome, are my prey."

The quickly-approaching children could be heard from nearly half a mile off, Inuyasha's ear flicking in the direction of the dense forest ahead of Kaede's hut. He stood up straight after swinging the axe in hand one last time, the small log cut in two and falling in different directions to the grass beneath it, and took in the sound of the stomping feet smacking the earth at a fast pace. The smell of their thick sweat hit his sensitive nose and he could hear their panting and whimpering as they told each other to just keep going, they were close so just keep running, she had to live around here somewhere, keep running. His curiosity was peaked. There were two kids, one of them a little clumsier than the other. The speed of their bare feet hitting the dirt was slowing, and he could only imagine how exhausted their small legs had to be from the wheezing that emitted from their throats.

His golden eyes turned to the clearing in the trees just as the young girls burst through the shrubbery. Even from where he stood, he could tell their faces were bright red and slick with sweat, their hands barely able to hang onto one another anymore. And once their eyes landed on Kaede's hut, the taller child in the lead yanked the smaller one into their final sprint, their high-pitched yells for the old priestess becoming louder and clearer and more panicked as they got closer.

Inuyasha dropped the tool he held immediately, running over to the kids as Kaede pushed the entrance mat to her home aside and rushed out as fast as her aging body allowed her to.

"Lady Kaede! Please, we need your help! Lady Kaede, hurry!" Their screams were broken and weak, and he could only imagine how badly their throats and lungs burned.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Inuyasha began, urging the two to stop and kneeling at their feet. "Slow down! You guys look like you're about to pass out!"

"No, you don't understand!" The older one declared, her bright blue eyes boring into him. "We've been attacked! The priestess Lady Kaede sent us was taken from our village! Lady Kaede, oh thank goodness!" She cried as the old woman hobbled closer. Inuyasha felt the air leave his lungs entirely while the muscles in his chest lost the ability to expand for more. Dread sunk and settled into the pit of Inuyasha's stomach, burning at the walls of the organ and causing an indescribably dull pain.

"Lady Kaede, Lady Kagome is gone!" The younger one squeaked, her chest heaving up and down as she dropped the other girl's hand and stepped closer to the priestess. "She was taken by the most terrifying creature! You must help save her! Where is her husband? Her kin? We have to alert them all!"

"Where did this happen?" Inuyasha instinctively asked, swallowing the burning fire that boiled and rose through his throat. His claws bit into the palms of his hands and he was seconds away from damning their explanations and running off to follow the girls' scents back to the village they had come from.

"Inuyasha, wait!" Kaede demanded knowing full and well from plenty of past experiences that he intended to chase blindly after Kagome. "You must be rational in a situation such as this. It could possibly be much simpler to locate Kagome if you listened. You don't know what you're up against yet."

"Or I could be wasting time!"

"Inuyasha?" The older girl inquired, her voice small and shaky from the nerves. Her curious eyes widened as they shot his way once more, the drumming in her chest beginning to calm slightly. "She spoke of you. You're her husband?"

"Please, Inuyasha, hear what they have to say." Kaede spoke lucidly from beside him.

"I don't have time for this shit!" He fired, rising to stand.

"You cannot help her if you don't know the circumstance, you stubborn fool! You should know by now that you could make matters worse!"

The hanyou let out a rumbling growl from the depths of his chest, muffling it behind his barely-parted lips and burying his desire to race off into the darkened forest, the last of the light in the sky disappearing behind the distant mountains and tree lines. He could feel his heart beating violently behind his ribcage, but he clenched his abdominal muscles to keep himself stilled, sighed out a ragged breath, and knelt before the little girls again.

"Yeah, I'm her husband, kid." He finally answered, keeping his tone as cool as possible. "I need you to tell me what happened."

The older girl huffed incredulously and fearlessly grabbed his calloused hand; her grip on his palm surprisingly strong as her little fingers pulled him to follow her, her other hand snatching the younger girl's. "There's no time for that right now! We can explain on the way! Come on! We'll take you back to our village!"

Inuyasha, slightly taken aback by the girl's determined demeanor, quickly brushed the feeling aside and took the incentive as it was, standing up tall to stop the older girl in her tracks and grabbing her by her waist. He pulled her over his head and allowed her to slide down in between his shoulder blades where she was able to comfortably cling to his shoulders, her legs just long enough to slightly wrap along his rib cage. He grabbed up the smaller child and hooked her in one arm as she curled the small fingers of one hand along the hem of his fire rat to anchor herself to his chest and pointed in the direction they'd come from.

"Hang on tight!"

He took off in a sprint, not running as fast as he would have had he been alone in case it endangered the children, and followed their cues, listening when either of them recognized a landmark and knew it was time to make a turn. He couldn't help but notice the distance between his village and theirs as he ran, creating a stabbing pain in his gut. The further he got from home, the more he realized how far Kagome was from him to begin with, and even more so now as he focused on how long it must have taken the two tiny kids clinging to him to run the distance in order to retrieve him. How could he have let her go alone? How could he have let his defenses drop? He'd always hated when Kagome went away to help distant villages, but she'd convinced him months ago to let her start going alone. She claimed she was trying to better herself as a priestess and she couldn't do that with someone constantly looking over her shoulder. She claimed it was her duty to help, and he couldn't always be there in case he and Miroku were needed elsewhere to slay a demon. And for months now, things had been fine. She didn't leave too often, but when she did, she always came back in one piece. So, Inuyasha began to relax. He enjoyed missing her while they were separated, because when either of them came back home, the reunion was sweet and intimate, and he could bask in her tender back strokes and joyful smile for the rest of his life.

The half demon cursed himself for being so goddamn selfish. His carelessness was what got his wife kidnapped. He'd hardly even asked how far this village was from their own. He didn't get the details he should have. He'd helped her pack up a few essentials, made sure she had her bow and arrows for protection, and kissed her goodbye a few feet inside the forest line. That was it. If she was hurt, it was his damn fault.

Inuyasha could smell burning wood at different angles ahead and hear the villagers in the distance shouting names and orders, men checking in with the others and women shouting replies and demanding their children stay inside.

"I can see the clearing up ahead! Can you see it, mister Inuyasha?" The little girl in his arms asked, pointing her chubby finger once more as he pushed his legs to go just a little faster, knowing the kids could endure it for a short distance.

"The field is to your left!" The older one commanded as they came out onto a wide dirt road. He followed her lead, ignoring the shouts from the frantic villagers, changing his path and running straight into the field of cold, damp grass that wild plants populated. Inuyasha took in a breath through his nose, picking up on that familiar, warm and sweet scent that had become his home, noticing how weak and distant it was as he ached to breathe more of Kagome in. His pace slowed, the dark field hard to see in as he used his nose to guide him, the child on his back letting go and sliding off as she stumbled around his side and grabbed his free hand. She pulled him forward, guiding him to the area they must have been in before and he finally caught the strong and wonderful aroma he'd been searching for, creating a shaky pant to leave his lungs.

"She was sitting right here when the demon came out of nowhere!" She exclaimed, pointing to the spot she stood over. "And when she tried to protect us, he hit her!"

Inuyasha could feel the heat of anger quickly bubbling up through his abdomen, his heated, amber eyes wandering around the field in search of something, anything, that could be a clue as to who took Kagome. He stuck his nose out just an inch further, taking minor sniffs of the air to get a whiff of the bastard, but there were too many fragrances polluting the area. The weeds, the flowers, the herbs, the children, and the soot from the approaching burning torches clouded his senses.

"Her bow, mister Inuyasha! Her bow is there!" The little one in his arm shouted, making no motion to be separated from him, and pointing into the thick grass a few feet ahead. He closed the scant distance between them and the weapon, fighting back the deep and guttural growl that built up in his throat, but before he could kneel to pick it up the villagers jerked his attention their way.

"Papa!" The small one shouted excitedly, still not pushing out of Inuyasha's hold.

"Where have you been?! We've been looking everywhere for the two of you!" The man in front demanded, swiftly passing his torch to a young boy next to him and crouching down in front of the older girl, grabbing her tightly by her upper arms so her eyes were focused on him and only him.

"We had to go get-"

"A demon attacked! You don't just run off with your sister when that happens, you know better!"

"I know, papa, but we had to-"

"You're just children! Your sister is only five and you eight! You could have been killed; you have no means to protect yourself! Do you have any idea what your mother has been through tonight?"

"Do you have any idea what Lady Kagome has been through!?" She snapped, her face bold with defiance. "She saved us, papa, and she was abducted! If we ran home, who would save her?"

The man's eyebrows furrowed together, and his lips twitched downward before he turned his attention to the half demon holding his youngest daughter. "You have my deepest apologies." He stated, the deepness of his voice still rough, standing tall and retrieving the torch from the young man. "How may we aid you?"

"You've done enough." Inuyasha replied a little too quickly, eager to get back to his search for Kagome. He took a step forward to meet the man that stood only a few inches taller than he, passing off the small girl into her father's free arm.

"You will save her, won't you?" She asked as she settled into the crook of his elbow. "Lady Kagome will be okay, right?"

"She'll be okay, kid." He replied as confidently as he could. "I'll save her, and I'll let her know who her real heroes are."

"Please hurry," The older girl picked up the bow, holding it out to Inuyasha with both hands. He walked over to where she stood, clutching the item in his fingers. "He took her that way." She stated, her head turning to face the dense trees.

Still, Inuyasha couldn't catch the lingering scent of a demon and it pissed him off even further. How could he smell his wife and not the bastard that snatched her? It didn't make any sense.

"Hey, can you tell me something?" He began, not looking away from the thick darkness inside the forest.

"Sure."

"What did he look like?"

"He was tall and white! Super white!" The youngest proclaimed from her father's arms.

"He had terrifying, black eyes and sharp teeth. Like yours. Um… He had long, dark hair that he tied up. And he was dressed in a green robe. He didn't carry any weapons." The older child specified.

Inuyasha ground his jaw, feeling the muscles below his temples flex and tighten, allowing the picture of his wife's captor to become clear in his mind. Pale skin and black eyes was almost all he needed… He'd recently faced a demon like this on an excursion with Miroku. They were called to a village where men, women, and children were being taken in the night and killed just outside the village walls. This wasn't the first report they'd received on the incident, either. Several villages before the last they'd visited told them of similar incidents, all of them claiming to hear a horrifying growl rip through the air just before a blood-curdling scream stilled the nights.

The demon was named Akiro. It took Miroku and Inuyasha months to finally track the guy down because he left no scent behind, and could only rely on rumors along with the monk's strong ability to out-smart others once he caught onto a pattern. When they'd finally found their demon, he applauded them like the arrogant asshole he was. He openly explained that his strength lied in his mind's capability to trick whoever he wanted, apparently even able to fool people from miles away. He made it so the most common things demon slayers searched for were hidden completely. So, his fowl aura and stench were basically nonexistent, even when Miroku and Inuyasha were less than a yard away.

They had failed to kill him. He was bold and cocky, but Inuyasha had realized it was literally only his tricks that he relied on. Akiro never made an effort to physically fight the two of them, mostly because he'd made it impossible for them to come at him, so he wouldn't have to. Or so they thought. It was a fucking hoax, and once Miroku had wormed his way out of it, he made to attack. Inuyasha wasn't too far behind and thrusted his Tetsusaiga into a powerful windscar. Akiro barely dodged it, his arm and shoulder damaged by the attack and bleeding profusely, the blood staining his paper-white skin as it dripped down the length of his arms, down his twitching fingers, and onto the dirt below his feet. He used another mind trick to stop them from pursuing as he ran away, and villages had been silent about his attacks since.

If Inuyasha hadn't have failed that damn mission, if he had kept attacking and didn't concentrate on how absolutely mind fucked he felt, he could have ended it right then and there. He could have killed the twisted bastard that left bodies mutilated and battered for friends and family to find outside of the village borders and he wouldn't have to face the reality that Akiro now had Kagome in his possession, while he was doing who-knows-what to her.

"Thanks, kid." Inuyasha forced himself to say through his stiff jaw, giving the two a small glance behind him. He could see the worried look etched into the older one's features as she hardened her stance and stepped closer. "Hang onto this for me, would ya?" He held out the red bow to her, and she quickly went to take it back.

"I'll keep it safe until you come back." She stated firmly, clutching it close to her chest. Inuyasha jumped into the trees, using Kagome's lasting scent as his guide. The demon was smart, sure. He covered his tracks. But he wasn't smart enough to cover hers, and that would be his undoing. Inuyasha would make sure of it.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Kagome shrieked, throwing a large, ceramic vase at the demon a few feet from her with all the strength she could muster up in her slightly spent body. Her hair was disheveled, the unruly waves falling around her face while her thick bangs stuck to the sweat along her forehead. She felt heat pooling under the skin at the corner of her bottom lip while the puffiness of the area provided a dull numbness where her mouth closed, the harsh, copper liquid coming from the open wound seeping both down her chin and along her tongue. Her cheek was sore from the slaps Akiro had served her, his fingers eventually curling as he grew more and more frustrated from her never-ceasing struggle to remove herself from underneath him, the stinging strikes evolving into three solid punches along the bone just below her eye. He stopped when she'd whimpered and stilled, breathing shallowly along the cheek he'd bruised, and giving her the open opportunity to buck him forward with a powerful thrust of her hips, allowing her to scramble across the small room and distance herself from him.

His pale arms were scraped from her nails digging into whatever skin she could find, streaks of red decorating his forearms, small speckles of blood prickling out along the scratches. His mouth curved downward while his top lip twitched along with his boiled growl.

"Insolent wench." He cursed, baring his fangs and clenching his fists. Kagome took another step back, pressing her back firmly against the wall behind her, her eyes wandering around the room for anything else she could defend herself with. "You'll regret defying me."

"I don't think I will." She declared, eyeing a smaller vase in the corner across the room. Other than that, she was out of options. There was nothing more around that she could utilize. She'd already pushed the table towards him -her first line of defense- when she'd wormed her way out of his clutches. It was heavier than she'd initially thought, and she'd only managed to bump him, but it created a small distraction as he pushed it aside and Kagome was able to grab the four sitting cushions around and toss them his way with every ounce of strength her arms and shoulders harbored. Cushions, alone, would hardly do damage, but with enough force they could provide a sting and give her time to get towards the large, ceramic vase she thought she could do some real damage with. Kagome was hardly able to pick it up over her head and chuck it towards her attacker, her muscles trembling under the weight of it, the item falling short and missing him by an inch or two.

"I'll make sure you do!" Akiro snarled, launching at her. Kagome pushed off the wall, ducking as his arm swung, his fingers catching in a tangle at the end of her dark strands. She could feel the tear from some of the hair leaving her scalp as his nails came free, the force of the yank causing her to stumble forward, losing her balance and crashing to the ground.

Something about this demon was off. Aside from his missing aura and pitch-black eyes, something seemed completely unnerving about her opponent. He was clever. He had a knack for saying the crudest and most disturbing things in order to get under your skin, painting vivid images in your mind of torture and death. He knew how to make you feel hopeless and empty and like everything was already gone as he threatened to take it away. It wasn't amusement he got from a person's terror, though. It was uncensored and disconcerting bliss. Kagome was practically watching the man get off as he held her down and described in full detail every brutal act he promised not only on her, but on Miroku's daughter after he'd finished with Kagome's body. He even specifically stated he would only murder one of the twins, so that whenever Sango and Miroku looked upon their living, little girl they'd be reminded only of the one that was taken from them.

Akiro was sick, twisted, perverted, grotesque, and undeniably evil. But he wasn't wise. His arrogance seemed to blind him and that was how she was able to eventually escape his grasp. He wasn't necessarily as strong as your typical demon either. She'd playfully wrestled with Inuyasha before, and even then, she was no match in the strength department. So, given he was a half demon and she didn't stand a chance, how was she able to put up a fight with the demon she faced now? Kagome wouldn't say he was entirely weak, physically. He was, after all, able to carry her for miles over his shoulder, throw her down with quite a bit of force, and unabashedly pin her to the ground. He was just weaker than any other demon, half blood or not, she'd personally encountered.

So where did his real strength reside? Kagome was more than willing to settle on his sharp tongue and daring talent for mind-numbing manipulation. That couldn't be all, though. She was missing an important detail. There was something more to her foe that she just couldn't put her finger on.

Akiro quickly followed Kagome's path as she tried to crawl backwards and away from him with her elbows, feeling the hard floor and the bones of her forearms collide together uncomfortably. He threw himself to his knees in an attempt to straddle her hips once more, but she quickly curled up her legs, turned them away and pushed to her hands and knees in order to climb to her feet and run. His long fingers swiftly wrapped around one of Kagome's ankles and jerked her back to the ground, her chin colliding with the floor and her upper teeth crunching down on the already-swollen lip she sported. She reached forward with an arm as Akiro slowly dragged her backwards, outstretching her fingers as far as she physically could just to graze the small vase with enough force that it wobbled and tipped, the long neck of the ceramic pot landing in her direction. The demon turned Kagome over, achieving his goal and pinching the sides of her hips to pin her in place with the thick muscles of his thighs.

"I'm going to kill you, Kagome." He growled dangerously, his hot breath burning the sensitive and thin skin of Kagome's lips as he held his face only inches above her own. "I'm going to fuck you, and then I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to do it all so slowly and satisfyingly you'll wish you'd sat here and taken the beating like the good, little girl you ought to have been."

"No." Kagome whimpered.

"It would have been quick! It could have been over with by now!" Akiro laughed, a bit of drool dripping from his teeth and onto her cheek, searing Kagome's sweat-dampened flesh. "Now look at you. You just had to be the hero, didn't you? No, you can't hurt their child. I won't let you." He was mocking her, hitching his voice to a higher octave and loosening the top of her kosode to easily drag his nails along the length of her sternum. "As if you could do anything to stop me. The half breed and monk didn't stand a chance, so what makes you think you do? You're weak. You are nothing. And you will die."

"I…" Kagome's hand continued reaching above her, extending further to graze the smooth ceramic while using her free hand to push Akiro's face away from her own, the heel of her palm pressing aggressively into his high cheekbone. She reached even further, gritting her teeth and flicking her middle finger along the neck of the vase until her index was able to feel it too, the muscle at her shoulder blade cramping painfully. "…am not weak!"

Kagome clutched the pot within her trembling fingers, swinging it forward and shattering the hardened clay along the demon's forehead, slivers falling along her cheeks and the floor beneath her. He stilled, his wide, black eyes staring off to the side of her, and Kagome watched the thick, red blood seep from the new wound on his head. It glided around his brow bone in different directions, curving along his nose and temple, dripping down his cheek, stilling where gravity had it pool, and then dropping onto the bruised flesh just below her left eye.

She gasped, the high-pitched, breathy sound echoing in her ears as the room was silent and he seemed to wobble above her. She used the opportunity to push him off, his lower half sinking down while she wriggled and squirmed her way out. He collapsed to the floor, eyes half-lidded, and his chest rising and falling slowly.

She wanted to take a moment to gather herself, her body shaking uncontrollably from the amount of shock and adrenaline coursing through her veins, but she knew she didn't have time to sit around. Kagome needed to go. She needed to find her way out and run as far as she could, as fast as she could. A lump formed in her throat as she resisted the urge to curl into herself, wiping the sticky blood from her mouth on her white sleeve and gently sucking on her bottom lip. She took her other sleeve and hastily ran it over her face in an attempt to get Akiro's blood off of her, ignoring the painful ache along her left cheekbone.

Kagome curled her legs beneath her, steadying herself in a tabletop position before rising to her feet. She peered down at her attacker one last time to make sure there were no changes in his condition, and then slowly made her way around his body, stepping carefully over the broken shards of decorated clay. Noticing a large, pointed piece along her path, Kagome stopped to pick it up, holding and adjusting the jagged would-be weapon to make sure it fit properly in her small palm. Nodding approvingly, she held it close and made her way out the sliding doors, silently shutting it behind her.

The halls were quiet and still. It was exactly what you'd imagine a haunted home to feel like; distant from civilization, empty, run down, eerie, and cold. Kagome tried to stay rational, reminding herself that the seasons were changing. Autumn was quickly turning to winter outside, and she could tell the sun had set long ago. The night had anchored in and temperatures were, naturally, going to drop. As for the unsettling feeling Kagome got from the home, it was something she was just going to have to deal with. Akiro was creepy, therefore his house would be creepy. It only made sense.

Kagome tiptoed down the hallway, listening for any signs of life from inside the rooms as she searched for a way out. She didn't remember the halls being quite so long when she was brought in over Akiro's shoulder. In fact, she didn't remember the halls, period. Nothing around looked familiar, and Kagome couldn't pinpoint how many lefts and how many rights she'd taken to get to the room Akiro laid unconscious in now.

Everything was a blur from the moment she was abducted, and Kagome blamed the amount of adrenaline currently surging through her body. It was like electricity, the way it caused her fingers to tremble and her legs to feel unsteady, yet her knees never buckled, and her mind was surging at a mile a minute. She couldn't feel the pain under her eye, her split lip, or any other part of her body that Akiro had manhandled. All Kagome could think about was getting out. It was tunnel vision. She couldn't concentrate on details like direction, time, or even the distance between where she stood and any nearby village. Her brain would only drag her back to focus on her feet that moved of their own accord, stepping as quickly and quietly as she possibly could. Her eyes flicked from wall to wall, homing in on doors in the distance. Her ears rang with her own voice urgently demanding her to find safety, get the hell out of this place and hide, run and don't stop, find the way out and book it.

Kagome approached a sliding door, pressing her ear to the side of it in order to hear if anyone was on the other side. Silent. She gripped the wooden border of it at the middle, sliding one side of the door open just enough to see through. Another bedroom. With each bedroom she checked, a dull ache began to grow within her stomach, cramping and churning. It seemed there were an endless number of bedrooms in the godforsaken place, but not a single exit to the outside world. Sighing out a shallow breath of disappointment, Kagome braced herself to keep moving when the distant sound of fevered stomping caught her attention. It was like a small stampede heading her way, getting louder and louder as she stood there wondering from which direction the guards seemed to be coming.

Her fight-or-flight response kicked into high gear, the danger she was in suddenly palpable, and Kagome stepped behind the door she'd opened and silently slid it shut, rushing over to a closet and climbing to fold herself on top of the blankets on the shelf before shutting the small door and waiting in total darkness. Kagome covered her nose and mouth with her hand, trying to slow her heavy lungs and breathe as quietly as possible. Her heart pounded violently behind her ribcage as she listened to the approaching men outside of the room, weapons clinking about. A deep, boisterous voice she didn't recognize ordered for guards to check all nearby rooms, barking about the importance of retrieving the runaway they were searching for. Kagome attempted to flatten herself more, imagining herself becoming smaller and smaller along the musty-smelling blanket she curled up on, her muscles cramping as she fought the quivers her body gave. The doors to the room Kagome hid in opened noisily, the wooden borders slamming along the outer edges of the gliding rails, and she swallowed her breath, her chest muscles tensing and tightening. There were at least two guards inside, walking about the room and checking behind and underneath the few items they could. Kagome fought the urge to shut her eyes and wish them away, knowing they were bound to check the closet next. She took the lesion on the side of her bottom lip into her mouth, reopening the clotted wound with the aggressive suck, swallowing the taste of copper and holding back the snivel that built up as the fear boiled and rose within her.

It happened so quickly, Kagome hardly had time to process what could be taking place out in the hall. Running, loud cursing, metal clanking against metal, men screaming and dropping to the floor, then silence. She waited a moment, desperately trying to hear through the stunning quiet and assess the situation just outside the doors she squatted behind. And then hope began to reenter her veins at an alarming rate and she opened the closet door as she wriggled herself out from the second shelf, dancing along the tips of her toes of one foot until she got the other one free.

There he stood, clad in all red and smiling warmly at her from his place at the entrance to the room, Tetsusaiga in one hand while he held his other out to her.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you." Inuyasha calmly stated, taking a couple of steps towards her once she gained her bearings.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome practically sobbed, wanting to run into his warm, safe arms and never let go, but her feet stayed frozen in place. There was a sinking feeling in Kagome's gut that she knew she'd never be able to describe in words if she ever recounted this moment to another. Her mind was telling her home and security stood only five feet away, but her abdomen kicked and screamed that something wasn't right and to stay put. Her brain and her gut were battling ferociously, and the sickening feeling paralyzed her. That didn't stop the tears from brimming at her lids and burning her brown eyes or stop the grin on her face from growing wider as he took one more step in her direction, or stop the enthusiastic half laugh, half sob that emitted from her throat.

"Are you okay, Kagome?" He stood in the center of the room now, the warm smile never fading from his handsome face.

"I'm fine." She replied, hoping she didn't look as bad as she imagined, still glued to her spot just outside of the closet. She placed her hands along her stomach, the bubbling feeling behind her flesh making it seem as if she was going to puke so she swallowed thickly as a precaution to keep everything down.

What could be wrong? Inuyasha was here but neither of them moved to touch the other. She was supposedly safe, but as her gut began to win the war against her head, she no longer believed it. Her dark eyes shifted around the room, the guards she'd heard earlier gone and probably either dead or unconscious in the hall. No sounds stood out, and she couldn't feel any negative energy nearby. Everything seemed to be okay, so what, exactly, was throwing Kagome off?

"Kago-"

A burning sensation abruptly soared through Kagome's veins, a hot sweat prickling out along her hairline and down her spine. Her lungs contracted, and she nearly choked on her painful gasp as Inuyasha's golden eyes widened and stared to the ground. The half demon stumbled forward slightly, his jaw hung open, and his torso curled over as he clutched his abdomen. He lifted a hand to look at his palm and Kagome could see the dark red liquid that trickled between his knuckles and down the backside of his hand. The spear that pierced his stomach from behind was dyed crimson, and Kagome watched as the guard behind Inuyasha twisted the rod to increase the agonizing pain, causing the hanyou to scream and encircle his hands around the sharp bladed in an attempt to stop the brutal attack, blood spilling and pouring around his fingers.

"Inuyasha?" She didn't know why her voice came out so small when she really wanted to scream. She didn't know why she didn't move from where she stood when she really wanted to simultaneously hold her now-wounded husband while telling him everything would be alright, and attack the wretched being who'd hurt him. All Kagome could manage to do was release weak, trembling gasps and watch as Inuyasha wiped the blood that leaked from his lips and tried to regain his composure as best as he could with a spear stabbing through his gut.

"Found you." Akiro's familiar, taunting voice sang from the doorway, his arms folded over his chest and a crooked smirk curving his lips upward, the blood that stained his face curling along the lines from his smile. Four men stood beside and behind him, all with swords, knives, and spears in hand. He clicked his tongue in disappointment, slowly crossing the room towards Kagome whose eyes quickly shifted between the terrifying demon and Inuyasha.

"You bastard!" Inuyasha growled, the man firmly gripping the spear through his abdomen to make sure he didn't launch at Akiro.

"Now look what you've gone and done, Kagome."

"You stay the hell away from her!"

Akiro spared a small glimpse at the half demon in front of Kagome, a faint look of disgust tainting his features before swiftly looking back at the priestess. Inuyasha attempted to move toward them but the guard twisted the spear once more, pulling him back and causing the hanyou to release an anguished cry.

"Stop! Stop it! Inuyasha! Let me go! Inuyasha!" Akiro's arms were wrapped around Kagome now, holding her back as her legs suddenly remembered how to move and she struggled to get to the bleeding hanyou.

"You did this, Kagome! It only had to be you that died, but you were too selfish! Now look what you've done to your precious Inuyasha!" The demon laughed, his voice growing deeper and more vicious with each word he spoke. Her vision blurred as Kagome blinked rapidly through the spilling tears, shaking her head and fighting against Akiro's hold. "No? Still don't think you're to blame, priestess?"

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted as the men in the background stepped closer, their dark, shadowed eyes trained on the demon that began to crumble from the pain of the sharp rod through his stomach.

"Inuyasha! No! Inuyasha!"

"Stop fighting, Kagome! Stop fighting and watch your beloved half demon die!"

The men raised their weapons high in the air, holding them there for a moment as Inuyasha and Kagome locked eyes one last time. Dark liquid seeped from Inuyasha's open mouth, dribbling down his chin and to the wooden floor beneath him. The black pupils in his amber eyes dilated, and his body dropped to the ground completely as the guards repeatedly pierced his thick skin with their sharp blades.

Kagome screamed Inuyasha's name as his eyes went dull and became half-lidded. She screamed it over and over, trying desperately to get his attention, because there was no way Inuyasha would ever die so easily. Ever. She'd seen him get through hell and back with hardly a scratch on him, so this couldn't be happening. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead. She didn't realize that she was fighting against Akiro so hard that he now held her by her waist, her body lifted in the air so that she couldn't use the ground as leverage any longer. She swung her feet back and forth, attempting to crash her flailing heels with any part of the demon holding her, and dug her nails along with the side of the shard into the pale skin of his forearms as hard as she could. He cursed under his breath and demanded she stop, but Kagome kept it up. She kicked, and she clawed, and she pushed, and she screamed for Inuyasha as loud as she possibly could until her throat burned, and her voice croaked and cracked, but nothing worked. He didn't flinch as she called out to him, begging him to get up. He didn't flinch as the men removed their weapons from his torso. He didn't even flinch when two of them grabbed him by his feet and dragged his limp body from the room, a thick trail of crimson left behind where he once laid.