Woo-hoo! Number three! And way after I planned on actually posting. Oi…

Anyway, I hope that this one satisfies the complete lack of romance and action of the last one. Again, this one is after a time jump, though not as long as the jump between one and two. These really only cover important things that have to be explained but also, I hope, leaves some things in question still. That is why there are time jumps. I could say that we don't really care what happened in between them because nothing really happened, blah blah blah, but we'll just have to see. I don't plan on giving anymore explanations on things in between the Shadow series anyway, and the things that are important are always flashbacks. So I guess it all works. For the most part.

If that last part of the pervious paragraph didn't make much since, my apologies. Everything will be explained later on. I'll just keep you on your toes even in the author's note. Heh. That's interesting.

In any case, whether thinking 'What the crap is this nut talking about?' or, 'Just shut up already. You're giving me a headache.' I give you the Shadow three. Enjoy! -Laughs- I've always wanted to say that.

This story is rated accordingly due to graphic violence, possible language, and lime and above. In other words, it only gets worse, folks. Or better. Whichever.

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own Rurouni Kenshin. It, all of it, belongs to Watsuki-sama, as well as all those other people. The future, for me, in hopes of owning at least Kenshin looks very, very bleak. Practically nonexistent. -goes to get her Kenshin plushie for comfort-

RKRKRKRKRKRKRKRK

The Shadow III

Shades in Folding

Part One

It was a dream enfolding the smothering darkness around her. She could not breathe. This vision showed her forms, familiar and ghastly. They rampaged, slaughtering like animals with deep red eyes closely similar to the thick liquid dripping from their fanged mouths.

She tried to find where these beasts came from, but could not follow their movements. They were much too quick. She could trail the streak of red from their glowing eyes but they were never there at the end of the ghostly line.

She wanted to wake. Before, waking was so simple. She wished it so in her troubled mind, and she would then see the feathered cover that always spread over her as she slept. She would wake; now she cannot, no matter the effort.

Her scream frightened her, sudden as it echoed back to her ears. The one pair of eyes, the deepest red that throbbed like blood pumping from a flowing wound, shone before her once again. She struggled to escape the piercing gaze but they forever remained suspended before her, taunting and horrific as blood ran from them, down the invisible body of the phantom.

Sweat trickled from her brow, ran down her face to settle on the tip of her nose. It trembled with her before falling, disappearing into the nothing she sat upon.

A smile, fanged and dripping, spread under the eyes. Where the distance once had always stayed the same from her to the orbs, it was closing rapidly now. The shape of a man stood over her, all black save for his eyes and smile.

Surprised, she saw that it was not blood dripping from the thin glinting teeth. It was a clear liquid and it splattered on her exposed leg.

"Kaoru," the man spoke. A scream tore from her throat, involuntary as the man laughed. From her mouth slowly came a fluid. She spit it at the man's feet under his gleeful gaze, but it quickly returned to wash her tongue. Metallic. Sour. Blood. She screamed again, but gurgled as she choked.

The man said something again as his blacken hand reached for her, beckoned her to him. Kaoru searched for a way to flee this dream, but only found a sting on her lip. Her blood mixed with the blood already in her mouth that flowed around the unexpected length of teeth. Fangs.

As the man neared, his hand ready to brush her face, Kaoru lurched forward and viciously clamped her newly-found weapons into her own skin.

She woke screaming a muffled scream, half of fright and half of pain. Kaoru had bitten her arm lying asleep. There were no fangs bulging behind her lips. She hissed as her arm began to sting and blood pooled in the marks left by her teeth.

The dark canopy fluttered above her as a form shifted beside her, wrapping iron cold arms around her. His lips lightly touched her wound, licking the blood from arm until the small flow ceased. Eyes of amber looked to her face.

"Kaoru,"

"Kenshin, the same dream. I had it again."

Kenshin closed his eyes. When they opened, they were the soft color of amethyst but they still were guarded from her too see fully inside. "I do not know what to do about this," he said. "But dreams will pass."

"That is what you said a year ago, Kenshin, when these visions first came to me," she insisted.

"Dreams are dreams, Kaoru. They mean nothing."

"This does mean something! I know it does, Kenshin. Why can you not trust me? Something is wrong."

"We will not know unless something happens, little one. Sleep. You refuse to do so while I fly."

Kaoru grabbed for something to gather and keep the man's attention but found nothing except cold, solid skin of his chest. She settled for pointing her finger full in the Shadow's face.

"There is something going on, or about to happen, Kenshin." Tears formed in her eyes as she choked on her next words. She buried her face in his shoulder; leaning fully on him even as his was propped only on one elbow. He could hold her steady.

Kenshin held her, snaking an arm around her shoulders as they shook. His silence was broken only by her sobs.

"We will wait and see," he offered to her. "Kaoru, we will wait. No leaping at the first assumptions."

She looked away from him but nodded slowly, taking a breath. "I want to go home."

Kenshin frown. "Kaoru, we arrived only two days ago. I cannot take the rains away from here for another ten days."

"I want to check on Kenji," she said, worried.

"The boy is ten years of age," Kenshin assured her. "He can handle himself quite well. I have been teaching him."

"I know, but-"

"But nothing. He cannot be coddled all his life. Let him grow."

Kaoru took her turn to frown. "I do not coddle our son."

"You sing him lullabies before he sleeps. He does not even need sleep."

"I sing him one because he asks me too," Kaoru glared. "It is a favorite of his. It always puts him to sleep quickly."

"Human habits," he muttered.

"He will probably break the habits I forced him on," Kaoru admitted. "But, until he does, at least allow this one thing."

Kenshin gazed blankly into her shining sapphire eyes and a smirk pulled at a corner of his mouth. "I do not mind the song, little one. I rather like it myself." He nuzzled her hair, speaking into her ear softly. "Had I the ability to sleep, I would ask you to sing it for me."

"I still can," she whispered, accepting his feather-like kissed from her jaw to her nape by tilting her head.

"Not now," he half growled as he took her lips with his own, exploring her mouth as he brushed his hand over her, spreading the loose clothing concealing the warm flesh behind it. He called his wings into his back as Kaoru reached her arms to stroke through his silken hair the color of deep flame. She matched his ardent kiss with her own, and she grinned as a guttural groan rumbled in his chest.

Her need for air overpowered her need for the man and she broke to draw a deep, ragged breath. She purred pleasantly as he worshiped her with both hungry mouth and hands. Kaoru took her teeth to his shoulder, pressing lightly and scraped across his skin. She felt his fangs stretch from their sheaths and press into her nape, but Kenshin grew very still. She could have held a stone and the difference would not have shown.

"Kenshin?"

"Kaoru," he said softly. Hard undertones flecked his voice. "You will be the death of both of us."

"What?" She scooted from under him but stroked the bangs from his eyes.

"I have much control, but you seem to enjoy striping that away from me," Kenshin looked into her eyes, running his finger down her cheek.

"You have tasted my blood before," she stated.

"Yes," he whispered. "But something so sweet; it becomes a hard call to ignore, but I could not live if I ever harmed you in such a way. And it is not only my fangs I have to keep in check. You are such a fragile creature. So easily broken. Only this lifetime I have lived for so long keeps you alive with me."

Kaoru shook her head. "I did not realize…I'm sorry."

"There is nothing you can do. Do not apologize," he said, gazing out into the closed night sky, the ever-present clouds shading the stars and moon. "It is my battle. It becomes easier by the day as it become harder."

"I don't want to make anything harder for you," Kaoru avowed apologetically.

"Anyone younger in years would have crushed you," He was speaking more to himself now, seeming to peer past her.

She pulled him to her, cradling his head to her chest and brushed his hair from his face.

"Now you baby me," he teased.

"You both are my great, strong men," she admonished. "Even if this is just for my own sake, humor me?"

"Of course."

She smiled as she felt him breathe for her. Kenshin closed his eyes, mocking sleep just for her.

RKRKRKRK

Kenshin alighted in the middle of the forest, his jungle.

"Why must you always insist walking the rest of the way?" he asked.

Kaoru smiled over her shoulder. "You may not have to bother with it, but I need and thoroughly enjoy the walking."

He sighed, drawing back his wings.

Kaoru treaded through the thick brush. The soil bounced with her steps, spongy with water from the rains. This forest belonged to the Shadow of rain. It was his home lands; the rain lands. Unlike her home of dry plants that hoarded any water they can gather within their dull greens and browns, this place was vibrant. The soft leaves of the ground bushes that curled or grew so broad that they could provide adequate shade from the rain were bright and full. The trunks of the trees were always nearly black from the constant running water from above.

The birds with all brightly multi-colored feathers gleamed even under the gathering clouds. Feathers of blues, greens, and teal fluttered to her right, their songs to each other high and fast sung notes. At her left displayed birds of red, orange, and deep pink, the notes of their chorus long and low. They pitched together, a harmony of the feathered choir. Their sound was beautifully frightening as they sang for her, though she not able to discern why. Perhaps it was the birds that feared something, and Kaoru just heard this in their songs. Perhaps it was a fear within her finding any way to show itself, and seeing these winged animals fit for doing so. Perhaps it was both.

She forced herself to believe Kenshin. Dreams will pass in time. Nevertheless, just how long will they keep stealing her nights away before they recede?

Three years ago she learned that her dreams of Kenshin while she ran from him all meant that her body, credit to the mark on her neck, was struggling to find him. The lost feeling that had churned in her stomach was also from his absence. Her sheer will to stay him away kept her from finding him. Though wary, she had willingly left with him, taking their son with them. Her dreams passed then, once she was returned to him. But they had meant something. These now could not mean nothing.

Kaoru turned suddenly, feeling an absence behind her. Kenshin was looking off where the flock of birds sang, studying something with a deep frown.

"Kenshin?"

When he looked to her, there was no trace of anger on his face. "It is nothing. But I will have to work with him on stealth," he said with a smile that almost touched his eyes as he peered over her head.

A tree emitted a frustrated sigh and released a small redhead from its branches. Long, black wings carried him from the treetops to the ground.

"I'll never learn it," Kenji said, folding his single set of wings to his back.

"You will," Kenshin placed his hand on the boy's head. Kenji's hair had grown to nearly the same length down his back as Kenshin's was. He tied it higher on his head rather than have it resting on his neck like his father.

Kenji smiled, his deeper blue-purple eyes shining when he saw Kaoru. "Mother!"

Kaoru enveloped him in a hug, kissing the top of his head. He stretched his wings around her as well as his arms.

"I hope you behaved yourself?" she asked, looking into his bright eyes.

He nodded. "I did. I always do," he smiled, his fangs gleaming. They were not nearly as long as Kenshin's could reach, but they still protruded from his lips when closed.

"Did anything happen while we were departed?" Kenshin asked. Kaoru glanced to his face with a warm smile. His lip twitched a grin in return.

Kenji frowned. "No, nothing father. Why?"

"I was wondering, son."

Kenji shook his head. "Today all the birds seemed to be upset. Does that mean something?"

"I saw. No. It does not." His voice was much too distant, and Kaoru frowned.

"Kenji," she said, getting the boy's attention. Though he had grown, he still had to look up to see his mother's face. "Go on home. Your father and I will be coming in a moment."

He glanced from her to Kenshin. "Ok."

Kaoru watched the Shadow as the gust of wind Kenji created settled.

"You know," she silently accused.

His back to her, he did not answer.

"Kenshin, you know there is something, don't you?"

His head titled upward as a small thunder purred across the sky. "There is always something,"

"That is not what I meant," she shook her head. "Kenshin something is happening. You may guard yourself from me, but there are some things even you cannot hide. I know. I can see that something is troubling you."

Kenshin stepped away from her touch.

"Can you not tell me?" she asked, pleaded with him. "I share with you everything that I see while I sleep, and you cannot explain the meaning behind these visions? Why are you keeping me in the dark?"

"You are not fully in the dark, not yet," he growled. "It will stay that way."

"Kenshin,"

"No!" He turned, his eyes blazing as amber strikes of lightning danced against the purple-blue. She stumbled backwards onto the ground, the vibrations of cracking thunder shaking the earth.

Kaoru picked herself from the soggy ground, standing even as her knees slightly trembled at the force of the Shadow. She glared.

"It truly is nothing, little one," he spoke softly.

She slowly stepped to stand before him and reached to brush hair from his face. Kaoru placed her head under his chin. His arms remained by his side.

Kenshin flicked his gaze to the trees overhead, and saw a flutter of wings carry a small form away.

RKRKRKRK

The halls of the sturdy, immaculate mansion standing in the middle of the storm-ridden forest were quiet, save the clashing thunder and straining clatter of rain. The trees blew in the wind, only dark waving shapes showing when bright fingers of light spread across the sky.

The thick wood of the large dwelling blocked every element from gaining access inside; the roof remained firm and prevented stray branches from skewering the home.

Kenshin stood in full Shadow appearance, wings spread to fill the entire doorway to outside at the end of the long hall. His eyes glimmered amber, and black claws clung to loose fingers. He watched nature take its course, the sky and the land at battle. Both had a single determination that did not waver, never would. The sky would always open and drown what was stuck to the land, and the land would forever take what the sky gave it, use it in every way possible, and eventually return part of what was taken to the skies. An endless circle; one he has watched and guided for many, many years.

In another flash of lightning, a shadow stood beside him, the owner, behind him.

"Kenji," Kenshin said without turning to the boy. "Why are you out of your bed?"

"I don't need sleep, father." The boy answered. "You always told me that."

The Shadow nodded, the feathers of his wings ruffled with soft whispers in the violent winds that curled inward from the outside.

"I have a question," Kenji stated blandly, sounding so close to being a younger version of his father.

Kenshin nodded again. "Then ask."

"Do you love her?"

Kenshin turned his head over his shoulder.

"Do you really love mother?"

"Why?" Kenshin faced him fully now. Kenji had his wings spread as far as they would as well, but it still did not yet even reach a third the length of Kenshin's.

"You are always so distant, father. I see the way she looks at you, but you never return anything," Kenji accused.

"I must explain myself to a boy?"

"I may be just a boy," Kenji said firmly. "But I want to know why you act so cold to my mother."

Kenshin watched his son: the emotions running in his eyes and the challenging stance the boy adapted the moment the question first spilled from his lips. He could have smirked. He could have punished the boy. But he merely stood and watched.

Kenji did not move except only in attempt to spread his wings a bit further and stand somewhat taller.

"You will grow, son," Kenshin answered after a time of unbroken silence. "And you will learn."

"Learn what, father? To feel nothing, even for a woman who accepts me for what I am? Not to feel anything at all?" Kenji looked his father square in the eye. "I love you. You are my father. But that does not mean I want to be just like you."

Kenji walked away. Kenshin narrowed his eyes, feeling strongly that the boy needed a consequence for his so freely-spoken words, but he let him go. There was another presence that needed to be attended to.

"Letting your own spawn challenge you in such a blatant manner?" Einishi asked, a chuckle in his voice as he peeled from the shadows outside. His unruly white hair hung limp and plastered to his face from the rain. "Is this what has become of the great Shadow?"

"Enishi," Kenshin snarled. "You on my ward means death. Has your shame finally given you sense?"

"Not many places for me to go in that case, are there? There are many lands that belong to one of you," Einishi said.

"And each holds the same." Kenshin growled, a soft roll of thunder grumbling underneath his words.

Deep red eyes gleamed like spilled and coagulated blood as he chuckled. "I have no further death wish, nor a quarrel. I have a question for you."

Kenshin snorted, a resounding thunderclap answered with him. "Ask your question, vampire. Then leave."

Enishi smiled, the shine in his eyes growing. Demented mirth swirled in them as he stepped closer to the motionless Shadow. "Your son-"

"Do not go near my son," Kenshin warned.

Enishi smiled again. "Like you are never here for him? Always gone, this taker of the rains." He waved his hand pleasantly to the black heavens.

Kenshin bared his fangs. "He is secured in my ward, vampire, and he is of my own flesh and blood. It is not my will to leave him for however the amount of time. I have no choice in the matter. Yours, however, is to continue or be brought a death much deeper then the one you are in now."

"So very touchy about your possessions, Kenshin."

"Get on with it!"

"This should be interesting," Enishi began again after taking time to laugh, his wild blood red eyes drinking everything in for his own gratifying enjoyment. "Though, I could imagine that you already know. He is your son, after all."

"Know what?" Kenshin asked cautiously.

"Do you not know, Shadow?" Enishi paused and began to pace, watching Kenshin like a captured animal. "Your own son is one of my people, a rejection from the Mother. A halfling. He is not human, neither Shadow. He is mine. Vampire. Surely, you do not want such a creature living under you."

Kenshin roared, lunging for the vampire. He slammed Enishi, carrying him easily into a large tree. The trunk splintered and snapped under the force of impact. The ground quaked, but not from the rumble of thunder.

With his hands gripping Enishi's neck, he snarled. "You lie!"

Enishi managed a choking chuckled around the stone fingers. The muscles of his neck stretched and contracted around Kenshin's claws dug deep into the vampire's neck.

"I would not lie to you- "Enishi hardly rasped between the crushing force of Kenshin's squeezing grip. The vampire, though many times more resilient than a human, was not well defended nearly enough to save himself from the power of the Shadow. The tough skin was pierced easily as a knife to warm butter.

"I hope you would not," Kenshin remarked, his words expressing clearer than cold water that he meant just the opposite. He let the vampire go, walking back to the doorway. "I have no true need to end your existence yet."

Thin blood darkening his ghostly skin and hair, Enishi's eyes, matching the coating of fluid staining him, glittered like a child's with excitement and glee, frenetic joy. "Perhaps you do. Perhaps you do not," he grinned.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru screamed from inside. A crack of lightning struck the sky. For that moment, it could have passed for daylight.

"Enishi!" Kenshin whirled under the torrents of rain but the vampire was gone. Kaoru screamed again in anger followed by a loud crash sounding like a crumbling wall.

Kenshin snapped his wings, folding them and using the powerful momentum to carry him down the long, open hall to the entrance to the inner home. He slammed the door wide, not sparing the time to wait for it to open all the way. It fell from its hinges with a clatter long after the Shadow had left the dark room.

He sped down the halls, passing the many closed doors until he found them. They were trying to keep to the shadows but wild red eyes glowed indiscreetly. Their soft footsteps were swiftly taking them down the darken hall to the right. Soft, angry snaps of fang as they quarreled amongst themselves clacked, growling in short spurts from inhuman mouths. The strong scent of death followed behind their wake as they rushed down the hall, disappearing around the far corner.

Instead of following them, Kenshin turned to the left, down the hall to the room Kaoru had taken as her own. The steady rhythm of a speeding heartbeat met his ears, and her breath was sharp and quick. Kenshin framed the entryway, the door in splinters across the floor. One of the creatures lay writhing at his feet, its legs kicking spastically. Kenshin booted it over roughly and it hissed a spitting guttural scrape against its throat. Red eyes snapped up to his face and fangs decorated its open mouth. It hissed again, slinking to it feet.

Kenshin let it raise, surprise brushing over his eyes. Before him was a man; or what was a man once. The red eyes, but not nearly as dark as Einishi's, and fangs, close to the length of Enishi's, but not enough. These were a bit shorter, able to be hidden completely inside the mouth, even when open. This man was a made vampire.

Kenshin growled, stepping quickly as the vampire stood, piercing his claws into the cold flesh. It squirmed as if uncomfortable, then walked forward, pushing Kenshin's arm until his fingers protruded from the thing's back. Mouth open, its breath drowned Kenshin in the strong scent of blood, old and sour. Its hiss gurgled unpleasantly, spitting blood on Kenshin's face. The Shadow snarled.

The crazed vampire screamed a high shriek, loud and piercingly painful even to human ears. That could not have come from this creature. It clawed at what part of Kenshin's arm that was not embedded in its abdomen. The nails were like humans to the eye, but Kenshin felt the steel-like quality that raked his sleeve to ribbons floating lazily into the blood on the floor. Even so, there was not a mark on his tight skin covering taunt muscles.

With a bored snort, Kenshin jerked back, pulling his arm from the vampire's stomach, and bringing a piece of its spine in hand. With a wet, sucking pop the vampire crumple to the ground, eyes wide and fading to a dull green—the color his eyes must have been before. Kenshin tossed the white and bloodied bone to the side, kicking the corpse along with it to clear the way.

He searched the darkness in the room, the strong smell of jasmine and fear in the air. With her heart slowly becoming steady, Kenshin peered easily into the black to a pair of glistening sapphires.

"Kaoru," He held his bloodied hand out for her.

She stood where she was, calming herself with deep breaths. Kaoru slowly walked to him, never taking her eyes from his expressionless face. She looked down at his hand, and stopped. Such controversy over a simple matter: taking his hand. Though, as she gazed at the dripping blood from long claws, the argument, however it was to turn out in her mind, she would never know. Her decision was already made one raining day ten years passed, one snow-covered day when the confusion was dispersed and unrest sedated. Kaoru took Kenshin's hand. She had sealed her fate with rain, his rain.

The blood pooled on the floor made it slick, and she slipped but he caught her with his other hand before she could think of uttering a sound. Captured by the sudden pain in her eyes, Kenshin missed the vampire until it had taken Kaoru from his grasp.

It barreled into the human, hissing horribly as it—a woman this time—pinned Kaoru to the ground. The vampire bared her fangs, light red eyes staring wildly at Kaoru's neck. The vampire bent to grasp the soft flesh and drink what flowed heavily within, drawn to the thundering pulse point as Kaoru screamed.

Kenshin roared and the vampire screamed much like the first one had. The woman's blood splashed across Kaoru's front, staining her light purple sleeping gown and painting her face. Kenshin lifted the flailing woman off of her, and she saw the long piece of wood skewering into the vampire's side, a long trail of intestine hanging from the sharp end that extended from the opposite shoulder. Kaoru turned her face away, retching to the side.

Kenshin slammed the woman to the ground, bones crunching each time as each thumping stroke echoed down the halls. Its scream grew louder with each hit, her blood covered face, never straying, her eyes never leaving Kenshin's. She hissed, spitting from bleeding lips in front of pearl white fangs.

"If you wished to die," he snarled, holding her high above him. His amber eyes burned like bright candles in the near-pitch dark. "Then you should have chosen true death!"

A surge of energy, raw power, exploded from Kenshin. As it snaked its way through the room, Kaoru's skin began to crawl as it softly swept over her. She shivered. Once it touched the woman, her scream was silenced. She died instantly, mouth wide open and soft blue eyes staring into nothing, with a stake in her heart.

Kenshin quickly tossed the finished vampire with the other one and gathered Kaoru in his arms, ignoring the blood soaked nightgown.

"Kenshin," she asked softly as he quietly moved down another hall at the back of the home. "What are they?"

"Vampire. Spawn of Enishi," he said angrily.

"How?" she gasped.

"A bite. That is how Shadow were created. A bite directly from the Mother. This trait must have remained with him when he was thrown from our ranks, and he has been creating more." Kenshin was seething, biting each word as they passed his lips.

"Why? What does he want here?" She looked up into his stern face.

"Why? I do not know, but it is expected of him to multiply as the first of his new species. We should have known he would, and killed him beforehand. What he wanted here," he paused, "was Kenji."

Kaoru's eyes widened. "What could he possibly want with Kenji?"

"He is convinced that Kenji is one of his own."

"A vampire?" she shook her head. "He cannot be a vampire, Kenshin, look at him. He has wings. Claws. Long fangs."

"As did Enishi before he was stripped of his powers," he snapped.

"This is completely different," she insisted.

He stopped, looking beyond the top of her head to a young form lying on the floor. The smell of blood floated heavily on the air. Kaoru gasped as Kenshin set her on her feet. He held his hand up when she tried to run to Kenji; she stayed, her face masked with worry. He treaded silently through the dark pool, nearly black in the dull night filling the room. Four bodies, torn nearly to pieces, lay not far from the boy, but far enough from his mother's view. Kenshin smiled.

Kenji had feathers torn from his wings, one almost broken. Deep, bleeding bites covered his arms, and his neck. The boy was not waking.

Kaoru, having stepped behind Kenshin, who stood to hide the mutilated bodies of the vampires that the boy had defeated, brushed Kenji's blood-matted hair from his stone face.

Kenshin watched her face take in the state of her son, their son. There was sadness, of course, and a questioning indecision in her blue, blue eyes. That somber uncertainty has lingered on the edge of her gaze since the three years gone by when he found her in the northern forests. Only during certain times did it ever show itself, giving a soft grey tint that spread like wildfire through the pure cerulean, tainting with its hovering smoke the deep oceans of her eyes. These eyes found Kenshin's face, and for a first, he felt slightly uncomfortable under her haunting gaze. The words of his son echoed in his mind, filtering down where his solid heart sat cold and distant, forever away from the touch of the world. Its slow, constant beat sounded as thunder in his ears. The sensation of hurt, pain, emotion strong enough to take a slightly warm grip in his chest, was to alien, so different. He hadn't a clue what to do with it, but he began to hate this color of those grey-clouded, sapphire eyes.

"We must go," Kenshin said. Kaoru was still looking into his amber orbs, supposed to be of fire but of nothing like the sort. Not from what always lacked to lie behind. There was nothing behind to truly fuel such a flame. Until, perhaps, now. "There is something I have to finish, and neither of you are leaving my sight," he ended in a growl.

Kaoru nodded solemnly, her eyes dull. Kenshin turned with Kenji in his arms, walking up the hall to reach the side door on the western wing of the building, the closest to the outside from where they were. He set his jaw, his teeth creaking loudly in his ears at the slight tug he felt in his chest.

Outside, the air was angry, the physical manifestation of Kenshin's boiling insides hot with rage, but for now the rain slowed to a light trickle. Two vampires battled one another, their screams intertwining as they savagely tore into each other, biting enough to splinter bone. Quickly, one ripped the other's throat open, the echoing calls lasting longer than the fallen body. The one left tossed his head side to side, growling deep in his throat as he bent down to smear his face across the dead vampire's chest and neck.

Enishi appeared at the edge of the tree line, stalking towards the vampire. The man stood quickly, hissing softly as he stepped out from Enishi's way. He knelt a far distance from the silver-haired vampire. A soft mewling slithered from the vampire's mouth as he began to crawl towards Enishi. He reached a hand at the hem of Enishi's pants, the mewling taking a higher squealing quality. Enishi grasped a fistful of hair, twisting the whimpering vampire away from him to face the growing puddle of blood spreading across the ground. The vampire's mewl became savage, and it lunged forward, its eyes seeking to satisfy the bloody hunger it possessed. Enishi held the struggling vampire by the hair, watching silently as the man wrenched to free himself. A moist rip tore open the skin on the vampire's scalp as he pulled, even as Enishi held the hair that peeled back the skin. Still gripping the vampire, Enishi bent to dip his hand in the blood, sloshing in the puddle of muddy blood like a child playing and splashing in leftover rainwater. The vampire mewled louder, tugged with inhuman strength to reach what it wanted.

Enishi released the vampire, who stumbled with a satisfied splash into the dark pool, lapping greedily. Ignoring the vampire making eagerly happy noises, Enishi's blood-red eyes jumped to the Shadow, flicking to the boy in his arms, and settling pleasingly on Kaoru. He smiled.

Kenshin placed the boy on the ground and straightened in one swift move, starting grimly toward the vampires as a single misplaced beam of sunlight pierced the thick, black clouds, drenching him in warmth. Enishi screamed, shying away from the light as his skin peeled back from his hand, shriveling under the harsh glare. The drinking vampire immediately burst into flames licking white-hot into the dank air. It had no time to scream as it incinerated. Enishi was already gone.

Kaoru pulled Kenji to her, kneeling beside him as she gently stroked his face. She marveled as the stray stream of sun danced across Kenshin's pale skin. Here, the stone cold Shadow looked warm and soft, wholly inviting. His black feathers shone, shimmering in ripples like water even when not in motion. The deeper coloration of his hair was ablaze, truly now as the flame under the caressing sunshine. Bright amethyst orbs peered through the haze from the first true sight of the sun her eyes had seen in three years.

"Come," he said softly. "We must go."

RKRKRKRK

"Kenshin, where are we going so quickly?" Kaoru had asked as they flew over the blurred lands.

"I have been summoned, and I said already, neither of you are leaving my sight."

She frowned, her question having not been answered.

"You will see," he had assured her. "You will see."

After her gasp of amazement, she could not fathom why she would have not believed him. When Kenshin finally did slow the pace of his wings, they were over a foreign land Kaoru had never seen nor heard of. The grass below, tall enough to reach slightly above the ankle, was emerald, the purest of green that simply glowed under the watchful sun hanging clear and largely closer than usual in the sky such a clear blue it could, in just a few more darker shades, resemble her eyes. Streaks of white did float lazily, thin and long; nothing like the boiling caldron burning the skies and spilling with overflow of its contents to the far, far ground below. These clouds were harmless and not filled with rain.

A backdrop of trees straight ahead decorated a darker but none less emerald color of the grass off in the eastward distance of the wide, seemingly endless field of waving blades that stretched out behind them. Standing above these trees was a point, thin and seemingly to be easily broken by any fiercer gust of wind. This point was the beckon the Shadow followed, and they soon eased over the first branches of the forest.

Kenshin halted, his wings waving in turn with each other to keep them all above the ground in the enjoyably warm air. He surveyed this land like this too was his first.

"Where are we?" Kaoru asked, taking in the strikingly deep purple flowers gracefully dancing in the gentile arms of the breeze to the right at the edge of where the meadow ended and the woodland began.

"This land…" he began, but paused. "This land is the home to someone. Someone so very important to all my kind." Kenshin tilted her reluctant gaze with his fingers from the breathtaking landscape to his eyes. She temporarily forgot the perfected scenery at the intensity of his gaze. It seemed so open, to speak. They were so alive. There was a light, hidden in the permanent dark he was placed under, that she could finally see. Maybe it was his eyes, maybe it was the sun, it could very well have been both, but Kaoru fluttered inside with such joy.

Then he smiled. It was no different from the ones he expressed before, except his eyes lit up. His smile reached his eyes and they blossomed like fresh flowers awakening that only bloom once the morning sun bathed them in light.

"Kenshin-" she breathed.

He shook his head, his wings carrying them forward above the tall trees. He glanced at Kenji in his arm, Kaoru in the other. "I was summoned."

Kaoru ruefully tore her gaze from his face, and gasped yet again. The point that rose above the tree line followed down to the most pristine structure. The soft grey stones that consisted of the huge castle glimmered, laughing amongst themselves as sunlight reflected from their faces. Light brown wood decorated the four corners, and lined the curled roof edge. The crown rose upward, pulling itself higher and smaller with thinner and thinner platforms every so distance until nothing but the tip was left. A minute number of windows lay open to a few darken rooms; Kaoru could not see inside any of them. The large doors—balanced on each side by a large archway etched in a swirling design carved into the rounded slabs—were of the same soft brown wood, thicker and much stronger than she first thought it to be. That same design on the arch was, as Kaoru noticed when Kenshin set her down and she got a closer look, carved into all of the stone. It was also etched with black thread into Kenshin's black pants.

Kenshin stepped to the door and was minuscule by it. He opened it as if instead he pulled a leaf from the branches of a dead tree. He settled Kenji securely in his arms and turned. His eyes clearly beckoned her to him.

Inside was hard to see; it was dark. At a point in their walking, Kaoru gripped the sleeve of the Shadow to not stray from him. There was a faint scent in the air that she could not identify; it was not strong enough to discern.

Another pair of doors—smaller than the first outside but still relatively large—loomed before them. This wood was bright, and needed no help from the lack of light to be seen. With only the barest of hesitation, Kenshin opened a door, and bright light blinded Kaoru.

She blinked, willing away the spots in front of her vision. When her eyes adjusted, she took an involuntary step into Kenshin's back, pressing close.

Standing in another corner of the room, was that biggest man she had ever seen. He easily towered over Kenshin's smaller form, and his large, muscular arms were crossed over a barrel chest that threatened to burst from the cloth of his navy shirt, similar to the point of near perfection to Kenshin's crimson. This man's sleeves did not end in wide cuffs, but were straight, cleanly cut, and only reached his elbow. Black armguards were decorating the lower part of his arm up to his knuckles on expectedly large hands. His long, black mane was tied at the base of his neck, loose locks flowing down the front, and short bangs hanging across his forehead. The pure black pants he wore were woven in black thread with the anticipated design of swirls.

"Are the others here?" Kenshin asked without turning away from placing Kenji on a heavily padded mat placed neatly on the floor. He lowered Kaoru to sit next beside their son.

"Not yet," the Shadow's deep bass languidly flowed from his mouth. He opened eyes so brown, they shamed the very soil the structure was built upon. "They are quickly on their way."

Kenshin nodded slowly, mirroring the almost sluggish movements of the other, whose eyes had flicked suddenly to Kaoru. A thin smile, derogatory in nature, drew his lips upward.

"Hiko," Kenshin warned. "Speak, and we will see if brute strength can overcome years."

Hiko's smile wiped from his face, but his eyes still held to it. "Don't leave them to gawk for much longer. Blood is staining the furnishings."

Kenshin snorted. "I need to know why we are here. It is still slightly early for the usual reasons."

"I do not know." Hiko fluidly pushed from the wall, his frame lumbering over Kaoru as he walked past. "Clean her up," he said with his back to them, "before she goes into a shock. Humans are such a frail creature. Can you be so careless?"

Kenshin snarled. The Shadow's seemingly caring words were meant absolutely nothing but as a mockery for Kenshin. Hiko never outright called him stupid, but forever found other methods to make his fine point clear.

He barely had the chance to persuade Kaoru to stand when the doors opened again. Hiko returned, but with two others following behind. Kaoru immediately recognized Megumi, the Shadow's cinnamon eyes studying her with mild disgust. The third was another man, tall and well-built under his ashen black shirt. His black hair was cut much shorter than the others', but it hung past his ears on all sides and bangs shaded over his face well. Pale ocean green-blue eyes shone through the thin locks of hair hanging past his forehead.

They all greeted one another in the similar manner: a name spoken slowly as thick honey, a nod, and silence once finished. There seemed to be someone missing from the immediate circle the four created around the room, Kenshin the only one looking to not be in his place. Kaoru and Kenji were seated in his place. And they waited.

Megumi lounged gracefully in another cushioned mat lying on the floor with a rather uninterested expression on her face. She sat nearly directly across from Kaoru. To Megumi's left a ways away in the broad space of the room stood Hiko, his arms folded against his chest. Then, the one Kaoru heard them name Aoshi leaned against the wall to the left of Hiko. Next, was, of course, Kenshin standing up and out of the unclear line. Last, was an empty gap facing the doors.

Kaoru never heard them move but suddenly all were sprouting their twin pairs of night-black wings, each tipped in a distinct color. Kenshin a dull grey as clouds, Megumi a soft bluish-white for snow and ice, Hiko a dark brown, and Aoshi a cool deep blue; the last two standing for whichever they were Shadow of. Her heart leapt into her throat as the doors opened a final time to reveal the petit form of a woman.

Long, silken hair a black that the night itself would envy flowed down between her feathered wings and formed a dark halo around her deathly pale face. The wings, eight of them in all, were folded elegantly against her back, the tips shone in the brightest of yellows before molding into the normal black again. Her footsteps were fluid and graceful, flowing as a gentile stream. But the stream, Kaoru felt from the very presence of this woman, could just as soon turn into a deadly flood, overtaking and destroying everything in its path. Her Shadow-spawn suddenly stood on either side of her, Kenshin standing by her right side with an eerie and far-away look in his hard amber eyes. The others held passive expressions, calm against the rising fear in the human.

The Shadow, the Mother—Kaoru knew she could be nothing else—stopped in front of her, the soft brown eyes peering as if seeing into her very soul. Kaoru shivered under the power of this beautiful creature. The Mother turned, this movement seeming calculated and perfect, to gaze into the eyes of Kenshin. Perhaps the woman truly could see one's spirit.

She outstretched a hand toward Kenji as he lay on the padding at his mother's side. Kaoru barely opened her mouth in a sudden protest that fear wrenched from her. The Mother shot her through with a piercing gaze that stilled the Shadow around her, only the ruffling the feathers of their wings whispering into the silence. Such a shine in the eyes of anything could never have surpassed the bright yellow orbs that bore into her. Kaoru knew, had the sun the ability to see with eyes, she was now looking into them, frozen under the burning chill.

The muscles of Kenshin's back rippled as he strained his arms with clenched fists, the movement causing his wings to rise higher from their resting perch and quiver terribly.

"Calm yourself," she spoke. Her voice was warm as rays of sun and hard as ice. If her body's movements were like water, then her voice had nothing to compare. How it soothed like a breeze under the beating sun, and froze with the very essence. Kaoru began to feel overwhelmingly faint.

The Mother grazed the boy's forehead with her cold fingertips. Kaoru could not breathe. Kenji's eyes opened, slowly and without any consciousness as he stared into his mother's face. Kaoru dared not let the sudden sob escape her tightly closed mouth, her hand pressed over her trembling lips.

The Mother lifted her hand, and the boy followed. Unconscious, Kenji stood to his feet as if pulled by a string held in the Mother's hand, his face upturned to never stray from the cold touch. The Mother pulled her hand further from the boy and, instead of following blindly still, he shrank back down, crumbling over into his mother's waiting arms.

The Mother turned back to Kenshin, and Kaoru settled the boy in her lap, carefully watching each other presences in the room. The Mother's expressionless face far outmatched those of her spawn. She spoke words that were meant to be reassuring, but there was hardly any feeling in her voice.

"Your son is not that which you presumed him to be, yet neither is he what you hoped him to be. He has no ties to me," she slowly blinked, peering deeper past Kenshin's perfectly built barriers. "These marks upon his skin are nothing, as if those vile creatures had despoiled you instead. There is nothing to fear from them. He will heal." The Mother was silent for a time, gliding past Kenshin. She stopped, the long, flowing skirt swayed, sifting across the floor in a whisper. The Mother turned to face the Shadow again, and seemed to add, "I have no rejection towards him."

Kenshin visibly relaxed his tense form at the words that confused and further fed the fear Kaoru harbored. She pulled the boy close, lightly kissing his hair. The actions from the Mother put the Shadow to motion. Each silently began to glide toward the doorway. With a shaky breath and ignoring the devastating energy drowning the room filled with powerful beings, Kaoru quietly began to sing:

Ghostly light of the moon

Eternally beneath with never to be

Sound of wings anew, soft on the wind

And alighted with no other any longer,

And broken like no other will.

Pale light of the sun

Over the only seeing eyes to

The watching waited catch, weary for the bone

To touch where no other might,

To feel what no other may.

Calling, calling

For you, is the calling.

Answer, answer

As only one, the only one can.

For with you, there can be no other.

Kaoru's voice faded, her forehead lying on the boy's head above his brow. Kaoru felt a warm tingle run across her skin like cold water, and she looked up into the Mother's eyes. Her expressionless face was changed, different somehow. Curiosity, maybe, lay hidden just behind her formidable barriers as she watched and, no doubt, had listened to the quietly sung lullaby from mother to child.

"The lullaby," The Mother said to Kaoru, who noticed then that only the woman before her remained in the room. The others all had gone on silent feet. "It is such a solemn melody to sing for a child."

Kaoru nodded, gazing lovingly at her son's smooth face, peaceful now. "It is. But it also is his favorite. It is all he wants to hear."

The Mother studied Kenji with a steady gaze, looking up to Kaoru with not but a small change in her expression, and then followed after her absent spawn.

RKRKRKRK

"Kaoru," Kenshin spoke, waking her from her uncomfortable sleeping position. Kenji was asleep still, sprawled with his head lying on her stomach. He did not move with the shift of breathing or anything else until Kenshin scooped the boy into his arms. The deep fang marks were nearly completely smoothed over with clean, pale flesh.

Kaoru discerned her surroundings with hazy, sleep-ridden eyes. She peered at Kenshin, their darker shade of blue sparking with flecks of grey that stood out clearer than usual.

"Come," he said. She followed him out into the dark hall. The darkness swallowed him; she could not see her own hand as she held it before her to search for him. A hand caught her wrist and she screamed, short and curt at the sudden latch. Soft amethyst eyes gazed back at her calmly and she smiled, embarrassed.

"Is this how the entire structure is displayed?" Kaoru asked with her fist clenched on his sleeve. He could surely see in this nothing.

"In the dark?" Kenshin confirmed what she asked. "No. Only the main hall is. It is the only way to get from room to room. Rooms, however, are well lit. You have no need to worry."

"I am not worried," she said. "But, where are we going?"

"I am taking you to a quarter to stay. We could be here for a short time." They took a small but sharp turn, and her sleeve caught the wall. Kenshin's next step was quick and long; she had to immediately jump forward to not loose her hold of him.

"What of you?" she asked, inspecting the material of her sleeve with her free hand for a rip.

"I will come whenever time allows it." Kenshin lifted her up suddenly and set her down again to continue.

"What were you summoned for, Kenshin?" Kaoru tugged his shirt.

"Another time, little one. Please," he added to her shifting mood and readying remark to his avoiding the question.

"Alright," she relented.

Kaoru jumped to Kenshin's side when the wall beside them collapsed inward, blinding her in a wash of sunlight. She blinked the spots away and saw the shimmering waves of green, green grass. It was not a wall that collapsed, but a door to the outside that had opened. In the frame, silhouettes of a woman and an animal stood.

"Megumi," Kenshin said, turning toward the Shadow. The creature beside her growled, its broad shoulders easily reaching past her elbow, its head higher still. "Keep your pet restrained this time if it is to stay," he spoke teasingly, but not to Megumi. The animal snorted.

Kaoru could see its deep brown fur, long and a bit shabby. It held the look of wild hair, spiking in different directions at the joints of its legs, shoulders, and atop its head, but it was oddly very clean. Its skull was large with a long snout concealing the without a doubt vicious mouthful of teeth. Its ears were as long as her forearm and seeming to have been pulled back and up, thinning as it reached above and slightly back from its head with tuffs of fur sprouting at the points. Tall, lengthy legs ended in wide paws decorated in thick claws that curled downward and dug the very tips into the soil.

Megumi ran her hand lovingly over the wolf's head, stroking down its back. "He is as controlled as he ever will be."

The creature turned its head to her, a humanistic frown in its eyes. He snorted again and padded into the dark hall, claws clacking across the stone floor. It stopped next to Kaoru, and it had to tilt its head down to look at her. She watched it sniff slightly, it nostrils quivering. It seemed to be laughing when dark brown eyes peered directly into her own. There was a faint recognition that crossed her face, something familiar with those eyes.

"Are the others with him?" Kenshin asked.

Megumi nodded. "They are."

As if cued, three more of the same animals bounded for the door. One was only slightly smaller than the first and covered in midnight black, unruly fur. The second and less bulky framed animal was likewise black, but of a softer tone. The third was clearly young, it being covered in fluffier black fur, and lagged behind the longer strides of the first two. It yipped angrily, bouncing on slightly unsteady legs to keep up.

"The whole of what was left." Kenshin stated as the trio filed in through the open door, the sound of clicking claws clattering louder in the wide, quiet hall. "Why are they all here?"

Megumi raised her shoulders in what was a most elegant shrug. "I do not bother myself with the troubles of Demons."

"Demons?" Kaoru asked. The female wolf-creature lifted her head from licking off her young one, who squirmed from his mother's cleaning touch. The female padded to Kaoru's side and sat, having to look down with an animal grin. "Tsubame?"

The wolf's long furred tail wagged happily.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Tsubame, now recognizing Yahiko, Sanosuke, and the little Shinya. Tsubame's mouth fell open and her tongue lolled in a wolfish smile.

Yahiko stood off against the dark and emitted a growling bark, speaking with his pack. Tsubame followed, ushering Shinya down the shady hall. Sanosuke stayed, sitting down by Megumi's side. His head reached above hers, the ears adding to the tall affect.

"Your taste," Kenshi said as he began to walk again, "will always confound me, Megumi. Wolves never seemed your sort."

"As humans never seemed yours," she answered just as coldly. Her voice floated with them, smooth and tainted with a bit of discreetly placed meanings. "But the taste, as you say, is rather interesting."

A sound something like a purring growl rumbled from Sano's chest and hummed into the air.

Kaoru shivered.

"Are you cold, little one?" Kenshin asked.

"That," Kaoru nodded, glancing over her should as the light faded and the soft suction of air swooshed as the door closed. "Or perhaps the chill that grazed down my spine." She gasped as cold fingers swept her back. "Not that one," she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

Kenshin chuckled. "Would you want a bath, little one?"

Kaoru looked down and saw nothing but black. However, the mention of cleaning caused every spot of dried blood and dusty dirt to rub against her skin uncomfortably. She shuddered.

"I would not like anything else for the moment." She followed him as he pulled to the left, a quick right, and then turned fully to the left again. A warm light surprisingly spilled into the hall, illuminating the hallway. Kenshin immediately grew tense as Kaoru looked around at her surroundings. The walls were barren of any decorations and were the same color as the stones outside, only very much less radiant and had no etching embedded in the faces of the rocks. The floor, however, was very peculiar. It was raised above the ground, which still remained unseen and in the dimmer touch of the light, but it was also very broad. Broad enough for four men and a horse to trod in a row, but apparently in only certain areas. Kaoru had to fall in behind Kenshin so not to drop over the edge for a step or two. Curiously, as the platform broadened once more, she stepped to the edge of the platform and screamed.

Down below was strewn with skeletons. Human skulls silently screamed and laughed up at her from wide and seldom broken jaws. Bones of limbs scattered in a thick layer, broken or shattered into shards. A hand eternally reached its spindly fingers for her.

A rough grasp clasped her arm, hauling her into a room before she could see any further. Kenshin shut the door behind him.

"W-w-," Kaoru drew breaths into her lungs, staring at the frustrated Shadow. "What was that down there?"

Kenshin's brow wrinkled. "There are many who have sought out to destroy the Mother, thinking to take her would take the Shadow as well from the land. As seen, they have all failed."

Kaoru sputtered and sat upon the padded mat of a bright blue color. "But why leave the men behind? F-for decoration? Amusement? Can you not give them a proper burial?!"

"They laid their lives down for a stupid cause. We do not move them from here."

"There is no sanctity in that!"

"There is no sanctity in any of us!" Kenshin roared. "You have chosen me! For some unholy, forsaken reason you have! You can choose to return to what you were, but could you survive the separation? This bond, no matter how weak it really is, will not simply take a sudden change in mind, little one. You gave up yourself to me, no matter how you think it to really be. This was your own choice. If you cannot live with the corruption of me, you are but a small flame to my foot, easily snuffed from existence."

Kaoru stood, placing her finger onto the stone flesh of his chest. Her sapphire eyes were dark and stormy, much like a sea tossed and turned by clouds of a tempest. "Do not bring me into this. Do not bring yourself. That—bodies of hundreds of men—has nothing to do with us!"

"Doesn't it? Does it bother you that I had a hand in the death of many of those souls?"

"Why are you like this?" she whispered. "Ever since three years ago you have been this way. Why? What do you have against me?"

Kenshin began to breathe, a clear sign the Shadow was bothered by something worth bringing the human habits out from their long dead shell. "There is no grudge against you, little one." He pulled her to his chest, ignoring the powerful scent of blood tainting her smell. "You are more persistent that I would have ever imagined."

"Then there are motives behind it?" She said to the cloth covering his chest. Where the clothing should have been warm from being worn close to a body, it had only gathered the chill of Kenshin's skin.

"Motives? Perhaps they are, yes. There has always been something that troubled me about you, Kaoru."

"What is it?"

"Why? Why would you wish to be with me?"

Kaoru looked up into his eyes. "You have asked me that before."

He titled his head to the side. "I never received an answer."

She shook her head, a playful smile spread across her lips. "I still cannot answer you. I do not know. Especially with your change in demeanor towards me."

Kenshin's lip twitched upward, but the smile shone in his eyes, unlike it ever did before.

"Answer me something, before I bathe?"

He nodded.

"What has changed that your eyes are not dead as they usually are?"

Kenshin blinked. He chuckled. "Dead? As good a comparison I will get. I will explain. Then not more questions. You will rest."

Kaoru smiled.

"It all simply ties together to the Mother. We are spawned from her. It was a bite from her, her own poison that consumed us and changed us into this. Shadow under the Sun."

"I saw her eyes. I should have guessed her to be the sun."

Kenshin nodded, looking up to the tall ceiling above them. "We are connected in a fiercely strong bond, being directly descended from her. If she were to die, then perhaps so would we."

"So those men were all correct?" Kaoru gasped.

"Yes. We do not know, however, if we will die in completion. Perhaps it will only strip us of our abilities. Perhaps we will follow her into oblivion. We do not know."

"Then, we hope we will never have to find the answer that question."

Kenshin peered into her eyes with a single nod. "That we all do."

Kaoru turned fearfully to Kenji. "If it was to somehow take place and the Mother did loose her life, what would become of him?"

"There are no true ties with him to her. He would be the only one not affected. It was what I wanted to know, if the boy was a vampire or Shadow. He is neither. The Mother told us so."

Kaoru covered her hand over her heart. She knelt by Kenji and brushed his hair from his face as it splayed undone from its tie about his head.

"That is what she said. She was explaining his condition."

"Yes. The illustration with her hand was…for your assurance, I believe. I am not entirely sure. But there was no real need for her to even move to uncover the answer."

Kaoru nodded, leaning to place a gentile kiss on Kenji's brow.

"Come." Kenshin held his hand to her, placing the other on her shoulder. "The bathhouse is outside."

RKRKRKRK

Kaoru shuddered as Kenshin set her on the ground, steadying her with arms around her waist. The bright moon watched from the star-dotted velvet blue sky. The kiss of the soft breeze calmed her as Kenshin's hand ran the length of her back.

She gagged. "The smell was horrible!"

"It was the only way to reach to the bathhouse."

"Those men, they had to be freshly dead."

Kenshin nodded. "There was an attempt again a number of days ago, yes."

Kaoru read that his words were carefully prodded and picked before he spoke them. "Kenshin, what is it you are not telling me?"

"Truthfully? There are many things you are unaware of." His voice sounded strained, as if he was choking on the words. Forced like he would rather not be saying them. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling her scent of soft jasmine mixed with the strong flare of blood. "But, you cannot go without anymore. I will tell you, little one. I must."

She nodded, and he placed feather-light kisses along her jaw, his soft rumble rolling through her. The pleasant rumble solidified into a raging growl, and his arms tightened around her. His fangs slid free from between his lips. Kaoru froze. She almost asked what was distressing him when a pair of bright red eyes dropped from the night sky. A vampire shoved Kaoru to the ground as he slammed into one of Kenshin's arms. The Shadow buckled under the sudden force, but immediately picked both men to their feet as he stood. Kenshin swung his head to one, spitting an ear-shattering, hissing thunderclap into the vampire's face. The vampire grinned.

On the ground, Kaoru saw hiding in the shadows a form of a man. Blood red eyes stared out at her. Before she knew, a shadowed hand was reaching for her forehead, fingers outstretched. The scene flashed in her mind, a perfect mirror of the terrors that plagued her sleep. She screamed.

Enishi glanced at Kenshin struggling with the vampires. "These are not so easy to destroy," he said as if having a decent conversation. Kenshin growled. "These, as I recently found out, needed my blood after the bite in order to retain their intelligence. Silly of me to forget that important fact, but you must believe me, Kenshin. I will not be leaving anything else undone."

Kaoru crawled backwards away from his wild, predatory stare, but he was upon her faster than her eye could follow. The next of what she saw before nothing was trees blurring by and a crack of lighting that split open the sky.

Intelligent or no, Kenshin finished both vampires quickly. They lay in bloody heaps, scattered in near ribbons on the ground. His wings carried him much faster than Enishi could run, but he stopped short just as the strongest point of the vampire's stench slapped his nostrils. Smiling, Enishi held an unconscious Kaoru easily by the neck. Her feet dangled limply in empty air.

Enishi nearly laughed with glee when the sound of the waterfall roaring to the side screamed off the cliff, and touched Kenshin's ears. The vampire was not one to spend time to taunt this time; he dropped her the moment Kenshin opened his fanged mouth. She fell like a stone.

With no hesitation, Kenshin leapt, briefly parallel with the ground as Kaoru disappeared from view. He dove over the edge, ignoring Enishi for the time being as the vampire watched, amused. Kenshin snapped his wings in the artificial wind that roared in his ears, building speed to catch her fall. Suddenly, the black ground had gathered from the nothingness he saw before. It greedily reached up to snatch Kaoru before the Shadow could touch her, but, just as the earth seemed to rise swifter to meet her, Kenshin clasped her in his grip. He pulled upward with a wide spread of his wings to alight on his feet, Kaoru limp in his arms. He heard her heartbeat; it was steady and loud in his ears. As was the gentle rush of wind from above.

Kenshin looked up, and blood red eyes barreled down on him. Kenshin tucked Kaoru to his chest and positioned to absorb the unexpected blow, but he was not braced soon enough. Enishi collided, and the vampire's shoulder crunched audibly. Kenshin's legs collapsed from under him and he hit face down, Kaoru underneath him. A plume of rock and dirt billowed high and angry into the air.

The dust and the echoing crash settled as a smirk played at the corner of Enishi's mouth as he stumbled from the gaping mouth in the ground, pebbles and rocks clattering like rain all around. His shoulder was broken completely from the impact and misshaped his skin in an ugly crumpled, purple display. He peered down into the hole for a moment longer before turning his back and running. A trail of blood dripped from his fingers.

Kenshin shuddered uncontrollably as he pulled himself from under the weight of the caved rock and soil. He had a battered Kaoru in his arms. The wings of his back had not drawn fast enough and were bent far from their normal shape, feathers missing by the handful in bare patches. The bones snapped further, cracking as he drew them within, hissing in pain. They would heal faster then.

He still trembled as a quake and softly brushed Kaoru's bloody bangs from her closed eyes. He fisted his fingers in her hair at the base of her neck, drawing her to him. Enraged orbs of amber stared, distantly burning holes into the earth and farther, farther than he had ever dreamed of seeing before. He held her broken body until he calmed himself enough not to cause added damage with a simple touch. He heard her heartbeat as it fluttered and struggled to pump what was left of her quickly draining blood pooling around them. The warmth of the night quickly turned the sweet scent sour.

A small spurt of rain spit from the star-lit sky, pattering as Kenshin placed his hand in her blood, the gleam from the light glow above rippled in the near black liquid. He placed a finger to his lips, tasting slowly, watching her face become pale, and her heart nearly completely still.

"Kaoru," he whispered, touching her face with his bloodied hand. Leaning down, his red painted lips brushed over the mark he made. Fangs glided free from the sheaths as his eyes faintly glowed. They moved, shimmering their light on her face. He shut the glow from the world as he bit into her skin. He sealed her fate with blood.

RKRKRKRKRKRKRKRK

Well, there you have it folks. Wait. What? What was that? It says part one at the top? Well, whadya know! It does! Yes, that's what it means. The true conclusion will be in part two! Finally! This thing just keeps getting longer and longer, I tell you. You see, I was trying my best to keep all The Shadow to one-shots, but this still has about…20 pages, more or less, or so to go. I'm not sure they'd let you upload a chapter that long…or if anyone has the patience to read something that long in one sitting…

Anyway, so stick around for the epic conclusion to The Shadow! One more chapter to go! And just to be as clear as possible, it actually is a chapter not another one-shot. This also means…that the explanation of the first note above will have to wait. Haha! -Cough-

Thank you for reading and for any reviews that I know you want to give me! Haha! -Cough- Sheesh!